mh_parser/vol_split/23 - Isaiah/Chapter 31.xml

<div2 id="Is.xxxii" n="xxxii" next="Is.xxxiii" prev="Is.xxxi" progress="11.98%" title="Chapter XXXI">
<h2 id="Is.xxxii-p0.1">I S A I A H.</h2>
<h3 id="Is.xxxii-p0.2">CHAP. XXXI.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Is.xxxii-p1" shownumber="no">This chapter is an abridgment of the foregoing
chapter; the heads of it are much the same. Here is, I. A woe to
those who, when the Assyrian army invaded them, trusted to the
Egyptians, and not to God, for succour, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.1-Isa.31.3" parsed="|Isa|31|1|31|3" passage="Isa 31:1-3">ver. 1-3</scripRef>. II. Assurance given of the care
God would take of Jerusalem in that time of danger and distress,
<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.4-Isa.31.5" parsed="|Isa|31|4|31|5" passage="Isa 31:4,5">ver. 4, 5</scripRef>. III. A call to
repentance and reformation, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.6-Isa.31.7" parsed="|Isa|31|6|31|7" passage="Isa 31:6,7">ver. 6,
7</scripRef>. IV. A prediction of the fall of the Assyrian army,
and the fright which the Assyrian king should thereby be put into,
<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.8-Isa.31.9" parsed="|Isa|31|8|31|9" passage="Isa 31:8,9">ver. 8, 9</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Is.xxxii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31" parsed="|Isa|31|0|0|0" passage="Isa 31" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Is.xxxii-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.1-Isa.31.5" parsed="|Isa|31|1|31|5" passage="Isa 31:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxxii-p1.7">
<h4 id="Is.xxxii-p1.8">Confidence in Egypt
Reproved. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p1.9">b. c.</span> 720.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxxii-p2" shownumber="no">1 Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help;
and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because <i>they are</i>
many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look
not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p2.1">Lord</span>!   2 Yet he also <i>is</i> wise, and
will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise
against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them
that work iniquity.   3 Now the Egyptians <i>are</i> men, and
not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p2.2">Lord</span> shall stretch out his hand, both he
that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and
they all shall fail together.   4 For thus hath the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p2.3">Lord</span> spoken unto me, Like as the lion and
the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds
is called forth against him, <i>he</i> will not be afraid of their
voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p2.4">Lord</span> of hosts come down to fight for mount
Zion, and for the hill thereof.   5 As birds flying, so will
the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p2.5">Lord</span> of hosts defend Jerusalem;
defending also he will deliver <i>it; and</i> passing over he will
preserve it.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p3" shownumber="no">This is the last of four chapters together
that begin with woe; and they are all woes to the sinners that were
found among the professing people of God, to the <i>drunkards of
Ephraim</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.28.1" parsed="|Isa|28|1|0|0" passage="Isa 28:1"><i>ch.</i> xxviii.
1</scripRef>), to <i>Ariel</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.29.1" parsed="|Isa|29|1|0|0" passage="Isa 29:1"><i>ch.</i> xxix. 1</scripRef>), to the <i>rebellious
children</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.30.1" parsed="|Isa|30|1|0|0" passage="Isa 30:1"><i>ch.</i> xxx.
1</scripRef>), and here to <i>those that go down to Egypt for
help;</i> for men's relation to the church will not secure them
from divine woes if they live in contempt of divine laws.
Observe,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p4" shownumber="no">I. What the sin was that is here reproved,
<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.1" parsed="|Isa|31|1|0|0" passage="Isa 31:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. 1. Idolizing
the Egyptians, and making court to them, as if happy were the
people that had the Egyptians for their friends and allies. They
<i>go down to Egypt for help</i> in every exigence, as if the
worshippers of false gods had a better interest in heaven and were
more likely to have success of earth than the servants of the
living and true God. That which invited them to Egypt was that the
Egyptians had many chariots to accommodate them with, and horses
and horsemen that were strong; and, if they could get a good body
of forces thence into their service, they would think themselves
able to deal with the king of Assyria and his numerous army. Their
kings were forbidden to multiply horses and chariots, and were told
of the folly of trusting to them (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.20.7" parsed="|Ps|20|7|0|0" passage="Ps 20:7">Ps.
