Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 56:1

Israel’s Redemption – The chapters that follow the prophecy of Christ’s sufferings in Isa 53:1-12 tell the children of God to rejoice; for Christ has given them the victory over sin, death and the grave. However, these chapters speak of Christ’s redemption from the perspective of the nation of Israel rather than from the perspective of the Gentiles; for the book of Isaiah contains prophecies of the future destiny of Israel. Later in redemptive history, the Church will be grafted into these prophecies as members of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Admonition And Comfort to the Afflicted

v. 1. Thus saith the Lord, the same God of the covenant who has spoken in the foregoing powerful appeals, Keep ye judgment, equity or righteousness in living in conformity with the demands of the covenant with Jehovah, and do justice, following the ordinances of His will, the admonition presupposing a neglect in this respect on the part of the Lord’s people; for My salvation is near to come and My righteousness to be revealed, namely, in the glories of the Messianic revelation. It is the same message which was proclaimed by John the Baptist: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. ” Mat 3:8; Mat 4:17.

v. 2. Blessed is the man that doeth this, weak and mortal as he is in his own person, and the son of man, offspring of sinful and mortal parents, that layeth hold on it, namely, in observing the covenant made upon Sinai, that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, since it was the day when the blessed communion between God and His people was stressed most strongly, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. In urging the keeping of the Sabbath and the observing of the demands of righteousness the prophet is not insisting upon a mere outward mechanical observance of the Law, but desires a return to the ancient covenant faithfulness.

v. 3. Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord, the non-Israelite, the proselyte from among the Gentiles, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from His people, since people of his class were not admitted to the same privileges as native Israelites; neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree, for even if he could have become a member of the Jewish Church, his family would immediately have become extinct in the nation. Over against these laments the Lord gives His gracious reassurance:

v. 4. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My sabbaths, and choose the things that please Me, and take hold of My covenant, observing the will and command of the Lord in every respect, thereby giving evidence of the proper condition of their hearts;

v. 5. even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls, the Temple as symbolizing His Church, a place and a name better than of Sons and of daughters, of those who claimed recognition on the basis of their external membership in the Jewish nation only; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off, namely, by accepting them fully into the grace of His Messianic kingdom.

v. 6. Also the sons of the stranger, of the non-Israelite, of the Gentile, that join themselves to the Lord to serve Him, in the true worship of faith, and to love the name of the Lord, to be His servants, in an inner and truly cordial service, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it and taketh hold of My covenant,

v. 7. even them, no matter from what nation they come, will I bring to My holy mountain, to Zion with its Temple, as representing His holy Church, and make them joyful In My house of prayer, by refreshing them with the blessings of his grace; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar, their entire worship being pleasing to Jehovah; for Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people, not only the Jews, but the Gentiles as well being included in the membership of His Church. Cf Eph 2:19.

v. 8. The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, those who were dispersed among the nations, saith, Yet will I gather others to him, to Israel, to the true people of Jehovah, beside those that are gathered unto him. The Gentiles are not excluded from the kingdom of the Lord, as Jesus Himself plainly tells the Jews, Joh 10:16.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Isa 56:1-8

AN EXHORTATION TO OBSERVE THE LAW, ESPECIALLY THE LAW OF THE SABBATH, COMBINED WITH PROMISES. There was much of the Law which it was impossible to observe during the Captivity. Sacrifice had ceased, the temple was destroyed, almost all the ceremonial law must have been suspended; even the command to do no work on the sabbath day cannot have been kept by a nation of slaves, whose masters would certainly not have permitted them to be idle one day in seven. Still, the spirit of the ordinance might be kept by devoting the day, so far as was possible, to religious observance, as to prayer and to meditation upon holy things. This is now enjoined on the captive Jews, with the promise of a blessinga blessing in which even the most despised part of the nation, the proselytes and the eunuchs, might participate.

Isa 56:1

Keep ye judgment, and do justice; rather, keep ye Law, and observe righteousness. The exhortation is general, and has no special bearing on trials or law-courts. It is a call on the Jews, in their captivity, to keep, so far as was possible, the whole Law given on Sinai. My salvation is near to come. The nearer the time of deliverance approaches, the more faithful and exact ought Israel to be in life and conduct. God’s “salvation” and his “righteousness” go hand-in-hand. It is as his righteous people, “a holy seed” (Isa 6:10), that he is about to vindicate and rescue them. If they are no holier than others, why should he do more for them than for those others?

Isa 56:2

That doeth this that layeth hold on it; i.e. that doeth according to the exhortation in Isa 56:1. That keepeth the sabbath. The prominent place assigned to this duty by the evangelical prophet is remarkable. We may observe, however,

(1) that the spirit of obedience is better tested by a positive than by a moral ordinance; and

(2) that as, probably, there could be little outward keeping of the sabbath by the captives, it would have had to be kept inwardly by spiritual exercises, by silent prayer and praise, together with prolonged meditation upon holy things. In the absence of all the ordinary aids to devotion, the religious condition of the people must have depended very much on their keeping up the recollection of the sabbath, and hallowing it so far as was possible; e.g. doing no work for themselves, neither buying nor selling, making their devotions longer, and keeping God in their thoughts throughout the day.

Isa 56:3

The son of the stranger; i.e. the foreigner, who has become a proselyte. During the depression of the Captivity these are not likely to have been many. Still, there were doubtless some; and these, who had embraced Judaism under such unfavourable circumstances, were entitled to special consideration. As Messianic hopes prevailed, and the time of restoration to Palestine drew near (Isa 56:1), they might naturally be afraid that they would not be looked upon as equals by the native Israelites, but would be made into a lower grade, if not even excluded. The Lord hath utterly separated me; rather, the Lord will utterly separate me. They do not suppose it done, but think it will be done. The eunuch. Isaiah had prophesied to Hezekiah that a certain number of his seed should serve as eunuchs in the royal palace of the King of Babylon (2Ki 20:18). Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were such persons (Dan 1:3-6), and there may have been others. By the letter of the Law (Deu 23:1), they were cut off from the congregation, but practically it would seem that during the Captivity they were on a par with other Israelites. These persons feared, with more reason than the foreign proselytes, that, on the return of Israel to their own land, a stricter practice would be established than had prevailed during the Captivity, and the letter of the Law would be enforced against them. I am a dry tree. Therefore useless, and entitled to no consideration at all.

Isa 56:4

The eunuchs that take hold of my covenant. The law of Deu 23:1 shall be abrogated under the new condition of things, for such as “take hold of God’s covenant.”

Isa 56:5

In mine house; i.e. “in my Church”. Within my walls. Within the walls of my “holy city” (see above, Isa 54:11, Isa 54:12; Isa 50:1-11 :14; Isa 42:12). A place and a name; or, a memorial and a name; i.e. honourable mention, like that promised to the woman who anointed Christ for his burial (Mat 26:13). Such mention is found in Mat 19:12; Act 8:27-39.

Isa 56:6

Also the sons of the stranger (comp. Isa 56:3). The proselytes shall not be treated as they fear. On the contrary, God will treat them in exactly the same way as his original peoplewill conduct them to Palestine, settle them in his “holy mountain,” admit them to the temple services, accept their burnt offerings and their sacrifices. All this will be a foretaste of their position in the Christian Church, where there will be neither Jew nor Gentile, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, but a community where all are brethren and all have equal privileges.

Isa 56:7

My house of prayer. In Solomon’s address to God at the dedication of the temple, its character, as a house of prayer, is abundantly laid down (1Ki 8:29-53). And no doubt it was used for the purpose of prayer, as well as for the purpose of sacrifice, from its first erection to its final destruction. But the purpose of sacrifice so far predominated, in fact, over the other, that the expression, “my house of prayer,” comes upon us in this place to some extent as a surprise. The prophet seems to anticipate the time when the temple should be emphatically a the legal sacrifices having received their fulfilment (Isa 53:10), and being thenceforth superfluous and out of place. For all people; rather, for all the peoples. All the ends of the earth were to see the salvation of God (Psa 98:3); “All nations were to fall down before him; all people to do him service” (Psa 72:11).

Isa 56:8

The Lord God; rather, the Lord JehovahAdonai Jehovah. An unusual phrase. Which gathereth together the outcasts of Israel; i.e. the Lord who has pledged himself to bring back Israel from captivity, and to gather together Israel’s outcasts from all regions (Isa 11:11; Isa 27:12, Isa 27:13; Isa 43:5, Isa 43:6, etc.). This same Lord now promises something further: “He will gather others also to Israel, besides his own gathered ones.” Introduced with such emphasis and formality, this was probably, when delivered, a new revelation. In the present arrangement of the prophecies, however, it announces no novelty. The addition of Gentile members to the Israelite community has been declared frequently (see Isa 44:5; Isa 55:5, etc.).

Isa 56:9-12

SECTION V.A WARNING TO THE WICKED (ISAIH Isa 56:9 -57.).

THE BLIND GUIDES OF ISRAEL REBUKED. A sudden change of style marks the introduction of an entirely new prophecy. The eye of the prophet, apparently, goes back from the period of the exile, which he has been so long contemplating, to his own day, or at any rate to the pre-exile period, and rests upon Israel in their own land. He sees them misled by their teachers (Isa 56:10-12), given to idolatry (Isa 57:3-9), and offering themselves a ready prey to their enemies (Isa 56:9). Many modern critics regard the passage as the composition of an unknown prophet belonging to the time of Manasseh. But there is no sufficient evidence of this. The prophecy has many Isaiah characteristics.

Isa 56:9

Beasts of the field beasts in the forest; i.e. “all wild beasts of whatever kind”all the enemies of God’s flock (see Jer 12:9; Eze 34:8). Come to devour. Make haste, now is your opportunity. The people have none to protect them, and will be an easy prey. Come, set to work; devour.

Isa 56:10

His watchmen are blind. Israel’s “watchmen” are his guides and teachers, the prophets (Isa 6:1-13 :17; Eze 3:17; Hab 2:1, etc.). At the time of which Isaiah speaks, they are “blind” (Isa 29:18; Isa 35:5; Isa 42:7, Isa 42:16, Isa 42:18, Isa 42:19; Isa 43:8, etc.), or without knowledgelike the “blind guides” of the Gospel (Mat 15:14; Luk 6:39, etc.). They have not the spiritual discernment which would enable them to lead the people aright. Further, they are dumb dogs. Instead of acting as faithful watch-dogs, who give warning of the approach of danger by their barking, they remain apathetic, and utter no warning at all. It is as if they passed their lives in sleep.

Isa 56:11

Yea, they are greedy dogs. Another defect is noted. Not only do they fail in the way of neglect of duty, but they are actively culpable. Being worldly and not spiritually minded, they are “greedy” after gain. Anciently, the taking of a gift, or fee, from those who came to consult them was regarded as no dishonour to the prophetic office (Num 22:7; 1Sa 9:7; 1Ki 14:3); but the nobler class of prophets declined to make a profit of their spiritual powers, and would receive no fee (2Ki 5:16; Mat 10:8; Act 8:20). In Ezekiel and Micah the taking of gifts by prophets is regarded as discreditable (Eze 13:19; Eze 22:25; Mic 3:3). From his quarter; rather, to the uttermost (Kay), or every one, without exception (Cheyne).

Isa 56:12

Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine. Here we have mention of a third defect. The prophets of the time are not only negligent of their duty, and covetous, but they are given to excess in wine and to long revels, such as even the heathen considered to be disgraceful (comp. Isa 28:7, where both priests and prophets are taxed with habitual drunkenness). To-morrow shall be as this day; i.e. the drinking shall continuewe will have a two days’ bout of it. And much more abundant; rather, very exceedingly abundant. There is no comparison of one day with the other; but simply a promise that on both days the drinking shall be without stint.

HOMILETICS

Isa 56:3-7

Outward defects and defilements no hindrance to full communion in the Church of God.

In the infancy of humanity, and with a people so carnal as the Israelites, it was necessary to teach the great doctrines of purity and holiness by a material symbolism. Hence the multitude of regulations in the Law concerning defects, blemishes, sources of outward defilement, methods of removing defilements, clean and unclean meats, and the like. God strove to train his people by these out ward shows to the recognition of the eternal distinction between inward purity and impurity, and to a proper sense of the fact that impurity is an utter disqualification for communion with him and with his Church. But these distinctions were never intended to be lasting.” Our Lord himself declared to his disciples, “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man; but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man” (Mat 15:11-20). It was long before the Jews could fully understand this doctrine, or believe that the Levitical Law on all points of external defilement was absolutely done away (see Act 10:9-35; Act 11:3-18; Act 15:5-20; 1Co 8:4-13). There was at first a great objection to receive any Gentiles into the Christian Church, and many miracles had to be wrought to overcome it. There was, after this, a line of separation drawn, and a claim set up by those of the favoured nation to form a higher grade than the Gentile Christians, with whom they refused to eat (Gal 2:11-14). So persistent is the spirit of formalism, that, notwithstanding our Lord’s teaching and that of his apostles, it was centuries before the Church was wholly freed from dissension and difficulty in this matter.

Isa 56:9-12

When their spiritual guides go astray, the flock of Christ suffers

Spiritual guides are bound to watch for the flock, as “they that must give account” (Heb 13:17). It is ill for the flock when they are even negligent in their dutiesstill worse when they engage actively in evil courses. Israel’s guides at this time were open to both charges, and are blamed on both accounts. Isaiah taxes them with being

I. BLIND GUIDES, destitute of spiritual wisdom and spiritual discernment. “The priest’s lips should keep knowledge” (Mal 2:7). It is the office of priests and ministers to guide aright the souls committed to their charge, and for this purpose they require a large fund of “the wisdom which is from above,” a large experience of human life and of the human heart, and a deep acquaintance with the written Word, wherein treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid away. “Blind guides” constitute a terrible danger. “If the blind lead the blind, shall they not both fall into the pit?” (Mat 15:14). What havoc may not be wrought by a “blind guide,” who undertakes to be the director of thousands or even hundreds of souls! And yet how lightly do young men, after no more than a year or two of experience, seek to obtain “sole charges”! “Sole charges” should be reserved for those who have been thoroughly tried and tested, and have shown themselves able ministers of the Word and wise directors of men’s consciences.

II. DUMB DOGS. If we are without knowledge, it is better to be “dumb” than to speak. But to have knowledge, to be able to direct and improve others, and, having undertaken the ministerial office, then to draw back and remain silent, through sloth and laziness, because we would fain “lie down, and dream, and slumber,” and pass our life without care, or anxiety, or trouble,this is a most “dangerous downfall,” a shirking of our responsibilities, a “drawing back unto perdition of the soul” (Heb 10:39). There are ministers even now, in this latter part of the nineteenth century, whose object in their ministerial life seems to be to do as little as possible, who preach little, visit less, reprove and rebuke vice least of all, whose desire seems to he always for “a little more sleep, a little more slumber, a little more folding of the hands to sleep” (Pro 6:10). Such persons will one day experience a terrible awakening!

III. GREEDY DOGS. Ministers are bound to be patterns to the flock. If they preach the doctrines of the gospelself-sacrifice, spirituality, unworldlinessand are themselves greedy of gain, conspicuous examples of the worldly and covetous spirit which they denounce, what possible effect for good can their preaching have? Such men do more harm than infidels. They dishonour their Master, bring scorn and contempt upon religion, do their best to create the impression that Christianity is a sham, a make-believe, a device for bolstering up a rotten state of society and repressing revolutionary effort. “The labourer is worthy of his hire” (Luk 10:7), and they that preach the gospel are entitled to “live of the gospel” (1Co 9:14); but a hard, grasping, or even niggardly spirit in a Christian minister is a disgrace to his profession, a scandal to the Church whereto he belongs, and a danger to society. Such as “look to their own way,” and seek their own gain, “to the uttermost,” as did the pseudo-prophets of Isaiah’s day, are wholly unfit to bear the message of him who, “though rich, for man’s sake became poor” (2Co 8:9), and chose “the poor of this world” for his ministers (Jas 2:5).

IV. WINE–BIBBERS. Intemperate habits are, if possible, more unbecoming to the minister of Christ than even covetousness. Covetousness may be secret, and escape detection; intemperance is a public scandal. The man of intemperate habits can scarcely have the face to rebuke any vice in others, seeing that his own vice is so open and patent to all. He is thus utterly disqualified for the ministerial office, which he degrades and disgraces so long as he bears it. Fortunately, at the present day, intemperance is recognized as incompatible with the cure of souls; and the intemperate minister, in modern Churches, can scarcely remain a minister for many months.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 56:1-8

The true observance of the sabbath.

Foreign converts are commended for their observance of the sabbath, and promised an appropriate reward. The day was more strictly observed during the Babylonian and Persian periods (Jer 17:19-27; Eze 20:11-21; Eze 22:8, Eze 22:26; Neh 13:15-22; cf. 2Ki 11:11-16 with 1 Macc. 2:32-38). Its estimation rose with the estimation of prayer (Cheyne).

I. THE DUTY OF OBEDIENCE. The Law is “the objective rule of life, the Law of Jehovah.” Or, with others, “equity, justice.” And the “practice of righteousness” is ever a necessity with him. The more so as every serious crisis draws on. My salvation is nearthe kingdom of heaven is at hand. A crisis means a time of sifting and separation. “God’s salvation is not indiscriminate. And the grounds on which he distinguishes his people from his enemies are not external, but internal. It is the Israel within Israel, the spiritual circumcision, the holy seed, that he acknowledges, vindicates, rescues, glorifies” (Cheyne).

II. SABBATH–KEEPING AS AN EXPRESSION OF OBEDIENCE. How significant the sabbath in the institutions of Judaism! True, the seventh day belonged also to Babylonian religion, but we know its beauty and its blessing through the Jews. It was a sign of the great standing covenant between God and the nation (Exo 31:13-17). By this the Jews were marked as a nation. Narrow notions, Puritan superstitions, have gathered about the sabbath; still, the idea of it is very beautiful. Ewald brings it under the idea of sacrifice of time. It is the representative of the duties of the first table (Eze 20:11-21). But mere sabbath-keeping avails not without the honest heart and the upright lifethe man must “keep his hand from evil.”

III. THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE UNIVERSAL. The prophet would remove a misunderstanding. The beatitude is universally applicable to those who keep God’s commandments. The foreigner might be anxious about his position in the spiritual commonwealth. For there were exclusive injunctions directed against him (Deu 23:4-7). During the Captivity probably an exclusive spirit was growing; it may be observed in the restored exiles (Neh 13:1-31.). They are here assured that they shall be admitted to the spiritual commonwealth on an equal footing with the Jews. National barriers are broken down before the new expansive spirit of love. There was also a law against eunuchs (Deu 23:2). But this disability is also to be removed. This class of men may stand for the outcast and degraded in general. They are to be admitted to communion, and are to receive some “trophy and monument” (1Sa 15:12; 2Sa 18:18) in the temple itselfprovided they have been faithful to the commands and covenant of Jehovah. Probably a spiritual and everlasting memorial is meant (cf. Rev 3:12; Mat 26:13). Then the foreign proselytes who should

(1) join them to the Lord,

(2) with intent to serve him,

(3) and who should love the Name of the Lord,

(4) who should be his servants,

(5) who should keep his sabbaths,

(6) and take hold of his covenant, were to be admitted to all the privileges of the chosen people.

The same terms of salvation were to be applicable to all. In 1Ki 8:41-43 Solomon prays that God should do “according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for.” In Psa 135:19, Psa 135:20 the proselytes are called to bless Jehovah, after the house of Israel, of Aaron, of Levi.

IV. THE BLESSINGS OF THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. All shall be brought to God’s holy mountainshall be admitted to the one sacred fellowship. They shall be made joyful by the revelation of the Shechinahthe presence of the Eternal in his power and mercy. Their offerings (those of the proselytes) shall be accepted on his altar. There should be no invidious distinctions. The house should be a “house of prayer to all peoples” (cf. Mat 21:13). Moreover, other nations, not now of Israel, would be united to the one spiritual stock. The exiles in distant lands would be gathered; also other Gentiles of whom the proselytes are the firstfruits”other sheep not of this flock” (Joh 10:16)and they will become fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God (Eph 2:19). The race”on a level with respect to moral character, all having sinned and come short of the glory of Godis on a level with respect to redemption; the same Saviour died for all, the same Spirit is ready to sanctify all. The wide world may be saved, and there is not one of the human race so degraded in human estimation by rank, or colour, or ignorance, who may not be admitted to the same heaven with Abraham and the prophets, and whose prayers and praises may not be as acceptable to God as those of the most magnificent monarch who ever wore a crown.”J.

Verses 56:9-57:2

The neglectful shepherds.

Here in a series of powerful pictures religious indifference on the part of pastors is described.

I. THE BLIND WATCHMAN. Nothing can be more beautiful than the idea of the shepherd as descriptive of the true teacher and minister to souls; tenderness, watchfulness, self-denial, all are his. So, on the other hand, nothing can more hold up the faithless pastor to scorn than the character of the faithless shepherd (Joh 10:1-42.). As the flock becomes a prey to the wild beasts when there is no shepherd, or when he neglects his care, so Israel, bereft of her natural defenders, lies at the mercy of the great heathen empire (cf. Eze 13:4; Eze 34:8; Eze 39:4; Jer 12:9; Rev 19:17, Rev 19:18). Especially the prophets are referred to (cf. Eze 3:17; Isa 21:11). These “dumb dogs” are opposed to the faithful shepherd dogs (Job 30:1). “We must suppose that the prophets referred to were no better than the ancient soothsayers, who gave oracles respecting the difficulties of everyday life, but were silent on the great moral questions” (Cheyne). Immersed, perhaps, in sin themselves, they were blind to the national sins. “God requires knowledge in his ambassadors. Ignorance of the truth; of the nature, existence, and pollution of sin; of the claims of God and of the way of pardon,is an effectual disqualification for the office.”

II. THEIR SLUGGISHNESS AND GREED. They are like those who rave in sleep, moving among idle phantasms rather than serious realities. The false teacher not only does not know the truth, he falls into some species of delusion, and leads his flock along with him. He “loves to slumber.” “Alas! that this should be too true of multitudes who bear the sacred office, and are appointed to warn their fellow-men of danger! Some are afraid of giving offence; some have no deep sense of the importance of religious truth; some embrace false opinions; some engage in worldly projects, and fill up their time with the cares and plans of this life; and some are invincibly indolent. An inactive and unfaithful ministry suffers the great enemy to come and bear away the soul to death, as an unfaithful mastiff would suffer a thief to approach the dwelling without warning the inmates. Instinct prompts the faithful animal to act the part God intends; but alas! there are men whom neither conscience, reason, hope, fear, nor love will rouse to put forth efforts to save a soul from hell! Their greed. They “keep up the old custom, rejected by the higher prophets as an abuse, of taking fees” (see references in Cheyne). Each and all are bent upon private interest and gain, and upon selfish enjoyment. One of them is represented as inviting another to a carouse of two days.

