mh_parser/vol_split/23 - Isaiah/Chapter 24.xml

<div2 id="Is.xxv" n="xxv" next="Is.xxvi" prev="Is.xxiv" progress="8.87%" title="Chapter XXIV">
<h2 id="Is.xxv-p0.1">I S A I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Is.xxv-p0.2">CHAP. XXIV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Is.xxv-p1" shownumber="no">It is agreed that here begins a new sermon, which
is continued to the end of <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1-Isa.27.13" parsed="|Isa|24|1|27|13" passage="Isa 24:1-27:13">chap.
xxvii.</scripRef> And in it the prophet, according to the
directions he had received, does, in many precious promises, "say
to the righteous, It shall be well with them;" and, in many
dreadful threatenings, he says, "Woe to the wicked, it shall be ill
with them" (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.3.10-Isa.3.11" parsed="|Isa|3|10|3|11" passage="Isa 3:10,11"><i>ch.</i> iii. 10,
11</scripRef>); and these are interwoven, that they may illustrate
each other. This chapter is mostly threatening; and, as the
judgments threatened are very sore and grievous ones, so the people
threatened with those judgments are very many. It is not the burden
of any particular city or kingdom, as those before, but the burden
of the whole earth. The word indeed signifies only the land,
because our own land is commonly to us as all the earth. But it is
here explained by another word that is not so confined; it is the
world (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.4" parsed="|Isa|24|4|0|0" passage="Isa 24:4">ver. 4</scripRef>); so that it
must at least take in a whole neighbourhood of nations. 1. Some
think (and very probably) that it is a prophecy of the great havoc
that Sennacherib and his Assyrian army should now shortly make of
many of the nations in that part of the world. 2. Others make it to
point at the like devastations which, about 100 years afterwards,
Nebuchadnezzar and his armies should make in the same countries,
going from one kingdom to another, not only to conquer them, but to
ruin them and lay them waste; for that was the method which those
eastern nations took in their wars. The promises that are mixed
with the threatenings are intended for the support and comfort of
the people of God in those very calamitous times. And, since here
are no particular nations names either by whom or on whom those
desolations should be brought, I see not but it may refer to both
these events. Nay, the scripture has many fulfillings, and we ought
to give it its full latitude; and therefore I incline to think that
the prophet, from those and the like instances which he had a
particular eye to, designs here to represent in general the
calamitous state of mankind, and the many miseries which human life
is liable to, especially those that attend the wars of the nations.
Surely the prophets were sent, not only to foretel particular
events, but to form the minds of men to virtue and piety, and for
that end their prophecies were written and preserved even for our
learning, and therefore ought not to be looked upon as of private
interpretation. Now since a thorough conviction of the vanity of
the world, and its insufficiency to make us happy, will go far
towards bringing us to God, and drawing out our affections towards
another world, the prophet here shows what vexation of spirit we
must expect to meet with in these things, that we may never take up
our rest in them, nor promise ourselves satisfaction any where
short of the enjoyment of God. In this chapter we have, I. A
threatening of desolating judgments for sin (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1-Isa.24.12" parsed="|Isa|24|1|24|12" passage="Isa 24:1-12">ver. 1-12</scripRef>), to which is added an assurance
that in the midst of them good people should be comforted,
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.13-Isa.24.15" parsed="|Isa|24|13|24|15" passage="Isa 24:13-15">ver. 13-15</scripRef>. II. A
further threatening of the like desolations (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.16-Isa.24.22" parsed="|Isa|24|16|24|22" passage="Isa 24:16-22">ver. 16-22</scripRef>), to which is added an
assurance that in the midst of all God should be glorified.</p>
<scripCom id="Is.xxv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24" parsed="|Isa|24|0|0|0" passage="Isa 24" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Is.xxv-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1-Isa.24.12" parsed="|Isa|24|1|24|12" passage="Isa 24:1-12" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxv-p1.9">
<h4 id="Is.xxv-p1.10">General Desolation
Announced. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p1.11">b. c.</span> 718.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxv-p2" shownumber="no">1 Behold, the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p2.1">Lord</span> maketh the earth empty, and maketh it
waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the
inhabitants thereof.   2 And it shall be, as with the people,
so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as
with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the
seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker
of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.   3 The land
shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p2.2">Lord</span> hath spoken this word.   4 The earth
mourneth <i>and</i> fadeth away, the world languisheth <i>and</i>
fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.   5
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because
they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the
everlasting covenant.   6 Therefore hath the curse devoured
the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the
inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.   7 The
new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth, all the merry-hearted do
sigh.   8 The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that
rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth.   9 They shall
not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them
that drink it.   10 The city of confusion is broken down:
every house is shut up, that no man may come in.   11 <i>There
is</i> a crying for wine in the streets; all joy is darkened, the
mirth of the land is gone.   12 In the city is left
desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p3" shownumber="no">It is a very dark and melancholy scene that
this prophecy presents to our view; turn our eyes which way we
will, every thing looks dismal. The threatened desolations are here
described in a great variety of expressions to the same purport,
and all aggravating.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p4" shownumber="no">I. The earth is stripped of all its
ornaments and looks as if it were taken off its basis; it is made
