59. Isaiah Chapter Fifty-Nine

Isaiah Chapter 59 This chapter continues and expands the subject of the perverseness and transgressions which have hindered the blessings promised, and which raise a barrier between God and His people. The Lord’s hand was not shortened that it could not save; His power was ever ready to be put at their disposal. His ear was not heavy that it could not hear; He was only too willing to respond to their cry if they had hearkened to His word. But their iniquities had effected a separation from Him and had caused His face to be hid from them (Isaiah 59:1-2). The Lord cannot hold communion with the willful heart. He cannot look down on sin with complacency. Perverseness of the will prevents the enjoyment of the light of His countenance. The prophet now exposes their evil ways, their murders, lies and unrighteousness, and their trust in tohu, that is, in what is worthless (Isaiah 59:3-4). He then employs the twofold metaphor of the hatching of basilisks’ eggs and weaving the spider’s web (cp. Job 8:14). The former indicates the injurious character of all that they do. There is a twofold result; whoever eats of their eggs dies, and if an egg is trodden upon, it splits into an adder, which attacks the heel of the one who has disturbed it (Isaiah 59:5). The second metaphor signifies the valuelessness and injurious character of their activities. No garment is produced by their weaving and their works are characterized by iniquity and violence. The next description of their evil doings (Isaiah 59:7-8) is used by Paul in Romans 3:15-17, in a free rendering of the passage, to describe the universal guilt of mankind. Isaiah contrasts their ways of desolation and destruction with the way of peace, firstly in relation to God and then of their fellowmen, for whoever follows their paths does not know peace. He who loves peace makes it his aim to produce it both by example and effort. From Isaiah 59:9 to Isaiah 59:15 the prophet changes from the third person plural to the first, and includes himself with his people, both in acknowledging transgression and in stating the effects of judgments of God upon them. He says “Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth righteousness overtake us.” God was not dealing with Israel’s enemies in the exercise of His righteous judgment upon the foe; hence His people were left undefended, though His salvation was ever near to come and His righteousness to be revealed (Isaiah 56:1). They looked for light, but behold darkness; for brightness, but they walked in obscurity (or rather, thick darkness). The words are the same as in Isaiah 8:22 (see the r.v.), which, by the way, is one of the many testimonies to the unity of Isaiah. Those in exile hoped for release, but matters grew worse for them instead of better. They groped like blind men along a wall without finding an exit. They stumbled as if they were in the twilight, although God had given them the light of noonday.

Those who persist in error find no help from the light of God’s truth, although it is there for them. Christ Himself and the very Scriptures have become a stumbling block to the Jews. So it is in Christendom: the Scriptures are read but not understood. The blinding power of ecclesiastical traditions obscures the light of God’s word, and people who have the Bible remain in religious bondage, unable to enjoy the truth which would set them free if they faithfully listened to its voice instead of adhering to the systems of men. The first part of Isaiah 59:11 depicts two conditions. Roaring like bears suggests impatience; mourning like doves suggests despondency; both are the very opposite to that peace of soul which arises from contrition of heart and submission to God’s will. All this befell them because their transgressions were multiplied before the Lord and their sins bore witness against them. Moreover, it was not as if they sinned in ignorance. They knew that they were doing wrong (Isaiah 59:12), that they were denying the Lord, and turning away from following their God, and at the same time “speaking oppression and revolt,” or rather, untruth, the same word as in Deuteronomy 19:16, rendered “wrongdoing” (r.v.), margin, “rebellion,” where the evil referred to is that of false accusation. In Isaiah 59:14 the statements “judgment is turned away backward and righteousness standeth afar off” do not speak of God’s retributive dealings, they continue the description of the evil condition of the people. Truth had fallen in the marketplace. Where righteous dealing should have been in evidence, not only was truth lacking, but anyone who departed from evil rendered himself the subject of plunder (the verb is usually rendered “to spoil”), Isaiah 59:15. The latter part of Isaiah 59:15 should really begin Isaiah 59:16, and from this to the end of Isaiah 59:18 forms the third part of the chapter. We are now given to see the attitude of the Lord toward such a condition of things and the manner of His judicial intervention. “The Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment [or right]. And He saw that there was no man,” that is, that there was no man possessed of either the character or the ability to stem the tide of evil (Isaiah 59:16). For this use of the word “man” see Jeremiah 5:1. There is an old Jewish saying, “Where there is no man, I strive to be a man.”

