My Notes
Authors
Matthew Henry - Commentary on the Whole Bible
The prophet here returns to speak of the present distress that Ahaz and his court and kingdom were in upon account of the threatening confederacy of the ten tribes and the Syrians against them. And in these verses,
I. He triumphs over the invading enemies, and, in effect, sets them at defiance, and bids them do their worst (v. 9, 10): “O you people, you of far countries, give ear to what the prophet says to you in God’s name.” 1. “We doubt not but you will now make your utmost efforts against Judah and Jerusalem. You associate yourselves in a strict alliance. You gird yourselves, and again you gird yourselves; you prepare for action; you address yourselves to it with resolution; you gird on your swords; you gird up your loins. You animate and encourage yourselves and one another with all the considerations you can think of: you take counsel together, call councils of war, and all heads are at work about the proper methods for making yourselves masters of the land of Judah. You speak the word; you come to resolutions concerning it, and are not always deliberating; you determine what to do, and are very confident of the success of it, that the matter will be accomplished with a word’s speaking.” Note, It is with a great deal of policy, resolution, and assurance, that the church’s enemies carry on their designs against it; and abundance of pains they take to roll a stone that will certainly return upon them. 2. “This is to let you know that all your efforts will be ineffectual. You cannot, you shall not, gain your point, nor carry the day: You shall be broken in pieces. Though you associate yourselves, though you gird yourselves, though you proceed with all the policy and precaution imaginable, yet, I tell you again and again, all your projects shall be baffled, you shall be broken in pieces. Nay, not only shall your attempts be ruined, but your attempts shall be your ruin; you shall be broken by those designs you have formed against Jerusalem: Your counsels shall come to nought; for there is no wisdom nor counsel against the Lord. Your resolves will not be put in execution; they shall not stand. You speak the word, but who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, if the Lord commandeth it not? What sets up itself against God, and his cause and counsel, cannot stand, but must inevitably fall. For God is with us” (this refers to the name of Immanuel—God with us); “the Messiah is to be born among us, and a people designed for such an honour cannot be given up to utter ruin. We have now the special presence of God with us in his temple, his oracles, his promises, and these are our defence. God is with us; he is on our side, to take our part and fight for us; and, if God be for us, who can be against us?” Thus does the daughter of Zion despise them.
II. He comforts and encourages the people of God with the same comforts and encouragements which he himself had received. The attempt made upon them was very formidable; the house of David, the court and royal family, were at their wits’ end (ch. vii. 2), and then no marvel if the people were in a consternation. Now,
The prophet tells us how he was himself taught of God not to give way to such amazing fears as the people were disturbed with, nor to run into the same measures with them (v. 11): “The Lord spoke to me with a strong hand not to walk in the way of this people, not to say as they say nor do as they do, not to entertain the same frightful apprehensions of things nor to approve of their projects of making peace upon any terms, or calling in the help of the Assyrians.” God instructed the prophet not to go down the stream. Note, (1.) There is a proneness in the best of men to be frightened at threatening clouds, especially when fears are epidemic. We are all too apt to walk in the way of the people we live among, though it be not a good way. (2.) Those whom God loves and owns he will instruct and enable to swim against the stream of common corruptions, particularly of common fears. He will find ways to teach his own people not to walk in the way of other people, but in a sober singularity. (3.) Corruption is sometimes so active in the hearts even of good men that they have need to be taught their duty with a strong hand, and it is God’s prerogative to teach so, for he only can give an understanding and overpower the contradiction of unbelief and prejudice. He can teach the heart; and herein none teaches like him. (4.) Those that are to teach others have need to be themselves well instructed in their duty, and then they teach most powerfully when they teach experimentally. The word that comes from the heart is most likely to reach to the heart; and what we are ourselves by the grace of God instructed in we should, as we are able, teach others also.
Now what is it that he says to God’s people?
