Behold, Jehovah's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear;
Israel was in trouble and God had not stepped in, so people began to blame Him. Isaiah answers two charges here: that God is too weak to save, and that He does not hear.
One commentator states the charge people were making.
People who did not believe used Israel's trouble as a reason to complain about God and blame Him. Either He did not care, and so never heard their cries. Or He was powerless and could not rescue them. The truth was that their sins had driven a wedge between them and God. They were completely cut off from Him.
The problem was real, but it was not on God's side.
In Isaiah 58 and 59 God condemns their trust in outward forms, and makes blessing depend on obedience. It was not that Jehovah's arm had grown short, or His ear dull. The sin of the people held back blessing, and it would bring judgment on them. Yet when everything had failed, and no one was left to uphold righteousness, Jehovah Himself would step in with sovereign might.
Sin blocked the blessing, not God's power.
God does not stay silent and walk away. He says what is wrong. One commentator, working through a psalm that repeats the same words, draws the obvious conclusion.
That was the case in the prophet's day. God confirms the statement again in this psalm. Yet we can say that He wants to help them — otherwise, why would He tell them what has held back His work for them?
One commentator applies the verse to two battles fought on the same ground. The ark was the sacred chest that held the covenant.
Was God's hand too short to save, or His ear too dull to hear? No. Israel's sins had separated them from their God... Twenty years later the same battlefield showed this, when it got the name Ebenezer. The Lord gave Israel a decisive victory there, which ended the forty years of Philistine oppression. The second time they were strong, because they had confessed their evil ways and had put away their idols... The first time, they trusted the presence of the ark. They brought no confession and no sacrifice. They were badly beaten. The second time they confessed, and a nursing lamb was offered — the death of Christ brought before God in remembrance — and the Lord thundered against the Philistines with a great thunder... What was needed for victory was made plain. It is the same in principle now.
Carrying the right symbol changed nothing. Confessed sin and a sacrifice changed everything.
The same wedge works at the level of one life.
This shows clearly how important redemption from sin is. Sin drives a wedge between man and God, between the creature and the Creator... What is true of the world at large, or of a nation, is true of the individual — true of me and true of you. Sin separates us from God... Fixing surface details will not work. We must get down to the root of all the trouble, all the sorrow, all the misery, all the quarrelling and strife. That root is sin, and sin separates man from God.
The words have been used far outside Isaiah's setting. One writer, weighed down by the ruined state of the church, held on to them.
As for the ruin of the church, it is a burden that one carries, and lately it has even weighed me down. But God, who lifts up those who are cast down, has comforted me and encouraged me a little. For the arm of Him who holds us up is not shortened, blessed be His name, and His love is not weakened.
Weakness in us is never proof of weakness in Him.
- Accusation. People took their unchanged circumstances as proof that God did not care, or could not help. The verse answers them.
- Acquittal. The delay was never in God's arm or His hearing. The people's own sin stood in the way.
- Kindness. God names the obstacle, and that shows He means to remove it. Why explain the blockage if He did not want to help?
- Remedy. At Ebenezer, Israel learned that owning the ark saved no one. Confession and a sacrifice did. The same principle stands now.
- Reach. What is true of a nation is true of one person. Sin separates us from God, and no surface fix will do. Yet His arm is not shortened, and His love is not weakened.
but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid [his] face from you, that he doth not hear.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.