<i>empty and waste</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1" parsed="|Isa|24|1|0|0" passage="Isa 24:1"><i>v.</i>
1</scripRef>), as if it were reduced to its first chaos,
<i>Tohu</i> and <i>Bohu,</i> nothing but confusion and emptiness
again (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.1.2" parsed="|Gen|1|2|0|0" passage="Ge 1:2">Gen. i. 2</scripRef>), <i>without
form and void.</i> It is true earth sometimes signifies the
<i>land,</i> and so the same word <i>eretz</i> is here translated
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.3" parsed="|Isa|24|3|0|0" passage="Isa 24:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>): <i>The land
shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled;</i> but I see not why
it should not there, as well as <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1" parsed="|Isa|24|1|0|0" passage="Isa 24:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>, be translated <i>the earth;</i>
for most commonly, if not always, where it signifies some one
particular land it has something joined to it, or at least not far
from it, which does so appropriate it; as the land (or earth) of
Egypt, or Canaan, or this land, or ours, or yours, or the like. It
might indeed refer to some particular country, and an ambiguous
word might be used to warrant such an application; for it is good
to apply to ourselves, and our own hands, what the scripture says
in general of the vanity and vexation of spirit that attend all
things here below; but it should seem designed to speak what often
happens to many countries, and will do while the world stands, and
what may, we know not how soon, happen to our own, and what is the
general character of all earthly things: they are empty of all
solid comfort and satisfaction; a little thing makes them waste. We
often see numerous families, and plentiful estates, utterly emptied
and utterly spoiled, by one judgment or other, or perhaps only by a
gradual and insensible decay. Sin has turned the earth <i>upside
down;</i> the earth has become quite a different thing to man from
what it was when God made it to be his habitation. Sin has also
<i>scattered abroad the inhabitants thereof.</i> The rebellion at
Babel was the occasion of the dispersion there. How many ways are
there in which the inhabitants both of towns and of private houses
are scattered abroad, so that near relations and old neighbours
know nothing of one another! To the same purport is <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.4" parsed="|Isa|24|4|0|0" passage="Isa 24:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. <i>The earth mourns, and
fades away;</i> it disappoints those that placed their happiness in
it and raised their expectations high from it, and proves not what
they promised themselves it would be. <i>The</i> whole <i>world
languishes and fades away,</i> as hastening towards a dissolution.
It is, at the best, like a flower, which withers in the hands of
those that please themselves too much with it, and lay it in their
bosoms. And, as the earth itself grows old, so those that dwell
therein are desolate; men carry crazy sickly bodies along with
them, are often solitary, and confined by affliction, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.6" parsed="|Isa|24|6|0|0" passage="Isa 24:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. When the earth
languishes, and is not so fruitful as it used to be, then those
that dwell therein, that make it their home, and rest, and portion,
are desolate; whereas those that by faith dwell in God can rejoice
in him even when the fir-tree does not blossom. If we look abroad,
and see in how many places pestilences and burning fevers rage, and
what multitudes are swept away by them in a little time, so that
sometimes the living scarcely suffice to bury the dead, perhaps we
shall understand what the prophet means when he says, <i>The
inhabitants of the earth are burned,</i> or consumed, some by one
disease, others by another, and there are but <i>few men left,</i>
in comparison. Note, The world we live in is a world of
disappointment, a vale of tears, and a dying world; and the
children of men in it are but of few days, and full of trouble.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p5" shownumber="no">II. It is God that brings all these
calamities upon the earth. <i>The Lord</i> that made the earth, and
made it fruitful and beautiful, for the service and comfort of man,
now <i>makes it empty and waste</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.1" parsed="|Isa|24|1|0|0" passage="Isa 24:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>), for its Creator is and will be
its Judge; he has an incontestable right to pass sentence upon it
and an irresistible power to execute that sentence. It is <i>the
Lord</i> that <i>has spoken this word,</i> and he will do the work
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.3" parsed="|Isa|24|3|0|0" passage="Isa 24:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>); it is his
curse that has <i>devoured the earth</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.6" parsed="|Isa|24|6|0|0" passage="Isa 24:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>), the general curse which sin
brought upon <i>the ground for man's sake</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Gen.3.17" parsed="|Gen|3|17|0|0" passage="Ge 3:17">Gen. iii. 17</scripRef>), and all the particular curses
which families and countries bring upon themselves by their
enormous wickedness. See the power of God's curse, how it makes all
empty and lays all waste; those whom he curses are cursed
indeed.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p6" shownumber="no">III. Persons of all ranks and conditions
shall share in these calamities (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.2" parsed="|Isa|24|2|0|0" passage="Isa 24:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): <i>It shall be as with the
people, so with the priest,</i> &amp;c. This is true of many of the
common calamities of human life; all are subject to the same
diseases of body, sorrows of mind, afflictions in relations, and
the like. There is one event to those of very different stations;
time and chance happen to them all. It is in a special manner true
of the destroying judgments which God sometimes brings upon sinful
nations; when he pleases he can make them universal, so that none
shall escape them or be exempt from them; whether men have little
or much, they shall lose it all. Those of the meaner rank smart
first by famine; but those of the higher rank go first into
captivity, while the poor of the land are left. It shall be all
alike, 1. With high and low: <i>As with the people, so with the
priest,</i> or prince. The dignity of magistrates and ministers,
and the respect and reverence due to both, shall not secure them.
