Today, in chapter 59 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read things of exceptional importance; this chapter is a kind of quintessence of prophetic revelation. Answering people's unspoken question about why God does not hear our suffering and help us, the prophet says that the Lord hears our cry and would like...
Today, in chapter 59 of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, we read things of exceptional importance; this chapter is a kind of quintessence of prophetic revelation. Answering people's unspoken question about why God does not hear our suffering and help us, the prophet says that the Lord hears our cry and would like to come to our aid: ‘The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear.’ But, the prophet continues, ‘your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.’ This is the whole reason for the terrible condition in which we all find ourselves. Our natural and social catastrophes, our defencelessness against the violence and hatred reigning in the world, the blind, all-devouring tide of suffering that overwhelms the innocent and the guilty alike—all this happens because our iniquities have separated us from God. It is vitally important for us to recognise this: if we shift the blame onto others, there is no possibility of putting anything right.
Speaking of the sins that eat away at the entire fabric of human life, the prophet points to things familiar to absolutely everyone. Lies and violence against people, cowardly silence in the face of wrongdoing, the thirst for gain at others' expense, and blindness, endless blindness... ‘We grope for the wall like the blind’—these are the terrible words the prophet speaks of people who do not know the way of peace. Where truth lies and where falsehood lies, where the path of life leads and where the path of death leads, how we can escape destruction—all this is hidden from us because we are unfaithful to the will of the Almighty. We thirst for life, for deliverance, for happiness and eternity; we ‘roar like bears’ at life's injustice and cruelty, ‘we wait for salvation... but it is far from us.’ All this happens not because someone cruel and bloodthirsty is persecuting us, but solely because our ways are crooked.
The prophet concludes this part of the chapter with bitter words about how, as a result of our blindness and betrayal of God, ‘whoever turns away from evil is subjected to abuse.’ These words are both a prophecy of the mockery and humiliation of the Son of God, who committed no sin, and an answer to humanity's age-old question of why good people suffer.
But the most important thing in this chapter is what the prophet says next. He proclaims the great revelation that the Lord sees all the horror and injustice of this world, and ‘it displeased Him that there was no justice.’ When calling Moses, the Lord told him that He had heard His people's cry of suffering and was coming to deliver them. Now, through Deutero-Isaiah, the same thing is said to the whole world, exhausted by the evil that reigns within it. And the Lord reveals to the prophet that He Himself will rise to do battle with evil, put on righteousness as armour, and place the helmet of salvation on His head.
The apostle Paul quotes this passage, broadening its meaning, in chapter 6 of the Letter to the Ephesians, calling on all the faithful to put on ‘the whole armour of God’, because the battle against evil takes place in everyone's life. When we read and speak of the Lord's host, when we call the Lord ‘Sabaoth, God of hosts’, this name carries more than the meaning originally intended by the prophet Amos, who loved it so much. God not only leads the heavenly legions of angels, not only governs the movement of the planets. His host, which He leads into battle against evil, consists of people clad in the armour of His righteousness.
But those who choose faithfulness to God's righteousness gain something far greater than His protection and care: they gain God's victory over evil and death. In this campaign against evil and death, which leads through the Cross to the Resurrection, the Redeemer comes to us and makes a New Covenant with us. And in this covenant of the Redeemer, the Spirit of God, who rests upon Him, becomes a source of life for people here and now.
59 Sin separates between God and us, Isa 59:1-2.
Murder, theft, falsehood, injustice, cruelty, Isa 59:3-8.
Calamity for sin, Isa 59:9-15.
Salvation only of God, Isa 59:16-19.
The covenant of the redeemer, Isa 59:20-21.
59:3 Perverseness - Perverse words are such as are contrary to God's word. Words every way contrary to God's will.
59:4 None - None seek to redress these wrongs, and violences; they commit all rapines, and frauds with impunity. Bring forth - These two words of conceiving, and bringing forth, denote their whole contrivance, and perfecting their wickedness.
