ISAIAH CHAPTER 66 God is served with the Spirit, and not by ceremonies, ISAIAH 66:1, the wonderful birth and benefits of the gospel church, ISAIAH 66:5. Severe judgments against the wicked, ISAIAH 66:15. The Gentiles shall be a holy church, ISAIAH 66:19. The eternal punishment of the wicked, ISAIAH... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR ALL THOSE THINGS HATH MY HAND MADE; the heavens and the earth are the work of my hands, GENESIS 1:1 1 THESSALONIANS 1:3. (Some expound it of the temple and the sacrifices.) ALL THOSE THINGS HAVE BEEN; they were not only made by God, but subsisted and were kept in being by him. These things were... [ Continue Reading ]
Solomon, PROVERBS 15:8, gives us a short but full commentary on the whole verse, _The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord_. _He that killeth an ox_, that is, for sacrifice, as it is expounded by the next words, _he that sacrificeth a lamb_. The comparisons show God's detestation of... [ Continue Reading ]
They had made their choice, they chose not the ways of God, but _their own ways_, that which God delighted not in, as in the latter part of this verse; therefore (saith God) I _will also choose their delusions_, or illusions, or devices. Montanus translates it, _ad inventionibus_; it is a noun deriv... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet turneth his discourse from denouncing judgment against the idolaters and formalists amongst the Jews to such as feared God, whose religion is described by a TREMBLING AT HIS WORD, as ISAIAH 66:2; such a turning of the prophet's discourse was ISAIAH 1:10, ISAIAH 51:1,7. The same words bel... [ Continue Reading ]
A VOICE OF NOISE FROM THE CITY; the expression of a prophetical ecstasy, as much as, Methinks I already hear A VOICE OF NOISE, rather a sad and affrighting noise, than the noise of triumphers (as some think); yea, it comes not from the city only, but from the temple, wherein these formalists have so... [ Continue Reading ]
The whole verse is expressive of a great and sudden salvation, which God would work for his church, like the delivery of a woman, and that of a MAN CHILD, before her travail, and _without pain_. The only doubt is, whether it referreth to the deliverance of the people out of Babylon, or the world's s... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet calls either to the whole world, or to such as feared God amongst the Jews, to admire God in his stupendous works of providence, either in the easy manner of the deliverance of the Jews out of the captivity of Babylon, without any pain, without so much as one throe; or else in the erecti... [ Continue Reading ]
The work before spoken of seemeth not after the manner of men, who do things that are great gradually, nor in an ordinary course of nature, whose motions also bring things by degrees to their perfection; but you must consider who it is that speaketh, SAITH THE LORD; now as is the God, so is his stre... [ Continue Reading ]
There is nothing more ordinary amongst men, than for friends and neighbours to meet together with their friends recovered from affliction, or brought into a better state, to rejoice with them, especially such friends as in their afflictions have mourned with them. Thus Mary, LUKE 1:40, went to rejoi... [ Continue Reading ]
Jerusalem is here set out as the mother of us all, as indeed she was; for _out of Zion_ went _forth the law_, and _the word of the Lord from Jerusalem_, ISAIAH 2:3. Christ was of the _seed of Abraham_, he was sent _to the lost sheep of the house of Israel_, and is called, ROMANS 15:8, _the minister... [ Continue Reading ]
That this promise respects the times of the Messias seems plain, not only from the consideration that no history giveth us any account of any great or long peace or prosperity the Jews had before that time, nor indeed then, if we understand it not of a spiritual gospel PEACE, which Christ preached t... [ Continue Reading ]
That is, in the most tender and compassionating way imaginable; the husband doth not comfort his wife with that tenderness and those bowels that the mother comforteth the child after it hath received some fall or mischief. Jerusalem now mourneth, and you mourn with her; but she shall recover from he... [ Continue Reading ]
The peace and tranquillity of the church, and the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, is always the cause of a heart-rejoicing to such as fear God, PSALMS 105:3; the reason is, because it is the greatest object of their desires, which are then satisfied, and their thoughts are then at rest; and be... [ Continue Reading ]
Here the prophet comes more particularly to expound what indignation should be showed towards his enemies. THE LORD WILL COME WITH FIRE; that is, with terrible judgments, nothing being more terrible and wasting than fire; or with fire in a proper sense, understanding it of the fire with which enemie... [ Continue Reading ]
This kind of _rebuking_ is also called _a pleading with them_; so he threatens to plead against _Gog with pestilence and blood_, EZEKIEL 38:22. God at first pleads with sinners by _words_; but if he cannot so prevail, he will plead with them in a way by which he will overcome by fire, pestilence, an... [ Continue Reading ]
That the Jews might not think that the judgments threatened concerned only the heathen, he tells them they concerned them, the idol worshippers amongst them; and not idolaters only, but such as broke his laws about meats, which he had prohibited them to eat. Those that _sanctified and purified thems... [ Continue Reading ]
The Hebrew is thus word for word. _And I their works, and their thoughts, coming together all nations and languages, and they shall come and see my glory_. So that it is necessary for interpreters to supply some words to make out the sense. And the sense will differ according to the nature and sense... [ Continue Reading ]
It is on all hands agreed that this verse is a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles. I WILL SET A SIGN: by sign here some understand an ensign, as the word signifies, PSALMS 74:4, which is a military sign to gather people together; by this may be understood Christ, LUKE 2:34. See ISAIAH 11:10.... [ Continue Reading ]
Those who are the children of Abraham (not considered as the father of the Jewish nation only, but considered as _the father of many nations_, and as the _father of the faithful_, or who are the children of God, being believers, and receiving _Christ_, and so are your brethren, how contemptible soev... [ Continue Reading ]
Lest the Jews, being assured that the tribe of Levi, which God anciently chose to minister before him, was among them, should say, Alas, if the Gentiles should be brought in, where would they have priests or Levites? God here by his prophet tells them he would provide priests, he would take OF THEM,... [ Continue Reading ]
This whole verse is only a promise of the perpetuity of the gospel church, and the not failing of the additions to it of such as shall be saved till the world shall have an end. THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH; the new state of the church to be raised up under the Messias. As I intend that shall a... [ Continue Reading ]
In the gospel church there shall be as constant and settled a course of worship (though of another nature) as ever was in the Jewish church. Christians are not bound to keep the Jewish sabbath or new moons, GA 4 10,11 COL 2:16; but New Testament worship is often expressed by Old Testament phrases. T... [ Continue Reading ]
Either the Gentiles, or the sincerer part of the Jews, shall go forth from their places, or from Jerusalem, or GO OUT OF THEIR GRAVES, at the last day, and look upon the vengeance I have taken upon these vile idolaters and formalists, for their satisfaction, PSALMS 58:10; they shall see none of them... [ Continue Reading ]