聖書

Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach. 2 CHAPTER II THE THREE JERUSALEMS 740-735 B.C. Isaiah 2:1-22 ; Isaiah 3:1-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-6 AFTER the general introduction, in chapter 1, to the prophecies of Isaiah, there comes another portion of the book, of greater length, but nearly as distinct as the first. It covers four chapters, the second to the sixth, all of them dating from the same earliest period of Isaiah’s ministry, before 735 B.C. They deal with exactly the same subjects, but they differ greatly inform. One section (chapters 2-4.) consists of a number of short utterances-evidently not all spoken at the same time, for they conflict with one another-a series of consecutive prophecies, that probably represent the stages of conviction through which Isaiah passed in his prophetic apprenticeship; a second section (chapter 5) is a careful and artistic restatement, in parable and oration, of the truths he has thus attained; while a third section (chapter 6) is narrative, probably written subsequently to the first two, but describing an inspiration and official call, which must have preceded them both. The more one examines chapters 2-6., and finds that they but express the same truths in different forms, the more one is confirmed in some such view of them as this, which, it is believed, the following exposition will justify. chapters 5 and 6 are twin appendices to the long summary in 2-4: chapter 5 a public vindication and enforcement of the results of that summary, chapter 6 a private vindication to the prophet’s heart of the very same truths, by a return to the secret moment of their original inspiration. We may assign 735 B.C., just before or just after the accession of Ahaz, as the date of the latest of these prophecies. The following is their historical setting. For more than half a century the kingdom of Judah, under two powerful and righteous monarchs, had enjoyed the greatest prosperity. Uzziah strengthened the borders, extended the supremacy and vastly increased the resources of his little State, which, it is well to remember, was in its own size not larger than three average Scottish counties. He won back for Judah the port of Elah on the Red Sea, built a navy, and restored the commerce with the far East, which Solomon began. He overcame, in battle or by the mere terror of his name, the neighbouring nations-the Philistines that dwelt in cities, and the wandering tribes of desert Arabs. The Ammonites brought him gifts. With the wealth, which the East by tribute or by commerce poured into his little principality, Uzziah fortified his borders and his capital, undertook large works of husbandry and irrigation, organised a powerful standing army, and supplied it with a siege artillery capable of slinging arrows and stones. "His name spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped till he was strong." His son Jotham (740-735 B.C.) continued his father s policy with nearly all his father’s success. He built cities and castles, quelled a rebellion among his tributaries, and caused their riches to flow faster still into Jerusalem. But while Jotham bequeathed to his country a sure defence and great wealth, and to his people a strong spirit and prestige among the nations, he left another bequest, which robbed these of their value-the son who succeeded him. In 735 Jotham died and Ahaz became king. He was very young, and stepped to the throne from the hareem. He brought to the direction of the government the petulant will of a spoiled child, the mind of an intriguing and superstitious, woman. It was-when the national policy felt the paralysis consequent on these that Isaiah published at least the later part of the prophecies now marked off as chapters 2-4 of his book. "My people," he cries-"my people! children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." Isaiah had been born into the flourishing nation while Uzziah was king. The great events of that monarch’s reign were his education, the still grander hopes they prompted the passion of his virgin fancy. He must have absorbed as the very temper of his youth this national consciousness which swelled so proudly in Judah under Uzziah. But the accession of such a king as Ahaz, while it was sure to let loose the passions and follies fostered by a period of rapid increase in luxury, could not fail to afford to Judah’s enemies the long-deferred opportunity of attacking her. It was an hour both of the manifestation of sin and of the judgment of sin-an hour in which, while the majesty of Judah, sustained through two great reigns, was about to disappear in the follies of a third, the majesty of Judah’s God should become more conspicuous than ever. Of this Isaiah had been privately conscious, as we shall see, for five years. "In the year that king Uzziah died," (740), the young Jew "saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." Startled into prophetic consciousness by the awful contrast between an earthly majesty that had so long fascinated men, but now sank into a leper’s grave, and the heavenly, which rose sovereign and everlasting above it, Isaiah had gone on to receive conviction of his people’s sin and certain punishment. With the accession of Ahaz, five years later, his own political experience was so far developed as to permit of his expressing in their exact historical effects the awful principles of which he had received foreboding when Uzziah died. What we find in chapters 2-4 is a record of the struggle of his mind towards this expression; it is the summary, as we have already said, of Isaiah’s apprenticeship. "The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." We do not know anything of Isaiah’s family or of the details of his upbringing. He was a member of some family of Jerusalem, and in intimate relations with the Court. It has been believed that he was of royal blood, but it matters little whether this be true or not. A spirit so wise and masterful as his did not need social rank to fit it for that intimacy with princes which has doubtless suggested the legend of his royal descent. What does matter is Isaiah’s citizenship in Jerusalem, for this colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome to Juvenal, Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his immediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of all his thoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the one thing worth preserving amidst its disasters, the summit of those brilliant