mh_parser/vol_split/23 - Isaiah/Chapter 27.xml

<div2 id="Is.xxviii" n="xxviii" next="Is.xxix" prev="Is.xxvii" progress="10.03%" title="Chapter XXVII">
<h2 id="Is.xxviii-p0.1">I S A I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Is.xxviii-p0.2">CHAP. XXVII.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Is.xxviii-p1" shownumber="no">In this chapter the prophet goes on to show, I.
What great things God would do for his church and people, which
should now shortly be accomplished in the deliverance of Jerusalem
from Sennacherib and the destruction of the Assyrian army; but it
is expressed generally, for the encouragement of the church in
after ages, with reference to the power and prevalency of her
enemies. 1. That proud oppressors should be reckoned with,
<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.1" parsed="|Isa|27|1|0|0" passage="Isa 27:1">ver. 1</scripRef>. 2. That care should
be taken of the church, as of God's vineyard, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.2-Isa.27.3" parsed="|Isa|27|2|27|3" passage="Isa 27:2,3">ver. 2, 3</scripRef>. 3. That God would let fall his
controversy with the people, upon their return to him, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.4-Isa.27.5" parsed="|Isa|27|4|27|5" passage="Isa 27:4,5">ver. 4, 5</scripRef>. 4. That he would greatly
multiply and increase them, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.6" parsed="|Isa|27|6|0|0" passage="Isa 27:6">ver.
6</scripRef>. 5. That, as to their afflictions, the property of
them should be altered (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.7" parsed="|Isa|27|7|0|0" passage="Isa 27:7">ver.
7</scripRef>), they should be mitigated and moderated (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.8" parsed="|Isa|27|8|0|0" passage="Isa 27:8">ver. 8</scripRef>), and sanctified, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.9" parsed="|Isa|27|9|0|0" passage="Isa 27:9">ver. 9</scripRef>. 6. That though the church
might be laid waste, and made desolate, for a time (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.10-Isa.27.11" parsed="|Isa|27|10|27|11" passage="Isa 27:10,11">ver. 10, 11</scripRef>), yet it should be
restored, and the scattered members should be gathered together
again, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.12-Isa.27.13" parsed="|Isa|27|12|27|13" passage="Isa 27:12,13">ver. 12, 13</scripRef>. All
this is applicable to the grace of the gospel, and God's promises
to, and providences concerning, the Christian church, and such as
belong to it.</p>
<scripCom id="Is.xxviii-p1.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27" parsed="|Isa|27|0|0|0" passage="Isa 27" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Is.xxviii-p1.11" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.1-Isa.27.6" parsed="|Isa|27|1|27|6" passage="Isa 27:1-6" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxviii-p1.12">
<h4 id="Is.xxviii-p1.13">The Doom of Persecutors; The Privilege of
Saints. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p1.14">b. c.</span> 718.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxviii-p2" shownumber="no">1 In that day the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p2.1">Lord</span> with his sore and great and strong sword
shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that
crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that <i>is</i> in the
sea.   2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
  3 I the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p2.2">Lord</span> do keep it; I
will water it every moment: lest <i>any</i> hurt it, I will keep it
night and day.   4 Fury <i>is</i> not in me: who would set the
briers <i>and</i> thorns against me in battle? I would go through
them, I would burn them together.   5 Or let him take hold of
my strength, <i>that</i> he may make peace with me; <i>and</i> he
shall make peace with me.   6 He shall cause them that come of
Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face
of the world with fruit.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p3" shownumber="no">The prophet is here singing of judgment and
mercy,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p4" shownumber="no">I. Of judgment upon the enemies of God's
church (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.1" parsed="|Isa|27|1|0|0" passage="Isa 27:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>),
