Isa. 60, 1-6.
Arise, become light; for thy light cometh, and the glory of the Lord ariseth upon thee. For, behold, darkness covereth the earth, and darkness the nations: but the Lord riseth upon thee, and his glory shineth upon thee. And the heathen shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness that goeth forth upon thee. Lift up thine eyes, and behold round about, all these gathered together come unto thee. Thy sons shall come afar off, and thy daughters shall be brought up beside thee. Then shalt thou see thy desire, and shalt break forth; and thine heart shall wonder and be enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall turn unto thee, and the power of the Gentiles shall come unto thee. For the multitude of the camels shall cover thee, the runners out of Midian and Ephah. They shall all come out of Sheba, bringing gold and incense, and shall declare the praises of the Lord.
This epistle is an exhortation to faith and a proclamation of the gospel, as it is preached and taught in all the world.
Christians should be chosen in all countries. It is a clear easy prophecy, therefore it must not be interpreted much.
(2) And when he calls the gospel a light, and a brightness, and a brightness, and a light of the Lord, he makes a distinction between this light of the gospel, and the light of the law; which distinction is well to be observed, lest the gospel and the law be mixed together, and the gospel be called that which is the law, or again. For in Advent and in previous epistles we have heard how the gospel is a word of life, a doctrine of grace, a light of joy, which promises, brings, and gives Christ with all his goods. But the law is a word of death, a doctrine of wrath, a light of affliction, revealing sin, and demanding righteousness from us, which we are not able to do, so that the conscience may know and feel itself guilty of eternal death and wrath, from which it must be afflicted and troubled. And to such a conscience comes and is sung this joyful prophecy of Isaiah, that it may again rejoice, live and be delivered from the law and sins.
3 Therefore we may call these two lights, one the light of the Lord, the other the light of the servant, 2 Cor. 3:13. The light of the Lord went out through Christ, the light of the servant through Moses. Therefore Aaron and the children of Israel did not like the light and clarity of Moses in his face, but had to cover it with a blanket. But Christ's face on Mount Tabor, when he was glorified, was not unpleasant, but so joyful and lovely that St. Peter said with joy, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Mosi, and one for Eliä." There also Mosi's light was not inerrant, but lovely; for the gospel made the law, the disciplinarian, pleasant, who before was displeasing and unpleasant to nature, as we have heard above. Thus now says Isaiah:
Arise, become light. For your light comes, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
4) The resurrection is undoubtedly said to him who has not risen, that is, who lies and sleeps, or is dead; for methinks this is the saying which St. Paul said.
lus means and touches when he says Eph. 5, 14: "Therefore it is said, Arise, thou that sleepest, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee. Christ is undoubtedly this light, of which Isaiah also says here, who shines through the gospel into all the world, and enlightens all who rise and desire him. But that Jerusalem is mentioned here and not in St. Paul, there is nothing to it. There is no Jerusalem in the text of Isaiah, it is placed in the epistle by others, therefore Jerusalem or the people of Israel is addressed by the prophet.
005 Who then are these sleepers and dead? Without two, all who are under the law, for they are all dead through sin; but especially the dead, who do not keep the law, live freely and openly. But the saints of works are the sleepers, who feel not what they lack. These two do not pay much attention to the gospel, and are always asleep and dying; therefore the Spirit must awaken them, that they may see and know this light. But the third, who feel the law and their conscience bites them, are merciful and call for the gospel; they also make it come and be given, and they proclaim it (one of whom is Isaiah), so that the sleepers and the dead may awake and receive the light.
Therefore he says: Let yourself be enlightened, or: "Become light"; make the light hit you, you, dead one, do not crawl into the grave of your stinking life, that is, stop loving and following the evil life, so that the evangelical light hits you and finds room. And you sleeper, wake up, do not crawl under the bed of your careless and sleepy security and presumption of your own righteousness, so that the true light may also be right in you. So much admonition is needed for these two. For free life mightily stops the dead, and one's own presumptuous righteousness hardly lets the sleepers recognize and receive this blessed light.
7. your light comes. Why does he say "your light" when it is God's light? as will follow. Answer: It is God's light and also Jerusalem's and all our light. It is God who gives it; it is ours,
that it shines for us and we use it; just as Christ says of the sun that it is the Father's, Matth. 5, 45: "He lets his sun rise on the righteous and the wicked"; and yet Joh. 11, 9: "He who walks by day does not stumble, for he sees the light of this world", that is, the same sun of God that shines on the world; item, of Himself Joh. 8, 12: "I am the light of the world", and yet is God's light alone. Above all this, he is the light of Jerusalem and the Israelite people in particular, because of the promise; for he is promised only to Abraham and his seed, as Mary sings in the Magnificat Luc. 1, 55: "When he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever." In this way he is not the light of the Gentiles, to whom he has promised nothing, and yet he has said that they will survive; as the words of his promise read, and Isaiah also testifies here.
For there is no doubt that almost all the prophecies of Jesus and all the prophets flow from Christ and are drawn from the promise of God, made to Abraham, when he said Gen. 22:18: "In thy seed shall all nations and all peoples of the earth be blessed. From these words it clearly follows that Christ, Abraham's seed, was to be made known in all the world: this could not have been done by his own person, therefore it was done by preaching; and not only does such preaching and making known follow, but also what kind of preaching it is, namely, a preaching of blessing and grace, by which all the world would be blessed. Item, it is implied and implied that Abraham's seed was a true man and also God; item, that he had to be born of a virgin; item, that his kingdom would not be temporal or earthly; item, that he had to die and soon rise from death and become a lord of all creatures. All these things are written in short but rich and full words in this divine promise, and would be easy to prove if there were time to see and grasp how the prophecies arose and flowed from this promise, as from a well; therefore Abraham also laughed in his heart, Gen. 17:17, when such a promise was made to him.
