Isaiah 8

Isaiah 8:1-6

Amidst dark threatenings to the ungodly, bright houses of hope break forth on the fastifed. In this chapter we know, 1. A prophecy of the defractions of the confederate kingdom of Syria and Syria by the king of Affyria, ver. 1—4. 2. Of the desulations that should be made by that proud wittarious prince, in the land of Israel and Judah, ver. 2—8. 3. Great encouragement given to the people of God in the midst of these defractions: they are offered, (1.) That their enemies shall not gain their point against them, ver. 9, 10. (2.) That if they kept up the fear of God, and kept down the fear of man, they should find God their refuge, ver. 11—14. And while others stumbled, and fall into defiance, they should be enabled to want on God, and for themselves reserved for better times, ver. 15—18.

1. MOREOVER, the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen, concerning Maher-thalal-haft-baz. 2. And I took unto me faithful winnettes to record, Gilaib the priest, and Zechariah the son of Jeberezhah. 3. And I went unto the prophets, and the conceived and bare a son; then said the LORD to me, Call his name Maher-thalal-haft-baz. 4. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father and my mother, § the riches of Demafcus, and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Affyria. 5. ¶ The LORD ipake also to me again, saying, 6. For a stomach as this people refuse the waters of Shiloah that go softy, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son. 7. Now therefore behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Affyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks. 8. And he shall pass through Judah, he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck, and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

The defraction of Damascus and Samaria are here threatened, and the rod of warning shaken over Judah.

1. The prophet is commanded to write this, with the four following chapters, on a large roll, and as a title to incribe on it Maher-thalal-haft-baz, before it the קול, before it the prey; an invitation to the king of Affyria, and repeated to shew the certainty of the event. Note, it is an unbreakable mercy the holy scriptures are committed to writing, and not handed down to us by uncertain tradition.

2. The prophet having obeyed the Divine injunction, gets it attested by two credible witnesses, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah, probably a Levite, 2 Chron. xxix. 13. that when the event corresponded with the prediction, his Divine million might incontestably appear.

3. On the conception of the prophets his wife, so called from her relation to him, and the birth of a second son; to engage greater attention to the prophecy, he by Divine command gives the child the same name as was inscribed on the roll. The design of which,

4. He explains, v. 4. That before the infant could speak plainly, Damascus and Samaria should be spoiled by the Affyrian king; which was fulfilled, 2 Kings xvi. 9 xvii. 3. and more fully xviii. 10. Note, (1.) War is God’s scourge over guilty lands. (2.) They who have been troublers of others repose, are justly doomed to suffer in return.

5. Judah also shall not go unpunished, because many of the faithful Jews despised the waters of Shiloah that go softy; the gentle government of David’s race, or the weakness of their kingdom, eclipsed by the greater dominions of Rezin and Pekah, whom, though avowed enemies, their nature of their country applauded and honoured, v. 6. therefore to punish them the Afyrian king, like a flood, with his armies tooud cover the land, rapid and relitless; reaching to the neck, even to Jerusalem the metropolis, 2 Kings xviii. 13—17. and spreading his wings should fill the breadth of Immanuel’s land; so called, because there he should in the fullness of time be born, live, and die. Note, (1.) To abject the fashions, admire the manners and government of our inveterate enemies, and to despise our own, betrays a heart destitute of the love of our country. (2.) Though the waters of trouble each in the neck, yet even then can God say, Here shall thy proud waves be stayed, and save us out of the flood, when we seem in our own eyes most desperate. (3.) If the Lord Jefus have possession of our hearts,

6. ¶ ‘Afflicate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear all ye of far countries: glad yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. 10. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for ‘God is with us. 11. ¶ For the LORD I take thus to me with a strong hand, and ‘introduced me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, 12. Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; ’neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. 13. Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. 14. And ‘he shall be for a sanctuary; but ‘for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel; for a gin, and for a horse to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 15. And many among them ‘shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be feared, and be taken.

7. 9—15. In Judah’s distressed case, the prophet encourages and instructs them,

8. With a promise of their enemies disappointment and defeat: though strongly confederate, the expeditious deeply planned, and the troops well armed and ready for the battle, they shall be broken to pieces. This is repeated to shew the certainty of the event, and the vanity of their hopes of success, when God will infatuate their councils, and Immanuel defend his own land, 9. 9. 10. Note, (1.) Though power and policy unite to crush the church of Christ, their efforts will prove the confusion of her enemies. (2.) God’s promise is far, and they who trust it will never be disappointed. (3.) If God be with us and for us, we need neither fear nor care who are against us.

