Because the prophet is saddened by the previous sermon about the future fall of the people, he turns his mind away from the examples of wrath and focuses it on the past benefits of God, and makes an excellent song about the old miracles and benefits of God, with which he aligns himself and prays for the captives in Babylon. Thus he does both: he consoles himself with the remembrance of the past benefits, and at the same time praises God's inexhaustible goodness.
(2) But this is an art, if one can support oneself in the temptations with the examples of God's grace and mercy. For this is how it tends to happen in very difficult temptations: we do not think of Christ who suffered, or of Peter who was forgiven, but of the downfall of Sodom, the flood of sin, Pharaoh who was hardened, Judas who was rejected, and similar terrifying examples of wrath. But the opposite was to happen. These examples of wrath were to frighten the hardened; but the frightened were to be comforted and uplifted by the examples of grace, as here the prophesy of the Lord is.
The same is done by the prophet, who, frightened by the sad judgment of the Jewish people, showers himself with the multitude of divine blessings, so that he sees nothing but mercy and blessings. If we fix our eyes only on the examples of wrath, since we are already terrified beforehand, hatred, blasphemy and grumbling against God will be awakened. But from this remembrance of the divine benefits, peace against God and thanksgiving arise.
Cap. 63, 7. I will remember the goodness of the Lord.
This is the subject of which he wants to speak. I want to talk about the benefits of God. Why? Because I am taken by the sad thoughts about the downfall of my people.
(4) It is the same for us when we remember the abominations of the Pope, the godlessness of the Turks, the ingratitude of the world. For from the remembrance of these evils arises, as I have said, hatred against God, and blasphemy as to why God has done this and that.
do and allow. David, however, gives a completely different rule; after he has narrated the manifold benefits of God in the 107th Psalm, he says [v. 43]: "Who is wise, and keeps this? Then shall they know how many benefits the Lord showeth." For when we consider the benefits and mercies of the Lord, that he gives sunshine, rain, annual growth of fruit, abundance, life, blessedness 2c., then the whole world becomes full of the grace and mercy of God, as the 33rd Psalm, v. 5, says: "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Thus it happens that one sees the mercy of the LORD. This is followed by love for God and His praise. To know this is to be wise, says the Psalm.
5 The prophet remembers here in the beginning of the divine benefits in general, in which one must include all histories of this people, which are described in the second book of Moses, in the book of Joshua, in the book of Judges 2c., where we read that they were saved from great dangers.
Cap. 63, 8. For he said, They are indeed my people, children who are not false.
6 Here he describes the beneficence in general: "I am their Savior", because "they are my people", they are "children who are not false", that is, there are still some who truly believe in me, who are not hypocrites.
Cap. 63, 9. He who worried them also worried him.
7 [In tribulatione eorum non est tribulatus] that is, I chastised them with a fatherly heart, not with an excited or angry heart, with the rod of judgment, not of wrath. It can 1) also be translated thus: In omni tribulatione eorum ipse est tribulatus ["He who afflicted them also afflicted him"]. As he says to Paul, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" [Acts 9:4] And, "He that despiseth you despiseth me" [Luc. 10:16.]
And the angel, being before him, 2) helped them.
(8) This is how they were preserved in Egypt and on the Red Sea by the angel.
1) According to the Keri: i^>; in the Kethib: rr^.
2) Erlanger: taeist instead of: iaeiei.
Cap. 63, 10. But they embittered and outraged His Holy Spirit.
9) Not that there is such a movement of the heart with God, but because there is such a movement with godly people, 3) who are angered and provoked to anger because of the wickedness and ingratitude of the world. This is how Moses and Aaron were grieved. Thus it is written in the first book of Moses Cap. 6, 6: "It grieved him" 2c.
Cap. 63, 11. And he remembered the previous time again.
(10) After they recognized their sin, he reconciled himself to them again. He mentions primarily Moses, and not David, because he gave the law through Moses, and through Moses he promised good as well as threatened evil. Here, too, it must be noted that GOD is not moved by our merits, but by His mercy. For he speaks, GOD fei been moved, not by the present people, but by the past people, to whom he had made the promise. But the promises make it so that our prayers are heard and reconcile GOD, as David prays everywhere, "For your name's sake, O LORD, be merciful," 2c. [Ps. 25, 11.] Thus all works and merits are excluded, and GOD hears the prayers for His name's sake, for His word's sake, for His promise's sake, and for His own sake, not for our worthiness.
(11) This passage is useful for us to hope that God will help us, even though we are sinners, and to learn to pray, as it were, against our conscience, saying, "Although I am a sinner, you do not trust sinners, but hear them, as you promised. But this is an exceedingly difficult work, and without faith quite impossible.
Where then is he that leadeth them out of the sea.
12. after recounting the previous benefits, he turns to prayer and asks in the person of the people who went to Babylon
3) Erlanger: üt instead of: kit in the Wittenberger.