For he understood this, as Christ himself says of this laughter of his heart John 8:56: "Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he asked to see it, and was glad."
And the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
(9) We have often spoken of the word gloria, which is honor, or brightness, or glory; which is nothing else than a glorious great shout, so that there is also a cause of a glorious being, and not a mere and empty shout. So then a glorious man must be regarded as the sun or any light: that just as the sun is a fountain of full light, and its shining is its light's clarity, spread, or glory (for shining is like a natural shouting of the sun, by which it is known and made manifest in all the world, and by no other thing does it make itself known and proclaim itself): So the glory of the person is the fountain, sun and ground of his glorious shouting; and the shouting is his shining before such glory, by which he is called, famous, known and gloriously esteemed. See, this actually means gloria, honor, or glory, or clarity.
(10) So then the gospel is also called God's clarity and our light. Our light, that by it we may see and know God, ourselves and all things; but God's clarity, that by it God's work and all His glorious being may be preached, called, made famous, recognized and held high in all the world.
(11) And if we speak of it more truly, the gospel is not the clarity itself, nor the light itself; but it is the outgoing of such clarity and the future of such light, that is, nothing else, but a revelation of such light and clarity; for the light and clarity have always been from eternity, as John 1:4, 5 says, "In him was life, and the life was the light of men"; but it has not gone out nor been publicly proclaimed, except through the gospel alone. Therefore also the gospel is a shout of divine clarity and glory, that it may also
calls the voice of God, Ps. 29, 3^ and Ps. 68, 34. and in many more places. Item, therefore it is also called "gospel," that is, good news, that it proclaims and shouts out divine goodness, divine glory, and divine honor or clarity, as Psalm 19:2 says: "The heavens cry out for God's clarity, and the firmament proclaims his works." What is shouting out and proclaiming but preaching and proclaiming the gospel through the heavens, that is, the apostles? What is God's clarity and work but His glorious and great riches of His goodness and grace poured out upon us? So St. Paul says Titus 2:11: "The saving grace of God is revealed to all men." How is it revealed? Through the preaching of the gospel. This is also indicated here by the words of Isaiah, when he says: "Your light has come, and God's clarity has gone out upon you," that is, the light and clarity of God has been preached and proclaimed to you. And that Christ Himself is the light and clarity follows: "And the Lord shall arise upon thee," that is, be proclaimed; item, in the same chapter, v. 20: "God thy Lord shall be thy light."
Therefore the light and the clarity is God Himself, as Christ says John 8:12: "I am the light. So we have heard above in the epistle on the day of Christ, how Christ is the radiance of divine clarity; so it is evident from this that Isaiah is not speaking here of the future or outcome of the birth of Christ, but of the outcome of the gospel after the ascension of Christ, through which Christ went out spiritually and blessedly and was transfigured into the hearts of all believers in the world. Of which outcome the Scripture says more than of the birth of Christ. For there also lies the power, for the sake of which he was also born, that St. Paul bases himself on this and says: The gospel was promised by God through the prophets, in the holy Scriptures, by his Son etc.
(13) It is also evident from this what the gospel is and what it says. It is a future of light and the outcome of divine clarity. It says no more than of divine clarity, honor and glory, that is,
It praises no more than God's work, His grace, His goodness over us, and that we should and must have His work, His grace and His goodness, and Himself, if we want to attain blessedness. In this way it does two works in us. First, it puts down natural reason and our light, deciding that it is nothing and darkness. For if light and not darkness were in us, God would let this light come into us in vain. Light does not illuminate light, but darkness; therefore in this epistle all natural wisdom, all human reason, all pagan art, all human doctrine and laws are powerfully rejected and condemned, and it is decided that they are all darkness, because the future of this light is necessary. Therefore, beware of all the doctrines of men and all the conceit of reason, as of the darkness that is condemned by God, and only stand up and open yourself to perceive this light and follow it alone.
14. the other work, that it should lay low all the glory and splendor of our works, goods, and free will, so that we may not take comfort or glory in them all, but have vain shame and dishonor before God. For if there had been any honor or glory in us, this divine honor and clarity would have risen upon us in vain. But now that it has risen upon us, it decides that there is nothing in us that does not bring us shame and disgrace. Of this St. Paul Rom. 3, 23: "All men are sinners and void of divine clarity or glory." As if to say, "They may have nature and human righteousness of their own, and glory and honor in the sight of men on earth, as if they were not sinners; but in the sight of God they are sinners, and have not the glory of God, neither may they boast of His goods or His glory.
15 Now no one will be blessed, God's clarity must be in him, so that he alone may comfort and boast of God and divine goodness; as Jer. 9:24 and 2 Cor. 10:17: "He who boasts shall boast of the Lord." Behold, that is, divine clarity rises. So does the gospel: it rejects all our things and praises only divine grace.
and goods, that is, Himself, that we alone should comfort and boast of Him, as the 144th Psalm v. 15. says: "Blessed is he to whom the Lord is his God," and no one else; therefore it also follows in Isaiah:
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and darkness the nations. But upon thee shall the Lord arise, and his brightness shall appear in thee.
