1 The prophet prophesies against the Moors and Egyptians at the same time, condemning the reliance on the covenants they had made among themselves.
V. 1. 2. Go and remove the sack from your loins.
2.n ) This passage serves to confirm our teaching that God has always added signs to His words, either to confirm faith or to maintain the fear of God, and not, as the Sacramentans err, so that they should be outward signs of confession or marks of love. For these are rather fruits of faith, and not signs. For the sacraments may well be accepted by the false brethren; but the fruits of love no evil tree can bring forth.
3 Therefore we say that the signs serve to increase faith and godliness in the hearts. To be sure, we know that outward things do not bring salvation if they are taken as outward things, that is, as things that are ours. But God works salvation also through external things, and has decreed that He will not give the Holy Spirit without a sign and without an external thing. That is why He instituted in the Church the Magisterium, Baptism and the Lord's Supper of the Body and Blood of His Son. Thus, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and gave the
n) Instead of ยง2-4, the edition of 1532 says: "Behold, here is a sign added to the word, not that it is a characteristic by which the Egyptians and the Moors are recognized, but to strike fear into their hearts. Thus the signs serve to either strengthen or frighten the minds, and to provoke to the fear of God and to faith.
It was given to the apostles, not invisibly, but in a strong wind and in the form of fiery tongues [Acts 2:2, 3].
(4) Therefore the sacramentarians err, and here apply a false principle, saying, No outward thing is useful unto salvation. Rather, turn it around and say: Without an outward thing one does not attain to blessedness. For here is the clear text that an outward sign serves to awaken the faith and fear of God. For the prophet wants to make the Egyptians humble; and this does not belong to the signs of love or confession, but to the power and effect of the Holy Spirit, who awakens the hearts. For as the Holy Spirit moves by the word, so he also moves by the signs, which are nothing else than, that I say so, the real (real) word, since that is expressed by the thing which the sound of the words gives to understand. And as the word is never in vain, so also the signs cannot be without fruit. Thus baptism and the Lord's Supper are signs by which faith is established and strengthened, but not by which men are either provoked to love (although this should also happen) or distinguished from one another as the marks of their confession.
V. 3. 4. three years.
5. this sign shall be fulfilled within three years.
Naked and barefoot.
6. to be clothed means to be powerful, to be rich. But to be clothed with shoes means to be a
Reich, government, teachers, students have. All this he threatens to take away.
With sheer shame.
7. to uncover shame is to make shame, to take away all glory. But the glory of a prince consists in the multitude of the people. Thus "the shame of Egypt" is that it will have no people.
V. 5 And they will stand with shame over the land of the Moors.
(8) Hereby he punishes them for relying on the covenants they had made among themselves. Thus, the Scriptures everywhere teach both fear and faith. For God can tolerate everything, but He absolutely destroys [carnal] trust.
Therefore he bears the sinners; but the righteous he abhors and condemns. To the remnants of sin he looks through his fingers, but the head of the serpent he crushes, so that the rnhm stands still [Ps. 147, 11]: "The Lord is pleased with those who fear him." And this is exactly what shines out of all his speeches, deeds and signs. Therefore, we should learn to fear God and throw away all trust in our strength and wisdom.
V. 6. these islands.
9 In Egypt and in the land of the Moors.
How finely we escaped.
10 These words mean the opposite (est ironia), as if to say: Our covenants have not helped us.