9. He directs them how to speak and act in their present situation. The Lord prays unto me with a strong hand, in the spirit of prophecy, not to walk in the way of this people, depicted with their fears, or flying with them to Assyria, for help against their invaders, Pekah and Raxin, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; join not in the general cry for a foreign aid, or in any factious party at home; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid on account of the confederate armies of Syria and Israel. Sanctify the Lord God of hosts, by your professed dependence upon, and subjection to him, and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread, who is the only worthy object. And he shall be for a sanctuary; a fare protection to those who trust him in every time of trial and distress. Note, (1.) In time of danger good men need encouragement against their fears. (2.) They who would follow Christ, must renounce the ways of a wicked world; a holy singularity is the inseparable badge of a holy conversation. (3.) When God teaches us with a strong hand, then shall we be enabled to walk aright ourselves, and to direct others in the way. (4.) In whatever difficulties we are involved, let us never use undue means for relief. (5.) The fear of God upon the heart, will preserve us from being terrified with the threatenings of men. (6.) God is sanctified, when by patient indignation we are content to wait for his salvation. (7.) If we have taken the Lord Jesus for our sanctuary, all the powers of earth and hell can never pluck us thence, nor endanger our safety.

10. He threatens those who continued rebellious with ruin: if they would not trust God as their sanctuary, they should find him a stone of stumbling, and rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, and for a gin and a horse to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; which was soon verified in the destruction the king of Assyria, at God’s command, brought upon them; and hath a farther reference to the day of Christ, for 1 Cor. 1. 30. when, offended at the Lord Jesus, his character, birth, disciples, &c. the Jews, unable to reconcile it to their proud expectations of a conquering Messiah, rejected him, many among them stumbled and fell, and were broken, and feared, and taken, as was here predicted, and thereby perished under their unbelief and hardness of heart. Note, The same Jesus that is a sanctuary to the poor and helpless sinner, to the proud and self-righteous is still a stone of stumbling; they will not renounce themselves to trust in him, and therefore perish in their iniquities.

11. Bind up the testimony, ‘feal the law among my disciples. 17. And ‘I will wait upon the LORD’ that hide his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18. ‘Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me,’ are for signs, and for wonders in Israel; from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion. 19. ¶ And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wiards? that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? ‘for the living, to the dead?

12. ‘To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no right in them. 21. And they shall pass through it, hardly be-ftead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king, and their God, and look upward. 22. And they shall look unto the earth: and behold, trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

13. The command given to the prophet. Bind up the testimony; the prophetic word concerning the Messiah, more precious than bags of gold, to be preserved for futurity; seal the law among my disciples; the disciples of Jesus, to whom the law of the spirit of life was intrusted, and though a sealed book to others, revealed to them, and transformed faithfully to their successors. Note, (1.) We can never enough be thankful for the inestimable pleasure of God’s word. (2.) ‘Till God opens our understanding to understand the scriptures, they are a book sealed, and a gospel hid.

14. The prophet professes his earnest expectation and hope. I will wait upon the Lord, the Redeemer of his people, that hide his face from the house of Jacob, either in frowns of displeasure, or as being yet hid from them, until his glorious manifestation in the flesh, and I will look for him, in confidence of his coming, and in joyful hope of the blessed issue of his appearing. Note, (1.) Patient waiting upon God will never be disappointed. (2.) When God hides his face, we must not think he hath forsaken us, but be shared up to pray, Lift up again upon us the light of thy countenance.

15. Christ, in answer to the prophet’s expectation, appears to cheat and comfort him; of whom the words seem rather spoken than of the prophet himself and his two sons, though they were probably types of Christ and his people, for to him the words are expressly ascribed, Heb. xi. 13. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me, in virtue of the everlasting covenant, in which it was promised, that he should be his spiritual seed, Isa. lii. 10. but the world knoweth them not, because they knew him not; they are for signs, and for wonders in Israel; signs and wonders were wrought by them, yet Israel would not believe; yea, decided and reviled them; and still they continue in the world a people every where spoken against, and bearing the reproach of the cross; from the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion, who freely gave his Son for us, and in his sovereign grace bestowed on him that peculiar people, the travail of his soul. Note, (1.) The relation between a minister, and those who are begotten by him in the gospel, is near and dear as between the parent and his natural offspring. (2.) We must not be ashamed of the reproach of Christ; nor, however strange the world may think us, join with them in their ways.

