I
S A I A H
CHAP. XXIV.
It
is agreed that here begins a new sermon, which is continued to the end of
chap. xxvii. And in it the prophet, according to the directions he had
received, does, in many precious promises, "say to the righteous, It
shall be well with them;" and, in many dreadful threatenings, he says,
"Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill with them" (ch. iii. 10,
11); and these are interwoven, that they may illustrate each other. This
chapter is mostly threatening; and, as the judgments threatened are very sore
and grievous ones, so the people threatened with those judgments are very
many. It is not the burden of any particular city or kingdom, as those before,
but the burden of the whole earth. The word indeed signifies only the land,
because our own land is commonly to us as all the earth. But it is here
explained by another word that is not so confined; it is the world (ver. 4);
so that it must at least take in a whole neighbourhood of nations. 1. Some
think (and very probably) that it is a prophecy of the great havoc that
Sennacherib and his Assyrian army should now shortly make of many of the
nations in that part of the world. 2. Others make it to point at the like
devastations which, about 100 years afterwards, Nebuchadnezzar and his armies
should make in the same countries, going from one kingdom to another, not only
to conquer them, but to ruin them and lay them waste; for that was the method
which those eastern nations took in their wars. The promises that are mixed
with the threatenings are intended for the support and comfort of the people
of God in those very calamitous times. And, since here are no particular
nations names either by whom or on whom those desolations should be brought, I
see not but it may refer to both these events. Nay, the scripture has many
fulfillings, and we ought to give it its full latitude; and therefore I
incline to think that the prophet, from those and the like instances which he
had a particular eye to, designs here to represent in general the calamitous
state of mankind, and the many miseries which human life is liable to,
especially those that attend the wars of the nations. Surely the prophets were
sent, not only to foretel particular events, but to form the minds of men to
virtue and piety, and for that end their prophecies were written and preserved
even for our learning, and therefore ought not to be looked upon as of private
interpretation. Now since a thorough conviction of the vanity of the world,
and its insufficiency to make us happy, will go far towards bringing us to
God, and drawing out our affections towards another world, the prophet here
shows what vexation of spirit we must expect to meet with in these things,
that we may never take up our rest in them, nor promise ourselves satisfaction
any where short of the enjoyment of God. In this chapter we have, I. A
threatening of desolating judgments for sin (ver. 1-12), to which is added an
assurance that in the midst of them good people should be comforted, ver.
13-15. II. A further threatening of the like desolations (ver. 16-22), to
which is added an assurance that in the midst of all God should be glorified.
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General
Desolation Announced.
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B.
C. 718.
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1 Behold, the LORD
maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and
scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. 2 And it shall be, as
with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller;
as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with
the giver of usury to him. 3 The land shall be utterly emptied,
and utterly spoiled: for the LORD
hath spoken this word. 4 The earth mourneth and fadeth
away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the
earth do languish. 5 The earth also is defiled under the
inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the
ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore hath the
curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore
the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left. 7 The
new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do sigh.
8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy
of the harp ceaseth. 9 They shall not drink wine with a song;
strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it. 10 The city of
confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no man may come
in. 11 There is a crying for wine in the streets; all joy
is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone. 12 In the city is left
desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.
It is a very dark and melancholy scene that this prophecy presents to our
view; turn our eyes which way we will, every thing looks dismal. The
threatened desolations are here described in a great variety of expressions to
the same purport, and all aggravating.
I. The earth is stripped of all its ornaments and looks as if it were taken
off its basis; it is made empty and waste (v. 1), as if it were
reduced to its first chaos, Tohu and Bohu, nothing but confusion
and emptiness again (Gen. i. 2), without form and void. It is true
earth sometimes signifies the land, and so the same word eretz
is here translated (v. 3): The land shall be utterly emptied and
utterly spoiled; but I see not why it should not there, as well as v.