(1.) He cautions them against a sinful fear, v. 12. It seems it was the way of this people at this time, and fear is catching. He whose heart fails him makes his brethren’s heart to fail, like his heart (Deut. xx. 8); therefore Say you not, A confederacy, to all those to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; that is, [1.] “Be not associated with them in the confederacies they are projecting and forecasting for. Do not join with those that, for the securing of themselves, are for making a league with the Assyrians, through unbelief, and distrust of God and their cause. Do not come into any such confederacy.” Note, It concerns us, in time of trouble, to watch against all such fears as put us upon taking any indirect courses for our own security. [2.] “Be not afraid of the confederacies they frighten themselves and one another with. Do not distress yourselves with the apprehension of a confederacy upon every thing that stirs, nor, when any little thing is amiss, cry out presently, There is a plot, a plot. When they talk what dismal news there is, Syria is joined with Ephraim, what will become of us? must we fight, or must we flee, or must we yield? do not you fear their fear: Be not afraid of the signs of heaven, as the heathen are, Jer. x. 2. Be not afraid of evil tidings on earth, but let your hearts be fixed. Fear not that which they fear, nor be afraid as they are. Be not put into such a fright as causes trembling and shaking;” so the word signifies. Note, When the church’s enemies have sinful confederacies on foot the church’s friends should watch against the sinful fears of those confederacies.
(2.) He advises them to a gracious religious fear: But sanctify the Lord of hosts himself, v. 13. Note, The believing fear of God is a special preservative against the disquieting fear of man; see 1 Pet. iii. 14, 15, where this is quoted, and applied to suffering Christians. [1.] We must look upon God as the Lord of hosts, that has all power in his hand and all creatures at his beck. [2.] We must sanctify him accordingly, give him the glory due to that name, and behave towards him as those that believe him to be a holy God. [3.] We must make him our fear, the object of our fear, and make him our dread, keep up a reverence of his providence and stand in awe of his sovereignty, be afraid of his displeasure and silently acquiesce in all his disposals. Were we but duly affected with the greatness and glory of God, we should see the pomp of our enemies eclipsed and clouded, and all their power restrained and under check; see Neh. iv. 14. Those that are _afraid of the reproach of men forget the Lord their Maker, _ch. li. 12, 13. Compare Luke xii. 4, 5.
(3.) He assures them of a holy security and serenity of mind in so doing (v. 14): “He shall be for a sanctuary; make him your fear, and you shall find him your hope, your help, your defence, and your mighty deliverer. He will sanctify and preserve you. He will be for a sanctuary,” [1.] “To make you holy. He will be your sanctification;” so some read it. If we sanctify God by our praises, he will sanctify us by his grace. [2.] “To make you easy. He will be your sanctuary,” to which you may flee for safety, and where you are privileged form all the arrests of fear; you shall find an inviolable refuge and security in him, and see yourselves our of the reach of danger. Those that truly fear God shall not need to fear any evil.
III. He threatens the ruin of the ungodly and unbelieving, both in Judah and Israel. They have no part nor lot in the foregoing comforts; that God who will be a sanctuary to those who trust in him will be a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, to those who leave these waters of Shiloah, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah’s son, (v. 6), who make the creature their fear and their hope, v. 14, 15. The prophet foresees that the greatest part of both the houses of Israel would not sanctify the Lord of hosts, and to them he would be for a gin and a snare; he would be a terror to them, as he would be a support and stay to those that trusted in him. Instead of profiting by the word of God, they should be offended at it; and the providences of God, instead of leading them to him, would drive them from him. What was a savour of life unto life to others would be a savour of death unto death to them. “So that many among them shall stumble and fall; they shall fall both into sin and into ruin; they shall fall by the sword, shall be taken prisoners, and go into captivity.” Note, If the things of God be an offence to us, they will be an undoing to us. Some apply this to the unbelieving Jews, who rejected Christ, and to whom he became a stone of stumbling; for the apostle quotes this scripture with application to all those who persisted in their unbelief of the gospel of Christ (1 Pet. ii. 8); to them he is a rock of offence, because, being disobedient to the word, they stumble at it.
John Calvin - Commentaries
**Associate yourselves. The verb רעו, (rognu,) whether it be derived from רוע (ruang) or from רעה, (ragnah,) signifies to bruise. But as רעה (ragnah) signifies _to _associate, some prefer taking it in this sense, which certainly agrees better with the scope and argument of the Prophet. Some render it, Bruise ye, that is, bruise the kingdom of Judah, or, bruise the Assyrians; but this appears to be unnatural or far-fetched. That it describes the plans and undertakings by which they endeavored to crush the Church of God, is evident from its being immediately added, and a second time repeated, by the Prophet, Gird you, that is, “Form a plan.” The word associate, therefore, is the most suitable, unless, perhaps, it be thought preferable to take the verb רעו (rognu) metaphorically; and I willingly favor that opinion, so as to make it mean to heap up 126126 The Author illustrates it by a word borrowed from his own vernacular, entasser, which, like the Latin verb coacervare, signifies to heap up, or _gather into _heaps. — Ed. ; for those things which are bruised must of necessity be violently pressed and squeezed together. He therefore means not only gathering together, but likewise pressing closely together; as if he had said, “Draw close to one another, as if you were a dense mass.” This meaning agrees beautifully, I think, with the scope of this passage; for to the same purpose is what he immediately adds, “Arm yourselves, Gird you.”