16. The prophet clearly expresses that where there is no Christ, there is darkness, however great and bright it may appear, and does not suffer the mean, invented by the high school teachers, since they say: Between the darkness and Christ there is natural light and human reason; thus they give the darkness only to openly evil men and fools, but they consider the middle light to be good, and say that it may be sufficiently suitable to Christ's light, and is indeed a darkness where it is compared to Christ's light, but in itself it is a light. But they do not see how brightly they think they are enlightened, that generally the very worst are the most sensible, and the children of this world are much wiser in their ways than the children of light, as Christ says Luc. 16:8; and yet they are sent none the worse, indeed, much more clumsily to the true light than all the others; which would not happen if such light were conducive to the true light. Even the devils are wiser, more reasonable and wiser than all men, yet they are not improved. Yes, it is a light that is always hostile to the true light as St. Paul says Rom. 8, 7: "The wisdom of the flesh is God's enemy, for it is not subject to God's law, and may not be subject to it."
Therefore God does not know how to counsel this harmful light, except to condemn and blind it. As St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 1, 19: "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of all the world? as it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and reject the prudence of the prudent. So also here in this chapter of Isaiah, v. 20, he says: "The sun shall no more shine upon thee by day, neither shall the light of the moon be in thee any more: but thy God shall be unto thee an everlasting light,
and thy Lord a glory." What is this but that all temporal wisdom should be rejected? Therefore, let such talk of natural light cease, and abide by the words of Isaiah and the Scriptures, which teach you to flee such light as darkness and the enemy of the true light. For this is the light that teaches the Jews and all tyrants to torture and persecute Christ and all his saints, and to this day does not like the true light, because it always wants to be right and to be light, although it is darkness and condemned by the true light; therefore it is also angry and causes all misfortune.
18 But would a simple-minded man say here, "How can all that natural reason teaches be darkness? Is it not bright enough that three and two make five? Item, who wants to make a skirt, does wise, if he takes cloth to it, foolish, if he takes paper to it. Is it not a wise man who takes a pious wife in marriage, and a fool who takes an impious one? and countless more in all human life: you will never convince us that all this is darkness. Even so Christ himself draws the light to Matth. 7, 24. 26. when he says: "He who keeps my words and does them is like a wise man who builds his house on a rock; but he who does not keep them is like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand." Now if the first is also dark, who builds on the rock, who then will be called wise to build? Item, he says Luc. 16, 8. about the servant who betrayed his master's goods, that he then dealt wisely with the debtors. And St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11, 6. 14. how nature does not teach that a woman with bare hair should pray in church.
(19) Answer: All this is true; but here you must separate God and man, or eternal and temporal things. In temporal things and those that concern man, there man is reasonable enough, there he must have no other light than reason. Therefore, God does not teach in Scripture how to build houses, make clothes, marry, have wars, ship, or any other such things, so that they may be done; for there is the natural light.
enough. But in divine matters, that is, in those that concern God, that one should do so that it may be pleasing to God and thus become blessed, nature is so blind that it cannot indicate a hair's breadth what these things are. It is presumptuous enough to fall from it and plummet, like a blind horse; but everything that it discusses and concludes is as surely false and erroneous as God lives. Here she does like the man who builds on the sand; here she takes spider's web and wants to make a skirt out of it, as Isaiah says Cap. 59, 6.; here she takes sand for flour and wants to bake bread; here she sows wind and gathers whirlpools, as Hosea says Cap. 8, 7.Here she measures the air with spoons, carries the light with troughs into the cellar, and weighs the flames on a scale, and does all the foolish work and perverse play that has ever been done or may be invented; for she does her thing as if it were worship, and yet it is not.
20) If you ask her, "What is the right thing to do to please God and be saved? You must establish masses, have vigils, make chalices, monstrances, images, jewels, burn candles, pray as much as you can, fast at St. Catharine's, become a priest or monk, run to Rome and St. James, wear a shirt of hair, whip yourself, and the like: these are good works, right ways and states of salvation. But if one says how she knows that such things are pleasing to God, she cannot say otherwise, for it seems right to her. Of course, it is a conceit, yes, also a darkness and gloom. Behold, this is what Isaiah calls darkness and gloom, into which all who do not receive the divine light must fall, and it is not possible that they should do anything right in the sight of God.
(21) Now nothing so nearly displeases God as presumption, that it casts out such gross darkness for a light, and will not let it be darkness, and begins and kills or persecutes all who reprove such things against it, and will not suffer the true light. Behold, here come all idolatries. Thus the Jews have made their Baal, Moloch, Astharoth, Camos Peor, and such like idols without number.
have that Jeremiah Cap. 2, 28. says: They have had as many gods as cities; and Hosea also says Cap. 10, 1.: They have erected as many altars as there were cities in the land; item Isaiah Cap. 2, 8. says of them, "Their land is full of idols."
