I
S A I A H
CHAP. V.
In
this chapter the prophet, in God's name, shows the people of God their
transgressions, even the house of Jacob their sins, and the judgments which
were likely to be brought upon them for their sins, I. By a parable, under the
similitude of an unfruitful vineyard, representing the great favours God had
bestowed upon them, their disappointing his expectations from them, and the
ruin they had thereby deserved, ver. 1-7. II. By an enumeration of the sins
that did abound among them, with a threatening of punishments that should
answer to the sins. 1. Covetousness, and greediness of worldly wealth, which
shall be punished with famine, ver. 8-10. 2. Rioting, revelling, and
drunkenness (ver. 11, 12, 22, 23), which shall be punished with captivity and
all the miseries that attend it, ver. 13-17. 3. Presumption in sin, and
defying the justice of God, ver. 18, 19. 4. Confounding the distinctions
between virtue and vice, and so undermining the principles of religion, ver.
20. 5. Self-conceit, ver. 21. 6. Perverting justice, for which, and the other
instances of reigning wickedness among them, a great and general desolation in
threatened, which should lay all waste (ver. 24, 25), and which should be
effected by a foreign invasion (ver. 26-30), referring perhaps to the havoc
made not long after by Sennacherib's army.
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Israel
Compared to a Vineyard.
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B.
C. 758.
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1 Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of
my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very
fruitful hill: 2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones
thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst
of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring
forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 3 And now, O
inhabitants of
Jerusalem
, and men of
Judah
, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my
vineyard. 4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I
have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 5 And now go to; I will tell
you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it
shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be
trodden down: 6 And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned,
nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it. 7 For the vineyard of the LORD
of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant
plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness,
but behold a cry.
See what variety of methods the great God takes to awaken sinners to
repentance by convincing them of sin, and showing them their misery and danger
by reason of it. To this purport he speaks sometimes in plain terms and
sometimes in parables, sometimes in prose and sometimes in verse, as here.
"We have tried to reason with you (ch. i. 18); now let us
put your case into a poem, inscribed to the honour of my well beloved."
God the Father dictates it to the honour of Christ his well beloved Son, whom
he has constituted Lord of the vineyard. The prophet sings it to the honour of
Christ too, for he is his well beloved. The Old-Testament prophets were
friends of the bridegroom. Christ is God's beloved Son and our beloved
Saviour. Whatever is said or sung of the church must be intended to his
praise, even that which (like this) tends to our shame. This parable was put
into a song that it might be the more moving and affecting, might be the more
easily learned and exactly remembered, and the better transmitted to
posterity; and it is an exposition of he song of Moses (Deut. xxxii.), showing
that what he then foretold was now fulfilled. Jerome says, Christ the
well-beloved did in effect sing this mournful song when he beheld Jerusalem and
wept over it (Luke xix. 41), and had reference to it in the parable of the
vineyard (Matt. xxi. 33, &c.), only here the fault was in the vines, there
in the husbandmen. Here we have,
I. The great things which God had done for the Jewish church and nation. When
all the rest of the world lay in common, not cultivated by divine revelation,
that was his vineyard, they were his peculiar people. He acknowledged them as
his own, set them apart for himself. The soil they were planted in was
extraordinary; it was a very fruitful hill, the horn of the son of oil;
so it is in the margin. There was plenty, a cornucopia; and there was dainty:
they did there eat the fat and drink the sweet, and so were furnished with
abundance of good things to honour God with in sacrifices and free-will
offerings. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account
another day. Observe further what God did for this vineyard. 1. He fenced it,
took it under his special protection, kept it night and day under his own eye,
lest any should hurt it, ch. xxvii. 2, 3. If they had not themselves
thrown down their fence, no inroad could have been made upon them, Ps. cxxv.
2; cxxxi. 4. 2. He gathered the stones out of it, that, as nothing from
without might damage it, so nothing within might obstruct its fruitfulness. He
proffered his grace to take away the stony heart. 3. He planted it with the
choicest vine, set up a pure religion among them, gave them a most excellent
law, instituted ordinances very proper for the keeping up of their
acquaintance with God, Jer. ii. 21. 4. He built a tower in the midst of it,
either for defence against violence or for the dressers of the vineyard to
lodge in; or rather it was for the owner of the vineyard to sit in, to take a
view of the vines (Cant. vii. 12)-- a summer-house. The temple was this tower,
about which the priests lodged, and where God promised to meet his people, and
gave them the tokens of his presence among them and pleasure in them. 5. He
made a wine-press therein, set up his altar, to which the sacrifices, as the
fruits of the vineyard, should be brought.
