CHAPTER 59

(698 B.C.)

ISRAELS SINS RECOUNTED

¹Behold, the LORDs Hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear (the Lord can do, and the Lord can hear, and will do such, but only if His People follow His Way):

²But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. (The problem is not Gods inability to save, or that He cannot hear, but rather that Judah has sinned, which always separates man from God.)

³For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered perverseness. (In this Verse and following, the Holy Spirit, in graphic detail, explains exactly what these iniquities are!)

⁴None calls for justice, nor any pleads for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity. (The Lord is speaking here of people, who, while ceremonially religious, were morally unrighteous. The idea of the Verse is that the whole basis of dealings between man and man were unsound, corrupt, and chaotic. Where truth and plain dealing are set aside, all shortly become ruin and confusion.)

⁵They hatch cockatrice eggs, and weave the spiders web: he who eats of their eggs die, and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper. (The accusation by the Holy Spirit is astonishing here! He uses three dangerous examples to describe the people of Judah. In fact, this one Verse describes the entirety of the world.)

⁶Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is in their hands. (The idea of this Passage is that evil hearts cannot produce Righteousness. The act of violence in their hands refers to the fact that violence creates nothing, and, at best, destroys. And yet, the world is bathed in violence [Jn. 10:10].)

⁷Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths. (Paul quoted this in Rom. 3:15-16. He was speaking of the corruption of the human heart, and how, within itself, it cannot transform itself, neither can it produce Righteousness. Its feet can only run to evil.

The outline of the human family is given here, as stated, in these Verses. It is the cause of the ills of the world, i.e., the corrupt, evil, wicked hearts of men. It tells us why God does not move nor hear.)

⁸The way of peace they know not; and there is no judgment in their goings: they have made them crooked paths: whosoever goes therein shall not know peace. (This is a principle which applies to all periods of human history, thereby resulting in human misery. The subject in this Verse is peace, because the world does not have such.

The phrase, And there is no judgment in their goings, refers to the fact that their decisions are faulty, and their judgment unsure, resulting in confusion.

They have made them crooked paths, refers to great and elaborate schemes of peace based on a rotten foundation, i.e., crooked paths.

Peace is not a philosophy, creed, dogma, theory, or doctrine. It is a Person, and that Person is Christ.)

ISRAELS CONFESSION OF SIN

⁹Therefore is judgment far from us, neither does justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. (The acceptance of Christ, and only the acceptance of Christ, which refers to the following of His Will and Way, will instantly reverse all these actions, and bring about that which the Lord Alone can give, which is the miraculous! But men, it seems, would desire to continue in darkness.)

¹⁰We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. (The Holy Spirit in these Passages is saying about Judah what they would never admit to themselves. It is not that light is wanting, but that they had no eyes to behold it. This speaks of willful blindness. It is the same type of blindness that grips almost all the world.)

¹¹We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for Salvation, but it is far off from us. (We roar all like bears, uses the same verb that is used commonly of the roaring of the sea. It, along with the dove, represents the constant, never-ending murmur of discontent, sorrow, and unhappiness.

They look for judgment [justice] and Salvation, but, in order to receive these, do not want to depart from their sins.)

¹²For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us: for our transgressions are with us; and as for our iniquities, we know them (this Passage illuminates the fact that Israels blindness of Verse 10 is a willful blindness. The transgressions are multiplied and yet Judah wanted to continue in them. Even though their sins testify against them, they do not want to stop their sins. They know what their transgressions are, as well as their iniquities. They emphatically state, We know them!);

¹³In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. (In this Scripture, we are told where the trouble lies. It is the heart! [Mat. 15:19])

¹⁴And judgment is turned away backward, and justice stands afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. (As a consequence, every facet of the person, and even of the entirety of a nation, suffers an inversion. Things are upside down, and consequently do not, and in fact cannot, work right.

Judgment is turned away backward, refers to Righteousness being out, while unrighteousness is in.)

¹⁵Ye s, truth fails; and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey: and the LORD saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no judgment. (A prey means a victim of persecution. This fact is true of all ages. The few who are faithful to the doctrinal and moral teaching of Gods Word are despised, derided, and persecuted by religious professors, and by the world.

