Therefore saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel Ah! I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies.
Isaiah's first chapter reads like a courtroom. The nation stands exposed, its worship refused, its capital charged with unfaithfulness. At verse 24 God stops pleading and starts announcing. The surprise is who He calls His enemies.
The verse is a verdict. The evidence has just been read out: silver turned to dross, wine watered down, princes who run with thieves.
The corruption of Jerusalem, and above all of its rulers, now lies exposed. "How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves." Finally Jehovah shows that He must deal with His adversaries, and must Himself restore Zion. This comes when idols and their makers perish together under His mighty hand. He sets their present ruin against what the city once was and what it will yet be.
We expect the "enemies" of the God of Israel to be foreign armies. They are not. The people who carry His name have taken the position of His foes.
When Jehovah says (Isa. 1:24), "I will get relief from my enemies and avenge myself on my foes," He was speaking of people in Israel. It is a most terrible thing when the people of God take a place that is never said of the poor sinner who does not know God. There is a consuming fire for the adversaries (Heb. 10:27). God's people come under His judgments. There will be a remnant, but for the mass of the people, judgment. Yet Zion will be restored, in keeping with God's faithfulness. God separates out the remnant at the end, and judgment falls on the people, not on the remnant.
Where the ESV has "get relief," older translations read "ease Me of Mine adversaries." The picture is God unburdening Himself of what He has put up with for so long.
He will avenge Himself of His enemies who corrupted Zion; He will satisfy Himself in dealing with His adversaries. And when He has carried out His judgment, He will restore Jerusalem as it was of old. But if judgment must fall on Israel, the result will be that the law goes out from Zion. Jerusalem will then be, more truly than ever, the throne of Jehovah.
God speaks here under three titles, not one. The last of them, "the Mighty One of Israel," is rare.
The rarer title "Mighty One of Israel" appears in both halves of Isaiah. Elsewhere it is found only in Genesis 49:24 and Psalm 132:2, 5, as others have noted.
So Israel's own Mighty One now speaks against Israel.
The threat does not stop at ruin. God's dealing with His enemies serves a larger plan.
So we learn that Israel's future restoration is tied to the great crisis coming so fast upon us. In that crisis God will step in with power to settle His long-standing dispute with His rebellious creatures.
But how will God do this, and when? One writer contrasts it with the way God acts today.
God purifies Jerusalem not by grace but by power. Where in the New Testament is there a prophecy that after the Church that professes His name becomes corrupt, God would step in and restore purity by the severe judgments spoken of in these verses? Christianity is the time of God's patience and long-suffering. It is the time when Christ waits at God's right hand until God makes His foes His footstool. Judgment is what marks God's dealings with the earth.
Another writer places the passage beyond anything that happened around Israel's exile in Babylon.
The promise and the judgment go far beyond the circumstances before and after the Babylonian captivity. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view, and grace will use it for spiritual refining. But it is in no way the gospel as it is now, which is grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here it is destructive judgment carried out on the evil, when the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy God's mercy.
- Therefore — the verdict rests on the record just read: silver turned to dross, wine watered down, a faithful city gone corrupt.
- Adversaries — the enemies God names are inside Israel. It is a most terrible thing when His own people take a place never said of the sinner who does not know Him.
- Relief — to "ease Himself" is to satisfy Himself. He will avenge Himself on the enemies who corrupted Zion, and then restore the city.
- Power — the cleansing comes by power, not by persuasion. Now is the time of God's long-suffering, while Christ waits at God's right hand.
- Result — the crisis settles God's long-standing dispute with His rebellious creatures, and Jerusalem is restored as of old.
And I will turn my hand upon thee, and will thoroughly purge away thy dross, and take away all thine alloy;
God has just said He will deal with His enemies. Now His hand turns to the city herself — so what is the dross He burns away, and does that turned hand mean anger or mercy?
Older translations say "tin" where the ESV says "alloy." Both point to a real metal, mixed in with better ones:
This is the metal the ancients called stannum. It is found mixed with lead and other metals, but smelting separates it out.
The smelting is not destruction. It happens for the sake of what is left behind:
It matters all the more, if there is precious metal, that the cheap alloy is taken away. Only then does something beautiful and useful come out.