xx. 7</scripRef>); but they think themselves wiser than their
Bible. 2. Slighting the God of Israel: <i>They look not to the Holy
One of Israel,</i> as if he were not worth taking notice of in this
distress. They advise not with him, seek not his favour, nor are in
any care to make him their friend.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p5" shownumber="no">II. The gross absurdity and folly of this
sin. 1. They neglected one whom, if they would not hope in him,
they had reason to fear. They do not seek the Lord, nor make their
application to him, <i>yet he also is wise,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.2" parsed="|Isa|31|2|0|0" passage="Isa 31:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>. They are solicitous to get the
Egyptians into an alliance with them, because they have the
reputation of a politic people; and is not God wise too? and would
not infinite wisdom, engaged on their side, stand them in more
stead than all the policies of Egypt? They are at the pains of
going down to Egypt, a tedious journey, when they might have had
better advice, and better help, by looking up to heaven, and would
not. But, if they will not court God's wisdom to act for them, they
shall find it act against them. He is wise, too wise for them to
outwit, and he will bring evil upon those who thus affront him. He
will not call back his words as men do (because they are fickle and
foolish), but he <i>will arise against the house of the
evil-doers,</i> this cabal of them that go down to Egypt; God will
appear to their confusion, according to the word that he has
spoken, and will oppose the help they think to bring in from the
workers of iniquity. Some think the Egyptians made it one condition
of their coming into an alliance with him that they should worship
the gods of Egypt, and they consented to it, and therefore they are
both called <i>evil-doers</i> and <i>workers of iniquity.</i> 2.
They trusted to those who were unable to help them and would soon
appear to be so, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.3" parsed="|Isa|31|3|0|0" passage="Isa 31:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>. Let them know that <i>the Egyptians,</i> whom they
depend so much upon, <i>are men and not God.</i> As it is good for
men to <i>know themselves to be but men</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.9.20" parsed="|Ps|9|20|0|0" passage="Ps 9:20">Ps. ix. 20</scripRef>), so it is good for us to consider
that those we love and trust to are but men. They therefore can do
nothing without God, nothing against him, nothing in comparison
with him. They are men, and therefore fickle and foolish, mutable
and mortal, here to day and gone to morrow; they are men, and
therefore let us not make gods of them, by making them our hope and
confidence, and expecting that in them which is to be found in God
only; they are not God, they cannot do that for us which God can
do, and will, if we trust in him. Let us not then neglect him, to
seek to them; let us not forsake the rock of ages for broken reeds,
nor the fountain of living waters for broken cisterns. The
Egyptians indeed have horses that are very strong; but <i>they are
flesh, and not spirit,</i> and therefore, strong as they are, they
may be wearied with a long march, and become unserviceable, or be
wounded and slain in battle, and leave their riders to be ridden
over. Every one knows this, that the Egyptians are not God and
their horses are not spirit; but those that seek to them for help
do not consider it, else they would not put such confidence in
them. Sinners may be convicted of folly by the plainest and most
self-evident truths, which they cannot deny, but will not believe.
3. They would certainly be ruined with the Egyptians they trusted
in, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.3" parsed="|Isa|31|3|0|0" passage="Isa 31:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>. <i>When
the Lord</i> does but <i>stretch out his hand</i> how easily, how
effectually, will he make them ashamed of their confidence in
Egypt, and the Egyptians ashamed of the encouragement they gave
them to trust in them; for <i>he that helps and he that is helped
shall fall together,</i> and their mutual alliance shall prove
their joint ruin. The Egyptians were shortly to be reckoned with,
as appears by the <i>burden of Egypt</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.19.1-Isa.19.25" parsed="|Isa|19|1|19|25" passage="Isa 19:1-25"><i>ch.</i> xix.</scripRef>), and then those who fled
to them for shelter and succour should fall with them; for there is
no escaping the judgments of God. <i>Evil pursues sinners,</i> and
it is just with God to make that creature a scourge to us which we
make an idol of. 4. They took God's work out of his hands. They
pretended a great deal of care to preserve Jerusalem, in advising
to an alliance with Egypt; and, when others would not fall in with
their measures, they pleaded self preservation, and went to Egypt
themselves. Now the prophet here tells them that Jerusalem should
be preserved without aid from Egypt and that those who tarried
there should be safe when those who fled to Egypt should be ruined.