II. The disappointment of his just expectations from them: He looked that
it should bring forth grapes, and a great deal of reason he had for that
expectation. Note, God expects vineyard-fruit from those that enjoy
vineyard-privileges, not leaves only, as Mark xi. 12. A bare profession,
though ever so green, will not serve: there must be more than buds and
blossoms. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things, but not enough;
there must be fruit, a good heart and a good life, vineyard fruit, thoughts
and affections, words and actions, agreeable to the Spirit, which is the
fatness of the vineyard (Gal. v. 22, 23), answerable to the ordinances,
which are the dressings of the vineyard, acceptable to God, the Lord of the
vineyard, and fruit according to the season. Such fruit as this God expects
from us, grapes, the fruit of the vine, with which they honour God and man
(Judg. ix. 13); and his expectations are neither high nor hard, but righteous
and very reasonable. Yet see how his expectations are frustrated: It
brought forth wild grapes; not only no fruit at all, but bad fruit, worse
than none, grapes of Sodom, Deut. xxxii. 32. 1. Wild grapes are the fruits of
the corrupt nature, fruit according to the crabstock, not according to the
engrafted branch, from the root of bitterness, Heb. xii. 15. Where grace does
not work corruption will. 2. Wild grapes are hypocritical performances in
religion, that look like grapes, but are sour or bitter, and are so far from
being pleasing to God that they are provoking, as theirs mentioned in ch.
i. 11. Counterfeit graces are wild grapes.
III. An appeal to themselves whether upon the whole matter God must not be
justified and they condemned, v. 3, 4. And now the case is plainly
stated: O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah! judge, I pray you,
betwixt me and my vineyard. This implies that God was blamed about them.
There was a controversy between them and him; but the equity was so plain on
his side that he could venture to put the decision of the controversy to their
own consciences. "Let any inhabitant of Jerusalem, any man of Judah, that
has but the use of his reason and a common sense of equity and justice, speak
his mind impartially in this matter." Here is a challenge to any man to
show, 1. Any instance wherein God had been wanting to them: What could have
been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? He speaks of
the external means of fruitfulness, and such as might be expected from the
dresser of a vineyard, from whom it is not required that he should change the
nature of the vine. What ought to have been done more? so it may be
read. They had everything requisite for instruction and direction in their
duty, for quickening them to it and putting them in mind of it. No inducements
were wanting to persuade them to it, but all arguments were used that were
proper to work either upon hope or fear; and they had all the opportunities
they could desire for the performance of their duty, the new moons, and the
sabbaths, and solemn feasts; They had the scriptures, the lively oracles, a
standing ministry in the priests and Levites, besides what was extraordinary
in the prophets. No nation had statutes and judgments so righteous. 2. Nor
could any tolerable excuse be offered for their walking thus contrary to God.
"Wherefore, what reason can be given why it should bring forth wild
grapes, when I looked for grapes?" Note, The wickedness of those that
profess religion, and enjoy the means of grace, is the most unreasonable
unaccountable thing in the world, and the whole blame of it must lie upon the
sinners themselves. "If thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it,
and shalt not have a word to say for thyself in the judgment of the great
day." God will prove his own ways equal and the sinner's ways unequal.
IV. Their doom read, and a righteous sentence passed upon them for their bad
conduct towards God (v. 5, 6): "And now go to, since
nothing can be offered in excuse of the crime or arrest of the judgement, I
will tell you what I am now determined to do to my vineyard. I will be
vexed and troubled with it no more; since it will be good for nothing, it shall
be good for nothing; in short, it shall cease to be a vineyard, and be turned
into a wilderness: the church of the Jews shall be unchurched; their charter
shall be taken away, and they shall become lo-ammi--not my people."
1. "They shall no longer be distinguished as a peculiar people, but be
laid in common: I will take away the hedge thereof, and then it will
soon be eaten up and become as bare as other ground." They mingled with
the nations and therefore were justly scattered among them. 2. "They
shall no longer be protected as God's people, but left exposed. God will not
only suffer the wall to go to decay, but he will break it down, will remove
all their defences from them, and then they will become an easy prey to their
enemies, who have long waited for an opportunity to do them a mischief, and
will now tread them down and trample upon them." 3. "They shall no
longer have the face of a vineyard, and the form and shape of a church and
commonwealth, but shall be levelled and laid waste." This was fulfilled
when Jerusalem for their sakes was ploughed as a field, Mic. iii. 12.
4. "No more pains shall be taken with them by magistrates or ministers,
the dressers and keepers of their vineyard; it shall not be pruned nor digged,
but every thing shall run wild, and nothing shall come up but briers and
thorns, the products of sin and the curse," Gen. iii. 18. When errors and
corruptions, vice and immorality, go without check or control, no testimony
borne against them, no rebuke given them or restraint put upon them, the
vineyard is unpruned, is not dressed, or ridded; and then it will soon be like
the vineyard of the man void of understanding, all grown over with thorns. 5.