Commentators differ here. Some read the turned hand as blessing: God deals with His adversaries, then turns to the remnant:
In verse 24 the prophet announces that the Lord is going to act in judgment, treating them as adversaries. But in the next verse he declares that He will turn His hand upon the remnant, refining them as silver and purging away their dross. The phrase "turn My hand" also appears in Zechariah 13:7, where, as here, it means an act of blessing and not judgment.
Others compare the same wording in other books and read the hand as judgment. Even so, for the faithful that judgment purifies:
The faithful must feel the condition of Israel, and the sin they are all caught up in. But for them, living through Him, it is passing through the fire to be purified. I think Isaiah 1:25, Amos 1:8, and Psalm 81:14 show that "turning the hand upon" means judgment.
The two readings meet at the same point. The fire that consumes the dross is the very fire that proves the silver.
The refining does not soften the nation as a whole. It divides. God keeps the metal and cuts off the waste:
Isaiah 1:25-28 decrees the full restoration of the Jews; but by judgments which cut off the wicked.
It is tempting to read this verse as the gospel at work today. One writer says plainly that it is not, and points to a final trial still ahead of Israel:
The last fiery trial of Israel is in view, which grace will use for spiritual refining... But it is in no way the gospel as now, which is grace reigning through righteousness to life eternal by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here God carries out destructive judgment on the wicked, while the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy His mercy... Jerusalem must be purged before God can make her a centre of the nations.
History never matched this promise. That is the case for reading it as a real, still-future event:
There can be no question which city is meant. It is not the heavenly Jerusalem. The prophet is speaking of the literal, historical Jerusalem on earth, seen here as already corrupt, growing more and more rebellious, and about to turn away from God completely... Can any fair-minded person claim, or even imagine, that this moral restoration has ever looked like it happened?
The purging has a goal. God removes the waste so the nation can become what He meant it to be:
Here we see that the judgments of God are to visit the people. The dross of the nation is to be removed. The rest are to learn righteousness. Then Jerusalem is to become what God designed it to be: the centre of righteous government in the earth.
- Dross — Cheap alloy is mixed into the metal, and only smelting takes it out. The furnace is God's answer to corruption.
- Hand — Commentators differ: some read the turned hand as blessing, others as judgment. Either way, the fire that burns the waste refines what is real.
- Fire — Full restoration comes by judgments that cut off the wicked. It comes through judgment, never around it.
- Remnant — A repentant remnant comes through the fire and receives mercy. That is not the same as the gospel of grace at work today.
- City — The end of it all is the real Jerusalem on earth, God's centre of righteous government.
and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning. Afterwards thou shalt be called, Town of righteousness, Faithful city.
Isaiah has just called Jerusalem a faithful city turned harlot. God has promised to burn her dross away. Verse 26 is what comes out of that fire: the same city, under new leadership, carrying a new name.
God makes this promise to the city that failed, not to some other people. One writer follows the whole chapter as one argument about a single place.
All through the chapter it is the same Jerusalem. At first Jerusalem looks no better than Sodom and Gomorrah. The faithful city had become a harlot... There is no question which city is meant. It is not the heavenly Jerusalem. It is the literal, historical Jerusalem here on earth — already corrupt, growing more and more rebellious, about to fall away from God altogether.
Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities God destroyed for their wickedness.
The word "afterward" sets an order. God first deals with His enemies, and only then rebuilds.
He will avenge Himself on the enemies who corrupted Zion. He will satisfy Himself in dealing with those who oppose Him. And when He has carried out His judgment, He will restore Jerusalem as it was of old. Judgment must fall on Israel. But the result will be that the law goes out from Zion. Jerusalem will then be, more truly than ever, the throne of the Lord.
The thing restored is leadership: judges and counsellors. One writer ties that repair to the King's own rule.
He will straighten out what they have perverted, when He rules.
Some read prophecies like this as pictures of the church rather than of Jerusalem. One writer answers from the chapter itself: the curses and the promises speak to the same city.
