Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Isaiah 29:17-24
If They Were Wise They Would Recognise That God Has Everything In Hand (Isaiah 29:17).
For the truth is that Yahweh, the Potter, will take the poor and the lowly and will work on them to make of them His new people. All who are unjust and work contrary to God's law will be rooted out. In Paul's words they will be pruned from the olive tree. And His own will then grow and develop into a godly nation. And as he has shown elsewhere this includes those who were Gentiles. They will be adopted into Israel, become sons of Abraham by faith (Galatians 3:7; Galatians 3:29) and be grafted into the olive tree (Romans 11:17).
‘Is it not yet a very little while,
And Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field,
And the fruitful field will be counted as a forest?
And in that day will the deaf hear the words of the book,
And the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
The meek also will increase their joy in Yahweh,
And the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.'
The Potter will very decisively show His authority and His wisdom in the future. And He will do it ‘in a very little while.' That is, a little while from God's viewpoint. When the time comes He will act.
‘Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be counted as a forest' Lebanon was proverbial as the essence of fruitfulness because of its tall cedars (Psalms 104:16). Perhaps the thought here is of the devastations wrought by the Assyrian invasion which God will in His time put right (Isaiah 37:24). Alternatively the thought may be that God will at some stage humble the mighty. That the tall cedars of Lebanon, often a symbol of man's pride (see Isaiah 2:13; Ezekiel 31:3), will as such be cut down and Lebanon be turned into garden land which will be accepted as being as good as a forest. The proud will be laid low, but the humbled will be fruitful. This suggestion of humbling would tie in with what follows.
‘And in that day will the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The meek also will increase their joy in Yahweh, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.' We can compare here Isaiah 29:9. In contrast with the present those in the future, ‘in a very little while' when God acts to humble the mighty, will receive what is in the book of vision, for it will be read out for the deaf to hear. This demonstrates that God appointed prophets and seers will then be willing to open the book. And they will then will have their blindness removed. The idea here is primarily of the spiritually deaf and blind.
‘In that day', which in itself is very general, looks forward to the time of the humbling of the mighty, and the blessing of the deaf and blind, and the poor and meek (compare on Isaiah 11:4), the lowest members of society, and an increase in joy and rejoicing (Luke 1:14; Luke 2:10; Luke 10:17; John 15:11). This is specifically referred to the time of Jesus in Matthew 5:3 and Luke 1:52 and of the Spirit anointed prophet (Isaiah 61:1 compare Luke 4:18; Matthew 11:5) and the Spirit anointed king (Isaiah 11:4). Indeed as the Gospels make clear Jesus also opened the ears and eyes of the literally deaf and blind, and examples of such healings were used by Him as symbolic of spiritual deafness and blindness. For ‘darkness' compare Isaiah 9:1; Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:79; John 1:5; John 3:19; John 8:12; John 12:46; Acts 26:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:4). That this was fulfilled through the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles can hardly be doubted. We need look no further.
‘For the terrible one is brought to naught,
And the scornful one ceases,
And all those who watch for iniquity are cut off,
Who make a man an offender in a cause,
And lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate,
And turn aside the righteous in a thing of naught.'
There will also be an increase in social justice, and the unrighteous and unjust will be removed from Israel. Three types are warned against. The terrible, the scornful and the busybodies. The first could refer to the Assyrian king but in context more probably refers to ‘the oppressor' in a judicial sense, one in high authority who uses his authority to pervert justice. The scornful are those who are not really concerned for justice and despise the law and use it for their own ends. Those who watch for iniquity are those who make use of the law to catch out unwary people who accidentally go astray, in order to gain a reward. All are misusers of the judicial system, and all will be dealt with.
‘Him who reproves in the gate.' The gate was where the elders would gather to dispense justice and hear complaints. Thus this is a righteous and just elder who has annoyed the ungodly by reproving their unrighteousness so that they are trying to bring him down.
What they get up to is also described. They make people guilty by manipulating the law, they trap those who reprove them and seek to establish true justice, and they find legal loopholes so as to get the righteous found guilty. Note how the second three are in reverse order compared with the first three, typical of Isaiah. The oppressor turns aside the righteous, the scornful cut off the man of truth and honour, the unrighteous busybody catches out the unwary. Jesus constantly spoke up against these things and the spreading of Christianity increased social justice, and in Paul's language resulted in the unjust in Israel being pruned from the true Israel. And when He returns, full justice will be established for ever, and all who have thwarted it and have not repented will truly be brought to naught.
To modernise the ideas, politicians will manipulate the law which they themselves have set up, while applying it rigidly to others for their own advantage, scorners will deny moral absolutes (compare Isaiah 5:20; Isaiah 28:14; Isaiah 28:22), those intent on doing evil will bend law and order to achieve their own ends. Specifically in mind are those who abuse the legal system by such things as using politics for their own gain, committing perjury, tampering with witnesses, and preventing the innocent from getting justice, and they include crooked politicians, false witnesses, amoral lawyers, and biased judges (compare Hosea 4:1; Amos 2:6; Amos 5:10; Micah 2:1).
