I
S A I A H
CHAP. IV.
In
this chapter we have, I. A threatening of the paucity and scarceness of man
(ver. 1), which might fitly enough have been added to the close of the
foregoing chapter, to which it has a plain reference. II. A promise of the
restoration of Jerusalem's peace and purity, righteousness and safety,
in the days of the Messiah, ver. 2-6. Thus, in wrath, mercy is remembered, and
gospel grace is a sovereign relief, in reference to the terrors of the law and
the desolations made by sin.
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Humiliation
of the Daughters of
Zion
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B.
C. 758.
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1 And in that day seven women shall take hold
of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only
let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.
It was threatened (ch. iii. 25) that the mighty men should fall by
the sword in war, and it was threatened as a punishment to the women that
affected gaiety and a loose sort of conversation. Now here we have the effect
and consequence of that great slaughter of men, 1. That though Providence has
so wisely ordered that, communibus annis--on an average of years, there
is nearly an equal number of males and females born into the world, yet,
through the devastations made by war, there should scarcely be one man in
seven left alive. As there are deaths attending the bringing forth of
children, which are peculiar to the woman, who was first in transgression, so,
to balance that, there are deaths peculiar to men, those by the sword in the
high places of the field, which perhaps devour more than child-bed does. Here
it is foretold that such multitudes of men should be cut off that there should
be seven women to one man. 2. That by reason of the scarcity of men,
though marriage should be kept up for the raising of recruits and the
preserving of the race of mankind upon earth, yet the usual method of it
should be quite altered,--that, whereas men ordinarily make their court to the
women, the women should now take hold of the men, foolishly fearing (as Lot's
daughters did, when they saw the ruin of Sodom and perhaps thought it reached
further than it did) that in a little time there would be none left (Gen. xix.
31),-- that whereas women naturally hate to come in sharers with others, seven
should now, by consent, become the wives of one man,--and that whereas by the
law the husband was obliged to provide food and raiment for his wife (Exod.
xxi. 10), which with many would be the most powerful argument against
multiplying wives, these women will be bound to support themselves; they will eat
bread of their own earning, and wear apparel of their own working, and the
man they court shall be at no expense upon them, only they desire to be called
his wives, to take away the reproach of a single life. They are willing
to be wives upon any terms, though ever so unreasonable; and perhaps the
rather because in these troublesome times it would be a kindness to them to
have a husband for their protector. Paul, on the contrary, thinks the single
state preferable in a time of distress, 1 Cor. vii. 26. It were well if this
were not introduced here partly as a reflection upon the daughters of Zion,
that, notwithstanding the humbling providences they were under (ch.
iii. 18), they remained unhumbled, and, instead of repenting of their pride
and vanity, when God was contending with them for them, all their care was to
get husbands--that modesty, which is the greatest beauty of the fair sex, was
forgotten, and with them the reproach of vice was nothing to the reproach of
virginity, a sad symptom of the irrecoverable desolations of virtue.
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The
Future Glory of Zion.
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B.
C. 758.
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2 In that day shall the branch of the LORD
be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be
excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. 3 And it
shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that
remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is
written among the living in Jerusalem: 4 When the Lord shall have
washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the
blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by
the spirit of burning. 5 And the LORD
will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies,
a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon
all the glory shall be a defence. 6 And there shall be a
tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of
refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
By the foregoing threatenings Jerusalem is brought into a very deplorable
condition: every thing looks melancholy. But here the sun breaks out from
behind the cloud. Many exceedingly great and precious promises we have in
these verses, giving assurance of comfort which may be discerned through the
troubles, and of happy days which shall come after them, and these certainly
point at the kingdom of the Messiah, and the great redemption to be wrought
out by him, under the figure and type of the restoration of Judah and
Jerusalem by the reforming reign of Hezekiah after Ahaz and the return out of
their captivity in Babylon; to both these events the passage may have some
reference, but chiefly to Christ. It is here promised, as the issue of all
these troubles,
I. That God will raise up a righteous branch, which shall produce fruits of
righteousness (v. 2): In that day, that same day, at that very
time, when Jerusalem shall be destroyed and the Jewish nation extirpated and
dispersed, the kingdom of the Messiah shall be set up; and then shall be the
reviving of the church, when every one shall fear the utter ruin of it.
1. Christ himself shall be exalted. He is the branch of the Lord, the
man the branch; it is one of prophetical names, my servant the branch
(Zech. iii. 8; vi. 12), the branch of righteousness (Jer. xxiii. 5;
xxxiii. 15), a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his roots
(ch. xi. 1), and this, as some think, is alluded to when he is called a
Nazarene, Matt. ii. 23. Here he is called the branch of the Lord,
because planted by his power and flourishing to his praise. The ancient
Chaldee paraphrase here reads it, The Christ, or Messiah, of the Lord.