Here we see God's judgments coming on the people. The dross of the nation is taken away. The rest learn righteousness. Then Jerusalem becomes what God meant it to be: the centre of righteous government on the earth... Everyone admits that the woes and judgments announced in this same chapter refer to the real Judah and Jerusalem. How, then, can we say that the promises that come right after them, and are closely tied to them, refer to a symbolic Judah and Jerusalem? And what have righteous judges and counsellors to do with the Church? Their unrighteousness was one of the great crimes charged against Jerusalem, while their purity is essential to carrying out God's purposes of earthly government, of which Zion is the chosen centre.
One writer weighs the promise against history. Jews did come back from exile in Babylon — but they came back to nothing like this.
Has there been anything since that answers to this promise? A small body of Jews did return from the captivity in Babylon. But was Zion restored as at the beginning? Was Jerusalem at any time afterwards the city of righteousness? On the contrary, did they not come back weak and few, a poor broken remnant, the slaves and prey of foreign rulers? Did they not then go on to the deeper guilt of rejecting their own Messiah?
Another writer names the time plainly.
The promised restoration of Jerusalem is still future. The "afterward," when the earthly Jerusalem will be called "The City of Righteousness," points to the second coming of Christ.
Some have used this verse to argue for restored officers in the church today. One writer answers that the whole chapter speaks to Israel.
Every word of the chapter concerns the Jews only: their moral judgment, God's wrath carried out on those who will not repent, and their glorious restoration when they repent and the Lord avenges Himself on His enemies... This is not under the gospel or the church at all. It is when Zion is redeemed with judgment and those in her who repent are redeemed with righteousness. It is not "this evil age," but the age to come.
God's pattern of recovery is not invention but return. The same principle has been read across Scripture and history.
The same thing is obviously true if, turning from Israel we look back over the history of Christendom... In each case that which was at the first was a work of God, though committed into the hands of men; and that which was introduced later was not an advance or an improvement, but an adulteration.
The new name is not decoration. It describes what God Himself will keep in that city.
When the Lord has once more made His home in Jerusalem... the city will be a city of truth. Zion, God's holy mountain, set apart by His own glory and undefiled by His worshippers, will be kept in holiness. Wherever God stoops to live among His people — in the tabernacle, the temple, or the church — truth and holiness must be maintained.
- Same city. The city that became a harlot is the city that will be called faithful. God does not move the promise to anyone else.
- First the fire. "Afterward" follows the purging: God deals with His adversaries, then restores.
- Then the judges. He repairs what her rulers ruined: righteous government, as it was at the beginning.
- Then the name. "City of righteousness" names a character God Himself will keep. Where He lives, truth and holiness must be kept.
- Still future. History has not answered this yet. Writers place it at Christ's coming, not in this age.
Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and they that return of her with righteousness.
Isaiah's first chapter is God's case against a guilty nation. Verse 27 turns that case into a promise, and the promise comes by an unexpected road: the judgment that breaks the guilty is what sets Zion free.
Zion is a place on the map, not a symbol for the church.
Zion was literally the south-eastern height called David's city. Moriah was the north-eastern height, and the Lord's house stood there. But the prophets often use Zion (Isaiah 1:27) in a figurative way. They also use it as another name for Jerusalem as a whole… We may add that it is nothing but ignorance to assume that Zion anywhere means the church of God, even as a metaphor.
Verse 25 says God will turn His hand upon His people. That sounds like a threat. One writer points to a parallel passage and finds the opposite.
In verse 24 he announces that the Lord is going to act in judgment, treating them as adversaries. But in the next verse He declares that He will turn His hand upon the remnant. He will refine them as silver and purge away their dross. You also find the expression "turn My hand" in Zechariah 13:7. There, as here, it means an action of blessing and not judgment. This is quite plain in the next verses of our chapter. But the redemption of Zion and her converts will be through judgment.
The ESV reads "by justice" where the older translations quoted below read "with judgment." Scripture shows two sides to redemption: the blood that pays for the soul, and the power that breaks the captor's grip.
Redemption is God stepping in (and in the end for the body) to break the bond of the enemy and deliver the one who was captive. It may be by blood for the soul, but finally by power for the body.