III. THE CONTRASTED FATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. They “perish”prematurely cut off; a contradiction peculiarly great from an Old Testament point of view (Ecc 7:15). It seemed as if this premature departure were an ill reward for faithful service; but it was dictated by mercy. The godly were delivered from sights of horror which might have vexed their souls.

“O Brettinoro! wherefore tarriest still,
Since forth of thee thy family hath gone,
And many, hating evil, join’d their steps?”

Moreover, they were spared from the coming retribution; so Abraham goes to his fathers in peace, and Isaiah is not to see all the evil which God will bring upon the place. “His soul is pleasing to God; therefore he hastens with him out of the evil life” (Wis. 4:14). Here was a warning to the wicked; great must be the evil doomed to be so punished. A few remaining righteous might have saved the city (Gen 18:23-32). Sorer punishment was therefore at hand. The departure of a good man is a public calamity. His example and his influence are among the richest blessings of the world. If men are not deeply affected by the withdrawal of them, it is a proof of guilt and stupidity. Who knows, asked a heathen poet, if dying be not life, and life dying? On the hither side of the grave the wicked remain steeped in sin and sloth; on the further side there is rest and peace. “Let them rave, thou art quiet in thy grave.” “Who does not envy those who have seen to an end their manful endeavour? Who that sees the meanness of our public life, but in]y congratulates the pure statesman or teacher that he is long wrapped in his shroud, and for ever safe; laid sweet in his grave, the hope of humanity not subjugated in him? Who does not sometimes envy the good and brave, who are no more to suffer from the tumults of the natural world, and await with curious complacency the speedy term of his own conversation with finite nature? Yet the love that will be annihilated sooner than treacherous, has already made death impossible, and affirms itself no mortal, but nature of the deeps of absolute and inextinguishable being” (Emerson).J.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 56:6

Service.

“The sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him,” etc. This word is often degraded in human speech. “Service” is con-sidereal humiliating, and only mastership is glorious. But “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” We are all of us “debtors” to others; we owe them much, and we owe Christ all.

I. SERVICE CALLS OUT WHAT IS BEST IN MEN.

1. Their unselfishness.

2. Their heroism.

3. Their patience.

II. SERVICE CHARACTERIZES THE NOBLEST AND THE BEST OF MEN.

1. Think of the world’s great leaders.

2. Think of the Church’s sufferers and martyrs.

III. SERVICE IS EMBODIED IN MANY FORMS. There is a service of gift; a service of speech; a service of submission.

“They also serve who only stand and wait.”

All God’s universe is alive with blest activity. The idler is out of harmony with the entire creation of God.W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 56:1

The attitude of holy expectation.

God evidently requires of us that, when we are anticipating any special manifestation on his part, there should be special purity on our part. We look at

I. OUR CONDITION. This is one of complete dependence on God. We need the action of the Divine power to give efficacy to all our labour; nothing that we do, of any kind whatever, is effectual without the energizing touch of his hand. We need also the manifestation of this Divine power for deliverance from danger and trouble. Salvation from any evil, temporal or spiritual, can come only from God. “All our springs are in him.”

II. OUR EXPECTATION. We hope for great things of God. He has taught us to hope from the beginning (Psa 22:9). It is with a true instinct that the farmer looks up to God for his annual harvest; that the soldier trusts for victory in the favour and the aid of the God of battles; that the sailor cries to Heaven for help when his ship is tossing on the waves in the overwhelming storm; that the faithful witness of Jesus Christ appeals to his Divine Lord when the persecutor is on his track or has him in his cruel grasp. We hope in God, for we know

(1) the benignity of his Spirit, his desire to bless his children, and his compassion for them in their distresses;

(2) the faithfulness of his word, and that he has said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee” (Psa 50:15).

III. THE RIGHT ATTITUDE OF EXPECTATION. It is that of special purity or righteousness; separating ourselves from all that is offensive in the sight of God. To expect any unusual manifestation of Divine power or grace when we are holding any iniquity to our heart, is only to delude ourselves, and to be the heirs of disillusion and disappointment.

1. When God manifested himself at Sinai he required that the people should be sanctified in readiness for his coming (Exo 19:10).

2. When the Lord of hosts would give victory to the armies of Israel he required that they sanctified themselves, not only by religious rite, but by cleansing themselves of their sin (Jos 3:5; Jos 5:1-15; Jos 7:1-26.).

3. When the children of Israel were delivered from the land of captivity they fasted and prayed that the hand of God. might be upon them (Ezr 8:21-23).

4. When the kingdom of God was announced there was a solemn summons to repent (Mat 3:2; Mat 4:17).

5. When we seek Divine mercy and eternal life in Jesus Christ we must put away evil from our heart and life; repentance never has been and never can be dissociated from a living and saving faith (Act 20:21).

6. When we draw near to God in worship we must come to him with clean hands and a pure heart (Psa 15:1-5 :24;Psa 66:18; Isa 33:15, Isa 33:16; Mat 5:8; Heb 12:14; 1Ti 2:8).

7. When we look for a manifestation of God’s power in the renewal of a Church, or the regeneration of a community, we must appear before him in purity of heart and integrity of life; or his “salvation ‘ will not “come,” his “righteousness” will not “be revealed.”C.

Isa 56:3-8

The open gate.

The temple or house of God (Isa 56:7) stands for his kingdom of righteousness; and in exalted vision the prophet foresees the time when it shall stand open to every manto the stranger or heathen, and even to those physically debarred. It is to be called “a house of prayer for all people.“ It is worthy of note that it should be called a house of prayer; the truth is intimated that, in the kingdom of God, sacrifice performed by the few on behalf of the many will yield to the spiritual approach by all to the Father of souls; that one principal purpose of worship is that of coming into close, holy, personal fellowship with the living God. But the main truth of the passage is found in the thought of

I. THE OPEN GATE INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. When God’s full purpose should be revealed, there would be a kingdom or Church which should be open to every child of man, irrespective of his nationality or his physical peculiarities; the time should come when there would be neither Greek nor Jew, barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. The gracious purpose of God is fulfilled only in the gospel of his Son. There we find “the common salvation,” broad as the race of man.

1. It is adapted to all men everywhere, however apart and afar they may be from the scene of its birth. Judaism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, have local features; they are peculiarly adapted to men living in certain latitudes and longitudes, with certain surroundings and national habits and wants; they have their limitations. But into the gospel of Jesus Christ limitation or partiality does not enter; it is as perfectly suited to men of one clime as to those of another; we cannot think of men under any earthly conditions whatever for whose elevation and happiness it is not thoroughly fitted.

2. It is intended for, and is powerful over, those furthest removed from the knowledge and the likeness of God. It purified the corrupt Corinthian; it softened the hard Roman; it sobered and solemnized the flippant Athenian; it has civilized the most savage barbarian; it has rescued and transformed the most degraded citizens of our modern civilization; it has proved itself the power of God to redeem and regenerate the very worst that have defaced the human image and disgraced the human name.

3. It is needed by those who are nearest the sources of truth; for it convicts even the best of unworthiness and guilt, and it finds for them a Saviour and a reconciliation.

II. THE CONDITIONS OF CITIZENSHIP. The gate is open into the blessed kingdom, but it is a kingdom of righteousness and peace and joy (Rom 14:17). Only they can be accounted citizens who fulfil certain spiritual conditions. These are indicated here. They are:

1. Drawing nigh to God through the appointed meansthe sabbath day, the house of prayer, etc.

2. Accepting God’s method of reconciliation; i.e. by faith in his Son, our Saviour; “taking hold of his covenant” (see Php 3:7-9).

3. Conforming the life to God’s holy will; “choosing the things that please haul,” rather than those which please ourselves or others; engaging in his service (Isa 56:6).C.

Isa 56:9-12

Unfaithful ministry.

Three truths appear as we consider these strong words.

I. THAT GOD HAS PLACED THE WELFARE OF THE MANY IN THE CHARGE OF THE FEW. Practically, the moral and material condition of the country in the course of the next twenty years depends greatly on the character of those of its citizens who are parents. The fathers and mothers in the land are determining its future to a large extent by their parental wisdom or folly. But we may narrow the issue considerably; we may say that what the next generation will be, in respect of conviction and conduct, depends on the character of the ministry it is receiving at the hands of its religious teachers. If these are loyal to their Lord, and do faithfully the work committed to their care, the community will know the truth and do the will of God. And so long as the nation walks in the light of the Lord it will be prosperous and strong; its worst enemies will not prevail against it; it will grow in wisdom, in honour, in power.

II. THAT MEN MAY PROVE UTTERLY UNWORTHY OF THE HIGH POSITION TO WHICH THEY ARE CALLED. It may be said that no one has a right to take a step which may result in the responsibilities of parentage, unless he or she is prepared to teach and train children in the knowledge and fear of God. It must certainly be said that no one has a right to take on himself the functions of a Christian minister unless he is qualified to teach Christ’s truth and to commend his gospel to the minds and the hearts of men. It is the grave misfortune of the Church and the world that so many have incurred responsibility without any such qualifications. They have failed either in doctrine, having been as “dumb dogs,” not warning sinners of the perils besetting them, wilfully and culpably silent; or in understandably, being “blind” and “ignorant,” never having understood the truth, or having become insensible to its excellence by reason of their unfaithfulness; or in consistency of life, failing into the sin of idleness (Isa 56:10), or that of covetousness and consequent rapacity (Isa 56:11), or that of bodily indulgence (Isa 56:12). And sin is never so ugly a garment as when it clothes the person of a minister of Jesus Christ.

III. THAT AN UNWORTHY MINISTRY SEALS THE FATE OF THE UNFORTUNATE COUNTRY ON WHICH IT IS IMPOSED. There is little hope for a land cursed with an unfaithful and an ungodly ministry. Not only is the truth of God withheld from men, but it is made positively distasteful and repugnant to the more spiritual by being associated with such professors. Its power is reduced to the very lowest possible point; the people are abandoned to error and to folly. It will soon be time for the enemy to appear at the gatesfor the destroying beast to ravage the flock (Isa 56:9).

1. Let all but those whom God has fitted for it shrink with holy diffidence from the sacred office.

2. Let the Church of Christ take the greatest care whom it invites to be “over it in the Lord.”C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 56:1

God’s nearness a plea.

“My salvation is near to come;” therefore “keep ye judgment, and do justice.” Isaiah announced God’s delivering and redeeming from Babylon as close at hand, and used this fact as a plea by which to urge immediate moral preparation. “When God is coming to us in a way of mercy we must go forth to meet him in a way of duty.” Illustration may be found in Psa 50:23; Mal 4:4 6. John the Baptist had a similar commission to this of Isaiah. He was to call to repentance on the ground of the fact that the “kingdom of heaven was at hand.” Further illustration may be found in the preparing of roads for a coming Eastern king, and the preparations made in our towns when the sovereign is about to visit them. The general subject suggested is the call to be ready for every display of Divine grace. Our getting the blessing of any near coming of God to us depends on our preparedness for the manifestation. We may note two points.

I. PREPARATIONS FOR GOD‘S COMING ARE SPIRITUAL. They are right states of mind and feeling. They are cleansings of thought and heart. They are humiliations on account of sin and shortcoming. They are the putting away of doubts, and the nourishing of trust. They are cherishings of all reverent sentiments. They are earnest efforts to gain an open and receptive mood of soul. Sabbath worship and sacramental seasons are times of special nearness of God, and they are dependent on the spiritual moods with which we approach them. Fitting moods are gained by times of meditation and prayer. A point of importance to impress is that spiritual preparations are quite as necessary in view of God’s mercies, benedictions, and prosperities, as in view of his chastisements and judgments. So easily we miss observing the necessity for spiritual readiness to receive Divine bestowals and blessings. See St. Paul’s teaching concerning self-examination before partaking of the sacramental feast (1Co 11:28).

II. SPIRITUAL PREPARATION FINDS EXPRESSION IN ALTERED CONDUCT. On this the prophet dwells. Because God’s salvation is near, men ought to readjust their conduct and rearrange their relations. They should keep judgment and do justice; or love the right and try to do it, remembering always that the “right” includes the “kind.” Just as, if a visitor is expected at a house, all kinds of house-preparations are made, but the heart-welcome is the chief thing, so when God would come to us, we must fit up the house of conduct for him, but take good heed that this only expresses the hearty welcome of our souls. In conclusion, show how these two mutually help each other. Soul-culture aids in mastery of life and conduct. The wise ordering of life brings good opportunity for soul-culture. Jesus came to save from sin; but there was little preparation for him. He came as a babe, and there was no room for him in the inn.R.T.

Isa 56:2

The sabbath a test of obedience.

It is singular to find Isaiah now making so much of the sabbath when, in the earlier part of his prophecy, he had, in the name of God, spoken of it so scornfully (see Isa 1:13, “The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with”). Matthew Arnold refers to this contrast, and says, “That related to a time when the kingdom of Judah yet stood, when the service of the temple was in full course, the whole exterior part of the Jews’ religion splendid and prominent. At such a time a prophet might naturally undervalue the whole of this exterior part in comparison with the inward part. But during the exile in Babylon all the services and sacrifices of the temple had ceased, and the one testimony of faithfulness to their religion which the Jews among an idolatrous people could give, was the observance of their sabbath; their sabbath was the one outward thing which brought their religion to their mind. Hence its observance acquired quite a special value.” Inquire what signs of their allegiance to Jehovah, and their obedience to his commands, pious Jews in Babylon could give to those around them. None could be so important or so effective as to show themselves a nation of sabbath-keepers, because Jehovah, their God, had commanded sabbath-keeping.

I. SABBATH–KEEPING A FORMAL ACT. As such it is of comparatively small importance. It bears good relation, indeed, to the physical health and the social order of a community, providing seasons of rest and change, and reminding of the claims of soul as well as body. But if sabbath-keeping be the mere formal act, with no deeper meaning in it, then it may be judged as a matter of expediency, and valued as a wise and excellent Mosaic arrangement, mere or less wisely imitated by other rulers.

II. SABBATH–KEEPING A MORAL STATE. Souls must keep sabbath, or it is not really kept. Souls must keep sabbath

(1) as an act of obedience to God;

(2) as an expression of love for worship;

(3) as a sign of loyalty and affection for God.

There is never any difficulty about the proper ordering of the day when the soul is full of the sabbath-spirit.

III. SABBATH–KEEPING THE FORMAL ACT WHICH EXHIBITS THE MORAL STATE. Man cannot test the soul-conditions of his fellow-man save by observing the expressions of that condition in his conduct. God can read soul-states, but, for purposes of revelation and teaching, he treats us as we treat each other, and asks for signs in the life of what may be in the soul. Therefore he still looks for careful and faithful sabbath-keeping.R.T.

Isa 56:4-6

Disabled ones sharing Divine blessings.

From the points of view of the earlier Judaism, eunuchs and strangers were persons placed under special disability. Neither could take full share in national or sanctuary privileges (Deu 23:1-8). To understand the feeling towards eunuchs we must remember the two prevailing ideas among the Jews, which made offspring seem so desirable.

1. A man found a sort of quasi-immortality in the feeling that he would live over again in his children.

2. It was possible to any Jewish parents that they might be progenitors of the promised Messiah. Eunuchs were persons who, either by reason of physical infirmity or cruel custom, could not have children born to them. They were despised because of their infirmity. The prophet assures such that the new spiritual kingdom of Messiah would have room for them, and gather them, as well as the foreigners and strangers, into its embrace, and even put special honour on them if they were found men of faith. “The prophet’s whole conception of the Gentiles in relation to the religion of Israel is unexampled in the Old Testament for its admirable width, depth, and grandeur.” The term “dry tree” is still a phrase used in the East of a person of either sex who has no children. Roberts, writing of Hindoo customs, says, “People without posterity, of both sexes, are called dry trees; which, strictly speaking, means they are dead, having neither sap, nor leaves, nor fruit.” Matthew Arnold says, “It must be remembered that, attached to a great Eastern court like that of Babylon, were a multitude of eunuchs, some of whom had perhaps adopted the religion of Israel. It is probable, also, that some of the Jewish youths were taken for the court service as eunuchs, and their countrymen would afterwards have been likely to abhor them on that account.” These considerations will enable us the better to feel the exquisite tenderness and mercifulness of this passage. The general topic suggested is the gracious way in which the gospel kingdom embraces all the disabled. This may be illustrated from

I. THOSE UNDER PHYSICAL DISABILITIES.

II. THOSE UNDER RACE–DISABILITIES.

III. THOSE UNDER SOCIAL DISABILITIES.

IV. THOSE UNDER MENTAL DISABILITIES.

V. THOSE UNDER DISABILITIES FROM PAST EVIL LIVING.

Christ’s salvation is for man as man. In his kingdom there are found black and white, bond and free. Its gate is open to whosoever will.R.T.

Isa 56:7

God’s house of prayer for everybody.

“Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.” These words were quoted by the Lord Jesus when he drove out the shopkeepers who defiled the temple (see Mat 21:13). The prophet declares that the “prayers and praises (those spiritual sacrifices) of devout Gentiles shall be as pleasing to God as those of the pious Jews, and no difference shall be made between them; for, though they are Gentiles by birth, yet through grace they shall be looked upon as the believing seed of faithful Abraham, and the praying seed of wrestling Jacob, for in Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision.” God’s house, the old temple, had been thought of as a place of sacrifices. The new temple, and above all the spiritual temple, the Christian temple, must be thought of as a place of prayer. This contrast gives the following topics.

I. THE OLD IDEA OF GOD‘S HOUSE WAS A HOUSE OF SACRIFICE. The old worship was one of multiplied and varied rites and ceremonies. It was a round of bodily services; it was honouring God by the devotion to him of the things that men possessed. It had its deeper spiritual meanings, but the prominent things were exact obediences, minute services, gorgeous and impressive spectacles. The “shadow of good things to come.”

II. THE NEW IDEA OF GOD‘S HOUSE IS A HOUSE OF PRAYER. Prayer comprehensively indicates all forms of spiritual worship, of communion with the Divine Being. Illustrate by the essential differences between the Jewish temple and the Christian Church. Even the Jewish worship, when a synagogue could not be built, was held in a , or place of prayer. It was the work of the prophets to lift men’s minds away from the more formal to the more spiritual associations of God’s house. Explain the senses in which prayer may stand for the whole of Christian worship.

III. THE OLD IDEA FITTED GOD‘S HOUSE FOR A LIMITED FEW. Just those to whom his particular directions about ritual and sacrifice had been given. If God has to be served by formal acts, they must be such as he requires and has duly explained to us. So God’s house was of old exclusively for Jews.

IV. THE NEW IDEA FITS GOD‘S HOUSE FOR EVERYBODY. Because prayer is just the great human commonplace. Man has been satirically, yet truthfully, called “a praying animal.” Prayer is characteristic of him. He has uplooking eyes and a yearning heart. When men know the unutterable value of prayer, “then shall the nations from the east and from the west build the last great temple of allthe temple of an eternal religionwhose foundations shall be wide as the whole nature of man, and whose dome, reaching up to heaven, shall shelter and overshadow the world.”R.T.

Isa 56:10-12

Worthless shepherds.

“Dumb dogs;” “Greedy dogs;” “Shepherds that cannot understand.” The prophet’s messages are in the main addressed to the pious and believing among the exiles. But he knows well how many of them were living in self-indulgence and sin, and were not in the least likely to heed his words, and prepare themselves for the coming deliverance. The evils were especially manifest in the leading people, who ought to have been leaders in goodness to the people. Instead of this, they were neglecting their duty, and presenting a debasing example of self-indulgence, and even of covetousness. The term “watchmen’ is used for chief men, princes, priests, prophets. These were utterly unable to comprehend or to meet the spiritual wants of the nation at this time, when God was so near, for carrying out his redeeming purpose. “The language here employed strikingly depicts the feelings of the voluptuous in every age.”

I. THE HELPLESSNESS OF THE LEADERS AND TEACHERS OF THAT AGE. Observe the blending of figures suitable to the shepherd and to the shepherd’s dog. Such a blending of figures is common in poetry and in Scripture. Inefficiency and sinful neglect are suggested in the terms

(1) blind;

(2) ignorant;

(3) dumb;

(4) loving to slumber;

(5) greedy;

(6) void of understanding;

(7) drunken.

II. THE REAL SECRET OF THEIR HELPLESSNESS. They thought of self. They did not live for their charge, but for themselves. “They all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.” And this is the root of evil in all who are placed in positions of responsibility, authority, and influenceall who are in any sense leaders and teachers. They must serve others, not get for self. Therefore the Apostle Paul pleads, saying, “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Compare the plea of the noble Samuel, on giving up his life-ministry, “Whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith?” (1Sa 12:3). In this way St. Paul counsels the young teacher Timothy, “Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” And a bishop is thus described, “Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous” (1Ti 4:12; 1Ti 3:3). St. Paul complains of the teachers of his time, “All seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ’s” (Php 2:21).R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

VIII.THE EIGHTH DISCOURSE

Isa 56:1-9

The new salvation mediated by the Servant of God was described chap. 54 in its general, objective aspect; in chap. 55 in respect to the subjective appropriation of salvation. Chap. 56, in a few but plain strokes, shows us the same as the source of an entirely new ethical, social and physical regulation of life. For Isa 56:1-2 hold out the prospect of a holy walk, Isa 56:3-7 of a new legal regulation respecting strangers and eunuchs, finally Isa 56:8-9, that the salvation shall be extended also to the impersonal creature.

The Isa 56:10-12 belong as to substance to the following chapter.

The moral, social and physical fruits of the new way of salvation

Isa 56:1-9

1Thus saith the Lord,

Keep ye 1judgment, and do justice:

For my salvation is near to come,

And my righteousness to be revealed.

2Blessed is the man that doeth this,

And the son of man that layeth hold on it;

That keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
And keepeth his hand from doing any evil.

3Neither let 2the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak

Saying, The Lord 3hath utterly separated me from his people:

Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

4For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs

That keep my sabbaths,
And choose the things that please me,

And take hold of my covenant;

5Even unto them will I give in mine house

And within my walls a 4place and a name

Better than of sons and of daughters:
I will give them an everlasting name,
That shall not be cut off.

6Also 5the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord,

To serve him, and to love the name of the Lord,

To be his servants,
Every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it,
And taketh hold of my covenant:

7Even them will I bring to my holy mountain,

And make them joyful in my house of prayer:
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar:

For mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.

8 The Lord God [Jehovah] which gathereth the outcasts of Israel, saith,

Yet will I gather others to him,

6Beside those that are gathered unto him.

9 All ye beasts of the field, come 7to devour,

Yea, all ye beasts in the forest.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 56:1. and in parallelism as in Isa 28:17; Isa 32:16 Isa 33:5; Isa 59:9; Isa 59:14.

