อิสยาห์ 43:28 วิจารณ์

The contents of this chapter are much the same with those of the foregoing chapter, looking at the release of the Jews out of their captivity, but looking through that, and beyond that, to the great work of man's redemption by Jesus Christ, and the grace of the gospel, which through him believers partake of. Here are, I. Precious promises made to God's people in their affliction, of his presence with them, for their support under it, and their deliverance out of it (Isa 43:1-7). II. A challenge to idols to vie with the omniscience and omnipotence of God (Isa 43:8-13). III. Encouragement given to the people of God to hope for their deliverance out of Babylon, from the consideration of what God did for their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt (Isa 43:14-21). IV. A method taken to prepare the people for their deliverance, by putting them in mind of their sins, by which they had provoked God to send them into captivity and continue them there, that they might repent and seek to God for pardoning mercy (Isa 43:22-28).

INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 43 Is this chapter the Lord comforts his own people, under their afflictions, with many precious promises; asserts his deity against the idols of the nations; promises deliverance from Babylon, and a greater redemption than that; one branch of which is forgiveness of sin; and closes the chapter with a prediction of the destruction of the Jews by the Romans, for their iniquities. The Lord claims his interest in his people, not only on the foot of creation, but of redemption and calling, and promises them his presence in the midst of afflictions, Isa 43:1, puts them in mind of what he had done for them; and assures them of future layouts, as the effect of his unchangeable love to them, Isa 43:3 and promises the conversion of their seed and offspring in the several parts of the world, Isa 43:5 then challenges the Heathen nations to give such proofs of the deity of their idols as he was capable of giving of his, as his people were witnesses, taken from his eternity and immutability, as the alone Jehovah, and from his omniscience and omnipotence, Isa 43:8, after which the destruction of Babylon is prophesied of, and the redemption of his people out of it; which they are encouraged to believe from his being Jehovah, their Sanctifier, Creator, and King; and from what he had done formerly for them, when he brought them out of Egypt, Isa 43:14, and which yet was not to be mentioned or remembered, in comparison of what he would do in the world, a new thing, redemption by the Messiah, and the conversion of the Gentiles to the glory of his grace, Isa 43:18, the sins of omission and commission the people of God had been guilty of are mentioned, which are freely pardoned for Christ's sake, Isa 43:22 when the body and bulk of the Jewish nation were given up to destruction, because of their sins, Isa 43:26.

“Your princes profaned the sanctuary.” Those who were from the house of Manasseh profaned the sanctuary with the four-faced idol, which they placed inside the sanctuary. Because of those crimes, and in particular because of Manasseh’s crime, “I have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reviling.”

