Isaiah 40:27

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? WHY SAYEST THOU, O JACOB ... MY WAY IS HID FROM THE LORD? - Since these things are so, thou hast no reason to think that thine interests ("way" - i:e., condition, ; ) are disregarded by God. MY JUDGMENT IS PASSED OVER FROM MY GOD - rather, my cause is neglected by my God. He passes by any case, in my bondage and distress, without noticing it, and without doing me justice. MY GOD - who especially might be expected to care for me....

27._Why wilt thou say? _The Prophet now expostulates either with the Jews, because they were almost overcome by despair, and did not look to the promises of God, by which they ought, to have supported their minds; or he makes provision for posterity, that they may not sink under any distresses however long continued. The verbs are in the future sense, which might also be explained by the subjunctive mood, _Why wouldst thou say? _For Isaiah justly infers front the preceding statement, that the chosen people, whatever may happen, ought to wait patiently for God, till he give assistance in due time. He argues from the less to the greater: “Since God keeps every part of the world under his authority, it is impossible that he shall forsake his Church.” Yet it is probable that at that time there were heard among the people complaints, by which they murmured against God, as if he did not care a...

27-31 The people of God are reproved for their unbelief and distrust of God. Let them remember they took the names Jacob and Israel, from one who found God faithful to him in all his straits. And they bore these names as a people in covenant with Him. Many foolish frets, and foolish fears, would vanish before inquiry into the causes. It is bad to have evil thoughts rise in our minds, but worse to turn them into evil words. What they had known, and had heard, was sufficient to silence all these fears and distrusts. Where God had begun the work of grace, he will perfect it. He will help those who, in humble dependence on him, help themselves. As the day, so shall the strength be. In the strength of Divine grace their souls shall ascend above the world. They shall run the way of God's commandments cheerfully. Let us watch against unbelief, pride, and self-confidence. If we go forth in our...

WHY SAYEST THOU? - This verse is designed to reprove the people for their want of confidence in God. The idea is, ‘If God is so great; if be arranges the hosts of heaven with such unerring skill, causing all the stars to observe their proper place and their exact times, the interests of his people are safe in his hands.’ Piety may always find security in the assurance that He who preserves the unbroken order of the heavens will not fail to keep and save his people. The language in this verse is to be understood as addressed to the Jews sighing for deliverance in their long and painful captivity in Babylon. Their city and temple had laid waste for many years; their captivity had been long and wearisome, and doubtless many would be ready to say, that it would never end. To furnish an argument to meet this state of despondency, the prophet sets before them this sublime description of the fa...

PART III. ISAIAH'S LATER PROPHECIES (CH. 40-66.). SECTION I. THE PEOPLE OF GOD COMFORTED IN TRIBULATION (Isaiah 40:1.). EXPOSITION PREFATORY REMARKS THE Assyrian struggle is over. The prophet has accepted into the depths of his spirit God's announcement that the true spoiler, "the rod of his anger, and the staff of his indignation," is not Assyria, but Babylon. He has accepted the sentence that his people is to go into captivity. Into this future of his nation he throws himself with a faith, a fervour, and a power of realization, which are all his own. "The familiar scenes and faces, among w

WHY SAYEST THOU, O JACOB, AND SPEAKEST, O ISRAEL,.... The Jews, supposed to be in captivity, are here meant, according to Jarchi and Kimchi; whom the prophet reproves, for murmuring at the calamities and afflictions there endured by them; but it may be the church and people of God, in Gospel times, are here intended, being under suffering circumstances, either under Rome Pagan, or Rome Papal; not only inwardly repining, but openly complaining and uttering, as follows: MY WAY IS HID FROM THE LORD; meaning not their course of life, or their religious actions, their profession of the Gospel, their attendance on public worship, their prayers and other duties of religion; but their sufferings for his name's sake, the tribulations they endured, the afflicted way they walked in, which they imagined God took no notice of, since no way was opened in Providence for their deliverance out of them:...

Isaiah 40:1. _Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem._ The loss of comfort is no small loss. God would have his people happy. They are in the best condition for serving him, and less likely to be overcome by the temptations of the world, when the joy of the Lord is their strength. Therefore, three times over he bids his ministers comfort his people. O Triune Jehovah, help thy servant now to fulfill this commission! Isaiah 40:2. _And cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,_ After all beloved, you have not to fight your own battles. Under one aspect, you may have to do so; but the great fight is already over, that fight which is so much greater than all others, that the lesser ones are scarcely worthy of the name of w

II. THE LATER PROPHECIES OF COMFORT AND GLORY (40-66) Like the first part this second part of Isaiah has three sections. The three sections of the first part revealed the judgments to come upon the Jewish people, Jerusalem, the nations and the earth. The three sections of the second part reveal the great blessings in store for the people of Israel, Jerusalem, the nations and the earth, after the judgments are passed. These sections give the past, present, and the future history of the Jewish people. In the first section (40-48) they are seen prophetically in Babylon, but about to be delivered and brought back to the land. Cyrus is predicted as the chosen instrument. However, this section looks also beyond the return of the remnant from Babylon. Their present dispersion and coming restoration is predicted as well. In the second section (49-57) we find this period of their history more f...

AN EXPANSION OF THE TEXT SUGGESTED IN ISAIAH 40:6. Isaiah 40:12. The Majesty of God, in Whose Eyes the World is Insignificant. God is the Creator, disposing of earth and heaven as very small things. No adviser instructed Him. The nations in His sight are like the drop hanging from the bucket, or the dust on the scale, too small to count in the bulk. The forests of Lebanon and the many wild beasts that range them would not provide fuel and victims for a worthy sacrifice. ISAIAH 40:14. PATH OF JUDGEMENT: rather, the correct way. WAY OF UNDERSTANDING: how to do it. Isaiah 40:15. isles: properly coast

WHY... ? Note the Figure of speech _Erotesis_, to emphasize the conclusion drawn from Isaiah 40:26....