So Zion's deliverance is not the same thing as the forgiveness a believer receives through the cross.
The people are assured of God's blessing if they repent. But first the One who alone is capable of righteousness must punish the wicked in His government. Then, and not before, will Zion be redeemed in deed and truth. This redemption comes in power and with judgement. It is clearly distinct from redemption by blood only, which we know in Christ through the gospel of salvation. God's judgement goes with Judah's deliverance. Jerusalem's heart is at last reached, her time of hardness finished, her iniquity pardoned.
Older Bibles read "they that return of her" where the ESV has "those in her who repent." The word behind it means a turn-around.
The Greek word is epistrephō, "to turn to." In Scripture it is the real effect that accompanies the new birth, a turning to God. The Thessalonians show it beautifully: they "turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9)… In the Old Testament the Hebrew words mean the same, "to be turned," "to turn back."
Kelly reads the clause that way. He also marks off this redemption from the one Christians know today.
In the third section (vv. 21-31) He promises that "Zion shall be redeemed with judgement, and they that return of her with righteousness." This describes the redemption that is coming. It comes not only as a witness by the blood of the Saviour who rose again, but with the mighty execution of God's judgement on His adversaries, when He purges away Israel's dross.
Nothing in Israel's history so far has matched this.
The promise and the judgement go far beyond what happened before and after the Babylonian captivity. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view. Grace will use it for spiritual refining, and then will follow the times of restoration of all things… Only "in that day" will the Lord restore the judges and the counsellors of Jerusalem as at the beginning. Only then will the city itself be one of righteousness and faithfulness… It is a victory reserved for Christ's appearing at the close of the age. Jerusalem must be purged before God can make her a centre of the nations.
Chapter 1 first offers blessing if the nation repents. The nation refuses, so blessing comes another way.
Chapter 1 proposes blessing and rest as a result of the nation's repentance; but they would not listen. Eventually judgment brings it in — "Zion shall be redeemed by justice… but rebels and sinners shall be broken together" (Isaiah 1:27-28). Isaiah 2:1-4 and Isaiah 4:2-6 show the result of this judgment: a time of peace and glory.
- Refining, not ruin. God turns His hand on Zion to purge her dross. That is the language of blessing, though it runs through judgment.
- Two redemptions. Redemption by blood covers the soul; redemption by power breaks the enemy's hold. Verse 27 is the second kind.
- Converts means returners. The word carries the sense of turning back to God, the real mark of new birth.
- Reserved for that day. The promise waits on Christ's appearing, not on Babylon's fall or on gospel preaching.
- Peace on the far side. Once God purges the city, she becomes the centre of the nations. The chapters ahead show that glory.
But the ruin of the transgressors and of the sinners [shall be] together; and they that forsake Jehovah shall be consumed.
Isaiah's opening chapter ends with two futures side by side: Zion redeemed, and those who abandon the LORD consumed. Commentators read this as one event with two outcomes. They also ask when it happens and who these rebels are. The writers quoted below use an older translation, which speaks of "the destruction of the transgressors and the sinners."
Verse 27 promises a redeemed Zion. Verse 28 shows how that promised age arrives.
Scripture testifies with one voice: the earthly blessing of the coming age will come by judgment, not by the preaching of the Gospel. Isaiah 26:9-10 states this again in the plainest terms. Revelation 15:4 confirms it in the New Testament. This judgment will mean the destruction of the transgressors. They may have forsaken the Lord and turned to false gods with their oaks and gardens, but these evil powers will avail them nothing. All will be consumed together.
Verse 27 and verse 28 describe one moment, not two stages.
Here God carries out destructive judgment on the evil, while the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy His mercy. Only "in that day" will Jehovah restore the judges and counsellors of Jerusalem as at the beginning. Then the city itself will be one of righteousness and faithfulness. In that day Zion will be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. At the same time Jehovah will execute vengeance on the wicked and on her idols. It is a victory reserved for Christ's appearing at the close of the age. Jerusalem must be purged before God can make her a centre of the nations. It is Christ there in power which accounts for all.
The rebels of verse 28 are not foreign invaders. God's judgment on them is the step that leads to Jerusalem's restoration.