<i>The faces of elders are not honoured,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Lam.5.12" parsed="|Lam|5|12|0|0" passage="La 5:12">Lam. v. 12</scripRef>. The priests had been as corrupt
and wicked as the people; and, if their character served not to
restrain them from sin, how can they expect it should serve to
secure them from judgments? In both it is <i>like people, like
priest,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.4.8-Hos.4.9" parsed="|Hos|4|8|4|9" passage="Ho 4:8,9">Hosea iv. 8, 9</scripRef>.
2. With bond and free: <i>As with the servant, so with his master;
as with the maid, so with her mistress.</i> They have all corrupted
their way, and therefore will all be made miserable when the earth
is made waste. 3. With rich and poor. Those that have money
before-hand, that are purchasing, and letting out money to
interest, will fare no better than those that are so impoverished
that they are forced to sell their estates and take up money at
interest. There are judgments short of the great day of judgment in
which rich and poor meet together. Let not those that are advanced
in the world set their inferiors at too great a distance, because
they know not how soon they may be set upon a level with them.
<i>The rich man's wealth is his strong city</i> in his own conceit;
but it does not always prove so.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p7" shownumber="no">IV. It is sin that brings these calamities
upon the earth. The earth is made empty, and fades away, because it
<i>is defiled under the inhabitants thereof</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.5" parsed="|Isa|24|5|0|0" passage="Isa 24:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>); it is polluted by the sins of
men, and therefore it is made desolate by the judgments of God.
Such is the filthy nature of sin that it defiles the earth itself
under the sinful inhabitants thereof, and it is rendered unpleasant
in the eyes of God and good men. See <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Lev.18.25 Bible:Lev.18.27 Bible:Lev.18.28" parsed="|Lev|18|25|0|0;|Lev|18|27|0|0;|Lev|18|28|0|0" passage="Le 18:25,27,28">Lev. xviii. 25, 27, 28</scripRef>. Blood, in
particular, defiles the land, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Num.35.33" parsed="|Num|35|33|0|0" passage="Nu 35:33">Num.
xxxv. 33</scripRef>. The earth never spues out its inhabitants till
they have first defiled it by their sins. Why, what have they done?
1. They have transgressed the laws of their creation, not answered
the ends of it. The bonds of the law of nature have been broken by
them, and they have cast from them the cords of their obligations
to the God of nature. 2. <i>They have changed the ordinances</i> of
revealed religion, those of them that have had the benefit of that.