Jerusalem was under God's protection, and therefore there was no
occasion to put it under the protection of Egypt. But a practical
distrust of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our
sinful departures from him to the creature. The prophet tells them
he had it from God's own mouth: <i>Thus hath the Lord spoken to
me.</i> They might depend upon it, (1.) That God would appear
against Jerusalem's enemies with the boldness of a <i>lion over his
prey,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.4" parsed="|Isa|31|4|0|0" passage="Isa 31:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. When
the lion comes out to seize his prey <i>a multitude of shepherds
come out against him;</i> for it becomes neighbours to help one
another when persons or goods are in danger. These shepherds dare
not come near the lion; all they can do is to make a <i>noise,</i>
and with that they think to frighten him off. But does he regard
it? <i>No: he will not be afraid of their voice,</i> nor abase
himself so far as to be in the least moved by it either to quit his
prey or to make any more haste than otherwise he would do in
seizing it. <i>Thus will the Lord of hosts come down to fight for
Mount Zion,</i> with such an unshaken undaunted resolution not to
be moved by any opposition; and he will as easily and irresistibly
destroy the Assyrian army as a lion tears a lamb in pieces. Whoever
appear against God, they are but like a multitude of poor simple
shepherds shouting at a lion, who scorns to take notice of them or
so much as to alter his pace for them. Surely those that have such
a protector need not go to Egypt for help. (2.) That God would
appear for Jerusalem's friends with the tenderness of a bird over
her young, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.5" parsed="|Isa|31|5|0|0" passage="Isa 31:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>. God
was ready to <i>gather Jerusalem, as a hen gathers her brood under
her wings</i> (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Matt.23.37" parsed="|Matt|23|37|0|0" passage="Mt 23:37">Matt. xxiii.
37</scripRef>); but those that trusted to the Egyptians would not
be gathered. <i>As birds flying</i> to their nests with all
possible speed, when they see them attacked, and fluttering about
their nests with all possible concern, hovering over their young
ones to protect them and drive away the assailants, with such
compassion and affection <i>will the Lord of hosts defend
Jerusalem.</i> As an eagle stirs up her young when they are in
danger, <i>takes them and bears them on her wings,</i> so the Lord
led Israel out of Egypt (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.9" osisRef="Bible:Deut.32.11-Deut.32.12" parsed="|Deut|32|11|32|12" passage="De 32:11,12">Deut.
xxxii. 11, 12</scripRef>); and he has now the same tender concern
for them that he had then, so that they need not flee into Egypt
again for shelter. <i>Defending, he will deliver it;</i> he will so
defend it as to secure the continuance of its safety, not defend it
for a while and abandon it at last, but defend it so that it shall
not fall into the enemies' hand. <i>I will defend this city to save
it,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.10" osisRef="Bible:Isa.37.35" parsed="|Isa|37|35|0|0" passage="Isa 37:35"><i>ch.</i> xxxvii.