1, be translated the earth; for most commonly, if not always, where it
signifies some one particular land it has something joined to it, or at least
not far from it, which does so appropriate it; as the land (or earth) of
Egypt, or Canaan, or this land, or ours, or yours, or the like. It might
indeed refer to some particular country, and an ambiguous word might be used
to warrant such an application; for it is good to apply to ourselves, and our
own hands, what the scripture says in general of the vanity and vexation of
spirit that attend all things here below; but it should seem designed to speak
what often happens to many countries, and will do while the world stands, and
what may, we know not how soon, happen to our own, and what is the general
character of all earthly things: they are empty of all solid comfort and
satisfaction; a little thing makes them waste. We often see numerous families,
and plentiful estates, utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, by one judgment or
other, or perhaps only by a gradual and insensible decay. Sin has turned the
earth upside down; the earth has become quite a different thing to man
from what it was when God made it to be his habitation. Sin has also scattered
abroad the inhabitants thereof. The rebellion at Babel was the occasion of
the dispersion there. How many ways are there in which the inhabitants both of
towns and of private houses are scattered abroad, so that near relations and
old neighbours know nothing of one another! To the same purport is v.
4. The earth mourns, and fades away; it disappoints those that placed
their happiness in it and raised their expectations high from it, and proves
not what they promised themselves it would be. The whole world
languishes and fades away, as hastening towards a dissolution. It is, at
the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of those that please
themselves too much with it, and lay it in their bosoms. And, as the earth
itself grows old, so those that dwell therein are desolate; men carry crazy
sickly bodies along with them, are often solitary, and confined by affliction,
v. 6. When the earth languishes, and is not so fruitful as it used to
be, then those that dwell therein, that make it their home, and rest, and
portion, are desolate; whereas those that by faith dwell in God can rejoice in
him even when the fir-tree does not blossom. If we look abroad, and see in how
many places pestilences and burning fevers rage, and what multitudes are swept
away by them in a little time, so that sometimes the living scarcely suffice
to bury the dead, perhaps we shall understand what the prophet means when he
says, The inhabitants of the earth are burned, or consumed, some by one
disease, others by another, and there are but few men left, in
comparison. Note, The world we live in is a world of disappointment, a vale of
tears, and a dying world; and the children of men in it are but of few days,
and full of trouble.
II. It is God that brings all these calamities upon the earth. The Lord
that made the earth, and made it fruitful and beautiful, for the service and
comfort of man, now makes it empty and waste (v. 1), for its
Creator is and will be its Judge; he has an incontestable right to pass
sentence upon it and an irresistible power to execute that sentence. It is the
Lord that has spoken this word, and he will do the work (v.
3); it is his curse that has devoured the earth (v. 6), the
general curse which sin brought upon the ground for man's sake (Gen.
iii. 17), and all the particular curses which families and countries bring
upon themselves by their enormous wickedness. See the power of God's curse,
how it makes all empty and lays all waste; those whom he curses are cursed
indeed.
III. Persons of all ranks and conditions shall share in these calamities (v.
2): It shall be as with the people, so with the priest, &c. This is
true of many of the common calamities of human life; all are subject to the
same diseases of body, sorrows of mind, afflictions in relations, and the
like. There is one event to those of very different stations; time and chance
happen to them all. It is in a special manner true of the destroying judgments
which God sometimes brings upon sinful nations; when he pleases he can make
them universal, so that none shall escape them or be exempt from them; whether
men have little or much, they shall lose it all. Those of the meaner rank
smart first by famine; but those of the higher rank go first into captivity,
while the poor of the land are left. It shall be all alike, 1. With high and
low: As with the people, so with the priest, or prince. The dignity of
magistrates and ministers, and the respect and reverence due to both, shall
not secure them. The faces of elders are not honoured, Lam. v. 12. The
priests had been as corrupt and wicked as the people; and, if their character
served not to restrain them from sin, how can they expect it should serve to
secure them from judgments? In both it is like people, like priest,
Hosea iv. 8, 9. 2. With bond and free: As with the servant, so with his
master; as with the maid, so with her mistress. They have all corrupted
their way, and therefore will all be made miserable when the earth is made
waste. 3. With rich and poor. Those that have money before-hand, that are
purchasing, and letting out money to interest, will fare no better than those
that are so impoverished that they are forced to sell their estates and take
up money at interest. There are judgments short of the great day of judgment
in which rich and poor meet together. Let not those that are advanced in the
world set their inferiors at too great a distance, because they know not how
soon they may be set upon a level with them. The rich man's wealth is his
strong city in his own conceit; but it does not always prove so.