hopes with which he fills the future. He has traced for us the main features of her position and some of the lines of her construction, many of the great figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival of embassies, the effect of rumours. He has painted her aspect in triumph, in siege, in famine, and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with chariots, and again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her gates; her moods of worship and panic and profligacy-till we see them all as clearly as the shadow following the sunshine, and the breeze the breeze, across the cornfields of our own summers. If he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem is his watch-tower. It is for her defence he battles through fifty years of statesmanship, and all his prophecy may be said to travail in anguish for her new birth. He was never away from her walls, but not even the psalms of the captives by the rivers of Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them, exhibit more beauty and pathos than the lamentations which Isaiah poured upon Jerusalem’s sufferings or the visions in which he described her future solemnity and peace. It is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the first prophecies of Isaiah directed upon his mother city: "The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem." There is little about Judah in these chapters: the country forms but a fringe to the capital. Before we look into the subject of the prophecy, however, a short digression is necessary on the manner in which it is presented to us. It is not a reasoned composition or argument we have here; it is a vision, it is the word which Isaiah saw. The expression is vague, often abused and in need of defining. Vision is not employed here to express any magical display before the eyes of the prophet of the very words which he was to speak to the people, or any communication to his thoughts by dream or ecstasy. They are higher qualities of "vision" which these chapters unfold. There is, first of all, the power of forming an ideal, of seeing and describing a thing in the fulfilment of all the promise that is in it. But these prophecies are much more remarkable for two other powers of inward vision, to which we give the names of insight and intuition-insight into human character, intuition of Divine principles-"clear knowledge of what man is and how God will act"-a keen discrimination of the present state of affairs in Judah, and unreasoned conviction of moral truth and the Divine will. The original meaning of the Hebrew word saw, which is used in the title to this series, is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to get down beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. And what characterises the bulk of these visions is penetrativeness, the keenness of a man who will not be deceived by an outward show that he delights to hold up to our scorn, but who has a conscience for the inner worth of things and for their future consequences. To lay stress on the moral meaning of the prophet’s vision is not to grudge, but to emphasise its inspiration by God. Of that inspiration Isaiah was himself assured. It was God’s Spirit that enabled him to see thus keenly; for he saw things keenly, net only as men count moral keenness, but as God Himself sees them, in their value in His sight and in their attractiveness for His love and pity. In this prophecy there occurs a striking expression "the eyes of the glory of God." It was the vision of the Almighty Searcher and Judge, burning through man’s pretence, with which the prophet felt himself endowed. This then was the second element in his vision-to penetrate men’s hearts as God Himself penetrated them, and constantly, without squint or blur, to see right from wrong in their eternal difference. And the third element is the intuition of God’s will, the perception of what line of action He will take. This last, of course, forms the distinct prerogative of Hebrew prophecy, that power of vision which is its climax; the moral situation being clear, to see then how God will act upon it. Under these three powers of vision Jerusalem, the prophet’s city, is presented to us-Jerusalem in three lights, really three Jerusalems. First, there is flashed out { Isaiah 2:2-5 } a vision of the ideal city, Jerusalem idealised and glorified. Then comes { Isaiah 2:6 - Isaiah 4:1 } a very realistic picture, a picture of the actual Jerusalem. And lastly at the close of the prophecy { Isaiah 4:2-6 } we have a vision of Jerusalem as she shall be after God has taken her in hand-very different indeed from the ideal with which the prophet began. Here are three successive motives or phases of prophecy, which, as we have said, in all probability summarise the early ministry of Isaiah, and present him to us first, as the idealist or visionary; second, as the realist or critic; and, third, as the prophet proper or revealer of God’s actual will. I. THE IDEALIST { Isaiah 2:1-5 } All men who have shown our race how great things are possible have had their inspiration in dreaming of the impossible. Reformers, who at death were content to have lived for the moving forward but one inch of some of their fellow-men, began by believing themselves able to lift the whole world at once. Isaiah was no exception to this human fashion. His first vision was that of a Utopia, and his first belief that his countrymen would immediately realise it. He lifts up to us a very grand picture of a vast commonwealth centred in Jerusalem. Some think he borrowed it from an older prophet; Micah has it also; it may have been the ideal of the age. But, at any rate, if we are not to take Isaiah 2:5 in scorn, Isaiah accepted this as his own. "And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it." The prophet’s own Jerusalem shall be the light of the world, the school and temple of the earth, the seat of the judgment of the Lord, when He shall reign over the nations, and all mankind shall dwell in peace beneath Him. It is a glorious destiny, and as its light shines from the far-off horizon, the latter days, in which the prophet sees it, what wonder that he is possessed and cries aloud, "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!" It seems to the young prophet’s hopeful heart as if at once that ideal would be realised, as if by his own word he could lift his people to its fulfilment. But that is impossible, and Isaiah perceives so as soon as he turns from the far-off horizon to the city at his