AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N
S,
OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET
I S A I A H
PROPHET
is a title that sounds very great to those that understand it, though, in the
eye of the world, many of those that were dignified with it appeared very
mean. A prophet is one that has a great intimacy with Heaven and a great
interest there, and consequently a commanding authority upon earth. Prophecy
is put for all divine revelation (2 Pet. i. 20, 21), because that was most
commonly by dreams, voices, or visions, communicated to prophets first, and by
them to the children of men, Num. xii. 6. Once indeed God himself spoke to all
the thousands of Israel from the top of Mount Sinai; but the effect was so
intolerably dreadful that they entreated God would for the future speak to
them as he had done before, by men like themselves, whose terror should not
make them afraid, nor their hands be heavy upon them, Job xxxiii. 7. God
approved the motion (they have well said, says he, Deut. v. 27, 28),
and the matter was then settled by consent of parties, that we must never
expect to hear from God any more in that way, but by prophets, who received
their instructions immediately from God, with a charge to deliver them to his
church. Before the sacred canon of the Old Testament began to be written there
were prophets, who were instead of Bibles to the church. Our Saviour seems to
reckon Abel among the prophets, Matt. xxiii. 31, 35. Enoch was a prophet; and
by him that was first in prediction which is to be last in
execution--the judgment of the great day. Jude 14, Behold, the Lord comes
with his holy myriads. Noah was a preacher of righteousness. God said of
Abraham, He is a prophet, Gen. xx. 7. Jacob foretold things to come,
Gen. xlix. 1. Nay, all the patriarchs are called prophets. Ps. cv. 15, Do
my prophets no harm. Moses was, beyond all comparison, the most
illustrious of all the Old-Testament prophets, for with him the Lord spoke face
to face, Deut. xxxiv. 10. He was the first writing prophet, and by his
hand the first foundations of holy writ were laid. Even those that were called
to be his assistants in the government had the spirit of prophecy, such a
plentiful effusion was there of that spirit at that time, Num. xi. 25. But
after the death of Moses, for some ages, the Spirit of the Lord appeared and
acted in the church of Israel more as a martial spirit than as a spirit of
prophecy, and inspired men more for acting than speaking. I mean in the time
of the judges. We find the Spirit of the Lord coming upon Othniel, Gideon,
Samson, and others, for the service of their country, with their swords, not
with their pens. Messages were then sent from heaven by angels, as to Gideon
and Manoah, and to the people, Judges ii. 1. In all the book of judges there
is never once mention of a prophet, only Deborah is called a prophetess. Then
the word of the Lord was precious; there was no open vision, 1 Sam. iii. 1.
They had the law of Moses, recently written; let them study that. But in
Samuel prophecy revived, and in him a famous epocha, or period of the church
began, a time of great light in a constant uninterrupted succession of
prophets, till some time after the captivity, when the canon of the Old
Testament was completed in Malachi, and then prophecy ceased for nearly 400
years, till the coming of the great prophet and his forerunner. Some prophets
were divinely inspired to write the histories of the church. But they did not
put their names to their writings; they only referred for proof to the
authentic records of those times, which were known to be drawn up by prophets,
as Gad, Iddo, &c. David and others were prophets, to write sacred songs
for the use of the church. After them we often read of prophets sent on
particular errands, and raised up for special public services, among whom the
most famous were Elijah and Elisha in the kingdom of Israel. But none of these
put their prophecies in writing, nor have we any remains of them but some
fragments in the histories of their times; there was nothing of their own
writing (that I remember) but one epistle of Elijah's, 2 Chron. xxi. 12. But
towards the latter end of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it pleased God to
direct his servants the prophets to write and publish some of their sermons,
or abstracts of them. The dates of many of their prophecies are uncertain, but
the earliest of them was in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and Jeroboam the
second, his contemporary, king of Israel, about 200 years before the
captivity, and not long after Joash had slain Zechariah the son of Jehoiada in
the courts of the temple. If they begin to murder the prophets, yet they shall
not murder their prophecies; these shall remain as witnesses against them.
Hosea was the first of the writing prophets; and Joel, Amos, and Obadiah,
published their prophecies about the same time. Isaiah began some time after,
and not long; but his prophecy is placed first, because it is the largest of
them all, and has most in it of him to whom all the prophets bore witness; and
indeed so much of Christ that he is justly styled the Evangelical Prophet,
and, by some of the ancients, a fifth Evangelist. We shall have the
general title of this book (v. 1) and therefore shall here only observe
some things,
I. Concerning the prophet himself. He was (if we may believe the tradition of
the Jews) of the royal family, his father being (they say) brother to king
Uzziah. He was certainly much at court, especially in Hezekiah's time, as we
find in his story, to which many think it is owing that his style is more
curious and polite than that of some other of the prophets, and, in some
places, exceedingly lofty and soaring. The Spirit of God sometimes served his
own purpose by the particular genius of the prophet; for prophets were not
speaking trumpets, through which the Spirit spoke, but speaking men, by
whom the Spirit spoke, making use of their natural powers, in respect both of
light and flame, and advancing them above themselves.
II. Concerning the prophecy. It is transcendently excellent and useful; it was
so to the church of God then, serving for conviction of sin, direction in
duty, and consolation in trouble. Two great distresses of the church are here
referred to, and comfort prescribed in reference to them, that by
Sennacherib's invasion, which happened in his own time, and that of the
captivity in Babylon, which happened long after; and in the supports and
encouragements laid up for each of these times of need we find abundance of
the grace of the gospel. There are not so many quotations in the gospels out
of any, perhaps not out of all, the prophecies of the Old Testament, as out of
this; nor such express testimonies concerning Christ, witness that of his
being born of a virgin (ch. vii.) and that of his sufferings, ch.
liii. The beginning of this book abounds most with reproofs for sin and
threatenings of judgment; the latter end of it is full of wood words and
comfortable words. This method the Spirit of Christ took formerly in the
prophets and does still, first to convince and then to comfort; and those that
would be blessed with the comforts must submit to the convictions. Doubtless
Isaiah preached many sermons, and delivered many messages to the people, which
are not written in this book, as Christ did; and probably these sermons were
delivered more largely and fully than they are here related, but so much is
left on record as Infinite Wisdom thought fit to convey to us on whom the
ends of the world have come; and these prophecies, as well as the
histories of Christ, are written that we might believe on the name of the
Son of God, and that, believing, we might have life through his name; for to
us is the gospel here preached as well as unto those that lived then, and
more clearly. O that it may be mixed with faith!
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