Isa 56:2. and can of course be grammatically referred to what follows. But grammar just as much admits of their being referred to what precedes. And I prefer the latter, because then there is no need of taking for or , but it can be understood simply as in apposition with and in a specifying sense. is not to be understood as if simply intimated from what the Sabbath should be kept, in which sense and are frequently conjoined (e.g., he keeps thy foot from the snare Pro 3:26, etc.). has here, as often, the negative meaning (comp. Isa 44:18; Isa 49:15; Isa 58:13, etc.). We must therefore translate: who keeps the Sabbath (comp. Exo 31:14) so that he does not profane it. For the suffix in were quite superfluous if it were intended to be said only in general from what the Sabbath must be kept. In the latter case one would rather look for an infinitive passive or an abstract noun: he who keeps the Sabbath from being profaned, or from profanation. Moreover this involves the meaning that one must not only keep the Sabbath himself, but also guard it from every profanation by others. But the suffix is pertinent if the meaning is: he who keeps the Sabbath so that he does not profane it (the Sabbath, not anything in general). This explanation is commended by the fact that the same construction recurs Isa 58:13. Of course, then, the following clause must be similarly explained.

Isa 56:3. is, from its ending, not the participle, but the perfect. If the pointing be correct, then the mode of expression belongs to the instances where the article involves a pronominal meaning; Jos 10:24; Gen 21:3; Ezr 8:25; 1Ch 29:17; 1Ch 26:28.In the has a cumulative sense, as in Isa 32:10; Gen 28:9; Gen 31:50, etc.

Isa 56:4. As regards the construction, one sees from , that the Prophet arranges the clauses by that rule according to which, from the view-point of the first stage of the future attained, what remains is presented in the perfect as the simple unfolding of that stage. For the sake of variety, and doubtless also for the purpose of denoting the persistency of the holding fast, the Prophet expresses the third condition by the participle. For this reason we are not to construe as in apposition, say, with , but it stands parallel with . The pronomen separatum is wanting, as very often happens, Isa 2:6; Isa 24:2; Isa 34:21; Isa 37:26; Isa 41:7, etc.The words of Jehovah, announced by , begin with as appears by the suffixes and afformatives of the first person.

Isa 56:5. , belong together as a double idea, and refers to it. Hence cannot simply mean side, place, share (as e.g., Num 2:17; Deu 23:13; Gen 46:24, etc.), nor mean simply name. But both together must designate a monument that preserves the memory of the name. In this sense stands alone (2Sa 18:18; 1Sa 15:12), and also (comp. on Isa 55:13). The combination has the force of a hendiadys: mark and memory=memorial mark.

Isa 56:6-7. is the infin. with the fem. ending _.On comp. Isa 54:5; Isa 35:8; Isa 62:4; Isa 62:12.

Isa 56:8. Only here and Zec 12:1 is so placed at the beginning. On the double name see List.

Isa 56:9. I construe (instead of which Isa 43:20 ) as the object of Isa 56:8, and Isa 56:9 b as parallel clause. The form (excepting in Zep 2:14, where are spoken of, and thus the word is evidently used in a figurative sense), occurs only in connection with the substantives (Gen 1:24; Psa 79:2), (Psa 104:11) and (Psa 50:10; Psa 104:20). designates the totality of all beasts. The two halves of them are the and or .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Thus saith the LORDany evil.

Isa 56:1-2. It might appear from Isa 55:1-3, as if, for receiving the promised salvation, nothing more were necessary than receptivity, and as if all activity were excluded. That such is not the case is intimated already Isa 55:7, by the exhortation to penitent turning from evil and turning to the Lord. But the Prophet designedly declares in the present passage, that one should not suppose moral uncleanness is compatible with participation in the promised salvation. It is indeed Gods free grace that accords to men the satisfaction spoken of in Isa 55:2-3. But this grace is not only to make men blessed, but also to sanctify them. It is in fact impossible for one to enjoy the goodness of God, and at the same time to insult Him by transgressing His commandments. Such an exhortation is of course needless for those that have entered body and scul into the kingdom of God, i. e., for those that no longer live in the mortal body that is subject to sin. To all those that still stand in the conflict of this earthly life, the kingdom of God has only come near. To them the righteousness of God is not completely revealed (comp. Rom 8:24). When we note that the Lord, at the end of the first clause of Isa 56:1 requires of men that they use righteousness, then the corresponding revelation of His righteousness, that He promises at the close of the verse, consist in this, that He for His part, as the one covenanting party (Isa 55:3), will keep what He has promised. Thus, too, it is said to Christians that have in faith laid hold of Gods grace: know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1Co 6:9 sq.)? and: this ye know, that no whore, monger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ, and of God (Eph 5:5); and: follow after holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord (Heb 12:14, comp. 1Ti 6:11; 1Th 5:23, etc.). Moreover the author of Psa 106:3, seems to have had our passage before him.

Isa 56:2. He that does what was required in Isa 56:1 (see Text. and Gram.), is to be esteemed blessed. For he has proved that he has true faith. Two commandments, or two categories of commandments, are named instead of all. First the Sabbath commandment. The Sabbath was the day consecrated to Jehovah. By its weekly recurrence, it was a standing admonition to the duty that Israel owed to Jehovah, and thus a touchstone of whether Israel would faithfully pay this duty. Hence it is called, Exo 31:13 : a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Thus the Sabbath belonged to foundations of the Theocracy, its profanation was punished with death (Exo 35:2), which was to be inflicted by the whole congregation, and by means of stoning (Num 15:35). And keepeth his hand from doing any evil; one can say that in this clause the Prophet includes the sphere of the second table of the Decalogue. Luther says: Comprehendit nomine sabbati omnia ea, quae nos Deo debemus, hoc est primam tabulam. Rursus cum dicit custodiens manus suas etc., omnia caritatis opera complectitur, hoc est secundam tabulam. The Prophet means about the same that is demanded of the Israelites, Isa 1:16-17 (where see my comment). One may also say that he has in mind the image of the Old Testament , the antithesis to which is the . It is moreover to be noted, that the Prophet, in contemplating the future Messianic salvation with reference to its moral behaviour, does so in the form of as exhortation. Although on the whole he gives a promise, still, agreeably to the nature of the subject, he appeals here with special emphasis also to the personal performance of men. His Isa 56:2 is conditioned on the admonition Isa 56:1.

2. Neither let the sonfor all people. Isa 56:3-7. In these verses the Prophet shows that the new way of salvation will have in its train an entirely new order of law and life. The natural basis of the old covenant was the descent from Abraham, through the lineage consecrated by means of circumcision. This explains why the reception of strangers into this holy national communion could take place only under certain onerous conditions. For it was possible (Deu 23:4 sqq., comp. Saalschuetz,Mos. Recht. chap. 100). Now evidently the Prophet would say, that the foreigners ( a broader conception than ; for is only the foreigner sojourning in the land, whereas or designates the foreigner generally, comp. Isa 14:1, ; Saalschuetz,l. c. p. 684 sq.) in the new covenant, will suppose that there will be greater stringency in the legal requirements respecting the reception of foreigners into the Israelitish communion in consequence of the enhanced glory. Thus the Prophet assumes, that Israel will be so glorious in the new covenant, that the inferiority of the heathen will, in contrast, only appear in so much the stronger light, that consequently nothing more will be said of receiving the latter into Israel, yea, that the question will even be raised of excluding those already received. A is one that has joined himself to the assembly of Jehovah, and has been received into it (comp. Neh 10:29). The expression occurs in this sense Isa 14:1; Jer 1:5; Zech. 2:15; Est 9:27. From Isa 56:6, we will learn that an allusion to offering ones self for the priestly ministry is not foreign to the word. It seems to me to be a needless inquiry, whether the Prophet means by proselytes of the gate or proselytes of righteousness. For he would evidently say, that all those who are unable to trace back the origin of their race to the root of Israel, will question, whether, because not predestined by birth to the glory of this people, thus because not noble enough, they must not be expelled again from the national communion of Israel, spite of their reception into it, and spite of their having thereby become (comp. Leyrer in Herz. R.-Encycl XII. p. 244). The Prophet negatives this inquiry, because the new covenant will rest on a totally different basis from the old. Not fleshly descent, not works of the law will be the chief thing, but the receptivity for Gods word, and the disposition to receive His gift as a gift of grace (Isa 55:1-3). This negation is followed by another relating to the quite similar apprehension ascribed to the eunuchs. He, that on account of sexual impotency was unable to propogate his race, was, according to the Old Testament view, a man living in a certain measure under a curse. For since the Old Testament knows no continuance of life beyond the present, but only a continuance of life in the present in children, therefore the want of children appears to it ignominious punishment (comp. Isa 4:1; Gen 30:23; 1Sa 1:5 sqq.; Isa 2:1 sqq. Luk 1:25). A eunuch in the proper sense was, according to Deu 23:2, excluded forever from admission into the congregation. He could not continue to live, he was excluded from the possibility of co-operating in preserving the natural basis on which the whole Israelitish communion rested. Such a one must, of course, in the old covenant regard himself as a dry, unfruitful tree. There would be no reason for this in the new covenant, which makes the everlasting life depend on spiritual and not on fleshly conditions.

Isa 56:4. The Prophet now names three such spiritual conditions of life. In their enumeration there is a progression from the special to the general. As the first he names the observance of a definite single commandment, that regarding the Sabbath. As already remarked, it belonged to the foundations of the Theocracy. At first sight the mention of this commandment gives the impression of Old Testament narrowness. And indeed we have observed often already, how the prophets continue to be rooted in their own times, and hence paint the future with the colors of the present.8 But it is also to be considered, that the Prophet certainly knew how to distinguish between a merely outward and truly spiritual fulfilment of the Sabbath-commandment. He must, according to the whole character of his prophecy, have the latter in his mind. He thinks of the Sabbaths as the halting places of religious life, where the pilgrim provides himself with bread and water of life for the next stretch of lifes way, until at last he arrives where all life is a great, holy Sabbath, i. e., an eternal resting in God. The rest of God on the seventh creative day, that has no evening, hovers over the whole course of the world, in order at last to receive it into itself. hler. The second condition is expressed more generally, whereby it is to be noted that the expression designates as the right obedience that which is voluntary, and rests on an inward harmony with the divine will. The third and most general condition, is holding fast to the covenant of God in general, for to this belongs not only the right activity, but also the right receptivity (Isa 55:3). In this connection it seems to me inadmissible to think specially of the covenant of circumcision, when just in Isa 56:3, the irrelevancy of fleshly birth and generation has been emphasized.

Isa 56:5. I will give them in My house and in My walls a mark and memory better than sons and daughters. On [a place and a name English Version] see Text. and Gram. [As the meaning place (for ) is admissible in 2Sa 18:18, as in many other cases, it appears to be entitled to the preference. J. A. Alex.]. The Lord will set up this mark in His house and in His walls. The Temple walls are not elsewhere made prominent, whereas the city walls are. For not only does the wall, in common usage, (comp. intra, extra muros: Psa 122:7) represent the circuit of the city, but it is personified as the representative of the city community (Lam 2:8; Lam 2:18). So I believe here, the Prophet would denote the ecclesiastical and political communion, the ecclesiastical and political citizenship. The Lord will give the eunuchs a memorial-mark that will better preserve their name than sons and daughters, whose succession any way must at last become extinct, that is, an everlasting name that shall never be cut off. Note the repetition from Isa 55:13. [A beautiful coincidence and partial fulfilment of the promise is pointed out by J. D. Michaelis, in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, whose conversion is recorded Acts 8, and whose memory is far more honored in the church than it could have been by a long line of illustrious descendants. J. A. Alex.]. What shall this everlasting name be? Living on in the memory of after-times? Yet just how will this be secured? Sons and daughters, in fact, only take the place in the Old Testament of personal immortality in the New Testament sense. The everlasting name is nothing else than everlasting personal continuance as it is promised in 1Co 15:29 sqq. on the ground of the resurrection of the Lord. If the bearer of the name himself lives everlastingly, then there is at length the true, new, everlasting name (Isa 65:15; Rev 2:17; Rev 3:12). Of what avail is the everlasting name to him who himself is swallowed up of death?

Isa 56:6. It is a sort of when the Prophet discourses last of the the foreigners, after having put that first in the theme-like Isa 56:3. His designating them as those joining themselves to Jehovah to serve Him, reminds us very much of Num 18:2, where it is said in reference to the Levites: and they shall join themselves to thee and shall minister unto thee (comp. ibid. Isa 56:4). If this passage hovered in the Prophets mind, then his choice of expression would intimate that he promised to the foreigner a certain participation in the priestly character of the people Israel, that he conceives of their holding a relation to the latter, something like that of the Levites to the priests. The Piel is chiefly used of the priestly ministrations (Exo 28:43; Exo 29:30; Exo 39:1; Num 3:31; Num 4:12; Num 4:14, etc.). The Prophet would evidently intimate by the word (see Text. and Gram.) to love, that the foreigners joining himself to Jehovah to serve Him will be voluntary, proceeding from the inmost necessity of the heart. The additional statement: to be his servants, seems to me to confirm the conjecture that the Prophet conceives of the relation of the foreigners to the Israelites as like that of the Levites to the priests. For the expression seems to me a reminder that is the specific word used for the Levitical ministry (comp. Num 8:23 sqq.), which in Num 4:47 is distinguished into and .

Isa 56:7. Only to the foreigner is it promised, that the Lord, when they have fulfilled the conditions proposed already to the eunuch (Isa 56:4), will bring them up on His holy mountain (Isa 2:2 sq,; Isa 25:6 sqq.), and make them joyful in His house of prayer. The Lord therefore distinguishes His house from His mountain, and calls the former His prayer-house, i. e., the house where one prays to Him and to Him alone. That there will be a place and time of the greatest joy, we know already from Isa 2:4 where the return of an aetas aurea is promised, and from Isa 25:6 sqq. where the prospect is presented to the nation of a glorious meal and great joy (Isa 56:9) on the holy mount. To the colors of the present, with which the Prophet paints the future, belongs also his conception of the worship on the holy mountain, as being quite in the old style. He sees there still the altar on which burnt-offerings and sacrifices are offered! Still, it is not to be overlooked, that he calls the Temple a house of prayer, before he speaks of the sacrifices, and that he afterwards emphatically repeats the designation house of prayer as a denominatio a potiori, so to speak. Although the old Temple was a place destined also for prayer (comp. 1Ki 8:28 sqq.), yet in the Old Testament it is never called a house of prayer. There is, therefore, in this name an intimation that the sacrifices to be offered in the temple of the future will be spiritual sacrifices (1Pe 2:5), the fruit of the lips that confess His name (Heb 13:15). The clause: for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations does not assign a reason for what immediately precedes, but for the fundamental thought that the Lord will bring also the foreigners to His holy mountain. The Prophet would make prominent the universality of the salvation, and one easily detects also in a reference to Isa 3:2 sqq. and to Isa 25:6 sqq. On the other hand Jesus Christ in Mat 21:13 (Mar 11:17; Luk 19:43) lays the emphasis on the idea house of prayer,

3. The Lord Godin the forest.

Isa 56:8-9. The initial words saith the Lord God, intimate something new and grand to be said. Now it is nothing new, nor is it anything exceeding grand beyond what we have had already, that Jehovah, in addition to the scattered of Israel, will gather the heathen, so that there may be one flock and one shepherd. For has not the Prophet hitherto often enough (comp. 54), and even from Isa 56:3 on of our chapter, given expression to this? Has he not said plainly enough, Isa 56:7, that the Lord will bring the foreigners to His holy mountain and make them joyful in His house? Why then this repetition? and why still more this solemn preface? The Prophet states, in Isa 56:9, whom the Lord will add to those already gathered. All meanings of this Isa 56:9 that would disjoin it from Isa 56:8, and connect it with what follows are unnatural. Some take as accusative, and understand by it the flocks of Israel badly kept or grown wild; others, as the modern expositors, would take as a second vocative, which leaves the object the same, viz., the badly guarded Israel (Isa 56:10); others again, as Stier, etc., understand by the beasts of the field and forest especially the savage nations (in antithesis, therefore, it would seem to the foreigners as the civilized) that are also to be invited. But in all these explanations I find neither anything new, nor anything grand, nor any thought that is a fitting conclusion for the chain of thoughts preceding.

Did not the Prophet begin, from chap. 54 on, to describe how all will be new and wonderful in the new covenant? Israel, although judged and repudiated, shall suddenly see itself surrounded by a countless troop of children. One is no longer to be blessed by means of works of the law, but by believing acceptance (55)! But of course obedience to Gods command is not to cease (Isa 56:1-2). By these new conditions of life, however, entrance is permitted also to the heathen, and even the eunuchs may be fully qualified members of the community, which rests on a spiritual basis of life, and no longer on a merely natural basis. Therefore a higher, out and out spiritual order of nature, is held in prospect! Already in Isa 55:12-13, the Prophet afforded us a presentiment, that also the lower half of creation, the organic but not personal creation, viz., the vegetable world, will feel itself penetrated by this new spirit of life, the spirit of glorification. What wonder if he says the same here of the beasts! And is that a new thought with our Prophet? Has he not already, Isa 11:6 sqq., declared, that the kingdom of the Messiah will fill the world with new, higher life-forces? Has he not in the same place especially declared, that even the nature of the beasts will change, that from enemies of man they will become their friends and play-mates (Isa 11:8 comp. with Hos 2:18, and Isa 65:25)? I find in Isa 56:8, therefore a climax. To the chain of promise, that all foreigners, yea, even the eunuchs can have part in the new covenant, is added as the final link that also the brute world shall find admittance.

It should be noted that the Lord is described here as the great gatherer. Under the old covenant sin reigned, and consequently discontent and discord, through the whole world of nature and men. In the new covenant reign love and peace. The centrifugal tendency is replaced by a centripetal. Everything gathers to the common centre. But the Lord, who is this centre and effects this gathering, begins it with Israel. Then He gathers to Israel the heathen. Then He brings up the vegetable and brute world, that they, the groaning creation, may become regenerated and free from the bondage of destruction unto the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:21). It is certainly not an accident, and is a strong support to our explanation, that the words and are taken from Isa 11:12, therefore out of the same chapter in which we first found the expression of the view that is the basis of our explanation here. For there it says: And He will raise up a standard toward the nations and assemble the outcasts of Israel ( ) and gather () the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Only in Isa 11:12 and Isa 56:8 does the expression occur in Isaiah. It is found once beside in Psa 147:2, which belongs to a later period. The word is used three times in our passage; first as a predicate of Lord, as the gatherer of the outcasts of Israel. Beside that principal passage, we learn from many passages of 4066. the significance of this ingredient of the future (Isa 40:11; Isa 43:5; Isa 49:18; Isa 54:7; Isa 60:4; Isa 62:10). The , then, who understands gathering and does it willingly, will gather still others to Israel, viz., to those gathered to Israel. One would suppose that what is further to be gathered must even be added to outcasts of Israel. But the Prophet evidently distinguishes the outcasts, and those that are gathered. By the latter he means such as could by no means be designated as outcasts of Israel, because they never belonged to (the fleshly) Israel. He means by them the heathen of whom he has spoken, Isa 56:3; Isa 56:6 sq. Of this it was indeed said Isa 56:7, that the Lord will bring them to His holy mountain. Therefore we detect two things in the words ; first, that the are no ; that they nevertheless belong to Israel. For they belong to the spiritual Israel. After that, what is left that could be added to Israel, when, beside the outcasts, the heathen, after qualifying as in Isa 56:6, have already become , the gathered? Then nothing is left but the impersonal creatures. And as already Isa 55:12-13, the vegetable world was mentioned as interpenetrated by the new life-forces, nothing remains to us but the brute world, to be declared a partaker of the new life. Because the beasts of the earth are destined to partake of the new life, the bringing on of one half is described by beasts of the field, and of the other by beasts of the forest (see Text. and Gram.). Only in respect to the form of the expression does a change occur. Isa 56:9 b states in what way the gathering will take place, viz., by extending an invitation to them. It is not necessary to supply an object to . The brutes are just invited to eat, to a meal. It is, mutatis mutandis, the same meal to which, Isa 25:6, all nations are invited.

[The Authors interpretation of Isa 56:9, connecting it with the preceding context, has in its favor the marked division of the Masoretic text, in addition to its own ingenuity. But spite of His assertion to the contrary, that is much the more natural division that connects Isa 56:9 with what follows, as is proved by its having been so generally adopted, notwithstanding the Masoretic division. The Author supports his view chiefly by appeal to saith the Lord God, as a preface that intimates that something new and grand, or grandly new, is to be said. But this inference may itself be questioned. Yet if it were justified, he himself undoes the force of his appeal by showing; that, after all, what is said is not grandly new, seeing it has been said in effect before. The naturalness and propriety of the connection of Isa 56:9 with what follows may be illustrated by a reference to Joh 10:10; Joh 10:12. The relation of Isa 56:1-12, as coherent parts of one distinct chapter, may be illustrated by a reference to Mat 24:42-51. The Authors own exposition of the text of itself calls to mind this latter passage, as one that in its spirit is related to the revelation in our prophecy. But the Author actually brings the passages into relation: see below Hom. Hints, 1. The propriety of throwing Isa 56:10-12 into one connected section with Isa 57:1-2, may therefore be questioned.TR.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa 56:1-2. Just because Christ has appeared, we ought not to suppose that now we may live as we please, but rather we ought to be the more diligent about righteousness and godly conversation. For therefore the saving grace of God has appeared and chastens us, that we should live chastened, righteous and godly (Tit 2:11). Cramer.

2. On Isa 56:2. Apart from the temporal coloring of this declaration, it may be remarked here, that the weekly day of rest is necessary, also, for us Christians as long as we are under the curse, Gen 3:17 sqq. It is one of the greatest and most important benefactions of God, that at the creation of time He at once gave us also the proper division of time. Less than six working days would interrupt too often the progress of human labors and encourage laziness; more than six working days in succession would use up human forces too soon. Six days labor, then a day of rest, is just the right and in every respect healthful medium. That we Christians observe the first instead of the seventh day, has come about of itself, without any special higher ordinance. It is the victory that the second creation, as the beginning of the holy, blessed, everlasting life, must naturally have over the first creation as the beginning of a life made subject to sin, evil and death. For Sunday is the weekly Easter feast. The day of Christs resurrection was also a creative day, and indeed a higher one than that of which the Sabbath reminds us. Therefore we ought to celebrate Sunday in a higher style. We, as mush as the men of the old covenant, need rest for the body and rest for the soul. The soul should on this day wash off the dust and dirt, that have gathered through the weeks work, by a cleansing, refreshing, strengthening bath in its heavenly life-element, that is offered in Gods word. But it should do this in a truly spiritual, not in an outwardly legal way. Let it beware of getting out of the Scylla of Publicanism into the Charybdis of Pharisaism. Even the Old Testament Sabbath was a day of joy. So much the less is it becoming to make of the Christian Sabbath a day of gloomy, depressing asceticism. The Christian Sunday should be illumined with the joy and glory of Easter morning. But by this joy it should also at the same time be raised high away out, not only above all earthly plagues, but also above all bad, merely earthly joy. It should stand in the brightness of the transfiguration, and thus not merely imitate the light of Easter day, but also typify the light of the everlasting Sabbath.