feet, as soon as he leaves tomorrow alone and deals with today. The next verses of the chapter-from Isaiah 2:6 onwards-stand in strong contrast to those which have described Israel’s ideal. There Zion is full of the law and Jerusalem of the word of the Lord, the one religion flowing over from this centre upon the world. Here into the actual Jerusalem they have brought all sorts of foreign worship and heathen prophets; "they are replenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and strike hands with the children of strangers." There all nations come to worship at Jerusalem; here her thought and faith are scattered over the idolatries of all nations. The ideal Jerusalem is full of spiritual blessings; the actual, of the spoils of trade. There the swords are beat into ploughshares and the. spears into pruning-hooks; here are vast and novel armaments, horses and chariots. There the Lord alone is worshipped; here the city is crowded with idols. The real Jerusalem could not possibly be more different from the ideal, nor its inhabitants as they are from what the prophet had confidently called on them to be. II. THE REALIST { Isaiah 2:6 - Isaiah 4:1 } Therefore Isaiah’s attitude and tone suddenly change. The visionary becomes a realist, the enthusiast a cynic, the seer of the glorious city of God the prophet of God’s judgment. The recoil is absolute in style, temper, and thought, down to the very figures of speech which he uses. Before, Isaiah had seen, as it were, a lifting process at work, "Jerusalem in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills." Now he beholds nothing but depression. "For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, upon all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Nothing in the great civilisation, which he had formerly glorified, is worth preserving. The high towers, fenced walls, ships of Tarshish, treasures and armour must all perish; even the hills lifted by his imagination shall be bowed down, and "the Lord alone be exalted in that day." This recoil reaches its extreme in the last verse of the chapter. The prophet, who had believed so much in man as to think possible an immediate commonwealth of nations, believes in man now so little that he does not hold him worth preserving: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" Attached to this general denunciation are some satiric descriptions, in the third chapter, of the anarchy to which society in Jerusalem is fast being reduced under its childish and effeminate king. The scorn of these passages is scathing; "the eyes of the glory of God" burn through every rank, fashion, and ornament in the town. King and court are not spared; the elders and princes are rigorously denounced. But by far the most striking effort of the prophet’s boldness is his prediction of the overthrow of Jerusalem itself ( Isaiah 3:8 ). What it cost Isaiah to utter and the people to hear we can only partly measure. To his own passionate patriotism it must have felt like treason, to the blind optimism of the popular religion it doubtless appeared the rankest heresy-to aver that the holy city, inviolate and almost unthreatened since the day David brought to her the ark of the Lord, and destined by the voice of her prophets, including Isaiah himself, to be established upon the tops of the mountains, was now to fall into ruin. But Isaiah’s conscience overcomes his sense of consistency, and he who has just proclaimed the eternal glory of Jerusalem is provoked by his knowledge of her citizens’ sins to recall his words and intimate her destruction. It may have been that Isaiah was partly emboldened to so novel a threat, by his knowledge of the preparations which Syria and Israel were already making for the invasion of Judah. The prospect of Jerusalem, as the centre of a vast empire subject to Jehovah, however natural it was under a successful ruler like Uzziah, became, of course, unreal when every one of Uzziah’s and Jotham’s tributaries had risen in revolt against their successor, Ahaz. But of these outward movements Isaiah tells us nothing. He is wholly engrossed with Judah’s sin. It is his growing acquaintance with the corruption of his fellow countrymen that has turned his back on the ideal city of his opening ministry, and changed him into a prophet of Jerusalem’s ruin. "Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to provoke the eyes of His glory." Judge, prophet, and elder, all the upper ranks and useful guides of the people, must perish. It is a sign of the degradation to which society shall be reduced, when Isaiah with keen sarcasm pictures the despairing people choosing a certain man to be their ruler because he alone has a coat to his back! { Isaiah 3:6 } With increased scorn Isaiah turns lastly upon the women of Jerusalem, { Isaiah 3:16-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-2 } and here perhaps the change which has passed over him since his opening prophecy is most striking. One likes to think of how the citizens of Jerusalem took this alteration in their prophet’s temper. We know how popular so optimist a prophecy as that of the mountain of the Lord’s house must have been, and can imagine how men and women loved the young face, bright with a far-off light, and the dream of an ideal that had no quarrel with the present. "But what a change is this that has come over him, who speaks not of tomorrow, but of today, who has brought his gaze from those distant horizons to our streets, who stares every man in the face, { Isaiah 3:9 } and makes the women feel that no pin and trimming, no ring and bracelet, escape his notice! Our loved prophet has become an impudent scorner!" Ah, men and women of Jerusalem, beware of those eyes! "The glory of God" is burning in them; they see you through and through, and they tell us that all your armour and the "show of your countenance," and your foreign fashions are as nothing, for there are corrupt hearts below. This is your judgment, that "instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness, and instead of a girdle a rope, and instead of well-set hair baldness, and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty. Thy men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates shall lament and mourn, and she shall be desolate and sit upon the ground!" This was the climax of the prophet’s judgment. If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot. If the women are corrupt the state is moribund. III. THE PROPHET OF THE LORD { Isaiah 4:2-6 } IS there, then, no