Isaiah 59

Alienation from God

1 Look! The LORD does not lack the power to save, nor are his ears too dull to hear,
2 but your misdeeds have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that you aren't heard.
3 Your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with guilt. Your lips speak lies; your tongues mutter malice.
4 No one sues honestly; no one pleads truthfully. By trusting in emptiness and speaking deceit, they conceive harm and give birth to malice.
5 They hatch adders' eggs, and weave spiderwebs. Whoever eats their eggs will die. Moreover, the crushed egg hatches a viper.
6 Their webs can't serve as clothing; they can't cover themselves with their deeds. Their deeds are deeds of malice, and the work of violence is in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil; they rush to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of malice; desolation and destruction litter their highways.
8 They don't know the way of peace; there's no justice in their paths. They make their roads crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace.

Injustice obscures vision

9 Because of all this, justice is far from us, and righteousness beyond our reach. We expect light, and there is darkness; we await a gleam of light, but walk about in gloom.
10 We grope along the wall like the blind; like those without eyes we grope. We stumble at noonday as if it were twilight, and among the strong as if we were dying.
11 All of us growl like bears, and like doves we moan. We expect justice, but there is none; we await salvation, but it is far from us.
12 Our rebellions are numerous in your presence; our sins testify against us. Our rebellions are with us; we're aware of our guilt:
13 defying and denying the LORD, turning away from our God, planning oppression and revolt, muttering lying words conceived in our minds.
14 Justice is pushed aside; righteousness stands far off, because truth has stumbled in the public square, and honesty can't enter.
Truth is missing; anyone turning from evil is plundered.

God will intervene

15 The LORD looked and was upset at the absence of justice.
16 Seeing that there was no one, and astonished that no one would intervene, God's arm brought victory, upheld by righteousness,
17 putting on righteousness as armor and a helmet of salvation on his head, putting on garments of vengeance, and wrapping himself in a cloak of zeal.
18 God will repay according to their actions: wrath to his foes, retribution to enemies, retribution to the coastlands,
19 so those in the west will fear the LORD's name, and those in the east will fear God's glory. It will come like a rushing river that the LORD's wind drives on.
20 A redeemer will come to Zion and to those in Jacob who stop rebelling, says the LORD.
21 As for me, this is my covenant with them, says the LORD. My spirit, which is upon you, and my words, which I have placed in your mouth won't depart from your mouth, nor from the mouths of your descendants, nor from the mouths of your descendants' children, says the LORD, forever and always.

Isaiah 59 Commentary

Chapter 59

Reproofs of sin and wickedness. (1-8) Confession of sin, and lamentation for the consequences. (9-15) Promises of deliverance. (16-21)

Verses 1-8 If our prayers are not answered, and the salvation we wait for is not wrought for us, it is not because God is weary of hearing prayer, but because we are weary of praying. See here sin in true colours, exceedingly sinful; and see sin in its consequences, exceedingly hurtful, separating from God, and so separating us, not only from all good, but to all evil. Yet numbers feed, to their own destruction, on infidel and wicked systems. Nor can their skill or craft, in devising schemes, as the spider weaves its web, deliver or save them. No schemes of self-wrought salvation shall avail those who despise the Redeemer's robe of righteousness. Every man who is destitute of the Spirit of Christ, runs swiftly to evil of some sort; but those regardless of Divine truth and justice, are strangers to peace.

Verses 9-15 If we shut our eyes against the light of Divine truth, it is just with God to hide from our eyes the things that belong to our peace. The sins of those who profess themselves God's people, are worse than the sins of others. And the sins of a nation bring public judgments, when not restrained by public justice. Men may murmur under calamities, but nothing will truly profit while they reject Christ and his gospel.

Verses 16-21 This passage is connected with the following chapters. It is generally thought to describe the coming of the Messiah, as the Avenger and Deliverer of his church. There was none to intercede with God to turn away his wrath; none to interpose for the support of justice and truth. Yet He engaged his own strength and righteousness for his people. God will make his justice upon the enemies of his church and people plainly appear. When the enemy threatens to bear down all without control, then the Spirit of the Lord shall stop him, put him to flight. He that has delivered, will still deliver. A far more glorious salvation is promised to be wrought out by the Messiah in the fulness of time, which all the prophets had in view. The Son of God shall come to us to be our Redeemer; the Spirit of God shall come to be our Sanctifier: thus the Comforter shall abide with the church for ever, ( John 14:16 ) . The word of Christ will always continue in the mouths of the faithful; and whatever is pretended to be the mind of the Spirit, must be tried by the Scriptures. We must lament the progress of infidelity and impiety. But the cause of the Redeemer shall gain a complete victory even on earth, and the believer will be more than conqueror when the Lord receives him to his glory in heaven.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 59

As the former chapter declares the hypocrisy and formality of professors of religion; this expresses the errors and heresies, immorality and profaneness, which shall prevail before the spiritual reign of Christ, or the latter day glory begins; which is so fully described in the next chapter. Reasons are given of God's withdrawing his presence from a professing people, which were not want of power and readiness in him, but their own sins and transgressions, Isa 59:1,2 which are enumerated, such as murder, rapine, lies Isa 59:3-8 for which the judgments of God were upon them, darkness, distress, and misery, of which they were sensible, Isa 59:9-11 and confess their sins and transgressions, Isa 59:12,13 and lament their wretched state and condition, which was displeasing to God, Isa 59:14,15 who is represented as appearing for their salvation; moved to it by their want of help, and the oppression of their enemies, in which he shows his power, justice, zeal, grace, and goodness, Isa 59:16-18 the consequence of which shall be the conversion and salvation of many, owing to the efficacy of the divine Spirit, and to the spiritual coming of the Redeemer, Isa 59:19,20, and the chapter is closed with a promise of the continuance of the Spirit of God, and the Gospel of Christ in his church, unto the end of the world, Isa 59:21.

Isaiah 59 Commentaries

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