"That which completes its woe is that the dews of heaven shall be
withheld; he that has the key of the clouds will command them that they rain
no rain upon it, and that alone is sufficient to run it into a desert."
Note, God in a way of righteous judgment, denies his grace to those that have
long received it in vain. The sum of all is that those who would not bring
forth good fruit should bring forth none. The curse of barrenness is the
punishment of the sin of barrenness, as Mark xi. 14. This had its partial
accomplishment in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, its full
accomplishment in the final rejection of the Jews, and has its frequent
accomplishment in the departure of God's Spirit from those persons who have
long resisted him and striven against him, and the removal of his gospel from
those places that have been long a reproach to it, while it has been an honour
to them. It is no loss to God to lay his vineyard waste; for he can, when he
please, turn a wilderness into a fruitful field; and when he does thus
dismantle a vineyard, it is but as he did by the garden of Eden, which, when
man had by sin forfeited his place in it, was soon levelled with common soil.
V. The explanation of this parable, or a key to it (v. 7), where we are
told, 1. What is meant by the vineyard (it is the house of Israel, the
body of the people, incorporated in one church and commonwealth), and what by
the vines, the pleasant plants, the plants of God's pleasure, which he had
been pleased in and delighted in doing good to; they are the men of Judah;
these he had dealt graciously with, and from them he expected suitable
returns. 2. What is meant by the grapes that were expected and the wild grapes
that were produces: He looked for judgment and righteousness, that the
people should be honest in all their dealings and the magistrates should
strictly administer justice. This might reasonably be expected among a people
that had such excellent laws and rules of justice given them (Deut. iv. 8);
but the fact was quite otherwise; instead of judgment there was the cruelty of
the oppressors, and instead of righteousness the cry of the oppressed. Every
thing was carried by clamour and noise, and not by equity and according to the
merits of the cause. It is sad with a people when wickedness has usurped the
place of judgment, Eccl. iii. 16. It is very sad with a soul when instead of
the grapes of humility, meekness, patience, love, and contempt of the world,
which God looks for, there are the wild grapes of pride, passion, discontent,
malice, and contempt of God--instead of the grapes of praying and praising,
the wild grapes of cursing and swearing, which are a great offence to God.
Some of the ancients apply this to the Jews in Christ's time, among whom God
looked for righteousness (that is, that they should receive and embrace
Christ), but behold a cry, that cry, Crucify him, crucify him.
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Worldly-Mindedness
Reproved; The Punishment of the Sensual.
B. C. 758.
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8 Woe unto them that join house to house, that
lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed
alone in the midst of the earth! 9 In mine ears said the LORD
of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and
fair, without inhabitant. 10 Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall
yield one bath, and the seed of a homer shall yield an ephah. 11
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow
strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12 And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their
feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD,
neither consider the operation of his hands. 13 Therefore my
people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and
their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with
thirst. 14 Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her
mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp,
and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. 15 And the mean man
shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of
the lofty shall be humbled: 16 But the LORD
of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be
sanctified in righteousness. 17 Then shall the lambs feed after
their manner, and the waste places of the fat ones shall strangers eat.
The world and the flesh are the two great enemies that we are in danger of
being overpowered by; yet we are in no danger if we do not ourselves yield to
them. Eagerness of the world, and indulgence of the flesh, are the two sins
against which the prophet, in God's name, here denounces woes. These were sins
which then abounded among the men of Judah, some of the wild grapes they
brought forth (v. 4), and for which God threatens to bring ruin upon
them. They are sins which we have all need to stand upon our guard against and
dread the consequences of.
I. Here is a woe to those who set their hearts upon the wealth of the world,
and place their happiness in that, and increase it to themselves by indirect
and unlawful means (v. 8), who join house to house and lay field to
field, till there be no place, no room for anybody to live by them. If
they could succeed, they would be placed alone in the midst of the earth,
would monopolize possessions and preferments, and engross all profits and
employments to themselves. Not that it is a sin for those who have a house and
a field, of they have wherewithal, to purchase another; but
1. Their fault is, (1.) That they are inordinate in their desires to enrich
themselves, and make it their whole care and business to raise an estate, as
if they had nothing to mind, nothing to seek, nothing to do, in this world,
but that. They never know when they have enough, but the more they have the
more they would have; and, like the daughters of the horseleech, they cry,
Give, give. They cannot enjoy what they have, nor do good with it, but are
constantly contriving and studying to make it more. They must have variety of
houses, a winter-house, and a summer-house, and if another man's house or
field lie convenient to theirs, as Naboth's vineyard to Ahab's, they must have
that too, or they cannot be easy. (2.) That they are herein careless of
others, nay, and injurious to them. They would live so as to let nobody live
but themselves. So that their insatiable covetings may be gratified, they care
not what becomes of all about them, what encroachments they make upon their
neighbours' rights, what hardships they put upon those that they have power
over or advantage against, nor what base and wicked arts they use to heap up
treasure to themselves. They would swell so big as to fill all space, and yet
are still unsatisfied (Eccl. v. 10), as Alexander, who, when he fancied he had
conquered the world, wept because he had not another world to conquer. Deficiente
terrâ, non impletur avaritia--If the whole earth were monopolized, avarice
would thirst for more. What! will you be placed alone in the midst of
the earth? (so some read it); will you be so foolish as to desire it, when
we have so much need of the service of others and so much comfort in their
society? Will you be so foolish as to expect that the earth shall be
forsaken for us (Job xviii. 4), when it is by multitudes that the earth is
to be replenished? An propter vos solos tanta terra creata est?--Was the
wide world created merely for you? Lyra.