hope for Jerusalem? Yes, but not where the prophet sought it at first, in herself, and not in the way he offered it-by the mere presentation of an ideal. There is hope, there is more-there is certain salvation in the Lord, but it only comes after judgment. Contrast that opening picture of the new Jerusalem with this closing one, and we shall find their difference to lie in two things. There the city is more prominent than the Lord, here the Lord is more prominent than the city; there no word of judgment, here judgment sternly emphasised as the indispensable way towards the blessed future. A more vivid sense of the Person of Jehovah Himself, a deep conviction of the necessity of chastisement: these are what Isaiah has gained during his early ministry, without losing hope or heart for the future. The bliss shall come only when the Lord shall "have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning." It is a corollary of all this that the participants of that future shall be many fewer than in the first vision of the prophet. The process of judgment must weed men out, and in place of all nations coming to Jerusalem, to share its peace and glory, the prophet can speak now only of Israel-and only of a remnant of Israel. "The escaped of Israel, the left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem." This is a great change in Isaiah’s ideal, from the supremacy of Israel over all nations to the bare survival of a remnant of his people. Is there not in this threefold vision a parallel and example for our own civilisation and our thoughts about it? All work and wisdom begin in dreams. We must see our Utopias before we start to build our stone and lime cities. "It takes a soul To move a body; it takes a high-souled man To move the masses even to a cleaner stye; It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside The dust of the actual." But the light of our ideals dawns upon us only to show how poor by nature are the mortals who are called to accomplish them. The ideal rises still as to Isaiah only to exhibit the poverty of the real. When we lift our eyes from the hills of vision, and rest them on our fellow-men, hope and enthusiasm die out of us. Isaiah’s disappointment is that of every one who brings down his gaze from the clouds to the streets. Be our ideal ever so desirable, be we ever so persuaded of its facility, the moment we attempt to apply it we shall be undeceived. Society cannot be regenerated all at once. There is an expression which Isaiah emphasises in his moment of cynicism: "The show of their countenance doth witness against them." It tells us that when he called his countrymen to turn to the light he lifted upon them he saw nothing but the exhibition of their sin made plain. When we bring light to a cavern whose inhabitants have lost their eyes by the darkness, the light does not make them see; we have to give them eyes again. Even so no vision or theory of a perfect state-the mistake which all young reformers make- can regenerate society. It will only reveal social corruption, and sicken the heart of the reformer himself. For the possession of a great ideal does not mean, as so many fondly imagine, work accomplished; it means work revealed-work revealed so vast, often so impossible, that faith and hope die down, and the enthusiast of yesterday becomes the cynic of tomorrow. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?" In this despair, through which every worker for God and man must pass, many a warm heart has grown cold, many an intellect become paralysed. There is but one way of escape, and that is Isaiah’s. It is to believe in God Himself; it is to believe that He is at work, that His purposes to man are saving purposes, and that with Him there is an inexhaustible source of mercy and virtue. So from the blackest pessimism shall arise new hope and faith, as from beneath Isaiah’s darkest verses that glorious passage suddenly bursts like uncontrollable spring from the very feet of winter. "For that day shall the spring of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel." This is all it is possible to say. There must be a future for man, because God loves him, and God reigns. That future can be reached only through judgment, because God is righteous. To put it another way: All of us who live to work for our fellow-men or who hope to lift them higher by our word begin with our own visions of a great future. These visions, though our youth lends to them an original generosity and enthusiasm, are, like Isaiah’s, largely borrowed. The progressive instincts of the age into which we are born and the mellow skies of prosperity combine with our own ardour to make our ideal one of splendour. Persuaded of its facility, we turn to real life to apply it. A few years pass. We not only find mankind too stubborn to be forced into our moulds, but we gradually become aware of Another Moulder at work upon our subject, and we stand aside in awe to watch His operations. Human desires and national ideals are not always fulfilled; philosophic theories are discredited by the evolution of fact. Uzziah does not reign for ever; the sceptre falls to Ahaz: progress is checked, and the summer of prosperity draws to an end. Under duller skies ungilded judgment comes to view, cruel and inexorable, crushing even the peaks on which we built our future, yet purifying men and giving earnest of a better future, too. And so life, that mocked the control of our puny fingers, bends groaning to the weight of an Almighty Hand. God also, we perceive as we face facts honestly, has His ideal for men; and though He works so slowly towards His end that our restless eyes are too impatient to follow His order, He yet reveals all that shall be to the humbled heart and the soul emptied of its own visions. Awed and chastened, we look back from His Presence to our old ideals. We are still able to recognise their grandeur and generous hope for men. But we see now how utterly unconnected they are with the present-castles in the air, with no ladders to them from the earth. And even if they were accessible, still to our eyes, purged by gazing on God’s own ways, they would no more appear desirable. Look back on Isaiah’s early ideal from the light of his second vision of the future. For all its grandeur, that picture of Jerusalem is not wholly attractive. Is there not much national arrogance in it? Is it not just the imperfectly idealised reflection of an age of material prosperity such as that of Uzziah’s was? Pride is in it, a false optimism, the highest good to be reached without moral conflict. But here is the language of pity, rescue with difficulty, rest only after sore struggle and stripping, salvation by the bare arm of God. So do our imaginations for our own future or for that of the race always contrast with what He Himself has in store for us, promised freely out of His great grace to our unworthy hearts, yet granted in the end only to those who pass towards it through discipline, tribulation, and fire. This, then, was Isaiah’s apprenticeship, and its net result was to leave him with the remnant for his ideal: the remnant and Jerusalem secured as its rallying-point. 