[If Sunday is anywhere kept holy in the manner described in the last two of the foregoing sentences, there one might abstain from controversy concerning the grounds of its being so. But it is a fact now historical, that the day is nowhere greatly kept sacred, where its importance is urged on no better grounds than those given above. It is a strange proceeding to find a reason for the institution or need of the Sabbath in Gen 3:17 sqq., when God Himself gives as the reason His own resting on the seventh day, and that not from a work on which rested the blight of a curse. We assent to the statement that six days labor, then a day of rest, is just the right and healthful medium. But it is still true, that this rule could never be urged as of binding force on any other ground than that of revelation. Experience confirms it; but it could never do so in a way to make it an article of religion, any more than it could make the habit of early rising an article of religion. The reason for the institution of the Sabbath was Gods resting. Making a day for man to rest like God rested, is itself a revelation of Gods willingness to have men share his rest. To enter his rest is the chief, final goal of religion, both under the old and under the new covenant. The Sabbath, therefore, as typical of that rest, and (when we observe it) of our hope of sharing that rest, is the great distinctive and significant institution of the only true religion, i.e., the only religion that offers a true hope of immortality. As long as Gods people have not yet entered into His rest, there is reason, and all the reason there ever was, for observing that day that is a type of His rest. When the rest itself is given, there will no longer remain a typical day to be kept. Just as there no longer remained any sacrifices for sin after the great Sacrifice was come, that all sacrifices for sin typified (Heb 10:26). In Heb 4:1-11 the truth just stated is clearly revealed. And in Isa 56:8-10 it is put with a pointedness that expressly affirms the Sabbath to be an existing institution for the people of God under the new covenant, though this meaning is generally overlooked. But if the order of thought in Heb 4:1-11 is closely scrutinized, it will appear that, in Isa 56:8-10, Paul reminds his readers, that Joshua did not give the promised rest, which he appeals to as the only event of the past that might seem to be a realization of Gods promise of rest. The proof that the rest was not then given is, that God afterwards spake of another day for giving it. As the consequence of the rest being yet future, Paul says, Isa 56:9 : Therefore there remaineth (i.e., the observance of the Sabbath), to the people of God. And so it must remain as long as the watchword of Christians is: Let us labor to enter into that rest (Heb 4:10).It is remarkable that the author, in his comment on Isa 56:7, seems to find less temporal coloring in the expressions burnt-offerings and sacrifices, and mine altar, than in the mention of keeping the Sabbath. To him the former give no impression of Jewish narrowness in Isaiah, while the latter seems so fitted to give this impression that the best he can offer is an indifferent apology. As he is but a representative of multitudes of Christians, including multitudes of eminent ones, it is a mournful evidence of how far the Christian church is from properly valuing the divine and priceless institution of the Holy Sabbath, and therefore how far we Gentiles and foreigners are from meeting the conditions of the blessings of the new covenant set forth in the prophecy before us.Tr.]

3. On Isa 56:3-7. In the old covenant, only he was fully qualified as to principle [to be one of the covenant people] who was descended from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob. The natural basis of descent was at the same time the legal basis. Those who only from without grew into this natural and legal basis, must ever, in a certain degree, have regarded themselves as only guests received out of grace, that must properly yield and give place to the fully qualified, were the principles of the Theocracy carried out consistently. And might it not be expected that the triumph of the Theocracy would be attended with the most severely consistent carrying out of its principle? The right that descent from Abraham through Isaac and Jacob gave, involved, as does every right, a duty, viz., that of co-operating in preserving the natural basis. The extinction of the Twelve Tribes would have been the end of the Old Testament Theocracy. Hence the high significance of marriage, of generation, of posterity. To be childless or, still worse, to be incapable of begetting children, was a ban and curse that rested on a man, like a divine judgment that excluded him from living on and working on, and gave him absolutely to death. What a consoling look, then, the Prophet takes here into the nature of the new covenant ! There is no longer Greek nor Jew; their continued life and activity no longer depends on fleshly posterity. But in the new covenant Christ is all. Whoever is rooted and lives in him is a child of God, and hence, too, an heir of God and joint heir with Christ (Rom 8:17). He has his citizenship and everlasting life in Christ. His name lives on everlastingly, because he himself is everlasting.

4. On Isa 56:5. These words were used by the Papists to commend celibacy. Luther remarks on this: Propheta hic non versatur in laude virginitatis, sed consolatur steriles eunuchos, ne desperent de sua vocatione, et diserte dicit de eunuchis servantibus Sabbatum et tenentibus foedus divinum. Non ligitur agit de laude eunuchatus aut virginitatis, sed laude servantium mandata.

5. On Isa 56:8-9. There will one time be a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17; Isa 66:22; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1). Paul speaks of the anxious expectation of the creature, and that it will be delivered from the service of the perishable nature to the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:19; Rom 8:21). Behold, I make all things new, says He that sitteth on the throne (Rev 21:5). We must not, therefore, think it wonderful if the Prophet here speaks of the brute world and their relation to man becoming new. Are not, after all, the Cherubim types of what will become of the brute world (Eze 1:10)?

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa 56:1-2. This text may most appropriately be used for an Advent Sunday (comp. the Epistle of the I. Adv., Rom 13:11-14, the Gospel of the second Luk 21:25-34, the Epistle of the third 1Co 4:1-5 and of the fourth Php 4:4-7), or for one of the last Sundays after Trinity, when the look of the congregation is turned to the coming of the Lord to judgment. On such a day, in the sense of the parables of the faithful and wise servant (Mat 24:45 sqq.) or of the ten virgins (Mat 25:1 sqq.), one might preach on The revelation of the Lord that we are to look for at the last day. I. When and how will this revelation take place? (Isa 56:1 b) 1.) As regards the time, we are to think of it as near; 2) As regards how, it will bring to light, a. the Salvation intended for us, b. the Righteousness of God. II. Under what conditions may we cheerfully anticipate this revelation? When we are found as servants that do the Lords will. 1) What is the doing of such a servant (Isa 56:1 a, Isa 56:2, comp. Mat 24:46)? 2) How does one become such a servant? (by sincere repentance and living faith).

2. On Isa 56:3-7. Missionary Sermon. The Church of the Lord a house of prayer for all nations. I. A house of prayer, therefore 2) not a place for offering outward divine service, but 1) a place for worshipping in spirit and in truth (Joh 4:24). II. For all nations. For 1) neither fleshly descent nor fleshly defect excludes; 2) only that is demanded which all men may perform: that one hold fast the covenant of the Lord, and choose what pleases Him (Isa 56:4).

3. On Isa 56:3-7. We have here an example of what Peter says, Act 10:34-35, that with God there is no respect of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him. God proved that, even in the Old Covenant, since He commanded to receive also foreigners into His nation, if they sought Him. But especially in the New Testament has He called and gathered all heathen to His believing people Israel, and to the fellowship of Christ and of His salvation. Let a man be ever so bad, ever so poor and despised of men, still, if he become a believing Christian, he is of as much importance to God as the most superior person. And what this one has in God, Christ and His kingdom, with that same every believing Christian may comfort himself. Hence John writes of believers, they have their fellowship with them. the holy Apostles; and their fellowship is with the Father, and with Jesus Christ his Son (1Jn 1:3).

4. [On Isa 56:6. The conditions on which admission is had to the privileges of the people of God. (1) They were to join themselves to the Lord; embrace the true faith and become a worshipper of the true God. (2) This should be with a purpose to serve Him. (3) They were to love the name of the Lord, that is, to love Jehovah Himself. (4) They were to keep His Sabbaths. (5) They were to take hold of His covenant.Barnes].

5. On Isa 56:8-9. Sin rends mankind, yea all nature asunder, puts them at enmity and scatters them. For by sin we all become egoists, and so lose both the tendency to the common centre, God, and also to those who revolve with us around the centre. Gods love gathers, again what has been scattered. Let us consider Gods activity in gathering. 1) He gathers the outcast of Israel. 2) He gathers to these the heathen. 3) He brings also, in addition to these, the impersonal creatures, the plants (Isa 55:12-13) and the brutes (Isa 11:6-8; Isa 55:25; Rom 8:19-23).

Footnotes:

[1]Or, equity.

[2]the foreigners.

[3]will utterly separate.

[4]mark.

[5]the foreigners.

[6]Heb. To his gathered.

[7]to eat.

[8][The remarks of the Author on this mention of the Sabbath, and all the impression of Old Testament narrowness of which he would divest it, belong to a condition of rootedness in a state of religious life that has lost much of the blessing of the Sabbath. Those who believe in the perpetual obligation of the Fourth Commandment, and have lived in church communions that have observed the command, and have religious traditions through generations of Sabbath-keeping people, will see no Old Testament narrowness in the language of the Prophet. On the contrary, we must see in this language the express revelation, that the new covenant is not to involve an abrogation of the Sabbath of the Fourth Commandment; that Sabbath is, in fact, to be more honored than ever, and the keeping of it is to be the first privilege of those that hold fast to that covenant. Though part of the foundations of the Theocracy, it did not pass away with the latter. Some of those foundations last still, e, g., the Abrahamic covenant, Tr.].

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. On Isa 56:11. (Every one looks to his own way). Potest intelligi de externis criminibus, sed magis placet, ut accipiatur de speciosis viis, in quibus ambulant hypocritae. Sic Franciscanus Francisci regulam sequitur, decalogum et evangelii doctrinam negligit tanquam rem vulgarem, quae ad vulgus pertirneant.Luther.

2. On Isa 56:12. In the Alexandrian and Vatican texts of the LXX., the words from Isa 56:11 to the end of Isa 56:12 are wanting, which even Jerome remarks on. He adds: denique hos versiculos nullus ecclesiasticorum interpretum disseruit, sed quasi patentem in medio foveam transiliunt atque transmittunt.That the Fathers, unacquainted as they were with Hebrew, pass the words by, is simply explained by the LXX. omitting them. Jerome, because he knew Hebrew, as he himself says, added them ex hebraico. But why the Greek translator left them out is doubtful: Theodotion (see Hexapla Orig. ed. Montfaucon II., p. 179) has them.Ab hoc vitio (ebrietatis) abstinere debent pii ecclesiae ministri memores interdicti apostolici 1Ti 3:2-3, considerantes secum, nullam horulam ipsis esse adeo liberam ac vacuam, qua non ad officia functionis suis possint avocari.Foerster.Let one point the rough figure for himself for the more delicate spiritual form also, quite as Mat 24:49; Eph 5:18, and the like are meant. For there is a drunkenness and voluptuousness in all kinds of wine and intoxication, which only the eye of the Spirit beholds in many an honorable Bishop, General-superintendent or Superior-court-preacher. Stier. Vita concionatoris optimus syllogismus. Chrysostom.

3. On Isa 57:1. Against the heedlessness of the world, that regards the life and death of men alike. For because Pharaoh and Moses, Saul and Jonathan, Judas and Peter, must temporally die, the one as the other, they suppose it is as much to one as to the other. But on the contrary, one should lay it to heart when useful and pious men fall, because, first, one must miss them afterwards, especially their prayers by which they stand in the breach and run to the walls (Eze 22:30); second, because the destruction of such people is wont to be an evil omen of a great impending misfortune and change, [It is a sign that God intends war when He calls home His ambassadors.M. Henry]. Examples: When Noah turns his back on the world and shuts himself in the ark, the deluge comes (Gen 7:17). When Lot goes out of Sodom and Gomorrah, fire from heaven falls on them (Gen 19:24). When Joseph dies in Egypt, the bondage of the children of Israel begins, together with the murder of their infant boys (Exo 1:8). When Hezekiah died, then followed the tyranny of Manasseh (2 Kings 20, 21) When Christ and His disciples were made way with, then began the destruction of Jerusalem.Cramer.Sicut ad Josiam dicit: tolleris, ne videant occuli tui hoc malum, etc. (2Ki 22:18-20). Sic excidio Hierosolymitano erepti sunt apostoli et reliqui Sancti. Idem nobis accidet. Vivunt adhuc passim quidam pii homines, propter iliis Deus differt poenam. Sublatis autem iis sequetur Germaniae ruina.Luther.Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labor (Rev 14:13). And hellish enemies, as little as human, can do them any harm.It is a misfortune for the whole country when distinguished and deserving people are taken out of the midst by temporal death. For them, indeed, it is well; but God have mercy on those that are left. For as in a great storm, when the heavens are overcast with clouds, the shepherd leads in the sheep, the husbandman hastily gathers his sheaves, the parents call in the children from the streets, so our dear God calls His dearest children together, that the calamity may not touch them.Cramer.The men of grace or mercy are receivers and distributers, thus also the mediators of the grace of God for their people; the men of grace, that atoningly represent the land by intercessions and conduct, postpone its judgment (Gen 18:24; Eze 22:30). Stier.The mere presence of an honest man is still a, restraint on the unbridledness of blasphemers. G. Mueller in Stier.

4. On Isa 57:2. Against the idle fancy of the fire of purgatory. For here it is said of those who have walked uprightly, not that they get into trouble, unrest, pain and torment, by which they must be purged; but that, with respect to their souls, they come to peace. But as to their bodies, they rest in their sleeping chamber. They are not on this account driven about; they seek also no mass or soul baths, as the Papists pretend.Cramer.

Nam stultum est mortem matrem timuisse quietis,

Quam fugiunt morbi, moestaque pauperies.

(Attributed to Cornelius Gallus, the friend of Virgil).

5. On Isa 52:4. It should be a wreath of honor to all faithful teachers and preachers, that they are regarded as monsters and are lampooned by the wise of this world. For if the great Prophet Isaiah in this passage, item, Jeremiah (Jer 20:8), Elijah (2Ki 2:24), Ezekiel (Eze 33:31), Job (Job 17:6), yea, even Christ Himself had to suffer this, what wonder is it if the scoffing birds sharpen their beaks on us and chatter like the storks? Cramer.

6. [On Isa 52:8. When a people forget God, the memorials of their apostacy will be found in every part of their habitations. The shrines of idol gods may not be there; the beautiful images of the Greek and Roman mythology, or the clumsy devices of less refined heathens may not be there; but the furniture, the style of living will reveal from behind every door and the posts of the house that God is forgotten, and that they are influenced by other principles than a regard for His name. The sofa, the carpet, the chandelier, the centre-table, the instruments of music, the splendid mirror, may be of such workmanship as to show, as clearly as the image of a heathen god, that Jehovah is not honored in the dwelling, and that His law does not control the domestic arrangements. Barnes].

7. [On Isa 57:10. Thou art weariedno hope. This is a striking illustration of the conduct of men in seeking happiness away from God. They wander from object to object; they become weary in the pursuit, yet they do not abandon it; they still cling to hope though often repulsedand though the world gives them no permanent comfortthough wealth, ambition, gayety, and vice all fail in imparting the happiness which they sought, yet they do not give it up in despair. They still feel that it is to be found in some other way, than by the disagreeable necessity of returning to God, and they wander from object to object, and from land to land, and become exhausted in the pursuit, and still are not ready to say there is no hope, we give it up in despair, and we will now seek happiness in God. Barnes.

Note.Despair of happiness in the creature, and of satisfaction in the service of sin, is the first step toward a well-grounded hope of happiness in God, and a well-fixed resolution to keep to His service; and those are inexcusable who have had sensible convictions of the vanity of the creature, and yet will not be brought to say, There is no hope to be happy short of the Creator.Note.Prosperity in sin (Thou hast found the life of thy hand) is a great bar to conversion from sin. M. Henry].

8. On Isa 57:11. God keeps silence only for a while, but yet not for ever and continually, with respect to mens sins; but the longer He has kept silence, the harder He punishes afterwards.Starke.

9. On Isa 57:12. Tuam justitiam. Est emphasis in pronomine tuam. Quasi dicat: mea justitia firma et perpetua est, tua non item. In calamitate nihil desperatius est justitiariis, cum secundis rebus nihil quoque iis sit confidentius.Luther.

10. On Isa 57:15 sq. God has three sorts of dwellings: first in the highest, second in the sanctuary, third in humble hearts. The first dwelling is the universalis praesentia, the universal presence, by which He fills all (Jer 23:24); but there He is too high and incomprehensible for us. The other is gratiosa, the gracious presence, by which He lets Himself be found in the word and sacraments, and also comes finally to us and makes His dwelling in our hearts (Joh 14:23). Cramer, comp. Renner, p. 199.Humilis anima est Dei sessio et delectabile cubile. Excelsus es Domine, sed humiles corde sunt domus tua (Psa 113:6; Psa 138:6). Augustin.Fluenta gratiae deorsum non sursum fluunt. Bernhard.Here is a principal passage beaming with evidence, that holy means not merely the tremenda majestas, but essentially comprehends the self-communicating condescension of love. Stier.Comp. His Reden Jesu V., p. 499, and the essays of Schoeberlein and Achelis in Stud. and Krit. 1847, I., IV.

11. On Isa 57:18. Here again we have one of those words in which Isaiah shows Himself to be the Evangelist of the Old Testament. For in the old covenant God does not yet heal men, else the new were superfluous. The law only effects knowledge of sin, but it does not give the power to overcome sin. One fancies here again that he hears the Apostle that wrote Romans 8.

12. On Isa 57:19-21. The gospel in a sermon of peace to the heathen that were far off, and to the Jews that were near. For by it we both have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph 2:18). But the wicked quakes all his life and what he hears terrifies him (Job 15:20; Isa 48:22). And especially in conflicts, and notably in the last hour, and when they see Gods judgment near, one sees this in them, that they not only therefore often spit out blasphemies, but that for great anguish they have laid hands on themselves. Examples: Saul, Ahithophel, Judas, Franciscus Spiera. For because such peace is not to be brought about with works, they must ever stick in anger, resentment, discontent and disfavor with and before God. And it is only pure folly to wish to give the terrified hearts rest by their own expiation, merit and self-elected holiness. Much less will there be rest if one teaches such people to doubt the forgiveness of sins. Cramer.

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa 56:10 to Isa 57:2. These words may be used as the text of a sermon for a fast-day, or also for a synodical sermon. One might then regard the Prophets words as a mirror, or as a measure whereby to measure the condition of the church (of the country, of the times). From this would then come 1) earnest warning to those that belong to the wicked here described, or who do not oppose their doings; 2) comfort for those that have walked straight before them, for, though hated and persecuted by men, they shall still come to peace.

2. On Isa 57:1-2. These words (also a Jewish formula solennis for the pious dead, Stier) have very often been used as texts for funeral discourses for celebrated men.

3. On Isa 57:2. Those that have walked in their uprightness, i. e., who during their lives have served the Lord in a living faith, need not fear death. It is to them a bringer of joy. For it brings 1) eternal peace to their soul, 2) rest to their body in the chamber of the grave, till the day of the blessed resurrection.

4. On Isa 57:3-10. A description of the coarse idolatry, to which in our day correspond only too many appearances of the modern and subtile heathenism. Only too many have sucked in with their mothers milk superstition and unbelief, which as a rule go together. As Ishmael, who was begotten after the flesh, mocked and persecuted Isaac that was born according to the promise (Gal 4:28 sqq.), so also now. The false seed, i. e., those that are not born of the Spirit of the church, although by their fleshly birth they belong to it, mock and persecute the genuine children of the church. With insatiable greed people run daily, but especially on the Lords day, under all green trees, i. e., to the places of worldly pleasure-seeking, where the idols of the belly and of mammon are served! And how many children are from their earliest youth led away to the service of these idols! Are not thereby their immortal souls spiritually slain? And is not that, in the end, a worse sacrifice of children than that ancient sort? All that puts men in mind of the service of God, men get out of their sight (pious customs, Sunday, feast days, church acts, as baptism, marriage, burial), in order to be able to surrender themselves undisturbed and wholly to the modern idols. Men no longer seek their strength in the covenant with the Lord, but among men in associations of every kind. And, because that does not instantly reveal its ruinous effects, but often seems to have a good effect, men never weary of this conduct, but confirm themselves in it more and more.

5. On Isa 57:12. Many men will not by any means believe that their good works are wholly insufficient to obtain the righteousness that is of avail with God. Now God will, indeed, not suffer to go unrewarded the cup of water that we give to the thirsty in the proper spirit (Mat 10:42; Mar 9:41). But could we point to ever so many such cups, still they do not suffice to pay our ten thousand talents (Mat 18:24 sqq.). One must therefore remind his charge of the great reckoning that the Lord will one day have with us. In this 1) will be had a complete and perfectly correct investigation into our indebtedness and assets. 2) Then it will appear that our assets will be too defective to be of any use whatever against our indebtedness.

6. On Isa 57:13-14. It depends very much on the sort of spirit with which one turns to God for help. If one does it in order to make a trial also with the dear God, then one will certainly be denied. But if one does it because one knows no other helper, and wishes to know no other, then one may confidently count on being heard. How differently the answers sound that God gives to the cries for help that reach Him. 1) To the one it is said: let thy gatherings help thee. 2) But to the others is called out: a. make a road, clear the way, take up the stumbling-block out of the way of my people; b. inherit the land, possess my holy mountain.

7. On Isa 57:15-16. I know that these sayings speak especially of penitent sinners and aroused consciences; but I do not see why they may not with good right be applied also to other alarmed and anxious people. One has here to look also at the examples of the dear children of God who are presented to us in the Holy Scriptures full of fear and alarm. Think of Job (Job 9:34; Job 13:21), David (Psa 25:17; Psa 55:5 sqq.), Daniel (Dan 8:17 sq.), Paul (1Co 2:3; 2Co 7:5), yea, of Jesus Christ Himself (Mat 26:37; Mar 14:33; Luk 22:44). From this thou seest clearly, thou lover of God, but timid and frightened soul, that thou art not the first among the children of God, that suffer His terrors and must go about with an anxious heart. It is also therewith sufficiently shown that such an event is not a reminder of anger, but rather of the grace of the kind and gracious God.Scriver.

8. On Isa 57:15-16. A holy shudder goes through my soul when, in receiving Thy body and blood, I think of who they are to whom Thou so communicatest Thyself! That is Thy way, Thou wonderful Lord, that Thou utterly humblest and castest down to the ground before Thou raisest up. Thou sayest: I who dwell in the high and holy place am with those that are of a contrite and humble spirit. Has the greatness of my sin already melted my heart, it melts still more at the greatness of Thy grace.Tholuck.