The Prophet rises into confidence after having mentioned Immanuel, that is, God, who would assist his people; and at the same time cherishes increased hope in opposition to enemies, that though it might be thought that they had gained their object when they had depopulated the country, still the Lord would be victorious, and would preserve his people against the cruelty of their enemies. Withdrawing his mind, therefore, from the sight of that calamity, he turns to Christ, and, by contemplating him, acquires such courage that he ventures to taunt his enemies as if he had vanquished them. We must view the Prophet as on a watch-tower, from which he beholds the distressed condition of the people, and the victorious Assyrians proudly exulting over them. Refreshed by the name and the sight of Christ, he forgets all his distresses, as if he had suffered nothing; and, freed from all his wretchedness, rises against the enemies whom the Lord would immediately destroy. This ought to be carefully observed; that, as we have still to contend against the same temptations amidst those afflictions which the Church endures, and by the weight of which it is almost overwhelmed, we may direct our eyes to Christ, by the sight of whom we shall be able to triumph over Satan and over enemies of every description.
Ye peoples. 127127 “O ye people.” — Eng. Ver. Why does he call them עמים, (gnammim,) peoples, when it was the Assyrian only that would lay waste Judea? I reply, the army of the Assyrian was composed of various peoples; for he had subdued not only the Chaldeans, but many other peoples; and, accordingly, that monarchy consisted of various nations. Yet the Prophet might refer to the Israelites, the Syrians, and the Egyptians, and to all others who were enemies of the Church of God; for he does not speak of one stroke inflicted on the Church, but of the incessant contests which the chosen people had continually to endure. But in order to understand this better, we must join with it the following verse, at the end of which we find the words for Immanuel, that is, _for God is with _us; for this is the security for our deliverance. Let men league together, and contrive, and form plans and determinations, they will not be able to accomplish anything;
for there is no counsel against the Lord, (Proverbs 21:30 ;)
and therefore we must begin with this foundation, if we wish to stand firm.
But we must ascertain if all men have a right to glory on that ground, for wicked men also boast that God is with them, and in his name do not scruple to grow insolent and haughty; but their glorying is idle and unfounded. Now, the valor of the godly rests on the word of God, and proceeds from true faith; and if this dwells in our minds, we may triumph over all our enemies; as Paul also teaches, when he encourages the godly by this doctrine,
If God be for us, who shall be against us? (Romans 8:31 .)
First, then, we ought to make sure that _God is with _us, which cannot be unless we embrace the promises by faith; and if we have faith, we do not glory in vain. As to his addressing a nation so distant, to whom that word could not reach, the reason is obvious, that the efficacy of the word might be made known to unbelievers, and that they might know that he would restrain the Assyrians with all their warlike accoutrements, though they were at a great distance; as if he had said, “You do indeed despise God, but it will be easy for him to keep you at a distance, and to repress all your rage.”
Gird yourselves. This is not a superfluous repetition; for it is far more difficult to expect the assistance of God a second time, when we have once been delivered, than to embrace the promise of one single deliverance. Besides, although the first attacks of enemies do not so greatly alarm us, yet when we see them hardened in their malice, their obstinacy reduces us to weakness. We have experience of this every day; for if any danger threatens us, we may expect assistance from the Lord; but if we are again in danger, we give way; and so great is our ingratitude, that we scarcely think that God will help us a second time. In consequence of this, we faint if we are frequently brought into danger, and do not consider that God is never wearied by doing us good, and by continually assisting us.
Isaiah, therefore, intended to oppose this frailty of men, that when armed foes had once and again attacked us, we may stand firm. If, after being vanquished or weakened, they again muster their forces, and do not cease to annoy us, let us not be discouraged; for to-morrow, and the next day, and as often as they league together, God will be able to frustrate and destroy them. Hence, also, we are reminded of our condition, that we may be always prepared for enduring additional conflicts, and may not think that we have done all that was required from us, when we have once resisted; for Satan is unwearied in his efforts, and continually labors to accomplish our destruction; he animates his soldiers, and inflames them with new eagerness. But although the contests must be often maintained, we are certain of victory, and therefore we ought to fight boldly, and to remain constantly on the field.