Holy Bible

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened. Isaiah 59:1-9 Isaiah 57. and 59 F. Delitzsch, D. D. and 59. : — In the former address, to the dead works on which the people founded their claim to redemption, there were set in contrast the virtues well-pleasing of God, and for which Jehovah promises redemption as a gracious reward; in this discourse, the sins which hinder the accomplishment of redemption are still more directly laid bare. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) Sin and grace In this chapter we have sin appearing exceeding sinful, and grace appearing exceeding gracious. ( M. Henry . ) Why some seekers are not saved I. THE FACT CONFESSED. 1. The people of whom I am specially thinking have been hearers of the Gospel, and diligent hearers too. 2. They have become men of prayer, after a fashion ( Isaiah 58:2 ). 3. These people are greatly disappointed with themselves: not altogether so, for they know to a great extent where the blame lies, but yet they had hoped better things of themselves. II. THE IMPUTATION IMPLIED AND MET. Notice the first word of our text: "Behold! " This is like our nots bene; mark well, turn your eye this way. If you are not saved, it is not because God is unable to save you, nor is it because He is unwilling to hear your prayers. III. THE ACCUSATION PRESSED AND EXPLAINED. Your accusation may be turned against you. You thought that God's hand was shortened, that it could not save; but it is your hand that is shortened, for you have not laid hold upon Christ. The real reason why you have not found peace is sin. It may be — 1. Sin unconfessed. 2. Sin unforsaken. 3. Sin hankered after. 4. Sin of which you are unaware. 5. Some sin of omission. 6. An ugly temper. 7. An intellectual sin. 8. Gross or secret sin. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Hindrances to the conversion of all nations J. M. Sherwood, D. D. 1. The lack of deep, earnest sympathy with Christ on the part of His people. 2. An evil heart of unbelief. 3. The unconsecrated wealth of the Church. ( J. M. Sherwood, D. D. ) The sad issues of sin A. Smellie, M. A. I. IT BRINGS SEPARATION. Instead of running to God, we flee from Him. His dazzling majesty appals us. His righteousness and purity compel us to hide from Him. II. IT BRINGS DISENCHANTMENT AND DISILLUSIONMENT. For a little we arc fascinated, beguiled, befooled; but soon there is a rude awakening. "Their webs shall not become garments," etc. (ver. 6). The mirage fades await and we discover to our dismay that there is nothing around or within us but a desert of sand and thorns. III. IT BRINGS BEWILDERMENT AND PERPLEXITY (ver. 9). We are in doubt regarding the most elementary matters of belief and behaviour. ( A. Smellie, M. A. ) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, Isaiah 59:2 Sin separates God and men T. Boston. I. A DREADFUL EVIL THAT THIS PEOPLE WAS UNDER. Separation from God. II. THE PARTY AT WHOSE DOOR THE BLAME LIES, they who have made the breach. III. THE PROCURING CAUSE OF THIS EVIL, "your iniquities." ( T. Boston. ) The dreadful efficacy of sin T. Boston. I. WHAT IS THAT SEPARATION WHICH SIN MAKES BETWIXT GOD AND SOULS? Not a local separation, for "He is not far from every one of us, for in Him we live," etc. 1. In it there is something negative; i.e. the Lord denies them the influences of His grace, countenance and fellowship. 2. There is something positive in it: sin kindles a fire against the soul.(1) There is a standing controversy God has against sinners ( Amos 3:3 ).(2) There is a pursuing of this controversy against the sinner; some positive outgoings of God's anger against the soul. II. THE GREATNESS OF THE EVIL OF SEPARATION FROM GOD, which many go so light under. Alas! many reign like king Saul, when God departed from him; but how sad a thing this is, will appear if we consider — 1. What God is. Everything in God speaks terror to those that are separated from Him. (1) God is the chief good; and therefore to be separated from God is the chief evil. (2) God is all-sufficient in Himself, and to the creatures. The enjoyment of Him makes truly happy; therefore to be separated from Him is a dreadful evil. (3) The omnipotence of God. (4) The absoluteness of God. (5) God is eternal. 2. All created things are empty and unsatisfactory. 3. To be separated from God is the saddest plague out of hell. 4. It is a very hell to be separated from God. 5. Those that continue in a state of separation from God, have no quarter to which they can turn for comfort in an evil day. III. HOW SIN MAKES THIS SEPARATION BETWIXT GOD AND A SOUL. 1. There is a guilt of sin, whereby the sinner is bound over to misery for his sin. 2. There is the stain of sin. ( T. Boston. ) Sin the great separator Homilist. I. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO PLACE. Of course it remains true of every inhabitant of earth, and even of hell, that God is not far from every one of us. But sin has blunted, has even destroyed the sense of His nearness, has led men to feel as though He were far distant. As a man's iniquities increase God seems farther and farther from him, until at last he feels that heaven is too distant for him to reach, and God too far off to hear his prayers. II. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO CHARACTER. III. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO WILL. Separation of will is the most complete of all kinds of separation. Continents and oceans may divide men, and yet they may be one in heart and aim. IV. SIN SEPARATES MAN FROM GOD AS TO INTEREST. It is to the interest of the sinner that there should be opportunity for indulgence in sin, that the punishment of sin should be removed, that the restraints of virtue should be broken down. We may well rejoice that God's interest is with all that is the opposite of this. It is God's aim that sin should be destroyed. Hence by fearful sufferings He brands it with disgrace. But God in His wonderful love has taken means to destroy this separation, and to draw us back to Him. ( Homilist. ) The tragic schism T. G. Selby. When separation comes to pass, the force of disseverment and alienation can only be that of sin. 1. He who is the spring of life can know neither impoverishment nor limitation, and the changes and fluctuations of the universe can no more project themselves into His being than the casting of a leaf or the shedding of a blossom from the tree can impair the vital force entrenched in its roots. The heathen man will sometimes say, "The gods are growing old; they are not so ready in helping their worshippers as when we were young.' An eternal Spirit is secure against such an innuendo. "His arm is not shortened that it cannot save." 2. And there can be no failure of care for our welfare or slackening off in His inclination to help us. Unless God be a fiction of the brain He must be predisposed to save and succour the people He has formed for Himself. The age-long impulse by which He draws men to religion is a sufficient proof of that. When we take into account what God really is, the chief mystery of the world is that any prayer in it should go unanswered, and the mystery is one with the mystery of iniquity itself. It was no wonder that He whose everlasting home had been in the bosom of infinite love should marvel at that which is so commonplace to us — unbelief. What a side-light does this cast upon the terrible significance of sin! It is the one thing which keeps God and His creatures apart. 3. The conditions of modern business life are sometimes adduced as an excuse for the waning spirit of prayer and the outfading consciousness of Divine help. If business does unfit its votaries for realizing God's presence and power, it can only be for one of three reasons, all alike bearing the taint of sin and justifying the declaration of the prophet. You seek unlawful ends in business, or you seek lawful ends by unlawful means, or the methods of conducting business tend to kindle within you unlawful passions. 4. We are sometimes ready to put down this tragic schism to the progress of scientific thought. Men's hearts are petrified by the new dogma that the order of the universe is unalterable, along with its godless corollary, that to pray is to fritter away time, strength, and vital force, and to vex one's own soul. Let the difficulties raised by the new science be freely allowed. Upon even devout minds these views of the uniformity of Nature and her methods, be they proven or unproven, may so act as to check the temper of prayerfulness. Temptation does take on intellectual forms as it addresses itself to thinking people. If a child were to find out that his father's estate had been signed over to trustees, and that for a certain term of years that father could not be altogether a free agent in providing for the wants of his household, all immediate expenditure being determined by some outside authority, and if on that ground the child were to break off relations with his father, would not that be the mark of a mean, depraved, repulsive character? Supposing that God had made Nature His plenipotentiary, or trustee, and for the time being had surrendered His own power of answering supplication for temporal benefits, it would surely be base in us to use that as a plea whereby to justify ourselves in restraining prayer before Him. 5. The problems of temperament are sometimes brought in to explain this tragic schism. Men palliate their callousness to prayer and their misgivings concerning its benefits by putting them down to deficiency of sentiment or imagination, matter-of-factness, poverty of the religious instinct, congenital disability answering to colour blindness in the physical realm. It is assumed, upon very slender proof, that a peculiar poise of the faculties disqualifies for enthusiastic spiritual beliefs. It may be allowed that from the intellectual standpoint people are variously endowed and equipped; but a man's religious history is not determined by the quality, condition, or specialized habits of the brain. It is simply impossible for a man to have capacity for common truth, practical righteousness, philanthropy, family life and friendship and yet to have no capacity for converse, with God, whose nature is the spring and animating principle of all these qualities. Man is religious by constitution and irreligious only by errancy of habit and practical life. Does prayer seem barren and God unresponsive and heaven very far off? It can only be explained by our lack of oneness with the Divine will and law. 6. The inscrutable methods of God's sovereignty are sometimes adduced to explain away this ominous separation referred to by the prophet. Now and again occasions arise when the Lord does seem to withdraw Himself from HIS people. There are inexplicable factors in God's dealings with us, but those factors belong chiefly to the sphere of providence rather than to that of grace. More often than not, it is sin which veils God and His goodness from the sad, breaking, woe-begone heart, and we shall not get out of the gloom by closing our eyes to the explanation and assuming that this terrible silence of the Most High, this apparent indisposition to help, at the mere thought of which the heart sickens and faints, is one of the decrees of His unsearchable sovereignty. 