9 On Isa 57:15-16. Sermon for Whitsun week: Wherein do we behold the greatest glory of the God of grace? 1) Therein, that He does not despise a poor sinners heart for a dwelling. 2) Therein, that He manifests Himself in it not as a judge, but as a comforter. Taube, in Gottes Bruenl. hat Wassers die Fuelle. Hamburg, 1872.

10. On Isa 57:17-18. One is reminded here of 1Ki 19:11 sq. God is not in the tempest, nor in the earthquake, but He is in the still, gentle breeze. The gospel goes more to the hearts of men, and lays deeper hold on them than the law. The conversion of men. 1) It is prepared by being angry and smiting (Isa 57:17). 2. It is accomplished by Gods inwardly healing the heart.

11. On Isa 57:19. Missionary Sermon. The work of missions: 1) By whom is it accomplished? 2) On whom is it accomplished? 3) What end does it serve?

12. On Isa 57:20. The whole Scripture testifies that what it says of the grace of God, of the forgiveness of sins and of the assurance of bliss belongs to the penitent. For those that are ever stirred up and driven on by their malignant desires (like the sea by the winds), and commit one sin after another (like the sea casts out all sorts of dirt), are wicked men, and have no peace to expect.Scriver.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The subject of this Chapter is very different from that of the preceding: it consists of threatenings, mingled with promises; cautions to the watchmen of Israel, and an awful account of unfaithful shepherds.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

It is blessed to observe with what solemnity and authority the Lord introduceth his declarations. The Lord is speaking of his salvation by Jesus Christ, and intimates the nearness of his coming; in the prospect of which he enjoins the faithful to be on the lookout for it, and pronounceth a blessedness on everyone found in it, and who layeth hold upon it. I conceive that Jesus himself is here peculiarly referred to; and consequently, in him, the blessing reacheth to all his people.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Called to Sanctification

Isa 56

The Lord says his salvation is near to come, and his righteousness is near to be revealed. The Lord takes no note of what we call time. We are the victims of that illusion. We talk of time as if it were of some importance in regard to God’s movement; whereas a thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday, and as a watch in the night; a thousand years are as one day, and one day is as a thousand years: the meaning being that we are to drop this sophism of time and dates and arithmetical theology, and betake ourselves to the assured delight that God’s salvation is near to come, and God’s righteousness is near to be revealed. God is always near, within the limits which he has imposed upon our probation; what may come after those limits none can tell: but whilst we are living God is near, whilst we breathe we may touch him with our prayers, whilst we have any being in relation to the things now about us, we may lay hold mightily upon God, through Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and God the Son, and receive all the blessing of God’s salvation and righteousness. Herein is that sweet gospel in the Old Testament never excelled by the writers and minstrels of the new covenant: “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.” He is near to those who want him, within touch of those that cry to him on account of their pain and necessity and penitence. How much we lose by imagining that God will come at some uncalculated and immeasurable period, and do wonders in the world! He comes now; he arrives with the dawn, morning by morning. There are those who ask when the Lord will come? He comes today: whether he will reign personally and visibly, what matter? He will reign that is the fact we have to deal with. Why trouble ourselves with accidental circumstances, accessories, transient phases, and possibilities? The question is not, How long will he reign? it is, Will he reign? and to that question there is but one answer the answer of a triumphant, grateful affirmative.

We have had the historical coming: first that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual. I do not look for Jesus Christ in the flesh, I look for Jesus Christ in the spirit, in thought, in elevation of life, in nobleness of soul, in all that is moral, spiritual, sacred. How much we are the victims of our senses: we have the old Thomas spirit: “Except I see the print of the nails; except I thrust my hand into his side.” We do not say that, but we say the counterpart of it; we want to see with the eyes of the body, we want to touch with the fingers of the hand, Do we not hear the sweet voice of the Saviour saying, “Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed: blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed”? that is to say, more blessed; they have a finer faculty, a keener touch, a sensitiveness not of the flesh but of the soul. This body will ruin us if we do not take care. It is a temptation of the devil in many of its aspects and suggestions; it pines for form, organisation, machinery, visibility; whereas the soul is being trained towards insight, sympathy, assurance beyond all words, love for which there is no written ritual, the sacrifice of a grateful, loving, adoring soul. Never listen to those teachers who puzzle and perplex you by calculations as to years and centuries and ages; and to those peculiarly constituted minds, which do not subject themselves to any psychology known to me, that seem to feel the beginning of heaven at all events an ineffable delight if they can add up any series of figures into six hundred and sixty-six. I do not want to deprive any soul of its pleasures, but when those pleasures are of a kind that shut out all that is most spiritual, most heavenly, I must lay my hand upon them at least in an arresting attitude. I have nothing to say against six hundred and sixty-six. I am not aware that those figures have ever personally offended me; I do not want the human mind to consider that salvation or growth, true spiritual progress, lies in that kind of calculation; but in more prayer, more love, a loftier, brighter hope, and let the Lord open the door when he pleases, and come in any guise or disguise, in any aspect or revelation, that may suit his infinite wisdom.

“Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil” ( Isa 56:2 ).

The Lord will have us, as we are now constituted, begin at some point of obedience. We may not be able to keep the whole law as we should like to do, but if we wish to do it, and faithfully attend to any one point in it, God will see that the blessing is not withheld. Many men can begin at the fourth commandment who cannot begin at the first. The first is an awful, grand commandment; eternity is hidden in it; there is nothing in all infinity so far as it is revealed in Scripture that is not included in the true conception and the true worship and service of God. The commandment is ineffably spiritual, transcending all human imagination, yet evermore appealing to the noblest faculties of the mind to awaken and ascend, and realise divine opportunities. The fourth commandment seems to come within the range of childhood; there we are commanded to honour a day: who does not think of a birthday, or some day full of sacred memory in the family? It may be a day of death, the day on which we the good-bye that killed us, for “when some friends part, ’tis the survivor dies.” Yet there is the fact that days are remembered and honoured; they are days of mourning, or days of sacred melancholy and joy. So the Lord will allow us to begin by honouring a day, not perfunctorily and mechanically, but spiritually, with all the stress and energy of love; so we will call it the Lord’s day, the day of rest, the day that represents all time in its divinest aspect and purpose. There are those who say that all days should be sacred, a philosophy which we accept, if it is not followed by the immorality which neglects to keep any day. We never find that people are peculiarly observant of the Sabbath day who generalise their love over the whole week; and we never find that people are careless during the intervening time who conscientiously, intelligently, and adoringly receive the Sabbath day as a rich gift from God. There are those who say all money is God’s, and therefore they never set apart a Lord’s account. It is to be feared they may be deluded, and that the Lord may suffer on account of that generality which does not identify itself with peculiar and isolated sacrifice. Let every man examine himself herein. A blessing is pronounced upon those who do God’s commandments not an external blessing. There is all the difference in the world between a reward that is added to a service and a reward that comes up out of the service itself. In the case of religious devotion the blessing is in the service. To serve is to be blessed.

There are those who tell us that even in other pursuits the joy is in the quest. When the sportsman goes forth on his highly mettled steed to pursue the prey he says the enjoyment is in the pursuit, in the swift ride, in the leap, even in the partial danger We should get a hint from all men, and certainly those who talk thus supply us with the hint that we may be looking for the heaven beyond, instead of expecting the blessing here and now, and yet always preliminary and symbolical. Why do we not look for the blessing instantly? To pray is to be answered; to enter the sanctuary in a right spirit is to touch the threshold of heaven; to read with a broken heart God’s Word is to be in sympathy with the inspiration of God’s Spirit. Do not look beyond black rivers and frowning horizons and rolling storms for the blessing, but expect it here and now, and God will not withhold it. Some men seem to be so constituted that they never have any immediate blessing. There are persons so eager, so desperate in energy, that you cannot show them anything that is here; they are always in an attitude of strain and expectancy, thinking that the blessing is over yonder. We who live in large towns have very little gardens, quite little patches of flower-bed. Some visitors call upon us to whom we want to show the garden: the little garden is just outside the house, but when we take such eager friends to see the patch of flower-bed they are over and away as if the garden were two miles off and were then ten miles long. We stop them and say, “This is the garden;” and then they look at it! With what speed they ride across the little grass plot! We should like the garden to be where they think it is, and the size they imagine it to be; but as a matter of fact, it is neither, and it is just here, and we can go all round it in three minutes. Herein is a hint that may be turned to spiritual advantage. The Lord promised an immediate blessing. He does not give us mere promissory notes; it is not three months after date that he will make payment, or six months. He pays along with the work. Heaven is in a rightly used earth: eternity is in a deeply sanctified time: the rest eternal begins in the Sabbath well spent. Expect, receive immediate blessing.

“Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people” ( Isa 56:3 ).

You have noticed how full the Bible is of the “stranger.” Always the Bible will have a place for the foreigner, the stranger, the visitor, the alien, the heathen; because Jesus Christ is the Son of man, and not a Jew; he shall have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession: this is the outcome of his divine humanity. No local man could claim such an estate; no Jew could carry that burden of blessing: only the Son of man, the Son of God, the Saviour of the world can extend his sceptre to the uttermost parts of the earth, claiming all outlying province and district as his own. When the Lord cares for the stranger he begins a philosophy that destroys all our little exclusive and idiotic theologies. Election has never meant exclusion: contrariwise, election rightly understood means inclusion: because you are elected, go out and seek the man who is outside. If you were elected to this blessing, open the door, proceed to Africa, China, India, Polynesia, and tell the stranger that he need not say he is forgotten; because the Lord must begin somewhere. Even the Lord’s ministry has a point of origin; but the point of origin is not the point of termination. There are those dear, precious, anonymous persons who suppose for some inscrutable and probably not wholly explicable reason that the Lord has made favourites of them. Never. Your appearance is against you; your whole soul is a witness against your detestable exclusiveness. When the Lord has called, he has made that call an internal inspiration of love and impulse in the line of evangelisation, missionary work, calling in the heathen, the distant, the outcast, the stranger. Is a soldier elected simply to wear his uniform? When he is made a soldier he ought to be a warrior waiting only for an opportunity to defend his country from assault. When a boy is made a scholar, is it that he may keep his scholarship to himself and enjoy in quiet contemplation all classical wealth, all the treasures of ancient and modern history? Certainly not. He was taught that he might teach; he was instructed that ignorance might not live in his presence; it was that he should break the bread of his knowledge to those who stood in need of information and guiding intelligence; so when a man is called into the Church of Christ, it is that he may bring some other man in, the stranger and the far-away soul.

This prophecy also teaches that deprivation has never meant joylessness. The man referred to is a childless man, yet he is to have his gratification and his particular delight. Some men are moneyless, but they are not therefore poor; some men are friendless within social limitations, but they are not therefore alone. Hear the voice of One who expresses this in pathetic tones: “I am alone, yet not alone, for the Father is with me.” Hear another, farther away down the corridors of history, saying, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up, and there shall be a fuller affection in his embrace because of my very orphanage.” Always look at the higher and brighter aspect of life. The child has no father, and yet he cannot be deprived of fatherhood if his young heart looks up into heaven to seek for the only Father. He who bears the name of father bears it as a borrower; it is not an original trust, it is not an invention of any man; it is part of God’s appellation, it is a divine signature. When, therefore, you say, “We are without children, we are without money, without friends, without father and mother,” you are on the wrong key altogether; there is no religion in that down-going gamut; the religion is in the ascending scale. Consider what we have in reality; never speak of deprivation except as an introduction to the grateful statement that we have more than we deserve, and if God has denied us blessings in one direction, he has multiplied them to abundance in another.

“Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer” ( Isa 56:7 ). The Lord will have a mountain on his landscape. There are those who do not know a mountain when they see it; they think it is something that ought to be there and has always been there, but what it is they do not know; the poorest imbeciles in the world are to be found in Alpine valleys. The Lord will have his saints be mountaineers; when he has a feast it shall be on the top of the mountains; it is characteristic of his majesty, it is typical of his hospitality, it is charged with suggestions of nobleness and grandeur. Have we ever lived the mountain life? Have we ever left the hedgerows and begun really to climb? To climb is to be blessed. The blessing begins long before you get to the top; walking is recreation; exercise is recruital. If we cannot do other than dwell in the valley, the Lord will accommodate himself to us; but he calls us to the mountain: “Come unto the mountain early in the morning, and I will speak to thee.” What sublimer picture is there in ancient history than Moses going with a friend or two up the mountain, and then at a certain time saying, Stop here: I must go the rest alone? Watch him as he climbs the great stony steep. What helps that old young man to climb as he is doing? There is youth in his limbs, yet there is old age in his bent shoulders. Why climbs he so high? He has an appointment with his Lord. And why did Jesus Christ go into the mountain? That he might see God. Why did the Saviour, God the Son, seek the solitude of midnight? That he might be least alone. When he was most alone he was least alone; for when the toiling, tumultuous, riotous multitude left him the air palpitated, vibrated with the presence of blessed angels. Let us ascend the mountain: it signifies elevation, communion, universality. Have a mountain on your religious landscape.

“The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel” ( Isa 56:8 ). He will not merely gather, he will gather the outcasts; more and more he will gather besides those. He says, I have more to come; “Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.” If there is one man not saved, O ye missionaries, explorers, up! flee! the man may die before you seize him. Will the Lord receive another outcast? He will. “I,” says one, “am the vilest of the men that live: will he receive me?” Yes. “When will he receive me?” Now. Thus we have in the Old Testament the very spirit of the New. Christianity is nothing if it be not a missionary religion. The Cross has no meaning if it were merely a Roman gallows. The Cross is more than wood; above the superscription of Pilate is written with the finger of God, “Herein is love, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” That, O man of God, is your subject. It includes all fields and topics that are good, all benevolence, charity, philanthropy, activity of a reformatory and ameliorative kind. The Cross of Christ is the largest subject that ever appealed to the understanding, the conscience, and the imagination of mankind.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XXIII

THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 15

Isaiah 55-57

The special theme of this section is the kingly office of the Servant. This appears expressly in Isa 55:3-5 . Though the title “Servant of Jehovah” never occurs in the singular after Isa 53:11 again and again his presence is manifest to the reader, so, throughout these three chapters the glorious king of Israel lives and acts.

The first kingly work of the Servant is providing for the needs of his people (Isa 55 ). The two thoughts of this chapter are the gracious invitation to the royal feast of the Servant (Isa 55:1-5 ) and a call to repentance and remission of sins, and the happy consequences.

The invitation is to “every one that thirsteth.” This is very much like our Lord’s gracious invitation: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink;” “Thirst” is used here and elsewhere in the ‘Scriptures to symbolize the longing of the human heart for its counterpart which is God. “Water” symbolizes salvation, the satisfying portion that comes to the thirsty soul when brought to realize its famishing condition. This corresponds to Zechariah’s “fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness,” and to our Lord’s “water of life” which he offered to the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar, and to every thirsty soul, thus: “I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.” Upon this thought are built the many hymns which use this symbolism, such as, “There is a Fountain Filled with Blood” and “The Fountain that Never Runs Dry.”

”Wine” here symbolizes spiritual joy, or gladness, while “milk” symbolizes the nourishment of the soul. So the invitation here is to salvation, gladness, and nourishment, or the complete satisfaction of the spiritual needs of man. The terms, or conditions, of this invitation are simple: “Come, buy, eat,” but “Without money and without price,” i.e., you may call it “buying” if you wish, but it does not cost anything. It is, as the preacher said once, “free gratis, for nothing.” It is an offer of “salvation by grace,” purely the gift of God.

But what the import and application of Isaiah’s double question, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not?” These questions contrast the value of spiritual and worldly things. “Not bread” means that which has no real value; that which does not sustain, or that which does no good. “Bread” here includes every necessity of life, as food, clothing, and shelter. But these necessaries are only incidental and should be made tributary to the higher things of life, things that contribute to the culture of the mind and heart. The affections of the great mass of Israelites were set on worldly things, on enriching themselves by “adding field to field and house to house” (Isa 5:8 ), and they cared nothing for spiritual blessings, much less to “hunger and thirst” after them.

Then he says that these things do not satisfy. Worldly things cannot satisfy the heart, not even the heart of the worldly. These thoughts are emphasized in the exhortation which follows: “Hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” The highest aim in life should be soul growth, and the food that makes for “soul fatness” is found with Jehovah, and not in worldly things. Worldly things tend to soul poverty rather than soul prosperity. In this connection John’s language to Gaius should be kept in mind: “Beloved, I pray that in all things thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” So it is that “a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.” But it will be noted that all this is concerning right expenditure and not right acquiring of wealth. There is much discussion about the methods of getting wealth, but little on the right expenditure of wealth. There is some conscience on how to make money, but not very much on how to spend it. Often the distribution of wealth is more hurtful than the accumulation of it. No man has the right to waste his money or to spend it for “that which is not bread,” nor has he the right to labor and spend his life on the pleasures of the world, which do not satisfy.

The “everlasting covenant” here (Isa 55:3 ) refers to the covenant of grace, as amplified in the New Testament, and the “sure mercies of David” refers to Christ, the surety of that covenant, as Paul shows in Act 13:34 : “And as concerning that he raised him up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he hath spoken on this wise, I will give you the holy and sure mercies of David,” i.e., the blessings promised to David.

So Isa 55:4 , by New Testament interpretation (Act 13:34 ), refers to the risen and exalted Christ, who was and is a witness, a leader, and a commander of the peoples. This involves his kingly office.

In Isa 55:5 the Messiah is addressed, and there is a promise made to him similar to the promise in Psa 2:8 : “Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” Here is it said to him, “Thou shalt call a nation that thou knewest not; and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee,” the chief attraction being the glory of the risen and exalted Lord. “Nation” here is used distributively and means all the Gentile world, as included in Psa 2:8 .

In Isa 55:6-7 we have a specific direction for seeking salvation. First, it must be sought in the right person “Jehovah,” or Jesus Christ who is Jehovah manifested. Second, it must be sought at the right time “while be may be found.” Third, it must be sought by prayer “call ye upon him.” Fourth, it must be sought when he is near, or at the moment when his Spirit is moving upon the heart. “Today if ye shall hear his voice, harden not your hearts,” for that is the day of salvation to that person. Fourth, it must be sought in the right way by repentance and faith: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” Repentance is a change of outward life and inward thought. It means a change of mind toward God with respect to sin, but the inward change of mind works the outward change of life, i.e., the outward change is the “fruits meet for repentance.” “And let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” Faith is throwing oneself upon Jehovah (Christ) for his mercy and his pardon. The publican prayed, “God, be propitiated toward me, the sinner,” i.e., let thy mercy abound toward me because of the sacrifice of expiation.

In Isa 55:8-9 we have the wisdom of Jehovah magnified in this plan over against what the foolishness of man would have devised. His thoughts and ways are as high as the heavens above man’s thoughts and ways.

The instrument used in this great plan of salvation is the word of God (Isa 55:10-11 ). As the rain from heaven refreshes the earth and makes it produce the seed, so shall the word of God, sent out from Jehovah, accomplish its work in the salvation of the people.

The manifestations of the new life imparted in conversion, or regeneration, are joy and peace, the results of the impartation of new life by the Spirit. All nature reflects the joy also. Many a time has a soul fresh from the hand of God, imagined that the mountains were singing, and that the trees were clapping their hands. What a view of one’s environments this new life gives to its recipient! The world about him seems to be clad in the garments of gladness and all nature responds to his song of joy.

The language of Isa 55:13 is highly figurative, picturing the blessed state of the reign of righteousness in the earth. All this chapter has a primary reference to Israel and her deliverance from the captivity through their seeking Jehovah and their repentance, but as the deliverance of Israel from Egypt was a type of the individual deliverance from sin, so is the deliverance from Babylon, a type of individual deliverance from sin, which is the basis of the New Testament evangelism. God no longer delivers nations from sin as a whole but deals directly with the individual. So we go on with the work of evangelization of the individual until the nations, which are composed of individuals are converted and then will we see this ideal here realized. The “thorn” and the “brier” symbolize the curse of wickedness, and the “fir tree” and the “myrtle tree,” the blessings of righteousness. The promise here is that the “thorn” and the “brier” shall give way to the “fir tree” and the “myrtle tree,” which cannot be fully realized until that blessed ideal of the millennium shall come in to bless the world.

The second work of the Servant king is fresh legislation, or fulfilling the law and declaring the relations of all the heirs of the kingdom. The new law for the various subjects of the kingdom (Isa 56:1-5 ) is as follows: To keep justice and to do righteousness. This has a fulfilment in Christ’s exposition of the law, found in the Sermon on the Mount. The equality in the privileges of the covenant here described finds fulfilment only in the privileges of the new covenant, of which Paul says, “There is neither bond nor free, Jew nor Gentile, male nor female.” Then the proselytes and eunuchs need not fear, for they shall have honorable mention in the new covenant.

In this new order of things provision is made for the foreigners. They shall have all the privileges of the sanctuary the privilege of sacrifice and prayer. They shall be brought to the holy mountain of Jehovah to share the joys of his house. Not only will he gather the outcasts of Israel, but he will gather others besides. Thus said Jesus, “Other sheep I have, which are not of this flock; them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.” The house of Jehovah was to be “a house of prayer for all peoples.” This looks forward to the time when the temple should be emphatically a place of prayer, the legal sacrifices having received their fulfilment and being thenceforth superflous and out of place. But the Jews did not recognize the fulfilment when it came, and thus they held on to the sacrificial ritual until Jehovah destroyed their “house and city.” So the larger fulfilment of this passage is found in the spiritual house, the church, which succeeded the tabernacle and temple. In this house all people have the same privileges. The holy of holies is open to all who come in the name of him who entered within the veil, there to intercede for those who come to God by faith in him.

The third work of the Servant king is judgment in the interest of righteousness and mercy (Isa 56:9-12 ). This is the picture of the judgment upon the guilty heads of the community. The beasts of the field are summoned to come and devour these ungodly, selfish shepherds, because they are blind, without knowledge, dumb, greedy, without understanding, and drunken. Their philosophy of life was, “Let us eat, drink, and be merry; for to-morrow we die.” This picture of the hireling shepherds corresponds exactly with Christ’s description of them in Joh 10 . The judgment on them here corresponds to his judgment upon the religious leaders of his time, which found its consummation in the destruction of Jerusalem.

Here we see the Lord’s favor to the righteous in view of the judgment upon the evil. He takes them away before the judgment comes. This has always been God’s method. When he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah he took Lot and his family out; before the final destruction of Jerusalem they were warned by our Lord to flee, and before his final judgment upon the world he will take all his people out of it. So the prophet explains here that Jehovah took his righteous prematurely because of the coming judgment upon the evil. The removing of some of the faithful in Israel before the judgment came upon them was to them a blessing, since they were in quiet rest and peace. This must have in it the foreshadowing of the final destruction of Jerusalem when the wrath of God fell so heavily upon the Jewish leaders.