You gave Moses, who led our ancestors through the Red Sea; oh, if you would also send your people, when they will be captives, a Moses, who will lead them out of captivity, as out of another Red Sea. Even among them there were many wicked, and yet you allowed the redemption to take place for the sake of the godly; do this also now. So I take this prayer to be especially for the captive people, not for the synagogue, which is so fallen that it cannot be restored to its former state.
Cap. 63, 14: As the cattle go down into the field.
13 Thus he indicates the greatest certainty with which they were led out of the Red Sea. All this, however, as I have explained above
1 ff], he says, in order to arouse confidence and also to strengthen it, so that he could arrange the prayer all the better.
Cap. 63, 15. Look now from heaven.
14. He provokes God to zeal for his name and honor for himself, so that he may show that he does not want to be of the same mind as the tyrants of Babylon. As if to say: If we perish, your name and your honor will suffer danger. For you promised that you would be God to this people; therefore it is not this people that will be attacked, but your name and your honor, since they are so miserably held captive by the godless heathen.
Cap. 63, 16. For Abraham does not know about us.
This is a good passage against the invocation of the saints. For the gloss is useless: Abraham knew nothing of us, namely, when he lived. Rather, Abraham believed, and through faith he knew that he would have descendants. Here the school theologians dispute whether the saints see our misery. But the Scripture says that they sleep. Therefore we should know and believe that they have died to us. But how they live is not our business, for this is not revealed to us by the Word.
And it is enough that we know that they have died to us. Therefore, they shall not be called upon by us. Our only recourse is not to the saints, especially to those who have died, but to God, who is a Father from eternity. No matter how much they may have been fathers, they have now ceased to be fathers.
Cap. 63, 17. Why do you let us, O Lord, stray from your ways?
(16) These are the words of a fervent heart: "O Lord, why then hast thou caused us to err? We do not understand this movement, so we will take it privately that the opinion is this: Because we did not want to hear your word, you let us err and sin, as it is wont to happen: Sin is punished with sin. The negligence in the word and in prayer, which we do not pay attention to at the beginning, is gradually followed by a noticeable transgression, until finally a habit of sinning is formed, so that we err without end.
Return again for the sake of your servants.
17 Here he distinguishes the godly from the godless. At least spare for the sake of the godly, of whom there are still many. For God sends misfortune for the sake of the wicked. But because in this life the godly live among the godless, it happens that the godly must also bear a very large part of this misfortune, and the godless, on the other hand, enjoy that good which God gives in the world for the sake of the godly. In the future life, however, the godly will be separated from the godless, who alone will endure the well-deserved punishment.
Cap. 63, 19. And we were not called by your name.
They rage against us as if we had no God. For he accuses the devil and the Babylonians of raging indiscriminately against the godly and the godless, against God Himself, and against the worship of God. Through this unseemly procedure, however, the heart is lifted up, and faith is strengthened, so that prayer becomes stronger and more fervent.
Cap. 64, 1. Oh that you would rend the heavens.
019 They despise thee as a weak God, because thou art hid in the temple like a mouse in a hole. Come, show that you have a far more splendid seat and place: Rend the heavens, and come down. "The mountains" are the princes and the mighty in the world, who are harder than iron and demonds when they sense a happy progress. On the other hand, when God comes to visit them, they are softer than water. We see the same thing in heretics and works saints for their person, when they are attacked by temptations of which they are not aware. This is exactly what the prophet wanted to show with the simile of hot water.
V. 2: That your name may be known among your enemies.
20 As if he wanted to say: They cannot be corrected in any other way than by plagues, as Pharaoh finally says in the middle of the Red Sea: "Let us flee from Israel, the Lord is fighting against us" [Ex 14:25]. He did not realize or see this before the disaster.
V. 3. by the miracles you do 2c.
21 [Instead of: Cum feceris mirabilia, non sustinebimus in the Vulgate] translate: Faciendo miracula, quae non expectabamus. But it is a glorious consolation for the afflicted. For in all divine works there is first of all the greatest weakness and the utmost despair, so that reason may be utterly convinced that there is neither counsel nor help left. Therefore, when God finally redeems, He redeems in such a way that it exceeds human desire and understanding. This is what he did with the children of Israel in Egypt, and likewise at the Red Sea. For they had never entertained the hope that they would go forth with the treasures of all the land of Egypt, nor that they would see their enemies perish before their face.
(22) Therefore, the prophet indicates the nature of faith when he says: "It is not understood. For faith expects that which it neither sees nor feels, and which is quite incomprehensible, not only in its essence but also in its greatness,
and after all pieces, and about that which we can ask and desire.
V. 4: As it is not heard from the world, nor is it heard with the ears.
This is a general description of faith, which must not only be applied to the life to come, but to all cases and examples of faith, just as the author of the epistle to the Hebrews makes this description, that faith is an expectation of things hoped for [Heb 11:1]. But such things must be hoped for, of which Isaiah says here that no eye sees them, and they are not heard with ears, but must be expected with simple faith. For there are always new cases in which one must prove his faith, and of which one has no particular example. (For we do not exclude the general examples of faith.) But just as we are always confronted with new tribulations, so we are always confronted with unexpected and unexpected salvation.