<i>tribulation to those that trouble it,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:2Thess.1.6" parsed="|2Thess|1|6|0|0" passage="2Th 1:6">2 Thess. i. 6</scripRef>. When the Lord <i>comes out of
his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.26.21" parsed="|Isa|26|21|0|0" passage="Isa 26:21"><i>ch.</i> xxvi. 21</scripRef>), he will be
sure to punish <i>leviathan,</i> the <i>dragon that is in the
sea,</i> every proud oppressing tyrant, that is the terror of the
mighty, and, like the leviathan, is <i>so fierce that none dares
stir him up,</i> and <i>his heart as hard as a stone,</i> and
<i>when he raises up himself the mighty are afraid,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.41.10 Bible:Job.41.24 Bible:Job.41.25" parsed="|Job|41|10|0|0;|Job|41|24|0|0;|Job|41|25|0|0" passage="Job 41:10,24,25">Job xli. 10, 24, 25</scripRef>. The
church has many enemies, but commonly some one that is more
formidable than the rest. So Sennacherib was in his day, and
Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his; so Pharaoh had been
formerly, and is called <i>leviathan</i> and <i>the dragon,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.51.9 Bible:Ps.74.13-Ps.74.14 Bible:Ezek.29.3" parsed="|Isa|51|9|0|0;|Ps|74|13|74|14;|Ezek|29|3|0|0" passage="Isa 51:9,Ps 74:13,14,Eze 29:3"><i>ch.</i> li. 9;
Ps. lxxiv. 13, 14; Ezek. xxix. 3</scripRef>. The New-Testament
church has had its leviathans; we read of a great red dragon ready
to devour it, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Rev.12.3" parsed="|Rev|12|3|0|0" passage="Re 12:3">Rev. xii. 3</scripRef>.
Those malignant persecuting powers are here compared to the
leviathan for bulk, and strength, and the mighty bustle they make
in the world,—to dragons for their rage and fury,—to serpents,
<i>piercing serpents,</i> penetrating in their counsels, quick in
their motions, and which, if they once get in their head, will soon
wind in their whole body,—<i>crossing like a bar</i> (so the
margin), standing in the way of all their neighbours and
obstructing them,—to <i>crooked serpents,</i> subtle and
insinuating, but perverse and mischievous. Great and mighty
princes, if they oppose the people of God, are in God's account as
dragons and serpents, the plagues of mankind; and the Lord will
punish them in due time. They are too big for men to deal with and
call to an account, and therefore the great God will take the
matter into his own hands. He has a <i>sore, and great, and strong
sword,</i> wherewith to do execution upon them when the <i>measure
of their iniquity is full</i> and their <i>day has come to
fall.</i> It is emphatically expressed in the original: <i>The Lord
with his sword, that cruel one, and that great one, and that strong
one, shall punish</i> this unwieldy, this unruly criminal; and it
shall be capital punishment: <i>He shall slay the dragon that is in
the sea;</i> for the wages of his sin is death. This shall not only
be a prevention of his doing further mischief, as the slaying of a
wild beast, but a just punishment for the mischief he has done, as
the putting of a traitor or rebel to death. God has a strong sword
for the doing of this, variety of judgments sufficient to humble
the proudest and break the most powerful of his enemies; and he
will do it when the day of execution comes: <i>In that day</i> he
will punish, his day which is coming, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.37.13" parsed="|Ps|37|13|0|0" passage="Ps 37:13">Ps. xxxvii. 13</scripRef>. This is applicable to the
spiritual victories obtained by our Lord Jesus over the powers of
darkness. He not only disarmed, spoiled, and cast out, the prince
of this world, but with his strong sword, the virtue of his death
and the preaching of his gospel, he does and will <i>destroy him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil,</i> that great
leviathan, that old serpent, the dragon. He shall be bound, that he
may not deceive the nations, and that is a punishment to him
(<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.8" osisRef="Bible:Rev.20.2-Rev.20.3" parsed="|Rev|20|2|20|3" passage="Re 20:2,3">Rev. xx. 2, 3</scripRef>); and at
length, for deceiving the nations, he shall be <i>cast into the
lake of fire,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p4.9" osisRef="Bible:Rev.20.10" parsed="|Rev|20|10|0|0" passage="Re 20:10">Rev. xx.
