And in that day thou shalt say, Jehovah, I will praise thee; for though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou hast comforted me.
Isaiah 11 describes a King reigning and a scattered people brought home. Chapter 12 is what those people say when it happens. This verse is their song. Its first line looks back at something painful — a God who had been angry — and calls it over.
A repeated phrase dates this song. It ties it to the scene the prophet has just described.
Isaiah 12 is clearly prophetic, and finds special application to Israel in millennial days. You can see this by tracing its link with the chapter before. Both chapters use the phrase "In that day" twice. The phrase points to the restoration of God's earthly people to their own land. It also points to the state of things that goes with Messiah's reign, described in Isaiah 11.
The singer does not soften what God had been toward him. He names the anger, calls it deserved, and then names what took its place.
Israel will receive redemption blessing far more wonderful than their past redemption from Egypt. Then, as Isaiah 12 opens, comes the triumph song of this new redemption. Jehovah had been angry with them, and rightly so, given their past of tragic wickedness. But now He has become their Comforter, their Strength and their Salvation.
The song does not stop at anger removed. It goes on to call God Himself their salvation, and it names Him as Jehovah, not as Father.
Here we have a song of praise and thanksgiving for their deliverance. "You will say," etc. (v. 1) means unmistakably Israel. God's anger has not only turned away and ceased, but He is their salvation (v. 2)... But it is Jah Jehovah, not the Father as we know Him now through the Lord Jesus. The effect of their deliverance is that His glory as the Eternal is known in all the earth (v. 5). The Father is known in His family, not in all the earth as such, though His children everywhere know Him. But here it is the kingdom, and He is known as the Holy One of Israel in Zion.
Kelly asks who can speak these words. He rules out the church as the singer, without denying that Christians gain from the passage now.
This is certainly not only a rescue in outward circumstances, however astonishing and complete. There are rich blessings for the soul too. Best of all, the Holy One of Israel dwells in their midst. This, however, in no way takes it from Israel, and does not force us to apply it to the Gentiles — though we ourselves now profit even more deeply during the gospel, by the grace of God known still more profoundly in Christ. But plainly the language as a whole belongs to a people once forsaken by God, and long under His displeasure. That is not true of the church. It fits the ancient people of God exactly, in the day when Messiah is shown to them.
The wording is not new. Israel had sung it once before, at the Red Sea.
Here Israel uses the words the people sang on the wilderness side of the Red Sea, after God saved them from the oppression and slavery of Egypt. Israel returns, as it were, to his first love, to the goodly words that marked him at the beginning. It is the same story in Isaiah 26 and in many of the Psalms: praise to the Lord from His redeemed people, when He delivers them from the enemy.
Verse 3 promises joy in drawing water. In the older translation used here it opens with "Therefore" — the joy rests on what verses 1 and 2 have already said. One writer lists those steps.
We notice the word, "Therefore with joy shall you draw," which assumes a certain condition of soul. This condition may be gathered from the first two verses of our chapter. So: (1) God is the soul's object; (2) His wrath is turned away; (3) He acts as comforter, and as a shield. (4) He is the soul's strength and its song; (5) and has become its salvation.
That order is not locked in the future. The same writer notes that what Israel will enjoy is offered to faith already: "drawing 'water out of the wells of salvation' may be with us a present joyous exercise."
- Anger. God's anger against His people was real and deserved. The song opens by naming it, not denying it.
- Turned. The whole change rests on one fact: the anger has been turned away. Everything the singer says next stands on that.
- Comfort. The God who was angry becomes the Comforter. He does not just stop punishing; He becomes their salvation.
- Song. The words are the Red Sea song sung again. A redeemed people return to their first love after God rescues them.
- Spread. The praise does not stay private. Their deliverance makes God's glory known in all the earth, with the Holy One of Israel among them.
Behold, God is my salvation I will trust, and not be afraid; for Jah, Jehovah, is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.