<i>They have neglected the ordinances</i> (so some read it), and
have made no conscience of observing them. They have passed over
the laws, in the commission of sin, and have passed by the
ordinance, in the omission of duty. 3. Herein they have <i>broken
the everlasting covenant,</i> which is a perpetual bond and will be
to those that keep it a perpetual blessing. It is God's wonderful
condescension that he is pleased to deal with men in a
covenant-way, to do them good, and thereby oblige them to do him
service. Even those that had no benefit by God's covenant with
Abraham had benefit by his covenant with Noah and his sons, which
is called <i>an everlasting covenant,</i> his covenant with day and
night; but they observe not the precepts of the sons of Noah, they
acknowledge not God's goodness in the day and night, nor study to
make him any grateful returns, and so break the everlasting
covenant and defeat the gracious designs and intentions of it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p8" shownumber="no">V. These judgments shall humble men's pride
and mar their mirth. When the earth is made empty, 1. It is a great
mortification to men's pride (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.4" parsed="|Isa|24|4|0|0" passage="Isa 24:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>): <i>The haughty people of the
earth do languish;</i> for they have lost that which supported
their pride, and for which they magnified themselves. As for those
that have held their heads highest, God can make them hang the
head. 2. It is a great damp to men's jollity. This is enlarged upon
much (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.7-Isa.24.9" parsed="|Isa|24|7|24|9" passage="Isa 24:7-9"><i>v.</i> 7-9</scripRef>):
<i>All the merry-hearted do sigh.</i> Such is the nature of carnal
mirth, it is but <i>as the crackling of thorns under a pot,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.6" parsed="|Eccl|7|6|0|0" passage="Ec 7:6">Eccl. vii. 6</scripRef>. Great laughters
commonly end in a sigh. Those that make the world their chief joy
cannot rejoice ever more. When God sends his judgments into the
earth he designs thereby to make those serious that were wholly
addicted to their pleasures. <i>Let your laughter be turned into
mourning.</i> When the earth is emptied the <i>noise of those that
rejoice in it ends.</i> Carnal joy is a noisy thing; but the noise
of it will soon be at an end, and the end of it is heaviness. Two
things are made use of to excite and express vain mirth, and the
jovial crew is here deprived of both:—(1.) Drinking: <i>The new
wine mourns;</i> it has grown sour for want of drinking; for, how
proper soever it may be for the heavy heart (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.31.6" parsed="|Prov|31|6|0|0" passage="Pr 31:6">Prov. xxxi. 6</scripRef>), it does not relish to them as
it does to the merry-hearted. <i>The vine languishes,</i> and gives
little hopes of a vintage, and therefore <i>the merry-hearted do
sigh;</i> for they know no other gladness than that of their corn,
and wine, and oil increasing (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.4.7" parsed="|Ps|4|7|0|0" passage="Ps 4:7">Ps. iv.
7</scripRef>), and, if you <i>destroy their vines and their
fig-trees, you make all their mirth to cease,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.2.11-Hos.2.12" parsed="|Hos|2|11|2|12" passage="Ho 2:11,12">Hosea ii. 11, 12</scripRef>. <i>They shall
not</i> now <i>drink wine with a song</i> and with huzzas, as they
used to, but rather drink it with a sigh; nay, <i>Strong drink
shall be bitter to those that drink it,</i> because they cannot but
mingle their tears with it; or, through sickness, they have lost
the relish of it. God has many ways to embitter wine and strong
drink to those that love them and have the highest gust of them:
distemper of body, anguish of mind, the ruin of the estate or
country, will make the strong drink bitter and all the delights of
sense tasteless and insipid. (2.) Music: <i>The mirth of tabrets
ceases, and the joy of the harp,</i> which used to be at their
feasts, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.5.12" parsed="|Isa|5|12|0|0" passage="Isa 5:12"><i>ch.</i> v. 12</scripRef>.
The captives in Babylon hang their harps on the willow trees. In
short, <i>All joy is darkened;</i> there is not a pleasant look to
be seen, nor has any one power to force a smile; all <i>the mirth
of the land is gone</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p8.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.11" parsed="|Isa|24|11|0|0" passage="Isa 24:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>); and, if it was that mirth which Solomon calls
<i>madness,</i> there is no great loss of it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p9" shownumber="no">VI. The cities will in a particular manner
feel from these desolations of the country (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.10" parsed="|Isa|24|10|0|0" passage="Isa 24:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>): <i>The city of confusion is
broken, is broken down</i> (so we read it); it lies exposed to
invading powers, not only by the breaking down of its walls, but by
the confusion that the inhabitants are in. <i>Every house is shut
up,</i> perhaps by reason of the plague, which has burned or
consumed the inhabitants, so that there are <i>few men left,</i>
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.6" parsed="|Isa|24|6|0|0" passage="Isa 24:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. Houses
infected are usually shut up that no man may come in. Or they are
shut up because they are deserted and uninhabited. <i>There is a
crying for wine,</i> that is, for the spoiling of the vintage, so
that there is likely to be no wine. <i>In the city,</i> in
Jerusalem itself, that had been so much frequented, there shall be
left nothing but <i>desolation;</i> grass shall grow in the
streets, and <i>the gate is smitten with destruction</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.12" parsed="|Isa|24|12|0|0" passage="Isa 24:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>); all that used to pass