(Verse 25, 26 and following) I am, I am myself, who blots out your iniquities for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Bring me to remembrance, let us argue together; set forth your case, that you may be proved right. Your first ancestor sinned, and your interpreters transgressed against me. And I profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and delivered Jacob to destruction and Israel to reviling. LXX: I am, I am he who blots out your iniquities, and I will not remember. But remember, and let us argue together. Declare your iniquities first, that you may be justified. Your fathers have sinned, and your princes have dealt unjustly with me, and they have defiled my holy ones. And I gave up Jacob to destruction and Israel to reviling. You, Jacob and Israel, you have caused me to labor in your sins, and I could barely bear the burden of your iniquities. I do not call you my servants or slaves, but I address you simply by the names Jacob and Israel, so that I may show and prove your sins. But I, because I am kind and patient, and have many mercies, will wipe away all your iniquities in the sprinkling of the blood of the new Testament: I will wipe away the old handwriting, which was written against you; and I will no longer remember your sins, which I am willing to forgive you, if you believe, in baptism. Therefore, bring me to remembrance: if you have any just thing to answer to me, I will gladly accept it, so that we may be judged together, and you may accuse me of not doing what I should have done for you. Whom we find fuller in understanding than in Micha, saying: My people, what have I done to you, and how have I harmed you? Answer me: for I brought you out of the land of Egypt and freed you from the house of slavery, and I sent Moses and Aaron and Miriam before your face. And in the fiftieth Psalm David speaks to God: That you may be justified in your words, and may overcome when you are judged (Ps. 50:5). Therefore, tell me if you have anything, so that you may be justified. And the meaning is: I will not speak against you first, lest you claim to be overwhelmed by the multiplication of words; but if you have anything just to say, speak for yourself; so that you may seem to endure the things you suffer unworthily. And so that you may know that I have mercy on you, not because of your merit, but because of my compassion, I will repeat it from your fathers and ancestors, so that you may understand that you were born from sinners: Your father first sinned in solitude: namely, the entire people of Israel. Whether Abraham, the founder of your race, is shown to have sinned when, in response to the Lord's promise to give the land of promise to his descendants, he asked, 'How shall I know that I am to possess it?' And of your interpreters, he says, 'they have acted unfaithfully toward me' (Gen. XV, 8). Aaron and Moses at the waters of contradiction, when they were speaking between me and the Israelites (Exod. XVII). And so that we may understand this is not a forced interpretation, it is followed by the statement, 'And I have defiled the holy princes,' concerning whom it is said in the psalm, 'Their rulers were swallowed up by the rock' (Ps. CXL, 6). He says that they contaminated themselves on purpose because they did not enter the promised land. He devoted Jacob and Israel to destruction and blasphemy, so that no one except two of those who had come out of Egypt would enter into Judah, but their bodies would lie in the wilderness. According to the Septuagint, who added from their own: You speak first of your own iniquities, so that you may be justified. God calls them to repentance, so that they may understand their crimes and sins, and obtain forgiveness. For it is written in another place: 'He who pleads his own cause in the beginning of his speech is just' (Prov. XVIII, 17). And their leaders and fathers are said to have violated the holy things of the Lord, not obeying the Law of God, but seeking the traditions and commandments of men. Because of them Jacob perished, and Israel was given into reproach, expelled from his own province, and became an exile and wanderer throughout the whole world.

And I have profaned the holy princes, that is, I have allowed them to be profaned; I have given Jacob to slaughter, for they all died in the desert, except for Caleb and Joshua: we have sinned with our fathers (Ps 106:6).

The leading men, discrediting Jeremiah's prophecy, carry the people into Egypt, Jer 43:1-7. Jeremiah, by a type, foretells the conquest of Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar, Jer 43:8-13. This mode of conveying instruction by actions was very expressive, and frequently practiced by the prophets. The image of Nebuchadnezzar arraying himself with Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment, is very noble. Egypt at this time contended with Babylon for the empire of the east; yet this mighty kingdom, when God appoints the revolution, shifts its owner with as much ease as a shepherd removes his tent or garment, which the new proprietor has only to spread over him. See Jer 43:12.

I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary "Thy princes have profaned my sanctuary" - Instead of ואחלל שרי vaachallel sarey, read ויחללו שריך vayechalelu sareycha. So the Syriac and Septuagint, και εμιαναν οἱ αρχοντες τα ἁγια μου, "the rulers have defiled my holy things." קדשי kodshi, Houbigant. Οἱ αρχοντες σου, "thy rulers, "MSS. Pachom. and 1. D. 2 and Marchal. To reproaches "To reproach" - לגדופה ligeduphah, in the singular number; so an ancient MS. and the Septuagint, Syriac, and Vulgate. And, alas! what a curse do they still bear, and what reproach do they still suffer! No national crimes have ever equalled those of the Jewish nation, for no nation ever had such privileges to neglect, despise, sin against. When shall this severity of God towards this people have an end? Answ. Whenever, with one heart, they turn to him, and receive the doctrine of the Lord Jesus; and not till then.