He will avenge Himself of His enemies who corrupted Zion; He will satisfy Himself in dealing with His adversaries. And when He has carried out His judgment, He will restore Jerusalem as of old.
Writers set this verse in the day of the Lord, still ahead. One links the purging of the city and the consuming of the wicked to that same day.
From the first chapter of Isaiah the day of the Lord is in view. Jehovah speaks of that day when He says, "I will turn My hand upon you, and thoroughly purge away your dross … afterward you shall be called, The city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness" (Isa. 1:25-27). That day will also bring judgment on the wicked under antichrist. The Lord added, "And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed" (Isa. 1:28).
Some stack this verse with others to describe the end of the ungodly. One writer answers that each text must be read in its own setting.
"The destruction of the transgressors and sinners shall be together" (Isa. 1:28) — which applies to the purification of Zion in the last days. Not one of these texts can be shown to apply to the final judgment of the wicked.
This verse shows God clearing a nation by judgment. The gospel now rests on different ground, because the judgment has already fallen elsewhere.
No Christian should need proof of how different the ground of the gospel is from the intervention of Jehovah that the prophet describes here. The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was sent as Man in the infinite love of God. All have rejected and crucified Him. Yet the judgment of sins and sinners was then and there laid on Him. God is so glorified in His sacrificial death that He can and does proclaim to everyone who believes: eternal life in His name, forgiveness of sins, justification, and salvation as everlasting as glory.
- Judgment purges. Judgment, not preaching, brings in the coming age of blessing. The false gods people chose — the oaks, the gardens — will not shelter them.
- Judgment divides. One day redeems Zion and her converts and takes vengeance on the wicked. One act, two outcomes, at Christ's appearing.
- Judgment starts at home. God's enemies here are the people who corrupted Zion from within, not outsiders.
- Judgment is dated. Writers place this in the day of the Lord, still ahead. They read it as the purification of Zion in the last days, not as the final judgment of the lost.
- Judgment already fell. The judgment of sins and sinners fell on Christ. Everyone who believes now receives forgiveness, justification, and life as lasting as glory.
For they shall be ashamed of the terebinths that ye have desired, and ye shall blush for the gardens that ye have chosen.
Isaiah closes his first chapter by pointing the people back to the trees and gardens they had picked for worship. Those chosen places, he says, will become their shame.
Start with the trees themselves. More than one Hebrew word lies behind "oaks."
There are four Hebrew words translated this way. They all appear to come from the same root, meaning "strong, hardy." Most often they refer to the oak, which lives to a great age... It is a symbol of strength, and gives shade from the heat of the sun.
The gardens carried a different reputation. Isaiah names them again later in his book.
Gardens were also secluded places of secret sin. Isa. 65:3; Isa. 66:17.
Hills and wooded places felt religious. The setting itself worked on the imagination.
Israel's departure from God took an outward form: they made themselves "high places." It was only a heathen habit. It played on the imagination with a worship that has no heart in it. Men still try to satisfy themselves the same way — with music, architecture, drapery, and that most typical "dim religious light." And in it they worship a God who is Light itself, and in whom there is no darkness at all... On the mountain tops a man could imagine himself nearer to God than in the valleys. The depths of groves and forests helped too, along with the beauty of nature. They made him think he was nearer to the God of nature than he really was... And it is just here that man so often makes the fatal mistake. He puts what is only natural in the place of what is spiritual, and so deceives himself. In heathenism these high places and groves turned, as was bound to happen, to evil instead of good, and the worst abominations of heathenism attached themselves to them.
The verse's two verbs, desired and chosen, are the charge. God had already told them where and how to bring their offerings.
Deuteronomy 12 opens with the words, "These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land." Then come the bans on the high places and groves, or gardens, and altars which the heathen nations had made. So God's way for them was to bring all their offerings to His place in Jerusalem, offering as He had commanded. But they preferred to worship the way they thought best. These verses describe the result.
Behind the rules stands a principle. Choosing is God's to do.