IV. It is sin that brings these calamities upon the earth. The earth is made
empty, and fades away, because it is defiled under the inhabitants thereof
(v. 5); it is polluted by the sins of men, and therefore it is made
desolate by the judgments of God. Such is the filthy nature of sin that it
defiles the earth itself under the sinful inhabitants thereof, and it is
rendered unpleasant in the eyes of God and good men. See Lev. xviii. 25, 27,
28. Blood, in particular, defiles the land, Num. xxxv. 33. The earth never
spues out its inhabitants till they have first defiled it by their sins. Why,
what have they done? 1. They have transgressed the laws of their creation, not
answered the ends of it. The bonds of the law of nature have been broken by
them, and they have cast from them the cords of their obligations to the God
of nature. 2. They have changed the ordinances of revealed religion,
those of them that have had the benefit of that. They have neglected the
ordinances (so some read it), and have made no conscience of observing
them. They have passed over the laws, in the commission of sin, and have
passed by the ordinance, in the omission of duty. 3. Herein they have broken
the everlasting covenant, which is a perpetual bond and will be to those
that keep it a perpetual blessing. It is God's wonderful condescension that he
is pleased to deal with men in a covenant-way, to do them good, and thereby
oblige them to do him service. Even those that had no benefit by God's
covenant with Abraham had benefit by his covenant with Noah and his sons,
which is called an everlasting covenant, his covenant with day and
night; but they observe not the precepts of the sons of Noah, they acknowledge
not God's goodness in the day and night, nor study to make him any grateful
returns, and so break the everlasting covenant and defeat the gracious designs
and intentions of it.
V. These judgments shall humble men's pride and mar their mirth. When the
earth is made empty, 1. It is a great mortification to men's pride (v.
4): The haughty people of the earth do languish; for they have lost
that which supported their pride, and for which they magnified themselves. As
for those that have held their heads highest, God can make them hang the head.
2. It is a great damp to men's jollity. This is enlarged upon much (v.
7-9): All the merry-hearted do sigh. Such is the nature of carnal
mirth, it is but as the crackling of thorns under a pot, Eccl. vii. 6.
Great laughters commonly end in a sigh. Those that make the world their chief
joy cannot rejoice ever more. When God sends his judgments into the earth he
designs thereby to make those serious that were wholly addicted to their
pleasures. Let your laughter be turned into mourning. When the earth is
emptied the noise of those that rejoice in it ends. Carnal joy is a
noisy thing; but the noise of it will soon be at an end, and the end of it is
heaviness. Two things are made use of to excite and express vain mirth, and
the jovial crew is here deprived of both:-- (1.) Drinking: The new wine
mourns; it has grown sour for want of drinking; for, how proper soever it
may be for the heavy heart (Prov. xxxi. 6), it does not relish to them as it
does to the merry-hearted. The vine languishes, and gives little hopes
of a vintage, and therefore the merry-hearted do sigh; for they know no
other gladness than that of their corn, and wine, and oil increasing (Ps. iv.