10</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p5" shownumber="no">II. Of mercy to the church. In that same
day, when God is punishing the leviathan, let the church and all
her friends be easy and cheerful; let those that attend her sing to
her for her comfort, sing her asleep with these assurances; let it
be sung in her assemblies,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p6" shownumber="no">1. That she is God's vineyard, and is under
his particular care, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.2-Isa.27.3" parsed="|Isa|27|2|27|3" passage="Isa 27:2,3"><i>v.</i> 2,
3</scripRef>. She is, in God's eye, <i>a vineyard of red wine.</i>
The world is as a fruitless worthless wilderness; but the church is
enclosed as a vineyard, a peculiar place, and of value, that has
great care taken of it and great pains taken with it, and from
which precious fruits are gathered, wherewith they honour God and
man. It is a vineyard of <i>red wine,</i> yielding the best and
choicest grapes, intimating the reformation of the church, that it
now brings forth good fruit unto God, whereas before it brought
forth fruit to itself, or brought forth wild grapes, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.5.4" parsed="|Isa|5|4|0|0" passage="Isa 5:4"><i>ch.</i> v. 4</scripRef>. Now God takes care,
(1.) Of the safety of this vineyard: <i>I the Lord do keep it.</i>
He speaks this as glorying in it that he is, and has undertaken to
be, the keeper of Israel. Those that bring forth fruit to God are
and shall be always under his protection. He speaks this as
assuring us that they shall be so: <i>I the Lord,</i> that can do
every thing, but cannot lie nor deceive, <i>I do keep it; lest any
hurt it, I will keep it night and day.</i> God's vineyard in this
world lies much exposed to injury; there are many that would hurt
it, would tread it down and lay it waste (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.80.13" parsed="|Ps|80|13|0|0" passage="Ps 80:13">Ps. lxxx. 13</scripRef>); but God will suffer no real
hurt or damage to be done it, but what he will bring good out of.
He will keep it constantly, night and day, and not without need,
for the enemies are restless in their designs and attempts against
it, and, both night and day, seek an opportunity to do it a
mischief. God will keep it in the night of affliction and
persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the
temptations of which are no less dangerous. God's people shall be
preserved, not only from the <i>pestilence that walketh in
darkness,</i> but from the <i>destruction that wasteth at
noon-day,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.91.6" parsed="|Ps|91|6|0|0" passage="Ps 91:6">Ps. xci. 6</scripRef>.
This vineyard shall be well fenced. (2.) Of the fruitfulness of
this vineyard: <i>I will water it every moment,</i> and yet it
shall not be overwatered. The still and silent dews of God's grace
and blessing shall continually descend upon it, that it may bring
forth much fruit. We need the constant and continual waterings of
the divine grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither,
and come to nothing. God waters his vineyard by the ministry of the
word by his servants the prophets, whose doctrine shall drop as the
dew. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase;
for without him the watchman wakes and the husbandman waters in
vain.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p7" shownumber="no">2. That, though sometimes he contends with
his people, yet, upon their submission, he will be reconciled to
them, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.4-Isa.27.5" parsed="|Isa|27|4|27|5" passage="Isa 27:4,5"><i>v.</i> 4, 5</scripRef>.
<i>Fury is not in him</i> towards his vineyard; though he meets
with many things in it that are offensive to him, yet he does not
seek advantages against it, nor is extreme to mark what is amiss in
it. It is true if he find in it briers and thorns instead of vines,
and they be set in battle against him (as indeed that in the
vineyard which is not for him is against him), he will tread them
down and burn them; but otherwise, "If I am angry with my people,
they know what course to take; let them humble themselves, and
pray, and seek my face, and so <i>take hold of my strength</i> with
a sincere desire to make their peace with me, and I will soon be
reconciled to them, and all shall be well." God sees the sins of
his people and is displeased with them; but, upon their repentance,
he turns away his wrath. This may very well be construed as a
summary of the doctrine of the gospel, with which the church is to
be watered every moment. (1.) Here is a quarrel supposed between
God and man; for here is a battle fought, and peace to be made. It
is an old quarrel, ever since sin first entered. It is, on God's
part, a righteous quarrel, but, on man's part, most unrighteous.