He shall be the beauty, and glory, and joy. (1.) He shall himself be advanced
to the joy set before him and the glory which he had with the Father before
the world was. He that was a reproach of men, whose visage was marred more
than any man's, is now, in the upper world, beautiful and glorious, as the sun
in his strength, admired and adored by angels. (2.) He shall be beautiful and
glorious in the esteem of all believers, shall gain an interest in the world,
and a name among men above every name. To those that believe he is precious,
he is an honour (1 Pet. ii. 7), the fairest of ten thousand (Cant. v.
10), and altogether glorious. Let us rejoice that he is so, and let him be so
to us.
2. His gospel shall be embraced. The success of the gospel is the fruit of the
branch of the Lord; all the graces and comforts of the gospel spring from
Christ. But it is called the fruit of the earth because it sprang up in
this world and was calculated for the present state. And Christ compares
himself to a grain of wheat, that falls into the ground and dies,
and so brings forth much fruit, John xii. 24. The success of the gospel is
represented by the earth's yielding her increase (Ps. lxvii. 6), and
the planting of the Christian church is God's sowing it to himself in the
earth, Hos. ii. 23. We may understand it of both the persons and the
things that are the products of the gospel: they shall be excellent and
comely, shall appear very agreeable and be very acceptable to those that have
escaped of Israel, to that remnant of the Jews which was saved from perishing
with the rest in unbelief, Rom. xi. 5. Note, If Christ be precious to us, his
gospel will be so and all its truths and promises--his church will be so, and
all that belong to it. These are the good fruit of the earth, in comparison
with which all other things are but weeds. It will be a good evidence to us
that we are of the chosen remnant, distinguished from the rest that are called
Israel, and marked for salvation, if we are brought to see a
transcendent beauty in Christ, and in holiness, and in the saints, the
excellent ones of the earth. As a type of this blessed day, Jerusalem, after
Sennacherib's invasion and after the captivity in Babylon, should again
flourish as a branch, and be blessed with the fruits of the earth. Compare ch.
xxxvii. 31, 32. The remnant shall again take root downward and bear fruit
upward. And if by the fruit of the earth here we understand the good
things of this life, we may observe that these have peculiar sweetness in them
to the chosen remnant, who, having a covenant--right to them, have the most
comfortable use of them. If the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious
in our eyes, even the fruit of the earth also will be excellent and comely,
because then we may take it as the fruit of the promise, Ps. xxxvii. 16; 1
Tim. iv. 8.
II. That God will reserve to himself a holy seed, v. 3. When the
generality of those that have a place and a name in Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be cut off as withered branches, by their own unbelief, yet some shall
be left. Some shall remain, some shall still cleave to the church, when its
property is altered and it has become Christian; for God will not quite cast
off his people, Rom. xi. 1. There is here and there one that is left. Now,
1. This is a remnant according to the election of grace (as the apostle
speaks, Rom. xi. 5), such as are written among the living, marked in the
counsel and fore-knowledge of God for life and salvation, written to life
(so the word is), designed and determined for it unalterably; for "what
I have written I have written." Those that are kept alive in killing
dying times were written for life in the book of divine Providence; and shall
we not suppose those who are rescued from a greater death to be such as were written
in the Lamb's book of life? Rev. xiii. 8. As many as were ordained unto
eternal life believed to the salvation of the soul, Acts xiii. 48.
Note, All that were written among the living shall be found among the
living, every one; for of all that were given to Christ he will lose none. 2.
It is a remnant under the dominion of grace; for every one that is written
among the living, and is accordingly left, shall be called holy,
shall be holy, and shall be accepted of God accordingly. Those only that are
holy shall be left when the Son of man shall gather out of his kingdom
every thing that offends; and all that are chosen to salvation are chosen
to sanctification. See 2 Thess. ii. 13; Eph. i. 4.
