Isaiah 31

Isaiah 31:6-9

This chapter is an abridgment of the foregoing; the hands of it are much the same. Here is, 1. A we to those that when the Affyrian army invaded them, trusted to the Egyptians and not to God for Saviour, ver. 1-3. 2. Affyrians given that God would defend Jerusalem in that time of danger, ver. 4, 5. 3. A call to repentance and reformation, ver. 6, 7. 4. A predation of the full of the Affyrian army, and the fright which the Affyrian king should thereby be put into, ver. 8, 9.

1. WO to them ’that go down to Egypt for help, and ‘stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong: but they look not unto the holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD. 2. Yet ‘he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evil doers, and against the help of them that work iniquity. 3. Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit; when the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpless shall fall, and he that is holden shall fall down, and they all shall fall together. 4. For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, ‘Like as the Son and the young Son roving on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be a feud of their voice, nor abide himself for the whole of them: ‘so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Z o, and for the hill thereof. 5. As birds flying,

Before Christ 1 PC. xxviii.

1. The charge laid against them, is their recourse to Egypt, and neglect of God, v. 1. The numerous hosts of Pharaoh, his charities and horsemen, seemed to afford greater security to the eye of fences, than the word of promise; and therefore they are more oblivious to engage his friendship, than spread their cash before the holy One of Israel. Note, They who consult with fences, take a bad guide.

2. The folly and danger of their conduct is exposed. If they wanted wisdom, to God is all wise, and they should consult him: if they wanted might, God was almighty, and could protect them; but when he was slighted and neglected, his wisdom and power, that might have been engaged for them, now are armed against them: and what then can the wisdom or power of Egypt do to save them? he will counteract all the schemes of their allies, and execute the threatening he hath pronounced against the workers of iniquity, v. 2. and by sad experience they shall be taught the vanity of that strength of Pharaoh, which they idolized. The Egyptians shall be found men frail, false, foolish, and not God, as they by their confidence in them seemed to make them, and their horses flesh and not spirit; and therefore when the Lord should stretch forth his hand, they and their unprofitable helpers must fall together, v. 3. Note, (1.) They who affect to be wiser than their fishes, will only in the end expose their own folly. (2.) The more we know of men, the more we shall see easily to cease from human dependence; the more we know of God, the more shall we be engaged to truth him. (3.) There are many truths evident and allowed by all, and yet in practice we are apt alarmingly to contradict them. (4.) The finner in the day of wrath shall find little comfort or help in his companion, when they shall fall together, and receive the reward of their iniquities.

3. Those in Zion, who, without having recourse to Egypt, trusted God for their safety, should find him a sure refuge in the day of calamity; as a lion fearing his prey, that cannot be intimidated by the shouting of the shepherds, who, during not to approach him, seek to scare him with their mole; so impotent will be the army of the Afghian, when the lion of the tribe of Judah shall come to fight for his Zion, v. 4. (with as the eagle will be fly to their fucus), and safe preserve them, when the destroying angel shall pass over to sinister their enemies, and by their destruction deliver Jerusalem. Note, In the midst of danger they are safe whom God with tenderness unutterable covers under his wings, as a hen gathereth her chickens, and defendeth with an arm of almighty and irresistible power. Oh, that we did but truth him!

b. Ibid. ix. 9. 1 Chap. ii. 10. A xxvii. 9. & xxix. 11. 10. Chap. xxxviii. 18. Heb. For smiling, or tobacco. xxxix. 17. Heb. He rock shall pick away for him. 13. or PC. xx. 9. Zach. ii. 3.

6. ¶ Turn ye unto him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted. 7. For in that day every man shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which your own hands have made unto you for a sin. 8. ¶ Then shall the Afghian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and the sword, not of a mean man shall devour him: but he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited. 9. And he shall pass over to his strong-hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign, (with the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.

We have here,

1. A gracious call to repentance. God had not cast them off, though they had basely forsaken him, and deeply revolted from him: he calls them children of Israel as a reproach for their ingratitude, to beget conviction of their baseness, and engage their hope, seeing, though they deserved to be disowned, he shall regarded them as his ions and daughters, and invited them to turn to him, with assurances of kind acceptance. Note, (1.) If the goodness of God will not lead us sinners to repentance, nothing will. (2.) It is never too late to return to God; the deepest revoltors will find their king, on humble submission, never intractable.

2. A blessed reformation wrought. In that day, when their deliverance should appear so evidently the work of God’s hand, vanquished by almighty grace, they should cast away their idols of gold and silver, the work which their own hands had made to sin so best were they upon idolatry, that no cost or pains were found; but now their sin is their burden, and their idols deserted and abhorred. Note, (1.) In a day of repentance our tempters to sin will be loathed more than ever they have been loved. (2.) Every man hath his peculiar idol lust, the indulgence of which will be his baronet burden when God awakens his conscience, and against which he must place an especial guard.

3. A glorious victory obtained. The Afghian shall fall, not yet an arm of flesh, but by the immediate stroke of God: and whilst the army is discomfited, their king in terrors shall flee, and his princes, the few who escape with him, shall pass over to his strong-hold, or, his rock shall pass over for fear; his mighty warriors who were left, trembling at the terrible ensign in the air, the destroying angel with his drawn sword, or least they should be pursued by the Jews in their flight, and dreading that fiery furnace of wrath that burns to not against the enemies of Zion. Some interpret the last words, of God’s altar at Jerusalem, on which the fire burned continually; and of his constant residence there as to his own house. Note, (1.) When God contends, he will overcome. (2.) If present judgments are so terrible, what must be the fire of hell, and the furnace of eternal wrath! (3.) The same God which is a conforming fire to his enemies, is a wall of fire around his people to protect them, and a fire of love within their hearts to comfort them.