The prophet began to prophesy about the kingdom of Christ, the gospel, the faith and the church. However, he did not treat this subject in one speech, but, as we are wont to do in our sermons, he alternated the treatment with other figures. Therefore, it seems as if he starts a new speech about the same thing. He sees that the synagogue is oppressed with many tribulations and plagued with many wars and prisons, therefore he promises Christ in this chapter. As if he wanted to say: "You have been imprisoned and redeemed so many times, and then again devastated; well, I will one day bring about a redemption that will be eternal, and which will be followed by no more imprisonment, no more desolation, that is the redemption, since Christ has swallowed up sin, death and hell through his death on the cross, and has redeemed us through an everlasting deliverance [Is. 45:17].
V. 1. Zion, show your strength.
2. as if he wanted to say: it is present that you shall be redeemed and transferred to a new and eternal kingdom; therefore be courageous, and use the ornament, use this freedom and grace. But he connects "strength," which is required for war, and "adornment," which is required for the time of peace. For the gospel accomplishes both: it guards us with strength against sins and death, and also adorns us with the exercises of faith, with love, and with the gifts which the Holy Spirit brings to believers, as chastity, wisdom.
For no uncircumcised or unclean shall reign in you (Quia non adjiciet ultra, ut pertranseat etc.).
IntrLrs means according to Hebrew language to administer an office, to govern. So it says 5 Mos. 23, 3: "The Ammonites shall not come into the congregation of the Lord" (intra-.
colorful). For the Ammonites were not forbidden to convert to the Jews and to become proselytes, but they were not supposed to administer a public teaching office, which God wanted to keep in His people. Therefore, he promises that neither pagan tyrants (for he calls them "uncircumcised") nor hypocritical Jews would administer offices in the true church.
V. 2. Get out of the dust.
4 As he described two kinds of tyrants, so here he describes two kinds of captivity. For these two things, "dust" and "bonds," must be distinguished from one another. For the former signifies the bodily captivity, and the latter the spiritual, which is under the laws and statutes apart from Christ. For the captivity of conscience is that by which man is taken captive by the imagination of a made (falsi) sin. For where Christ does not shine in the heart, it is impossible that man should not make a captivity of the laws. The cause is this, because man by nature has this wisdom: if you do not keep this and that, you will be damned.
(5) This is helped by the physical and spiritual tyrannies who demand of us the works of the law and other statutes. But in the church and in faith in Christ, neither the civil nor the Mosaic laws bind or condemn the conscience. For they are to extend only over the body and over external things; consequently they are neither to harm nor to help a conscience that has been made free before God through Christ. And the conscience shall keep Christ, who is above and apart from all laws, and afterwards keep these laws out of guilty love, apart from the conscience. And this is Christian freedom, of which we have written more elsewhere 1).
1) Cf. Walch, St. Louis Edition, Vol. XIX, 986 ff.
V. 3. You were sold for nothing; you shall be redeemed without money.
6) "In vain" you have been delivered into the hands of the Gentiles, that is, the Gentiles have not been punished for this robbery, but they have dealt with you unpunished according to their will; therefore it will happen that you will be redeemed again in vain. So today we have been redeemed from the yoke of the priest in vain, that is, without any previous merit and without the punishment of sin, because we have blasphemed and crucified Christ in all sermons and on all altars; just as still today the whole priesthood does without repentance. Therefore, it must necessarily fall.
V. 4. 5. My people went down first into Egypt.
7 By this comparison he magnifies the tyranny of the Pharisees. My people have been hard pressed in Egypt under Pharaoh, hard pressed by the Assyrians [2 Kings 18:13 ff], but that is nothing when compared to the tyranny of the drivers of the law, the Pharisees and Sadducees, who plague the consciences in the most pitiful way. Just as if we said today: The tyranny of the princes is great, but what is it against the pope? For those only corrupt bodies and goods, but the pope corrupts souls in a cruel way.
Its rulers make vain howling.