and repass through the gate are smitten, and all the strength of
the city is cut off. How soon can God make a city of order a city
of confusion, and then it will soon be a city of desolation!</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xxv-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.13-Isa.24.15" parsed="|Isa|24|13|24|15" passage="Isa 24:13-15" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxv-p9.5">
<h4 id="Is.xxv-p9.6">Hope in the End. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p9.7">b. c.</span> 718.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxv-p10" shownumber="no">13 When thus it shall be in the midst of the
land among the people, <i>there shall be</i> as the shaking of an
olive tree, <i>and</i> as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is
done.   14 They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing for
the majesty of the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p10.1">Lord</span>, they shall
cry aloud from the sea.   15 Wherefore glorify ye the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p10.2">Lord</span> in the fires, <i>even</i> the name of
the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p10.3">Lord</span> God of Israel in the isles
of the sea.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p11" shownumber="no">Here is mercy remembered in the midst of
wrath. In Judah and Jerusalem, and the neighbouring countries, when
they are overrun by the enemy, Sennacherib or Nebuchadnezzar, there
shall be a remnant preserved from the general ruin, and it shall be
a devout and pious remnant. And this method God usually observes
when his judgments are abroad; he does not make a full end,
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.6.13" parsed="|Isa|6|13|0|0" passage="Isa 6:13"><i>ch.</i> vi. 13</scripRef>. Or we
may take it thus: Though the greatest part of mankind have all
their comfort ruined by the emptying of the earth, and the making
of that desolate, yet there are some few who understand their
interests better, who have laid up their treasure in heaven and not
in things below, and therefore can keep up their comfort and joy in
God even <i>when the earth mourns and fades away.</i> Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p12" shownumber="no">I. The small number of this remnant,
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.13" parsed="|Isa|24|13|0|0" passage="Isa 24:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>. When all
goes to ruin <i>there shall be as the shaking of an olive-tree, and
the gleaning grapes,</i> here and there one who shall escape the
common calamity (as Noah and his family when the old world was
drowned), that shall be able to sit down upon a heap of the ruins
of all their creature comforts, and even then rejoice in the Lord
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Hab.3.16-Hab.3.18" parsed="|Hab|3|16|3|18" passage="Hab 3:16-18">Hab. iii. 16-18</scripRef>), who,
when all faces gather blackness, can lift up their heads with joy,
<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p12.3" osisRef="Bible:Luke.21.26 Bible:Luke.21.28" parsed="|Luke|21|26|0|0;|Luke|21|28|0|0" passage="Lu 21:26,28">Luke xxi. 26, 28</scripRef>. These
few are dispersed, and at a distance from each other, like the
gleanings of the olive-tree; and they are concealed, hid under the
leaves. The Lord only knows those that are his; the world does
not.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p13" shownumber="no">II. The great devotion of this remnant,
which is the greater for their having so narrowly escaped this
great destruction (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.14" parsed="|Isa|24|14|0|0" passage="Isa 24:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>): <i>They shall lift up their voice; they shall
sing.</i> 1. They shall sing for joy in their deliverance. When the
mirth of carnal worldlings ceases the joy of the saints is as
lively as ever; when the merry-hearted do sigh because the vine
languishes the upright-hearted do sing because the covenant of
grace, the fountain of their comforts and the foundation of their
hopes, never fails. Those that rejoice in the Lord can rejoice in
tribulation, and by faith may be in triumphs when all about them
are in tears. 2. They shall sing to the glory and praise of God,
shall sing not only for the mercy but <i>for the majesty of the
Lord.</i> Their songs are awful and serious, and in their spiritual
joys they have a reverend regard to the greatness of God, and keep
at a humble distance when they attend him with their praises. The
majesty of the Lord, which is matter of terror to wicked people,
furnishes the saints with songs of praise. They shall sing for the
magnificence, or transcendent excellency, of the Lord, shown both
in his judgments and in his mercies; for we must sing, and sing
unto him, of both, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.101.1" parsed="|Ps|101|1|0|0" passage="Ps 101:1">Ps. ci.
1</scripRef>. Those who have made, or are making, their escape from
the land (that being emptied and made desolate) to the sea and the
isles of the sea, shall thence cry aloud; their dispersion shall
help to spread the knowledge of God, and they shall make even
remote shores to ring with his praises. It is much for the honour
of God if those who fear him rejoice in him, and praise him, even
in the most melancholy times.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p14" shownumber="no">III. Their holy zeal to excite others to
the same devotion (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.15" parsed="|Isa|24|15|0|0" passage="Isa 24:15"><i>v.</i>
15</scripRef>); they encourage their fellow-sufferers to do
likewise. 1. Those who are <i>in the fires,</i> in the furnace of
affliction, those fires by which the <i>inhabitants of the earth
are burned,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.6" parsed="|Isa|24|6|0|0" passage="Isa 24:6"><i>v.</i>
6</scripRef>. Or in the valleys, the low, dark, dirty places. 2.