7. This separation is often veiled from us by the illusions of the senses and the pomps of this present evil world. It needs much courage and sobriety of mind to realize the perils with which it is fraught. The form assumed by our personal sin may be so secret and subtle that it is easy for us to think that, in our case at least, this is not the malign force which separates from God and makes His presence fleeting as a dream. We have not been guilty perchance of glaring, flagitious, anti-social transgressions which provoke the reproaches of those who watch our behaviour. Yet spiritual sins may cleave to us which work portentous mischief in the religious life. ( T. G. Selby. ) Visions which lure to destruction T. G. Selby. Near the source of one of the great rivers of the East there stands a Buddhist monastery of widespread fame, built on the edge of a beetling cliff. In the chasm beneath clouds are often seen floating, upon which the pilgrims who have climbed to the shrine look down. Under certain conditions of the sun and atmosphere a magnificent phenomenon appears. The sun, greatly enlarged and begirt with coruscations of prismatic splendour, is reflected upon the screen of vapours. From the central disc shafts of gold and purple and violet pulse and throb. The devotees call the sight "the glory of Buddha," and when the prismatic marvel appears, half mad with religious frenzy, they cast themselves into the palpitating mass of colour, falling unconscious suicides into the grim gulf below, to which only vultures and jackals can approach. And the separating chasm between ourselves and God is often filled up with a meretricious pomp that disguises its tragedies, and men are again and again betrayed into self-destruction. Perhaps it is a vision of the world with its wealth and power that scintillates there, the gorgeous phantoms which passed before the eye on the mount of the temptation. All the hues of Vanity Fair shimmer beneath our feet, and we think surely we may plunge into the iridescence that seems to beckon us. Or it may be the glory of Nature spreads itself athwart the yawning gulf. She interposes the magic of her shows, entices with the glory of her stately order, usurps the nimbus of a factitious sovereignty, and takes the very place of God Himself. The gulf dividing from God is hidden by her enchantments. Or, the rainbow glories of an aesthetic religion veil the deep moral separation. Men sometimes commit ethical suicide under the cover of an ornate worship. We cultivate art, music, the devices that enthral the senses, and call the product piety, forgetting that we are in no sense at one with God. Pageants superimpose themselves upon unwelcome facts, and underneath the circles of deceitful splendour there gape gulfs of deep and irretrievable perdition. If sin is ignored, unconfessed, unforsaken, if unflattering truths are obstinately disguised, we shall find at last that our capacity for communion with God is lost and our doom is an abyss from which there can be no uplifting. ( T. G. Selby. ) Inconspicuous sins may hinder communion with God T. G. Selby Pathologists found difficulty in identifying the bacillus of an epidemic that has become sorrowfully familiar to us; not only because it was one of the tiniest of all microscopic organisms, but chiefly because it could not be stained with the dyes used in studying other minute forms of life. Yet what a messenger of sorrow and death it was! This hideous trifle brought swift and cruel separation to husband and wife, ]parent and child, lover and friend, and put the silence and deep gloom of the grave between thousands of victims and the sweet sunny homes in which they would fain have tarried. Now some sins have a criminal dye .put upon them by statutory, law, are branded by the damnatory force of public opinion, or show red like crimson because of the disintegrating influence they begin to exert at once upon the individual and the society to which he belongs. Other sins do not stand out in conspicuous colours. Men have no apparent interest in describing them as atrocities. Unless we are watchful and cultivate keen spiritual perceptions, these more obscure forms of sin are apt to elude our consciousness. And yet they may separate between us and our God. ( T. G. Selby ) &&& They hatch cockatrice' eggs. Isaiah 59:5, 6 Wicked devices J. Lyth, D. D. I. THE DEVICES OF THY. WICKED. 1. Like eggs — productive. 2. Like cockatrice' eggs — injurious. 3. Like spiders' webs — frail, useless. II. THEIR EFFECT. 1. Upon others — mischief, death. 2. Upon themselves — disappointment, retribution. ( J. Lyth, D. D. ) The schemes of the ungodly Prof. J. Skinner, . D. D. The meaning seems to be that the persons spoken of brood over and bring to maturity projects of wickedness, whose effects are almost equally fatal to those who acquiesce in them and to those who oppose them. "He that eateth of their eggs," i.e. either he who enters into their schemes or he who is their victim. "That which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." Should one try to stamp out one of their diabolical plans, its deadly nature will only be the more clearly manifested. Ver. 6 is the development of the second image of ver. 5, the point of comparison being the uselessness for any good social end of the schemes devised by the ungodly. ( Prof. J. Skinner, . D. D. ) And weave the spider's web: — Hypocritical religion See the spider's web and behold in it a most suggestive picture of the hypocrite's religion. 1. It is meant to catch his prey; the spider fattens himself on flies. Foolish persons are easily entrapped by the loud professions of pretenders, and even the more judicious cannot always escape. 2. A spider's web is a marvel of skill; look at it and admire the cunning hunter's wiles. Is not a deceiver's religion equally wonderful? How does he make so barefaced a lie appear to be a truth. 3. A spider's web comes all from the creature's own bowels. Even so hypocrites find their hope and trust within themselves. 4. But a spider's web is very frail. Hypocritical cobwebs will soon come down when the broom of destruction begins its purifying work. 5. Which reminds us of one more thought, viz. that such cobwebs are not to be endured in the Lord's house. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Spiders' webs W. Day, M. A. As the spider weaveth her web to catch the smaller flies, so do they lay their plots to take the poorer sort of people, and them which are most destitute of friends. ( W. Day, M. A. ) Their webs shall not become garments. Isaiah 59:6 The art of weaving J. Wallace, M. A. is older than human history; figures drawn from it are found in the earliest literature of all nations. It is frequently employed in the Word of God to set forth the sublimest truths of life, and in the classical mythologies it occupies an even more important place. The three fates preside over the lives of men, and they practise the weaver's art. Clothe holds the threads, Lachesis introduces the warp, and the grim goddess Atropos cuts the web when the fabric of human destiny is complete. In later times we find the figure with a still wider import. The spirit of Goethe's "Faust" labours in the workshop of the spring-time to weave the garment for Nature by which God Himself may be seen by mortals. Thus in all the ages of the world the figure of the loom has commended itself as one most aptly setting forth the deepest truths of human experience. ( J. Wallace, M. A. ) Character as a web J. Wallace, M. A. The prophet Isaiah has laid hold on the idea, now a commonplace of our thought, that all character is a web. In the case of all the web is variegated; in the case of some the piece is spoiled by rotten threads. As our days fly past they dart across the warp of the Divine purposes the woof of human action and human thought, and the marvel is that multitudes live on in brutish carelessness while the loom of life spins on. We look back on a misspent day with the wretched consolation that it will be all the same a hundred years hence. Will it? If threads missing in the web do not spoil its market value, then it may; but if one false thread ruins the whole, then life with one day misspent is by so much of less value in the sight of God. ( J. Wallace, M. A. ) Hopeless weaving J. Wallace, M. A. From our text we wish to look at one or two methods of character-weaving which are doomed to miserable failure when the web of life is spun. I. There are HALF-DONE DUTIES. Multitudes perform their duty in such a way that it is but half done. In the ordinary routine of life they are always a little late, and consequently have to work with haste. Or take the higher duty of man to love God and keep His commandments. There are moments of Pisgah vision, but what weary leagues of plain are there unredeemed by any thought of God! This half-done duty is life's shuttle plied with a palsied hand, and the fabric of character is such as in the end will put the weaver to the blush. II. There are HALF-CONQUERED TEMPTATIONS. Many a man is conquered who does not fall. III. What is the secret of duties half done, of temptation half conquered? The secret is HALF-CONSECRATED LIVES. If all the provinces of the soul do not obey the Divine mandate, we need not be astonished if rebellion sometimes shows its head. When we have done our best to weave, we are not to go to heaven in our own garments. Christ has provided raiment for His people, woven on the Cross and dyed there in colours more enduring than Tyrian purple. We have to weave as those who have to prove their calling, not win it. ( J. Wallace, M. A. ) Projects injurious to others are hurtful to self They may do hurt to others with their projects, but can never do any real service or kindness to themselves, by them. There is nothing to be got by sin. ( M. Henry . ) Unprofitable Weaving J. W. Keyworth. Our text speaks of works which are inadequate to the purpose for which they are performed. An unprofitable and useless manufacture is denounced. What should we think of a manufacturer who persisted in making a kind of cloth so flimsy and rotten that it would hardly hold together — so weak and threadbare that either it could not be made up into garments, or, if it were, they would be useless for either adornment or comfort. And how great would be our astonishment if this imprudent man actually proceeded to clothe himself with the flimsy stuff he had made! Yet such, in a moral sense, is the conduct of those who are condemned in our text. They weave a web with which they try in vain to effectually clothe themselves. The "web" is the fabric of their own righteousness, or works. The persons spoken of are they who are self-sufficient in their wickedness and pride of heart. They are unrighteous people, who think themselves righteous, or who desire to be thought so by others. But the material they produce is as flimsy as a spider's web; and it will serve for neither decency nor comfort, for neither ornament nor use. Let us think of the purposes a garment is intended to serve, and we shall be supplied with various illustrations of the utter inadequacy of self-righteousness. I. A GARMENT IS DESIGNED FOR PERSONAL COMFORT. A garment is useless, and even intolerable, unless it affords warmth and ease. We are quite unable to produce a fabric which will afford either substantial comfort or permanent peace. 