The word judgment means Righteousness, as in Verse 14.

The words, Truth fails, should have been translated Truth is lacking, for Truth never fails.

And the LORD saw it, refers to the lack of justice between man and man. No one thought of pronouncing just judgments. The circumstances were such as to invite a Divine interposition.

Sadly, this evil would rise to such a crescendo that the Lord Himself would become a prey, i.e., be crucified!)

RESTORATION BY THE MESSIAH; MESSIAHS SECOND ADVENT AND COVENANT

¹⁶And 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. (The entirety of this Passage, down through the final Verse of this Chapter, belongs to the future Second Advent, when the Messiah will appear, clothed with vengeance, to recompense tribulation to the adversaries of His Ancient People, but rest to them [II Thess., Chpt. 1].

The phrase, And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor, refers to the lack in Judah of spiritual leadership who would occupy the Throne.

The phrase, Therefore His arm brought Salvation unto him; and His Righteousness, it sustained him, probably refers to Josiah, who, from the time of Isaiah unto Christ, was the only king to occupy the Throne who proclaimed Righteousness [II Chron. 34:2].

It seems that Josiah attempted to be the intercessor, but the Holy Spirit, in effect, said that Judah had gone too far down the path of sin and evil to be turned around now [II Ki. 23:26].

A short time later, Josiah was killed. The Lord knew that despite Josiahs righteous efforts, Judah would not turn; therefore, the Lord took him out of the way, exactly as Isaiah had prophesied in 57:1.)

¹⁷For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His head; and He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. (Paul will somewhat speak of this Passage in Eph. 6:10-18. It is strange, yet beautiful, that the Divine panoply takes no offensive weapon, with the exception of the Spirit of the LORD, as is outlined in Verse 19.

From Verse 15, commencing with the words, And Jehovah saw it, and reading to the end of Verse 21, there is the predicted return of the Messiah appearing for the deliverance of Israel, and for the taking of vengeance upon their persecutors. He will do so now, because Israel will repent, which describes the future, and the Second Coming.

The Seventeenth Verse describes Christ in His victorious posture, as the Fifty-third Chapter describes Him in His suffering posture.)

¹⁸According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompence to His enemies; to the islands He will repay recompence. (This speaks of the defeat of the Antichrist and all of his followers at the Second Coming.)

¹⁹So shall they fear the Name of the LORD from the west, and His Glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him. (The Standard is Christ! The Spirit of the LORD anointed Christ to set the captive free [Lk. 4:18]. That Anointing, which could have Saved Israel then, and has consequently Saved tens of millions since then, will now, and finally, save Israel.

As He attempted to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD at His First Advent, and was refused, He will now declare the acceptable year of the LORD at His Second Advent, and be accepted.)

²⁰And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them who turn from transgression in Jacob, says the LORD. (The Redeemer is Christ, and He shall come to Zion. Paul quoted this in Rom. 11:26. All the transgressions mentioned in Verse 12 and corresponding Scriptures will now, and finally, be brought to the Redeemer. Then Jacob will finally become Israel, the Prince with God.)

²¹As for Me, this is My Covenant with them, says the LORD; My Spirit that is upon you, and My Words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your seed, nor out of the mouth of your seeds seed, says the LORD, from henceforth and forever. (The words, As for Me, refer to Jehovah speaking, and not Isaiah. This Scripture proclaims the Divine Trinity: 1. The One speaking is Jehovah; 2. The Redeemer is the Messiah; and, 3. My Spirit, i.e., the Holy Spirit, Who is sent by Jehovah, is still yet another Person [Jn. 14:16, 26].

The words, My Covenant, refer to the New Testament, i.e., New Covenant, which Israel would not accept the first time, but will now accept!

My Words refer to the entirety of the Bible. Israel, even though used by God to bring it into the world, still, never really did abide by it. Now they shall, and it shall not depart out of your mouth.

As well, the Holy Spirit declares that all succeeding generations will continue to follow the Lord, as referred to by Your seeds seed. This will all take place during the coming Kingdom Age.)