Those who are <i>in the isles of the sea,</i> whither they are
banished, or are forced to flee for shelter, and hide themselves
remote from all their friends. They went <i>through fire and
water</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p14.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.66.12" parsed="|Ps|66|12|0|0" passage="Ps 66:12">Ps. lxvi. 12</scripRef>);
yet in both let them glorify the Lord, and glory him as the Lord
God of Israel. Those who through grace can glory in tribulation
ought to glorify God in tribulation, and give him thanks for their
comforts, which abound as their afflictions do abound. We must in
every fire, even the hottest, in every isle, even the remotest,
keep up our good thoughts of God. When, though he slay us, yet we
trust in him—when, though for his sake we are killed all the day
long, yet none of these things move us—then we glorify the Lord in
the fires. Thus the three children, and the martyrs that sang at
the stake.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xxv-p14.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.16-Isa.24.23" parsed="|Isa|24|16|24|23" passage="Isa 24:16-23" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxv-p14.5">
<h4 id="Is.xxv-p14.6">Encouraging Prospects; Degeneracy
Predicted. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p14.7">b. c.</span> 718.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxv-p15" shownumber="no">16 From the uttermost part of the earth have we
heard songs, <i>even</i> glory to the righteous. But I said, My
leanness, my leanness, woe unto me! the treacherous dealers have
dealt treacherously; yea, the treacherous dealers have dealt very
treacherously.   17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare,
<i>are</i> upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.   18 And it
shall come to pass, <i>that</i> he who fleeth from the noise of the
fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the
midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from
on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.  
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved,
the earth is moved exceedingly.   20 The earth shall reel to
and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and
the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall
fall, and not rise again.   21 And it shall come to pass in
that day, <i>that</i> the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p15.1">Lord</span> shall
punish the host of the high ones <i>that are</i> on high, and the
kings of the earth upon the earth.   22 And they shall be
gathered together, <i>as</i> prisoners are gathered in the pit, and
shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be
visited.   23 Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun
ashamed, when the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxv-p15.2">Lord</span> of hosts
shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his
ancients gloriously.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p16" shownumber="no">These verses, as those before, plainly
speak,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p17" shownumber="no">I. Comfort to saints. They may be driven,
by the common calamities of the places where they live, into <i>the
uttermost parts of the earth,</i> or perhaps they are forced
thither for their religion; but there they are singing, not
sighing. Thence have we heard songs, and it is a comfort to us to
hear them, to hear that good people carry their religion along with
them even to the most distant regions, to hear that God visits them
there and gives encouragement to hope that he will gather them
thence, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Deut.30.4" parsed="|Deut|30|4|0|0" passage="De 30:4">Deut. xxx. 4</scripRef>. And
this is their song, <i>even glory to the righteous:</i> the word is
singular, and may refer to <i>the righteous God,</i> who is just in
all he has brought upon us. This is glorifying the Lord in the
fires. Or the meaning may be, "These songs redound to the glory or
beauty of the righteous that sing them." We do the greatest honour
imaginable to ourselves when we employ ourselves in honouring and
glorifying God. This may have reference to the sending of the
gospel to the uttermost parts of the earth, as far as this island
of ours, in the days of the Messiah, the glad tidings of which are
echoed back in songs heard thence, from churches planted there,
even glory to the righteous God, agreeing with the angels' song,
<i>Glory be to God in the highest,</i> and glory to all righteous
men; for the work of redemption was ordained before the world for
our glory.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p18" shownumber="no">II. Terror to sinners. The prophet, having
comforted himself and others with the prospect of a saved remnant,
returns to lament the miseries he saw breaking in like a mighty
torrent upon the earth: "<i>But I said, My leanness! my leanness!
woe unto me!</i> The very thought of it frets me, and makes me
lean," <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.16" parsed="|Isa|24|16|0|0" passage="Isa 24:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>. He
foresees,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p19" shownumber="no">1. The prevalency of sin, that iniquity
should abound (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.16" parsed="|Isa|24|16|0|0" passage="Isa 24:16"><i>v.</i>
16</scripRef>): <i>The treacherous dealers have dealt
treacherously;</i> this is itself a judgment, and that which
provokes God to bring other judgments. (1.) Men are false to one
another; there is no faith in man, but a universal dishonesty.
Truth, that sacred bond of society, has departed, and there is
nothing but treachery in men's dealings. See <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.9.1-Jer.9.2" parsed="|Jer|9|1|9|2" passage="Jer 9:1,2">Jer. ix. 1, 2</scripRef>. (2.) They are all false to
their God; as to him, and their covenant with him, the children of
men are all treacherous dealers, and have dealt very treacherously
with their God, in departing from their allegiance to him. This is
the original, and this the aggravation, of the sin of the world;
and, when men have been false to their God, how should they be true
to any other?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p20" shownumber="no">2. The prevalency of wrath and judgment for
that sin. (2.) The inhabitants of the earth will be pursued from
time to time, from place to place, by one mischief or other
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.17-Isa.24.18" parsed="|Isa|24|17|24|18" passage="Isa 24:17,18"><i>v.</i> 17, 18</scripRef>):
<i>Fear, and the pit, and the snare</i> (fear of the pit and the
snare) are upon them wherever they are; for the sons of men know
not what evil they may suddenly be snared in, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.9.12" parsed="|Eccl|9|12|0|0" passage="Ec 9:12">Eccl. ix. 12</scripRef>. These three words seem to be
chosen for the sake of an elegant paranomasia, or, as we now
scornfully call it, a jungle of words: <i>Pachad,</i> and
<i>Pachath,</i> and <i>Pach;</i> but the meaning is plain
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.18" parsed="|Isa|24|18|0|0" passage="Isa 24:18"><i>v.</i> 18</scripRef>), that
<i>evil pursues sinners</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.13.21" parsed="|Prov|13|21|0|0" passage="Pr 13:21">Prov.
