Isaiah 44

Notes

Ver. 2. God formed the Jews into rational creatures, and into a church for himself: and forms believers, and renders them members of Christ's mystical body and gospel church. 3-5. I will publish my gospel, and pour out my Spirit in an abundant manner upon corners and persons destitute of them; that, being rooted and grounded in Christ, they may quickly grow in grace and good works, and may be determined solemnly to devote themselves to the faith, profession, and obedience of Christ, and the fellowship of his church. 7, 8. Which of the heathen idols can foretell, and in order accomplish, events as I have done, since the creation, or the taking of Israel into covenant with me? And why then do you fear that any of them should hinder me from fulfilling my present promises, when they have never been able hitherto to hinder the predicted events which have befallen you? 21-28. Consider, my people—whom I have chosen, because of faith, and will never forsake—the vanity of idols, and madness of their votaries, and the judicial blindness to which they are given up; and return to me, your Redeemer, by faith and repentance, in the view of my having graciously pardoned all your great and numerous transgressions. And let all the inhabitants of heaven and earth, and particularly the Gentiles, praise God for the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon, and the redemption by Jesus typified thereby. The God who hath promised is he who made and governs all things, who can easily frustrate the predictions of the Chaldean soothsayers, and blast all the political designs of their statesmen; and who takes pleasure to fulfil that which he has foretold by his prophets concerning the rebuilding of the Jewish cities, and the removal of impediments out of his way, and drying up the Euphrates, that Babylon may be taken by Cyrus the Persian, whom he has appointed for releasing his people, and causing them to rebuild his temple at Jerusalem.

Ver. 2. Jesurun signifies upright—the proper characteristic of a renewed spirit, having 'a conscience sprinkled from dead works,' 'void of offence towards God and towards man,' and therefore enabled by grace to look up towards God, and stand upright, and not downcast or 'ashamed before him at his coming,' He. 9. 14; Ac. 24. 16; 1 Jn. 2. 28. C.

Ver. 4. And they shall spring up, &c. 'As grass among the waters'—an image forcibly impressive in the Arabian or African deserts, where the traveller may journey many weeks, and never see grass except where he occasionally discovers a spring of living water. C.

Ver. 7. The meaning may be thus expressed:—'Who shall call events into existence as I, the Lord, have done, and announce them beforehand, and set them in order before me,—since the time when I set apart this ancient people, Israel? Who will declare the things which are now approaching, or which shall take place hereafter?' The power, the wisdom, and the omniscience of God are here contrasted with the weakness and ignorance of man. P.——Ancient people. The history of nations, rightly read, is the history of divine providence—the development of the government and character of God. Therefore an 'ancient people' becomes to the pious and contemplative mind more interesting than a modern people, not merely as deeper studies of curiosity, but as clearer, because more varied, illustrations either of divine mercy or judgment. C.

Ver. 9. Their own witnesses. The idolater knows that he can make or destroy his idol, and is therefore a witness to himself that the idol has no power, and so cannot be God. C.

Ver. 12. If the workman who forms the idol become faint by the toil of making it, and must borrow strength from water, how weak must be the dead idol that cannot do what water can! The Rev. J. Williams states, that when the South Sea Islanders were engaged in making an idol, they strictly abstained from food and water, though the work sometimes continued three days. It is not improbable that a similar practice may have prevailed amongst the Jews during the period of their idolatry; and if so, it well explains the difficulty in this passage. C.

Ver. 13. The carpenter. The introduction of both the smith and carpenter presents, what is still common amongst heathens, a wooden idol covered with metallic plates. The whole description manifests an advanced state of the arts of metallurgy and carpentry, sadly contrasting with that spiritual stupidity into which idolatry had reduced a refined and civilized people. C.

Ver. 17. A man prostrate before an idol, and praying to it for aid and deliverance, is a melancholy evidence of human degradation. No doubt idolaters generally deny that they pray to the idol; but affirm that they use it as 'an aid to devotion,' and pray to the god it represents. But God rejects all such subterfuges, and detests the idol, as he condemns the idolater. C.

Ver. 18. He hath shut their eyes. Not by leading or inducing them to become idolaters—for then had he been the author of their sin—but by judicially giving them over to their own delusions, as a righteous punishment for their forgetfulness of his mercies. C.

Ver. 20. He feedeth on ashes. A diseased state of the stomach often produces such depravity of appetite as leads to eating of ashes, or even clay; by which destructive regimen, and self-chosen substitute for medicine, the disease is constantly rendered worse. And such is the condition of a heart deceived by false doctrine, led by youthful lusts, or chained by aged habits, labouring for that which is not bread, eagerly swallowing the lies of Satan, and rejecting Jesus the only Physician. C.

Ver. 24. It is surely impossible to read this verse, and compare it with Jn. 1. 3; Col. 1. 6; He. 1. 2, and fail to see that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus in the New; and it is impossible to search both Old and New Testaments, without perceiving that Jehovah is the living and the true God. C.

Ver. 27. The drying up of a great river is one of the most improbable events. Yet, by cutting a new channel for the Euphrates, and draining off its waters, Cyrus was enabled to enter Babylon, and transfer the Chaldean power to the Medes and Persians. C.

Reflections.—Thrice happy are the people saved by the Lord in their manifold relations to him, and blessings received from him! Happy are they who are, both themselves and their seed, interested in the new kingdom! Infinite is the fulness of the Holy Ghost: and liberally God bestows upon him destitute, withered, and wretched men. His influences invite them truly to God, and render holiness, and the most solemn dedication of themselves to God, as a Saviour, Husband, and Governor, their delight! What madness is it to forsake Jehovah, the fountain of living waters, whose unbounded excellencies are unnumbered, and to choose or form an idol in his room! When men are given up to their own hearts' lusts they soon become sottish and diligent in sin! And unpardoned iniquities greatly interrupt our fellowship with God. But it is pleasant to return to him in the view of his full forgiveness and effectual redemption, and with thankful joys to contemplate what he is to us, and has done, and will do for us! And even angels rejoice at the conversion of men. What pleasure God takes to disgrace false teachers, and to honour his ministers of truth! Easily he can retrieve the most forlorn condition, and find proper instruments for his work. And it is an honour for the greatest of men to be his agents in doing good to his people.