Isaiah 26

Wesley: Will not learn—this is the carriage of thy people; but the course of wicked men is directly contrary in all conditions: for if thou dost spare them, they will not accept of that gracious invitation to repentance. In the land—even in God’s church, and among his people, where righteousness is taught and practiced. Will not behold—tho’ God gives such plain discoveries of his majesty and glory, not only in his word, but also in works, and especially in this glorious work of his patience and mercy to wicked men, yet they will not acknowledge it. On this both agree: favor shown; righteousness not learned.

Favor itself is an invitation, and the wicked receive it and still will not learn. Arminians stress that the refusal is theirs, even in a land where uprightness is taught.

Calvin: the wicked man will obtain favour, yet will he not learn righteousness. Isaiah contrasts this with the remnant who learn by judgments (v. 9). In the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord. Spare him, and he still corrupts the land where righteousness is taught.

Favor is shown to the wicked, yet they do not learn righteousness.

Wesley: Will not see—and they are guilty of the same obstinate blindness when thou dost smite and punish them, which is commonly signified by lifting up the hand. They shall see—they shall know that by sad experience, which they would not learn by easier ways. These—such fire or wrath as thou usest to pour forth upon thine implacable enemies. Common reading: hand lifted; they do not see; fire for adversaries.

They might yet see by the harder way.

Calvin: O Jehovah, though thy hand is lifted up, they will not see. This explains the former statement: the same blindness under blows as under favor. But they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy at the people; the fire of thine enemies shall devour them. Seeing comes too late when fire is the lesson.

They do not see; let fire consume.

Wesley: Our works—all the good works done by us, are the effects of thy grace. Peace ordained; all our works are his.

“You have done all our works for us.” Wesley and Calvin agree that every good work is God’s grace working through his people.

Calvin: O Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. This statement tends to the consolation of the godly. Peace is his appointment; even what we call our works he has wrought. The remnant does not boast a self-made city.

Ordained peace is still his. All our works done by thee.

Wesley: Other lords—others besides thee, and besides those governors who have been set up by thee, even foreign and heathen lords. By thee—by thy favour and help. Will we—celebrate thy praise. Common to both: other lords ruled; your name alone we remember.

Foreign lords over Judah—Assyria, then Babylon—not a modern occupation story. The name remembered is the LORD’s.

Calvin: O Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us: but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. This verse contains a complaint of the saints, that they were oppressed by tyrants. Other lords are those not appointed as fathers, foreign dominion. Yet they will mention his name alone, which v. 8 desired.

Agreed on both sides: your name alone.

Wesley: Rise—those tyrants are destroyed; they shall never live or rise again to molest us. Neither side disputes this: dead lords will not rise; remembrance wiped out.

Verse 19 will contrast the church’s dead.

Calvin: the dead shall not live; the deceased shall not rise. The Prophet again speaks of the unhappy end of the tyrants. Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish. They are not the dead of v. 19. Memory perishes because the Lord visited them.

God has visited the oppressors with destruction.

Wesley: The nation—this nation seems to be the people of Israel. Removed—thou hast removed thy people out of their own land, and suffered them to be carried captive to the ends of the earth. Nation added; borders spoken.

Increase and removal can stand together in Israel’s story. Do not turn enlarged borders into a twenty-first-century map.

Calvin: thou hast added to the nation, O Lord; thou hast added to the nation; thou art glorified. This verse is explained in various ways. Some think it is a complaint of scattering; the doubling of added to the nation may praise increase after exile, or confess that he multiplied them even in removing them far to the ends of the earth. In either reading the glory is his, not the lofty city’s.

On this both agree: you are glorified.

Wesley: They—thy people. Visited—come into thy presence, with their prayers and supplications. Both confess: distress; whispered prayer; discipline upon them.

They might yet seek in the furnace. He already ordained peace.

Calvin: O Jehovah, in tribulation they have visited thee; they poured out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. This might be explained as relating to hypocrites; I take it of the godly, whose whispered prayer is poured when the rod is on them. Chastening drives the remnant to the name they remember.

Sought you in distress.

Wesley: Like—such was our anguish and danger. Either reading: pangs because of you, O LORD.

The simile is Judah’s anguish, not a claim that God does not know the end of the labor.

Calvin: like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain, and crieth out in her pangs; so have we been in thy sight, O Lord. Two things ought chiefly to be remarked. First, the Church’s anguish is deep before him. The pangs are because of you: his judgments, not chance.

Both sides agree: pangs like childbirth.

Wesley: We—we have had the torment of a woman in child-bearing, but not the comfort of a living child, for we have brought forth nothing but wind; all our labours and hopes were unsuccessful. The world—the Assyrians, or our other enemies. On this both agree: birth to wind; no deliverance we accomplished.

Their labor failed; his dead shall live in v. 19.

Calvin: we have as it were brought forth wind. The second thing to be remarked: they had the pain without the fruit. We have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen. What they could not bring forth, he will in v. 19.

Wind-birth is still their failed works. Both traditions see: no deliverance in the earth.

Wesley: Thy—the prophet here turns his speech to God’s people, and gives them a cordial in their distress. Thy dead men are not like those, v. 14, for they shall not live; but thine shall live. You shall be delivered from all your fears and dangers. My dead body—as I myself, who am one of these dead men, shall live again; you shall be delivered together with me. Awake—out of your sleep, even the sleep of death, you that are dead and buried in the dust. Thy dew—the favour and blessing of God upon thee. The dew—which makes them grow and flourish. Your dead shall live; dust-dwellers awake; dew of light.

Contrast with v. 14’s tyrants. Deliverance and resurrection-speech for Judah. Wesley’s “I myself shall live again” is hope.

Calvin: thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Isaiah continues the same consolation. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead. The church’s dead are not the shades of v. 14. Dust-sleepers are called to sing; dew from God raises what wind-birth could not.

People under other lords, resurrection-comfort in the same God who swallowed death in 25:8.

Wesley: Shut thy doors—withdraw thyself from the world, and pour out thy prayers to God in thy closet. Indignation—the dreadful effects of God’s anger, mentioned in the following verse. Agreed on both sides: chambers; shut doors; a little while; fury passing.

Hide is prayer, not despair. A little while: counted by him.

Calvin: come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast. He exhorts the children of God to exercise patience. Chambers: withdraw and pray; the fury is short for them though heavy on the earth of v. 21.

Both note: shut doors; wait.

Wesley: Cometh—cometh down from heaven. To punish—all the enemies of God, and of his people. Her slain—the innocent blood which hath been spilled upon the earth shall be brought to light, and severely revenged upon the murderers. The LORD comes out; earth discloses blood; slain uncovered.

The earth will disclose the blood of the remnant. The coming-out is the same Lord who ordained peace.

Calvin: for, behold, Jehovah cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain. It is a grievous temptation when God seems to rest; he comes out to punish. Blood hidden in the land of the oracles will not stay covered. The chambers of v. 20 are enough for a little while.

Common confession: punish iniquity; slain uncovered.