God “wondered [or was astonished, expressing His displeasure rather than anything like human wonder] that there was no intercessor,” no one acting on the side of God on behalf of His people as against their abominations and the inevitable consequences (Isaiah 59:16). In consequence of this God prepared Himself for judicial intervention. The description is vivid and striking. Different forms of expression are used: (1) direct statement, (2) similes and metaphors: (1) “His own arm brought salvation unto Him; and His righteousness it upheld Him.” No one could be found to cooperate with Him in that form of salvation by which His cause would be vindicated; so His own arm brought it about. No one could be found to act in righteousness in fellowship with Him; so the self-sustaining power of His own righteousness wrought for the requisite end.

God uses sanctified human agents to engage in His work and fulfill His will toward others. Witness the testimony of the prophets, “messengers in the Lord’s message” (Haggai 1:13; cp. Isaiah 44:26), and the employment by Christ of His disciples. Paul describes those who preach the gospel as “God’s fellow workers” (2 Corinthians 6:1).

Next are similes and metaphors: “And He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak” (Isaiah 59:17). There is nothing actually physical about this. The armor and the vesture depict the various manifestations of His character and power, the actings of His justice and His mercy (just as in Ephesians 6:1-24 the believer’s panoply describes the spiritual powers at our disposal to meet the foe). In explanation of this there follows a prophecy unfolding in order the great events of the future in relation to Israel. Firstly, the Lord will deal with the rebellious in Israel, inflicting punishment upon those in the nation who will persistently associate themselves with the Antichrist. These are the adversaries referred to in the first part of Isaiah 59:18. That seems clear from what has preceded in this chapter, especially Isaiah 59:14-15. It is to these apostates that the statement refers, “According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompense to His enemies.”

Secondly, judgments must fall upon the foes of God in the world of Gentiles. These are indicated by the term “the islands,” or coastlands. This is an inclusive word, embracing the furthest nations of the Gentiles. They will be gathered together at the end of this age, “against the Lord and against His Christ.” Similarly the isles and their inhabitants, in Isaiah 42:10, and the isles of Kittim, in Jeremiah 2:10, are joined with Kedar, to indicate all lands from west to east. This rebellion against the Lord on the part of the federated nations is described in the next verse: “for he shall come as a rushing stream, which the breath of the Lord driveth” (r.v.). How the Lord will intervene for the overthrow of His foes, how “the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him,” is described further in chapter Isaiah 63:1-6.

Thirdly, following these judgments, they that are left of the nations will “fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun” (Isaiah 59:19). This will be compulsory subjection and recognition of the claims of God and of His Son. Fourthly, there will come the deliverance of God’s earthly people, the remnant in the nation, who (unlike their godless fellow nationals, who will have perished with the Beast and the false prophet and their associates) will remain faithful to the Lord, multitudes of them having been converted to their coming Messiah through the testimony of the witnesses mentioned in Revelation 11:3-12 (see also Revelation 12:17). “And a Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord” (Isaiah 59:20). The chapter closes with the promise of the new covenant (Isaiah 59:21). It is based upon God’s words to Abraham in Genesis 17:4. The message “My Spirit that is upon thee …” is addressed to the restored nation, who will testify for the Lord continually. They will never cease to declare His word and bear witness for Him. The terms of the covenant are fully given in Jeremiah 31:31-34, and Hebrews 8:10-12 and Hebrews 10:16-17.