The charge against the people in Isa 57:3-10 is the charge of idolatry and its accompanying sins. To itemize them, they were sorcery, adultery, harlotry, mockery, transgression, falsehood, worshiping in the high places, Molech worship, stone worship, enlarging the bed for others, making covenant with them and forgetting Jehovah.

The penalty pronounced upon them in Isa 57:11-13 is that their righteousness and works should not profit them, and their refuge of lies should be swept away. Most modern interpreters think that the Jews are addressed here and that the time is the latter part of Hezekiah’s reign. If this be true, then evidently the prophet comes back in his vision to the time in which he lived. This is not at all impossible, but it is probable, as some of the older commentators think, that, with the condition of Israel in the time of the prophet as a background, this is a forecast of the church with its corrupt priesthood and idolatry in the Dark Ages. The hopeful note in this paragraph is the inner circle of the faithful who take refuge in Jehovah and who shall possess the land and inherit his holy mountain. It is consoling to find that this remnant is never lost but runs all the way from Abel down to the present. It matters not how dark the hour in the history of the world the “salt of the earth” is in evidence.

This section closes (Isa 57:14-21 ) with a promise to the humble and a curse upon the wicked. This is a fine prescription for a revival. There is, first, an order to prepare the way, so that the people can go to the “holy mountain” of Jehovah. Second, there is a magnifying of the eternity and holiness of Jehovah and his transcendence above the universe. Third, there is the condescension of God, who is the source of all true revivals, to dwell in the hearts of men. Fourth, there are the conditions set forth, viz: humility and contrition. Fifth, there is also the purpose of Jehovah’s condescension, viz: “to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Then the prophet gives Jehovah’s promise to heal backsliding Israel and to comfort the mourners, announcing peace to his people, but eternal unrest and sorrow to the wicked.

QUESTIONS

1. What the special theme of this section?

2. What the first kingly work of the Servant?

3. What the two thoughts of this chapter?

4. Who are invited to their feast, what the symbolism here and upon what terms are they invited?

5. What the import and application of Isaiah’s double question, “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfieth not?”

6. What the meaning-of the “everlasting covenant,” and the “sure mercies of David” in Isa 55:3 ?

7. Who is spoken of in Isa 55:4 , and what office is there given him?

8. In Isa 55:5 who is addressed and what the meaning of the verse?

9. Expound Isa 55:6-7 .

10. By whose wisdom was such a plan of salvation wrought out?

11. What the instrument used in this great plan of salvation?

12. What the manifestations of the new life imparted in conversion, or regeneration?

13. What the interpretation of Isa 55:13 , and when will the prophecy here be realized?

14. What the second work of the Servant king?

15. What the new law for the various subjects of the kingdom (Isa 56:1-5 )?

16. In this new order of things what provision is made for the foreigners?

17. What the third work of the Servant king?

18. What the picture of Isa 56:9-12 ?

19. What the Lord’s favor to the righteous in view of the judgment upon the evil?

20. What the charge against the people in Isa 57:3-10 ?

21. What the penalty pronounced upon them in Isa 57:11-13 ?

22. Who are the people here addressed?

23. What hopeful note in this paragraph?

24. How does this section close (Isa 57:14-21 )?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 56:1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation [is] near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.

Ver. 1. Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment, and do justice, ] i.e., Repent ye, as ye were exhorted, Isa 45:6-7 and “bring forth fruits meet for repentance,” Mat 3:8 “for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Mat 3:2 Tit 2:12 Christ came to “call sinners to repentance,” Mar 2:17 and to good works of all sorts, which are here called judgment and justice, as he himself is here called not only God’s salvation, but his righteousness.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 56

The next two chapters carry on the same line of truth we have seen since the rejection and atoning death of Christ came distinctly into view, and pursue the consequences of that infinite fact. As far as a natural division goes, one might be disposed to close the first subject treated in them with Isa 56:8 , and then to take from verse 9 to the end of Isa 57 as completing not the second only but the entire section, which began with Isa 49 . According to this we should have here, first, the ways of Jehovah founded on the Messiah’s death for sin in respect of the godly, even outside Israel; and, secondly, His ways, when He was displeased with the ungodly, not merely outside but in the midst of Israel. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel.

Some have drawn from the Lord’s citation of a clause of this section, that He intimates its then approaching accomplishment in the Christian church. Now it is not denied that as we have broad moral principles of grace on God’s part in Isa 55 , so too in its flowing out to the Gentiles in Isa 56 , which are now realised in the gospel and the church, even more fully than anything here developed. But we ought not to overlook the fact that neither in Matthew nor in Luke is the Lord represented as quoting the reference to all the nations: an omission the more notable inasmuch as in both these Gospels, above all others though in each for a special reason, we have more respecting the change of dispensation then at hand, and the call of grace going out to the Gentiles than anywhere else. One cannot but gather thence, that, though in fact, as the full citation in Mark shows, the Lord did quote the words of our prophet without abridgement, yet this marked exclusion of “all nations” in the two Gospels which most insist on the change from Israel to the Gentiles, is meant to intimate that no such application was then in His mind, but simply the gross perversion of Jehovah’s house of prayer into a den of robbers before His eyes, even as Jeremiah reproached the Jews of his day. There is nothing therefore, if this be correct, to turn aside the fulfilment of this blessed fruit of the cross from the future, however large the terms may be, and this not without purpose on God’s part.

The chapter then opens not with a call to sinners, as such, to repent and believe the gospel; but to the people of God to keep judgement and do justice, though the reason assigned is in no way the law given by Moses, but “My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed.” When the apostle unfolds the glad tidings, he says that God’s righteousness is being revealed in the gospel; that it is manifested apart from law. Clearly this goes farther. Salvation is come, as we find in Eph 2:8 . “For by grace are ye saved through faith”; though, in view of our resurrection and glory, we as truly say that it is nearer than when we believed. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith (Gal 5:5 ). The righteousness is established, and we are justified in virtue of this already; but we await through the Spirit the hope, the glorious issue, proper to that righteousness, when even in the body we shall be conformed to the image of God’s Son: “whom He justified, them He also glorified.” But this is the language of the New Testament apostle, not of our Old Testament prophet, who is occupied with the earthly people and their hopes, but in God-given terms of such comprehensiveness as to justify the largest ways of grace.

“Thus saith Jehovah, Keep ye judgement and do righteousness: for my salvation [is] near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed [is] weak man [that] doeth this, and the son of man [that] holdeth fast by it; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil” (vv. 1, 2). The following verse (3) is even more express: the most distant, “the son of the stranger,” and the most desperate, “the eunuch,” were not beyond the reach of God’s merciful and mighty blessing. And this is repeated in the most forcible language as to both classes in the subsequent verses, concluding with the expression of Jehovah’s mind to be known and read of all men, that His “house should be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” “Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to Jehovah speak, saying Jehovah hath entirely separated me from his people; nor let the eunuch say, Behold, I [am] a dry tree. For thus saith Jehovah, Unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose [the things] that please me, and hold fast by my covenant, unto them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto him and to love the name of Jehovah, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast by my covenant – even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices [shall be] accepted upon my altar: for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the peoples. The Lord Jehovah who gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather [others] to him, with those of his that are gathered” (vv. 3-8).

The second part (from Isa 56:9 to Isa 57:21 ) stands out in startling contrast at first sight; but it flows, without doubt, from the same principle as the first. The grace which goes forth ever so actively to the most miserable is of all things the most intolerant of evil; and its dealing is ever most delicate and jealous with those that are near enough to be so much the more responsible to reflect Jehovah brightly. “All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen [are] blind, they are all without knowledge; they [are] all dumb dogs, they cannot bark, dreaming, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, the dogs [are] greedy, they can never have enough; and these [are] shepherds [that] cannot understand: they have all turned to their own way, each one to his gain, from every quarter. Come ye, [say they,] I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to-morrow shall be as this day, [a day] great beyond measure” (vv. 9-12).

The Gentile oppressors are first invited to lay waste (v. 9). Those who ought to have watched and tended the beautiful flock of Jehovah not only slept, but they awoke to their own greed of gain and love of present ease, as indifferent about God as about His people (vv. 10-12). It is a vivid picture of that living to self and the things that are seen, which at a later date characterised the Sadducees who denied not only the resurrection but angel or spirit. The origin of their name is of small moment, their materialism was ruinous. If, as is said they derived their title from pretension to righteousness, or even claimed to be a sacerdotal aristocracy from the eminent priest who in early days superseded Abiathar, either origin matters little. High-sounding representations among the Jews, as elsewhere, are commonly put forward to cover ungodliness and sensualism. And this frightfully evil state is here declared to have been conspicuous among the watchmen and shepherds of the chosen people. Such corruption laid the people and their leaders open, as we shall see in the chapter that follows, to yet worse, beneath which depth is none lower, idolatry leading the way.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 56:1-5

1Thus says the LORD,

Preserve justice and do righteousness,

For My salvation is about to come

And My righteousness to be revealed.

2How blessed is the man who does this,

And the son of man who takes hold of it;

Who keeps from profaning the sabbath,

And keeps his hand from doing any evil.

3Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say,

The LORD will surely separate me from His people.

Nor let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.

4For thus says the LORD,

To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,

And choose what pleases Me,

And hold fast My covenant,

5To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,

And a name better than that of sons and daughters;

I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.

Isa 56:1 This chapter starts out with two commands related to an appropriate life of faith (cf. Isa 55:7).

1. preserve justice – Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 1036, KB 1581, cf. Isa 1:17); for justice, see Special Topic: Judge, Judgment, Justice

2. do righteousness – Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 793, KB 889); for righteousness, see Special Topic: Righteousness

The reason for the life of faith is

1. My salvation is about to come – Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT (BDB 97, KB 112, cf. Isa 46:13; Isa 51:5; Psa 85:9)

2. My righteousness to be revealed – Niphal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT (BDB 162, KB 191, see same first two references as #1)

Believers must live every day as if the Lord was coming today! This attitude and lifestyle keeps us close to God (cf. Psa 85:9).

Isa 56:2 Notice the first two lines are parallel. Also the blessed man (cf. Psa 1:1-3; Psa 112:1; Psa 119:1-2; Psa 128:1) is the one who obeys/observes God’s law.

The second two lines describe two specific things that the blessed man will not do. See Special Topic: Blessing .

1. profane the sabbath (cf. Exo 20:8-11)

2. do any evil (summary phrase)

The VERB keep (BDB 1036, KB 1581) occurs four times in this chapter (Isa 56:2 [twice],4,6). Lifestyle faith and obedience are vital and crucial aspects of a personal relationship with YHWH. See Special Topic: Keep .

Isa 56:3 This verse assures those who were normally excluded from Israel’s God that they would be included.

1. the physically damaged person (cf. Isa 56:6-8, Deu 23:1-8)

2. the non-Israelite worshiper (cf. Isa 56:4-5)

The word says, which is repeated twice (foreigner, eunuch) is a Qal IMPERFECT (BDB 55, KB 65) used in a JUSSIVE sense.

surely separate This is a Hiphil INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and a Hiphil IMPERFECT from the same root (BDB 95, KB 110) used for emphasis. However, the great emphasis is that this statement is not true!

the eunuch This refers to a person

1. with damaged testicles

2. a castrated person

The account of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8 being fully accepted into the people of God by faith in Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant, is a great example of this type of persons’ inclusion!

Isa 56:5 Eunuchs could have no natural children so YHWH will give the faithful eunuchs a memorial in His house. He will give them an everlasting name (i.e., Hebrew idiom for descendants).

NASB, REBmemorial

NRSV, LXX,

PESHITTAa place

NJB, JPSOAmonument

The Hebrew term is literally hand (BDB 388, #4) but used idiomatically for memorial (cf. 1Sa 15:12; 2Sa 18:18).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

justice = righteousness.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Isa 56:1-12 .

In Isa 55:1-13 the Lord speaks of this glorious everlasting salvation and the glories of His greatness, His power. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than yours, My thoughts than your thoughts” ( Isa 55:9 ). The blessing and the power of the Word of God. “As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, returns not thither, waters the earth that makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so is my word,” the Lord declares, “that goes out of My mouth: it shall not return unto Me void, but shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in the thing in which I sent it” ( Isa 55:10-11 ).

Now as we get into chapter 56, the Lord is giving to us, more or less, some of the conditions of our being a part of that everlasting kingdom and salvation.

Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed ( Isa 56:1 ).

Now even at the time of Isaiah, there were those encouragements to doing the right thing in light of the fact that the Lord’s salvation was near. All through succeeding generations, God has wanted, I believe, each generation to live with that consciousness of the nearness of the coming of the Lord’s kingdom. Now Peter tells us that there would come a day when men would begin to scoff at the nearness of the coming kingdom of God, declaring that “all things have just continued as they were from the beginning” ( 2Pe 3:4 ). But Peter says, “Of this they are willfully ignorant.” That God did upset the world at one time in judgment by sending the flood, they are willfully ignorant of God’s intervention by catastrophe. And then Peter goes on to explain that “God is not slack concerning His promises” ( 2Pe 3:9 ). That is the promise of the coming kingdom and the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness. He’s not going to fail in that promise, but that He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So the reason for the delay, God’s waiting for man’s turning to Him.

Now when we were living in Prescott in the first church that we had, we had a very fascinating lady who, as far as I can recall, never did attend our church, but professed to have a great love and interest in my wife and I. And she was a very interesting character. She had spent many years in China as a missionary and was a nurse at the Whipple Veterans Hospital. And I would start to talk to her about the nearness of the coming of the Lord and she’d say, “Well, yes, I believe the Lord is coming very soon for me.” She said, “I’m getting up into the years and I won’t be around much longer, so the coming of the Lord is very soon for me.” And she had that kind of a concept of the nearness of the coming of the Lord. Well, in a sense that is very true. God’s coming for each of us is soon. None of us is going to be around here too long. And if He does not come collectively for His body, the church, even so our time on earth is so short. “What is life? It is as a vapor that appears for a season or a moment and then vanishes” ( Jas 4:14 ). It’s like the grass out there in the field which today grows up and flourishes and tomorrow is dead. And so is the short span of our life, especially when you compare the time that we are here with eternity. So the span of man upon this earth is so short. And yet in this short span of time my eternity is being established. My destiny is being determined in this short time that I am here. That’s rather awesome to consider. So it behooves me to spend whatever time I have walking with the Lord, serving the Lord, and in a total commitment of myself, my energies, my life to Him because time is short.

So for Isaiah to be saying, “Hey, the time of the Lord is close,” it is for each one of us. The time of the Lord is always very close. And thus, we should live with that consciousness knowing that I have only one life and it will soon be past and only what I do for Jesus Christ is going to last. Everything else is wood, hay and stubble. Everything else is going to burn. Everything else is not going to have any value at all in the eternal realm. That which I’ve done for myself, that which I’ve done for the community, that which I’ve done for the Muscular Dystrophy or whatever, not going to last. The only lasting things are that which I have done for Jesus Christ for His glory and in His name. So time is short. This is a perpetual message to each generation. Your time is short.

Now how does God want us to live? He wants us to keep judgment and do justice. God wants us to live a fair and honest life. God doesn’t want us cheating. God doesn’t want us conniving and taking advantage of someone else. God wants us to do the right thing. Do justice. Keep judgment. Do the right thing. That’s what God is asking and requiring of us. And surely that is not too much to require and that is a reasonable requirement from man. What a glorious world this would be if everyone treated each other fairly, honestly, justly. “But that is not the condition of the world,” you say, and you are so right. We find that there are always men who are willing to take an advantage of their position and gouge someone else because they find that they have them at an advantage. It is always a fearsome thing to be at a disadvantage to another person because you can be sure that they’re going to take every advantage that they can over you.

Look what they’re doing now with the oil. Knowing that we need the oil so desperately, they’re taking advantage and they’re just hiking the prices. And becoming inordinately wealthy. So much money they really don’t know how to spend it or what to do with it. And yet there is a world that is suffering and in need and the third world is actually being destroyed and starving because of these people who have taken advantage of the fact that they possess the oil in their nation. And that the world is short on oil and so taking advantage of that fact they are gouging the world, totally disregarding those unfortunate people who cannot afford the inflation that has resulted from the increased oil prices. But that’s only one example, and not to just point at one group. That is so common with human nature.

If you get in a disadvantaged position, there are men who are willing to take advantage of you. Jesus said, “Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites!” Because they were taking advantage of people. They were taking advantage of the little widows. “Woe unto you, lawyers!” They were taking advantage of people’s ills, of people’s problems, and becoming rich over other people’s problems. Man is not fair. God wants us to be fair. And so God cries out for justice and for judgment because He said, “My salvation is near to come.”

Blessed is the man that does this ( Isa 56:2 ),

Now God just sort of pronounces a man who will be fair, a man who will be just, a man who will be honest, he will be blessed of God.

and the son of man that lays hold on it ( Isa 56:2 );

The person that grabs this concept and says, “Yes, I will do unto others as I would have them to do unto me. I will be fair. I will not take advantage of a position that I may have of superiority whatever. But I will be fair.” God is always for the underdog. God is always standing up for the oppressed and for the poor. And if we are guilty of oppressing people or impoverishing people, then we will find ourselves opposed to God.

Blessed is the man,

that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil ( Isa 56:2 ).

Now the blessing upon the man that keeps the sabbath, keepeth the sabbath. The sabbath is an ordinance that God established with the nation of Israel as a covenant with that race of people. When God gave the law of the sabbath back in the book of Exodus, God declared in the giving of the law that it was a covenant between Him and Israel forever. Verse Exo 31:16 of Exo 31:1-18 , “Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.” Now God established circumcision also as a perpetual covenant for these people.

But the sabbath covenant was not placed upon the Gentile world nor upon the Gentile church or Christians. And yet, a man needs a day of rest. And we would probably live to be much healthier people if we would take a day of the week off and just stay in bed. Really rest on the sabbath day. And that’s what the requirement was, just really to rest. Give the body a chance to sort of recuperate. But these people, as we will find in a little bit, weren’t always keeping the sabbath as they should. They began to make it a day of pleasure and recreation, which it seems that we are very guilty of doing also. Except that the sabbath is really Friday night sundown to Saturday night sundown, if you want to be technical. We worship the Lord on the first day of the week.

Now in the early church when they sought to determine what relationship the Gentile believers had to the law, they determined that they should not put upon the Gentiles the yoke of bondage, the law which they were not themselves able to keep. And so in writing to the Gentiles to tell them their relationship to the law, that is the church, the Gentile church, they said, “Just keep yourselves from idols and from things that have been strangled. And if you do this, you do well.”

Now later on Paul even modified that a bit when he wrote to the Corinthians and he said, “When you go to the butcher shop to buy your meat, don’t ask the butcher, ‘Was this meat offered as a sacrifice to an idol?'” He said, “because if he says yes then you’ll have a hard time eating it. So just don’t ask any questions. Just go and buy the meat and don’t ask any questions for your conscience’s sake. And then you’re not worried about it. Because,” he said, “everything is sanctified through prayer and it really doesn’t matter except if in your conscience it begins to trouble you, then it becomes a real problem for you. So for conscience’s sake, just when you go out to dinner and someone lays a steak in front of you, don’t say, ‘Did you offer this steak as a sacrifice to an idol?’ Just eat what is set before you, asking no questions,” he said. “Just enjoy it.” And so it isn’t that which goes into the mouth that defiles a man. It’s that which comes out, because the heart is revealed by the things that come out of a man’s mouth.

There was nothing said to the Gentile church concerning the sabbath days. So Paul writing to the church in Rome speaks about those who were weak in the faith who were vegetarians because they could not eat meat; they were fearful it might have been offered as a sacrifice to an idol somewhere. And so they became vegetarians. But he that is strong in the faith he eats meat. Now let the one who doesn’t eat meat, don’t let him judge the one who does. And the one who does eat meat should not be condemning the man who doesn’t.

It is so easy for us to fall in the trap of thinking that everybody should live as I live, do as I think. How I would love to run the world and tell people that which they can do and that which they can’t do according to my own conscience. But Paul said I am not to judge a person who has greater liberty than I have. Because before his own master he either stands or falls and God is able to make him stand, much to my amazement.

So in writing to the Colossians, Paul said, “Don’t let any man judge you in respect to meat, or unto sabbath days or holy days or new moons and so forth, which were all a shadow of the things to come. For the substance or the body is of Christ” ( Col 2:17 ). These things were all a shadow. Keeping the sabbath days, keeping the festivals and so forth-they were all a shadow of the things to come. The real substance is of Christ, so that the sabbath day was just a shadow of what Jesus is to us, for He is our rest. And the sabbath day was a day of rest where you just rested. So Christ has become our sabbath. We are resting in the work of Jesus Christ as regards to our salvation. I’m not trying to get out there and hassle and work to be saved. I am resting. Christ is my sabbath. He is my rest and the whole sabbath day celebration was looking forward to Jesus Christ, the substance who is the rest for the believer of God. And we all are resting our salvation in Him. And that’s what the whole thing was about.

So as we read of the sabbath day, we realize that Isaiah’s addressing himself to Israel. It has nothing to do really with the Gentile, the Gentile church, for in the Gentile church, as Paul said, “One man esteems one day above another and another man esteems every day alike” ( Rom 14:5 ). And we esteem every day alike. Every day is the Lord’s day. I get up in the morning and I say, “Well, Lord, this is Your day. What would You have me to do today?” And every day is alike to me. I don’t look at the calendar to see what day of the week it is. It’s the Lord’s day. My life is His. And no matter what the calendar may say as far as the day of the week, it’s all the Lord’s day as far as I’m concerned.

But, “Blessed is the man that will keep justice, do judgment, lays hold on these. Keeps the sabbath from polluting it and keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people ( Isa 56:3 ):

We shouldn’t think that we have been separated from the people of God. But God is really… And Christ, Paul said, has broken down that middle wall of partition that used to exist between the Jew and us. And He has made us to all partake of the one body in Christ. So I’m not to say, “Well, I’ve been separated from God’s people,” and think of myself as separate from them, but really we have been grafted into the root that we might partake of the fatness and the fullness of God’s blessing and promise to the nation of Israel.

neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off ( Isa 56:3-5 ).

