Isaiah 63

Isaiah 63:1-6

7. ¶ I will mention the loving-kindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD hath believed on it, and the great goodness towards the house of Israel, which he hath believed on them, according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindness. If for he said, Surely they are my people, children that will not be: so he was their Saviour. ¶ ¶ In all their afflictions: he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them, and he has been, and carried them all the days of old. 10. ¶ But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was rumored to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 11. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he: that brought them up out of the sea, with the 1st serpent of his flock? where is he: that put his holy Spirit within him? 12. That led them by the right hand of Moses, with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13. That led them through the deep as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? 14. As a bead goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, so make myself a glorious name.

8. 9—14. As an encouragement to hope for future mercies, the prophet takes a review of the past, so wonderfully and graciously vouchshed unto them.

9. He makes a general acknowledgment in general of all the mercies and loving-kindness of God to his people, so numberless, in great, that they were more than he is able to express, and all the effects of his boundless grace and undefended esteem. 2. 7. Note, (1.) When we review God’s mercies towards us with an unimproved mind, we shall be left in wonder, love, and peace. (2.) Every blessing we enjoy of providence, grace, or glory, is done or eternity, there not from the land under it, so far we have none, but from God’s infirmity rich and sovereign mercy.

10. The mentions some especial instances of his kindness. For he said, Surely they are my people; he had taken them for his own in a covenant of everlasting love, and he fully regarded they would approve themselves to him in all fatuity and truth: children that will not be; neither he fails to their own, and hypocritical in his service; he has been their Saviour, from their hands of butelage in Egypt particularly, and as he ever was, and is, of all his people from every enemy, from every danger. In all their afflictions he was afflicted; he felt with tender sympathy, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been, and he had been.

ref. Note, (1.) The children of God will not be, for they who do so, prove their advantage to be of their father the devil. (2.) It is a comfort to God’s afflicted people, that they have a compassionate high-proof, who can be supplied with the feeling of their infirmities. (3.) They who look for their position in a better world, fit only under this world’s troubles: they know, that they are both light and momentary. (4.) If the angel of God’s presence had not born us up, many a time could we hope utterly fainted in our journey to glory.

3. Their repeated and long-continued importance, as, last brought his rod upon them, 6. 11. The rebelled, and urged the holy Spirit; repelled God from being their king, and all their allegiance; and, by their unbelief, murmuring, and deloany, forsook his covenant, and to the warnings of Moses and the prophets; as the Scribes and Pharisees in our Lord’s day, the true children of their fathers, always resided in Holy Ghost; in consequence of which, God, that effected God, which during they had so abused, turned to be their enemy, and fought against them, with repeated strokes of his indulgence, held in the wilderness, and after their settlement in Canada, till their captivity in Babylon; and as he did afterwards, till the Romans came and destroyed them. Note, (1.) Sin is the cause of all our misery: if God from our friend becomes our son, surely this makes the quarrel. (2.) It is base as wicked, whom God’s children grieve that holy Spirit, whereby they are sealed unto the day of redemption, and they will feast for it.

4. They reflect upon the particular favour of God when first he formed them into a people, 6. 11—14. Some understand these as the words of God, calling to mind his own mercies of old, as an argument still to do them good, and not call them away. Others suppose these to be the retications of the few faithful among them, still encouraging themselves from past experience to hope for his mercy. They are republished the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he the strength of the day of the sea, with the serpent, or serpent, or his flesh? Moses, Aaron, and the elders of Israel; where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? in Moses, or the people of Israel, who were taught and instructed of God: and that they mention so mourning over the old change, and complaining of the absence of God’s Spirit; or as an humble expulsion and prayer for the return of his blessed influence. That for them by the right hand of Moses, strengthening and prospering him as their captain, with his glorious arm, enabling their leader to perform miracles for their preservation; dividing the under before them, as the Red Sea, to make himself an everlasting name? by their miraculous deliverances, and the destruction there brought upon their enemies. That led them through the deep as an horse in the wilderness, or in the plain, that they should not stumble? as only their passage between the divided waters, as dry and fish, as when a horse travels on a level road. As a heart, which down into the valley, so far, and gently, so far, the Spirit of the Lord could not be left; either when they descended from the shore into the depths of the sea, they did it gently, and without precipitation, secure in the divine protection; or it refers to their several stations in the wilderness, where, under God’s direction, they re- ed, till they were brought to their journey; and so far, that lead thy people, to make himself a glorious name; his honour being concerned in their salvation, and that being the ultimate design of all his works and ways to manifest his own glory, and engage the everlasting praise of his redeemed people. Note, (1.) If God calls us to pass through the depths of the sea, the spirit trials, or the most imminent dangers, he can make the path plain, and enable us in confidence and grace to go fairly through. (2.) If we ever find true old to my fools, it must come from the Eternal Spirit; for this world, faith, it is not in me. (3.) When God’s glory is the great god we can sit in all our works and ways, then we truly correspond with the divine will.

