I
S A I A H
CHAP. II.
With
this chapter begins a new sermon, which is continued in the two following
chapters. The subject of this discourse is Judah
and Jerusalem, ver. 1. In this chapter the prophet speaks,
I. Of the glory of the Christians, Jerusalem, the gospel-church in the latter days, in the
accession of many to it (ver. 2, 3), and the great peace it should introduce
into the world (ver. 4), whence he infers the duty of the house of Jacob, ver.
5. II. Of the shame of the Jews, Jerusalem, as it then was, and as it would be after its
rejection of the gospel and being rejected of God. 1. Their sin was their
shame, ver. 6-9. 2. God by his judgments would humble them and put them to
shame, ver. 10-17. 3. They should themselves be ashamed of their confidence in
their idols and in an arm of flesh, ver. 18-22. And now which of these
Jerusalems will we be the inhabitants of--that which is full of the knowledge
of God, which will be our everlasting honour, or that which is full of horses
and chariots, and silver and gold, and such idols, which will in the end be
our shame?
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Increase
of the Church Predicted.
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B.
C. 758.
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1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw
concerning Judah
and
Jerusalem. 2 And it shall come to pass in
the last days, that the mountain of the LORD's
house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. 3 And many
people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word
of the LORD
from Jerusalem. 4 And he shall judge among the nations, and shall
rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and
their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against
nation, neither shall they learn war any more. 5 O house of Jacob,
come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.
The particular title of this sermon (v. 1) is the same with the general
title of the book (ch. i. 1), only that what is there called the vision
is here called the word which Isaiah saw (or the matter, or thing,
which he saw), the truth of which he had as full an assurance of in his own
mind as if he had seen it with his bodily eyes. Or this word was brought to
him in a vision; something he saw when he received this message from God. John
turned to see the voice that spoke with him. Rev. i. 12.
This sermon begins with the prophecy relating to the last days, the days of
the Messiah, when his kingdom should be set up in the world, at the latter end
of the Mosaic economy. In the last days of the earthly
Jerusalem
, just before the destruction of it, this heavenly
Jerusalem
should be erected, Heb. xii. 22; Gal. iv. 26. Note, Gospel times are the last
days. For 1. They were long in coming, were a great while waited for by the
Old-Testament saints, and came at last. 2. We are not to look for any
dispensation of divine grace but what we have in the gospel, Gal. i. 8, 9. 3.
We are to look for the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of time, as
the Old-Testament saints did for his first coming; this is the last time,
1 John ii. 18.
Now the prophet here foretels,
I. The setting up of the Christian church, and the planting of the Christian
religion, in the world. Christianity shall then be the mountain of the Lord's
house; where that is professed God will grant his presence, receive his
people's homage, and grant instruction and blessing, as he did of old in the
temple of Mount Zion. The gospel church, incorporated by Christ's charter,
shall then be the rendezvous of all the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now it is
here promised, I. That Christianity shall be openly preached and professed; it
shall be prepared (so the margin reads it) in the top of the mountains,
in the view and hearing of all. Hence Christ's disciples are compared to a
city on a hill, which cannot be hid, Matt. v. 14. They had many eyes
upon them. Christ himself spoke openly to the world, John xviii. 20.
What the apostles did was not done in a corner, Acts xxvi. 26. It was
the lighting of a beacon, the setting up of a standard. Its being every where
spoken against supposes that it was every where spoken of. 2.
That is shall be firmly fixed and rooted; it shall be established on the top
of the everlasting mountains, built upon a rock, so that the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it, unless they could pluck up mountains
by the roots. He that dwells safely is said to dwell on high, ch.
xxxiii. 16. The Lord has founded the gospel Zion. 3. That it shall not
only overcome all opposition, but overtop all competition; it shall be exalted
above the hills. This wisdom of God in a mystery shall outshine all
the wisdom of this world, all its philosophy and all its politics. The
spiritual worship which it shall introduce shall put down the idolatries of
the heathen; and all other institutions in religion shall appear mean and
despicable in comparison with this. See Ps. lxvi. 16. Why leap ye, ye high
hills? This is the hill which God desires to dwell in.