xiii. 21</scripRef>), that the curse shall overtake the disobedient
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.5" osisRef="Bible:Deut.28.15" parsed="|Deut|28|15|0|0" passage="De 28:15">Deut. xxviii. 15</scripRef>), that
those who are secure because they have escaped one judgment know
not how soon another may arrest them. What this prophet threatens
all the inhabitants of the earth with another makes part of the
judgment of Moab, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.48.43" parsed="|Jer|48|43|0|0" passage="Jer 48:43">Jer. xlviii. 43,
44</scripRef>. But it is a common instance of the calamitous state
of human life that when we seek to avoid one mischief we fall into
a worse, and that the end of one trouble is often the beginning of
another; so that we are least safe when we are most secure. (2.)
The earth itself will be shaken to pieces. It will be literally so
at last, when all <i>the works therein shall be burnt up;</i> and
it is often figuratively so before that period. <i>The windows from
on high are open</i> to pour down wrath, as in the universal
deluge. <i>Upon the wicked God shall rain snares</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.7" osisRef="Bible:Ps.11.6" parsed="|Ps|11|6|0|0" passage="Ps 11:6">Ps. xi. 6</scripRef>); and, the fountains of the
great deep being broken up, <i>the foundations of the earth do
shake</i> of course, the frame of nature is unhinged, and all is in
confusion. See how elegantly this is expressed (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.19-Isa.24.20" parsed="|Isa|24|19|24|20" passage="Isa 24:19,20"><i>v.</i> 19, 20</scripRef>): <i>The earth is
utterly broken down; it is clean dissolved; it is moved
exceedingly,</i> moved out of its place. <i>God shakes heaven and
earth,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.9" osisRef="Bible:Hag.2.6" parsed="|Hag|2|6|0|0" passage="Hag 2:6">Hag. ii. 6</scripRef>. See
the misery of those who lay up their treasure in the things of the
earth and mind those things; they place their confidence in that
which will shortly be <i>utterly broken down and dissolved. The
earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard;</i> so unsteady, so
uncertain, are all the motions of these things. Worldly men dwell
in it as in a palace, as in a castle, as in an impregnable tower;
but <i>it shall be removed like a cottage,</i> so easily, so
suddenly, and with so little loss to the great landlord. The
pulling down of the earth will be but like the pulling down of <i>a
cottage,</i> which the country is willing to be rid of, because it
does but harbour beggars; and therefore no care is taken to rebuild
it: It <i>shall fall, and not rise again;</i> but there shall be
new heavens and a new earth, in which shall dwell nothing but
righteousness. But what is it that shakes the earth thus and sinks
it? It is the transgression thereof that shall be heavy upon it.
Note, Sin is a burden to the whole creation; it is a heavy burden,
a burden under which it groans now and will sink at last. Sin is
the ruin of states, and kingdoms, and families; they fall under the
weight of that <i>talent of lead,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.10" osisRef="Bible:Zech.5.7-Zech.5.8" parsed="|Zech|5|7|5|8" passage="Zec 5:7,8">Zech. v. 7, 8</scripRef>. (3.) God will have a
particular controversy with the kings and great men of the earth
(<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.11" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.21" parsed="|Isa|24|21|0|0" passage="Isa 24:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>): <i>He will
punish the host of the high ones.</i> Hosts of princes are no more
before God than hosts of common men; what can a host of high ones
do with their combined force when the Most High, the Lord of hosts,
contends with them to abase their height, and scatter their hosts,
and break all their confederacies? The high ones, that are on high,
that are puffed up with their height and grandeur, that think
themselves so high that they are out of the reach of any danger,
God will visit upon them all their pride and cruelty, with which
they have oppressed and injured their neighbours and subjects, and
it shall now return upon their own heads. <i>The kings of the
earth</i> shall now be reckoned with <i>upon the earth,</i> to show
that verily there is a God that judges in the earth and will render
to the proudest of kings according to the fruit of their doings.