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And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man. Isaiah 4:1 The climax of Zion's ruin J. Parker, D. D. This verse should be part of the preceding chapter, the very climax, indeed, of the ruin which Zion has brought upon herself. (Read Isaiah 3:25, 26 .) In this verse the course of nature is inverted. This is the ruin which sin always works. The picture is that of a country desolated by war, and when the census comes to be taken it is found that there are seven women to one man. The men are murdered, the strong have been taken away, the mighty men have gone down in the shock of war. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Social anarchy R. Weir. A companion picture to Isaiah 3:6 ; — the male population are in search of a ruler; the women in search of a husband. ( R. Weir. ) In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious. Isaiah 4:2-6 The first personal reference in Isaiah to the Messiah J. Parker, D. D. If this is a reference to Christ, critics are agreed that it is the first personal reference to the Messiah which Isaiah has yet given. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A pleasing contrast J. Parker, D. D. What so beautiful as that a branch should appear in this wilderness of lava! Blessed are they who can turn away from the desert and look at the garden. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A branch J. Parker, D. D. Then the fountains of life and energy are not dried up. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A branch J. Parker, D. D. That is to say, fruitfulness, beauty, sufficiency, energy, summer. This is what the Son of God same to be and to do — to fill the earth with fruitfulness, to drive away the ghastly, all-devouring famine, and to feed the world with the fruit of heaven. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) The Branch of the Lord A. K. Cherrill, M. A. I. THE GENERAL MEANING OF THE PASSAGE. The time spoken of by the prophet is clearly the time of the Christian dispensation, called "the last days" (ch. 2). And we need not stop to prove that "the Branch of the Lord" is a name or title of the Messiah. We have, therefore, a prophecy of the glory of Christ's kingdom. II. THE INNER MEANING OF THE PASSAGE.(1) Why is it said "In that day," specifying a particular time, "the Branch of the Lord shall be glorious"? And(2) what is the special force or meaning of the title, "the Branch of the Lord"? 1. The glory of Christ is surely the glory which He had with the Father from the beginning. How then can it be said of Him that at any assigned time He is glorious, rather than at another? The word glory, when spoken of God or Christ, cannot have precisely the same sense as when spoken of a man. A man may gain glory by some act above the average of human nature. But starting from infinite perfection, nothing greater or nobler can be conceived. Glory, therefore, with reference to God is not the gaining of any higher excellence, but the manifestation of excellence which existed already. The creation was the first manifestation of the glory of God. And if the glory of God was made manifest in creation, it is yet more fully revealed in those mysteries of redemption which angels desired to look into. 2. But why in this connection is the Saviour called the Branch of the Lord? If the appropriateness of the figure does not at once appear, it will at least remind us of — "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." The expression thus sets Christ before us in His character as the Mediator — Himself the Branch of the Lord, and His people branches of that true Vine. Thus we are enabled further to connect the title with the glory spoken of. The glory and beauty of the vine is in its fruit ( John 15:8 ). ( A. K. Cherrill, M. A. ) God's perpetual presence with His people W. M. Punshom. I. THE PREPARATION FOR THE PROMISE. In the earlier verses of the chapter you will find that two things are presented as antecedent to the gifts of blessing — that is, the coming of the Divine Saviour, and His discipline for holiness within His Church. 1. The transition from the gloomy judgment to the grandeur of deliverance is abrupt and striking, as if from a savage wilderness one were to emerge suddenly into green pastures and among gay flowers. And surely this is a true representation of the change which passes upon human destinies when Christ the Lord comes down. We are naturally heirs of judgment. There is not a family, there is not a heart, upon which the curse has not descended in disastrous entail; there is a stain upon the birth, there is a feebleness in the nature of us all. But there comes a sound of help and of deliverance, for a Saviour has been provided — a Saviour who, in the mysterious union of natures, combines perfection of sympathy and almightiness of power. 2. It would at once correct our estimate and restrain our pride if we could remember always that with God the greatest thing is holiness. And then, further, we are told that to work this holiness in His people, God subjects them to discipline, and, if necessary, to the spirit of judgment and to the spirit of burning. Mark the exquisite fitness and the exquisite kindness of the discipline. There are some stains that water can wash away. If the water will avail, there is no need of the fire. There are some stains so deep and foul and crimson that the fire must purge them. II. THE PROMISE ITSELF (ver. 5). As we read these words, we are translated to a former scene of deliverance. We go back to the older ages; and there, in the fierce wilderness, where no groves of palm trees wave with shade, a vast host marching steadily, now in their van for guidance, now in their rear for protection, there rises by day a pillar of cloud and by night a pillar of flame; and, as we gaze, we listen to the snatches of their song: "Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea." This was the vision prominent in the mind of the prophet when he symbolised by it God's presence and protection to His chosen Church. 