16. Christ cautions his disciples to beware of deceivers, and to keep close to the word of revelation: primarily it may refer to the Jews, who in their distress were reader to recur to any help than to God, 2 Kings i. 2. but it contains a warning against the false doctrines of the Scribes and Pharisees, who were much given to forgery and enchantments, and in their principles and practices were as contrary to God as wiards; them therefore it were folly to confide: should not a people seek unto their God? who besides the Redeemer can give a satisfactory answer to the questions of the guilty, and the cries of the distressed soul: it were highly absurd for the living to apply to the dead; to images, or necromancers, of the Scribes and Pharisees, and all like them, who, the pretending to teach others, are themselves dead in trespasses and sins. To the law and to the testimony; the scriptures, which are the only tells of truth: if they speak not according to this word, it is brought there is no light in them; they are blind leaders of the blind. Note, (1.) The superstitious folly of many professed christians, who trust in charms, and fortune-tellers, and the like, is scandalous as sinful. (2.) If God be our God, we may always seek, and always find help in him in every trial. (3.) The more we examine the Bible for ourselves, the less liable shall we be to be deceived. (4.) No doctrine is to be received as genuine, which hath not scripture proof to support it. (5.) A minister whose own soul hath never felt the enlivening influences of God’s word and spirit, can scarce be expected to guide others might in the way to glory; the living might as soon expect instruction from the dead, as the soul exilication from such.

17. The doom of the wicked is read, who forsake God for familiar spirits, the truth for falsehood. And they shall pass through it (the land) hardly befreed and hungry; when in their captivity, they should scarce have bread to support their miserable lives, and with madness and vexation under their calamities blaspheme God, and their king Messiah, and look upwards to vain for help from their false Christs, having rejected the true Redeemer: wherever they turned their eyes, darkness, distress, and wretchedness, should appear, till a miserable life should close in a

more Before Christ

7:00. more miserable death; which was fully verified in the judgments brought on the Jews by the Roman sword. Nate, (1.) The unhumbled fret and kick against the pricks, but they only thereby aggravate their own suffering. (2.) God’s judgments upon sinners, instead of bringing them to repentance, provoke their blasphemies. (3.) They who forbade the God of their mercies, in death fool all their prospects terminated with darkness and despair.

We have here, 1. The date of the prophecy, in the year of the siege of Ashdod, or Azores, Atti viii. 40. by Tartan, one of the chief captains of the halls of Affyria, when Sargon, the king of Affyria, son; which some suppose to be Salmanecer, and then this event will fall in the fourth year of Hezekiah, when Samaria was taken, 2 Kings xviii. 9. Others think him to be Efrahadon, called Sarchedon, Tab. i. 21. and then it must fall about the twenty-second year of Manasch; but he is generally thought to be Sennacherib, among whose captains Tartan is reckoned, 2 Kings xviii. 17. and the time about the fourteenth of Hezekiah. 2. The sign given of the destruction to be brought on Egypt and Ethiopia. Isaiah is commanded to take off his habit of sackcloth, (which, as a prophet, he wore to signify his deadness to the ornaments of deeds, or as mounting over the defoliations of Judah and Israel) to put off his shoes, and to walk naked, probably not absolutely so, but stripped of his upper garment, and barefoot. How long he continued to go thus is not certain; whether once, or three days, a day for a year, or three years, as our translation seems to imply; though the three years rather refer to the prophecy, which should be accomplished after that time; or so long the Affyrian king would employ in subduing them. The prophet without hesitation, as a faithful servant, obeys the divine command, dangerous as it might be to his health, and however much it regarded his person to contempt. And God explains the sign, as prefiguring the miserable and shameful captivity of the Egyptians and Ethiopians, who should thus be led away prisoners by the Affyrians, v. 4. Note, (1.) When duty calls we must trust health, character, and all in God’s hands. If he says, Well done, good and faithful sevrant, it will infinitely overbalance every inconvenience or insult we may have received. (2.) Miserable is the plight of these poor captives; but how much more miserable those slaves of sin, who are led captive by the devil at his will? What confusion will cover them, when in the presence of God, his saints, and angels, the shame of their nakedness shall appear, and no eye pity them? 3. The warning given the Jews of the folly of depending on these nations. Ethiopia was their trust, and Egypt the ally in which they gloried; but now, afraid at the ruin of these potent neighbours, and confounded at seeing their supports thus removed, the inhabitants of this life, Judea so called, shall say, Behold, such is our expectation, so vain, so foolish, whether we flee for help to those who cannot help themselves; and how then shall we escape, when mightier foes are unable to withstand the victorious arms of the Affyrian army? Note, Creature-confidences will assuredly fall us; and they who have neglected to make God their refuge, in the day of calamity, will be abandoned to despair, and too late bewail their folly. CHAP.