Let those that are trampled upon by the high ones of the earth
comfort themselves with this, that though they cannot, dare not,
must not, resist them, yet there is a God that will call them to an
account, that will triumph over them upon their own dunghill: for
the earth they are kings of is in the eye of God no better. This is
general only. It is particularly foretold (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.12" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.22" parsed="|Isa|24|22|0|0" passage="Isa 24:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>) that they shall be <i>gathered
together as prisoners,</i> convicted condemned prisoners, are
<i>gathered in the pit,</i> or dungeon, and there they shall <i>be
shut up</i> under close confinement. The kings and high ones, who
took all possible liberty themselves, and took a pride and pleasure
in shutting up others, shall now be themselves shut up. Let not the
free man glory in his freedom, any more than the strong man in his
strength, for he knows not what restraints he is reserved for. But
<i>after many days they shall be visited,</i> either, [1.] They
shall be visited in wrath; it is the same word, in another form,
that is used (<scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.13" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.21" parsed="|Isa|24|21|0|0" passage="Isa 24:21"><i>v.</i>
21</scripRef>), <i>the Lord shall punish</i> them; they shall be
reserved to the day of execution, as condemned prisoners are, and
as fallen angels are <i>reserved in chains of darkness to the
judgment of the great day,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.14" osisRef="Bible:Jude.1.6" parsed="|Jude|1|6|0|0" passage="Jude 1:6">Jude
6</scripRef>. Let this account for the delays of divine vengeance;
sentence is not executed speedily, because execution-day has not
yet come, and perhaps will not come till after many days; but it is
certain that the wicked is reserved for the day of destruction, and
is therefore preserved in the mean time, but <i>shall be brought
forth to the day of wrath,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.15" osisRef="Bible:Job.21.30" parsed="|Job|21|30|0|0" passage="Job 21:30">Job
xxi. 30</scripRef>. Let us therefore judge nothing before the time.
[2.] They shall be visited in mercy, and be discharged from their
imprisonment, and shall again obtain, if not their dignity, yet
their liberty. Nebuchadnezzar, in his conquests, made many kings
and princes his captives, and kept them in the dungeon in Babylon,
and, among the rest, Jehoiachin King of Judah; but after many days,
when Nebuchadnezzar's head was laid, his son visited them, and
granted (as should seem) some reviving to them all in their
bondage; for it is made an instance of his particular kindness to
Jehoiachin that he <i>set his throne above the throne of the rest
of the kings that were with him,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p20.16" osisRef="Bible:Jer.52.32" parsed="|Jer|52|32|0|0" passage="Jer 52:32">Jer. lii. 32</scripRef>. If we apply this to the
general state of mankind, it imports a revolution of conditions;
those that were high are punished, those that were punished are
relieved, after many days, that none in this world may be secure
though their condition be ever so prosperous, nor any despair
though their condition be ever so deplorable.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxv-p21" shownumber="no">3. Glory to God in all this, <scripRef id="Is.xxv-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.24.23" parsed="|Isa|24|23|0|0" passage="Isa 24:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>. When all this comes to
pass, when the proud enemies of God's church are humbled and
brought down, (1.) Then it shall appear, beyond contradiction, that
the Lord reigns, which is always true, but not always alike
evident. When the kings of the earth are punished for their tyranny
and oppression, then it is proclaimed and proved to all the world
that God is King of kings—King above them, by whom they are
accountable—that he reigns as <i>Lord of hosts,</i> of all hosts,
of their hosts,—that he reigns <i>in Mount Zion, and in
Jerusalem,</i> in his church, for the honour and welfare of that,
pursuant to the promises on which that is founded, reigns in his
word and ordinances,—that he reigns <i>before his ancients,</i>
before all his saints, especially before his ministers, the elders
of his church, who have their eye upon all the out-goings of his
power and providence, and, in all these events, observe his hand.
God's ancients, the old disciples, the experienced Christians, that
have often, when they have been perplexed, gone into the sanctuary
of God in Zion and Jerusalem, and acquainted themselves with his
manifestations of himself there, shall see more than others of
God's dominion and sovereignty in these operations of his
providence. (2.) Then it shall appear, beyond comparison, that he
reigns <i>gloriously,</i> in such brightness and lustre that <i>the
moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed,</i> as the smaller
lights are eclipsed and extinguished by the greater. Great men, who
thought themselves to have as bright a lustre and as vast a
dominion as the sun and moon, shall be ashamed when God appears
above them, much more when he appears against them. Then shall
<i>their faces be filled with shame,</i> that they may seek God's
name. The eastern nations worshipped the sun and moon; but, when
God shall appear so gloriously for his people against his and their
enemies, all these pretended deities shall be ashamed that ever
they received the homage of their deluded worshippers. The glory of
the Creator infinitely outshines the glory of the brightest
creatures. In the great day, when the Judge of heaven and earth
shall shine forth in his glory, <i>the sun shall</i> by his
transcendent lustre <i>be turned into darkness and the moon into
blood.</i></p>
</div></div2>