8 Instead of inique agunt translate: They have made howling. But here we see what a great sin it is not to teach rightly. For it is not teaching, but vain weeping and blaspheming God. And evil teachers are unclean birds, flying in darkness, disturbing and frightening the consciences with their howling, and wearying the wretched hearers with vain works. They are also blasphemers, because they deny grace, and ascribe righteousness to works. Such night owls and owls are nourished by Pabstism. But it seems that Paul alluded to this passage, Rom. 2, 24: "Because of you, God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles."
V. 6. Therefore my people shall know my name at that time.
(9) I will take away the office of these hypocrites and false prophets, and gather the people unto me, that they alone may hear me. Thus he abolishes the teaching office of Moses and the priesthood of the Old Testament, which was in a certain family, and says: he will be the shepherd, whom the sheep alone shall hear and follow; but the rest they shall all despise, whether they be bishops, or popes, or Moses himself. This freedom was started by the apostles and still continues in the church today. But it is not a carnal freedom, but a spiritual freedom. For in the flesh there shall be no freedom, for we are to be subject to our parents, to the authorities, and in sum to the servants of all. But in spirit and conscience we are completely free from all bondage; there we believe no one, there we trust no one, there we fear no one but Christ alone, who reigns with joy and gladness in the midst of tribulations, with power and strength in the midst of sins. Furthermore, if anyone doubts that the prophet speaks of the kingdom that is in the Word, let him hear the following:
V. 7. How lovely on the mountains are the feet of the messengers.
(10) This is a comparison of the gospel and the law, and a praise of Christ who speaks through his apostles. Those who teach the law are sad night-owls, and frighten with their howling; but the messengers of the gospel have sweet feet, for they bring with them the most cheerful word for troubled consciences. This is known to those whose consciences have once been in danger. But it is these messengers "on the mountains". For the gospel is not bound to one mountain and to one people, as the law is, but it is spread most freely on the mountains, that is, among the nations, and into all lands; and brings them peace, that is, the forgiveness of sins. It brings good, that is, joy and gladness, and other fruits of the Spirit. It also brings salvation, that is, freedom and redemption from sins, death, and
from hell, and the victory against all evils 2c. The law works the opposite in the hearts of men.
Those who say to Zion: Your God is King.
This is the reason why the Church has such great gifts, because God Himself, Christ, is King and Teacher. But how could it be otherwise? There must be everything good where God is and reigns, where death and sin do not reign, but Christ and salvation itself. Thus, this passage contains a manifest prophecy of the new word that was to be preached. For he abolishes all the kingdoms of Moses, of the priesthood, of the Pharisees, 2c., and makes Christ alone king. This is to be diligently observed, that we place Christ in his proper office, lest we make of him a judge, as the papacy did, and of the gospel, which brings peace with it, a law.
12. there are many other lessons that can be learned from this passage, if the words are diligently contrasted. For he says [v. 5]: his people were deceived by others; consequently he has a physical people in this life. Likewise he promises [v. 6] that he will be the teacher of this people; consequently Christ is true man, and Christ's kingdom is in the word alone. But that he adds [v. 5] that his name will be blasphemed; likewise [v. 7]: Your God will be king, it follows that he is God at the same time, and in the same person true God and true man. From this it necessarily follows that he will die as man, and that he will rise again from death as God. From this it is clear that the kingdom of Christ is spiritual and not physical; consequently it cannot be governed by laws taken from reason, but only by the word of the Spirit, since the heart lives and is active in grace and through grace, free from all laws, punishments and terrors.
(13) Therefore, those who think that Christ is a legislator who shapes morals and, like Socrates, gives perfect examples of virtues, are mistaken. For although he also shapes the outward action, he first of all judges the inward man and renews him; after that he also governs him.
the body, the hands and the feet. For works follow faith, as the shadow follows the body.
V. 8. Your watchmen cry aloud with their voice.
14 He calls the servants of the word "watchmen" who proclaim joyful and lovely things with one mouth. However, he actually indicates the happy progress of the word through the watchmen. For through the apostles the foundation of the kingdom of Christ was laid, but through the watchmen it is planted. Furthermore, a watchman is required to let his voice be heard. Our bishops today are watchmen without voice, and in truth mute dogs.