(2.) Here is a gracious invitation given us to make up this
quarrel, and to get these matters in variance accommodated: "Let
him that is desirous to be at peace with God take hold of his
strength, of his strong arm, which is lifted up against the sinner
to strike him dead; and let him by supplication keep back the
stroke. Let him wrestle with me, as Jacob did, resolving not to let
me go without a blessing; and he shall be <i>Israel—a prince with
God.</i>" Pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord; let him
take hold of that. Christ is the <i>arm of the Lord,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.53.1" parsed="|Isa|53|1|0|0" passage="Isa 53:1"><i>ch.</i> liii. 1</scripRef>. Christ
<i>crucified is the power of God</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.1.24" parsed="|1Cor|1|24|0|0" passage="1Co 1:24">1 Cor. i. 24</scripRef>); let him by a lively faith take
hold of him, as a man that is sinking catches hold of a bough, or
cord, or plank, that is within his reach, or as the malefactor took
hold of the horns of the altar, believing that there is no other
name by which he can be saved, by which he can be reconciled. (3.)
Here is a threefold cord of arguments to persuade us to do this.
[1.] Time and space are given us to do it in; for <i>fury is not in
God;</i> he does not carry it towards us as great men carry it
towards their inferiors, when the one is in a fault and the other
in a fury. Men in a fury will not take time for consideration; it
is, with them, but a word and a blow. Furious men are soon angry,
and implacable when they are angry; a little thing provokes them,
and no little thing will pacify them. But it is not so with God; he
considers our frame, is slow to anger, does not stir up all his
wrath, nor always chide. [2.] It is in vain to think of contesting
with him. If we persist in our quarrel with him, and think to make
our part good, it is but like setting briers and thorns before a
consuming fire, which will be so far from giving check to the
progress of it that they will but make it burn the more
outrageously. We are not an equal match for Omnipotence. <i>Woe
unto him</i> therefore <i>that strives with his Maker!</i> He knows
not the power of his anger. [3.] This is the only way, and it is a
sure way, to reconciliation: "Let him take this course to make
peace with me, <i>and he shall make peace;</i> and thereby good,
all good, shall come unto him." God is willing to be reconciled to
us if we be but willing to be reconciled to him.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p8" shownumber="no">3. That the church of God in the world
shall be a growing body, and come at length to be a great body
(<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.6" parsed="|Isa|27|6|0|0" passage="Isa 27:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>): <i>In times
to come</i> (so some read it), <i>in after-times,</i> when these
calamities are overpast, or in the days of the gospel, the latter
days, <i>he shall cause Jacob to take root,</i> deeper root than
ever yet; for the gospel church shall be more firmly fixed than
ever the Jewish church was, and shall spread further. Or, <i>He
shall cause those of Jacob</i> that come back out of their
captivity, or (as we read it) <i>those that come of Jacob, to take
root downward, and bear fruit upward,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.37.31" parsed="|Isa|37|31|0|0" passage="Isa 37:31"><i>ch.</i> xxxvii. 31</scripRef>. They shall be
established in a prosperous state, and then they shall <i>blossom
and bud,</i> and give hopeful prospects of a great increase; and so
it shall prove, for <i>they shall fill the face of the world with
fruit.</i> Many shall be brought into the church, proselytes shall
be numerous, some out of all the nations about that shall be to the
God of Israel for a name and a praise; and the converts shall be
fruitful in the fruits of righteousness. The preaching of the
gospel <i>brought forth fruit in all the world</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Col.1.6" parsed="|Col|1|6|0|0" passage="Col 1:6">Col. i. 6</scripRef>), fruit that remains,
<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:John.15.16" parsed="|John|15|16|0|0" passage="Joh 15:16">John xv. 16</scripRef>.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xxviii-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.7-Isa.27.13" parsed="|Isa|27|7|27|13" passage="Isa 27:7-13" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxviii-p8.6">
<h4 id="Is.xxviii-p8.7">Correction and Compassion. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p8.8">b. c.</span> 718.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxviii-p9" shownumber="no">7 Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that
smote him? <i>or</i> is he slain according to the slaughter of them
that are slain by him?   8 In measure, when it shooteth forth,
thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of
the east wind.   9 By this therefore shall the iniquity of
Jacob be purged; and this <i>is</i> all the fruit to take away his
sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that
are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up.
