Isaiah 48

Isaiah 48:1-8

God having refitted to defray Babylon, and refuse his Israel, feats here to bring them to repentance for their sins, before they should be delivered from their sufferings. 1. He charges them with hypocrisy in his service, and oblivious in evil, especially in their idolatry, ver. 1—8. 2. He affirms them that their deliverance would be wrought purely for his own sake, ver. 9—11. 3. He encourages them to depend wholly upon his power and promise for their deliverance, ver. 12—15. 4. He shows them that as it was by their men for that they were brought into captivity, so it would be only by the grace of God that they would obtain the necessary preparations for their enlargement, ver. 16—19. 5. He proclaims their relapse, yet with a promise, that the wicked shall have no benefit by it, ver. 20—22.

1. HEAR ye this, O house of Jacob, which are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Judah; which (wear by the name of the LORD, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in righteousness. 2. For they call themselves of the holy city, and they themselves upon the God of Israel, the LORD of both is his name. 3. I have declared the former things from the beginning: and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them, I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. 4. Because I knew that thou art to oblivinate, and thy neck is an iron finew, and thy brow hears: 5. I have even from the beginning declared it to thee, before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldst say, Mine did hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image hath commanded them. 6. Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare it? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou shalt not know them. 7. They are created now, and not from the beginning, even before the day when thou heardst them not; lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them. 8. ¶ Yes, thou heardst not, yes, thou knewest not, yes, from that time that thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldst deal very treacherously, and wast called a stranger from the womb.

The prophet here addresses the house of Jacob, in order to bring them to a conviction of their hypocrisy and idolatry, and to engage their humble return to God, from whom they had so greatly departed.

1. He charges them with the false and hypocritical professions they made. They valued themselves highly, as being called by the name of Israel, and boulted their lineage from Israel; they were of the royal race of Judah, the tribe that adhered to the temple, and the forcerors of David, when the red revolted; they swore by the name of the Lord, owning him as their God and king, and engaging their fidelity to him, and made mention of the God of Israel, addressing him in their prayers and exercises of religious worship: they called themselves of the holy city, as counting it as honour to have a name in the church of God; and slain themselves upon the God of Israel, at least pretended to do so, as if the Lord of both was the name on which alone their dependence was fixed; but all was false and faithful, not in truth nor in righteousness. Note, (1.) Many claim the name of christian, who continue strangers to the power of christianity. (2.) It is mere hypocrisy when persons only draw near to God with their lips, whilst their hearts are far from him. (3.) We have to do with a heart-searching God, and if our souls are insincere before him, vain is all the pageantry of external profession.

2. He urges what he had done to convince and converse their souls to him as the only true God, and preserve and reclaim them from the shameful idolatry to which they were so addicted: from the beginning he had foretold what should happen to them, their sojourning in Egypt, deliverance, conquest of Canaan, and all came to pass suddenly and certainly; God’s power in the fulfilment of his prophetic word appearing evident, as his preference in the profession, v. 3. This they might easily discern, and ought to declare to the glory of God: a new revelation also God now gave them, which they never could have known, nor could their souls have informed them, concerning their captivity in Babylon, and their deliverance by Cyrus; with all those other prophecies, more immediately relative to the gospel dispensation: and in all these things God intended to engage them to cleave to, and depend upon him, as the only true God, besides whom there was no other.

(1.) Because he knew they were obstinate, their neck an iron finow, and their brow brahi; stubborn and hard-hearted, rigid against conviction, and impudently disposed to deny God’s work, if by his prophecies foregoing he had not indisputably proved that he was the author of all their mercies. (2.) He would not off all pretence of ascribing these events to their idols, as they would else be vainly disposed to do, v. 5. It being evident by his foretelling those things, which their idol priests never could, that the work was from God alone. (3.) He would disp them handling, who might pretend when the event came to pals, that they had foreseen it; but now it was clear they had not the apprehension of what was coming, till God’s prophets revealed the hidden soundish of God, decreed from the beginning, but now created and brought to light in the prophetic world. (4.) He would leave them unavoidable. Notwithstanding all he had spoken their ear was not opened, and their hearts inattentive to the predictions God had given he knew them to be treacherous dealers, who had often backslidden from him, and from their first formation into a people had been transgressors; but he now left them without excuse, if they still refused to pay regard to his word, to plain, evident, and clear. Note, (1.) It is the true and humbling character of every man, that he is a transgressor from the womb. (2.) Original sin, in which we are born, is the pregnant source of all the actual evil that afterwards appears in our hearts and lives. (3.) God knows and remarks the innuistic disposition of our souls, and an apodate nature is in his eyes the sin exceeding sinful. (4.) The word of God is designed to stain all human glory, and to show us how ignorant, as well as wicked, we must have been without Divine revelation. (5.) They who proudly and obstinately reject God’s word, deservedly are left to perish in their native guilt and blindness.

v. Chap. xlii. 14. v. Pf. Jacob. 15. d. On, not of Sister, Phil. all, p. Chap. bot. 6.8. “Pf. Isola. p. est. p. “Deut. textil. 6.9. Chap. lii. 5. Rank. 12. 14. 10.