Now Jesus speaks of there are some men that are born eunuchs. There are some who become eunuchs for the kingdom of God’s sake. That is, men who refrain from marriage in order that they might better serve the Lord. Paul the apostle would probably fit in this category. Now we think of a eunuch in a very strict sense of the word. I do not think that the Bible really looks at it or is looking at it in a strict sense of the word. I think it is a man who just determines to live a celibate life for the sake of the kingdom of God. And Paul the apostle writing to the Corinthian church encouraged the men, if they were able to handle it, to live as he did for the sake of the kingdom. For he that is married seeks how to please his wife. But he that is unmarried can just seek how he can please the Lord. And thus because it is, in many times, easier to endure hardship just yourself and many times in the proclaiming of the gospel there requires a real hardship and sacrifice, it’s easier for you to make those sacrifices upon yourself than to impose them also upon a wife. And so for the sake of expediency and all, you’d be better off to stay as I am. “Yet if you can’t handle it,” Paul says, “go ahead and get married. No sin to it, but I would just spare you a lot of problems.” And so there are those who for the kingdom of God’s sake have chosen a celibate type of a life. And that is fine. The Lord said, “I will give them children, sons and daughters in a spiritual sense.” And so Paul speaks of his beloved son Timothy and all, and those relationships that he had with these younger men that he more or less tutored in their spiritual walks.

Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people ( Isa 56:6-7 ).

Now the Jews in establishing the temple did not really follow this. They had the court of the Gentiles and if you were a Gentile you had to stay in that court, and leading into the next court were the signs warning the Gentiles at the cost of their life to stay out. Warning any Gentile from trespassing within that next area of the temple. Now Paul the apostle really got into big trouble with the Jews because they thought that he had brought an uncircumcised man into the area of the temple, the Jewish quarter within the temple. And that’s what created the whole hubbub there in Jerusalem that almost resulted in Paul’s being killed. However, Paul was not guilty. They thought he was guilty. But Paul was not guilty of that charge. But yet the Lord had declared, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” So He’s talking about the stranger that is the person who is not a Jew who is there, who follows the Lord. God wanted him to feel an access unto God through the temple.

Now you remember that when Jesus came into the temple, He saw those moneychangers that were there and those that were selling doves. And He made a whip and He began to overturn the tables of the moneychangers and began to drive them out of the temple saying unto them that they have profaned the temple, that My Father has said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves” ( Mat 21:13 ). And the anger that He had for the profaning. In other words, they wouldn’t let the Gentiles in, but they had all kinds of crooked kind of practices going on.

The moneychangers were men who would have their little booths there in the temple and you could only pay your offerings to God in the shekels. They would not receive Roman coinage, because they considered that unclean. You couldn’t give your common Roman coinage to the Lord. So if you wanted to give an offering to God, you had to exchange your Roman coin for the temple shekel. You say, “What’s so wrong with that?” Well, what was wrong with that is these guys were charging a horrible rate of exchange. In other words, they were making a markup, a percentage, and thus in essence they were skimming off money that really should have gone to the Lord. They were thieving from God in the exchanging of the shekel and in drawing a percentage for themselves they were really skimming off from God. And the same was true with the doves. You could buy a dove outside for a couple of pennies. But these guys were charging an exorbitant price, but they were in collusion with the priests. If you just brought a dove in, the priest would examine it carefully and he’d find some little flaw, and of course, you cannot offer any flawed offering unto God. So he’d say, “No, I can’t offer this for you.” But here this fellow had doves for sale and they had the stamp on them. They were koshers. And so, but they were charging a bigger price.

So again the idea of robbery, of thievery that was going on, and it upset Jesus. And so He quotes actually from this verse in Isaiah where God’s intention that His house would be called a house of prayer for all people. That it will be open to anyone, anybody who wanted to pray unto God would be free to come in and pray unto God within the house.

So he declares,

The Lord GOD which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him ( Isa 56:8 ).

The gospel that will go out into the Gentiles.

All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all ye beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind ( Isa 56:9-10 ):

That’s a tragic situation that you have a watchman that’s blind.

they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter ( Isa 56:10-11 ).

And so God speaking, and of course, it is interesting that God would speak of those, they were all looking for their own gain. All looking for their own welfare and their own gain. And it is interesting that the Lord would mention that in the very passage that Jesus quoted when He said, “You’ve made my Father’s house a den of thieves, for My Father’s house was to be called a house of prayer for all people.” And here they are, they’re greedy. Dogs that never have enough. They’re all looking for their own gain.

Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as today, and much more abundant ( Isa 56:12 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 56:1-2

Isa 56:1-2

This chapter is designated by many scholars as another glimpse of the times of Messiah, but we cannot accept such an interpretation; and, although there are certain portions of the chapter which indeed are definitely applicable to “latter days” in the kingdom of heaven, there are other portions of it which are thoroughly Jewish with no application whatever to Christians or times of the Messiah. This strange mingling of separate subjects in a single passage is often found in Scripture, the great example being that spoken by Christ himself in his prophecy of the destruction of the literal Jerusalem, which is also, at the very same time, a prophecy of the end of the world (Matthew 24).

Therefore, in this chapter, all references to “the sabbath” and to “burnt-offerings and sacrifices” are directed to Jews alone; whereas, the prophecy of that “new name,” better than “of sons and daughters,” and the acceptability of eunuchs and “foreigners,” that is, “Gentiles,” into the service of God is clearly a prophecy of the Messianic kingdom.

Failure to take account of this fundamental principle of Biblical interpretation led even great scholars like Albert Barnes to make this chapter a prophecy that the Sabbath Day would be incorporated as a binding obligation in the Church of Jesus Christ. The only trouble with such an interpretation is that it forces Isaiah to prophecy a lie.

In all the New Testament, or the whole Bible for that matter, there is never an instance in which the sabbath day was ever made a requirement for anyone except Jews. The apostle Paul commanded, “Let no man, therefore judge you in respect of … a sabbath day … For he (Christ) hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to his cross” (Col 2:14-15).

J. R. Dummelow has given a very convincing analysis of why this whole passage pertains to the pre-exilic Israel, and is not primarily directed either to post-exilic or Christian times:

(a) The picture here of the infatuated and self-indulgent leaders of Israel fits the pre-exilic Israel much better than it does the times of the exile (Isa 56:10-12). (b) The idolatrous rites alluded to (Isa 57:5-9) are those practiced in the later days of the Jewish monarchy (Manasseh’s reign). (c) The persecution of true followers of Jehovah (Isa 57:1) suggests the reign of Manasseh. (d) The natural features mentioned (Isa 57:5-6) are Palestinian, not Baylonian. (e) The seeking of foreign alliances alluded to (Isa 57:6-10) fits the days of Israel’s monarchy, not the times of the exile, or later.

It should be noted that Dummelow treated this and the following chapters as a unit, which, of course, is correct. To the analysis given above, we wish to add the fact that the triple injunction regarding the “Sabbath” in Isa 56:2; Isa 56:4; Isa 56:6 of this chapter removes every possibility of the chapter’s application to the times of the captivity; because nobody can believe that God would have commanded a nation of slaves in Babylon to “observe the sabbath day.” What slave-master would have allowed such a thing? No, the very fact of the commandment implies that Israel could have observed it. Most of the commentators who favor other interpretations have noted this difficulty and suppose that it was some kind of “a spiritual observance” that was commanded. Who ever heard of such a thing?

The great thrust of both Isaiah 56 and Isaiah 57, is God’s warnings to his apostate people, then approaching their captivity, to, “Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even the statutes and ordinances” (Mal 4:4). Thus the very last word of Jehovah to his wicked nation, as recorded here, was exactly the same as the last word of the Old Testament to the same apostate and hardened people in the last three verses of the Old Testament, (Mal 4:4). quoted above, namely, “Get with it, and observe the law of Moses!”.

Isa 56:1-2

“Thus saith Jehovah, Keep ye justice, and do righteousness; for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth it fast; that keepeth the sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing anything evil.”

In a word, these two verses are simply an admonition to the apostate Israelites to “Remember the law of Moses” and obey it. They were nearing the climax of their long pursuit of the utmost wickedness under Manasseh, which would result in God’s removing the whole nation into captivity. The command to “keep the sabbath” is a synecdoche, standing for all of the obligations of the law of Moses. This figure is used extensively throughout both the Old Testament and the New Testament, as in the New Testament declaration that men are justified “by faith,” which means the belief, acceptance, and obedience to all the obligations of the Christian religion. It will recur in Isa 56:4 and Isa 56:6.

Isa 56:1-2 COVENANT ESPOUSED: On the basis of the Suffering Servants atonement and the offer of a new covenant relationship through His accomplishment, the emphasis is now put on mans espousal or choice of that covenant. Jehovahs salvation is near! In His salvation, His righteousness will be revealed (cf. Rom 1:17; Rom 3:21-26). Logically, then, those who choose the benefits of His righteousness must accept the responsibility of such a choice which is to do righteously. Those who want the results of righteousness must practice righteousness! Practicing righteousness can be clearly defined! Doing what Gods revealed covenant terms say is right and refraining from what Gods covenant says is evil is practicing righteousness. The apostle John amplifies this principle in his writings (Joh 14:15; Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23; Joh 15:10; 1Jn 2:3-6; 1Jn 2:24; 1Jn 3:19-24; 1Jn 4:6; 1Jn 5:1-3, etc.). In our text here, Isaiah uses the sabbath as an example of mans obligation to keep Gods covenant according to Gods terms. Next to circumcision, the sabbath was the central sign of the covenant (cf. Exo 31:13 ff; Eze 20:12 ff). This does not mean the sabbath day was to be a commandment of the New Covenant which the Messiah would establish. Sabbath is used in a number of messianic prophecies to exemplify the prediction that members of the future messianic kingdom would be covenant-keepers instead of covenant-breakers like the Jews of the days of the prophets (cf. Isa 66:22-23; Eze 44:24; Eze 45:17; Eze 46:3). Sabbath-day keeping in the New Covenant dispensation is definitely abrogated as a law of God since the O.T. ordinances were nailed to the cross (cf. Col 2:13-15; Heb 9:10; Heb 10:1, etc.). Sabbath-keeping is, at best, merely a matter of opinion in the New Dispensation (cf. Rom 14:1-12; Col 2:16-23). The use of the sabbath by Isaiah in this messianic text is a clear example of times-coloring in prophetic literature. How is a prophet 700 years removed from the messianic age to communicate the idea of sincere covenant-keeping to his audience? He must do it in terminology and practices contemporary with his own dispensation and age. Therefore, he idealizes the concept of covenant-keeping with ones sincerity in keeping the sabbath!

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

This division ends with two chapters (56 and 57) which set forth certain aspects of the administration of the Kingdom. The first is intended to comfort those who by recent promises of restoration made to the people of God were likely to be discouraged. Strangers would say, “The Lord will surely separate me from His people,” and, in view of the hope of the growth of the nation, the eunuch would declare, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” Both these are comforted. To the latter is promised a memorial and a name in the house of God better than that of sons and daughters. The strangers are told that as they join themselves to the Lord, to be His ministers who love His name, they also will be welcomed to His holy mountain. It is a declaration which reveals the prophet’s understanding that the coming victory will have a wider application than merely to the chosen people.

While there is welcome for the strangers who submit to the Lord, there is to be the severest judgment of evil, even when it manifests itself among the chosen people. The beasts of the field are summoned to devour the blind watchman and the drunker, leaders.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Blessedness of Sabbath-Keeping

Isa 56:1-12

The bright array of Messianic promises, which occupied the preceding chapters, is now followed by a portion of less interest, seeing that our attention is not now fastened on Christ, but on Israel. Birk calls this sermon The Middle Ages of Delay, and says: This new section of advice and warning belongs to this whole period from Isaiah to Christ. The like message applies now to the Church of Christ and its prospect of the Second Advent.

Special emphasis is laid on Sabbath-keeping because it was the special sign of Gods connection with Israel. See Exo 31:13-17; Eze 20:12. It was also a type and pledge of the redemption rest, soon to be brought in and perfected by Christs finished work, Heb 4:9-10.

What an ideal is presented here for character and conduct! To keep Gods rest in our heart-the rest of faith; to cease from ourselves; to be joined to the Lord by one Spirit; to minister to Him; to love His name; to be His servants! What more could we imagine as characteristic of the Christian soul! Let us ask God to bring us to His holy mountain and to make us joyful in His house of prayer.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON

THE PROPHET ISAIAH

By

Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.

Copyright @ 1952

edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago

ISAIAH CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

ENCOURAGEMENT TO RIGHTEOUSNESS

THESE following chapters are of such an exceedingly practical nature, that sometimes we may be inclined to look carelessly over such portions and focus our attention upon passages that speak of great events that are to take place in the future or of GOD’s dealings with His people in the past. But, we repeat, the great object of prophetic ministry is not simply to occupy people with coming events, but so to impress the truths of the future upon the conscience as to enable GOD’s people to live now in the light of the predicted future. It was so of Israel of old and it is so with us, in this present Church age.

Many people have a rather intellectual interest in prophecy, and will flock to hear a series of such messages. They are very important, and any servant of CHRIST who sets forth the prophetic parts of the Word of GOD, will find that fewer professed Christians would be lost to orthodoxy if saved preachers gave more attention to the prophetic Word. People go out into other systems because they are hungry to know the future. That is how the “Voice of Prophecy” appeals to so many who hear it over the air, who do not know that it is the radio department of the Seventh-day Adventists. They are specially thrilled when it attempts to open up the future. Then it is suggested that the listeners should take one of their Bible Study Courses. They never announce over the air, “This is the Seventh-day Adventist propaganda.” They keep that hidden closely, and not until the student is well on in the Bible Courses does he see what it really is. But thousands of people all over this country have been swept into Seventh-day Adventism annually just because of an interest in prophecy. Properly instructed from the Scriptures, they would not have been in the same danger.

“JEHOVAH’s Witnesses” work on the same principle. They try to hide their real views until little by little hearers listen to their great program for the future. The truth as to the Second Coming of the Lord, particularly in its two aspects, would preserve them from the ridiculous teachings of so-called “Pastor” Russell and Judge Rutherford, that the Lord has already come and has been here since 1874, but is manifesting Himself only to those of special spirituality, and the millennium began in 1914 and we are already in it. Wonderful millennium, is it not? But who that has been well-instructed in clear Bible teaching would be carried away with such vagaries?

On the other hand, it is important that with every message something of an intensely practical character should be incorporated lest its hearers be carried away with the glowing pictures of the future and the visions of such prophecies as set forth in Daniel and The Revelation, while very careless and indifferent as to their lives.

Once when I was asked to give some addresses on the Second Coming of the Lord, a speaker sitting beside me remarked as someone entered before the meeting commenced, “There is one of the most godless men in our community and yet he is always on hand if anyone lectures on prophecy. He is so interested in finding out all about the future.”

When I got through preaching, this man came up to me. “Brother,” he said, “I’m glad to know that you hold the Second Coming – I hold that too.” I asked, “Do you? Does it hold you? It is one thing to hold the Second Coming, it is quite another thing to be held by it. The Word says, ‘Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.’ Does it have that effect on your heart and life?” He said, “Who has been talking to you about me?” Clearly something was wrong. Many people want to know all about the horns of Daniel and the beasts of Revelation; they do not want you to probe their consciences.

But we get prophetic ministry in the proper proportion in a book like this of Isaiah. Again and again after giving pictures of the future, the prophet comes down to the actual condition of the people at the time when he was speaking.

In chapter fifty-six Isaiah begins a very practical section. He points out the importance of living in a godly way in the then present, and also that in the future it is as the nations learn to seek after righteousness that the blessing of the kingdom will be theirs.

“Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye Judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed” (verse 1).

That gives exactly the same principle. “Keep ye judgment and do justice” because these things are soon to take place. In other words, live now in the light of then.

“Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the Lord, speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off” (verses 2-5).

He goes on to show that no one need fail of the coming blessing if he is sincere in turning to GOD. Certain ones were prohibited from having any part in the services of the Lord in Old Testament times; a eunuch could not have any part in the priesthood and the stranger had no place there. But in the future, no matter what one’s physical condition, or nationality, if his earnest purpose of heart is to seek the Lord and to do the will of GOD, he will have the same

place in the kingdom that anyone else can have. It will be open for everyone. So this chapter emphasizes the importance of practical righteousness.

“Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people” (verses 6, 7).

These are the words of the Lord JESUS CHRIST, when He drove the money-changers out of the temple. “Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Mar 11:17).

Our Lord thus gives us the key to the practical application of this passage. It was GOD’s word not only to Israel but to assure the Gentiles that they, too, might come into blessing if they would seek His face and take hold of the Abrahamic covenant: In thee “and in thy seed shall all the nations. . . be blessed.” As long as the Jewish dispensation lasted, in the days of the Great Tribulation, and on into the millennium, the observance of the Sabbath will be an outward sign of allegiance to the Lord and the recognition of His authority.

We, today, do not recognize the Jewish Sabbath. Why? Because it was part of that Law which was done away for us in the Cross of CHRIST. The Lord took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross. So the Word says, “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, . . . or of the sabbath days: which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.” The light of GOD of old was shining upon CHRIST, and CHRIST cast His shadow before He came – and the Sabbath was one aspect of this shadow – rest at the end of a six-day period of labor. The Lord JESUS was the glorious fulfillment when He said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Instead of the Jewish Sabbath we now have the Lord’s Day. Some object to applying the term “Lord’s Day” to the first day of the week. Where John in The Revelation says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day” they insist that the “Lord’s day” and “the day of the Lord” are the same thing. And we might take it for granted that the two expressions mean the same – the day of the Lord and the Lord’s day. Now if it were thus exactly translated, then that might be so, but the term “Lord” is not in the possessive case there, but an adjective is used, formed from the word for “Lord.”

It is the Lordian Day – just as you have an adjective formed from the word “CHRIST,” when we speak of a “Christian” spirit, a Christian church, a Christian atmosphere.

It has been translated “lordly,” which does not give the thought since that suggests a superior day to others. It is the Lordian day – the day that brings before us the resurrection of our blessed Lord from the dead. The early Christians knew better than we in the twentieth century the meaning of some of those cryptic expressions in the book of Revelation. All down through the centuries from the earliest days, the first day of the week was recognized by Christians as the Lord’s Day,

the Lordian Day.

The only name that the Greeks have for it is kuriakos, the Lord’s Day; the Latins called it the Dominical Day, the Lord’s Day, which is the same thing. And it has been so known down through the centuries. If we were in the White House and looking at its furniture, and the guard said, “That is the President’s chair,” or, “That is the chair of the President,” the words would mean the same thing. But if we speak of the “Presidential Chair” there is something altogether different.

The “Lordian Day” is that which the Christian Church, from the very beginning, has kept and – mark this – voluntarily, voluntarily, in memory of the resurrection of our Lord JESUS CHRIST. Its very voluntariness gives it value in the sight of the Lord.

If some loving friend gives you a birthday present its special value is that it shows his kindly thought. If you had written to say, “I am going to have a birthday and will expect a present from you,” it would lose all its value. So the Seventh-day Adventists challenge us, “Show us a commandment in the New Testament telling us to observe the first day of the week.” We say, “There is no commandment. We are under grace, not law.” They ask, “Why do you do it?”

“Because of the gratitude of our hearts to the Lord JESUS who rose from the dead on the first day of the week.”

The first day of the week has been given a special place in the Book of the Acts, and the First Epistle to the Corinthians. That special place has been marked from the beginning of Christianity to the present time.

As Israel of old by their recognition of the Sabbath manifested their love to the Lord, their reverence to His name, so by the observance of the Lord’s Day we manifest the same thing. Christians should be very careful about the use of the Lord’s Day, and never should allow themselves to treat it just as a common day, and be indifferent to its claims. Suppose it were taken away from us. Suppose this country became like Russia and every day was a secular day and there were no special privileges such as we have enjoyed. How we would miss them! How bitterly we would rue the memory of ever having treated that day carelessly.

We have a spiritual lesson out of this – that for Israel of old it was absolutely legal – we are told that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. While we are dead to the law in the body of CHRIST, yet every righteous requirement of the law will be fulfilled in us as we walk in the power of the Holy Spirit.

~ end of chapter 56 ~

http://www.baptistbiblebelievers.com/

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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Isa 56:2

I. The Sabbath is “polluted” when it is spent in mere idleness.

II. When it is devoted to worldly amusement.

III. By all labour which may not fairly come under the description of works of necessity and mercy.

J. N. Norton, Every Sunday, p. 121.

References: Isa 56:2.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 1st series, p. 273. Isa 56:7.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 3rd series, p. 92; W. Braden, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 177. Isa 56:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1437. Isa 56:12.-J. M. C. Hussey, Christian World Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 129; A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 234. Isa 57:1.-J. Keble, Sermons for Saints’ Days, p. 41. Isa 57:1, Isa 57:2.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 47. Isa 57:10.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 684; Homiletic Magazine, vol. vii., p. 145. Isa 57:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii., No. 1579; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit Sermons, 4th series, p. 67.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 56

Salvation Enjoyed by the Strangers and Eunuchs

1. Strangers and servants joined unto the Lord to serve Him and to love the Name of the Lord (Isa 56:1-8) The first eight verses of this chapter stand by themselves. Strangers to the commonwealth of Israel and eunuchs are gathered in. It is the result of the gracious invitation of the preceding chapter and that again is the result of the work of the Servant of Jehovah and His vicarious suffering. While these verses look forward to the kingdom we have in them a hint of what God does now in gathering strangers. The gathering of the others in verse eight can only take place when the outcasts of Israel are brought in.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Keep: Isa 1:16-19, Isa 26:7, Isa 26:8, Isa 55:7, Psa 24:4-6, Psa 50:23, Jer 7:3-11, Mal 4:4, Mat 3:2, Joh 7:17

judgment: or, equity

for: Isa 46:13, Isa 51:5, Psa 85:9, Mat 3:2, Mat 4:17, Mar 1:15, Luk 3:3-9, Rom 1:17, Rom 10:6-10, Rom 13:11-14

Reciprocal: Deu 29:9 – General Psa 25:10 – keep Psa 106:3 – keep Isa 33:15 – that walketh Isa 64:5 – those that Dan 9:24 – to bring Rom 10:3 – God’s righteousness Rev 22:14 – Blessed

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

At the end of Isa 55:1-13 the wonderful prophetic strain, concerning the One who was to come forth as both the “Servant” and the “Arm” of the Lord, comes to an end. In chapter 56 the prophet had to revert to the state of things among the people to whom previously he addressed himself.

He spoke in the name of the Lord and the fact that He called for equity and justice reveals that these excellent things were not being practised among the people. His salvation and righteousness were “near to come,” though not fully revealed until after Christ came. When we open the Epistle to the Romans, we meet with both salvation and righteousness in verses 16 and 17 of the first chapter. Both are fully manifested in the death and resurrection of Christ; not as antagonistic the one to the other, but in the fullest agreement and harmony. While waiting for this manifestation the man who lived in accordance with righteousness would be blessed indeed. The sabbath was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, therefore it must be observed faithfully.