2. That which is threatened as the punishment of this sin is that neither the
houses nor the fields they were thus greedy of should turn to any account, v.
9, 10. God whispered it to the prophet in his ear, as he speaks in a like case
(ch. xxii. 14): It was revealed in my ears by the Lord of hosts
(as God told Samuel a thing in his ear, 1 Sam. ix. 15); he thought he
heard it still sounding in his ears; but he proclaimed it, as he ought, upon
the house-tops, Matt. x. 27. (1.) That the houses they were so fond of
should be untenanted, should stand long empty, and should yield them no rent,
and go out of repair: Many houses shall be desolate, the people that
should dwell in them, being cut off by sword, famine, or pestilence, or
carried into captivity; or trade being dead, and poverty coming upon the
country like an armed man, those that had been housekeepers were forced to
become lodgers, or shift for themselves elsewhere. Even great and fair houses,
that would invite tenants, and (there being a scarcity of tenants) might be
taken at low rates, shall stand empty without inhabitants. God created not the
earth in vain; he formed it to be inhabited, ch. xlv. 18. But
men's projects are often frustrated, and what they frame answers not the
intention. We have a saying, That fools build houses for wise men to live in;
but sometimes, as the event proves, they are built for no man to live in. God
has many ways to empty the most populous cities. (2.) That the fields they
were so fond of should be unfruitful (v. 10): Ten acres of vineyard
shall yield only such a quantity of grapes as will make but one bath
of wine (which was about eight gallons), and the seed of a homer, a
bushel's sowing of ground, shall yield but an ephah, which was the tenth part
of a homer; so that through the barrenness of the ground, or the
unreasonableness of the weather, they should not have more than a tenth part
of their seed again. Note, Those that set their hearts upon the world will
justly be disappointed in their expectations from it.
II. Here is a woe to those that dote upon the pleasures and delights of sense,
v. 11, 12. Sensuality ruins men as certainly as worldliness and
oppression. As Christ pronounces a woe against those that are rich, so also
against those that laugh now and are full (Luke vi. 24, 25), and fare
sumptuously, Luke xvi. 19. Observe,
1. Who the sinners are against whom this woe is denounced. (1.) They are such
as are given to drink; they make their drinking their business, have their
hearts upon it, and overcharge themselves with it. They rise early to follow
strong drink, as husbandmen and tradesmen do to follow their employments; as
if they were afraid of losing time from that which is the greatest misspending
of time. Whereas commonly those that are drunken are drunken in the night,
when they have despatched the business of the day, these neglect business,
abandon it, and give up themselves to the service of the flesh; for they sit
at their cups all day, and continue till night, till wine inflame them--inflame
their lusts (chambering and wantonness follow upon rioting and
drunkenness)--inflame their passions; for who but such have contentions and
wounds without cause? Prov. xxiii. 29-35. They make a perfect trade of
drinking; nor do they seek the shelter of the night for this work of darkness,
as men ashamed of it, but count it a pleasure to riot in the day-time.
See 2 Pet. ii. 13. (2.) They are such as are given to mirth. They have their
feasts, and they are so merrily disposed that they cannot dine or sup without
music, musical instruments of all sorts, like David (Amos vi. 5), like Solomon
(Eccl. ii. 8); the harp and the viol, the tabret and pipe, must
accompany the wine, that every sense may be gratified to a nicety; they take
the timbrel and harp, Job xxi. 12. The use of music is lawful in itself;
but when it is excessive, when we set our hearts upon it, misspend time in it,
so that it crowds our spiritual and divine pleasures and draws away the heart
from God, then it turns into sin for us. (3.) They are such as never give
their mind to any thing that is serious: They regard not the work of the
Lord; they observe not his power, wisdom, and goodness, in those creatures
which they abuse and subject to vanity, nor the bounty of his providence in
giving them those good things which they make the food and fuel of their
lusts. God's judgments have already seized them, and they are under the tokens
of his displeasure, but they regard not; they consider not the hand of God in
all these things; his hand is lifted up, but they will not see, because they
will not disturb themselves in their pleasures nor think what God is doing
with them.
2. What the judgments are which are denounced against them, and in part
executed. It is here foretold, (1.) that they should be dislodged; the land
should spue out these drunkards (v. 13): My people (so they call
themselves, and were proud of it) have therefore gone into captivity,
are as sure to go as if they were gone already, because they have no
knowledge; how should they have knowledge when by their excessive drinking
they make sots and fools of themselves? They set up for wits; but because they
regard not God's controversy with them, nor take any care to make their peace
with him, they may truly be said to have no knowledge; and the reason is
because they will have none; they are inconsiderate and wilful, and are
therefore destroyed for lack of knowledge. (2.) That they should be
impoverished, and come to want that which they had wasted and abused to
excess: Even their glory are men of famine, subject to it and slain by
it; and their multitude are dried up with thirst. Both the great men
and the common people are ready to perish for want of bread and water. This is
the effect of the failure of the corn (v. 10), for the king himself
is served of the field, Eccl. v. 9. And when the vintage fails the
drunkards are called upon to weep, because the new wine is cut off from
their mouth (Joel i. 5), and not so much because now they want it as
because when they had it they abused it. It is just with God to make men want
that for necessity which they have abused to excess. (3.) What multitudes
should be cut off by famine and sword (v. 14): Therefore hell has
enlarged herself. Tophet, the common burying-place, proves too little; so
many are there to be buried that they shall be forced to enlarge it. The grave
has opened her mouth without measure, never saying, It is enough, Prov.
xxx. 15, 16. It may be understood of the place of the damned; luxury and
sensuality fill these regions of darkness and horror; there those are
tormented who made a god of their belly, Luke xvi. 25; Phil. iii. 19. (4.)
That they should be humbled and abased, and all their honours laid in the
dust. This will be done effectually by death and the grave: Their glory
shall descend, not only to the earth, but into it; it shall not descend
after them (Ps. xlix. 17), to stand them in any stead on the other side
death, but it shall die and be buried with them--poor glory, which will thus
wither! Did they glory in their numbers? Their multitude shall go down to the
pit, Ezek. xxxi. 18; xxxii. 32. Did they glory in the figure they made? Their
pomp shall be at an end; their shouts with which they triumphed, and were
attended. Did they glory in their mirth? Death will turn it into mourning; he
that rejoices and revels, and never knows what it is to be serious, shall go
thither where there are weeping and wailing. Thus the mean man and the mighty
man meet together in the grave and under mortifying judgments. Let a man be
ever so high, death will bring him low--ever so mean, death will bring him
lower, in the prospect of which the eyes of the lofty should now be humbled, v.
15. It becomes those to look low that must shortly be laid low.
3. What the fruit of these judgments shall be.
(1.) God shall be glorified, v. 16. He that is the Lord of hosts, and
the holy God, shall be exalted and sanctified in the judgment and
righteousness of these dispensations. His justice must be owned in bringing
those low what exalted themselves; and herein he is glorified, [1.] As a God
is irresistible power. He will herein be exalted as the Lord of hosts, that is
able to break the strongest, humble the proudest, and tame the most unruly.
Power is not exalted but in judgment. It is the honour of God that, though he
has a mighty arm, yet judgment and justice are always the habitation
of his throne, Ps. lxxxix. 13, 14. [2.] As a God of unspotted purity. He
that is holy, infinitely holy, shall be sanctified (that is, shall be owned
and declared to be holy) in the righteous punishment of proud men. Note, When
proud men are humbled the great God is honoured, and ought to be honoured by
us.
(2.) Good people shall be relieved and succoured (v. 17): Then shall
the lambs feed after their manner; the meek ones of the earth, who
followed the Lamb, who were persecuted, and put into fear by those proud
oppressors, shall feed quietly, feed in the green pastures, and there shall be
none to make them afraid. See Ezek. xxxiv. 14. When the enemies of the church
are cut off then have the churches rest. They shall feed at their pleasure;
so some read it. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,
and delight themselves in abundant peace. They shall feed according to
their order or capacity (so others read it), as they are able to hear the
word, that bread of life.
(3.) The country shall be laid waste, and become a prey to the neighbours: The
waste places of the fats ones, the possessions of those rich men that
lived at their ease, shall be eaten by strangers that were nothing akin to
them. In the captivity the poor of the land were left for vine-dressers and
husbandmen (2 Kings xxv. 12); these were the lambs that fed in the
pastures of the fats ones, which were laid in common for strangers to eat.
When the church of the Jews, those fat ones, was laid waste, their privileges
were transferred to the Gentiles, who had been long strangers, and the lambs
of Christ's flock were welcome to them.
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Denunciations
against Sin.
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B.
C. 758.
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18 Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords
of vanity, and sin as it were with a cart rope: 19 That say, Let
him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let
the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it!
20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for
light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for
bitter! 21 Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes,
and prudent in their own sight! 22 Woe unto them that are
mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
23 Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him! 24 Therefore as the fire devoureth the
stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as
rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away
the law of the LORD
of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25
Therefore is the anger of the LORD
kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them,
and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were
torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away,
but his hand is stretched out still. 26 And he will lift up
an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the
earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: 27 None
shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither
shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be
broken: 28 Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent,
their horses' hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a
whirlwind: 29 Their roaring shall be like a lion, they
shall roar like young lions: yea, they shall roar, and lay hold of the prey,
and shall carry it away safe, and none shall deliver it.
30 And in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea:
and if one look unto the land, behold darkness and sorrow, and
the light is darkened in the heavens thereof.
Here are, I. Sins described which will bring judgments upon a people: and this
perhaps is not only a charge drawn up against the men of Judah who lived at
that time, and the particular articles of that charge, though it may relate
primarily to them, but is rather intended for warning to all people, in all
ages, to take heed of these sins, as destructive both to particular persons
and to communities, and exposing men to God's wrath and his righteous
judgments. Those are here said to be in a woeful condition,
1. Who are eagerly set upon sin, and violent in their sinful pursuits (v.
18), who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, who take as much pains to
sin as the cattle do that draw a team, who put themselves to the stretch for
the gratifying of their inordinate appetites, and, to humour a base lust,
offer violence to nature itself. They think themselves as sure of compassing
their wicked project as if they were pulling it towards them with strong
cart-ropes; but they will find themselves disappointed, for they will prove
cords of vanity, which will break when they come to any stress. For the
righteous Lord will cut in sunder the cords of the wicked, Ps. cxxix. 4;
Job iv. 8; Prov. xxii. 8. They are by long custom and confirmed habits so
hardened in sin that they cannot get clear of it. Those that sin through
infirmity are drawn away by sin; those that sin presumptuously draw iniquity
to them, in spite of the oppositions of Providence and the checks of
conscience. Some by sin understand the punishment of sin: they pull God's
judgments upon their own heads as it were, with cart-ropes.
2. Who set the justice of God at defiance, and challenge the Almighty to do
his worst (v. 19): They say, Let him make speed, and hasten his
work; this is the same language with that of the scoffers of the last
days, who say, Where is the promise of his coming? and therefore it is
that, like them, they draw iniquity with cords of vanity, are violent
and daring in sin, and walk after their own lusts, 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. (1.) They
ridicule the prophets, and banter them. It is in scorn that they call God the
Holy One of Israel, because the prophets used with great veneration to
call him so. (2.) They will not believe the revelation of God's wrath from
heaven against their ungodliness and unrighteousness; unless they see it
executed, they will not know it, as if the curse were brutum fulmen--a mere
flash, and all the threatenings of the word bugbears to frighten fools and
children. (3.) If God should appear against them, as he has threatened, yet
they think themselves able to make their part good with him, and provoke him
to jealousy, as if they were stronger than he, 1 Cor. x. 22. "We have
heard his word, but it is all talk; let him hasten his work, we shall shift
for ourselves well enough." Note, Those that wilfully persist in sin
consider not the power of God's anger.
3. Who confound and overthrow the distinctions between moral good and evil, who
call evil good and moral evil (v. 20), who not only live in the
omission of that which is good, but condemn it, argue against it, and, because
they will not practise it themselves, run it down in others, and fasten
invidious epithets upon it--not only do that which is evil, but justify it,
and applaud it, and recommend it to others as safe and good. Note, (1.) Virtue
and piety are good, for they are light and sweet, they are pleasant and right;
but sin and wickedness are evil; they are darkness, all the fruit of ignorance
and mistake, and will be bitterness in the latter end. (2.) Those do a great
deal of wrong to God, and religion, and conscience, to their own souls, and to
the souls of others, who misrepresent these, and put false colours upon
them--who call drunkenness good fellowship, and covetousness good husbandry,
and, when they persecute the people of God, think they do him good
service--and, on the other hand, who call seriousness ill-nature, and sober
singularity ill-breeding, who say all manner of evil falsely concerning the
ways of godliness, and do what they can to form in men's minds prejudices
against them, and this in defiance of evidence as plain and convincing as that
of sense, by which we distinguish, beyond contradiction, between light and
darkness, and between that which to the taste is sweet and that which is
bitter.
4. Who though they are guilty of such gross mistakes as these have a great
opinion of their own judgments, and value themselves mightily upon their
understanding (v. 21): They are wise in their own eyes; they
think themselves able to disprove and baffle the reproofs and convictions of
God's word, and to evade and elude both the searches and the reaches of his
judgments; they think they can outwit Infinite Wisdom and countermine
Providence itself. Or it may be taken more generally: God resists the proud,
those particularly who are conceited of their own wisdom and lean to their own
understanding; such must become fools, that they may be truly wise, or else,
at their end they shall appear to be fools before all the world.
5. Who glory in it as a great accomplishment that they are able to bear a
great deal of strong liquor without being overcome by it (v. 22), who
are mighty to drink wine, and use their strength and vigour, not in the
service of their country, but in the service of their lusts. Let drunkards
know from this scripture that, (1.) They ungratefully abuse their bodily
strength, which God has given them for good purposes, and by degrees cannot
but weaken it. (2.) It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that
they can drink hard and yet keep their feet. (3.) Those who boast of their
drinking down others glory in their shame. (4.) How light soever men make of
their drunkenness, it is a sin which will certainly lay them open to the wrath
and curse of God.
6. Who, as judges, pervert justice, and go counter to all rules of equity, v.
23. This follows upon the former; they drink and forget the law (Prov.
xxxi. 5), and err through wine (ch. xxviii. 7), and take bribes,
that they may have wherewithal to maintain their luxury. They justify the
wicked for reward, and find some pretence or other to clear him from his
guilt and shelter him from punishment; and they condemn the innocent, and take
away their righteousness from them, that is, overrule their pleas, deprive
them of the means of clearing up their innocency, and give judgment against
them. In causes between man and man, might and money would at any time prevail
against right and justice; and he who was ever so plainly in the wrong would
with a small bribe carry the cause and recover the costs. In criminal causes,
though the prisoner ever so plainly appeared to be guilty, yet for a reward
they would acquit him; if he were innocent, yet if he did not fee them well,
nay, if they were feed by the malicious prosecutor, or if they themselves had
spleen against him, they would condemn him.
II. The judgments described, which these sins would bring upon them. Let not
those expect to live easily who live thus wickedly; for the righteous God will
take vengeance, v. 24-30. Here we may observe,
1. How complete this ruin will be, and how necessarily and unavoidably it will
follow upon their sins. He had compared this people to a vine (v. 7),
well fixed, and which, it was hoped, would be flourishing and fruitful; but
the grace of God towards it was received in vain, and then the root became
rottenness, being dried up from beneath, and the blossom would of course blow
off as dust, as a light and worthless thing, Job xviii. 16. Sin weakens the
strength, the root, of a people, so that they are easily rooted up; it defaces
the beauty, the blossoms, of a people, and takes away the hopes of fruit. The
sin of unfruitfulness is punished with the plague of unfruitfulness. Sinners
make themselves as stubble and chaff, combustible matter, proper fuel to the
fire of God's wrath, which then of course devours and consumes them, as the
fire devours the stubble, and nobody can hinder it, or cares to hinder it.
Chaff is consumed, unhelped and unpitied.
2. How just the ruin will be: Because they have cast away the law of the
Lord of hosts, and would not have him to reign over them; and, as the law
of Moses was rejected and thrown off, so the word of the Holy One of Israel
by his servants the prophets, putting them in mind of his law and calling them
to obedience, was despised and disregarded. God does not reject men for every
transgression of his law and word; but, when his word is despised and his law
cast away, what can they expect but that God should utterly abandon them?
3. Whence this ruin should come (v. 25): it is destruction from the
Almighty. (1.) The justice of God appoints it; for that is the anger of the
Lord which is kindled against his people, his necessary vindication
of the honour of his holiness and authority. (2.) The power of God effects it:
He has stretched forth his hand against them. That hand which had many
a time been stretched out for them against their enemies is now stretched out
against them at full length and in its full vigour; and who knows the power
of his anger? Whether they are sensible of it or no, it is God that has
smitten them, has blasted their vine and made it wither.
4. The consequences and continuance of this ruin. When God comes forth in
wrath against a people the hills tremble, fear seizes even their great men,
who are strong and high, the earth shakes under men and is ready to sink; and
as this feels dreadful (what does more so than an earthquake?) so what sight
can be more frightful than the carcases of men torn with dogs, or thrown as
dung (so the margin reads it) in the midst of the streets? This
intimates that great multitudes should be slain, not only soldiers in the
field of battle, but the inhabitants of their cities put to the sword in cold
blood, and that the survivors should neither have hands nor hearts to bury
them. This is very dreadful, and yet such is the merit of sin that, for all
this, God's anger is not turned away; that fire will burn as long as there
remains any of the stubble and chaff to be fuel for it; and his hand,
which he stretched forth against his people to smite them, because they do not
by prayer take hold of it, nor by reformation submit themselves to it, is
stretched out still.
5. The instruments that should be employed in bringing this ruin upon them: it
should be done by the incursions of a foreign enemy, that should lay all
waste. No particular enemy is named, and therefore we are to take it as a
prediction of all the several judgments of this kind which God brought upon
the Jews, Sennacherib's invasion soon after, and the destruction of Jerusalem
by the Chaldeans first and at last by the Romans; and I think it is to be
looked upon also as a threatening of the like desolation of those countries
which harbour and countenance those sins mentioned in the foregoing verses; it
is an exposition of those woes. When God designs the ruin of a provoking
people,
(1.) He can send a great way off for instruments to be employed in effecting
it; he can raise forces from afar, and summon them from the end of the earth
to attend his service, v. 26. Those who know him not are made use of to
fulfil his counsel, when, by reason of their distance, they can scarcely be
supposed to have any ends of their own to serve. If God set up his standard,
he can incline men's hearts to enlist themselves under it, though perhaps they
know not why or wherefore. When the Lord of hosts is pleased to make a general
muster of the forces he has at his command, he has a great army in an instant,
Joel ii. 2, 11. He needs not sound a trumpet, nor beat a drum, to give them
notice or to animate them; no, he does but hiss to them, or rather whistle to
them, and that is enough; they hear that, and that puts courage into them.
Note, God has all the creatures at his beck.
(2.) He can make them come into the service with incredible expedition: Behold,
they shall come with speed swiftly. Note, [1.] Those who will do God's
work must not loiter, must not linger, nor shall they when his time has come.
[2.] Those who defy God's judgments will be ashamed of their insolence when it
is too late; they said scornfully (v. 19), Let him make speed, let
him hasten his work, and they shall find, to their terror and confusion,
that he will; in one hour has the judgment come.
(3.) He can carry them on in the service with amazing forwardness and fury.
This is described here in very elegant and lofty expressions, v. 27-30.
[1.] Though their marches be very long, yet none among them shall be weary;
so desirous they be to engage that they shall forget their weariness, and make
no complaints of it. [2.] Though the way be rough, and perhaps embarrassed by
the usual policies of war, yet none among them shall stumble, but all
the difficulties in their way shall easily be got over. [3.] Though they be
forced to keep constant watch, yet none shall slumber nor sleep, so
intent shall they be upon their work, in prospect of having the plunder of the
city for their pains. [4.] They shall not desire any rest of relaxation; they
shall not put off their clothes, nor loose the girdle of their loins,
but shall always have their belts on and swords by their sides. [5.] They
shall not meet with the least hindrance to retard their march or oblige them
to halt; not a latchet of their shoes shall be broken which they must
stay to mend, as Josh. ix. 13. [6.] Their arms and ammunition shall all be
fixed, and in good posture; their arrows sharp, to wound deep, and
all their bows bent, none unstrung, for they expect to be soon in action.
[7.] Their horses and chariots of war shall all be fit for service; their
horses so strong, so hardy, that their hoofs shall be like flint, far
from being beaten, or made tender, by their long march; and the wheels of
their chariots not broken, or battered, or out of repair, but swift like a
whirlwind, turning round so strongly upon their axle-trees. [8.] All the
soldiers shall be bold and daring (v. 29): Their roaring, or
shouting, before a battle, shall be like a lion, who with his roaring
animates himself, and terrifies all about him. Those who would not hear the
voice of God speaking to them by his prophets, but stopped their ears against
their charms, shall be made to hear the voice of their enemies roaring against
them and shall not be able to turn a deaf ear to it. They shall roar like
the roaring of the sea in a storm; it roars and threatens to swallow up,
as the lion roars and threatens to tear in pieces. [9.] There shall not be the
least prospect of relief or succour. The enemy shall come in like a flood, and
there shall be none to lift up a standard against him. He shall seize the
prey, and none shall deliver it, none shall be able to deliver it, nay, none
shall so much as dare to attempt the deliverance of it, but shall give it up
for lost. Let the distressed look which way they will, every thing appears
dismal; for, if God frowns upon us, how can any creature smile? First,
Look round to the earth, to the land, to that land that used to be the land of
light and the joy of the whole earth, and behold darkness and sorrow,
all frightful, all mournful, nothing hopeful. Secondly, Look up to
heaven, and there the light is darkened, where one would expect to have found
it. If the light is darkened in the heavens, how great is that darkness! If
God hide his face, no marvel the heavens hide theirs and appear gloomy, Job
xxxiv. 29. It is our wisdom, by keeping a good conscience, to keep all clear
between us and heaven, that we may have light from above even when clouds and
darkness are round about us.
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