  10 Yet the defenced city <i>shall be</i> desolate,
<i>and</i> the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness:
there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume
the branches thereof.   11 When the boughs thereof are
withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, <i>and</i> set
them on fire: for it <i>is</i> a people of no understanding:
therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he
that formed them will show them no favour.   12 And it shall
come to pass in that day, <i>that</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p9.1">Lord</span> shall beat off from the channel of the
river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by
one, O ye children of Israel.   13 And it shall come to pass
in that day, <i>that</i> the great trumpet shall be blown, and they
shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and
the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxviii-p9.2">Lord</span> in the holy mount at Jerusalem.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p10" shownumber="no">Here is the prophet again singing of mercy
and judgment, not, as before, judgment to the enemies and mercy to
the church, but judgment to the church and mercy mixed with that
judgment.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p11" shownumber="no">I. Here is judgment threatened even to
Jacob and Israel. <i>They shall blossom and bud</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.6" parsed="|Isa|27|6|0|0" passage="Isa 27:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), but, 1. They shall be
<i>smitten</i> and <i>slain</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.7" parsed="|Isa|27|7|0|0" passage="Isa 27:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>), some of them shall. If God find
any thing amiss among them, he will lay them under the tokens of
his displeasure for it. Judgment shall begin at the house of God,
and those whom God has known of all the families of the earth he
will punish in the first place. 2. Jerusalem, their <i>defenced
city, shall be desolate,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.10-Isa.27.11" parsed="|Isa|27|10|27|11" passage="Isa 27:10,11"><i>v.</i> 10, 11</scripRef>. "God having tried a
variety of methods with them for their reformation, which, as to
many, have proved ineffectual, he will for a time lay their country
waste," which was accomplished when Jerusalem was destroyed by the
Chaldeans; then that <i>habitation</i> was for a long time
<i>forsaken.</i> If less judgments do not do the work, God will
send greater; for <i>when he judges he will overcome.</i> Jerusalem
had been a defenced city, not so much by art or nature as by grace
and the divine protection; but, when God was provoked to withdraw,
her defence departed from her, and then she was left like a
wilderness. "And in the pleasant gardens of Jerusalem cattle shall
feed, shall lie down there, and there shall be none to disturb them
or drive them away; there they shall be <i>levant and couchant,</i>
and they shall eat the tender branches of the fruit-trees," which
perhaps further signifies that the people should become an easy
prey to their enemies. "<i>When the boughs thereof are withered</i>
as they grow upon the tree, being blasted by winds and frosts and
not pruned, <i>they shall be broken off</i> for fuel, and <i>the
women</i> and children shall <i>come and set them on fire.</i>
There shall be a total destruction, for the very trees shall be
destroyed." And this is a figure of the deplorable state of the
vineyard (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.2" parsed="|Isa|27|2|0|0" passage="Isa 27:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>) when
it <i>brought forth wild grapes</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.5.2" parsed="|Isa|5|2|0|0" passage="Isa 5:2"><i>ch.</i> v. 2</scripRef>); and our Saviour seems to
refer to this when he says of the branches of the vine which
<i>abide not in him</i> that they are <i>cast forth and withered,
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are
burned</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p11.6" osisRef="Bible:John.15.6" parsed="|John|15|6|0|0" passage="Joh 15:6">John xv. 6</scripRef>),
which was in a particular manner fulfilled in the unbelieving Jews.