Moreover the blessings, that came from obedience to God’s holy requirements in His law, were not confined to the seed of Israel, but extended to the stranger who sought the Lord. This passage, verses Isa 56:3-8, is one to be noted with care. The door was open to any, no matter whence they came, who really feared the Lord, and sought Him and His covenant amongst His people. The Queen of Sheba, for instance, came to question Solomon, not because of his vast knowledge of natural history, and his great literary output (see, 1Ki 4:29-34), but, “concerning the name of the Lord” (1Ki 10:1). So too the eunuch is specially mentioned in our passage, and in Act 8:1-40, we have the story of the Ethiopian eunuch, who was indeed one of the “sons of the stranger,” who were seeking to “join themselves to the Lord, to serve Him, and to love the name of the Lord.” What was promised to such by the prophet here was made good to him only in a more abundant measure since he was not given a place “in My holy mountain,” but rather “called… into the grace of Christ.” (Gal 1:6).

Even under the law the Divine thought was, “Mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” This is just the scripture quoted by the Lord on His last visit to the temple, just before He suffered; and He had with sorrow to add, “but ye have made it a den of thieves” (Mat 21:13). Such was the awful state into which the Jews had lapsed, and we are painfully aware that they were well on the way to it as we read this book of Isaiah. Yet the gracious promise of verse Isa 56:8 abides. God will yet gather a remnant of His people, who are outcasts amongst men, and when He does so, He will gather others, who hitherto have been strangers. Today God is specially concentrating upon the strangers, visiting “the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name” (Act 15:14).

Having uttered the promise of God, the prophet now turned abruptly to denounce the state of the people, and especially those who were in the place of watchmen and shepherds. The one were both blind and dumb, the other greedy for their gain and not for the welfare of the sheep. As a result the beasts of the field would break through and devour: a warning this of oppressing nations about to assail them from without, while those who should warn and defend were like drunkards, filled with false optimism.

Hence the opening words of Chapter 57. The time had come when God would remove from their midst the righteous and the merciful, and so it might appear as though these were under His judgment; whereas the fact was that it were better for them to be removed by death than to live to share the judgment that would fall. A striking example of this was seen somewhat later when God-fearing Josiah was taken away that his eyes might not see the disasters impending. It could then be said of him that “he shall enter into peace.”

The evil state of things that existed among the people is again exposed, beginning with verse Isa 56:3. Even in Hezekiah’s day the state of things was thus. Reading the account of his reign in both Kings and Chronicles we might imagine that the mass of the nation followed their king in the fear of the Lord, but evidently they did not, and idolatrous evils still largely characterized the people. Down to the end of verse 14, these idolatrous practices and the moral filthiness that accompanied them are denounced, and it is plainly foretold that, even when disaster came upon them from without, no object of their veneration would be able to deliver them. Their works, and what they considered to be their “righteousness” would be of no profit to them. The whole spirit that animated them was wrong.

The right spirit is indicated in verse 15. Jehovah presents Himself in a light calculated to produce that right spirit in those that approach Him. He is high and elevated in the depths of space, far above this little world. He inhabits eternity, not restricted by the times and seasons that confine us. His name is “Holy.” Are we sensible of this? If so, we shall at once be contrite as regards the past, and humble in the present. And it is the heart and spirit of the humble and contrite that God revives, so that they may dwell in His presence in the high and holy place.

These things were promised to those that feared the Lord in Israel in the past days, and they are more abundantly true for us today, who are not under the law but called into the grace of Christ. Self-satisfaction and pride are the last things that should characterise us. We may well rejoice that we know God as our Father; but let us never overlook the fact that our Father is God.

The succeeding verses go on to speak of God’s governmental dealings with the people. He had to deal in wrath with them because of their sin and rebellion, but He would not contend with them as a nation for ever. The moment would come when He would heal and bless, and establish peace, both for those far off and for those near. The term, “far off” may refer to the sons of Israel, who would be scattered, as distinguished from those who would be in the land. But what is said is true, if we understand it as referring to Gentiles, who were “far off,” in the sense of Eph 2:13. But also in either case the peace has to be “created” by God, and is not something produced by men. Isa 53:1-12 has told us how the peace is created.

The peace is only for those who are brought into right relations with God. It is not for the wicked who far from Him, are as restless as the sea. The winds keep the sea in perpetual agitation. Satan, who is “the prince of power of the air,” keeps the wicked in a condition similar to the sea, and all their visible actions are like “mire and dirt.”

Hence there can be no peace for the wicked. This solemn statement closed the first section of nine chapters. There seems however to be a deeper emphasis in its repetition, since we have now had before us the judgment of sin in the death of the Messiah, the sinless Substitute, in Isa 53:1-12.

The third and last section of nine chapters now opens with a command that the prophet himself had to fulfil. Loudly and forcibly to accuse the house of Jacob of their transgressions and sins was no pleasing task; rather one that would be met with resentment and anger. The same thing however is necessary in connection with the Gospel today. In the Epistle to the Romans the Gospel is not expounded before the sinfulness of all mankind is plainly and fully exposed. In the Acts of the Apostles we see the same thing in practice. In Act 7:1-60, Stephen did it with great power, and paid the penalty with his life. The same thing in its measure marked the public preachings of Peter and Paul; and when Paul faced Felix privately, “he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come,” so much so that Felix trembled. We venture to think that this solemn note has far too often been missing in these days, as the Gospel is preached.

Verses Isa 56:2-3 reveal why such a testimony of conviction was so needed, and for just the same reason is it needed today. The sins of the people were being covered up with a round of religious duties. They were going up to the temple, apparently seeking God. They took delight in acquaintance with God’s ways, in observing His ordinances, in fasting and afflicting their souls. Were not all these outward things enough and to be commended?

Yet they were but a mask, and when this was removed, what was beneath? Verses Isa 56:3-5 show us what was beneath. Their “fast” was really a time of pleasure. There was exaction, strife, debate, the ill-treatment of others, though they bowed down their heads in a false humility and spread sackcloth and ashes beneath them. Their fast was just a matter of outward religious ceremony, and had nothing in it of that inward self-denial that it was supposed to indicate.

Is this the fast that God had chosen? is what verse Isa 56:6 asks. And verse Isa 56:7 proceeds to indicate the fast that would be acceptable unto God. Before Him what counts is what is moral rather than what is ceremonial. By Hosea God said, “I desired mercy and not sacrifice” (Hos 6:6); and the Lord quoted this twice (Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7) Thus we see here exposed the hypocrisy that came into full display and reached its climax in the Pharisees when our Lord was on earth; and as often noticed the severest denunciations that ever fell from the lips of our Lord were against the Pharisees. To none of the publicans and harlots did the Lord utter such words as are found in Mat 23:1-33.

This evil was plainly visible in Isaiah’s day; but having exposed it, the prophet was led to show that if his rebuke was accepted and the people repented there was yet blessing in store for them. Then, of course, they would walk in righteousness, and as a result there would be for them light and health and glory. The light would be like the dawning of new day. Their health would spring forth speedily. Their righteousness would open the way before them, and the glory of the Lord would protect their rear. Is Israel ever going to achieve this desirable state as the result of their law-keeping? The answer is, No. The New Testament makes this very plain.

Will this state then ever be reached? The answer is, only through their Messiah, whom they have rejected. When first He came, it was as, “the Dayspring from on high” (Luk 1:78); it was the dawning of a new day in which Israel’s light was to break forth. But they would have none of Him. What is predicted here is deferred consequently until He appears again in His glory. They will then be a born-again people, with the Spirit poured forth on them as objects of Divine mercy. Then, and not till then, will the glory of the Lord be a guard to their rear.

But in Isaiah’s day the people were still being dealt with as men in the flesh and on the ground of their responsibility under the law, so the blessing proposed is based on their obedience. Hence there is found that fatal, “If…” in verse Isa 56:9. When the law was given it was, “If ye will obey…” (Exo 19:5), and so again is it here; and thus it must be as long as a law regime prevails. All through Israel’s national history there has never been the taking away of the things mentioned in verse Isa 56:9, nor the drawing out of their soul to the things mentioned in verse Isa 56:10. Hence the good things of verse Isa 56:11-12, have never yet in any full sense been realized, though a limited revival was granted under the leadership of Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah.

The fatal, “If…” meets us again as we look at verse 13. This time it is linked with the due observance of the sabbath, and this seventh day was given to Israel, we must again recall, as the sign between themselves and God, when the law was given, as is stated in Eze 20:12. Sabbath-keeping had therefore a very special place in the law economy. If therefore the people turned away their foot from its due observance and merely used the day for the doing of their own pleasure, it was to do despite to the covenant of which it was the sign. This is just what the people were doing in the days of Isaiah.

In Joh 5:1-47 we read how the Lord Jesus healed the impotent man on a sabbath day. This gave great offence to the Jews and because of it they sought to slay Him. The Lord’s answer was, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” The fact was that the covenant of law which demanded works of obedience from Israel, was hopelessly broken, and the sabbath, which was the sign of it, was being set aside. The time had now arrived for the work of the Son and of the Father to come into display, as indeed it did on the first day of the week, when our Lord rose from the dead, now known to us as “The Lord’s day.”

We can however read the last verse of this chapter, as also the verses that precede, as setting forth what God will eventually bring to pass for Israel in the millennial day that is coming, not as the result of their doings, but solely as the fruit of what their Messiah has already done, coupled with the righteous power to be put forth when He comes again in His glory. Then Israel will be like, “a watered garden,” and “the old waste places” shall be built. Then shall Israel delight itself in the Lord, and consequently “ride upon the high places of the earth.”

They are far from doing this at present; but they shall certainly do so. And, Why? “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” His word is stable. What He says always comes to pass.

Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary

Isa 56:1. Thus saith the Lord This verse, and the rest of this chapter, until Isa 56:9, seems to belong to the foregoing prophecy. From the consideration of Gods promises there made to the believing Jews and Gentiles, he here urges them to perform their duty to him. Keep ye judgment and do justice This phrase elsewhere generally signifies the duties which one man owes to another; but here it seems rather to signify the duties which men owe to God, as it is explained in the following verses. Accordingly, it might with propriety have been rendered, practise righteousness. For my salvation is near to come That eminent salvation by the Messiah, so largely promised and insisted upon in the foregoing chapters. The Scriptures, it must be observed, often speak of things that are at a great distance as if they were present or at hand, Hab 2:3; Jas 5:8-9; Rev 22:20. And my righteousness to be revealed What in the former clause he called salvation, he here calls righteousness, as being an evident demonstration of Gods righteousness, both in the fulfilment of his promises, and in the punishment of sin, as also in the salvation of sinners, upon just and honourable terms.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 56:1. Keep ye judgment, as a preparation for the Messiahs advent, who is here called, Salvation; and whose righteousness and mercy are the only ground of a sinners justification, adoption, and glory. For his coming Jacob when dying prayed, Oh Lord, I have waited for thy Salvation.

Isa 56:3. The stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord. In the second temple there were three courts: Atrium Gentrium, the court of the gentiles, which is the same as the court of Israel. The court of the women was divided by a wall from the great court. Next was the Chel, surrounded with a low wall of curious work, ascended by fourteen steps. At the entrance of this court there were on the pillars an inscription in Latin and Greek, announcing the Sanctity of the place, and that no stranger must enter, nor any Israelite, if he had touched a dead body. Deu 23:1. Dr. Lightfoot.

Isa 56:9. All ye beasts of the field. Rather, as in the Hebrew, beasts of the forest; that is, beasts of prey; an apostrophe to the Chaldean army, swifter than leopards, and fiercer than the evening wolves. Hab 1:8. A leading cause of the Hebrew ruin, the Lord by Isaiah imputes, in the next verses, to corrupt priests and false prophets; viz. blind watchmen, and dumb dogs that could not bark. A watchman, who eats the bread of a pastor, should have piercing eyes, and be like the wakeful dog in giving alarm of danger.

Isa 56:10-11. His watchmen are blind, they are all dumb dogs. The Vulgate reads, speculatores ejus ceci omnes, all his speculators are blind; that is, the priests and doctors, says Poole, in the Synopsis, who sold themselves for false prophets. Compare Eze 3:17; Eze 33:2; Eze 33:6-7. Judges, princes, and kings were all the same. They were blind, and could not see the evils coming on their country. Dumb dogs, who saw Jerusalem full of sin, and held their peace. They imposed their own blind speculations on the people, as the hallowed revelations of the Lord. Oh pastor! see that no part of this portrait belongs to thee. The Egyptians gave the name dog to Sirius, the brightest of our fixed stars in Orion, because when he was seen it was as the barking of a dog, warning to prepare for the inundation of the Nile.

Isa 56:12. Fetch wine. The princes, priests and prophets, drunk in time of danger, like wicked men, and filled themselves with strong drink, as in chap. 28:7, 8.

REFLECTIONS.

The warm exhortation to repentance and reformation, pressed in the last chapter, is here resumed, and by the consideration that Gods salvation was near to come; namely, a salvation from Babylon, and a salvation from sin and death by the Lord Jesus. The prophet so wrote that his writing might edify the church in every age, the righteousness of the Lord being no other than his faithful accomplishment of the promises, in shedding down on the church all the blessings of a full redemption.

In the evangelical age very great encouragement was to be given to strangers to embrace the new covenant, mentioned in the preseding chapter, Isa 56:3, who should join the Jewish, and afterwards the christian church; and these in the apostolic times are estimated at one fifth of the nation. The eunuch is here particularly comforted. Whether he was born a eunuch, whether tyrants had made him so to serve in the harem, or whether he had mistakenly made himself so for the kingdom of God, he was excluded from the sanctuary. Deu 23:1. But in better times he is promised, on keeping the sabbath, which to the heathen seemed a difficult precept,a place and a name in Gods house, better than that of sons and of daughters. The eunuchs, and all those ministers, missionaries, and eminently pious women who make Christ their whole delight, and who live solely to convert sinners and edify the church, shall have children in glory which shall be their crown of rejoicing in the day of the Lord, and make their name more illustrious than the title of Patriarch. As to the strangers, the names of Rahab, of Ruth, and others stand high in the scriptures; and Elimelech, a eunuch who saved Jeremiah from perishing in the dungeon, has immortalized his memory in the church. Hence the sin- offering of those who joined the Jewish church should be accepted, and the devotion of those who joined the christian church should not be less acceptable to God.

The pious Jews and proselytes are farther comforted by a deliverance from those priests and rulers who were blind and ignorant watchmendumb dogs, who had neither talents nor spirit for the ministryidle, dormant, and greedy dogs, who could never have enough. They almost broke Isaiahs heart: Isa 28:13. Instead of profiting by his awful predictions, they seemed to drink for whole nights in the Lords house, and said, to-morrow shall be as to-day. In the issue he lost his life by struggling against them, and against Manasseh their wicked king. If the words be applied to the watchmen or shepherds in our Saviours time, or in any time, the doctrine is equally true, that God will root them out of his house. He will call the beasts of the field and of the forest to devour, which Jeremiah explains of Gods abhorring his sanctuary, taking away his glory, and giving it up to the beasts of the forests, the Chaldeans, and latterly the Romans, to be devoured: chap. 12. He mentions in particular, that the birds round about are gathered against her; just as our Saviour said, where the carcase is there will the eagles be gathered together. May the Lord then make us faithful in the ministry, for teachers of this description are the last curse to a church and nation.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isa 56:1-8. A Gracious Promise to Proselytes and Eunuchs.We find ourselves conscious in this oracle of a change of atmosphere and setting. The Temple is built, and the centre of an elaborate ritual. Refraining from evil and sabbath-keeping are equally yoked. We pass now to the oracles of Trito-Isaiah.

An exhortation to hold fast the ordinances of religion (judgement), based upon the imminence of Yahwehs vindicating intervention (my righteousness), is followed by a beatitude upon the man who obeys it. Let not the foreigner fear exclusion from the chosen people (separate is a technical term meaning to excommunicate), nor the eunuch, because he can have no posterity, refrain from joining them. For the eunuch who follows Yahwehs precepts (note again the emphasis on sabbath-keeping) a monument shall be erected in the Temple-precincts, indestructible and thus better than (mg.) posterity. Proselytes of whatever nation who keep His laws shall be admitted to the Temple courts (my holy mountain), share the joyous feasts, and have their offerings accepted. The Jerusalem community shall be increased not only by the return of the dispersed Jews but also by proselytes.

Isa 56:4. of: i.e. in reference to.

Isa 56:6. minister: not in the technical sense of exercising priestly functions.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

56:1 Thus saith the LORD, {a} Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation [is] near to come, and my {b} righteousness to be revealed.

(a) God shows what he requires of them after he has delivered them: that is, the works of charity by which true faith is declared.

(b) Which I will declare toward you, and pour into your hearts by my Spirit.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The basis of acceptance and blessing 56:1-8

This transitional pericope introduces the problem that the previous sections of the book posed, which I have tried to explain just above. It also begins the explanation of the solution by placing in stark contrast two opposing views of what pleases God: simply being a child of Abraham, versus living in loving obedience to God.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

This pericope flows smoothly out of the previous section of the book dealing with God’s provision of salvation for Israel and the world. The Lord had more to say to Isaiah’s audience: "Thus says the LORD."

Since His salvation was about to appear, in return from captivity and in the atoning work of the Servant, His people should practice justice and righteousness (cf. Mat 3:2; Mat 4:17; Tit 3:8). They had a responsibility beyond just believing His promises (chs. 54-55). Notice that practicing justice and righteousness does not accomplish salvation. They should be its consequence; they cannot be its cause (cf. Rom 12:1-2).

"We would indeed be blind not to observe that Isa 56:1 reflects precisely where the church stands today: looking back to the once-for-all redemption at Calvary (Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12) and awaiting a final divine act which will rescue the church from sin, failure and opposition and deal finally with any and every counterforce." [Note: Motyer, p. 462.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

6

BOOK 4

THE RESTORATION

WE have now reached the summit of our prophecy. It has been a long, steep ascent, and we have had very much to seek out on the way, and to extricate and solve and load ourselves with. But although a long extent of the prophecy, if we measure it by chapters, still lies before us, the end is in sight; every difficulty has been surmounted which kept us from seeing how we were to get to it, and the rest of the way may be said to be downhill.

To drop the figure-the Servant, his vicarious suffering and atonement for the sins of the people, form for our prophet the solution of the spiritual problem of the nations restoration, and what he has now to do is but to fill in the details of this.

We saw that the problem of Israels deliverance from Exile, their Return, and their Restoration to their position in their own land as the Chief Servant of God to humanity, was really a double problem-political and spiritual. The solution of the political side of it was Cyrus. As soon as the prophet had been able to make it certain that Cyrus was moving down upon Babylon, with a commission from God to take the city, and irresistible in the power with which Jehovah had invested him, the political difficulties in the way of Israels Return were as good as removed; and so the prophet gave, in the end of chapter 48, his great call to his countrymen to depart. But all through chapters 40-48, while addressing himself to the solution of the political problems of Israels deliverance, the prophet had given hints that there were moral and spiritual difficulties as well. In spite of their punishment for more than half a century, the mass of the people were not worthy of a return. Many were idolaters; many were worldly; the orthodox had their own wrong views of how salvation should come; {Isa 45:9 ff.} the pious were without either light or faith. {Isa 50:10} The nation, in short, had not that inward “righteousness,” which could alone justify God in vindicating them before the. world, in establishing their outward righteousness, their salvation and reinstatement in their lofty place and calling as His people. These moral difficulties come upon the prophet with greater force after he has, with the close of chapter 48, finished his solution of the political ones. To these moral difficulties he addresses himself in 49-53, and the Servant and his Service are his solution of them:-the Servant as a Prophet and a Covenant of the People in chapter 49 and in Isa 50:4 ff.: the Servant as an example to the people, chapter 50 ff.; and finally the Servant as a full expiation for the peoples sins in Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12. It is the Servant who is to “raise up the land, and to bring back the heirs to the desolate heritages,” and rouse the Israel who are not willing to leave Babylon,” saying to the bound, Go forth; and to them that sit in darkness, Show yourselves”. {Isa 49:8-9} It is he who is “to sustain the weary” and to comfort the pious in Israel, who, though pious, have no light as they walk on their way back. {Isa 50:4; Isa 50:10} It is the Servant finally who is to achieve the main problem of all and “make many righteous”. {Isa 53:11} The hope of restoration, the certainty of the peoples redemption, the certainty of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the certainty of the growth of the people to a great multitude, are, therefore, all woven by the prophet through and through with his studies of the Servants work in Isa 49:1., and Isa 52:13-15; Isa 53:1-12, -woven so closely and so naturally that, as we have already seen, we cannot take any part of chapters 49-53 and say that it is of different authorship from the rest. Thus in chapter 49 we have the road to Jerusalem pictured in Isa 49:9-13, immediately upon the back of the Servants call to go forth in Isa 49:9. We have then the assurance of Zion being rebuilt and thronged by her children in Isa 49:14-23, and another affirmation of the certainty of redemption in Isa 49:24-26. In Isa 50:1-3 this is repeated. In 51- Isa 52:1-12 the petty people is assured that it shall grow innumerable again; new affirmations are made of its ransom and return, ending with the beautiful prospect of the feet of the heralds of deliverance on the mountains of Judah {Isa 52:7 b} and a renewed call to leave Babylon (Isa 52:11-12). We shall treat all these passages in our twenty-first chapter.

And as they started naturally from the Servants work in Isa 49:1-9 a-and his example in Isa 50:4-11, so upon his final and crowning work in chapter 53 there follow as naturally chapter 54 (the prospect of the seed Isa 53:10 promised he should see), and chapter 55 (a new call to come forth). These two, with the little pre-exilic prophecy, Isa 56:1-8, we shall treat in our twenty-second chapter.

Then come the series of difficult small prophecies with pre-exilic traces in them, from Isa 56:9 through Isa 59:1-21. They will occupy our twenty-third chapter. In chapter 60 Zion is at last not only in sight, but radiant in the rising of her new day of glory. In chapters 61 and 62 the prophet, having reached Zion, “looks back,” as Dillmann well remarks, “upon what has become his task, and in connection with that makes clear once more the high goal of all his working and striving.” In Isa 63:1-6 the Divine Deliver is hailed. We shall take Isa 60:1-22 – Isa 63:6 together in our twenty-fourth chapter.

Chapter 63:7-64 is an Intercessory Prayer for the restoration of all Israel. It is answered in chapter 65, and the lesson of this answer, that Israel must be judged, and that all cannot be saved, is enforced in chapter 66. Chaps. 63:7-66 will therefore form our twenty-fifth and closing chapter.

Thus our course is clear, and we can overtake it rapidly. It is, to a large extent, a series of spectacles, interrupted by exhortations upon duty; things, in fact, to see and to hear, not to argue about. There are few great doctrinal questions, except what we have already sufficiently discussed; our study, for instance, of the term righteousness, we shall find has covered for us a large part of the ground in advance. And the only difficult literary question is that of the pre-exilic and post-exilic pieces, which are alleged to form so large a part of chapters 56-59 and 63-66.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary