"Behold, the hand of Jehovah is not contracted, so that He cannot save; Neither is His ear grown dull, so that He cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation Between you and your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, that He does not hear. For your hands are polluted with blood, And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips speak falsehood, And your tongue mutters wickedness. No one prefers his suit in justice, And no one pleads in truth: Trusting in vanity, and speaking lies; Conceiving mischief, and bringing forth iniquity. They hatch the eggs of the basilisk, And weave the web of the spider: He that eats of their eggs dies; And when it is crushed, a viper breaks forth. Of their webs no garment shall be made; Neither shall they cover themselves with their works: Their works are works of iniquity, And the deed of violence is in their hands. Their feet run swiftly to evil, And they hasten to shed innocent blood: Their devices are devices of iniquity; Destructions and calamity in their paths. The way of peace they know not; Neither is their any judgment in their tracks: They have made to themselves crooked paths; Whoever goes in them, knows not peace. Therefore is judgment far distant from us; Neither does justice overtake us: We look for light, but behold darkness; For brightness, but we walk in obscurity. We grope for the wall, like the blind; And we wander, as those that are deprived of sight: We stumble at midday, as in the twilight; In the midst of delicacies, as among the dead. We groan all of us, like the bears; And like the doves, we make a continued moan. We look for judgment, and there is none; For salvation, and it is far distant from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You; And our sins bring an accusation against us: For our transgressions cleave fast unto us; And our iniquities we acknowledge. By rebelling, and lying, against Jehovah; And by turning backward from following our God: By speaking injury, and conceiving revolt; And by mediating from the heart lying words, And judgment is turned away backwards; And justice stands aloof: For truth has stumbled in the open street; And rectitude has not been able to enter. And truth is utterly lost; And he that shuns evil, exposes himself to be plundered: And Jehovah saw it, And it displeased Him, that there was no judgment. And He saw, that there was no man; And He wondered that there was no one to interpose: Then His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His righteousness, it supported Him. And He put on righteousness, as a breastplate; And the helmet of salvation was on His head: And He put on the garments of vengeance for His clothing; And He clad himself with zeal, as with a mantle. He is mighty to recompense; He that is mighty to recompense will requite: Wrath to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; To the distant coasts a recompense will He requite. And they from the west shall revere the name of Jehovah; And they from the rising of the sun His glory; When He shall come, like a river straightened in his course, Which a strong wind drives along. And the Redeemer shall come to Sion; And shall turn away the iniquity from Jacob, says Jehovah. And this is the covenant, which I make with them, says Jehovah: My Spirit, which is upon you, And my words, which I have put in your mouth; They shall not depart from your mouth, Nor from the mouth of your seed, Nor from the mouth of your seed's seed, says Jehovah; From this time forth for ever." (Isaiah 59:1-21,Lowth)
In the 58th chapter we have the direct word of the Lord to whomsoever will hear, telling them to show His people their transgressions; in this chapter we have evidently the inspired word of the prophet, complying with that injunction.
The prophet now, in the name of the Lord, sets before the people who are encased in their self-righteousness the exact state of their case, and it is by no means a pleasant picture to contemplate. A more terrible indictment it would be hard to find, and the awfulness is increased by the knowledge of the fact that it states nothing but the truth. Let no one say, "It does not mean me; I am sure that I am not guilty of any of the things here set forth."
The prophet Isaiah classes himself in with the rest and acknowledges himself a sinner. The prophet Daniel, of whom we read nothing but good in the Bible, confessed himself to be guilty of all the sins that had led to the captivity of Israel. See his prayer in Daniel 9:3-20. The best men in the world are they who confess themselves to be the greatest sinners and who trust in the mercy of God.
God's Readiness to Hear
"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." (Isaiah 59:1-2)
Note carefully the difference in Lowth's rendering of the second verse, from the ordinary version. Our version incorrectly says, that the Lord "will not hear;" whereas the text simply states the reason why the Lord does not hear.
"But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, that He does not hear." (Isaiah 59:2,Lowth)
His ear is not dull, but the sharpest ear cannot hear under certain conditions; and the conditions here are that no sound comes to the ears of the Lord. There is no real prayer for pardon, and therefore nothing for the Lord to hear. The reason why the Lord does not hear is stated in the third verse: "For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness." (Isaiah 59:3)
It is but a repetition of what is stated in:
"And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yea, when you make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood." (Isaiah 1:15)
The hands are polluted with blood and the fingers with iniquity, and the lips speak falsehood. All that the Lord has to give is life,--life that includes everything. Christ came to this world for no other purpose than to give life.
"The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
There is no other thing for which we need to pray to the Lord, except for life. But when one professedly prays to the Lord for life, and at the same time destroys life, he shows that there is no sincerity in his prayer; his words are no words at all. The difficulty is not with the Lord's ear, but with the words of the one praying. The actions destroy the words.
The Lord will hear every sincere prayer. He hears every cry, every sigh for deliverance. "For He has looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from Heaven did the Lord behold the earth; To hear the sighing of the prisoner; to loose the children of death." (Psalm 102:19-20,RV,margin) "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him." (Psalm 12:5)
There is no inarticulate sigh for deliverance, that is too faint for the Lord to hear, for He is listening to hear, and He understands the language of the mute earth; but the loudest prayers, couched in the most polished language, when they proceed from an insincere heart, are in His ears nothing but a confused noise.
All Are Guilty
The hasty reader of this chapter will think that it is addressed to the most degraded people on the earth; but the fact is that it is addressed to the professed Christian church. It is not alone Great Babylon, in which are found "slaves and souls of men," (Revelation 18:13) that is addressed here, but the church which is represented by one of the stars in the right hand of Christ, and which says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, [knowing not that it is] wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." (Revelation 3:17)
The indictment is against the self-righteous, whose ways are outwardly so correct that they think that they have no lack. The proof of this is found in a comparison of this chapter with the first three chapters of Romans. The 1st chapter of the book sets forth the sins of the heathen, who in their blindness bow down to wood and stone. The 2nd chapter begins with a home thrust, "You are inexcusable, O man, whosoever you are that judges: for wherein you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you that judge do the same things." (Romans 2:1)
We pass on through the 2nd chapter and into the 3rd, through a comparison of the heathen with the professed followers of the Lord, until we come to the conversation, which contains a quotation from the chapter of Isaiah which we are studying: "What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous; no, not one: There is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace they have not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:9-18; Isaiah 59:3-8)
The same fountain cannot send forth at the same time both sweet water and bitter; therefore when we read that their mouth is full of bitterness, we know that no real prayer comes forth for the Lord to hear.
Self-Righteous Ignorance
But someone will say, "I know that I do not do any of the things here charged."
A more exact statement would be, "I do not know that I do any of these things."
That is why the Lord says, "show my people their transgressions." (Isaiah 58:1)
If they knew them, there would be no need to show them. But the case is so urgent that the command is, "Cry aloud." (Isaiah 58:1)
The one danger of all mankind is self-righteousness. The one need of all men is to recognize the righteousness of God in Christ as the only real righteousness, and the only thing in which there is everlasting life.
The danger of professed Christians, even of those who have known the saving power of the Lord, is of forgetting their absolute dependence upon God, and in thinking that they have attained something by their own goodness, or that they can go on by the power which they acknowledge they received from the Lord, but which they think that they have so made their own that they can dispense with any further gift from Him.
Men never put the case to themselves in that way; if they did they would not be deceived; but that is in effect the way in which the professed followers of the Lord fall into grievous sin.
Only One Gospel for All
This chapter, taken in connection with its use in the New Testament, shows us that there is only one Gospel--only one line of preaching--for all men, no matter what their profession, or if they make none. The very same Gospel that saves the man of the world, is that which must be preached continually to the church of Christ, in order not only to reclaim wanderers, but to retain the faithful ones.
The first thing to be preached to the sinner who needs salvation from his sins, is Christ the Saviour, and he can never get beyond that need. "He shall save His people from their sins;" (Matthew 1:21) and that which saves them from the guilt of their sins, is that which keeps them from falling into them again. Throughout the endless ages of eternity, it will be the cross of Christ, and nothing else, that will keep the redeemed saints in glory. Therefore, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." (Galatians 6:14)
Let no one who calls himself a Christian complain of any minister of the Gospel, that: "He preaches to us just as though we were sinners."
If he does not do that, he is not a faithful minister of Christ. The Christian who is alive and growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, (2 Peter 3:18) will never make such a complaint. Whoever makes it, and we have often heard it, shows that he is unconsciously in the greatest possible danger.
Vain Confidence: Self-Deception
The people here referred to are those who are "trusting in vanity," (Isaiah 59:4) instead of in God. They are the self-righteous ones of Romans 2 and 3, who are equally sinful with the heathen. "How?" says one; "I have never murdered anybody, and I never swore in my life, and I never worshiped an idol."
To be sure, the self-righteous man never thinks that he has committed the gross sins of the common sinner. If he did, he would not be self-righteous. That is just why the loud cry has to be given, to arouse him from his stupefied condition.
Let us examine the case for a minute, and we need not single out any individual, but take the first man we come to. That is, each one may put the questions to himself: "Have you always honored the life that God has given you, and used it to the very best advantage? Have you never wasted it in any way whatever?"
We are obliged to plead guilty. Then we are guilty of murder; we have taken life that did not belong to us; we have shed innocent blood. There is no middle ground; he who does not actively love the Lord, hates Him; so he who receives the life of the Lord,--the blood of Christ,--and does not use it to His glory, but wastes it, is guilty of the blood of the Lord; and what worse case of murder could there possibly be?