In this chapter we have a prophecy of fed times coming. 1. Upon Babylon, that it should be destroyed by the Medes and Persians, and that God’s people should receive benefit from it, ver. 1—11. 2. Upon Dumah, ver. 11, 12. 3. Upon Arabia, or Kedar, the defelation of which country may vary near, ver. 13—17.

Each. in. 14. Or, hath used a treacherous dealer, and the spoiler was that spoiled.

Isaiah 8:2-6

In the midst of these terrible threatening, a bright beam of hope dawns from the great and precious promise of the Messiah, whose kingdom and glory should then be exalted, when those who had rejected him, received their righteous doom.

1. In that day of Jerusalem’s desolations, shall the branch of the Lord, the Messiah, that should shoot from the firm of Jesus, Zoch. iii. 8. Jer. xxiii. 5. Isa. xi. 1. be beautiful and glorious, taken with the precious fruits of pardon, grace, and glory, and though springing in his humiliation as a root out of a dry ground, yet in his exaltation shining brighter than the sun, glorified of his faints, and admired of all that believe; and the fruit of the earth, Christ Jesus incarnate on the earth, shall be excellent and comely; though once a worm, and no man, his visage marred more than any, now become the chief of ten thousand, and altogether lovely; for them that are escaped of Israel, the choirs few, whom he hath returned for himself, whose eyes are opened to know his excellences, and who are ordained to eternal life, that they may behold his glory. Note, (1.) Though in the eyes of a carnal world there is no beauty in Jesus, wherefore they should desire him, faith can desery excellences, that make him above all things precious, so that we can say, Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is nothing I desire upon earth in comparison of thee. (2.) In the Saviour all fulness dwells; do we want pardon, peace, grace, comfort, we may come to him, and freely take, enough to supply the most enlarged desires of our souls.

2. When the Messiah comes, to him will the gathering of the people be. It shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, the remnant, according to the election of grace, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, the gospel church, shall be called holy, accounted such, in virtue of their compleateness in Jesus Christ, and really made such, in a measure, by the powerful operations of the Spirit of holiness on their hearts and lives; even every one that is written among the living, or unto life in Jerusalem; that is, they, and only they, who, by God’s sovereign choice, are ordained unto eternal life, and whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb Sain from the foundation of the world: and this Separation of his people for himself will then appear, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem in the midst thereof, by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning; which may signify the judgments God would bring upon the wicked, till they were utterly consumed; or rather the purging thoroughly the church of his redeemed, and the daughters of Zion, particular believers, in the furnace of afflictions, in order to cleanse them from their remaining corruptions and defilement; and this the Lord would also farther effectually accomplish, by raising up ministers and magistrates, endured with a spirit of wisdom, and animated with holy zeal for the perfecting of the faints, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Note, (1.) They whom Jesus writes among the living, shall never taste of death; not one of them can be lost. (2.) Every elect vested is before prepared unto glory, through sanctification of the Spirit: vain are their hopes of an interest in heaven, whose hearts continue earthly, foolish, devilish. (3.) When the Lord is planted to work, he can easily find instruments, furnish them abundantly for their labour, and bless them with success. (4.) Whatever gracious changes are produced on a people, or an individual, we may be assured that it is the Lord’s doing, whose power alone can convert the Sonner’s soul.

Vox. II.

3. The church of the redeemed, and every believer, will in the Lord enjoy protection, guidance, comfort, and security. As Israel’s camp of old was preserved by God’s pillar of the cloud and of fire, safely led through the howling wilderness, and hid from the scorching sun beams; and as the tabernacle was defended by several coverings from the storm and tempel; so shall God’s people still enjoy as real, if not as thankful, tokens of his care in their passage through this wilderness, neither the storms of persecution, nor the bluffs of temptation; nor the scorchings of affliction, nor the burning wrath of a broken law, shall be able to hurt them. He will defend these glory, their souls, glorious in holiness, lead them safe through every trial, comfort them with a sense of his love, hide them in the day of wrath, as under the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; and after beholding the destruction of the ungodly, bring them safe to that high tabernacle he hath pitched in heaven for their everlasting abode.