35</scripRef>. <i>Passing over he will preserve it;</i> the word
for passing over is used in this sense only here and <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p5.11" osisRef="Bible:Exod.12.12 Bible:Exod.12.23 Bible:Exod.12.27" parsed="|Exod|12|12|0|0;|Exod|12|23|0|0;|Exod|12|27|0|0" passage="Ex 12:12,23,27">Exod. xii. 12, 23, 27</scripRef>,
concerning the destroying angel's passing over the houses of the
Israelites when he slew all the first-born of the Egyptians, to
which story this passage refers. The Assyrian army was to be routed
by a destroying angel, who should pass over Jerusalem, though that
deserved to be destroyed, and draw his sword only against the
besiegers. They shall be slain by the pestilence, but none of the
besieged shall take the infection. Thus he will again pass over the
houses of his people and secure them.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Is.xxxii-p5.12" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.6-Isa.31.9" parsed="|Isa|31|6|31|9" passage="Isa 31:6-9" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Is.xxxii-p5.13">
<h4 id="Is.xxxii-p5.14">A Call to Repentance; Deliverance of
Jerusalem. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p5.15">b. c.</span> 720.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Is.xxxii-p6" shownumber="no">6 Turn ye unto <i>him from</i> whom the children
of Israel have deeply revolted.   7 For in that day every man
shall cast away his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which
your own hands have made unto you <i>for</i> a sin.   8 Then
shall the Assyrian fall with the sword, not of a mighty man; and
the sword, not of a mean man, shall devour him: but he shall flee
from the sword, and his young men shall be discomfited.   9
And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes
shall be afraid of the ensign, saith the <span class="smallcaps" id="Is.xxxii-p6.1">Lord</span>, whose fire <i>is</i> in Zion, and his
furnace in Jerusalem.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p7" shownumber="no">This explains the foregoing promise of the
deliverance of Jerusalem; she shall be fitted for deliverance, and
then it shall be wrought for her; for in that method God
delivers.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p8" shownumber="no">I. Jerusalem shall be reformed, and so she
shall be delivered from her enemies within her walls, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.6-Isa.31.7" parsed="|Isa|31|6|31|7" passage="Isa 31:6,7"><i>v.</i> 6, 7</scripRef>. Here is, 1. A
gracious call to repentance. This was the Lord's voice crying in
the city, the voice of the rod, the voice of the sword, and the
voice of the prophets interpreting the judgment: "<i>Turn you,</i>
O turn you now, from your evil ways, <i>unto God,</i> return to
your allegiance to him <i>from whom the children of Israel have
deeply revolted,</i> from whom you, <i>O children of Israel!</i>
have revolted." He reminds them of their birth and parentage, that
they were <i>children of Israel,</i> and therefore under the
highest obligations imaginable to the God of Israel, as an
aggravation of their revolt from him and as an encouragement to
them to return to him. "They have been backsliding children, yet
children; therefore let them return, and their backslidings shall
be healed. They have deeply revolted, with great address as they
supposed (<i>the revolters are profound,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Hos.5.2" parsed="|Hos|5|2|0|0" passage="Ho 5:2">Hos. v. 2</scripRef>); but the issue will prove that they
have revolted dangerously. The stain of their sins has gone deeply
into their nature, not to be easily got out, like the blackness of
the Ethiopian. <i>They have deeply corrupted themselves</i>
(<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Hos.9.9" parsed="|Hos|9|9|0|0" passage="Ho 9:9">Hos. ix. 9</scripRef>); they have sunk
deep into misery, and cannot easily recover themselves; therefore
you have need to hasten your return to God." 2. A gracious promise
of the good success of this call (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.7" parsed="|Isa|31|7|0|0" passage="Isa 31:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): <i>In that day every man shall
cast away his idols,</i> in obedience to Hezekiah's orders, which,
till they were alarmed by the Assyrian invasion, many refused to
do. That is a happy fright which frightens us from our sins. (1.)
It shall be a general reformation: every man shall cast away his
own idols, shall begin with them before he undertakes to demolish
other people's idols, which there will be no need of when every man
reforms himself. (2.) It shall be a thorough reformation; for they
shall part with their idolatry, their beloved sin, with their
<i>idols of silver and gold,</i> their idols that they are most
fond of. Many make an idol of their silver and gold, and by the
love of that idol are drawn to revolt from God; but those that turn
to God cast that away out of their hearts and will be ready to part
with it when God calls. (3.) It shall be a reformation upon a right
principle, a principle of piety, not of politics. They shall cast
away their idols, because they have been unto them <i>for a
sin,</i> an occasion of sin; therefore they will have nothing to do
with them, though they had been the work of their <i>own hands,</i>
and upon that account they had a particular fondness for them. Sin
is the work of our own hands, but in working it we have been
working our own ruin, and therefore we must cast it away; and those
are strangely wedded to it who will not be prevailed upon to cast
it away when they see that otherwise they themselves will be
castaways. Some make this to be only a prediction that those who
trust in idols, when they find they stand them in no stead, will
cast them away in indignation. But it agrees so exactly with
<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p8.5" osisRef="Bible:Isa.30.22" parsed="|Isa|30|22|0|0" passage="Isa 30:22"><i>ch.</i> xxx. 22</scripRef> that I
rather take it as a promise of a sincere reformation.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Is.xxxii-p9" shownumber="no">II. Jerusalem's besiegers shall be routed,
and so she shall be delivered from the enemies about her walls. The
former makes way for this. If a people return to God, they may
leave it to him to plead their cause against their enemies. When
they have cast away their idols, <i>then shall the Assyrian
fall,</i> <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.31.8-Isa.31.9" parsed="|Isa|31|8|31|9" passage="Isa 31:8,9"><i>v.</i> 8, 9</scripRef>.