II. The bringing of the Gentiles into it. 1. The nations shall be admitted
into it, even the uncircumcised, who were forbidden to come into the courts of
the temple at Jerusalem. The partition wall, which kept them out, kept them
off, shall be taken down. 2. All nations shall flow into it; having
liberty of access, they shall improve their liberty, and multitudes shall
embrace the Christian faith. They shall flow into it, as streams of water,
which denotes the abundance of converts that the gospel should make and their
speed and cheerfulness in coming into the church. They shall not be forced
into it, but shall naturally flow into it. Thy people shall be willing,
all volunteers, Ps. cx. 3. To Christ shall the gathering of the people be,
Gen. xlix. 10. See ch. lx. 4, 5.
III. The mutual assistance and encouragement which this confluence of converts
shall give to one another. Their pious affections and resolutions shall be so
intermixed that they shall come in in one full stream. As, when the Jews from
all parts of the country went up thrice a year to worship at Jerusalem, they
called on their friends in the road and excited them to go along with them, so
shall many of the Gentiles court their relations, friends, and neighbours, to
join with them in embracing the Christian religion (v. 3): "Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord; though it be uphill and
against the heart, yet it is the mountain of the Lord, who will assist
the assent of our souls towards him." Note, Those that are entering into
covenant and communion with God themselves should bring as many as they can
along with them; it becomes Christians to provoke one another to good works,
and to further the communion of saints by inviting one another into it: not,
"Do you go up to the mountain of the Lord, and pray for us, and we
will stay at home;" nor, "We will go, and do you do as you
will;" but, "Come, and let us go, let us go in concert, that
we may strengthen one another's hands and support one another's
reputation:" not, "We will consider of it, and advise about it, and
go hereafter;" but, Come, and let us go forthwith. See Ps. cxxii.
1. Many shall say this. Those that have had it said to them shall say it to
others. The gospel church is here called, not only the mountain of the
Lord, but the house of the God of Jacob; for in it God's covenant
with Jacob and his praying seed is kept up and has its accomplishment; for to
us now, as unto them, he never said, Seek you me in vain, ch.
xlv. 19. Now see here, 1. What they promise themselves in going up to the mountain
of the Lord; There he will teach us of his ways. Note, God's ways
are to be learned in his church, in communion with his people, and in the use
of instituted ordinances--the ways of duty which he requires us to walk in,
the ways of grace in which he walks towards us. It is God that teaches his
people, by his word and Spirit. It is worth while to take pains to go up to
his holy mountain to be taught his ways, and those who are willing to take
that pains shall never find it labour in vain. Then shall we know if we
follow on to know the Lord. 2. What they promise for themselves and
one another: "If he will teach us his ways, we will walk in his
paths; is he will let us know our duty, we will by his grace make
conscience of doing it." Those who attend God's word with this humble
resolution shall not be sent away without their lesson.
IV. The means by which this shall be brought about: Out of Zion shall go
forth the law, the New-Testament law, the law of Christ, as of old the law
of Moses from Mount Sinai, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
The gospel is a law, a law of faith; it is the word of the Lord; it went
forth from Zion, where the temple was built, and from Jerusalem. Christ
himself began in Galilee, Matt. iv. 23; Luke xxiii. 5. But, when he
commissioned his apostles to preach the gospel to all nations, he appointed
them to begin in Jerusalem, Luke xxiv. 47. See Rom. xv. 19. Though most of
them had their homes in Galilee, yet they must stay at Jerusalem, there to receive
the promise of the Spirit, Acts i. 4. And in the temple on Mount Zion they
preached the gospel, Acts v. 20. This honour was allowed to Jerusalem, even
after Christ was crucified there, for the sake of what it had been. And it was
by this gospel, which took rise from Jerusalem, that the gospel church was established
on the top of the mountains. This was the rod of divine strength, that was
sent forth out of Zion, Ps. cx. 2.
V. The erecting of the kingdom of the Redeemer in the world: He shall judge
among the nations. He whose word goes forth out of Zion shall by that word
not only subdue souls to himself, but rule in them, v. 4. He shall, in
wisdom and justice, order and overrule the affairs of the world for the good
of his church, and rebuke and restrain those that oppose his interest. By his
Spirit working on men's consciences he shall judge, and rebuke shall try men
and check them; his kingdom is spiritual, and not of this world.
VI. The great peace which should be the effect of the success of the gospel in
the world (v. 4): They shall beat their swords into ploughshares;
their instruments of war shall be converted into implements of husbandry; as,
on the contrary, when war is proclaimed, ploughshares are beaten into
swords, Joel iii. 10. Nations shall then not lift up sword against
nation, as they now do, neither shall they learn war any more, for
they shall have no more occasion for it. This does not make all war absolutely
unlawful among Christians, nor is it a prophecy that in the days of the
Messiah there shall be no wars. The Jews urge this against the Christians as
an argument that Jesus is not the Messiah, because this promise is not
fulfilled. But, 1. It was in part fulfilled in the peaceableness of the time
in which Christ was born, when wars had in a great measure ceased, witness the
taxing, Luke ii. 1. 2. The design and tendency of the gospel are to make
peace and to slay all enmities. It has in it the most powerful obligations and
inducements to peace; so that one might reasonably have expected it should
have this effect, and it would have had it if it had not been for those lusts
of men from which come wars and fightings. 3. Jew and Gentiles were reconciled
and brought together by the gospel, and there were no more such wars between
them as there had been; for they became one sheepfold under one shepherd.
See Eph. ii. 15. 4. The gospel of Christ, as far as it prevails, disposes men
to be peaceable, softens men's spirits, and sweetens them; and the love of
Christ, shed abroad in the heart, constrains men to love one another. 5. The
primitive Christians were famous for brotherly love; their very adversaries
took notice of it. 6. We have reason to hope that this promise shall yet have
a more full accomplishment in the latter times of the Christian church, when
the Spirit shall be poured out more plentifully from on high. Then there shall
be on earth peace. Who shall live when God doeth this? But do it he
will in due time, for he is not a man that he should lie.
Lastly, Here is a practical inference drawn from all this (v.
5): O house of Jacob! come you, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
By the house of Jacob is meant either, 1. Israel according to the flesh. Let
them be provoked by this to a holy emulation, Rom. xi. 14. "Seeing
the Gentiles are thus ready and resolved for God, thus forward to go up to the
house of the Lord, let us stir up ourselves to go too. Let is never be said
that the sinners of the Gentiles were better friends to the holy mountain than
the house of Jacob." Thus the zeal of some should provoke many. Or, 2.
Spiritual Israel, all that are brought to the God of Jacob. Shall there be
such great knowledge in gospel times (v. 3) and such great peace (v.
4), and shall we share in these privileges? Come then, and let us live
accordingly. What ever others do, come, O come! let us walk in the
light of the Lord. (1.) Let us walk circumspectly in the light of this
knowledge. Will God teach us his ways? Will he show us his glory in the face
of Christ? Let us then walk as children of the light and of the day,
Eph. v. 8; 1 Thess. v. 8; Rom. xiii. 12. (2.) Let us walk comfortably in the
light of this peace. Shall there be no more war? Let us then go on our way
rejoicing, and let this joy terminate in God, and be our strength, Neh. viii.
10. Thus shall we walk in the beams of the Sun of righteousness.
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Charge against the Israelites.
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6 Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the
house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and are
soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children
of strangers. 7 Their land also is full of silver and gold,
neither is there any end of their treasures; their land is also full of
horses, neither is there any end of their chariots: 8 Their
land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that
which their own fingers have made: 9 And the mean man boweth down,
and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.
The calling in of the Gentiles was accompanied with the rejection of the Jews;
it was their fall, and the diminishing of them, that was the riches of the
Gentiles; and the casting off of them was the reconciling of the
world (Rom. xi. 12-15); and it should seem that these verses have
reference to that, and are designed to justify God therein, and yet it is
probable that they are primarily intended for the convincing and awakening of
the men of that generation in which the prophet lived, it being usual with the
prophets to speak of the things that then were, both in mercy and judgment, as
types of the things that should be hereafter. Here is,
I. Israel's doom. This is set forth in two words, the first and the last of
this paragraph; but they are two dreadful words, and which speak, 1. Their
case sad, very sad (v. 6): Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people.
Miserable is the condition of that people whom God has forsaken, and great
certainly must the provocation be if he forsake those that have been his own
people. This was the deplorable case of the Jewish church after they had
rejected Christ. Migremus hinc--Let us go hence. Your house is left unto
you desolate, Matt. xxiii. 38. Whenever any sore calamity came upon the
Jews thus far the Lord might be said to forsake them that he withdrew his help
and succour from them, else they would not have fallen into the hands of their
enemies. But God never leaves any till they first leave him. 2. Their case
desperate, wholly desperate (v. 9): Therefore forgive them not.
This prophetical prayer amounts to a threatening that they should not be
forgiven, and some think it may be read: And thou wilt not forgive them.
This refers not to particular persons (many of them repented and were
pardoned), but to the body of that nation, against whom an irreversible doom
was passed, that they should be wholly cut off and their church quite
dismantled, never to be formed into such a body again, nor ever to have their
old charter restored to them.
II. Israel's desert of this doom, and the reasons upon which it is grounded.
In general, it is sin that brings destruction upon them; it is this, and
nothing but this, that provokes God to forsake his people. The particular sins
which the prophet specifies are such as abounded among them at that time,
which he makes mention of for the conviction of those to whom he then
preached, rather than that which afterwards proved the measure-filling sin,
their crucifying Christ and persecuting his followers; for the sins of every
age contributed towards the making up of the dreadful account at last. And
there was a partial and temporary rejection of them by the captivity in
Babylon hastening on, which was a type of their final destruction by the
Romans, and which the sins here mentioned brought upon them. Their sins were
such as directly contradicted all God's kind and gracious designs concerning
them.
1. God set them apart for himself, as a peculiar people, distinguished from,
and dignified above, all other people (Num. xxiii. 9); but they were replenished
from the east; they naturalized foreigners, not proselyted,
and encouraged them to settle among them, and mingled with them, Hos. vii. 8.
Their country was peopled with Syrians and Chaldeans, Moabites and Ammonites,
and other eastern nations, and with them they admitted the fashions and
customs of those nations, and pleased themselves in the children of
strangers, were fond of them, preferred their country before their own,
and thought the more they conformed to them the more polite and refined they
were; thus did they profane their crown and their covenant. Note, Those are in
danger of being estranged from God who please themselves with those who are
strangers to him, for we soon learn the ways of those whose company we love.
2. God gave them his oracles, which they might ask counsel of, not only the
scriptures and the seers, but the breast-plate of judgment; but they slighted
these, and became soothsayers like the Philistines, introduced their arts of
divination, and hearkened to those who by the stars, or the clouds, or the
flight of birds, or the entrails of beasts, or other magic superstitions,
pretended to discover things secret or foretel things to come. The Philistines
were noted for diviners, 1 Sam. vi. 2. Note, Those who slight true divinity
are justly given up to lying divinations; and those will certainly be forsaken
of God who thus forsake him and their own mercies for lying vanities.
3. God encouraged them to put their confidence in him, and assured them that
he would be their wealth and strength; but, distrusting his power and promise,
they made gold their hope, and furnished themselves with horses and chariots,
and relied upon them for their safety, v. 7. God had expressly
forbidden even their kings to multiply horses to themselves and greatly to
multiply silver and gold, because he would have them to depend upon
himself only; but they did not think their interest in God made them a match
for their neighbours unless they had as full treasures of silver and gold, and
as formidable hosts of chariots and horses, as they had. It is not having
silver and gold, horses and chariots, that is a provocation to God, but, (1.)
Desiring them insatiably, so that there is no end of the treasures, no end of
the chariots, no bounds or limits set to the desire of them. Those shall never
have enough in God (who alone is all-sufficient) that never know when they
have enough of this world, which at the best is insufficient. (2.) Depending
upon them, as if we could not be safe, and easy, and happy, without them, and
could not but be so with them.
4. God himself was their God, the sole object of their worship, and he himself
instituted ordinances of worship for them; but they slighted both him and his
institutions, v. 8. Their land was full of idols; every city had its
god (Jer. xi. 13); and, according to the goodness of their lands, they made
goodly images, Hos. x. 1. Those that think one God too little will find two
too many, and yet hundreds were not sufficient; for those that love idols will
multiply them; so sottish were they, and so wretchedly infatuated, that they worshipped
the work of their own hands, as if that could be a god to them which was
not only a creature, but their creature and that which their own
fancies had devised and their own fingers had made. It was an
aggravation of their idolatry that God had enriched them with silver and gold,
and yet of that silver and gold they made idols; so it was, Jeshurun waxed
fat, and kicked, see Hos. ii. 8.
5. God had advanced them, and put honour upon them; but they basely diminished
and disparaged themselves (v. 9): The mean man boweth down to his
idol, a thing below the meanest that has any spark of reason left. Sin is
a disparagement to the poorest and those of the lowest rank. It becomes the
mean man to bow down to his superiors, but it ill becomes him to bow down
to the stock of a tree, ch. xliv. 19. Nor is it only the illiterate
and poor-spirited that do this, but even the great men forgets his
grandeur and humbles himself to worship idols, deifies men no better than
himself, and consecrates stones so much baser than himself. Idolaters are said
to debase themselves even to hell, ch. lvii. 9. What a shame it
is that great men think the service of the true God below them and will not
stoop to it, and yet will humble themselves to bow down to an idol! Some make
this a threatening that the mean men shall be brought down, and the great men
humbled, by the judgments of God, when they come with commission.
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10 Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the
dust, for fear of the LORD,
and for the glory of his majesty. 11 The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD
alone shall be exalted in that day. 12 For the day of the LORD
of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and
upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:
13 And upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high and lifted up, and
upon all the oaks of Bashan, 14 And upon all the high mountains,
and upon all the hills that are lifted up, 15 And upon
every high tower, and upon every fenced wall, 16 And upon all the
ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures. 17 And the
loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made
low: and the LORD
alone shall be exalted in that day. 18 And the idols he shall
utterly abolish. 19 And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,
and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the LORD,
and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the
earth. 20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and
his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to
the moles and to the bats; 21 To go into the clefts of the rocks,
and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD,
and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the
earth. 22 Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his
nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?
The prophet here goes on to show what a desolation would be brought upon their
land when God should have forsaken them. This may refer particularly to their
destruction by the Chaldeans first, and afterwards by the Romans, or it may
have a general respect to the method God takes to awaken and humble proud
sinners, and to put them out of conceit with that which they delighted in and
depended on more than God. We are here told that sooner or later God will find
out a way,
I. To startle and awaken secure sinners, who cry peace to themselves, and bid
defiance to God and his judgments (v. 10): "Enter into the
rock; God will attack you with such terrible judgments, and strike you
with such terrible apprehensions of them, that you shall be forced to enter
into the rock, and hide yourself in the dust, for fear of the Lord. You
shall lose all your courage, and tremble at the shaking of a leaf; your heart
shall fail you for fear (Luke xxi. 26), and you shall flee when none
pursues," Prov. xxviii. 1. To the same purport, v. 19. They
shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, the
darkest the deepest places; they shall call to the rocks and mountains to
fall on them, and rather crush them than not cover them, Hos. x. 8. It was
so particularly at the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans (Luke xxiii. 30)
and of the persecuting pagan powers, Rev. vi. 16. And all for fear of the
Lord, and of the glory of his majesty, looking upon him then to be a
consuming fire and themselves as stubble before him, when he arises to
shake terribly the earth, to shake the wicked out of it (Job
xxxviii. 13), and to shake all those earthly props and supports with which
they have buoyed themselves up, to shake them from under them. Note, 1. With
God is terrible majesty, and the glory of it is such as sooner or later
will oblige us all to flee before him. 2. Those that will not fear God and
flee to him will be forced to fear him and flee from him to a refuge of lies.
3. It is folly for those that are pursued by the wrath of God to think to
escape it, and to hide or shelter themselves from it. 4. The things of the
earth are things that will be shaken; they are subject to concussions, and
hastening towards a dissolution. 5. The shaking of the earth is, and will be,
a terrible thing to those who set their affections wholly on things of the
earth. 6. It will be in vain to think of finding refuge in the caves of the
earth when the earth itself is shaken; there will be no shelter then but in
God and in things above.
II. To humble and abase proud sinners, that look big, and think highly of
themselves, and scornfully of all about them (v. 11): The lofty
looks of man shall be humbled. The eyes that aim high, the countenance in
which the pride of the heart shows itself, shall be cast down in shame and
despair. And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, their spirits
shall be broken, and they shall be crest-fallen, and those things which they
were proud of they shall be ashamed of. It is repeated (v. 17), The
loftiness of man shall be bowed down. Note, Pride will, one way or other,
have a fall. Men's haughtiness will be brought down, either by the grace of
God convincing them of the evil of their pride, and clothing them with
humility, or by the providence of God depriving them of all those things they
were proud of and laying them low. Our Saviour often laid it down for a maxim
that he who exalts himself shall be abased; he shall either abase
himself in true repentance or God will abase him and pour contempt upon him.
Now here we are told,
1. Why this shall be done: because the Lord alone will be exalted.
Note, Proud men shall be vilified because the Lord alone will be magnified. It
is for the honour of God's power to humble the proud; by this he proves
himself to be God, and disproves Job's pretensions to rival with him, Job xl.
11-14. Behold every one that is proud, and abase him; then will I also
confess unto thee. It is likewise for the honour of his justice. Proud men
stand in competition with God, who is jealous for his own glory, and will not
suffer men either to take to themselves or give to another that which is due
to him only. They likewise stand in opposition to God; they resist him, and
therefore he resists them; for he will be exalted among the heathen
(Ps. xlvi. 10), and there is a day coming in which he alone will be exalted,
when he shall have put down all opposing rule, principality, and power,
1 Cor. xv. 24.
2. How this shall be done: by humbling judgments, that shall mortify men, and
bring them down (v. 12): The day of the Lord of hosts, the day
of his wrath and judgment, shall be upon every one that is proud. He
now laughs at their insolence because he sees that his day is coming, this
day, which will be upon them ere they are aware, Ps. xxxvii. 13. This day of
the Lord is here said to be upon all the cedars of Lebanon, that are high
and lifted up. Jerome observes that the cedars are said to praise God (Ps.
cxlviii. 9) and are trees of the Lord (Ps. civ. 16), of his planting
(Isa. xli. 19), and yet here God's wrath fastens upon the cedars, which
denotes (says he) that some of every rank of men, some great men, will be
saved, and some perish. It is brought in as an instance of the strength of
God's voice that it breaks the cedars (Ps. xxix. 5), and here the day
of the Lord is said to be upon the cedars, those of Lebanon, they were
the straightest and stateliest,--upon the oaks, those of Bashan, that were the
strongest and sturdiest,--upon the natural elevations and fortresses, the
highest mountains and the hills that are lifted up (v. 14), that
overtop the valleys and seem to push the skies,--and upon the artificial
fastnesses, every high tower and every fenced wall, v. 15.
Understand these, (1.) As representing the proud people themselves, that are
in their own apprehensions like the cedars and the oaks, firmly rooted, and
not to be stirred by any storm, and looking on all around them as shrubs;
these are the high mountains and the lofty hills that seem to fill the earth,
that are gazed on by all, and think themselves immovable, but lie most
obnoxious to God's thunderstrokes. Feriuntique summos fulmina montes--The
highest hills are most exposed to lightning. And before the power of God's
wrath these mountains are scattered and these hills bow and melt like wax,
Hab. iii. 6; Ps. lxvi. 8. These vaunting men, who are as high towers in which
the noisy bells are hung, on which the thundering murdering cannon are
planted--these fenced walls, that fortify themselves with their native
hardiness, and intrench themselves in their fastnesses--shall be brought down.
(2.) As particularizing the things they are proud of,in which they trust, and
of which they make their boast. The day of the Lord shall be upon those very
things in which they put their confidence as their strength and security; he
will take from the all their armour wherein they trusted. Did the
inhabitants of Lebanon glory in their cedars, and those of Bashan in their
oaks, such as no country could equal? The day of the Lord should rend those
cedars, those oaks, and the houses built of them. Did Jerusalem glory in the
mountains that were round about it, as its impregnable fortifications, or in
its walls and bulwarks? These should be levelled and laid low in the day of
the Lord. Besides those things that were for their strength and safety they
were proud, [1.] Of their trade abroad; but the day of the Lord shall be upon
all the ships of Tarshish; they shall be broken as Jehoshaphat's were,
shall founder at sea or be ship-wrecked in harbour. Zebulun was a haven of
ships, but should now no more rejoice in his going out. When God is bringing
ruin upon a people he can sink all the branches of their revenue. [2.] Of
their ornaments at home; but the day of the Lord shall be upon all pleasant
pictures, the painting of their ships (so some understand it) or the
curious pieces of painting they brought home in their ships from other
countries, perhaps from Greece, which afterwards was famous for painters. Upon
every thing that is beautiful to behold; so some read it. Perhaps they
were the pictures of their relations, and for that reason pleasant, or of
their gods, which to the idolaters were delectable things; or they admired
them for the fineness of their colours or strokes. There is no harm in making
pictures, nor in adorning our rooms with them, provided they transgress not
either the second or the seventh commandment. But to place our pictures among
our pleasant things, to be fond of them and proud of them, to spend that upon
them which should be laid out in charity, and to set out hearts upon them, as
it ill becomes those who have so many substantial things to take pleasure in,
so it tends to provoke God to strip us of all such vain ornaments.
III. To make idolaters ashamed of their idols, and of all the affection they
have had for them and the respect they have paid to them (v. 18): The
idols he shall utterly abolish. When the Lord alone shall be exalted (v.
17) he will not only pour contempt upon proud men, who like Pharaoh exalt
themselves against him, but much more upon all pretended deities, who are
rivals with him for divine honours. They shall be abolished, utterly
abolished. Their friends shall desert them; their enemies shall destroy them;
so that, one way or other, an utter riddance shall be made of them. See here,
1. The vanity of false gods; they cannot secure themselves, so far are they
from being able to secure their worshippers. 2. The victory of the true God
over them; for great is the truth and will prevail. Dagon fell before
the ark, and Baal before the Lord God of Elijah. The gods of the heathen shall
be famished (Zeph. ii. 11), and by degrees shall perish, Jer. x. 11. The
rightful Sovereign will triumph over all pretenders. And, as God will abolish
idols, so their worshippers shall abandon them, either from a gracious
conviction of their vanity and falsehood (as Ephraim when he said, What
have I to do any more with idols?) or from a late and sad experience of
their inability to help them, and a woeful despair of relief by them, v.
20. When men are themselves frightened by the judgments of God into the holes
of the rocks and caves of the earth, and find that they do thus in vain shift
for their own safety, they shall cast their idols, which they have made their
gods, and hoped to make their friends in the time of need, to the moles and to
the bats, any where out of sight, that, being freed from the incumbrance of
them, they may go into the clefts of the rocks, for fear of the Lord, v.
21. Note, (1.) Those that will not be reasoned out of their sins sooner or
later shall be frightened out of them. (2.) God can make men sick of those
idols that they have been most fond of, even the idols of silver and the idols
of gold, the most precious. Covetous men make silver and gold their idols,
money their god; but the time may come when they may feel it as much their
burden as ever they made it their confidence, and may find themselves as much
exposed by it as ever they hoped they should be guarded by it, when it tempts
their enemy, sinks their ship, or retards their flight. There was a time when
the mariners threw the wares, and even the wheat into the sea (Jonah i.
5; Acts xxvii. 38), and the Syrians cast away their garments for haste,
2 Kings vii. 15. Or men may cast it away out of indignation at themselves for
leaning upon such a broken reed. See Ezek. vii. 19. The idolaters here throw
away their idols because they are ashamed of them and of their own folly in
trusting to them, or because they are afraid of having them found in their
possession when the judgments of God are abroad; as the thief throws away his
stolen goods then he is searched for or pursued. (3.) The darkest holes, where
the moles and the bats lodge, are the fittest places for idols, that have eyes
and see not; and God can force men to cast their own idols there (ch.
xxx. 22), when they are ashamed of the oaks which they have desired, ch.
i. 29. Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed
of Bethel, Jer. xlviii. 13. (4.) It is possible that sin may be both
loathed and left and yet not truly repented of--loathed because surfeited on,
left because there is no opportunity of committing it, yet not repented of out
of any love to God, but only from a slavish fear of his wrath.
IV. To make those that have trusted in an arm of flesh ashamed of their
confidence (v. 22): "Cease from man. The providences of God
concerning you shall speak this aloud to you, and therefore take warning
beforehand, that you may prevent the uneasiness and shame of disappointment;
and consider, 1. How weak man is: His breath is in his nostrils, puffed
out every moment, soon gone for good and all." Man is a dying creature,
and may die quickly; our nostrils, in which our breath is, are of the outward
parts of the body; what is there is like one standing at the door, ready to
depart; nay the doors of the nostrils are always open, the breath in them may
slip away ere we are aware, in a moment. Wherein then is man to be accounted
of? Alas! no reckoning is to be made of him, for he is not what he seems to
be, what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be. Man is like vanity, nay,
he is vanity, he is altogether vanity, he is less, he is lighter, than vanity,
when weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. "2. How wise therefore
those are that cease from man;" it is our duty, it is our interest, to do
so. "Put not your trust in man, nor make even the greatest and
mightiest of men your confidence; cease to do so. Let not your eye be to the
power of man, for it is finite and limited, derived and depending; it is not
from him that your judgment proceeds. Let not him be your fear, let not him be
your hope; but look up to the power of God, to which all the powers of men are
subject and subordinate; dread his wrath, secure his favour, take him for your
help, and let your hope be in the Lord your God."
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