The similitude is explained in the following words, <i>It is a
people of no understanding,</i> brutish and sottish, and destitute
of the knowledge of God, and that have no relish or savour of
divine things, like a withered branch that has no sap in it; and
this is at the bottom of all those sins for which God left them
desolate, their idolatry first and afterwards their infidelity.
Wicked people, however in other things they may be wits and
politicians, in their greatest concerns are of no understanding;
and their ignorance, being wilful, shall not only not be their
excuse, but it shall be the ground of their condemnation; for
therefore <i>he that made them,</i> that gave them their being,
<i>will not have mercy on them,</i> nor save them from the ruin
they bring upon themselves; and <i>he that formed them</i> into a
people, formed them for himself, to show forth his praise, seeing
they do not answer the end of their formation, but hate to be
reformed, to be new-formed, will reject them, and <i>show them no
favour;</i> and then they are undone: for, if he that made us by
his power do not make us happy in his favour, we had better never
have been made. Sinners flatter themselves with hopes of impunity,
at least that they shall not be dealt with so severely as their
ministers tell them, because God is merciful and because he is
their Maker. But here we see how weak and insufficient those pleas
will be; for, if they be of no understanding, he that made them,
though he made them, and hates nothing that he has made, and though
he has mercy in store for those who so far understand their
interests as to apply to him for it, yet on them he will have no
mercy, and will show them no favour.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p12" shownumber="no">II. Here is a great deal of mercy mixed
with this judgment; for there are good people mixed with those that
are corrupt and degenerate, <i>a remnant according to the election
of grace,</i> on whom God will have mercy and to whom he will show
favour: and these promises seem to point at all the calamities of
the church, for which God would graciously provide these
allays.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p13" shownumber="no">1. Though they shall be smitten and slain,
yet not to that degree, and in that manner, in which their enemies
shall be smitten and slain, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.7" parsed="|Isa|27|7|0|0" passage="Isa 27:7"><i>v.</i>
7</scripRef>. God has <i>smitten Jacob,</i> and he is slain. Many
of those <i>that understand among the people shall fall by the
sword and by flame many days,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Dan.11.33" parsed="|Dan|11|33|0|0" passage="Da 11:33">Dan.
xi. 33</scripRef>. But it shall not be as those are smitten and
slain, (1.) Who smote him formerly, who were the rod of God's anger
and the staff in his hand, which he made us of for the correction
of his people, and to whose turn it shall come to be reckoned with
even for that: the child is spared, but the rod is burnt. (2.) Who
shall afterwards be slain by him, when he shall get the dominion,
and repay them in their own coin, or slain for his sake in the
pleading of his cause. God's people and God's enemies are here
represented, [1.] As struggling with each other; so the seed of the
woman and the seed of the serpent have been, are, and will be. In
this contest there are slain on both sides. God makes use of wicked
men, not only to smite, but to slay his people; for they are his
sword, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.17.13" parsed="|Ps|17|13|0|0" passage="Ps 17:13">Ps. xvii. 13</scripRef>. But,
when the cup of trembling comes to be put into their hand, it will
be much worse with them than ever it was with God's people in their
greatest straits. The seed of the woman has only his heel bruised,
but the serpent has his head crushed and broken. Note, Though God's
persecuted people may be great losers, and great sufferers, for a
while, yet those that oppress them will prove to be greater losers
and greater sufferers at last, here or hereafter; for God will
render double to them, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Rev.18.6" parsed="|Rev|18|6|0|0" passage="Re 18:6">Rev. xviii.