1. The central thought is the presence of God. Then, there are right-hand and left-hand thoughts or aspects in which that presence manifests itself. 2. The presence of God for counsel. 3. The presence of God for defence. ( W. M. Punshom. ) God's promise to the remnant I. THE PERSONS INTENDED. The remnant, the escaping, the "evasion of Israel," as the word signifies (ver. 2) they that are left, that remain (ver. 3), who escape the great desolation that was to come on the body of the people, the furnace they were to pass through. Only in the close of that verse, they have a further description added of them, from the purpose of God concerning their grace and glory — they are written among the living, or rather, written unto life; "Everyone that is written," i.e. , designed unto life in Jerusalem. II. THE CONDITION WHEREIN THEY WERE. This is laid down in figurative expressions concerning the smallness of this remnant, or the paucity of them that should escape, and the greatness of the extremities they should be exercised withal. III. THE PROMISES HERE MADE TO THIS PEOPLE are of two sorts: Original, or fundamental; and then consequential thereon. 1. There is the great spring, or fountain promise, from which all others, as lesser streams, do flow; and that is the promise of Christ Himself unto them, and amongst them; He is that Branch of Jehovah, and that fruit of the earth, which is there promised (ver. 2). He is the foundation, the fountain of all the good that is or shall be communicated unto us; all other promises are but rivulets from that unsearchable ocean of grace and love that is in the promise of Christ. 2. The promises that flow from hence — (1) Of beauty and glory (ver. 2). (2) Of holiness and purity (vers. 3, 4). (3) Of preservation and safety (vers. 5, 6). ( J. Owen , D. D. ) He that is left in Zion. Isaiah 4:3 The holy remnant F. Delitzsch. "Holy" means what is separated from the world and superior to it; the congregation of the saints, or holy ones, who now inhabit Jerusalem, are what remain after a smelting; their holiness is the consequence of a washing. ( F. Delitzsch. ) God has never yet left the world without a nucleus of heaven J. Parker, D. D. He has drowned the world, but left a seed to build an altar; He has burned the Gomorrahs of the world, but He has allowed the faithful to escape, and to become the beginning of a new progeny. There is always a remnant, the one left, the true heart, the faithful among the faithless found. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) Holiness becomes the Christian Sunday School Chronicle. We are told that the little creature called the ermine is so sensitive to its own cleanliness that it becomes paralysed and powerless at the slightest touch of defilement upon its snow-white fur. A like sensibility should belong to the Christian, who should abstain from the very appearance of evil. ( Sunday School Chronicle. ) A cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night. Isaiah 4:5 The pillar cloud of Israel J. Patrick, M. A. (with Exodus 13:21, 22 ): — It was good for the Israelites that they were so long in the wilderness. There the most impressive intimations of a present Deity followed their every step. Miracles were wrought, to feed them when hungry, and to satisfy their thirsty souls. Jesus was in the manna — "I am the living Bread which came down from heaven." There, in the form of a vast column of mingled fire and smoke, is the mysterious yet faithful guide of the Lord's people. When it is stationary, they rest; when it advances, they journey. The pillar cloud was typical of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ ever liveth as the Church's Prophet, Priest, and King. "And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion," etc. If the pillar cloud was the shadow of good things to come, Jesus Christ is the glorious substance; and we shall endeavour to show in what manner the Redeemer leads His Church. I. JESUS LEADS THE CHURCH BY HIS WORD. Not more certainly was there one pillar cloud than there is one Bible. The Word stands alone in its authority. It is the sole director of our faith; it is the sole regulator of our walk. The Word is the sole standard in all matters pertaining to the worship of God, and if human opinions or imperial statutes should oppose its high demands, "we must obey God rather than men." II. JESUS LEADS THE CHURCH BY HIS SPIRIT. How precious the promise which He made to His disciples. "The Comforter, who is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." The Word is a lamp to the feet and a light to the path; but what if the hands of men are so feeble that they cannot hold the heaven-sent lamp? What if the darkness which shrouds their minds is so dense that all the rays shining from the Word serve only to render the darkness visible? In such circumstances how desirable to have a living guide to expound the infallible directory! The cloud which was in the tabernacle by day, and the fire by night, formed a guiding pillar, but for which the people of Israel must have wandered and lost their way In the desert. Yet there was an imperfection arising from its very nature. The fiery pillar taught seeing men where to go; but it could not give sight to the blind. It pointed to the direction in which the pilgrims were to advance; but it could not make the lame man leap as an hart. We do not say that the Spirit of Christ did not impart inward light, saving knowledge, in the days of Moses. Wherever holiness adorned any character, He, the Sanctifier, was its source. The crowning excellence of the New Testament economy is, that it is the dispensation of the Spirit. While it does not dispense with forms, it specially inculcates the power of godliness. While it commends the Word, it holds the Word to be powerless without the Spirit of God. III. JESUS LEADS THE CHURCH BY HIS PROVIDENCE. The Saviour whom we adore, is Ruler of all worlds. Supreme in heaven, He is not less so on earth. The Author of salvation, He is the regulator of all the complicated wheels of providence. Providence is a volume which is often hard to be understood. And the reason why we put providence after the Word and Spirit of Christ is, that no man is able to explain providence aright until he has studied the Word, and been taught by the Spirit