Say ye of the righteous that it shall be well [with him], for they shall eat the fruit of their doings.
Isaiah 3 describes a nation falling apart: leaders removed, order breaking down, Jerusalem heading for ruin. In the middle of that dark news comes one line about the righteous, and it asks whether God still sees them when a whole nation is judged.
The verse sits between open, shameless sin and rulers crushing the poor. One commentator points out that a day of disaster puts God's care for the righteous on display.
Yet the evil day only brings out God's faithful care over the righteous. The wicked, just as surely, meet the due reward of their deeds. It is, however, a humiliating as well as a sifting time for God's people... God holds to His righteous government in a day of confusion, and warns.
This short line is easy to miss. One writer maps the whole section and points to it as the moment the faithful come into view.
Here the kingdom, pictured as "a mountain," comes into view at the beginning, and appears in some of its glories at the end. But corruption and judgment are the main material in between, though this prophecy opens and closes with glory. Yet the remnant are seen for a moment (Isa. 3:10).
The reason given is a harvest: people eat what their own conduct has grown. One writer sets this beside the same rule in the New Testament.
It is the Apostle of grace who writes: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7), and again: "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (2 Cor. 9:6)... "Behold, the righteous shall be recompensed on the earth: much more the wicked and the sinner" (Prov. 11:31).
(The Proverbs line follows an older English translation; the ESV renders it, "If the righteous is repaid on earth, how much more the wicked and the sinner!")
The promise is not that the righteous escape hardship. The outcome is certain. Writing on a psalm with the same words, one commentator ties the phrase to God's government of His people.
A soul kept in holiness before God enjoys the sense of His favour, and this soon proves to be the secret of all true happiness... So Isaiah speaks: "Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them." Peter teaches the same in his first letter: God's government is in favour of His people. So the godly Israelite is taught this. Sorrows and trials might still lie ahead. But God's eye was upon him, and good would be the certain outcome of God's government and ways.
None of this happened quickly. One writer explains why the delay changed nothing.
The famine, confusion and oppression, with the miseries that go with them, would ruin Jerusalem. They might not come on the people at once, but they would come in the end. Even so, God would favour the righteous, as verse 10 shows.
Some writers also read verses 10 and 11 forward, to a day when God tells the two groups apart.
Isaiah seems to see those two in the bed, at the mill, and in the field, in this day of the Lord (Isa. 3:10-11; Isa. 33:14-16). Malachi also looks at them in the day of discerning. The same Sun that rises with healing in His wings on the one will burn like an oven for the other (Mal. 3, 4). For this day of the Lord will act with discerning, or in judgment. One shall be taken, and the other left.
- Sown — people eat what their own conduct has grown. The New Testament says the same: whatever a person sows, that he will also reap.
- Seen — a chapter full of corruption and judgment still lifts the faithful into view for a moment. A nation's collapse does not hide them.
- Kept — the evil day only brings out God's faithful care for the righteous. He holds to His righteous government in a day of confusion.
- Settled — sorrows and trials may still come, yet the good outcome is certain. What God delays, He has not cancelled.
- Separated — the two verses point on to a day of discerning. The same Sun heals one and burns the other; one is taken and the other left.
Woe unto the wicked! it shall be ill [with him], because the desert of his hands shall be rendered unto him.
Isaiah describes a society falling apart, where leaders fail and the men in charge crush the poor. In the middle of that collapse God separates two kinds of people, and verse 11 is His verdict on the wicked.
The ruin is national; the verdict is personal. One writer notes that a dark time is what brings God's steady dealing into view:
The evil day only brings out the faithful care of God over the righteous, just as surely as the wicked meet with the due reward of their deeds. It is, however, a humbling as well as a sifting time for God's people. Yet the prophet declares in the liveliest terms how the Lord takes up the cause of the poor against those who crush them… God holds to His righteous government in a day of confusion, and warns.
The woe is not bad luck catching up with a man. It is a settled principle by which God still runs the world, and it operates in this life, separately from the question of eternal forgiveness:
This, however, is not grace but government. It is true of a saint as well as of a sinner. "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked… the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption." It is grace as to sins eternally, but righteous government as to wrongdoing down here. God never lets go the reins of government, even over the world, although for a season He did not step in with governmental power.
The verse traces what comes back to the man's own hands. That removes any charge of cruelty against God. It also leaves the door open:
He has only himself to blame. He is reaping what he sowed… God is not arbitrary when He punishes the wicked. They store up wrath for themselves "on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed."… The talk about God being "too merciful to send men to hell" is wicked and empty. Men show no mercy to themselves. They have only themselves to blame for their doom. And all this is the sharper because infinite love has provided a free remedy, which so many reject.
A reader could look around and see the opposite: the oppressors thriving, the godly suffering. One writer faces that squarely:
Is it not His reign? Yet evil abounds and the righteous suffer. Still His moral government never fails, whatever appearances may promise for a while. The day will declare everything.
Verse 11 is one half of a pair. One writer sees Isaiah's two verses standing over the contrasts collected in Proverbs:
The contrast in Proverbs between the righteous and the wicked continues in this chapter. It shows mostly the advantage of the righteous, and it illustrates a statement in the prophet Isaiah: it will be well with the righteous, for they will eat the fruit of their deeds (Isaiah 3:10). Then the contrast: "Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him" (verse 11). The righteous eats good by the fruit of his mouth; the transgressor receives violence. There is plenty for the soul of the diligent and nothing for the soul of the lazy. Righteousness keeps; wickedness overthrows. While the light of the righteous rejoices, the lamp of the wicked will be put out.
One writer reads these two verses as pointing forward to the day of the Lord:
Isaiah appears to see those two in the bed, at the mill, and in the field, in this day of the Lord… Malachi also looks at them in the day of discerning, when the same Sun that rises with healing in His wings on the one will burn as an oven for the other. For this day of the Lord will act with discerning, or in judgment. One will be taken, and the other left.
- Deed. The woe follows conduct, not circumstance. What comes back to the wicked man comes from his own hands.
- Harvest. This is God's government, not His grace. A man reaps what he sows, and God never lets go of the reins, even when He seems not to act.
- Justice. No one can call God arbitrary. The man's own work returns to him, and he refused a free remedy.
- Delay. Evil abounds and the righteous suffer. Still God's moral government never fails. The day will declare everything.
- Division. Verses 10 and 11 are a matched pair. The day of the Lord will act with discernment: the same Sun that heals the one burns the other.