6</scripRef>. [2.] As sharing together in the calamities of this
present time. They are both smitten, both slain, and both by the
hand of God; for there is <i>one event to the righteous and to the
wicked.</i> But is Jacob smitten as his enemies are? No, by no
means; to him the property is altered, and it becomes quite another
thing. Note, However it may seem to us, there is really a vast
difference between the afflictions and deaths of good people and
the afflictions and deaths of wicked people.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p14" shownumber="no">2. Though God will debate with them, yet it
shall be in measure, and the affliction shall be mitigated,
moderated, and proportioned to their strength, not to their
deserts, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.8" parsed="|Isa|27|8|0|0" passage="Isa 27:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>. He
will deal out afflictions to them as the wise physician prescribes
medicines to his patients, just such a quantity of each ingredient,
or orders how much blood shall be taken when a vein is opened: thus
God orders the troubles of his people, not <i>suffering them to be
tempted above what they are able,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:1Cor.10.13" parsed="|1Cor|10|13|0|0" passage="1Co 10:13">1 Cor. x. 13</scripRef>. He measures out their
afflictions by a little at a time, that they may not be pressed
above measure; for he knows their frame, and corrects in judgment,
and does not stir up all his wrath. When the affliction is shooting
forth, when he is sending it out and giving it its commission, then
he debates in measure, and not in extremity. He considers what we
can bear when he begins to correct; and when he proceeds in his
controversy, so that it is the <i>day of his east-wind,</i> which
is not only blustering and noisy, but blasting and noxious, yet he
stays his rough wind, checks it, and sets bounds to it, does not
suffer it to blow so hard as was feared; when he is winnowing his
corn, it is with a gentle gale, that shall only blow away the
chaff, but not the good corn. God has the winds at his command, and
every affliction under his check. <i>Hitherto it shall go, but no
further.</i> Let us not despair when things are at the worst; be
the winds ever so rough, ever so high, God can say unto them,
<i>Peace, be still.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p15" shownumber="no">3. Though God will afflict them, yet he
will make their afflictions to work for the good of their souls,
and correct them as the father does the child, to drive out the
foolishness that is bound up in their hearts (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.9" parsed="|Isa|27|9|0|0" passage="Isa 27:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>): <i>By this therefore shall the
iniquity of Jacob be purged.</i> This is the design of the
affliction, to this it is adapted as a proper means, and, by the
grace of God working with it, it shall have this blessed effect. It
shall mortify the habits of sin; by this those defilements of the
soul shall be purged away. It shall break them off from the
practice of sin: <i>This is all the fruit,</i> this is it that God
intends, this is all the harm it will do them, <i>to take away
their sin,</i> than which they could not have a greater kindness
done them, though it be at the expense of an affliction. Therefore,
because the affliction is mitigated and moderated, and the rough
wind stayed, therefore we may conclude that he designs their
reformation, not their destruction; and, because he deals thus
gently with us, we should therefore study to answer his ends in
afflicting us. The particular sin which the affliction was intended
to cure them of was the sin of idolatry, the sin which did most
easily beset that people and to which they were strangely addicted.
<i>Ephraim is joined to idols.</i> But by the captivity in Babylon
they were not only weaned from this sin, but set against it.