Do we need after this to go into particulars with the other commandments? We need not ask, "Have you never used the name of the Lord unnecessarily?" but only, "Have you as a professed Christian never done or thought a thing that was in the least degree contrary to the perfection of the life of Christ?"
Everybody knows that he has done many things that were dishonoring to the Lord. Then he has taken the name of the Lord in vain. And just as surely as we have ever consulted our own pleasure or ease before the glory of God, have we had other gods before Him.
And so we might go on through the whole of the commandments, and prove all the world, both sinner and professed saint, guilty before God,--guilty of the grossest crimes.
Christ the Only Hope
"Who then can be saved?" (Matthew 19:25)
The answer is straight and plain: Nobody can be saved, if he trusts in his own righteousness, but trusting in the righteousness of Christ, there is salvation for all. "And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness, it sustained Him. ... For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloke." (Isaiah 59:1,17)
No man can weave a garment that is anything more than a filthy rag; it cannot cover him. "Of their webs no garment shall be made; neither shall they cover themselves with their works." (Isaiah 59:6,Lowth)
God has wrought works, and made a garment that is amply sufficient to cover the whole human race; but of this garment we shall speak more particularly when we come to the 61st chapter.
Plundering the Righteous: A Severe Test
"He that departs from evil makes himself a prey [or, "exposes himself to be plundered"]." (Isaiah 59:15)
Space will not permit anything more than a very direct comment upon this. Competition is very keen in this world, especially in these days. It is the case, which everyone will recognize, that the man who is conscientious is cut off from many ways of "making money," that are successfully adopted by the unscrupulous.
But this is not all: the strictly honest man in business stands a great chance of having his business taken from him by his unscrupulous neighbors in the same line. There are, in some places, at least, certain lines of business, legitimate enough in themselves, in which corrupt dealing is so prevalent, that the man who does not put his conscience in his pocket, and "do as the rest do," cannot "succeed."
Neither is this all. The prophecy that we are studying applies to the last days, and inasmuch as the coming of the Lord is near, the injunction is to cry aloud, and not spare to show God's people their sins, but to declare His whole truth. Accordingly the Sabbath truth, which has been so long forgotten, is presented in chapters 56 and 58. To what does the business man expose himself if he begins to keep God's holy day instead of Satan's counterfeit? We hear the answer continually: "If I should keep the Sabbath, I should lose my place," or, "I should have to give up my business."
Even with regard to the Sunday, we have it constantly reiterated that a law is necessary, to compel all to keep the day, in order that those who wish to keep it may not lose their situations or their business. How much more, then, must it be the case that he who keeps the Sabbath of the Lord, contrary to human law and custom, exposes himself to be plundered? We have no picture of ease and prosperity in this world, as this world counts prosperity, to hold before the one to whom we declare the whole counsel of God.
The time will yet come when a decree will go forth, that whoever will keep the Sabbath of the Lord instead of the Sunday of the apostate church, shall be killed; (Revelation 13:16-17) and that will be the test: whether men can trust God's promise of life, in the face of man's threat of death.
The Power That Delivers
"And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, says the Lord.
God is the Saviour of His people. Though He bears long with the ways of men, His long-suffering is salvation. He does not forget. The Deliverer shall turn away ungodliness from Israel. But the salvation of the righteous means the destruction of the ungodly. "According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompence to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompence." (Isaiah 59:18) "He that believes, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned." (Mark 16:16)
This is the Gospel message, and one part is just as true as the other. Yea, "He that believes not is condemned already." (John 3:18)
The cross of Christ, in which alone there is salvation, and which is the revelation of God's love to man, has in it the destruction of sinners; for it was only because Christ was made to be sin for us, (2 Corinthians 5:21) and was reckoned among the transgressors, (Luke 22:37) that He hung on the cross. Therefore all who do not die in Christ on the cross, accepting Him as their Saviour, must be slain by that cross in their own person, without any hope of salvation. "When He shall come, like a river straightened in his course, which a strong wind drives along." (Isaiah 59:19,Lowth)
The salvation of God is like a mighty river, rushing along between narrow banks, and driven by a strong wind. So powerful is the Lord to carry away the ungodly: but His power to destroy the sinners at the last day, is but His power to destroy sin in us at this present time.
So we see that it makes no difference with the facts, whether we read verse 19 as in Lowth and in the Revision, or, as in the common version, "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him." (Isaiah 59:19)
The truth set forth is that the Lord will sweep away sin and sinners as with a flood, and that flood is the stream of life from the throne of God. It is, indeed, the Spirit of God, which the new covenant, made with "the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8) at the coming of the Lord, insures to every believer as his possession throughout the generations of eternity.
In the midst of wrath God remembers mercy, (Habakkuk 3:2; In wrath remember mercy) because the wrath which destroys the wicked is but the rejected mercy of the Lord, which endures for ever.--Present Truth, May 10, 1900--Isaiah 59:1-21.