of the Lord. ( J. Patrick, M. A. ) Israel's guide and guard G. Weight, M. A. I. It refers to the Church of God IN ITS PRIVATE AND DOMESTIC CHARACTER. These are denoted by the expressions — "every dwelling place of Mount Zion." It is one among the many beautiful descriptions of the true Christian, with which the Bible abounds, not simply that he does approach to God, but that he takes delight in doing so; and having "tasted that the Lord is gracious," he will strive to realise, in his own parental character, the exalted qualities, which God ascribed to Abraham, and which doubtless were even then in the course of development, though "as yet he had no child." Happy is that parent, happy is that child, with respect to whom it can be truly said, "The fathers to the children shall make known Thy truth." II. The second aspect, under which the Church of God is here presented to us, is IN ITS SOCIAL AND COLLECTIVE CHARACTER. This is indicated by the expressions "her assemblies." The expression refers to the union of the servants of God in public worship: corresponding exactly to that of which our Saviour spoke, when He said — "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." There can be no doubt, that from the very earliest ages of the Church, the rest of the holy Sabbath was observed; and the more the spirit of genuine religion diffused itself, the more did men of similar tastes and feelings seek pious association with each other. ( G. Weight, M. A. ) The glory of Christ's Church G. Almond. 1. Experience has amply shown the true glory of a Church does not consist in outward pomp or splendour. Even Solomon confessed that the magnificence which adorned his temple in all its untarnished glory was unworthy to become a residence, or to receive the manifested tokens of Jehovah's presence. In rich and stately decorations even the heathen may enshrine his lifeless idol, and outvie the splendour of the ancient Jewish sanctuary. On the other hand, the patriarchs in their wandering, and the persecuted Christians, convened in woods and caves and retired chambers, have beheld the manifested light of God's countenance, and have seen His power and glory as graciously displayed as in the most splendid sanctuary. 2. The true and essential glory of the Church principally consists in the spirituality, holiness, and unity of its members. 3. The doctrine of the restoration of the image of God in the soul of man, by the agency of the Holy Spirit, challenges for the Church which prominently exhibits it, the title of a glorious Church. 4. Of the varied glories of the Church, none in its early days was more conspicuous than that of unity in government, discipline, worship, and spirit. Long has Satan prevailed in his endeavours to divide and conquer. ( G. Almond. ) God in His sanctuary J. Summerfield, M. A. I. RELIGIOUS WORSHIP, WHETHER IN THE FAMILY OR THE SANCTUARY, IS PARTICULARLY REGARDED BY GOD. II. GOD WILL EXPRESS HIS APPROVAL BY MANIFESTATIONS OF HIS PRESENCE. The benefits of the Jews from the Shechinah were a type of the benefits of Jesus among us. What were these? 1. The manifestation of truth — the Urim and Thummim. Jesus Christ is the only medium through which we can have knowledge of God, redemption, and the way of worship. 2. The display of holiness. Wherever the Shechinah appeared there was an impression of holiness. Moses and the bush. The Holy of Holies. So in the Gospel, we have not only a display of truth, hut of holiness also. 3. Communication of comfort. The cloud covered Israel in a heated atmosphere; it dropped dew, and they were baptized in the cloud. Is not this the end of the spiritual manifestation? The Holy Ghost is called the Comforter. III. THESE MANIFESTATIONS OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE CONSTITUTE THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH. What was the temple without it? And how is this house filled with glory? It is not in the altar, the shewbread, the ark, or the manna, but in Jesus' presence walking among the candlesticks. ( J. Summerfield, M. A. ) Upon all the glory shall be a defence. A Gospel profession the glory of a nation These words are a recapitulation of the whole verse, and are a Gospel promise given out in law terms, or a New Testament mercy under Old Testament expressions. 1. What is here expressed as to the type and figure. For the glory and defence two pairs of things seem to be intended: the ark and the mercy seat; the tabernacle and the pillar of fire.(1) The ark is oftentimes called the glory of God ( Psalm 78:61 ; 1 Samuel 4:21 ). The word which we have rendered "a defence," properly, signifies "a covering"; as was the mercy seat the covering of the ark. So that "upon the glory shall be a defence," is as much as, unto you the "mercy seat shall be on the ark," or you shall have the mercy represented and intimated thereby.(2) The tabernacle and cloud, or pillar of fire, are also called to mind; so the words are expressive of that figure of God's gracious presence with His people, which we have recounted ( Exodus 40:34 ). "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 2. What is here intended, as to the substance of the mercy promised. All those things were typical of Christ. Apply, then, this promise to Gospel times, and the substance of it is comprehended in these two propositions: I. THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST WITH ANY PEOPLE IS THE GLORY OF ANY PEOPLE. This is the glory here spoken of, as is evident to anyone that will but read verse 2, and consider its influence unto these words. This is their glory, or they have none. Is it in their number, that they are great, many, and populous? God thinks not so ( Deuteronomy 7:7 ; Psalm 105:12 ). You know what it cost David in being seduced by Satan into the contrary opinion. There is nothing more common in the Scripture than for the Lord to speak contempt of the multitude of any people, as a thing of nought. Is it in their wisdom and counsel, their understanding for the ordering of their affairs? Is that their glory? Why, see how God derides the prince of Tyrus, who was lifted up with an apprehension hereof; and counted himself as God, upon that account ( Ezekiel 27 ; Jeremiah 9:23, 24 ). 1. Now, Christ may be said to be present with a people two ways. (1) In respect of the dispensation of His Gospel amongst them, the profession of it and subjection to the ordinances thereof. (2) In and by His Spirit, dwelling in their hearts by faith, uniting them to Himself. 