Isaiah 52

Isaiah 52:15-22

15. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated, so that no man went through thee, I will make thee an eternal excellency, a joy of many generations. 16. Thou hast also such the milk of the Gentiles, and that such the bread of kings, and thou hast know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob. 17. For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver, and for wood brash, and for stones iron: I will also make thy officers peace, and thine exaltions righteousness. 18. Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wafting our destruction within thy borders; but thou hast call thy walls salvation, and thy gates praise. 19. The Lord shall be no more thy light by day, neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. 20. Thy son shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 21. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. 22. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: I the LORD will hasten it in his time.

What honour and respect should be paid the church by those who were once enemies and perfeumers, hath been intimated, v. 14. and here we see what just reason there would appear for it.

1. Her excellence and liability is for ever secured by the power and grace of the Saviour. Whereas thou hast been forsaken and hated; to appearance, detested of God, and the object of the world’s enmity; is that no man went through thee; a place unfrequented, like the ruins of Jerusalem, whether none went up to worship: I will make thee an eternal excellency, to be had in the highest esteem, adorned with the righteousness of Jesus, and all the graces of the Spirit, brighten than rulers of wrought gold, thinning with gospel light, beautiful in discipline, and in the dignity, decency, simplicity, and order of her worship: a joy of many generations; as long as time shall last, so long must this church be the joy of all its members on earth; and to eternity its glory will extend, when in heaven the out-

lected body shall not ever shine with their exalted head; and this shall be done, that all Christ’s people may acknowledge the power, grace, faithfulness, and love of the Lord their Saviour and Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob, v. 18. Nor, Despicable as the church of Christ and her poor members now may appear, they will shortly be seen in a different point of view, when all those who despised and hated them will wonder and perish.

2. Her riches will be great. Thou hast such the milk of the Gentiles, and the bread of kings; their richest treasures shall be offered to serve the interests of the church of Christ. The most precious metals shall be to plentiful, that gold and silver will be as common as brass and iron, and iron and brass become as wood and stones; which form refer to the excellence of the gospel dispensation above the Mosheal; and others, to the glory of the latter day, when in spiritual gifts and graces, and in purity of doctrine and discipline, the church will as much exceed its present state, as gold and silver do the baker metals.

3. The governors, whether civil or ecclesiastical, shall be men of justice and uprightness. No oppression will be committed, no injustice patronized; but the glory shall be men of peace, that seek to heal all differences, and accommodate every dispute; and the exalters, the tax-gatherers, who used to force the people, shall be righteousness, approve themselves with the greatest honesty and integrity, v. 17.

4. All wars and rumours of wars shall cease, and persecution be at an end; and the most uninterrupted peace and prosperity will be established. Salvation, stranger than walls and bulwarks, shall keep the people of God safe from every enemy. All their gates, the places of concourse, shall be called praise, their assemblies continually resounding with kings of triumph for redeeming love; a state of bliss and happiness to which the church hath never yet arrived, v. 18.

5. God will be the everlasting light and glory of his redeemed, v. 19, 20. And here the prophet seems to rise from the happy days of the church on earth, to the consummation of her bliss in heaven, where they shall need neither sun nor moon, but shall enjoy the brighter pretence of God, their everlasting light and glory. No clouds shall ever interrupt the blissful vision; no darkness of affliction, desertion, or temperature, for a moment intervene; but blissfulness, shaking and eternal as the source from whence it flows, be the portion of the redeemed. Thy son shall no more go down, but shine with unclouded splendor through the ages of eternity; nor thy man unshown itself; never will there be the least diminution of their bliss; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light; when this bright sun plucked from his sphere shall be extinguished, and this pale moon in darkness hides her head, with infinitely transforming brightness shall the eternal God shine on his choft, and everlasting as his being shall be their joy and glory. And the days of thy mourning shall be ended; a period put to all their sorrows, every tear wiped from their eye, and the cause of all, sin and suffering, be for ever banished from the place. O Lord! thy kingdom come!

6. They shall be perfected in holiness. Thy people also shall be all righteous; not only as they are accepted in Christ, but as they are by the Holy Ghost fainished wholly in body, soul, and spirit, and made more for the inheritance among the saints in light. They shall inherit the land for ever, the heavenly Canaan; the branch of my planting, ingrafted into Christ, and, after flourishing on earth, transplanted with him to the paradise of God; the work of my hands: the whole of salvation, from beginning to end, will in heaven be evidently seen and acknowledged to be God’s own work, to the glory of his rich and sovereign grace; that I may be glorified, as he will then be, in and by all his lands.

7. They shall be an innumerable multitude. A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation: few and feeble as the saints of God were in every age and place, when collected they will appear numerous and formidable, a hoff like the hoff of God. I the Lord will before it in his care; however difficult it may appear, or long as the final salvation of the faithful may form to be delayed, the event is sure, and in God’s appointed season it shall be accomplished. May we with faith and patience wait for it.