5. ¶ Look down from heaven, and behold, from the habitation of thy business and of thy glory; where is thy soul and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? are they re- finished? 16. Dobbels thro’ art our father, though Abraham: be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer, thy name is from everlasting. 17. ¶ O LORD, why had thou made us to err from thy ways? and heed out our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants false, the tribes of their inheritance? 18. The people of thy business have published a desire to be, while: their father, faries have troden down thy sanctuary. 19. We are a name, thou never barest rule over them, if they were not called by thy name. ¶ O, thy name not called by the name.

6. 15—19. We have here the approximate prayer of God’s people, which is mentioned through the following chapter: “It was part of the God’s life in captivity, either his father, or in their prelates, for whom, and to be able to be a man of God, leading to the same time, as well as to be a person’s business.”

7. 21. They

8. They desire a genuine hearing. Look down from heaven; not this the eyes were made to go to and fro in the earth, but they beg a state of tender play and regard, and that God would hand his ear to the voice of their humble petitions; and behold from his satisfaction of thy father’s soul of thy glory; the place where he is pleased to do this esteem thence, within the highest heavens, where the most Holy doeth, and holy angels celebrate his praise. And, When we testify: what a holy God we approach, and what death shall not often we use, it becomes us ever to appear before him with deepest humility, reverence, and guilty fear.

9. They lament their miserable safe. O Lord, why half thou saith to us are from thy ways? and hardened our heart from thy fear? They had erred from God’s ways and worship, and hardened themselves against his fear and his warnings, and God had now given them up to their own hard hearts in just judgment; and this was matter of deep complaint to those who have been a great deal of the people’s fate. They did not change God with their sins, as the author of them, but lamented the fact of the people’s life, and no sufferings nor more deplorable than their spiritual judgments. Our all-empires still have trodden down thy sanctuary: the ruin of their land, the lulls of their own family, were to the faithful, no doubt, heavy afflictions; but God’s temple fallen, his device interrupted, this fruitless up every other grief.

10. They make their plea for mercy to the God of all mercy.

(4.) They urge his former dealings with them. Where is thy soul, thy journey for thy own glory, whilst the enemies of Zion blaspheme; thy servant love towards thy people, that of old appeared; and thy strength? Is thine arm destined that it cannot save? the founding of thy house, that used to melt over every district of Israel, are they refrained? Hath the Lord forgotten to be gracious? will he be no more interested? No; it cannot be: thou wilt surely earn and refresh us, and bring us from the depths of the earth again. For,

(5.) Dumbel’s idea are our Father; provoking as our trans-gracious have been, we cannot quit the dear relation in which once we flood: and shall not the meetings of thy paternal heart still admit the claim, and receive the returning prodigals? Though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not either they are gone, neither know our safe, nor can affil us with their advice and prayers; or rather, though, were they again on earth, they might be led to dillow such degenerate children; yet, grants are thy companions, O Lord; thou art our Father; such cannot quit the plan, unworthy as we are to be called thy sons; our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting, the same in mercy and grace for ever; or, Our Redeemer from everlasting, is thy name; having chosen us from eternity in Jesus, thou never wilt, thou never cures, (pardon the boldness thy faithfulness encourages!) thou never canst utterly call us away.

(6.) They plead the covenant established with their fathers and them. Return for thy servants fate; return in mercy, or save from thy wrathful indignations, for the sake of Abraham, Eliza, and Jacob, with whom the covenant was made; as for the fate of the few faithful which remained, the crises of their little dance, by right thine, and in duty and gratitude bound to thy servants; five or, that we may be such, nor suffer to longer or have strangled, or strange gods in a strange land.

(7.) They urge the short enjoyment they had of the promised land and the testimony of God. The people of thy batsush have passed it but a little while: separated as they were from all others, and confiscated to God, they hoped to have possessed the land for ever; but their was comparatively their whole in Goliath, about 1400 years in all, and fiddon in peace and guidance, whilst their temple had a much shorter duration, and lived little more than 400.

(8.) They plead, if’s are thine: they were so in protection, they oppressed such in the covenant, and promised to be such in practice, when the Lord should turn their captivity. Thus while lately I do not know, their conquerors and oppressors, to whom God had not stood in that relation of King and Saviour, as he had done to the Jews: they were not called by thy name; nor regarded as his children, nor professed his blessed service: and surely God will not suffer these so trample down that people, who, though they have been unfaithful, yet bore his name, and desired to be re-admitted to his favour, and to yield themselves up to his service. Note, When we return unto God, we may be fully dare he will return unto us.