7), and, if you destroy their vines and their fig-trees, you make all their
mirth to cease, Hosea ii. 11, 12. They shall not now drink wine
with a song and with huzzas, as they used to, but rather drink it with a
sigh; nay, Strong drink shall be bitter to those that drink it, because
they cannot but mingle their tears with it; or, through sickness, they have
lost the relish of it. God has many ways to embitter wine and strong drink to
those that love them and have the highest gust of them: distemper of body,
anguish of mind, the ruin of the estate or country, will make the strong drink
bitter and all the delights of sense tasteless and insipid. (2.) Music: The
mirth of tabrets ceases, and the joy of the harp, which used to be at
their feasts, ch. v. 12. The captives in Babylon hang their harps on
the willow trees. In short, All joy is darkened; there is not a
pleasant look to be seen, nor has any one power to force a smile; all the
mirth of the land is gone (v. 11); and, if it was that mirth which
Solomon calls madness, there is no great loss of it.
VI. The cities will in a particular manner feel from these desolations of the
country (v. 10): The city of confusion is broken, is broken down
(so we read it); it lies exposed to invading powers, not only by the breaking
down of its walls, but by the confusion that the inhabitants are in. Every
house is shut up, perhaps by reason of the plague, which has burned or
consumed the inhabitants, so that there are few men left, v. 6.
Houses infected are usually shut up that no man may come in. Or they are shut
up because they are deserted and uninhabited. There is a crying for wine,
that is, for the spoiling of the vintage, so that there is likely to be no
wine. In the city, in Jerusalem itself, that had been so much
frequented, there shall be left nothing but desolation; grass shall
grow in the streets, and the gate is smitten with destruction (v.
12); all that used to pass and repass through the gate are smitten, and all
the strength of the city is cut off. How soon can God make a city of order a
city of confusion, and then it will soon be a city of desolation!
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Hope
in the End.
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13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the
land among the people, there shall be as the shaking of an olive tree, and
as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done. 14 They shall
lift up their voice, they shall sing for the majesty of the LORD,
they shall cry aloud from the sea. 15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD
in the fires, even the name of the LORD
God of Israel in the isles of the sea.
Here is mercy remembered in the midst of wrath. In Judah and Jerusalem, and
the neighbouring countries, when they are overrun by the enemy, Sennacherib or
Nebuchadnezzar, there shall be a remnant preserved from the general ruin, and
it shall be a devout and pious remnant. And this method God usually observes
when his judgments are abroad; he does not make a full end, ch. vi. 13.
Or we may take it thus: Though the greatest part of mankind have all their
comfort ruined by the emptying of the earth, and the making of that desolate,
yet there are some few who understand their interests better, who have laid up
their treasure in heaven and not in things below, and therefore can keep up
their comfort and joy in God even when the earth mourns and fades away.
Observe,
I. The small number of this remnant, v. 13. When all goes to ruin there
shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and the gleaning grapes, here
and there one who shall escape the common calamity (as Noah and his family
when the old world was drowned), that shall be able to sit down upon a heap of
the ruins of all their creature comforts, and even then rejoice in the Lord (Hab.
iii. 16-18), who, when all faces gather blackness, can lift up their heads
with joy, Luke xxi. 26, 28. These few are dispersed, and at a distance from
each other, like the gleanings of the olive-tree; and they are concealed, hid
under the leaves. The Lord only knows those that are his; the world does not.
II. The great devotion of this remnant, which is the greater for their having
so narrowly escaped this great destruction (v. 14): They shall lift
up their voice; they shall sing. 1. They shall sing for joy in their
deliverance. When the mirth of carnal worldlings ceases the joy of the saints
is as lively as ever; when the merry-hearted do sigh because the vine
languishes the upright-hearted do sing because the covenant of grace, the
fountain of their comforts and the foundation of their hopes, never fails.