(22) Now all these were vain services, that they might presume to serve the right God. That is why they killed the prophets who punished them, as if they had destroyed worship and blasphemed God. But these were services invented by nature, since God had said nothing about them. For in His service He Himself will be the light, and have nothing but that which He commands and enjoins. Therefore we read in Leviticus 10:2 that Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, burned the fire before the altar, since they were priests commanded by God, and had done no more than put a strange unconsecrated fire into the censer, which God had not commanded. Thus he will not and cannot suffer that one interprets or calls worship what he himself does not interpret or call; for whoever presumes to do so, what does he make of God but an idol? thinks that God is of the opinion as he is, and forms a God for himself in his conceit, as he wills, and should want God and put up with what he has thought. Behold, this is nothing else, but to change God's will and opinion and to make it according to our will and opinion. That is to grab God in the mouth and weave him a straw beard, and at the same time consider him to be a ghoul or a henpecked man, whom we would like to change as we wish. This is an unpleasant thing for him, because he wants to be uneducated and unmade by us, as the first commandment says, and he wants to have his name unused, as the other commandment says, because both are right and just; therefore it is impossible for God to be pleased with what nature says about this. It is also the highest presumption that is on earth that angers God the most.
23) From this difference between God and man it is easy to see what is right and wrong in light, for what God has not commanded should be most diligently avoided, even if an angel or all the people of the world have commanded it.
saints did and were called the same. Therefore, all the laws of the pope and of the ecclesiastics must not be good in their greatest part; for several of them are vain little things, of outward works, which God has not commanded, and all the world is now full of idolatry, more than ever was among men; yet they think to serve God thereby, and none of them goes the right way.
(24) For divine light teaches to trust and believe in God, to place all things in Him, to let Him do with us and create what He wills, to stand calmly, to do and suffer what He allows to come into our hands and occur, without any distinction; then to serve our neighbor while we live. In such faith there is no difference of works, all are equal. Then man may well serve God by building houses, planting, threshing, and with external works; for everything is now right in the divine light, in faith. This is how God himself interprets his service and divine way. But nature and reason know so little of this that they admit and condemn such faith as error and heresy, fall upon the works that they see in the dear saints and their order, and do not want nor cannot recognize that these same saints have done such works in divine light and faith, which they despise; and thus make themselves an idol out of the example of the saints, and remain in nature and idolatry for and for, irrevocably. Therefore Solomon taught the simple: "You shall not build on your own understanding" (Prov. 3, 5); and again (Prov. 3, 7): "You shall not be wise in yourself"; which St. Paul also introduces (Rom. 12, 17) and says: "Do not be wise in yourself.
(25) The papal laws also lead to it in the beginning, but only to deter all the world from such sayings of the Scriptures, so that no one would reject his foolish laws according to this doctrine, as would be right and necessary; but that everyone would become captive to him and let him be wise in himself alone, and follow him, forsaking the wisdom of God. For in his law there is only human ignorance, contrary to the teachings of Solomon and Paul. He refuses everyone
conceit, and yet drives it horribly into all the world. But Solomon wants us not to let ourselves, nor any man, teach reason or conceit, but only God our Lord: what he does not teach nor shine, we are to avoid as darkness; for he cannot and will not suffer a co-master or a substitute teacher in divine matters, he himself wants to be the light and master, so that faith may remain pure and unadulterated in divine matters.
26. but in temporal things, you may learn to build from a carpenter or from yourself, you may learn otherwise; to paint from a painter; to make shoes from a cobbler; to write from a scribe: but to serve God, and how to make these and all works good, learn not from men, but from God alone; for God teaches you to believe Him, and to love your neighbor in all your works; man teaches you to work without faith, and to love only yourself, that you may forget God and your neighbor.
27 Behold, this is what Isaiah means here, when he says, "For behold, darkness covers the earth, and darkness the nations." He may not be understood as speaking of the physical darkness; for the sun is stayed with its light, as before: but of the darkness which is contrary to this light, of which he says, "Thy light is come, and the Lord shall arise upon thee." Now over whom the Lord does not go forth and shine, they are in darkness; that darkness may mean nothing else than unbelief and natural reason; just as the light is Christ, or the faith of Christ, through which Christ dwells in the heart, as St. Paul says Eph. 3:17. So also the earth may not here be called the natural earth, for it has not become dark through Christ: but earthly men, who neither believe nor want to accept Christ through the gospel, but remain in their earthly conceit and natural light; as Isaiah interprets and speaks himself:
The nations will be covered with darkness.
But what is this said? Were not the people also dark before, before
Christ came? He brought the light through the gospel; how then did the darkness come first of all? Here it is to be known that Isaiah speaks all this only of the Jewish people: that same he divides into two parts, that one would be enlightened, the other part blinded, as it then happened. Therefore he says, "The land and the nations. Just as David Psalm 2:1 also says of them, "Why do the peoples speak useless things against God and his Christ? Now the whole nation of Israel was supposed to wait for Christ and come out of the shadow of the law into the light through Christ: but they turned back, and the greater part fell, and now became quite dark. For before Christ came, there was still a light, the law, in which Christ was promised to them. But since he has come and fulfilled the law, they still cling to the law and await its future, so that they have now also lost the opinion and understanding of the law, which they still had before, and it has happened to them as to one who leaves the light far behind, which he should have before him, or had before him at some time, and now goes into thick darkness without light. For he that hath a light before him in his eyes, though it be far from him, ever seeth not nothing whither he goeth; but he that leaveth it behind him, and giveth him his back, is wholly covered with darkness.