(15) Now this also belongs to the description of the kingdom of Christ, that we should distinguish it from all other kingdoms, that it should not stand in arms, in violence, in laws, but absolutely in the joyful word of the gospel, lest we confound the temporal and the ecclesiastical government with one another.
V. 9. Let us rejoice and praise one another in the wilderness of Jerusalem.
16 Thus he calls the rest of the synagogue, indicating at the same time that the gospel is a sermon for the poor, as Christ says: "The poor have the gospel preached to them" [Matth. 11, 5], and as it says in the 74th Psalm, v. 21: "The poor and miserable praise your name. For none is commanded to rejoice but he that is afflicted, and walketh in tears and sorrows. And he adds, "Let there be joy"; not you who are the inhabited and adorned Jerusalem, but the desolate Jerusalem. For the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom made up of afflicted and afflicted in every way; and the word is a word of salvation and peace, of which only those are in need who feel condemnation and are afflicted with sins.
17) But that he says, "Let us praise," means the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, which is the only sacrifice of Christians, that they may recognize God's benefits and be grateful, praising and glorifying God, but not misusing His gifts for their own glory, against their neighbor.
V. 10: The Lord has revealed his holy name.
lig arm 2c.
18. "His arm," that is, His power. As if to say, "Since you have been deceived and afflicted with sins and conscience, pity you that you are without an arm, because God, in appearance, is always weak and foolish; other gods and princes are mighty and wise. But at that time, he says, he will reveal his arm, so that out of that foolishness and weakness will come forth greater wisdom and power than that of men. This whole passage alludes to the 98th Psalm.
V. 11. Soften, soften.
After such great promises, the prophet adds an exhortation, as Paul does in 2 Cor. 6:17 and Rom. 13:11 ff. "Depart," he says, "from the kingdom of the world, of sins and of conscience. Take hold of the gospel and do not miss the time of grace.
And touch no unclean thing.
20 This image is taken from the law, which he transfers to spiritual purity and impurity. But "unclean" is everything that does not come from faith in Christ and from the freely given grace. Therefore, not only adultery and capital murder and other gross sins must be understood by it, but everything that is best in a man who is not enlightened by the Holy Spirit, namely wisdom, religion, righteousness, and those apparent works which lead men away from trusting in grace to presumption, and have a very great appearance of holiness. For faith, which alone is pure, is to be based on grace alone.
Come out of her, purify yourselves, you who carry the Lord's tools.
(21) This belongs to the ministers of the word and to the teachers. For these carry the vessels of the Lord. As if to say: You who are teachers, see to it that you are pure. Do not make a trade of the word, but teach in simplicity. But it is a needful exhortation, by which we are reminded
first, that we should abide in the true faith; second, that we should abide in the pure word, without which faith cannot stand.
V. 12 For you shall not go out in haste.
22. he looks at the story of the exodus from Egypt; because from there they went out with trembling and haste [Ex. 12, 33. ff]. This picture fits well to the work saints; these hurry and tremble, if they are only a little challenged, and look everywhere for help and protection. Therefore, so many rules of the monks, so many works and services have arisen, because they believed that they could ease the conscience and make it calm by such works.
23 Therefore the prophet exhorts the godly. Ye godly, saith he, follow not the ungodly, "for ye shall not go out in haste. You are commanded not to touch anything unclean and to be pure. This shall not be done by haste and in flight, that is, by your strength. You shall be delivered from the ungodly in another way, namely, "that the LORD go before you, and that the GOD Israel gather you." That is, listen to the word plainly, because the LORD will go before you. Leave off your doings, and do not seek to become the author of your own salvation, but let the Lord rule you by his word and his Spirit, that you may cleave to him alone, and put your trust in no other work or service.
(24) Therefore it is a good exhortation that with simple faith we look only to Christ our forefather, who will gather us together, that we may abide in the word, and be safe from all sins. Thus we read of a holy nun: When she was challenged for sins she committed, she gave no other answer than that she was a Christian. For she knew that she would not be condemned for her evil works, because she had Christ, nor could she be saved by her good works, but that Christ had been offered as a sacrifice for her. 2c. He had done enough for her sins and deserved eternal life 2c. The following chapter describes the way of salvation.