Those that rejoice in the Lord can rejoice in tribulation, and by faith may be
in triumphs when all about them are in tears. 2. They shall sing to the glory
and praise of God, shall sing not only for the mercy but for the majesty of
the Lord. Their songs are awful and serious, and in their spiritual joys
they have a reverend regard to the greatness of God, and keep at a humble
distance when they attend him with their praises. The majesty of the Lord,
which is matter of terror to wicked people, furnishes the saints with songs of
praise. They shall sing for the magnificence, or transcendent excellency, of
the Lord, shown both in his judgments and in his mercies; for we must sing,
and sing unto him, of both, Ps. ci. 1. Those who have made, or are making,
their escape from the land (that being emptied and made desolate) to the sea
and the isles of the sea, shall thence cry aloud; their dispersion shall help
to spread the knowledge of God, and they shall make even remote shores to ring
with his praises. It is much for the honour of God if those who fear him
rejoice in him, and praise him, even in the most melancholy times.
III. Their holy zeal to excite others to the same devotion (v. 15);
they encourage their fellow-sufferers to do likewise. 1. Those who are in
the fires, in the furnace of affliction, those fires by which the inhabitants
of the earth are burned, v. 6. Or in the valleys, the low, dark,
dirty places. 2. Those who are in the isles of the sea, whither they
are banished, or are forced to flee for shelter, and hide themselves remote
from all their friends. They went through fire and water (Ps. lxvi.
12); yet in both let them glorify the Lord, and glory him as the Lord God of
Israel. Those who through grace can glory in tribulation ought to glorify God
in tribulation, and give him thanks for their comforts, which abound as their
afflictions do abound. We must in every fire, even the hottest, in every isle,
even the remotest, keep up our good thoughts of God. When, though he slay us,
yet we trust in him--when, though for his sake we are killed all the day long,
yet none of these things move us--then we glorify the Lord in the fires. Thus
the three children, and the martyrs that sang at the stake.
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Encouraging
Prospects; Degeneracy Predicted.
B. C. 718.
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16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we
heard songs, even glory to the righteous. But I said, My leanness, my
leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; yea,
the treacherous dealers have dealt very treacherously. 17 Fear,
and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the
earth. 18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth
from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out
of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on
high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake. 19 The
earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved
exceedingly. 20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard,
and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be
heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. 21 And it
shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD
shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high, and the kings
of the earth upon the earth. 22 And they shall be gathered
together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in
the prison, and after many days shall they be visited. 23 Then the
moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the LORD of hosts shall reign in
mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
These verses, as those before, plainly speak,
I. Comfort to saints. They may be driven, by the common calamities of the
places where they live, into the uttermost parts of the earth, or
perhaps they are forced thither for their religion; but there they are
singing, not sighing. Thence have we heard songs, and it is a comfort to us to
hear them, to hear that good people carry their religion along with them even
to the most distant regions, to hear that God visits them there and gives
encouragement to hope that he will gather them thence, Deut. xxx. 4. And this
is their song, even glory to the righteous: the word is singular, and
may refer to the righteous God, who is just in all he has brought upon
us. This is glorifying the Lord in the fires. Or the meaning may be,
"These songs redound to the glory or beauty of the righteous that sing
them." We do the greatest honour imaginable to ourselves when we employ
ourselves in honouring and glorifying God. This may have reference to the
sending of the gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, as far as this
island of ours, in the days of the Messiah, the glad tidings of which are
echoed back in songs heard thence, from churches planted there, even glory to
the righteous God, agreeing with the angels' song, Glory be to God in the
highest, and glory to all righteous men; for the work of redemption was
ordained before the world for our glory.
II. Terror to sinners. The prophet, having comforted himself and others with
the prospect of a saved remnant, returns to lament the miseries he saw
breaking in like a mighty torrent upon the earth: "But I said, My
leanness! my leanness! woe unto me! The very thought of it frets me, and
makes me lean," v. 16. He foresees,
1. The prevalency of sin, that iniquity should abound (v. 16): The
treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously; this is itself a judgment,
and that which provokes God to bring other judgments. (1.) Men are false to
one another; there is no faith in man, but a universal dishonesty. Truth, that
sacred bond of society, has departed, and there is nothing but treachery in
men's dealings. See Jer. ix. 1, 2. (2.) They are all false to their God; as to
him, and their covenant with him, the children of men are all treacherous
dealers, and have dealt very treacherously with their God, in departing from
their allegiance to him. This is the original, and this the aggravation, of
the sin of the world; and, when men have been false to their God, how should
they be true to any other?
2. The prevalency of wrath and judgment for that sin. (2.) The inhabitants of
the earth will be pursued from time to time, from place to place, by one
mischief or other (v. 17, 18): Fear, and the pit, and the snare
(fear of the pit and the snare) are upon them wherever they are; for the sons
of men know not what evil they may suddenly be snared in, Eccl. ix. 12. These
three words seem to be chosen for the sake of an elegant paranomasia, or, as
we now scornfully call it, a jungle of words: Pachad, and Pachath,
and Pach; but the meaning is plain (v. 18), that evil pursues
sinners (Prov. xiii. 21), that the curse shall overtake the disobedient
(Deut. xxviii. 15), that those who are secure because they have escaped one
judgment know not how soon another may arrest them. What this prophet
threatens all the inhabitants of the earth with another makes part of the
judgment of
Moab
, Jer. xlviii. 43, 44. But it is a common instance of the calamitous state of
human life that when we seek to avoid one mischief we fall into a worse, and
that the end of one trouble is often the beginning of another; so that we are
least safe when we are most secure. (2.) The earth itself will be shaken to
pieces. It will be literally so at last, when all the works therein shall
be burnt up; and it is often figuratively so before that period. The
windows from on high are open to pour down wrath, as in the universal
deluge. Upon the wicked God shall rain snares (Ps. xi. 6); and, the
fountains of the great deep being broken up, the foundations of the earth
do shake of course, the frame of nature is unhinged, and all is in
confusion. See how elegantly this is expressed (v. 19, 20): The
earth is utterly broken down; it is clean dissolved; it is moved exceedingly,
moved out of its place. God shakes heaven and earth, Hag. ii. 6. See
the misery of those who lay up their treasure in the things of the earth and
mind those things; they place their confidence in that which will shortly be utterly
broken down and dissolved. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard;
so unsteady, so uncertain, are all the motions of these things. Worldly men
dwell in it as in a palace, as in a castle, as in an impregnable tower; but it
shall be removed like a cottage, so easily, so suddenly, and with so
little loss to the great landlord. The pulling down of the earth will be but
like the pulling down of a cottage, which the country is willing to be
rid of, because it does but harbour beggars; and therefore no care is taken to
rebuild it: It shall fall, and not rise again; but there shall be new
heavens and a new earth, in which shall dwell nothing but righteousness. But
what is it that shakes the earth thus and sinks it? It is the transgression
thereof that shall be heavy upon it. Note, Sin is a burden to the whole
creation; it is a heavy burden, a burden under which it groans now and will
sink at last. Sin is the ruin of states, and kingdoms, and families; they fall
under the weight of that talent of lead, Zech. v. 7, 8. (3.) God will
have a particular controversy with the kings and great men of the earth (v.
21): He will punish the host of the high ones. Hosts of princes are no
more before God than hosts of common men; what can a host of high ones do with
their combined force when the Most High, the Lord of hosts, contends with them
to abase their height, and scatter their hosts, and break all their
confederacies? The high ones, that are on high, that are puffed up with their
height and grandeur, that think themselves so high that they are out of the
reach of any danger, God will visit upon them all their pride and cruelty,
with which they have oppressed and injured their neighbours and subjects, and
it shall now return upon their own heads. The kings of the earth shall
now be reckoned with upon the earth, to show that verily there is a God
that judges in the earth and will render to the proudest of kings according to
the fruit of their doings. Let those that are trampled upon by the high ones
of the earth comfort themselves with this, that though they cannot, dare not,
must not, resist them, yet there is a God that will call them to an account,
that will triumph over them upon their own dunghill: for the earth they are
kings of is in the eye of God no better. This is general only. It is
particularly foretold (v. 22) that they shall be gathered together
as prisoners, convicted condemned prisoners, are gathered in the pit,
or dungeon, and there they shall be shut up under close confinement.