29] So the Jews, who have the law behind them, which shines on the Christ who is now coming, and despise its shining on this Christ, wait for it to shine before them on a future Christ: but there is no light, there is nothing left, the law no longer points to another Christ. Therefore he says, "The earth will not only be dark, but it will be covered with darkness; so that he does not only indicate the great blindness of the wretched people, but that they are covered in it, so that this light does not rise over them. For the Jews are not preached to, nor do they hear it: therefore the light, Christ, does not rise upon them through the gospel, so they remain covered in unbelief, unpreached and unlearned, as also Isa. 5:6 says: "And to my clouds I will command,
That they rain no rain upon them," that is, no preacher preacheth over them of Christ. Behold, this is not only to be dark in unbelief, but also to remain covered in it, that they hear not preaching of it, that the light arise not upon them. O a terrible prophecy and example of all who despise the gospel!
(30) "But upon thee," saith he, "shall the Lord arise: for not all the people are blinded, but out of them are taken the best and highest part of Christendom, the apostles, evangelists, and many saints. These are the ones over whom there is no darkness, nor are they covered under it; but over them the Lord himself was preached, and so preached that his clarity appeared or was seen in him. For here he saith not only, The glory of God is gone out upon thee; but, It hath appeared in thee: that he preached not only upon them, which was done at the first also upon the unbelieving part; but he appeared unto them, and they knew him and his glory, and abode therein: therefore the issue of light, that is, the gospel, is not taken away from them.
Isaiah's opinion is that this part of the text speaks of the fruit of the preached gospel. The first part says of the preaching of the gospel: "The gospel went out and warned them all to stand up. But after that, one part is hardened, covered with darkness, so that the light can no longer dawn on them, and they are no longer preached. The other part is enlightened and has gone forth. So it is to this day in all the preaching of Christ and the Gospel: one part accepts it and is enlightened; the other part condemns it as error and departs from it. Therefore it happens to him that he is covered with his unbelief, and never allows himself to be told or preached about it, nor does he want to hear it; so he must be covered before the light goes out.
(32) And this shall not be new to any man, neither shall it be strange; for the scripture standeth firm, that darkness shall cover the earth, and darkness the nations. If this has happened in the chosen people of the Jews, Abraham's natural seed; how much more will it happen among
We pagans, who are alien in blood and nature. So now we see that everything that the pope and papists have condemned, no one is allowed to preach about them, they do not suffer; therefore they remain covered in their darkness, have their own sermon, so they protect and cover their darkness, and it happens to them as they would have it, just like the Jews.
And the nations shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness that goeth forth upon thee.
(33) Since the Jews, the majority, did not want to give the fruit of the gospel and remained in their darkness, it did not remain without fruit, broke out into all the world, and gathered the Gentiles instead of the blinded and fallen Jews. This is what Isaiah says here, and is clear in itself from the fulfillment. For the Gentiles have become Christians, and walk in Christ, the true light, through a right faith. The same fruit has grown in such a way that even kings, who are the highest on earth, have humbled themselves under faith. This is proclaimed so that preachers should not blow themselves out when they convert kings or anyone else, as if they had done so; for God has provided and proclaimed all this beforehand, and has also promised the gospel for this purpose.
(34) But this saying of Jesus was fresh in the days of old, when many of the high nobility and state of the Gentiles were Christians; but now they are deceived again by the Turks and the pope, so that this saying is now running very thin and has become strange, just as the other people of the Gentiles were deceived with them. For it is proclaimed that the final Christ shall deceive all the world and the Gentiles, whom Christ has previously brought to judgment.
35 But what is this that he says, "in the brightness that goeth forth upon thee"? He calls Christ the brightness or shine of the dawn, that is, of the gospel, so that the gospel will always and forever be driven and preached, so that it will always be in progress against the doctrines of men, which are first dangerous to kings and the high classes, because the evil one attacks them.
The first thing that the spirit does is to seduce and teach men: when he has these, he can then easily snatch the poor, common multitude. So the pope first took the kings and princes to himself, and then the multitude with them; which would not have happened if the gospel had been in progress, nor did it happen when it was new and in progress. But now it is downfall and the doctrine of men arise; there is no walking in the light of God.
Lift up thine eyes, and behold round about, these all gathered come unto thee: thy sons shall come afar off, and thy daughters shall be brought up to the side.
(36) Here he begins to tell of the lands where the Gentiles are converted to the faith. And the fact that he calls Jerusalem to lift up its eyes and look around is enough to indicate that he is talking about spiritual sons or daughters, that is, men and women who believe in Christ. Therefore also the assembly and future of them *) must be spiritual, so that they do not believe with the body in Jerusalem, but with the heart and spirit in the same light, since Jerusalem is inside and has gone out over her. For this light cannot be approached with feet; otherwise all those at Jerusalem would have been enlightened, of whom the greater part remained hardened and covered in darkness, as is now said. Therefore, as the light is, so the consequence compels, that the children, the assembly, and the future also may be understood. Where the same constraint would not be, children and gathering should not be understood spiritually, but as the words say, bodily; but now that the light is spiritual, it does not allow for spiritual gathering and coming. So they must also be spiritual children; for even the natural children and seed of Abraha did not come to this light because they were his flesh and blood, but because they were his spiritual children; as is said in the next epistle.
37. also that he says, The sons shall come from afar, shows also that spiritual
For the apostles, St. Peter and Paul, call the Gentiles "from afar" and the Jews "from near", as it is written in Eph. 2:13: "Ye that were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ"; item v. 17. 17: "Christ came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near"; the reason is that the Jews had the law and promise of God from Christ, but the Gentiles did not. Since the Gentiles are not Abraham's or Jerusalem's natural children, and yet Isaiah speaks of them here, he must surely be speaking of spiritual children.