‘Therefore thus says Yahweh, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob.
Jacob will not now be ashamed,
Nor will his face now grow pale.
But when he sees his children,
The work of my hands, in the midst of him,
They will sanctify my name,
Yes, they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,
And will stand in awe of the God of Israel.
Those also who err in spirit will come to understanding,
And those who murmur will learn instruction.'
Yahweh speaks as the One who redeemed Abraham. The Old Testament elsewhere makes no specific reference to ‘the redemption' of Abraham, but see Genesis 48:16 where the root is applied to Jacob, where it refers to God spending effort in keeping Jacob from evil. We need not doubt that He was seen as doing the same for Abraham, for having first called him and brought him out from among his unbelieving family, He had brought him into a land where he could walk with God. Indeed the saving and keeping of Abraham from evil fits this passage well. It is saying that Yahweh is the Saviour and Keeper of His chosen ones from evil by the expenditure of His power. This is what their redemption involves. The mention of Abraham takes them back to their roots, and reminds them of the first promises on which their hope for the future is based. They are chosen because of him.
The motif of Abraham is important in Isaiah. He was the one whose original faith and response to God not only resulted in him being ‘redeemed' and seen as ‘righteous' in God's eyes (Genesis 15:6), but will also result in the redemption of his ‘children'. They will be saved for Abraham's sake. Later we will learn that it was because Abraham was His friend and servant, the one whom He loved, that Israel is privileged to be called on to be His Servant, in order to carry out His will (Isaiah 41:8). And in Isaiah 51:1 they are to look to Abraham, the rock from which they were hewn, something directly related to the covenant, ‘when he was but one I called him, and blessed him, and made him many' (Isaiah 51:2). That is why they too will be made many, because they are one with Abraham in the covenant.
The use made here of the name Jacob is typically Hebrew. It refers both to the man and his tribe seen as one. (Just as ‘Abraham' in Genesis referred to the man but was regularly to be seen as including his family tribe). Jacob, the descendant of Abraham, was present among them in his descendants, and there would, in the future being outlined, be nothing that they would do to bring shame to ‘him' or pallor to ‘his' face, i.e. to his descendants' faces. When ‘he' sees his children who have been transformed by the work of God's hand in ‘his' midst, instead of bringing shame on God they will by their lives and behaviour ‘sanctify' (show as set apart as unique and special) God's name, the name of the Holy One of Jacob.
In view of the fact that the title is always elsewhere ‘the Holy One of Israel' this demonstrates that Isaiah had a special reason for using Jacob's name in this passage rather than that of Israel, his other name. Possibly it was in order to bring out that just as Jacob became Israel, a man transformed as a result of wrestling with God, so now has the tribe of Jacob been worked on by God and been transformed, producing a new Israel. They too will have ‘wrestled' with God. Thus they will also stand in awe of ‘the Holy One of Jacob', sanctifying His name as ‘the God of Israel'.
‘When he sees his children, the work of My hands.' Note the reference back to the work of the Potter. The people may forget that He is the Potter, but He still continues His work, and it will in the future become obvious.
‘Those also who err in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will learn instruction.' The new Israel will not yet be perfect, but they will make a recovery from the position in Isaiah 29:15. Having previously erred in their inner beings, they will recover and be brought to understanding. They may sometimes murmur, as Israel murmured in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 1:27). But it will not be fatal. They will be instructed and learn from it, because God is with them for Abraham's sake.
The picture is of people transformed by the action of the living God and growing in grace and stature, a true picture of the new Israel who will be established, and of the true church of Christ who will be grafted into Israel by adoption, and will become the true Israel. This is not to distort the passage, or ‘spiritualise' it. We who are Christ's are the continuation of Israel, we are the true Israel arising out of the old (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 21:43; Romans 11:17 onwards; Galatians 6:16; Ephesians 2:11; 1 Peter 2:9). Israel always welcomed any who would respond to the covenant, and submit to the God of Israel, whether they were the immediate foreign servants of Abraham, the mixed multitude of Moses (Exodus 12:38) or the covenant people of Shechem (Joshua 8:30, note the reference to resident aliens). In fact the large majority of Israelites were not literally physically descended from Jacob. They were ‘adopted'. Thus this has in mind the new Israel, which includes the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16), all those united with the new Israel in Christ.
So whenever those who err in spirit come to understanding and learn doctrine, that is, the truth as it is in Jesus, so they are seen to be the work of His hands, and they then begin to ‘sanctify His Name', by recognising His otherness and His holiness, and standing in awe of Him, in loving worship. They will know God in truth. And it all began with Abraham, whom God graciously redeemed.