(24) Paul, according to his custom, applied this general saying to a particular thing [1 Cor. 2:9]. For that which is spoken in general can be applied to particular things without detriment to the general saying.
V. 5. You meet the joyful.
(25) To make the misery even greater, he holds the time of Babylonian misery against a more blissful one, when God was gracious to His own, helped them and heard them. In former times, he says, you met your own with help and answer, there were happier times; there the people were blissful and cheerful, since everything went well for them, since righteousness and godliness were flourishing among the people 2c.
Behold, you are well wroth.
26. this also belongs to the praise of the past times, that God was not only merciful to them, but also forgave them when they had sinned. For I would rather take it this way than from the time of the captivity, that even if they sinned, God would redeem them one day 2c.
V. 6. But now we are all like the unclean.
27 Here he begins the other part of the comparison, namely the time of the Babylonian captivity. So blissful were the former times; but now it is as if all, as many as they are. Were evil. There is an emphasis in the word "all". For he calls them "unclean" because they are kept like the unclean and ungodly.
And all our righteousness is like a foul meid.
We have sometimes used this passage against human righteousness. This view is good, but it is not the real meaning of this passage. For since the prophet sees that many righteous people were led into captivity when Nehemiah, Ezra and others were, it grieves him that for the wicked's ungodliness the righteous people were kept longer in captivity. As if he wanted to say: For the sake of five righteous people you would have given Sodom to Abraham; here are more godly people, and yet you deal with them in the same way as if they themselves were also godless and unclean. They have to bear the punishment of ungodliness, although they are righteous, just as if they themselves had also 1) sinned. This heart movement of the captive people is expressed here by the prophet.
29. But there are other sayings in Scripture that condemn human righteousness. Like the saying, "Lord, do not enter into judgment with your servant, for there is no living man righteous before you" [Ps. 143:2]. "When ye have done all, say, We are unprofitable servants" [Luc. 17, 10.]. And in the prayer of the Lord: "Forgive us our debts" [Matth. 6, 12.]. And in the Psalm: "For this all the saints will ask you" 2c. [Ps. 32, 6.] Therefore our righteousness is truly defiled. Therefore we have another righteousness apart from us, in Christ, by which we are justified and holy, Phil. 3, 9.
1) The preceding words, from the first "as if they themselves also," are missing in the Wittenberg.
V. 7. No one calls on your name.
(30) Although there were many godly people in captivity who called upon the name of God, he says that this calamity of captivity with which we are oppressed is proof that there is no one who truly calls upon God or keeps Him, for otherwise we would be delivered.
For you hide your face from us.
31 He says: We see nothing but sin, threats, fear and terror. For the face of God is twofold: the inward, when he kindly drips into our hearts the word of comfort and forgiveness of sins. The outward, when he also gives outward lovely things, as peace, happy progress, abundance of all things, and takes away the wrath, swarms, famine, pestilence, wars, etc., which are the devil's face. Thus he promises to Moses 2 Mos. 33, 2) 14. [Vulg.]: "My face shall pass before thee, and I will give thee rest." The 4th Psalm, v. 7, calls this face "the light of his countenance", and here and there it is called "light" in the holy scriptures. But God hides His face when He takes away His word and good deeds, and the law, sin, wars, famine and other misfortunes remain.
V. 8. Now, Lord, you are our Father.
So far, the prophet has summarized all the motives with which he could both raise himself up and move God to help. Now he adds an emphatic resolution: What does it need much words? "You are our Father", our faith clings to you, although the outward appearance of things and the senses tell us that you are angry with our sins 2c.
We are Thon, you are our potter.
33. he brings up the promise. You promised to be our potter [Is. 45, 9]. We have been a sinful clay, therefore you have kneaded us into a dough. Well then, form us anew, and heal us.
2) In the issues: Lxo6. 32.
redeem us. Otherwise, we will be considered not to be your clay, but dung in the alley.
V. 9. See that we are all of the people.
These are the last tears. You have no other people but us. Therefore, your name and honor will be in danger where you do not help us.
Thus this chapter contains a battle of faith, which feels nothing but wrath all around, and yet it breaks through and believes that wrath will not last forever. But such examples are necessary in the temptations. For this is the greatest art, if one can be wise here, that when there is anger and tribulation, one thinks that God is only acting as if he were angry. For the flesh judges according to the senses and the outward appearance.
The people of the world have a false appearance and cannot be uplifted by remembrance and the hope of future help.
V. 10. The cities of your sanctuary have become desolate.
He remembers the city and the temple, not because of the wood and the stones, but because it was founded on God's word, and because God had bound Himself to this place through the word. Therefore, he also calls it the holy city, not because of the people, but because of the first and second commandments, because God's Word and Name were in it. Thus every Christian is holy, although he is defiled according to himself and his nature. Thus he also calls the temple "a house of holiness" because holy things were performed there, because there one sacrificed, taught, sang and prayed, and performed the other things that the word of God required.