59:5 Cockatrice eggs - One kind put for any venomous creature, a proverbial speech signifying by these eggs mischievous designs, and by hatching them, their putting them in practice. Web - Another proverbial speech whereby is taught, both how by their plots they weave nets, lay snares industriously with great pains and artifice.And also how their designs will come to nothing, as the spider's web is soon swept away.
59:6 Webs - Their contrivances shall not be able to cover or defend them.
59:7 Wasting - They meditate on little or nothing else. Paths - In what way or work soever they are engaged, it all tends to ruin and destruction.
59:8 The way of peace - They live in continual contentions, and discords. Judgment - No justice, equity, faith, or integrity.
59:9 Justice - Judgment, and so justice is here taken for deliverance. God doth not defend our right, nor revenge our wrong, because of these outrages, and acts of violence, injustice, and oppression.
59:10 As dead men - He compares their captivity to men dead without hope of recovery.
59:11 Mourn - Their oppressing governors made the wicked roar like bears, and the good mourn like doves.
59:12 Transgressions - The word here signifies sins of an high nature, such as wherein there is much of man's will against light: rebellious sins.Multiplied - They admit of no excuse; for they are acted before thee, and multiplied against thee, whereby thou art justly provoked to deny us all help. Testify - As so many witnesses produced proves our guilt.Are with us - Are still unforgiven. We know - We are convinced of them.
59:13 Lying - Transgressing here, and lying, seem to be one and the same thing, inasmuch as in their transgressing the law of God, they broke their solemn engagement to God upon mount Sinai.Departing - Turning from God to idols. Speaking - As it were, talking of little else one among another, but how to oppress their neighbours, and apostatize from God. Uttering - That is, first contriving in their heart false accusations, false worship to the dishonour of God; laying the contrivances and uttering them. From the heart - And when they dealt with men in ways of fraud, it was from the heart, but when they spake with God it was but from the lip.
59:14 Judgment - He speaks here of the sentences in courts of judicature. Truth - Truth is cast to the ground, and justice trampled under foot, even in publick. Equity - No such thing will be admitted in their courts.
59:15 Faileth - All things are amiss, neither judgment or justice, or truth, is to be found among us. A prey - Or, as some render it, is accounted mad, is laughed at. Josephus tells us, that immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, it was matter of scorn to be religions. The translators reach the meaning of the word by prey: the wicked, like wild beasts, endeavouring to devour such as are not as bad as themselves: where wickedness rules, innocency is oppressed.
59:16 No man - To appear in the behalf of equity. His arm - He would do his work without help from any other. Righteousness - His justice; seeing there could be no justice found among them, he would avenge the innocent himself.
59:17 For - God, resolving to appear as a man of war, puts on his arms; he calls righteousness his breast - plate, to shew the justness of his cause, as also his faithfulness in making good his promises.Vengeance - Or garments made of vengeance: as God is said to put on the former for their sakes, whom he would preserve, so he puts on these for their sakes, whom he will destroy, namely, his peoples enemies.Zeal - For his own honour, and for his own people. The sum of all these expressions is, to describe both the cause and effect together; the cause was righteousness and zeal in God, the effect, salvation to his people, and vengeance on his enemies.
59:18 Deeds - Heb. recompences or deserts. That is, he will recompence his adversaries with those effects of his fury that they have deserved. Islands - To those remoter nations under the king of Babylon, that thought themselves secure.
59:19 Fear - Worship the Lord. The west - The western part of the world. His glory - The glorious God. The rising of the sun - The eastern parts. When - At what time soever the devil, or his instruments shall make violent irruptions upon the church.A standard - God shall make known himself to take their part and defend them, by his spirit alone.
59:20 The Redeemer - Christ, of whom the apostle expounds it, Rom 11:26, the prophets usually concluding their promises of temporaldeliverances with the promises of spiritual, especially such, of which the temporal were evident types.
59:21 My covenant - What I have promised, to them that turn from their iniquity. My words - Which thou hast uttered by virtue of my spirit.Of thy seed - A promise of the perpetual presence of his word and spirit with the prophets, apostles, and teachers of the church to all ages.