III. That God will reform his church and will rectify and amend whatever is
amiss in it, v. 4. Then the remnant shall be called holy, when the
Lord shall have washed away their filth, washed it from among them by
cutting off the wicked persons, washed it from within them by purging out the
wicked thing. They shall not be called so till they are in some measure made
so. Gospel times are times of reformation (Heb. ix. 10), typified by the
reformation in the days of Hezekiah and that after captivity, to which this
promise refers. Observe, 1. The places and persons to be reformed. Jerusalem,
though the holy city, needed reformation; and, being the holy city, the
reformation of that would have a good influence upon the whole kingdom. The
daughters of Zion also must be reformed, the women in a particular manner,
whom he had reproved, ch. iii. 16. When they were decked in their
ornaments they thought themselves wondrously clean; but, being proud of them,
the prophet call them their filth, for no sin is more abominable to God
than pride. Or by the daughters of Zion may be meant the country towns and
villages, which were related to Jerusalem as the mother-city, and which needed
reformation. 2. The reformation itself. The filth shall be washed away; for
wickedness is filthiness, particularly blood-shed, for which Jerusalem was
infamous (2 Kings xxi. 16), and which defiles the land more than any other
sin. Note, The reforming of a city is the cleansing of it. When vicious
customs and fashions are suppressed, and the open practice of wickedness is
restrained, the place is made clean and sweet which before was a dunghill; and
this is not only for its credit and reputation among strangers, but for the
comfort and health of the inhabitants themselves. 3. The author of the
reformation: The Lord shall do it. Reformation-work is God's work; if
any thing be done to purpose in it, it is his doing. But how? By the judgment
of his providence the sinners were destroyed and consumed; but it is by the
Spirit of his grace that they are reformed and converted. This is the work
that is done, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of
hosts (Zech. iv. 6), working both upon the sinners themselves that are to
be reformed and upon magistrates, ministers, and others that are to be
employed as instruments of reformation. The Spirit herein acts, (1.) As a
spirit of judgment, enlightening the mind, convincing the conscience,--as a
spirit of wisdom, guiding us to deal prudently, (Isa. lii. 13),-- as a
discerning, distinguishing, Spirit, separating between the precious and the
vile. (2.) As a Spirit of burning, quickening and invigorating the
afflictions, and making men zealously affected in a good work. The Spirit
works as fire, Matt. iii. 11. An ardent love to Christ and souls, and a
flaming zeal against sin, will carry men on with resolution in their
endeavours to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. See Isa. xxxii. 15, 16.
IV. That God will protect his church, and all that belong to it (v. 5,
6); when they are purified and reformed they shall no longer lie exposed, but
God will take a particular care of them. Those that are sanctified are well
fortified; for God will be to them a guide and a guard.
1. Their tabernacles shall be defended, v. 5.
(1.) This writ of protection refers to, [1.] Their dwelling places, the
tabernacles of their rest, their own houses, where they worship God alone, and
with their families. That blessing which is upon the habitation of the just
shall be a protection to it, Prov. iii. 33. In the tabernacles of the
righteous shall the voice of rejoicing and salvation be, Ps. cxviii.
15. Note, God takes particular cognizance and care of the dwelling-places of
his people, of every one of them, the poorest cottage as well as the stateliest
palace. When iniquity is put far from the tabernacle the Almighty shall
be its defence, Job xxiii. 23, 26. [2.] Their assemblies or tabernacles of
meeting for religious worship. No mention is made of the temple, for the
promise points at a time when not one stone of that shall be left upon
another; but all the congregations of Christians, though but two or three met
together in Christ's name, shall be taken under the special protection of
heaven; they shall be no more scattered, no more disturbed, nor shall any
weapon formed against them prosper. Note, we ought to reckon it a great
mercy if we have liberty to worship God in public, free from the alarms of the
sword of war or persecution.
(2.) This writ of protection is drawn up, [1.] In a similitude taken from the
safety of the camp of
Israel
when they marched through the wilderness. God will give to the Christian
church as real proofs, though not so sensible, of his care of them, as he then
gave to
Israel
. The Lord will again create a cloud and smoke by day, to screen them
from the scorching heat of the sun, and the shining of a flaming fire by
night, to enlighten and warm the air, which in the night is cold and dark.
See Exod. xiii. 21; Neh. ix. 19. This pillar of cloud and fire interposed
between the Israelites and the Egyptians, Exod. xiv. 20. Note, Though miracles
have ceased, yet God is the same to the New-Testament church that he was to
Israel of old; the very same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. [2.] In a
similitude taken from the outside cover of rams' skins and badgers' skins that
was upon the curtains of the tabernacle, as if every dwelling place of Mount
Zion and every assembly were as dear to God as that tabernacle was: Upon
all the glory shall be a defence, to save it from wind and weather. Note,
The church on earth has its glory. Gospel truths and ordinances, the
scriptures and the ministry, are the church's glory; and upon all this glory
there is a defence, and ever shall be, for the gates of hell shall not
prevail against the church. If God himself be the glory in the midst of
it, he will himself be a wall of fire around about it, impenetrable and
impregnable. Grace in the soul is the glory of it, and those that have it are kept
by the power of God as in a strong-hold, 1 Pet. i. 5.
2. Their tabernacle shall be a defence to them, v. 6. God's tabernacle
was a pavilion to the saints (Ps. xxvii. 5); but, when that is taken down,
they shall not want a covert: the divine power and goodness shall be a
tabernacle to all the saints. God himself will be their hiding-place (Ps.
xxxii. 7); they shall be at home in him, Ps. xci. 9. He will himself be to
them as the shadow of a great rock (ch. xxxii. 2) and his
name a strong tower, Prov. xviii. 10. He will be not only a shadow from
the heat in the daytime, but a covert from storm and rain. Note, In this world
we must expect change of weather and all the inconveniences that attend it; we
shall meet with storm and rain in this lower region, and at other times the
heat of the day no less burdensome; but God is a refuge to his people in all
weathers.
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