And it shall come to pass in that day
When antichrist shall be destroyed; the Jews converted; the power
of godliness revived, and the presence of God among his people
enjoyed. Vitringa, in his Commentary on Isaiah, frequently
applies this, and such like prophecies, to the times of the
Maccabees; though, he owns, they were but an emblem of better
times under the Gospel dispensation; nor does he deny the
mystical and spiritual sense of them; [that] the mountains
shall drop down new wine;
which, and the following expressions, are to be understood not in
a strict literal sense, as Lactantius F20 seems
to have understood them; who says, that, in the Millennium, God
will cause a rain of blessing to descend morning and evening; the
earth shall bring forth all kind of fruit without the labour of
man; honey shall drop from the rocks, and the fountains of milk
and wine shall overflow: but hyperbolically, just as the land of
Canaan is said to flow with milk and honey; not that it really
did, but the phrase is used to denote the fertility of it, and
the abundance of temporal blessings in it. The literal sense is
this, that the mountains shall be covered with vines, on which
they are often planted; these vines shall be full of large
clusters of grape; and these grapes, being pressed, shall yield a
large quantity of new wine; and so, by a metonymy, the mountains
are said to drop it down F21, that is, abound with it, or
produce an abundance of it: but the spiritual or mystical sense
is, that the churches of Christ in those times, comparable to
mountains, and so to hills in the next clause, for their exalted
and visible glorious state in which they now will be; and for the
rich gifts and graces of the Spirit within them; and for the
pasture upon them, and the trees of righteousness that grow
thereon; and also for their firmness and stability, their
immovableness and perpetual duration; these shall abound with
fresh and large discoveries of the love of God and Christ, which
is better than wine, ( Song of
Solomon 1:2 Song of
Solomon 1:4 ) ; like wine, cheering and refreshing; like new
wine, though old as to its original, yet new in the
manifestations of it; and which are usually made in the church,
and the ordinances of it, to the making glad the hearts of the
Lord's people; also they shall abound with the blessings of
grace, the fruits of love, such as pardon, peace, justification
which, like wine, fill with joy, revive and comfort; and though
they are ancient blessings, provided long ago, they are exhibited
under the Gospel dispensation in a new covenant way; and the
application of them is made in the churches, in Zion, where the
Lord commands the blessing, even life for evermore. This may also
take in the Gospel, which brings the good news of these
blessings, and so is very reviving and cheering; and, though
ordained and preached of old, is newly revealed under the present
dispensation; and will be more clearly in later times, when all
the mountains or churches will abound with it, and even the whole
earth be filled with the knowledge of it, ( Isaiah 11:9 ) ;
likewise the ordinance of the Lord's supper, that feast of fat
things, of wines on the lees well refined, made in the mountain
of the Lord, for all his people may be included; and both in
that, and in the ministry of the word, the Lord is sometimes
pleased, as he may more abundantly hereafter, to give his saints
some foretaste of that new wine, which Christ and they shall
partake of in his Father's kingdom; see ( Song of
Solomon 7:9 ) ( Isaiah 25:6 ) (
55:1-3
) ( Matthew
26:29 ) ; and the hills shall flow with
milk:
that is, there shall be much pasturage upon them, and a great
number of cattle feeding thereon, which shall yield large
quantities of milk; and so, by the same figure as before, the
hills may be said to flow with it F23. The spiritual meaning
is, that the churches of Christ, comparable to hills, for the
reasons before given, shall abound with the means of grace, with
the sincere milk of the word; to which the Gospel is compared for
its whiteness and purity, for every word of God is pure and
purifying; for assuaging the wrath the law produces; it being
easy of digestion, even to newborn babes; and its salutary
nourishing virtue and efficacy; and of this there will be great
abundance in the latter day; see ( Song of Solomon
4:11 ) ( 1 Peter 2:2 1 Peter 2:3 ) ;
and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with
waters;
that is, the channels in which the rivers run; these, in a time
of drought, are sometimes empty, and the bottoms of them to be
seen, but now full of water, and flow with it: grace is often in
Scripture compared to "water" because of its refreshing,
cleansing, and fructifying nature; and "rivers" denote, an
abundance of it; and the "channels", through which it is conveyed
to men, out of the fulness of Christ, are the ordinances; see (
Zechariah 4:12 ) ; and
the prophecy suggests, that these should not be dry and empty,