2. This is the glory of any people upon a threefold account. (1) This alone makes them honourable and precious before God. (2) This presence of Christ makes men comely and excellent in themselves ( Psalm 16:3 ) (3) This alone makes any truly useful unto others.Here lies the preservation of any nation from ruin. Prosperity is from hence also. ( Micah 5:7 ) If you desire the glory of the nation, labour to promote the interest of Christ in the nation. Value, encourage and close with them in and with whom is the presence of Christ. II. THE PRESENCE OF GOD IN SPECIAL PROVIDENCE OVER A PEOPLE ATTENDS THE PRESENCE OF CHRIST IN GRACE WITH A PEOPLE. ( J. Owen , D. D. ) Christ the Defence of His people J. S. H. I. A DEFENDER OF THE HOME. It is "upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion" that there shall be "the cloud and smoke by day," and the "pillar of fire by night." What is a house without Christ? II. A DEFENDER OF THE CHURCH. Upon "all her assemblies," as well as in every "dwelling place," rose the symbols of His presence. Eli trembled for the ark of God, and men now tremble for the safety of the Church in this wilderness world. But it is safe as the children of Israel under the cloud and the pillar. III. A DEFENDER OF THE PERSON. We need personal protection. A shade in the heat of calamity; a tent in the storm of adversity. This Christ is to His people. 1. In temporal matters. 2. In the interests of the soul. ( J. S. H. ) And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow. Isaiah 4:6 A substantial shadow amid the insubstantials W. Burrows, B. A. The tabernacles of the Old Testament typify the abiding glory of that true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not marl They were taken down. This abideth evermore. The dissolving process of death only developed the capacity of the Divine Redeemer to become a universal tabernacle. Isaiah saw the Divine King in all His beauty and in all His adaptedness for the world's deep needs when he declared, "And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the day time from the heat." The word shadow is not always attractively employed. Job, in mournful imagery, describes the traveller going to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death. And cheering ideas are not always suggested by the proverb which affirms that coming events cast their shadows before them. But the sublime tabernacle spoken of by Isaiah is a shadow that always attracts. It never hides any sunlight which may be needful for the ripening of celestial fruits. I. This tabernacle is a COOLING SHADOW. The heats of this world will not be so oppressive to him who dwells in this tabernacle. For the soul finds adequate provisions for the wants and aspirations of its largo capacities in this substantial shadow. II. This tabernacle is a LIFE GIVING AND PRESERVING SHADOW. The summer heat of Judaea is intense. Some of the rivers are dried up, and become lanes of burning sand. Near Mount Tabor many of the soldiers of Baldwin IV died through the oppressive heat; and at this very place of Shunem, the son of the Shunamite was struck in the head by the sun's rays as he went up to his father to the reapers, and he died. A shadow to impart and preserve life as well as to give a cooling place of resort. The spirit of man dies in consequence of unforgiven transgression, but life is found in the true tabernacle. III. This tabernacle is a DELIGHTFUL SHADOW. Delightful, not only in protecting from evils, but in the direct impartation of pleasure. If there is any delightful state in this world, it is where and when the soul sits down under the shadows of the Beloved and holds sublime communion with the Infinite. IV. This shadow is an ABIDING SHADOW. Unlike that afforded by Jonah's gourd. God blasts our cherished gourds in order to lead us out of all narrow and selfish policies. Earth's protecting shadows flee away to teach us to abide more constantly and believingly beneath the one perfect and ever-abiding shadow. ( W. Burrows, B. A. ).

4:1 This first verse belongs to the third chapter. When the troubles should come upon the land, as the unmarried state was deemed reproachful among the Jews, these women would act contrary to common usage, and seek husbands for themselves. 4:2-6 Not only the setting forth Christ's kingdom in the times of the apostles, but its enlargement by gathering the dispersed Jews into the church, is foretold. Christ is called the Branch of the Lord, being planted by his power, and flourishing to his praise. The gospel is the fruit of the Branch of the Lord; all the graces and comforts of the gospel spring from Christ. It is called the fruit of the earth, because it sprang up in this world, and was suited for the present state. It will be good evidence that we are distinguished from those merely called Israel, if we are brought to see all beauty in Christ, and holiness. As a type of this blessed day, Jerusalem should again flourish as a branch, and be blessed with the fruits of the earth. God will keep for himself a holy seed. When most of those that have a place and a name in Zion, and in Jerusalem, shall be cut off by their unbelief, some shall be left. Those only that are holy shall be left, when the Son of man shall gather out of his kingdom every thing which offends. By the judgment of God's providence, sinners were destroyed and consumed; but by the Spirit of grace they are reformed and converted. The Spirit herein acts as a Spirit of judgment, enlightening the mind, convincing the conscience; also as a Spirit of burning, quickening and strengthening the affections, and making men zealously affected in a good work. An ardent love to Christ and souls, and zeal against sin, will carry men on with resolution in endeavours to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Every affliction serves believers as a furnace, to purify them from dross; and the convincing, enlightening, and powerful influences of the Holy Spirit, gradually root out their lusts, and render them holy as He is holy. God will protect his church, and all that belong to it. Gospel truths and ordinances are the glory of the church. Grace in the soul is the glory of it; and those that have it are kept by the power of God. But only those who are weary will seek rest; only those who are convinced that a storm is approaching, will look for shelter. Affected with a deep sense of the Divine displeasure, to which we are exposed by sin, let us at once have recourse to Jesus Christ, and thankfully accept the refuge he affords.