The kings and high ones, who took all possible liberty themselves, and took a
pride and pleasure in shutting up others, shall now be themselves shut up. Let
not the free man glory in his freedom, any more than the strong man in his
strength, for he knows not what restraints he is reserved for. But after
many days they shall be visited, either, [1.] They shall be visited in
wrath; it is the same word, in another form, that is used (v. 21), the
Lord shall punish them; they shall be reserved to the day of execution, as
condemned prisoners are, and as fallen angels are reserved in chains of
darkness to the judgment of the great day, Jude 6. Let this account for
the delays of divine vengeance; sentence is not executed speedily, because
execution-day has not yet come, and perhaps will not come till after many
days; but it is certain that the wicked is reserved for the day of
destruction, and is therefore preserved in the mean time, but shall be
brought forth to the day of wrath, Job xxi. 30. Let us therefore judge
nothing before the time. [2.] They shall be visited in mercy, and be
discharged from their imprisonment, and shall again obtain, if not their
dignity, yet their liberty. Nebuchadnezzar, in his conquests, made many kings
and princes his captives, and kept them in the dungeon in Babylon, and, among
the rest, Jehoiachin King of Judah; but after many days, when Nebuchadnezzar's
head was laid, his son visited them, and granted (as should seem) some
reviving to them all in their bondage; for it is made an instance of his
particular kindness to Jehoiachin that he set his throne above the throne
of the rest of the kings that were with him, Jer. lii. 32. If we apply
this to the general state of mankind, it imports a revolution of conditions;
those that were high are punished, those that were punished are relieved,
after many days, that none in this world may be secure though their condition
be ever so prosperous, nor any despair though their condition be ever so
deplorable.
3. Glory to God in all this, v. 23. When all this comes to pass, when
the proud enemies of God's church are humbled and brought down, (1.) Then it
shall appear, beyond contradiction, that the Lord reigns, which is always
true, but not always alike evident. When the kings of the earth are punished
for their tyranny and oppression, then it is proclaimed and proved to all the
world that God is King of kings--King above them, by whom they are
accountable--that he reigns as Lord of hosts, of all hosts, of their
hosts,--that he reigns in Mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, in his church,
for the honour and welfare of that, pursuant to the promises on which that is
founded, reigns in his word and ordinances,--that he reigns before his
ancients, before all his saints, especially before his ministers, the
elders of his church, who have their eye upon all the out-goings of his power
and providence, and, in all these events, observe his hand. God's ancients,
the old disciples, the experienced Christians, that have often, when they have
been perplexed, gone into the sanctuary of God in Zion and Jerusalem, and
acquainted themselves with his manifestations of himself there, shall see more
than others of God's dominion and sovereignty in these operations of his
providence. (2.) Then it shall appear, beyond comparison, that he reigns gloriously,
in such brightness and lustre that the moon shall be confounded and the sun
ashamed, as the smaller lights are eclipsed and extinguished by the
greater. Great men, who thought themselves to have as bright a lustre and as
vast a dominion as the sun and moon, shall be ashamed when God appears above
them, much more when he appears against them. Then shall their faces be
filled with shame, that they may seek God's name. The eastern nations
worshipped the sun and moon; but, when God shall appear so gloriously for his
people against his and their enemies, all these pretended deities shall be
ashamed that ever they received the homage of their deluded worshippers. The
glory of the Creator infinitely outshines the glory of the brightest
creatures. In the great day, when the Judge of heaven and earth shall shine
forth in his glory, the sun shall by his transcendent lustre be
turned into darkness and the moon into blood.
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