but that large measures of grace shall be communicated by means
of them to the souls of men, to their great comfort and
edification, and for the supply of their wants; see ( Ezekiel
36:25 ) ( John 3:5 ) ( John 4:10 John 4:14 ) ( 7:37-39
) ; and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the
Lord;
not meaning baptism, as some; nor Christ, the fountain of grace,
life, and salvation; but the Gospel, the word of the Lord, that
fountain full of excellent truths and doctrines; of the blessings
of grace; of exceeding great and precious promises; and of much
spiritual peace, joy, and comfort: this is the law or doctrine of
the Lord, that should come out of Zion, or the church, ( Isaiah 2:3 ) ; the
living waters that shall come out of Jerusalem, ( Zechariah
14:8 ) ; and the same with the waters in Ezekiel's vision,
that came from under the threshold of the house, ( Ezekiel 47:1
) ; it seems to denote the small beginnings of the Gospel, and
the great increase and overflow of it in the world, as it does in
all the above passages: this is referred by the ancient Jews
F24 to the times of the Messiah;
and shall water the valley of Shittim;
a plain or valley near Jordan, upon the borders of Moab, at the
farther end of Canaan that way, ( Numbers
33:49 ) ( Joshua 3:1 ) . Benjamin
of Tudela F25 says, that from the mount of Olives
may be seen the plain and brook of Shittim, unto or near Mount
Nebo, which was in the land of Moab. This valley or plain, as the
Targum, was so called, either from the "shittah" tree, ( Isaiah 41:19
) ; of which was the wood "shittim", so much used for various
things in the tabernacle and temple, that grew there; and which
Jerom on this place says was a kind of tree that grew in the
wilderness, like a white thorn in colour and leaves, though not
in size, for otherwise it was a very large tree, out of which the
broadest planks might be cut, and its wood very strong, and of
incredible, smoothness and beauty; and which grew not in
cultivated places, nor in the Roman soil, but in the desert of
Arabia; and therefore one would think did not grow in this plain
near Jordan, and so could not be denominated from hence: but Dr.
Shaw F26 observes, that the Acacia is by
much the largest and the most common tree of these deserts (that
is, of Arabia), as it might likewise have been of the plains of
Shittim, over against Jericho, from whence it took its name; and
adds, we have some reason to conjecture that the shittim wood,
whereof the various utensils of the tabernacle, &c. (
Exodus
25:10 Exodus 25:13
Exodus
25:23 ) were made, was the wood of the acacia. Or it may be
this place had its name from the rushes which grew on the banks
of Jordan, near to which it was; for so, is the word interpreted
by some {a}: and Saadiah Gaon says, this valley is Jordan; so
called, because Jordan was near to a place called Shittim:
however, be it as it will, this can never be understood in a
literal sense, that any fountain should arise out of the temple,
and flow as far as beyond Jordan, and water any tract of land
there; but must be understood spiritually, of the same waters of
the sanctuary as in Ezekiel's vision, ( Ezekiel 47:1
Ezekiel
47:8 ) ; at most, the literal sense could only be, that the
whole land should be well watered from one end to the other, and,
become very fertile and fruitful, by the order and direction of
the Lord, that dwells in his temple. The mystical sense is best.
Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, that interprets it of the
expiation of the sins of the Israelites, in the affair of
Baalpeor at Shittim, ( Numbers
25:1-3 ) ; but the true spiritual sense is, that the Gospel
shall be carried to the further parts of the earth; that the
whole world shall be filled and watered with it, and become
fruitful, which before was like a desert; these living waters
shall flow, both toward the former and the hinder seas, the
eastern and west: era, as in ( Zechariah
14:8 ) ; see ( Isaiah 11:9 ) . Some
render it, "shall water the valley of cedars" F2; the
shittim wood being a kind of cedar, of which many things
belonging to the tabernacle, a type of the church, was made,
being firm, sound, incorruptible, and durable; see ( Exodus 25:10
Exodus
25:23 ) ( Exodus 26:26
Exodus
26:32 ) ( 27:1 ) ; saints are
compared to cedars for their height in Christ, their strength in
him, and in his grace; their large and spreading leaves,
branches, and roots, or growth in grace; and for their duration
and incorruption; see ( Numbers 24:5
Numbers
24:6 ) ( Psalms 92:13
) ; a valley may signify the low estate of God's people; or be an
emblem of lowly, meek, and humble souls, to whom the Gospel is
preached, and who are watered and revived by it, and to whom more
grace is given; see ( Isaiah 40:4 ) (
61:1 ) (
57:15
) . It is by Symmachus rendered "the valley of thorns"; and so
Quinquarboreus F3 says the word signifies and designs
such who are barren in good works.