The Book of the Prophet Isaiah
Isaiah 25
Chapter XXV · Vol. III, p. 1176
1 The prophet praiseth God for his past judgments, 6 for his saving benefits, 9 and for his victorious salvation.
1 O LORD,a thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name: for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are bfaithfulness and truth.
a Ex.15.1-21. 1 Ch.16.8-36. Ps.ciii.-cviii.cxlv.-cl.; 72.18,19; 46.10. Re.xi.xix.
b Ps.33.10,11; 89.5. Nu.23.19. Tit.1.2. ch.46.10.
2 Forc thou hast made of a city an heap; of a defenced city a ruin: a palace of dstrangers to be no city; it shall never be built.
3 Thereforee shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee.
4 Forg thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.1
5 Thouh shalt bring down the noise of strangers,2 as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low.
h ch.10.5-34; 14.25; xiii.xiv.xxi. Je.xlvi.-li. Re.6.13-17; xiv.xvi.xviii.-xx.
2 Thou shalt still the tumult of invaders, as thou allayest the scorching heat of the sun by the shadow of a cloud—means apparently most inadequate, but mighty in the hand of God.—C.
6 Andi in this mountain3 shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of jwines on the lees well refined.
7 Andk he will destroy4 in this mountain the face of lthe covering cast5 over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.6
k Ep.1.17,18. 2 Co.3.14-18. ch.11.9; 29.18,23; 54.13. Ro.8.1,2. Mat.11.25; 13.11.
4 Heb. swallow up.
A.M. cir. 3278. B.C. cir. 726.
l Es.7.8. Jn.3.36. 1 Co.2.14. 2 Co.3.16,18; 4.3,4. Ep.4.18.
5 Heb. covered.
6 God himself will remove, or destroy by the divine truth revealed and proclaimed at Jerusalem, the vail of ignorance which so long prevented the nations of the earth from seeing and understanding the nature and will of God.—P.
8 He will nswallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will owipe away tears from off all faces; and the prebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
n Ho.13.14. He.2.14,15. 2 Ti.1.10. 1 Co.15.54. Re.2.11; 20.6,14. Mi.7.19. Ro.8.35-39.
o Re.7.17; 21.4. Ps.85.9. Joel 3.16.
p Mal.3.17,18. ch.37.3; 54.4. Ps.74.22; 123.3,4; 89.50,51. Eze.36.15.
9 And it shall be said in that day, Lo, qthis is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD: rwe have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
q Ps.24.8,10. Ac.10.36. Lu.2.25-28. Tit.2.13. 1 Ti.6.15. Jn.20.28. Lu.1.47. Zec.9.9, with Ps.145.5,7. ch.63.7,16.
10 For in this mountain sshall the hand of the LORD rest, and Moab7 shall be trodden 8down under him, even as straw is trodden down for the dunghill.9
s ch.11.10. Ps.132.13,14. Mat.28.18; 16.18. Ro.8.31.
7 The emblem of all the enemies of the church, who endeavour first to seduce and then ruin the church of Christ by aid and counsel of false and covetous prophets, Nu.22.5; 31.16.—C.
8 Or, threshed.
9 Or, threshed in Madmenah, ch.21.10; 41.15,16. Hab.3.12. ch.27.12. 2 Ki.13.7.
11 Andt he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim: and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands.
12 And the fortress of the high fort of thy walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust.
Notes
Ver. 1-5. All the desolations which thou hast made in the cities of the heathen are the execution of thy purposes and fulfilment of thy word: and thereby shall the stoutest of thine enemies be obliged to acknowledge thy almighty power and strict justice. And as thou hast formerly protected and comforted thy people when furiously assaulted and distressed by their powerful enemies, thou shalt continue, with infinite ease, to baffle the most furious attempts of thine adversaries, and to reduce them and their posterity to ruin. 6-9. In Judea, but chiefly in the firmly-founded and wide-spread gospel church, shall the Lord exhibit, offer to, and bestow on sinful men of all nations, the spiritual and eternal blessings of his new kingdom, feast them on the flesh and blood of his Son, remove their ignorance and guilt, redeem them from death, comfort them against grief, remove the tokens of his anger, and enable them to triumph in himself and his salvation. 10-12. And while he dwells with, delights in, and protects believers, he shall everywhere, and with infinite ease, utterly destroy all those who reject Christ.
Ver. 1. I will exalt thee. Who is the speaker of these words? Isaiah, or some other? Is not the speaker 'the Lord of hosts,' 'manifest in the flesh,' 'before his ancients gloriously?' Comp. Ro. 15. 9 with Ps. 18. 49. See also ch. 26. 19, 20, where none but Messiah can be the speaker. C.
Ver. 2. Made of a city an heap. The last city mentioned by the prophet is in ch. 24. 10, 'the city of confusion,' which is Babylon. Babylon natural being long a shapeless ruin—a heap—the emblem of the ruin to which Babylon mystical is yet to be reduced.—A palace of strangers. Babylon is called 'a palace of strangers,' because of the rich and princely visitors drawn by interest or curiosity to visit and reside in it; or of its warlike enemies drawn by cupidity and ambition to invade and take possession of it. C.
Ver. 6. A feast. The gospel is frequently represented under the emblem of a feast, Mat. 8. 11; Lu. 14. 16; 22. 29, 30.—Fat things—the emblem of abundance and prosperity, Ge. 41. 26, 29.—Wines—wine, the emblem of the restorative power of the gospel promises, Is. 45. 1, 2.—On the lees—refined mechanically by rest, and chemically by mutual agency of the parts, from all turbid and feculent mixture, the emblem of a church purified from 'all false doctrine, heresy, and schism.' C.
Ver. 7. The vail that is spread over all nations. I will remove the 'vail of Moses' from the Jew, and enable him to see Christ in all the sacrifices, the only 'end of the law for righteousness;' and I will remove the vail of prejudice and antipathy through which the Gentiles have hitherto looked upon the Jews. C.
Ver. 11. 'And he,' not the Lord, but Moab, 'shall spread forth his hands in midst thereof, as the swimmer stretcheth out his hands to swim;'—that is, Moab shall struggle as a drowning man:—'but God shall bring down his pride, and the rapacity of his hands together.' C.
Reflections.—Thrice blessed is that people whose God is the Lord; and who have all his persons, perfections, purposes, promises, threatenings, and works engaged in their behalf! It is wicked, mad, and selfruinous for the mightiest powers of hell or earth to injure them, or to attempt their destruction. Why then should not their lips be filled with his praise and honour all the day, who is so much to them, has done, does, can, and will do so much for their salvation in time and eternity? What a ground of grateful praise is it, that in Judah's land, on Calvary's mount, Jesus prepared himself, and all the fulness of God in him, to be our abundant provision! He finished transgression, and made an end of sin. He, through death, destroyed death and him that had the power of it, and secured an infinite fulness of light, life, and salvation for believers. What ground of praise is it that, in the gospel, he sets before sinners of the Gentiles all the fulness of God in himself, for our present and everlasting nourishment! And why not rejoice in him for that he has pledged his infallible promise, that heathenism, Popery, and everything sinful and ruinous, shall give place to his glory filling the whole earth, and to his being in heaven our everlasting All and In All.