1. However genuine our present righteousness might be, it would not absolve us from the guilt of past sin. 2. Our own righteousness is insufficient for comfort because, it leaves, untouched the passions of the unregenerate- heart. 3. Our own righteousness is inadequate for comfort because it affords no effectual protection against temptation. II. THE SECOND PURPOSE - A GARMENT IS INTENDED TO SERVE IS DECENCY. A garment which is ill-fitting, or of unseemly pattern, or formed of coarse and worthless material, is unpleasing to others no less, and possibly more, than to the wearer himself. And one's own righteousness — that is the righteousness which is not produced under the influence of the Holy Spirit — will no more bear the scrutiny of one's fellow-men, than would a ragged coat or a draggled and threadbare dress. Like an inferior garment, it may pass muster in the crowd, or escape criticism on a casual view, but it will not bear close inspection. A man cannot so cover himself with his own righteousness as to appear at all times decently and respectably clothed. 1. The garment is so thin that it does not hide the natural ugliness of the soul. 2. It is likewise so limited in its dimensions as to cause serious disfigurement of the life. 3. The garment of self-righteousness is undurable. III. THE GARMENT OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS IS INTENDED TO SECURE FOR ITS WEARER ACCEPTANCE WITH GOD. There are garments which are necessary for certain occasions, or for admission to particular places. Such was the wedding garment in the East, and such is the modern court dress. The garment of outward works is designed by the wearer to serve a similar purpose. It is intended as a recommendation to the favour of God and a passport to heaven. But it will answer neither of these ends. If we would sustain the scrutiny of God, we must be clothed in something of finer texture, of stronger substance, and of richer hue, than the flimsy and bedraggled garment of our own righteousness. 1. It will not cover us to the satisfaction of God because of its insufficient dimensions and its many flaws. 2. Nor is it in fact any real covering in the sight of God. Let us learn the worthlessness of merely outward righteousness, and the absolute necessity of repentance, regeneration, and holiness of heart. ( J. W. Keyworth. ) Webs and garments J. S. Mayer, M. A. A mere web of cloth might be said to be of no practical use. It may lie on the shelves in the draper's shop for a time, but it is intended for something beyond that. The ultimate purpose in connection with it is the garments that may be made from it. It has possibilities — the possibility of garments in it — and that was intended from the first. It has not realized the intention regarding it until it is ultimately turned into garments. So when the prophet says, "Their webs shall not become garments, he is referring to the wicked plans of wicked men among the Israelites, and means that their plans would not reach the final, the complete and practical stage. Their purposes would be frustrated by a higher Hand. The words may be applied to ourselves, and in various ways. I. SOME PURPOSES ARE FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF SOMETHING LACKING IN OURSELVES — indolence, want of energy, or want of ability to complete our purposes. II. SOME PURPOSES ARE FRUSTRATED BECAUSE OF POSITIVE HINDRANCES IN THE WAY THAT WE CANNOT SURMOUNT, AND THAT PERSONALLY WE MAY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH. It is to us one of the most inexplicable things in Providential dealing, how men who devote themselves to a great and good object, and who seem to us essential for its success, are often cut down in the mid-time of their days, just when to our eyes their presence seemed most needed. Why should it be so? No doubt we should see things differently, however, if with wider vision we could look before and after; and find that, higher ways than we can dream of, men whose plans seem to be frustrated are more than satisfied with the Divine mode of dealing. In the text it is wicked purposes that are referred to, and though often a good purpose seems to be checked as well, yet there will be no real failure in life's plans if we live according to our light. Working in line with God there is a deeper sense in which, instead of our webs not becoming garments, it might be said that the very stars in their courses will fight for us. The great purpose of our life will be fulfilled if we keep near to God. Conclusion: 1. This true success is, above all and first of all, an inward thing. It refers pre-eminently to the inward condition. It must begin there. 2. " We see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Jesus." Whether as to humanity as a whole, or as to individuals, that is true; all things are not yet put under, but there is ever one source of help and hope, and only one. Looking unto Jesus, if that be the attitude of our life, then it cannot be said, whatever befall, that life's purpose has failed, and in higher ways than we can tell our webs shall become garments, the beautiful and durable garments of the soul. ( J. S. Mayer, M. A. ) Their feet run to evil. Isaiah 59:7 A picture of moral corruption F. Delitzsch, D. D. This verse and the first part of the following have been interwoven by Paul, in Romans 3:15-17 , into his description of universal moral corruption. The representation of life as a road, and of one's mode of action as a manner of walking, is a common feature in gnomic compositions, where its terminology has been fully developed. From the beginning of ver. 7, one may perceive that steadfast believers, during the exile, were persecuted even to death by their fellow-countrymen who had forgotten God. The verbs "run" and "hasten" depict the delight felt in wickedness, when the conscience is completely asleep. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) Therefore is judgment far from us. Isaiah 59:9-11 Dejection and trouble the outcome of sin Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. The sorrow and dejection of the people is depicted in striking and pathetic images. It is the better mind of the community which is here expressed — its intense desire for the fulfilment of the Divine promises, its weariness through hope deferred making the heart sick. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) A sad sequence Ibid. "Therefore," — on account of these sins and disorders, and not on account of Jehovah's remissness (vers. 1, 2). ( Ibid. ) We wait for light. Help for seekers of the light I. DESCRIPTIVE. 1. These persons are in some degree aware of their natural darkness. They are looking for light. 2. They have a high idea of what the light is. "Brightness. 3. They have some hope that they may yet obtain this light; in fact they are waiting for it, hopefully waiting. 4. They are such as have learned to plead their case with God, for our text is a complaint addressed to the Lord Himself. 5. The person I am desirous of comforting is quite willing to lay bare his heart before God, to confess his desires whether right or wrong, and to expose his condition whether healthy or sound. II. ASSISTANCE. It shall be my happy task to assist into the light those who would fain flee from the darkness. We will do so by trying to answer the query, "How is it that I, being desirous of light, have not found it yet?" 1. You may have been seeking the light in the wrong place. You may have been the victim of the false doctrine that peace with God can be found in the use of ceremonies. It is possible, too, that you have been looking for salvation in the mere belief of a certain creed. You have thought that if you could discover pure orthodoxy, and could then consign your soul into its mould, you would be a saved man. 2. You may have sought it in the wrong spirit. Some appear to deal with God as if He were bound to give salvation; as if salvation, indeed, were the inevitable result of a round of performances, or the deserved reward of a certain amount of virtue. 3. Others have not obtained peace because they have not yet a clear idea of the true way of finding it. What thou hast to do is but to accept what Jesus has finished. 4. Perhaps thou hast not found light because thou hast sought it in a half-hearted manner. 5. Is it not possible that there may be some sin within thee which thou art harbouring to thy soul's peril? 6. It may be that you have only sought peace with God occasionally. 7. The great reason, after all, why earnest souls do not get speedy rest lies in this, that they are disobedient to the one plain Gospel precept, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, etc. III. A few words by way of AROUSING. What an unhappy state is thine! You have been in the dark year after year, when the sun is shining, the sweet flowers arc blooming, and everything waiting to lead thee forth with gladness. What joys you lose by being an unbeliever! What sin you are daily committing! for you are daffy an unbeliever! Unless Jesus Christ be your shield and help you are undone! IV. ENCOURAGEMENT. There are many around you who have trusted Jesus and found light. They once suffered your disappointments, but have now found rest to their souls. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) And judgment is turned away backward. Isaiah 59:14, 15 National sin The sin of a nation becomes national, and brings public judgments, when it is not restrained by public justice. ( M. Henry . ) And He saw that there was no man. Isaiah 59:16-19 God, man's great Redeemer Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. Do not let us suppose this is mere poetry. Conceive what inspires it, — the great truth that in the Infinite there is a heart to throb for men, and a will to strike for them. This is what the writer desires to proclaim, and what we believe the Spirit of God moved his poor human lips to give their own shape to, — the simple truth that there is One, however hidden He may be to men's eyes, who feels for men, who feels hotly for men, and whose will is quick and urgent to save them. ( Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D. ) "He wondered that there was no intercessor J. A. Alexander. " He stood aghast that there was no one interposing." The common version ("wondered"), though substantially correct, is too weak to express the full force of the Hebrew word, which strict

Benson Commentary Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: Isaiah 59:1-2 . Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened — He is not grown weaker than informer times, but is as omnipotent as ever he was; neither his ear heavy — Or dull of hearing: he is not like your idol gods, that have hands and cannot help, and ears and cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated — Have been as a thick wall, between you and your God — And have set him at a distance from you, Proverbs 15:29 . “The reason of the continuance of your calamities is not any want either of power in God to deliver you, or of goodness to hear your prayers: but your own iniquities make him a stranger to you, interrupt the correspondence that used to be between God and his people, and stop the course of his blessings.” — Lowth. Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. Isaiah 59:3 For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. Isaiah 59:3 . Your hands are defiled with blood — Here the prophet proceeds from a more general to a more particular charge against them. By blood, we are to understand, either murders and bloodshed, properly so called, or ways of injustice, extortion, oppression, and cruelties, whereby men are deprived of a livelihood: hence, hating our brother is called murder, 1 John 3:15 , and the inhabitants of Jerusalem murderers, Isaiah 1:21 . And your fingers with iniquity — This is added to aggravate their sin; as if he had said, Not only your hands, but your fingers are defiled, and not the least part of you is free from injustice. Your lips have spoken lies — Not only properly so called, but perjuries, slanders, and false accusations: you have not only offered violence to your neighbours by your hands, but circumvented them by your lips. Your tongue hath muttered perverseness — Perverse words, or such as were contrary to God’s word and will. When they could not, for shame, utter their malice against their neighbours aloud, nor dared to do it for fear of being convicted of falsehood, and put to confusion, they muttered it secretly. Isaiah 59:4 None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. Isaiah 59:4 . None calleth for justice — None seek to redress these wrongs and violences; they commit all rapines and frauds with impunity; they trust in vanity — In vain and empty words, void of all consistency; or, in vain things, such as their idols were, often called vanity and nothing, 1 Corinthians 8:4 ; or in their own power, craft, and policy, whereby, laying aside justice, they oppressed others. And speak lies — This may refer to the judges, lawyers, and false prophets, who told them they should not go into captivity; as if he had said, They speak that which they know to be false. They conceive mischief and bring forth, &c. — These two words, conceiving and bringing forth, denote the whole contriving and perfecting of their wickedness. Isaiah 59:5 They hatch cockatrice' eggs, and weave the spider's web: he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper. Isaiah 59:5-6 . They hatch cockatrice’ eggs — They contrive and execute wicked purposes and practices, whereby sure and sudden destruction is brought upon themselves and others. Of the cockatrice, or basilisk, as it should rather be rendered, see on Isaiah 14:29 . One kind is put for any venomous creature. The speech is proverbial, signifying, by these eggs, mischievous designs, and by hatching them their putting them in practice. And weave the spider’s web — Another proverbial speech, whereby is signified, both how by their plots they weaved nets, laid snares industriously with great pains and artifice, to entrap or entangle others; and also how their designs would come to nothing, as the spider’s web is soon swept away. He that eateth of their eggs — That converses and joins with them in their mischievous designs, and partakes of the fruits thereof; dieth — Is seduced into destructive errors and vices, or involved in ruin. And that which is crushed — In order that it may be eaten; breaketh out into a viper — A poisonous viper proceeds from it. The more any one partakes of their counsels, the more he is infected, such a deadly poison lies imbodied in them. Their webs shall not become garments — Though they are finely wrought, yet they are too thin and weak to be of any use; that is, their contrivances and deep designs shall not advantage them. Neither shall they cover themselves, &c. — Their works shall neither cover nor defend the actors. Their works are works of iniquity — Of injustice, whereby they grieve, vex, and injure their brethren. And the act of violence is in their hands — They exercise themselves in all acts of violence and oppression. Isaiah 59:6 Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. Isaiah 59:7 Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. Isaiah 59:7-8 . Their feet run to evil — This seems to be taken from Proverbs 1:16 ; where see the note. He had spoken of their hands, fingers, lips, tongues, &c., before, and now he speaks of their feet, to show that they were wholly set upon mischief. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity — Their minds and hearts are wholly set upon committing wickedness, and doing injuries: they not only do evil, but do it deliberately. Wasting and destruction are in their paths — In what way or work soever they are engaged, it all tends to ruin and destruction. It is a metaphor taken from an overspreading torrent, or sweeping plague, or from beasts of prey, that tear and devour whatever comes in their way. The way of peace they know not — They live in continual contentions and discords, and break in pieces the very bonds of society. And there is no judgment — No justice, equity, faith, or integrity, which are the foundation of judgment; in their goings — In their conduct or actions. They have made them crooked paths — They have turned aside from the way of God’s commandments, which are a plain and straight way, into the crooked and winding paths of craft, subtlety, and selfishness. Whosoever goeth therein shall know no peace — Shall experience none. Whosoever shall do as they do, and be turbulent and perverse as they are, will have as little peace within, or happiness without, as they have. Isaiah 59:8 The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace. Isaiah 59:9 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. Isaiah 59:9-11 . Therefore is judgment far from us — Because we have no regard for justice or honesty, God will not plead our cause against our oppressors; neither doth justice overtake us — He does not defend our rights, nor avenge our wrongs; as if he had said, If we had executed judgment and equity among one another, they would not now have been far from us. We wait for light — In what sense the Hebrews use the terms light and darkness, see before, on Isaiah 58:8 ; Isaiah 58:10 . But behold obscurity — We are in a state of such thick darkness, that, which way soever we look, we see no hope of deliverance. We grope for the wall like the blind — As a blind man, that hath no other means of perceiving and distinguishing objects than his hands, feels for the wall, from whence he expects either direction or a resting-place to lean on; so we expect salvation, as it were, blindfold, not taking direction from the prophets, but hoping to obtain it by our cries and fasts, though we continue in our sins; and therefore may be well said to grope after it. And, or rather, yea, we grope as if we had no eyes — As if we were stark blind; we stumble at noon-day — This denotes their exceeding blindness, as a man must needs be exceedingly blind who can discern no more at noon-day than if it were midnight. We are in desolate places as dead men — He compares their calamitous state to that of men dead, without hope of restoration. We roar like bears, &c. — Thus he expresses the greatness of their anguish, which forced from them loud outcries and sorrowful lamentations. We look for judgment, &c. — See note on Isaiah 59:9 . Isaiah 59:10 We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men . Isaiah 59:11 We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us. Isaiah 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before thee, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them; Isaiah 59:12-13 . For our transgressions — The word ??????? , here used, signifies sins of a high nature, namely, such as were wilfully committed against light and knowledge; rebellious sins. Are multiplied before thee — They admit of no excuse; for they are committed before thee, and multiplied against thee, whereby thou art justly provoked to deny us all help. And our sins testify against us — The sins charged upon us are so many witnesses produced to prove our guilt. For our transgressions are with us — Are still unforgiven, and we lie under the divine wrath on account of them. As for our iniquities, we know them — We are convinced of them. In transgressing and lying, &c. — He now enumerates some of those particular sins which they profess themselves to be convinced of; by which he does not mean the sins of some particular persons, or some slight sins, but a general defection and corruption of the whole body. Transgressing here, and lying, seem to be one and the same thing, inasmuch as in their transgressing the law of God, they broke their solemn engagement to God, made upon mount Sinai. Departing away from God — Turning from God to idols. Speaking oppression, &c. — As it were, talking of little else one among another, but how to oppress their neighbours, and apostatize from God. Conceiving and uttering — That is, first contriving in their hearts false accusations against their neighbours, and false worship, to the dishonour of God; laying the contrivances so that they might be effectual, and then uttering them; from the heart — And when they dealt with men in ways of fraud, it was from the heart; but when they spake with God, it was but from the lips. Isaiah 59:13 In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Isaiah 59:14 And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Isaiah 59:14-15 . And judgment is turned away backward — He speaks here of the sentences in courts of judicature, which were contrary to right and justice; as if he had said, God denies you justice, as you have denied it to others. And justice standeth afar off — Justice and judges are at a great distance from each other; for truth is fallen — Truth is cast to the ground, and justice trampled under foot; in the street — Even in public. And equity cannot enter — No such thing will be admitted in the courts. Yea, truth faileth — Truth is more than fallen, which he had said in the last verse; it faileth. If it had been only fallen, it might have recovered itself again: but its failing denotes the loss of its very vitals; as being everywhere neglected, in the court, in the city, in the country; in inferior as well as superior ranks; in the streets, in the gates, in the markets, in the fairs; in all public places of commerce: as if he had said, All things are amiss; neither judgment, nor justice, nor truth is to be found among us; but fraud and deceit; yet none are troubled on account of it. And he that departeth from evil — That separateth himself from evil things and evil persons, that will not be as vile as others; maketh himself a prey — Or, as ??????? is rendered in the margin, is accounted mad; is laughed at. Josephus tells us, that immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem, it was a matter of scorn to be religious. The translators reach the meaning of the word by prey: the wicked, like wild beasts, endeavouring to devour such as are not as bad as themselves: where wickedness rules, innocence is oppressed. For they that are simple and innocent are outwitted by the crafty and fraudulent, as not being willing, or rather, not daring to oppose fraud with fraud, but doing all things in sincerity. And the Lord saw it — Took notice of it; it was not hid from him. It is spoken of God after the manner of men. And it displeased him, &c. — As if he had said, If you would know why God is so angry with you, it is for such things as these; the Lord observes them, and they are great evils in his eyes. Isaiah 59:15 Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the LORD saw it , and it displeased him that there was no judgment. Isaiah 59:16 And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him. Isaiah 59:16 . And he saw there was no man — Namely, to intercede, which is understood from the following words; or no man to help in such a case, and to appear in the behalf of equity. See Ezekiel 22:30 . And wondered — Hebrew, ???????? , was amazed, or astonished, an expression which denotes both God’s solicitude about their condition, and their stupidity, in not laying it to heart themselves, especially considering that they had been a people well instructed, and yet, when under the guilt of such gross sins, should be no more solicitous to obtain pardon. Therefore, or, yet, his arm brought salvation unto him — That is, to his people; and his righteousness it sustained him — His justice; seeing there could be no justice found among them, he would avenge the innocent himself. Since magistrates and societies for the reformation of manners fail of doing their part, the one will not do justice, nor the other call for it, God will let them know he can effect it without them, and thus prepare his people for mercy. And then the work of deliverance shall be wrought by the immediate influence of the divine grace on men’s spirits, and of the divine providence on their affairs. When God stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, and brought his people out of Babylon, not by human wisdom nor power, but by the Spirit of the Lord, then his own arm brought salvation to them, which arm is not shortened now. Isaiah 59:17 For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head; and he put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke. Isaiah 59:17-18 . For he put on righteousness as a breast-plate — God, resolving to appear as a man of war, puts on his armour; he calls righteousness his breast-plate, to show the justness of his cause, as also his faithfulness in making good his promises. And a helmet of salvation upon his head — As the breast-plate is to defend the heart, whereby God signifies the justness of his cause, and his faithfulness; so the helmet is to defend the head, the fountain of knowledge and wisdom, and therefore by this piece of armour God would have us to know that he can neither be deceived nor disappointed with regard to the execution of his designs, for the salvation of his faithful and obedient people; but will, without fail, carry them into effect. And he put on the garments of vengeance — Or garments made of vengeance: as God is said to put on the former for their sakes whom he would preserve, so he puts on these for their sakes whom he will destroy, namely, his people’s enemies. Was clad with zeal — For his own honour, and for his people’s welfare. The sum of all these expressions is, to describe both the cause and effect together; the cause was righteousness and zeal in God; the effect, salvation to his people, and vengeance on his enemies. According to their deeds — Hebrew, ????? , recompenses, or deserts. That is, he will recompense his adversaries with those effects of his fury that they have deserved. To the islands he will repay recompense — He will execute judgment on his enemies to the most remote parts of the earth. Isaiah 59:18 According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence. Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. Isaiah 59:19 . So shall they fear the name of the Lord — Worship the Lord; from the west — The western parts of the world. And his glory — The glorious God; from the rising of the sun — The eastern parts. The sum is, the whole world shall fear and worship God, and make his name renowned, laying aside their idolatries: and it may be referred, 1st, To the deliverance of God’s people out of Babylon: men shall reverence and adore him when they shall hear how he hath delivered his people, and executed vengeance on their enemies. Or, 2d, To the redemption by Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles. See Malachi 1:11 . When the enemy shall come in like a flood, &c. — When nothing seems able to withstand the enemies of God’s church, but they carry all before them as a flood overruns a country, then God himself shall give them a remarkable check, and visibly interpose in behalf of his oppressed people. The prophet, however, may be understood as speaking of Satan, the grand enemy of God’s church, and as signifying that at what time soever he or his instruments should make violent attacks on God’s people, and should endeavour to bear down all before them, by an inundation of infidelity, impiety, and wickedness; the Spirit of God would lift up his standard, and call together his armies, to oppose these enemies’ progress, and subvert their cause. “There can be no doubt,” says Mr. Scott, “but the grand accomplishment of this prophecy is future: and as they, among whom iniquity so abounded, antecedent to this happy change, are spoken of as the professed people of God, and are not accused of idolatry, and as the Lord is represented as wondering that there was no intercessor among them, it is more natural to interpret it of corrupt and degenerate Protestants, than either of the Jews, who are avowed enemies to Christianity, or of Papists, who retain the worship of images, saints, and angels.” Isaiah 59:20 And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the LORD. Isaiah 59:20-21 . And, or, moreover, the Redeemer shall come to Zion — To Jerusalem, or to his church, often signified by Zion, namely, Christ shall come, of whom the apostle expounds it, Romans 11:26 ; the prophets usually concluding their promises of temporal deliverances with the promises of spiritual, especially such, of which the temporal were evident types. And unto them that turn from transgression, &c. — As he will come in the flesh, and tabernacle among his people; so he will come, by his Spirit, to those of them who turn from their sins unto God, (see John 14:15-23 ,) and will dwell in their hearts, ( Ephesians 3:17 ,) so that they shall have Christ in them, the hope of glory, Colossians 1:27 ; Christ living in them, Galatians 2:20 . This is my covenant with them — What I have promised to them that turn from their iniquities. My Spirit that is upon thee — Namely, upon Christ: see Isaiah 11:1-3 . The Spirit promised to the church was first upon him, and from him, the head, that precious ointment descends to the skirts of his garments. And my word that I have put into thy mouth — Which thou hast uttered by virtue of my Spirit; shall not depart out of thy mouth — But thou shalt continue to be the Word made flesh, the wisdom of God incarnate, the great teacher of thy people, and the light of the world, till the consummation of all things. Nor out of the mouth of thy seed, &c. — But it shall dwell richly in them in all wisdom, capacitating them to teach, admonish, reprove, rebuke, exhort, and comfort one another, speaking with grace in their hearts: from henceforth and for ever — Always, even unto the end of the world; for the world being permitted to stand for the sake of the church, we may be sure that as long as it doth stand, Christ will have a church in it. Upon the whole, the meaning of this promise is, that God will give and continue his word and Spirit to his people, throughout all generations. 1st, There shall be some in every age, in whose hearts he will work, and in whom he will dwell, and thus the Comforter shall abide with the church for ever, John 14:16 . 2d, The word of Christ shall always continue in the mouths of the faithful, that is, there shall be some in every age who, believing with the heart unto righteousness, shall, with the tongue, make confession unto salvation: and there shall still be a seed to speak Christ’s holy language, and profess his holy religion. Observe well, reader, the Spirit and the word go together, and by them the church is upheld. The word in the mouths of our ministers, nay, in our own mouths, will not profit us, unless the Spirit work with the word, and give it efficacy to enlighten, quicken, renew, and comfort us. The Spirit, however, doth his work by the word, and in concurrence with it; and whatever is pretended to be a dictate of the Spirit must be tried by the Scriptures. On this foundation the church is built, stands firm, and shall stand for ever; Christ himself being the chief corner- stone. Isaiah 59:21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the LORD; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the LORD, from henceforth and for ever. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: CHAPTER XXIII THE REKINDLING OF THE CIVIC CONSCIENCE Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 IT was inevitable, as soon as their city was again fairly in sight, that there should re-awaken in the exiles the civic conscience; that recollections of those besetting sins of their public life, for which their city and their independence were destroyed, should throng back upon them; that in prospect of their again becoming responsible for the discharge of justice and other political duties, they should be reminded by the prophet of their national faults in these respects, and of God’s eternal laws concerning them. If we keep this in mind, we shall understand the presence in "Second Isaiah" of the group of prophecies at which we have now arrived, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 . Hitherto our prophet, in marked contrast to Isaiah himself, has said almost nothing of the social righteousness of his people. Israel’s righteousness, as we saw in our fourteenth chapter, has had the very different meaning for our prophet of her pardon and restoration to her rights. But in Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 we shall find the blame of civic wrong, and of other kinds of sin of which Israel could only have been guilty in her own land; we shall listen to exhortations to social justice and mercy like those we heard from Isaiah to his generation. Yet these are mingled with voices, and concluded with promises, which speak of the Return as imminent. Undoubtedly exilic elements reveal themselves. And the total impression is that some prophet of the late Exile, and probably the one whom we have been following, collected these reminiscences of his people’s sin in the days of their freedom, in order to remind them, before they went back again to political responsibility, why it was they were punished and how apt they were to go astray. Believing this to be the true solution of a somewhat difficult problem, we have ventured to gather this mixed group of prophecies under the title of the Rekindling of the Civic Conscience. They fall into three groups: first, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; second, chapter 58; third, chapter 59. We shall see that, while there is no reason to doubt the exilic origin of the whole of the second, the first and third of these are mainly occupied with the description of a state of things that prevailed only before the Exile, but they contain also exilic observations and conclusions. I. A CONSCIENCE BUT NO GOD Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 This is one of the sections which almost decisively place the literary unity of "Second Isaiah" past possibility of belief. If Isaiah 56:1-8 flushes with the dawn of restoration, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 is very dark with the coming of the night, which preceded that dawn. Almost none dispute that the greater part of this prophecy must have been composed before the people left Palestine for exile. The state of Israel, which it pictures, recalls the descriptions of Hosea, and of the eleventh chapter of Zechariah. God’s flock are still in charge of their own shepherds, { Isaiah 56:9-12 } -a description inapplicable to Israel in exile. The shepherds are sleepy, greedy, sensual, drunkards, -victims to the curse against which Amos and Isaiah hurled their strongest woes. That sots like them should be spared while the righteous die unnoticed deaths { Isaiah 57:1 } can only be explained by the approaching judgment. "No man considereth that the righteous is taken away from the Evil." The Evil cannot mean, as some have thought, persecution, -for while the righteous are to escape it and enter into peace, the wicked are spared for it. It must be a Divine judgment, -the Exile. But "he entereth peace, they rest in their beds, each one that hath walked straight before him,"-for the righteous there is the peace of death and the undisturbed tomb of his fathers. What an enviable fate when emigration, and dispersion through foreign lands, are the prospect of the nation! Israel shall find her pious dead when she returns! The verse recalls that summons in Isaiah 26:1-21 , in which we heard the Mother Nation calling upon the dead she had left in Palestine to rise and increase her returned numbers. Then the prophet indicts the nation for a religious and political unfaithfulness, which we know was their besetting sin in the days before they left the Holy Land. The scenery, in whose natural objects he describes them seeking their worship, is the scenery of Palestine, not of Mesopotamia, - terebinths and wadies , and clerts of the rocks , and smooth stones of the wadies . The unchaste and bloody sacrifices with which he charges them bear the appearance more of Canaanite than of Babylonian idolatry. The humiliating political suits which they paid-"thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thine ambassadors afar off, and didst debase thyself even unto Sheol" ( Isaiah 57:9 )-could not be attributed to a captive people, but were the sort of degrading diplomacy that Israel earned from Ahaz. While the painful pursuit of strength ( Isaiah 57:10 ), the shabby political cowardice ( Isaiah 57:11 ), the fanatic sacrifice of manhood’s purity and childhood’s life ( Isaiah 57:5 ), and especially the evil conscience which drove their blind hearts through such pain and passion in a sincere quest for righteousness ( Isaiah 57:12 ), betray the age of idolatrous reaction from the great Puritan victory of 701, -a generation exaggerating all the old falsehood and fear, against which Isaiah had inveighed, with the new conscience of sin which his preaching had created. The dark streak of blood and lust that runs through the condemned idolatry, and the stern conscience which only deepens its darkness, are sufficient reasons for dating the prophecy after 700. The very phrases of Isaiah, which it contains, have tempted some to attribute it to himself. But it certainly does not date from such troubles as brought his old age to the grave. The evil, which it portends, is, as we have seen, no persecution of the righteous, but a Divine judgment upon the whole nation,- presumably the Exile. We may date it, therefore, some time after Isaiah’s death, but certainly-and this is the important point-before the Exile. This, then, is an unmistakably pre-exilic constituent of "Second Isaiah." Another feature corroborates this prophecy’s original independence of its context. Its style is immediately and extremely rugged. The reader of the original feels the difference at once. It is the difference between travel on the level roads of Mesopotamia, with their unchanging horizons, and the jolting carriage of the stony paths of Higher Palestine, with their glimpses rapidly shifting from gorge to peak. But the remarkable thing is that the usual style of "Second Isaiah" is resumed before the end of the prophecy. One cannot always be sure of the exact verse at which such a literary change takes place. In this case some feel it as soon as the middle of Isaiah 57:11 , with the words, "Have not I held My peace even of long time, and thou fearest Me not?" It is surely more sensible, however, after ver. 14, in which we are arrested in any case by an alteration of standpoint. In ver. 14 we are on in the Exile again-before Isaiah 57:14 I cannot recognise any exilic symptom-and the way of return is before us. "And one said,"-it is the repetition to the letter of the strange anonymous voice of Isaiah 40:6 , -" and one said, Cast ye up, Cast ye up, open up," or "sweep open, a way, lift the stumbling block from the way of My people." And now the rhythm has certainly returned to the prevailing style of "Second Isaiah," and the temper is again that of promise and comfort. These sudden shiftings of circumstance and of prospect are enough to show the thoughtful reader of Scripture how hard is the problem of the unity of "Second Isaiah." On which we make here no further remark, but pass at once to the more congenial task of studying the great prophecy, Isaiah 57:14-21 , which rises one and simple from these fragments as does some homogeneous rock from the confusing debris of several geological epochs. For let the date and original purpose of the fragments we have considered be what they may, this prophecy has been placed as their conclusion with at least some rational, not to say spiritual intention. As it suddenly issues here, it gathers up, in the usual habit of Scripture, God’s moral indictment of an evil generation, by a great manifesto of the Divine nature, and a sharp distinction of the characters and fate of men. Now, of what kind is the generation to whose indictment this prophecy comes as a conclusion? It is a generation which has lost its God, but kept its conscience. This sums up the national character which is sketched in Isaiah 57:3-13 . These Israelites had lost Jehovah and His pure law. But the religion into which they fell back was not, therefore, easy or cold. On the contrary, it was very intense and very stern. The people put energy in it, and passion, and sacrifice that went to cruel lengths. Belief, too, in its practical results kept the people from fainting under the weariness in which its fanaticism reacted. "In the length of thy way thou wast wearied, yet thou didst not say, It is hopeless; life for thy hand"-that is, real, practical strength-"didst thou find: wherefore thou didst not break down." And they practised their painful and passionate idolatry with a real conscience. They were seeking to work out righteousness for themselves ( Isaiah 57:12 should be rendered: "I will expose your righteousness," the caricature of righteousness which you attempt). The most worldly statesman among them had his sincere ideal for Israel, and intended to enable her, in the possession of her land and holy mountain, to fulfil her destiny ( Isaiah 57:13 ). The most gross idolater had a hunger and thirst after righteousness, and burnt his children or sacrificed his purity to satisfy the vague promptings of his unenlightened conscience. It was indeed a generation which had kept its conscience, but lost its God; and what we have in Isaiah 57:15-21 is just the lost and forgotten God speaking of His Nature and His Will. They have been worshipping idols, creatures of their own fears and cruel passions. But He is the "high and lofty one"-two of the simplest adjectives in the language, yet sufficient to lift Him they describe above the distorting mists of human imagination. They thought of the Deity as sheer wrath and force, scarcely to be appeased by men even through the most bloody rites and passionate self-sacrifice. But He says, "The high and the holy I dwell in, yet with him also that is contrite and humble of spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." The rest of the chapter is to the darkened consciences a plain statement of the moral character of God’s working. God always punishes sin, and yet the sinner is not abandoned. Though he go in his own way, God "watches his ways in order to heal him. I create the fruit of the lips," that is, "thanksgivings: Peace, peace, to him that is far off and him that is near, saith Jehovah, and I will heal him." But, as in chapter 48, and chapter 50, a warning comes last, and behind the clear, forward picture of the comforted and restored of Jehovah we see the weird background of gloomy, restless wickedness. II. SOCIAL SERVICE AND THE SABBATH (chapter 58) Several critics (including Professor Cheyne) regard chapter 58 as post-exilic, because of its declarations against formal fasting and the neglect of social charity, which are akin to those of post-exilic prophets like Zechariah and Joel, and seem to imply that the people addressed are again independent and responsible for the conduct of their social duties. The question largely turns on the amount of social responsibility we conceive the Jews to have had during the Exile. Now we have seen that many of them enjoyed considerable freedom: they had their houses and households; they had their slaves; they traded and were possessed of wealth. They were, therefore, in a position to be chargeable with the duties to which chapter 58 calls them. The addresses of Ezekiel to his fellow-exiles have many features in common with chapter 58, although they do not mention fasting; and fasting itself was a characteristic habit of the exiles, in regard to which it is quite likely they should err just as is described in chapter 58. Moreover, there is a resemblance between this chapter’s comments upon the people’s enquiries of God ( Isaiah 58:2 ) and Ezekiel’s reply when certain of the elders of Israel came to enquire of Jehovah. ( Ezekiel 21:1-32 , cf. Ezekiel 33:30 f.) And again Isaiah 58:11-12 are evidently addressed to people in prospect of return to their own land and restoration of their city. We accordingly date chapter 53 from the Exile. But we see no reason to put it as early as Ewald does, who assigns it to a younger contemporary of Ezekiel. There is no linguistic evidence that it is an insertion, or from another hand than that of our prophet. Surely there were room and occasion for it in those years which followed the actual deliverance of the Jews by Cyrus, but preceded the restoration of Jerusalem, -those years in which there were no longer political problems in the way of the people’s return for our prophet to discuss, and therefore their moral defects were all the more thrust upon his attention; and especially, when in the near prospect of their political independence, their social sins roused his apprehensions. Those who have never heard an angry Oriental speak have no idea of what power of denunciation lies in the human throat. In the East, where a dry climate and large leisure bestow upon the voice a depth and suppleness prevented by our vulgar haste of life and teasing weather, men have elaborated their throat-letters to a number unknown in any Western alphabet; and upon the lowest notes they have put an edge, that comes up shrill and keen through the roar of the upper gutturals, till you feel their wrath cut as well as sweep you before it. In the Oriental throat, speech goes down deep enough to echo all the breadth of the inner man; while the possibility of expressing within so supple an organ nearly every tone of scorn or surprise preserves anger from that suspicion of spite or of exhaustion, which is conveyed by too liberal a use of the nasal or palatal letters. Hence in the Hebrew language "to call with the throat" means to call with vehemence, but with self-command; with passion, yet as a man; using every figure of satire, but earnestly; neither forgetting wrath for mere art’s sake, nor allowing wrath to escape the grip of the stronger muscles of the voice. It is "to lift the voice like a trumpet,"-an instrument, which, with whatever variety of music its upper notes may indulge our ears, never suffers its main tone of authority to drop, never slacks its imperative appeal to the wills of the hearers. This is the style of the chapter before us, which opens with the words, "Call with the throat, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet." Perhaps no subject more readily provokes to satire and sneers than the subject of the chapter, -the union of formal religion and unlovely life. And yet in the chapter there is not a sneer from first to last. The speaker suppresses the temptation to use his nasal tones, and utters, not as the satirist, but as the prophet. For his purpose is not to sport with his people’s hypocrisy, but to sweep them out of it. Before he has done, his urgent speech, that has not lingered to sneer nor exhausted itself in screaming, passes forth to spend its unchecked impetus upon final promise and gospel. It is a wise lesson from a master preacher, and half of the fruitlessness of modern preaching is clue to the neglect of it. The pulpit tempts men to be either too bold or too timid about sin; either to whisper or to scold; to euphemise or to exaggerate; to be conventional or hysterical. But two things are necessary, the facts must be stated, and the whole manhood of the preacher, and not only his scorn or only his anger or only an official temper, brought to bear upon them. "Call with the throat, spare not, like a trumpet lift up thy voice, and publish to My people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sin." The subject of the chapter is the habits of a religious people, -the earnestness and regularity of their religious performance contrasted with the neglect of their social relations. The second verse, "the descriptions in which are evidently drawn from life," tells us that "the people sought God daily, and had a zeal to know His ways, as a nation that had done righteousness,"-fulfilled the legal worship, -"and had not forsaken the of their God: they ask of Me laws of righteousness,"-that is, a legal worship, the performance of which might make them righteous, -"and in drawing near to God they take delight." They had, in fact, a great greed for ordinances and functions, -for the revival of such forms as they had been accustomed to of old. Like some poor prostrate rose, whose tendrils miss the props by which they were wont to rise to the sun, the religious conscience and affections of Israel, violently torn from their immemorial supports, lay limp and wind-swept on a bare land, and longed for God to raise some substitute for those altars of Zion by which, in the dear days of old, they had lifted themselves to the light of His face. In the absence of anything better, they turned to the chill and shadowed forms of the fasts they had instituted. But they did not thereby reach the face of God. "Wherefore have we fasted," say they, "and Thou hast not seen? we have humbled our souls, and Thou takest no notice?" The answer comes swiftly: Because your fasting is a mere form! "Lo, in the very day of your fast ye find a business to do, and all your workmen you overtask." So formal is your fasting that your ordinary eager, selfish, cruel life goes on beside it just the same. Nay, it is worse than usual, for your worthless, wearisome fast but puts a sharper edge upon your temper: "Lo, for strife and contention ye fast, to smite with the fist of tyranny." And it has no religious value: "Ye fast not" like "as" you are fasting "today so as to make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, -a day for a man to afflict himself? Is it to droop his head like a rush, and grovel on sackcloth and ashes? Is it this thou wilt call a fast and a day acceptable to Jehovah?" One of the great surprises of the human heart is that self-denial does not win merit or peace. But assuredly it does not, if love be not with it. Though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Self-denial without love is self-indulgence. "Is not this the fast that I choose? to loosen the bonds of tyranny, to shatter the joints of the yoke, to let the crushed go free, and that ye burst every yoke. Is it not to break to the hungry thy bread, and that thou bring home wandering poor? when thou seest one naked that thou cover him, and that from thine own flesh thou hide not thyself? Then shall break forth like the morning thy light, and thy health shall immediately spring. Yea, go before thee shall thy righteousness, the glory of Jehovah shall sweep thee on," literally, "gather thee up. Then thou shalt call, and Jehovah shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here am I If thou shalt put from thy midst the yoke, and the putting forth of the finger, and the speaking of naughtiness"-three degrees of the subtlety of selfishness, which when forced back from violent oppression will retreat to scorn and from open scorn to backbiting, -"and if thou draw out to the hungry thy soul,"-tear out what is dear to thee in order to fill his need, the strongest expression for self-denial which the Old Testament contains, -"and satisfy the soul that is afflicted, then shall uprise in the darkness thy light, and thy gloom shall be as the noonday. And guide thee shall Jehovah continually, and satisfy thy soul in droughts, and thy limbs make lissom; and thou shalt be like a garden well-watered, { Jeremiah 31:12 } and like a spring of water whose waters fail not. And they that are of thee shall build the ancient ruins; the foundations of generation upon generation thou shalt raise up, and they shall be calling thee Repairer-of-the-Breach, Restorer-of-Paths-for-habitation." {Cf. Job 24:13 } Thus their "righteousness" in the sense of external vindication and stability, which so prevails with our prophet, shall be due to their "righteousness" in that inward moral sense in which Amos and Isaiah use the word. And so concludes a passage which fills the earliest, if not the highest, place in the glorious succession of Scriptures of Practical Love, to which belong the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah, the twenty-fifth of Matthew and the thirteenth of First Corinthians. Its lesson is, -to go back to the figure of the draggled rose, -that no mere forms of religion, however divinely prescribed or conscientiously observed, can of themselves lift the distraught and trailing affections of man to the light and peace of Heaven; but that our fellow men, if we cling to them with love and with arms of help, are ever the strongest props by which we may rise to God; that character grows rich and life joyful, not by the performance of ordinances with the cold conscience of duty, but by acts of service with the warm heart of love. And yet such a prophecy concludes with an exhortation to the observance of one religious form, and places the keeping of the Sabbath on a level with the practice of love. "If thou turn from the Sabbath thy foot," from "doing thine own business on My holy day; { Amos 8:5 } and tallest the Sabbath Pleasure,"-the word is a strong one, "Delight, Delicacy, Luxury, -Holy of Jehovah, Honourable; and dost honour it so as not to do thine own ways, or find thine own business, or keep making talk: then thou shalt find thy pleasure," or "thy delight, in Jehovah,"-note the parallel of pleasure in the Sabbath and pleasure in Jehovah, -"and He shall cause thee to ride on the high places of the land, and make thee to feel upon the portion of Jacob thy father: yea, the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken." Our prophet, then, while exalting the practical Service of Man at the expense of certain religious forms, equally exalts the observance of Sabbath; his scorn for their formalism changes when he comes to it into a strenuous enthusiasm of defence. This remarkable fact, which is strictly analogous to the appearance of the Fourth Commandment in a code otherwise consisting of purely moral and religious laws, is easily explained. Observe that our prophet bases his plea for Sabbath-keeping, and his assurance that it must lead to prosperity, not on its physical, moral, or social benefits, but simply upon its acknowledgment of God. Not only is the Sabbath to be honoured because it is the "Holy of Jehovah" and "Honourable," but "making it one’s pleasure" is equivalent to "finding one’s pleasure in Him." The parallel between these two phrases in Isaiah 58:13 and Isaiah 58:14 is evident, and means really this: Inasmuch as ye do it unto the Sabbath, ye do it unto Me. The prophet, then, enforces the Sabbath simply on account of its religious and Godward aspect. Now, let us remember the truth, which he so often enforces, that the Service of Man, however, ardently and widely pursued, can never lead or sum up our duty; that the Service of God has, logically and practically, a prior claim, for without it the Service of Man must suffer both in obligation and in resource. God must be our first resort-must have our first homage, affection, and obedience. But this cannot well take place without some amount of definite and regular and frequent devotion to Him. In the most spiritual religion there is an irreducible minimum of formal observance. Now, in that wholesale destruction of religious forms, which took place at the overthrow of Jerusalem, there was only one institution, which was not necessarily involved. The Sabbath did not fall with the Temple and the Altar: the Sabbath was independent of all locality; the Sabbath was possible even in exile. It was the one solemn, public, and frequently regular form in which the nation could turn to God, glorify Him, and enjoy Him. Perhaps, too, through the Babylonian fashion of solemnising the seventh day, our prophet realised again the primitive institution of the Sabbath, and was reminded that, since seven days is a regular part of the natural year, the Sabbath is, so to speak, sanctioned by the statutes of Creation. An institution, which is so primitive, which is so independent of locality, which forms so natural a part of the course of time, but which, above all, has twice-in the Jewish Exile and in the passage of Judaism to Christianity-survived the abrogation and disappearance of all other forms of the religion with which it was connected, and has twice been affirmed by prophecy or practice to be an essential part of spiritual religion and the equal of social morality, -has amply proved its Divine origin and its indispensableness to man. III. SOCIAL CRIMES (Chapter 59) Chapter 59 is, at first sight, the most difficult of all of "Second Isaiah" to assign to a date. For it evidently contains both pre-exilic and exilic elements. On the one hand, its charges of guilt imply that the people addressed by it are responsible for civic justice to a degree which could hardly be imputed to the Jews in Babylon. We saw that the Jews in the Exile had an amount of social freedom and domestic responsibility which amply accounts for the kind of sins they are charged with in chapter 58. But ver. 14 of chapter 59 ( Isaiah 59:14 ) reproaches them with the collapse of justice in the very seat and public office of justice, of which it was not possible they could have been guilty except in their own land and in the days of their independence. On the other hand, the promises of deliverance in chapter 59 read very much as if they were exilic. "Judgment" and "righteousness" are employed in Isaiah 59:9 in their exilic sense, and God is pictured exactly as we have seen Him in other chapters of our prophet. Are we then left with a mystery? On the contrary, the solution is clear. Israel is followed into exile by her old conscience. The charges of Isaiah and Ezekiel against Jerusalem, while Jerusalem was still a " civitas, " ring in her memory. She repeats the very words. With truth she says that her present state, so vividly described in Isaiah 59:9-11 , is due to sins of old, of which, though perhaps she can no longer commit them, she still feels the guilt. Conscience always crowds the years together; there is no difference of time in the eyes of God the Judge. And it was natural, as we have said already, that the nation should remember her besetting sins at this time; that her civic conscience should awake again, just as she was again about to become a civitas . The whole of this chapter is simply the expansion and enforcement of the first two verses, that keep clanging like the clangour of a great high bell: "Behold, Jehovah’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither is His ear heavy that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have been separators between you and your God, and your sins have hidden" His "face from you, that He will not hear." There is but one thing that comes between the human heart and the Real Presence and Infinite Power of God; and that one thing is Sin. The chapter labours to show how real God is. Its opening verses talk of "His Hand, His Ear, His Face." And the closing verses paint Him with the passions and the armour of a man, -a Hero in such solitude and with such forward force, that no imagination can fail to see the Vivid, Lonely Figure. "And He saw that there was no man, and He wondered that there was none to interpose; therefore His own right arm brought salvation unto Him, and His righteousness it upheld Him. And He put on righteousness like a breastplate and salvation" for "a helmet upon His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in zeal like a robe." Do not let us suppose this is mere poetry. Conceive what inspires it, -the great truth that in the Infinite there is a heart to throb for men and a will to strike for them. This is what the writer desires to proclaim, and what we believe the Spirit of God moved his poor human lips to give their own shape to, -the simple truth that there is One, however hidden He may be to men’s eyes, who feels for men, who feels hotly for men, and whose will is quick and urgent to save them. Such a One tells His people that the only thing which prevents them from knowing how real His heart and will are-the only thing which prevents them from seeing His work in their midst-is their sin. The roll of sins to which the prophet attributes the delay of the people’s deliverance is an awful one; and the man who reads it with conscience asleep might conclude that it was meant only for a period of extraordinary violence and bloodshed. Yet the chapter implies that society exists, and that at least the forms of civilisation are in force. Men sue one another before the usual courts. But none "sueth in righteousness or goeth to the law in truth. They trust in vanity and speak lies." All these charges might be true of a society as outwardly respectable as our own. Nor is the charge of bloodshed to be taken literally. The Old Testament has so great a regard for the spiritual nature of man, that to deny the individual his rights or to take away the peace of God from his heart, it calls the shedding of innocent blood. Isaiah reminds us of many kinds of this moral murder when he says, "your hands are full of blood: seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." Ezekiel reminds us of others when he tells how God spake to him, that if he "warn not the wicked, and the same wicked shall die in his iniquity, his blood will I require at thy hand." And again a Psalm reminds us of the time "when the Lord maketh inquisition for blood, He forgetteth not the cry of the poor." { Isaiah 1:17 ; Psalm 9:12 } This is what the Bible calls murder and lays its burning words upon, -not such acts of bloody violence as now and then make all humanity thrill to discover that in the heart of civilisation there exist men with the passions of the ape and the tiger, but such oppression of the poor, such cowardice to rebuke evil, such negligence to restore the falling, such abuse of the characters of the young and innocent, such fraud and oppression of the weak, as often exist under the most respectable life, and employ the weapons of a Christian civilisation in order to fulfil themselves. We have need to take the bold, violent standards of the prophets and lay them to our own lives, -the prophets that call the man who sells his honesty for gain, "a harlot," and hold him "blood-guilty" who has wronged, tempted, or neglected his brother. Do not let us suppose that these crimson verses of the Bible may be passed over by us as not applicable to ourselves. They do not refer to murderers or maniacs: they refer to social crimes, to which we all are in perpetual temptation, and of which we all are more or less guilty, -the neglect of the weak, the exploitation of the poor for our own profit, the soiling of children’s minds, the multiplying of temptation in the way of God’s little ones, the malice that leads us to blast another’s character, or to impute to his action evil motives for which we have absolutely no grounds save the envy and sordidness of our own hearts. Do not let us fail to read all such verses in the clear light which John the Apostle throws on them when he says: "He that loveth not abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.