A SUCCESSION OF ARGUMENTS WHEREIN ISRAEL MAY BE ASSURED THAT, NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR PERVERSITY TOWARDS GOD (Isa 42:25), HE WILL DELIVER AND RESTORE THEM. (Isa. 43:1-28) But now--notwithstanding God's past just judgments for Israel's sins. created--not only in the general sense, but specially created as a peculiar people unto Himself (Isa 43:7, Isa 43:15, Isa 43:21; Isa 44:2, Isa 44:21, Isa 44:24). So believers, "created in Christ Jesus" (Eph 2:10), "a peculiar people" (Pe1 2:9). redeemed--a second argument why they should trust Him besides creation. The Hebrew means to ransom by a price paid in lieu of the captives (compare Isa 43:3). Babylon was to be the ransom in this case, that is, was to be destroyed, in order that they might be delivered; so Christ became a curse, doomed to death, that we might be redeemed. called . . . by . . . name--not merely "called" in general, as in Isa 42:6; Isa 48:12; Isa 51:2, but designated as His own peculiar people (compare Isa 45:3-4; Exo 32:1; Exo 33:12; Joh 10:3).

profaned the princes-- (Psa 89:39; Lam 2:2, Lam 2:6-7). I have esteemed, or treated, them as persons not sacred. I have left them to suffer the same treatment as the common people, stripped of their holy office and in captivity. princes of the sanctuary--"governors of" it (Ch1 24:5); directing its holy services; priests. curse--Hebrew, cherim, a "solemn anathema," or "excommunication." reproaches-- (Psa 123:3-4). Next: Isaiah Chapter 44

The tone of the address is now suddenly changed. The sudden leap from reproach to consolation was very significant. It gave them to understand, that no meritorious work of their own would come in between what Israel was and what it was to be, but that it was God's free grace which came to meet it. "But now thus saith Jehovah thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Former, O Israel! Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by name, thou art mine. When thou goest through the water, I am with thee; and through rivers, they shall not drown thee: when thou goest into fire, thou shalt not be burned; and the flame shall not set thee on fire." The punishment has now lasted quite long enough; and, as ועתּה affirms, the love which has hitherto retreated behind the wrath returns to its own prerogatives again. He who created and formed Israel, by giving Abraham the son of the promise, and caused the seventy of Jacob's family to grow up into a nation in Egypt, He also will shelter and preserve it. He bids it be of good cheer; for their early history is a pledge of this. The perfects after כּי in Isa 43:1 stand out against the promising futures in Isa 43:2, as retrospective glances: the expression "I have redeemed thee" pointing back to Israel's redemption out of Egypt; "I have called thee by thy name" (lit. I have called with thy name, i.e., called it out), to its call to be the peculiar people of Jehovah, who therefore speaks of it in Isa 48:12 as "My called." This help of the God of Israel will also continue to arm it against the destructive power of the most hostile elements, and rescue it from the midst of the greatest dangers, from which there is apparently no escape (cf., Psa 66:12; Dan 3:17, Dan 3:27; and Ges. 103, 2).

Consequently the all-holy One was obliged to do what had taken place. "Then I profaned holy princes, and gave up Jacob to the curse, and Israel to blasphemies." ואחלל might be an imperfect, like ואכל, "I ate," in Isa 44:19, and ואבּיט, "I looked," in Isa 63:5; but ואתּנה by the side of it shows that the pointing sprang out of the future interpretation contained in the Targum; so that as the latter is to be rejected, we must substitute ואחלל, ואתּנה (Ges. 49, 2). The "holy princes" (sârē qōdesh) are the hierarchs, as in Ch1 24:5, the supreme spiritual rulers as distinguished from the temporal rulers. The profanation referred to was the fact that they were ruthlessly hurried off into a strange land, where their official labours were necessarily suspended. This was the fate of the leaders of the worship; and the whole nation, which bore the honourable names of Jacob and Israel, was give up to the ban (chērem) and the blasphemies (giddūphı̄m) of the nations of the world.