1. The army of the Assyrians shall be laid dead upon the spot <i>by
the sword, not of a mighty man, nor of a mean man,</i> not of any
man at all, either Israelite or Egyptian, not forcibly by the sword
of a mighty man nor surreptitiously by the sword of a mean man, but
by the sword of an angel, who strikes more strongly than a mighty
man and yet more secretly than a mean man, by the sword of the
Lord, and his power and wrath in the hand of the angel. Thus the
young men of the army shall melt, and be discomfited, and become
tributaries to death. When God has work to do against the enemies
of his church we expect it must be done by mighty men and mean men,
officers and common soldiers; whereas God can, if he please, do it
without either. <i>He</i> needs not armies of men who has legions
of angels at command, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Matt.26.53" parsed="|Matt|26|53|0|0" passage="Mt 26:53">Matt. xxvi.
53</scripRef>. 2. The king of Assyria shall flee for the same,
shall flee from that invisible sword, hoping to get out of the
reach of it; and he shall make the best of his way to his own
dominions, shall pass over to some strong-hold of his own, for fear
lest the Jews should pursue him now that his army was routed.
Sennacherib had been very confident that he should make himself
master of Jerusalem, and in the most insolent manner had set both
God and Hezekiah at defiance; yet now he is made to tremble for
fear of both. God can strike a terror into the proudest of men, and
make the stoutest heart to tremble. See <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.18.11 Bible:Job.20.24" parsed="|Job|18|11|0|0;|Job|20|24|0|0" passage="Job 18:11,20:24">Job xviii. 11; xx. 24</scripRef>. <i>His
princes</i> that accompany him <i>shall be afraid of the
ensign,</i> shall be in a continual fright at the remembrance of
the ensign in the air, which perhaps the destroying angel displayed
before he gave the fatal bow. Or they shall be afraid of every
ensign they see, suspecting it is a party of the Jews pursuing
them. The banner that God displays for the encouragement of his
people (<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.60.4" parsed="|Ps|60|4|0|0" passage="Ps 60:4">Ps. lx. 4</scripRef>) will be a
terror to his and their enemies. Thus he <i>cuts off the spirit of
princes and is terrible to the kings of the earth.</i> But who will
do this? It is <i>the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and his furnace
in Jerusalem.</i> (1.) Whose residence is there, and who there
keeps house, as a man does where his fire and his oven are. It is
the city of the great King, and let not the Assyrians think to turn
him out of the possession of his own house. (2.) Who is there a
consuming fire to all his enemies and will make them as a fiery
oven in the day of his wrath, <scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.21.9" parsed="|Ps|21|9|0|0" passage="Ps 21:9">Ps. xxi.
9</scripRef>. He is himself <i>a wall of fire round about
Jerusalem,</i> so that whoever assaults her does so at his peril,
<scripRef id="Is.xxxii-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Zech.2.5 Bible:Rev.11.5" parsed="|Zech|2|5|0|0;|Rev|11|5|0|0" passage="Zec 2:5,Re 11:5">Zech. ii. 5; Rev. xi.
5</scripRef>. (3.) Who has his altar there, on which the holy fire
is continually kept burning and sacrifices are daily offered to his
honour, and with which he is well pleased; and therefore he will
defend this city, especially having an eye to the great sacrifice
which was there also to be offered, of which all the sacrifices
were types. If we keep up the fire of holy love and devotion in our
hearts and houses, we may depend upon God to be a protection to us
and them.</p>
</div></div2>