38 Likewise Jerusalem, whom he calls lifting up her eyes and seeing, must not be the fleshly Jerusalem; for she is not a mother of these, but a murderess over mother and children and father. It is the spiritual mother, that is, the assembly of the apostles and all the holy Christians from the Jewish people, who are called the Christian Church; and therefore it is called "Jerusalem", because it was assembled and started in the same city, and spread out from there into all the world. There must ever be a physical place in the world where the gospel and Christianity began; this happened at Jerusalem in the midst of her worst enemies.
039 Now the opinion of Jeshua is, Behold, in the four corners of the earth I will make thee great and broad, and thou shalt be in all the earth; in every place thy children shall be. And all these words were spoken for the comfort of the first Christians at Jerusalem, because they were despised and few, and were in the midst of their enemies, who were to be their nearest friends, as follows in this chapter of Isaiah; that it was foolish to see the little company attacking so great a new thing, and rising up against the great company.
040 And the Jews, thinking that they would soon take counsel and subdue the creature, began to slay them, to drive them out, and to persecute them in every place, thinking that it should be easy for them to cut off the poor fainting people; and they did not see, the fools, that by so doing they had just set fire to the very thing they had set on fire.
They blew up fire and drove it into all the world. For with such raging and blustering they only freshly helped that this saying of Jesus and God's will was fulfilled against themselves. For out of persecution the Christians were driven into all the world and spread the gospel, so that in all places the sons and daughters of Jerusalem were gathered to this light.
41 And this is also the divine mastery, that he accomplishes his will through his enemies in the best possible way. And just so that they rage to destroy His word and people, they must destroy themselves and only promote God's word and His people, that it is a good, rich, wholesome thing to have enemies and persecutors for the sake of faith and God's word; for it has inordinate comfort and fruit that come from it. Psalm 2:1 says, "Why do the nations rage, and the peoples seek useless things against Christ?" etc. As if to say, They seek and rage to destroy him, and see not that they strengthen him thereby.
(42) Even so, Isaiah saith unto Jerusalem, Fear not, neither be deceived, nor cast down thine eyes; but lift them up cheerfully, and look about thee; be not thou deceived, that thy nearest friends are thy worst enemies, that they would destroy thee, and think that thou art too small to abide before them: let them fall down, and go. If they kill one of thee, let a thousand of them rise up against thee. If they drive out one, let him bring in many thousands. If they quench one, let it rise up ten, until, without their thanks and will, you have sons and daughters in all the places of the world, in their place, who should be your sons and daughters and are your enemies; so that at last you are strengthened and increased, but they are diminished and destroyed, and it may happen to them what they would do to you, and it may happen to you what they would not grant you. All this we see, 'how it came to pass and was fulfilled.
For thou shalt see and flow, and thine heart shall be amazed and enlarged, when the multitude of the sea shall return unto thee, and the power of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.
(43) "The multitude of the sea" here is not to be understood the natural waters of the sea, but the lands and people that dwell by the sea; just as one would say in German of the Rhine: "The whole Rhine river has risen," that is, land and people by the Rhine. The Scriptures, however, have the custom, although there are many and various seas, to call only the Mediterranean Sea a sea, without a surname; for they call the Red Sea by its surname. The Mediterranean Sea is called by the writers because it is in the middle of the earth, and breaks in from the evening, but on the left side it has Hispania, France, Welschland, Greece and Asiam, as far as Ciliciam; on the right side it has Africam and Egypt, as far as Palestine. So that on both sides it touches mighty countries and empires, and in the middle it is full of islands, such as Candia, Rhodes, Cyprus; now the Turk has the largest part of it under him. The Mediterranean Sea is called the sea in the Scriptures, and the Jewish land has it toward the evening; for Palestine is the end of the sea, and the Jewish land abuts Palestine toward the morning.
44 Now the same people on this sea, especially on the left side, the Scripture calls by a common name "Gentiles. For what dwells on the right side and toward the east has special names in Scripture. Among the same Gentiles are we, and all that dwell toward the midnight from the left side of the sea. That is why St. Paul calls himself "a teacher and apostle of the Gentiles" in 2 Tim. 1, II and more; because he preached the same line of the left side of the sea and wrote all his epistles there, but did not come to the right side on the other side of the sea. These Gentiles Isaiah means here, since he says: "when the multitude of the sea and power of the Gentiles come to you." For by the multitude of the sea and power of the Gentiles he understands one and the same, and interprets himself that by the multitude of the sea not waters but people are understood.
45 So also "power of the Gentiles" here is not to be the strength or power of the Gentiles; what good would that be in the church? but
It is said of the heap, as one is wont to say of a great money: Here is money's power, that is, a great heap; thus here "power of the heathen," that is, a great heap of the heathen. Item, so one says: This is a mighty lord, if he has great and much land and people. Now this saying of Jesus is fulfilled the greater part by St. Paul, who is our apostle; by his preaching the multitude of the sea is converted, and such power of the Gentiles come to faith. And all is said for the transfiguration, who are the sons and daughters that should come from afar, namely, the multitude of the Gentiles at the great Mediterranean, converted by St. Paul. From this it is clear that such a coming cannot be understood from the bodily future. For how would such a multitude and such a power of people be gathered together in one city Jerusalem, let alone dwell or remain? He says the multitude of the sea will be converted or turned, just as one walks and turns his face or body; also to indicate that the Gentiles should not come bodily to Jerusalem, but their turning is their coming. Before they were converted to the world; now they are turned and converted to the church.