God must and does choose for Himself — a simple yet most important point. Worship of our own invention is intolerable. It ought to shock the Christian most of all. If it were only a question of man, nobody would think of choosing for another. Nobody likes that. People like to choose for themselves, as mere men. What an awful delusion it is, then, to choose for God — to let your own will govern you in matters of religion! We can all see how bad it was in Israel. But do we feel that it is still worse in the Christian? God has given no right to adopt doctrines, practices, ways, government, or any one thing that is not His expressed will for His children.
The shame comes with judgement, and it falls on worshippers and idols alike.
The judgement will mean the destruction of the transgressors. They may have forsaken the Lord and turned to false gods with their oaks and gardens. But these evil powers will be of no use to them. All will be consumed together.
The fulfilment lies far past Isaiah's own day.
The promise and the judgement go far beyond the events before and after the captivity in Babylon. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view, and grace will use it for spiritual refining... In that day Zion will be redeemed with judgement, and her converts with righteousness. At the same time God will carry out vengeance on the wicked and on her idols. This is a victory reserved for Christ's appearing at the end of the age.
- Desired. The oak stood for strength, long life and shade from the sun. Israel wanted its worship set among such trees.
- Chosen. God had named His place and His way; they preferred to worship according to their own thoughts. Choosing for God is the sin the verse names.
- Deceived. Groves and hilltops work on the imagination. The fatal mistake is putting the natural in the place of the spiritual. Gardens also served as secluded places of secret sin.
- Ashamed. The oaks and gardens will be of no use. Fire takes worshippers and idols together.
- Judged. The shame lands at Christ's appearing. Zion will be redeemed with judgement, and her idols will fall in the same hour.
For ye shall be as a terebinth whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.
Isaiah 1 ends with God naming what His people chose instead of Him. He then tells them what those choices will turn them into. Both pictures here come from the places where Israel worshipped idols, so the punishment takes the shape of the sin.
The oaks and gardens of the previous verse were places of false worship. The verse now says what becomes of the people and of the gods they turned to.
The judgment will mean the destruction of the transgressors. They may have forsaken the Lord and turned to false gods with their oaks and gardens, but these evil powers will avail them nothing. All will be consumed together.
The tree named here stood in Hebrew thought for durability. So the fading leaf cuts deep. The picture of lasting strength is losing its life.
There are four Hebrew words translated this way. They all seem to come from the same root, meaning "strong, hardy." They are mostly applied to the oak, which lives to a great age... It is a symbol of strength, and gives shade from the heat of the sun. Scholars take the word elah to mean the terebinth, though most versions translate it oak.
That is why some translations read "terebinth" here instead of "oak." The tree named differs; the point does not.
A garden in that part of the world lived or died by its water supply. So the second picture shows a people cut off from what keeps them alive.
In the East the gardens were plots of ground under cultivation, often enclosed by walls, where fruit and herbs were grown. Water was always necessary. So people described a fruitful place as well watered, "like the garden of the LORD." The garden also pictures great blessing: when God restores Israel, "their life shall be like a watered garden." Under God's judgements, though, they were like a garden that had no water.
The chapter does not end with the withered tree. This judgment has a purpose beyond destruction.
So the first chapter of the prophecy applies to the state of the Jews. It announces the judgment. It also gives hope beyond the judgment: God will purge His people by it. This will be the means of gathering the nations.
The reach of these words is not limited to the exile that Isaiah's hearers would soon face.
The promise and judgement go far beyond the circumstances before and after the Babylonian exile. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view. Grace will use it for spiritual refining. After that will come the time when God restores all things... But this is in no way the gospel as we know it now. That gospel is grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here God carries out destructive judgement on the evil, when the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy His mercy.
The dry garden is not God's last word for Israel. The same prophet promises them the opposite.
The prophet compares Israel in their decline to "a garden without water." But in the day of their future restoration he can say to Israel, "you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail"... And so the garden of the King has a "spring locked, a fountain sealed." It does not depend on the surrounding desert for its supply. The spring is within the garden. And so with the Lord's people; they have a secret source of supply, the Holy Spirit... It is possible to grieve the Spirit into silence, and then how parched our souls become.
The same principle reaches one person. Lean on anything in place of God, and the result is the same dryness.