<i>Ephraim shall say, What have I do to any more with idols?</i>
Jacob has his sin taken away, his beloved sin, <i>when he makes all
the stones of the altar,</i> of his idolatrous altar, the stones of
which were precious and sacred to him, <i>as chalk-stones that are
beaten asunder;</i> he not only has them in contempt, and values
them no more than chalk-stones, but he conceives an indignation at
them, and, in a holy revenge, beats them asunder as easily as
chalk-stones are broken to pieces. <i>The groves and the images
shall not</i> stand before this penitent, but they shall be thrown
down too, never to be set up again. This was according to the law
for the demolishing and destroying of all the monuments of idolatry
(<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Deut.7.5" parsed="|Deut|7|5|0|0" passage="De 7:5">Deut. vii. 5</scripRef>); and according
to this promise, since the captivity in Babylon, no people in the
world have such a rooted aversion to idols and idolatry as the
people of the Jews. Note, The design of affliction is to separate
between us and sin, especially that which has been <i>our own
iniquity;</i> and then it appears that the affliction has done us
good when we keep at a distance from the occasions of sin, and use
all needful precaution that we may not only not relapse into it,
but not so much as be tempted to it, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.119.67" parsed="|Ps|119|67|0|0" passage="Ps 119:67">Ps. cxix. 67</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxviii-p16" shownumber="no">4. Though Jerusalem shall be desolate and
forsaken for a time, yet there will come a day when its scattered
friends shall resort to it again out of all the countries whither
they were dispersed (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.27.12-Isa.27.13" parsed="|Isa|27|12|27|13" passage="Isa 27:12,13"><i>v.</i> 12,
13</scripRef>); though the body of the nation is abandoned as a
people of no understanding, yet those that are indeed children of
Israel shall be gathered together again, as the sheep of the flock
when the shepherds that scattered them are reckoned with, <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.34.10-Ezek.34.19" parsed="|Ezek|34|10|34|19" passage="Eze 34:10-19">Ezek. xxxiv. 10-19</scripRef>. Now observe
concerning these scattered Israelites, (1.) Whence they shall be
fetched: <i>The Lord shall beat them off</i> as fruit from the
tree, or beat them out as corn out of the ear. He shall find them
out, and separate them from those among whom they dwelt, and with
whom they seemed to be incorporated, <i>from the channel of the
river</i> Euphrates north-east, <i>unto</i> Nile, <i>the stream of
Egypt,</i> which lay south-west—those that were driven into the
land of Assyria, and were captives there in the land of their
enemies, where they were ready to perish for want of necessaries,
and ready to despair of deliverance—and those that were
<i>outcasts in the land of Egypt,</i> whither many of those that
were left behind, after the captivity in Babylon, went, contrary to
God's express command (<scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.43.6-Jer.43.7" parsed="|Jer|43|6|43|7" passage="Jer 43:6,7">Jer. xliii.
6, 7</scripRef>), and there lived as outcasts: God has mercy in
store for them all, and will make it to appear that, though they
are cast out, they are not cast off. (2.) In what manner they shall
be brought back: "<i>You shall be gathered one by one,</i> not in
multitudes, not in troops forcing your way; but silently, and as it
were by stealth, dropping in, first one, and then another." This
intimates that the remnant that shall be saved consists but of few,
and those saved with difficulty, and so as by fire, scarcely saved;
they shall not come for company, but as God shall stir up every
man's spirit. (3.) By what means they shall be gathered together:
<i>The great trumpet shall be blown, and</i> then <i>they shall
come.</i> Cyrus's proclamation of liberty to the captives is this
great trumpet, which awakened the Jews that were asleep in their
thraldom to bestir themselves; it was like the sounding of the
jubilee-trumpet, which published the year of release. This is
applicable both to the preaching of the gospel, by which sinners
are gathered in to the grace of God, such as were outcasts and
ready to perish (those that were afar off are made nigh; the gospel
proclaims the acceptable year of the Lord), and also to the
archangel's trumpet at the last day, by which saints shall be
gathered to the glory of God, that lay as outcasts in their graves.
(4.) For what end they shall be gathered together: <i>To worship
the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.</i> When the captives
rallied again, and returned to their own land, the chief thing they
had their eye upon, and the first thing they applied themselves to,
was the worship of God. The holy temple was in ruins, but they had
the holy mount, <i>the place of the altar,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxviii-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Gen.13.4" parsed="|Gen|13|4|0|0" passage="Ge 13:4">Gen. xiii. 4</scripRef>. Liberty to worship God is the
most valuable and desirable liberty; and, after restraints and
dispersions, a free access to his house should be more welcome to
us than a free access to our own houses. Those that are gathered by
the sounding of the gospel trumpet are brought in to worship God
and added to the church; and the great trumpet of all will gather
the saints together, <i>to serve God day and night in his
temple.</i></p>
</div></div2>