46 He also calls the "multitude of the sea" in Hebrew hamon, that is, a multitude or multitude, in which he undoubtedly relates the promise of God, made to Abraham, that he should be a father of many nations. For thus God said to him Gen. 17:5: "Thou shalt not henceforth be called Abram, but Abraham shall thy name be: for I have made thee a father of the multitude of the Gentiles." Here God puts the first letter of Hamon to Abram and makes Abraham out of it, gives the reason himself and says: "Therefore he shall be a father of Hamon, that is, of the multitude of the Gentiles; just as if he said with Isaiah: "He shall be a father of Hamon of the sea, a father of the multitude of the Gentiles. Therefore St. Paul urges in his epistles that the Gentiles are Abraham's children and seed by faith, according to the promise of God. And Isaiah also wanted to touch this here and described the fulfillment of this promise: Previously he said
Abram, a father of high places, or the high father; now he is called Abraham, a father of the multitude of the Gentiles, that his height and exaltation is accomplished in the Gentiles.
(47) But what is it that he thus superfluous words set, saying, "Then shalt thou see, and flow, and thy heart shall wonder and break forth." What is "see," "break forth," "wonder and spread out"? They are all words of comforting promise. The Hebrew language has the way of saying "see" when our will and desire is done, as, Ps. 54, 9.: "And mine eye shall see mine enemies," that is, I shall see in them what I would gladly have seen long ago, namely, that they are oppressed and the truth stands; item Ps. 37:34: "When the wicked perish, then shalt thou see," that is, then shalt thou see that which thou wouldest gladly see; item Ps. 35:21: "They have opened wide their mouth, and said, Eia, eia, our eyes have seen," that is, "How good is this, we would gladly have seen it long ago. So here also: "Then you will see", that is, you are now the poor, miserable, few people, your enemies see what they like to see, and you also like to see that you would be great and much; but you do not see that yet, you must see what you do not like to see, a little while; after that you also see, and they do not see. When the multitude of the sea is turned toward thee, then thou shalt see what thou wouldst have liked to see long ago, and then they will not see what they would like to see: thou must bear patience for a while and not see, and let thyself be little, bear the cross.
This way of speaking comes from nature, that we naturally avert our eyes and do not see what we do not like to see. Again, what we like, we turn our eyes to kindly and diligently, so that there is a saying: Where your heart is, there your eyes will look; so that we may well say, He does not see, that is, he does not like it; for the eyes are a mighty sign of liking and disliking in the heart above all other members.
49 "Flowing" is also said of the same pleasure and comfort. For this is how we speak when something goes well for us and is fun.
follows: It flows to him. That which is soft goes by itself and follows well; but that which is barren, hard, and unwholesome cannot be carried away anywhere, and gives much trouble and displeasure. Thus Isaiah says, "You will see the favor of your heart, so that you will be joyful and glad, so that you will flow, do and suffer all things cheerfully, gladly, and quickly, and you will have no trouble or unpleasantness in any thing; and this is the fruit of the Spirit from the comfort of divine promise, which makes mild, cheerful, flowing people, to whom all things go well.
50 But the third: "Your heart will be astonished", or terrified, how does this rhyme with joy? The really great joys that come upon our desires and thoughts immediately bring a fright, because they are far greater than we had foreseen; as, Acts 10:45, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Gentiles, Cornelius and his own, in the preaching of St. Peter, Lucas says that those who were with St. Peter were amazed and terrified that the Holy Spirit had also been given to the Gentiles, which they were not aware of. So also Isaiah says that Jerusalem will be terrified with great joy in her heart that such a great multitude of the Gentiles will come to such a poor persecuted multitude.
(51) The fourth, "Your heart will expand," is easily understood to mean generosity, security and freedom; for all this follows from the comfort of the spirit and joy of the heart, when God does more with us than we had provided for or desired; as His way of doing is taught in this text of Isaiah; and St. Paul Eph. 3:20 also says that God always does more than we ask or understand. So he also went with this multitude, which he persecuted and reduced, so that it seemed as if nothing would come of it. And before we looked around, it was increased and strengthened over all its enemies in the whole world.
The multitude of camels will cover you, the runners from Midian and Ephah. They will all come to Saba, bringing gold and incense, proclaiming the praises of the Lord.
52 He said of the nations that come from the evening to Jerusalem out of the multitude of the sea. Here he says of the nations that come from the morning; for Midian, Alpha, Sheba, and the people that go with camels, are from Jerusalem toward the morning. Gen. 25:2-1. We read that Abraham begat six sons by the third wife, Keturah: Simran, Jaksan, Medan, Midian, Jezbak and Suah. Then the fourth son, Midian, begat Ephah and Epher. From this we have the two. Midian and Epha, as Isaiah says here. Item, the other son, Jaksan, begat Seba and Dedan. Again Gen. 10, 1. 6. 7. we read that Noah begat Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham begat Chus and his brothers. Chus begat Raema. Raema begat Sheba and Dedan, the same names of the sons of Abraha. Now it is and will remain doubtful whether Isaiah means Seba, who came from Abraham, or from Ham; there is also no power. It happens on earth that one nation drives out the other and takes its land; just as the individual houses and fields in the cities are transformed and sold, coming from one lord to another. Now I have said above that the countries toward the east of Jerusalem have many and various names, and are not called Gentiles by a common name, as are those near the Mediterranean Sea. Some are called Kedar, some Nebajoth, some Midian, some Alpha, some Ishmael, some Ammon, some Edom, some Moab, some Sheba, each nation from its first ancestor. Moses says in Genesis 25:2, 3, 4, 6 that Abraham separated his sons from Isaac by the woman Keturah and sent them away toward the morning. Therefore, it is believed that they took much of the same land, and Midian, Epah and Sheba became the most prominent.
The same alone is called Arabia in the Hebrew language, for Arabia is the name of a desert in Hebrew. Steinarabia joins Judea from the east and is a great land, but Isaiah speaks of none here. The rich and largest Arabia, which is far from Judea, beyond the desolate Arabia and Steinarabia, is called Saba in Hebrew; so it is called from Abraham's son or Ham's son, there is nothing there. And Epha is a piece of the same rich Arabia. Mahomet, the Turk, came from Arabia or Saba, and his tomb was in the city of Mecca in the same country; and it is called rich Arabia because it has delicious gold and much noble fruit; especially incense grows in no other place in the world, except in this rich Saba or Arabia, which the queen of Saba of the same country also brought with many other delicious specimens to King Solomon, 1 Kings 10:1 ff. Now the Sultan has it, he remained otherwise before the Turk. Isaiah speaks of this Saba and Ephah; the same people need camels and the like. Midian found their neighbors and bordered with them on the Red Sea between Egypt and rich Arabia.
54 Therefore the opinion of Jeshua is, that out of these countries shall come so many camels and runners, that they shall cover the land with a great multitude; as a great host of people covereth the earth, when they go and lie down. Not that the camels and runners alone come, but the people who ride and ride on them. Therefore he glossed over himself, saying that the multitude of camels and runners from Midian and Epah would come, but he added, "All the people of Sheba will come, offering gold and incense, and proclaiming the praises of the Lord"; as if to say, "The people of Midian and Epah will come in such numbers that your land will be covered with a great abundance and multitude of their camels and runners. And what do I say of Midian and Ephah alone, the pieces and oerterns of Arabia? Also all and all the riches of Arabia shall come.
55) Now here the question arises: Whether this is said of camels and runners in the flesh? item: Whether gold and incense in the flesh?
that they sacrifice? item: Whether truly all rich Arabia has come? We do not read that this one ever happened? For though many point this saying to the Magi, who came from the same country after the birth of Christ, as the Gospel says, yet so few were they that it cannot be said of them that their camels covered the land with great multitude. Neither were they all of Sheba, but only a little of the same people. Again, one should not fall on the spiritual mind, unless necessity compels. But since all this did not happen in the flesh, nor is it possible or believable that it will ever happen, since it does not follow that all those from Sheba should come in the flesh to Jerusalem, as a great powerful country and people in one city; also so far in this chapter Isaiah has only spoken of spiritual light, of the gospel, of faith, and of spiritual gathering and coming, item, that he said such coming to the church, not to Christ's person in the flesh: We want to stay on the same track, and consider that there is reason enough and necessity for us to let this piece also be said about spiritual coming, so that the Christian church will see, flow, wonder and rejoice when not only the multitude of the sea of the evening, but also of the morning the very richest and greatest people of Arabia will be gathered to it. Above all this, it is necessary and urgent that many things are said in this chapter, which cannot be understood from the bodily future; as when he says v. 7, that all the cattle of Kedar and all the bulls of Nebajoth shall be brought to this Jerusalem and sacrificed on God's altar. What kind of altar and sacrifice would that be? Item v. 10, that kings shall serve her, and strangers build her walls, and such like things as are not bodily done, nor shall be.
(56) Therefore this must be the opinion of Jeshua, that the people of this land of Arabia will gather together in great multitudes for the faith and the gospel, and will give themselves with all their goods, camels, horses, gold, incense, and whatever they have. For where true Christians find, there they give themselves.
and all that they have to serve Christ and His own; as we see that also here on this side of ours it has happened that great goods are given to the church, and everyone willingly and gladly gives himself with all that he has to Christ and His own; as of the Philippians and Corinthians St. Paul also writes 2 Cor. 8, 1. ff.
(57) This epistle has therefore comprehended the greatest, the most, the mightiest, and the richest nation on earth, which are the multitude of the sea and the power of the Gentiles. This is almost the core of the people on the face of the earth, in terms of quantity and power. Thus Arabia is considered the richest and noblest nation, so that he may show how all the world is to be converted to the faith. Therefore, although the gold, incense, and camels may be understood here bodily, yet the coming and bringing to the spiritual Jerusalem is to be understood. But what the spiritual mind is, we will save for the Gospel. That he also says, "all of Sheba," is not the opinion that they have all become believers; but that the whole country has become Christians, although among them are those who do not believe; just as we say, "All Germany is now Christian, therefore the old heathen way is no longer in it; although the lesser part are true Christians, yet for their sake all are called Christians. So also: the Jewish people were all God's people, Numbers 25, and yet many among them worshipped idols.
58. Finally, he says, "They will proclaim the praises of the Lord." This is the right proper Christian work, that we confess our sin and shame and preach only God's grace and works in us. For no one can preach God's praise and glory who does not recognize God's grace and light. But no one may recognize God's grace who still holds something of His light, work, nature and essence; for he is and remains an old, blind and dead Adam who does not rise to see this light and preaches his own praise more. That is why Isaiah praises those from rich Arabia, that they are true Christians, who only proclaim God's praise, which undoubtedly teaches them this light of grace and gospel.