Such is the sad result of leaning on the creature — barrenness, desolation, disappointment. Like the shrub in the desert. No refreshing showers, no dew from heaven, nothing but drought and sterility. How can it be otherwise when the heart is turned away from the Lord, the only source of blessing?
- Chosen — The oaks and gardens were idol sites. The people picked them over God, and those "gods" could do nothing when judgment fell.
- Become — What they chose is what they become: strength that fades like a leaf, life dried up like a garden with no water.
- Source — Water is the whole point of a garden. A soul or a nation turned from the Lord, the only source of blessing, can only end in drought.
- Purge — Judgment is not the last word. God uses it to purge His people. The verse looks to Israel's final fiery trial, not to the gospel as preached now.
- Watered — God promises the reverse: a watered garden with a spring that never fails. Believers today have that inner supply, but they can grieve it into silence.
And the strong shall be for tow, and his work a spark; and they shall both burn together, and there shall be none to quench [them].
Isaiah 1 sets out God's case against His people, and its last verse closes that case with fire. Who is "the strong," what is the work that sets him alight, and when does the burning come?
This verse ends a chapter that also promises Zion's recovery. One writer sums up its shape: threat and hope belong together.
So the first chapter of the prophecy applies to the state of the Jews. It announces the judgment. And it gives hope across the judgment: God will purge His people in it. This will be the means of gathering the nations.
Just before this, the chapter shames the people for the trees and gardens they had chosen for their worship. So the burning takes in both the object and the man behind it.
Finally Jehovah shows He must deal with His adversaries. He must also restore Zion Himself, when idols and their makers perish together under His mighty hand. Their present ruin contrasts with what it once was and what it is to be.
The second half of the verse turns on one Hebrew word. Translators have read it two ways: "the maker of it" or "his work." One writer weighs both and leaves the question open.
What is the force of poalo ("the maker of it")? Is it poalo, or po'lo ("his work")? In sense, "his work"; or, in general, the active man who works? "Maker of it" is difficult — maker of what?
Both readings end in the same place: a man and the thing he produced go up in one flame.
Take the reading "his work," and the verse reaches past carved images. It takes in all that human effort raises up. One commentator applies it to what he calls "man's day."
But God is not mocked, and His purposes are not in doubt. He has given all to Jesus. Man and his works are to be judged by Him. What now flourishes in "man's day" is the fruit of human effort, raised to exalt the sinful creature in his own esteem. It will be like lighted tow. In that day the breath of the Lord will kindle both the maker and his work into the flame of a lasting destruction.
The older translations say "tow" where the ESV says "tinder." Tow is loose fibre left from flax. It flares up and is gone. And no one puts this fire out: the same writer calls it a lasting destruction.
The same writer links the verse to the day when God judges by Jesus Christ. Maker and work burn together because they come to light together.
Everyone must give an account for the talents they received. Those who know and therefore love the Lord will give it willingly. Those who name Him only to deny Him in their works will give it unwillingly, yet of necessity (Titus 1:16)... God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ; both the maker and his work will be brought to light in that day (Rom. 2:16; Isa. 1:31, margin).
One writer places the fulfilment at Christ's appearing. He warns against reading the chapter as a picture of the gospel today.
The promise and judgment go far beyond the circumstances before and after the Babylonian captivity. The last fiery trial of Israel is in view, which grace will use for spiritual refining... But this is in no way the gospel as it is now. The gospel is grace reigning through righteousness to eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here it is destructive judgment carried out on the evil, when the repentant remnant of the Jews enjoy God's mercy... It is a victory reserved for Christ's appearing at the close of the age. Jerusalem must be purged before God can make her a centre of the nations. It is Christ there in power that accounts for all.
- Chosen — the fire falls on what the people picked for themselves: their chosen trees and gardens, and the idols made to fill them.
- Made — maker and idol perish together; nothing a man produces outlives the man who produced it.
- Disputed — the Hebrew reads either "the maker of it" or "his work." Either way, worker and product share one flame.
- Manifested — God brings both the maker and his work to light by Jesus Christ. The same test reaches every life.
- Purged — the burning is not the end of the story but the road to it. God purges His people through judgment, and Zion rises on the far side.