Isaiah 8:18-25

25. Eph. ii. 26. Jer. c. 16. In the midst of wrath a beam of mercy gladdena the dreary scene. There is yet hope in their end, and spiritual blessing in flore, which would infinitely outweigh the heaviest temporal calamities. The accomplishment of this prophecy some refer to the conversion of many of them by the Jews, who did into Egypt from the Affyrians; but it seems rather to refer to the times of the gospel, when Egypt, by the preaching of St. Mark and others, was early converted to the Christian faith. 1. Their cities shall speak the language of Canaan, becoming acquainted with the word of God, and converting with the people of God. One shall be called the city of destruction, or, of the face; where idolatry was most rooted, the grace of God shall be most prevalent; or, the city that refused the gospel, would be devoted to ruin. Note, (1.) When the soul is converted to God, we learn a new language; the love of God in Christ, and his rich salvation known and believed, is the pleasing subject of our conversation, a language that is the world appears flunged and unknown. (2.) That soul is doomed to destruction, who continues a stranger to the divine teachings, and experimentally underquanted with the truths of gospel-grace. 2. The worship of God should be publicly established. The name of idols should come no more into their lips, but their appeals be made to the heart-searching Jehovah, and to the Lord Jesus would they pledge their fidelity, v. 18. To him shall they go, as the only altar where atonement had been made for their fins, and where acceptance of their services can be alone obtained. And in the utmost borders a pillar shall be erected, intimating the general profession of the faith of Christ throughout the land. Note, (1.) An oath is a solemn act of religion, and therefore to God alone must we appeal. (2.) Christ is our altar, in and by whom alone our persons and services can be accepted of God. (3.) If there be but one true altar, what a pity is it, yes, what a sin, for the professors of the religion of Jesus by causeless divisions to set up altar against altar? 3. God’s truth being thus embraced, and his ordinances of worship established, they would be a sign between him and his people. In time of distress, when they cry unto him, he will hear and answer them, and by a Saviour, a great one, yea, an almgher Saviour, Jesus, deliver them from every opposition, from sin, Satan, death, hell, and every foe, v. 20. Some interpret this of Ptolemy Soter, or the Saviour, one of their kings; but the former souls seems much preferable. Note, (1.) God’s ears are ever open to the prayers of his people, and Jesus ever near to help his afflicted ones. Whilst we pray, he will never leave nor forsake us. (2.) They who feel they have great sins, and tremble under their great corruptions, should remember they have a great Redeemer, able to dare to the utterhood. 4. They shall be brought to the knowledge of God, and, as the blessed effect of it, shall have their hearts engaged to him, paying the grateful tribute of praise and thanksgiving for his mercies, v. 21. By the translation of the Hebrew signatures into Greek at Alexandria, the knowledge of divine truth was, in a measure, laid open; but more especially were they enlightened, when the ministers of Christ carried the gospel thither, and preached unto them the grace which is in Jesus Christ. 5. By his word and providences he will smite their hearts, effectually awakening their consciences; and as he wounds, healing them, forgiving their sins, and converting their souls,

Isaiah 8:22

Note, When God wounds, it is to heal, not to destroy. 6. They shall be admitted into the communion of God’s saints. All quarrels now terminated, Egypt and Affyria should become friends, and maintain intimate intercourse, and both unite in the service of the same God, v. 23, and Israel, which lay between them, through the Saviour, who was of their stock, should become a blessing to them; and, cordially uniting with them, the destruction of Jew and Gentile shall cease, when they become one fold under one shepherd, v. 23. For thus God, as their common Father, will regard them. Egypt is equally his people with Israel his inheritance, and blessed in the same covenant of grace; and Affyria, alike the work of his hands, choses, called, and created anew in Christ Jesus, and all untried in him, and members one of another, v. 24. Note, They who are the servants of the same God, bought with the same blood, and begotten by the same spirit, should unite in love, lay aside all animosities, and with one mind and one mouth join in his worship and praise. C H A P. XX.

This chapter is a production of the captivity of the Egyptians with the

Ethiopians by the king of Affyria. Here is, 1. The sign by which this was foretold, ver. 1, 2. 2. The explanation of the sign, ver. 3—5. 3. The life which the people of God should make of it, ver. 6. 1. IN the year that Tartan came unto Ashdod (when Sargon the king of Affyria sent him) and fought against Ashdod, and took it: 2. At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amor, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from thy foot: and he did so, walking naked and barefoot. 3. And the LORD said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia: 4. So shall the king of Affyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners, and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt. 5. And they shall be afraid and ashamed of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory. 6. And the inhabitant of this life shall say in that day, Behold, such is our expectation whither we flee for help to be delivered from the king of Affyria: and how shall we escape?