Isaiah 31

Wesley: horses—for Egypt had many and choice horses. Wesley heads vv. 1–3: the folly and punishment of trusting in Egypt. They go down for help and stay on those horses, and look not unto the Holy One of Israel.

The woe falls on those who count horses and chariots but never look to the Holy One. Trust in numbers blinds them to the one who actually rules.

Calvin: woe to them that go down to Egypt. He still cries loudly against the Jews, whose ordinary custom it was, in seasons of danger, to resort, not to the Lord, but to the Egyptians. Two reasons: it is impossible to place confidence for our salvation in creatures and at the same time in God; and God had expressly forbidden them to enter into alliance with the Egyptians. They have not looked to the Holy One of Israel; everything that shall turn away our minds from God will be to us like Egypt.

They defraud God of his right when they bestow on mortal men the glory due to him. The horses and chariots stay with eighth-century Egypt against Isaiah’s Judah.

Wesley: he is safe—you think you are safe, in engaging the Egyptians; but God is not inferior to them in wisdom or strength, and therefore you have done foolishly, in preferring them before him, who will execute his judgments upon you, notwithstanding all the Egyptians can do. The help—the helpers, as it is explained in the next verse.

God is wise too, and his word does not fail. Wesley points out the folly of treating Egypt as wiser or stronger than the LORD.

Calvin: yet he also is wise. By calling God wise, he does not merely bestow on him an attribute, but censures the craftiness of those too much delighted with their own wisdom. He said a little before that they dug caves for themselves; he now pours witty ridicule on this madness. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. He will arise against the house of the evil-doers, and against the aid of the workers of vanity.

They who shelter themselves under craftiness gain nothing but to provoke still more the wrath of God.

Wesley: flesh—weak and frail. The help of v. 2 is now named: he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together. Egyptians are men, and not God; their horses flesh, and not spirit.

“Egyptians are men, and not God; their horses flesh, and not spirit.” When the LORD stretches out his hand, helper and helped fall together. Human strength is a poor substitute for God’s.

Calvin: surely the Egyptian is a man, and not God; his horses flesh, and not spirit. The Jews ascribed to them the defense and preservation of the Church, which God claims for himself alone. As soon as Jehovah shall stretch out his arm, the helper shall fall, and he who is helped shall fall down, and all shall fail together. He threatens those who yield assistance to false confidence, as well as those who rely on it.

Whatever is attributed to man in such a contrast is taken from God. Helper and helped perish together in that history.”

Wesley: for—although you have done evil in sending to Egypt for help, yet the Lord himself will, of his own grace, give you that help which you do not deserve.

The lion does not flinch at the shouting shepherds; the Lord will not be driven off Zion. Wesley stresses that this help comes after the Egyptian embassy—grace given to people who had looked elsewhere.

Calvin: the Prophet adds this verse, that it may not be thought that the Lord leaves us destitute of necessary means. The Lord assists, and will assist; he forbids you to ask assistance from the Egyptians. By comparing himself to a lion, a very powerful animal and keenly bent on prey, he shews that he is in the highest degree both able and willing to defend us. He takes hold of his people, keeps them near himself, and is not terrified by the shepherds’ shouting.

If we despise the salvation he offers of his own accord, what pretense can be left? The lion stays over Mount Zion in Isaiah’s hearing.

Wesley: as birds—which come from above, and so cannot be kept off; which fly swiftly, and engage resolutely, when their young ones are in danger. Passing over—the destroying angel shall pass over Jerusalem.

God will pass over Jerusalem as he passed over Israel in Egypt. Wesley pictures birds protecting their young, swift and impossible to drive off.

Calvin: as birds that fly. The second comparison shews how great care the Lord takes of us, and how earnestly he is bent on making us happy. It is taken from birds, which almost kill themselves with hunger, and shrink from no danger, that they may defend and preserve their young. He will never forsake those whom he has once received into his favor. Wherever the worship of God is pure, salvation will be certain.

He mentions not only Mount Zion but its hill, for on that hill was built the temple. The hovering stays with Jerusalem in Isaiah’s century.”

Wesley heads vv. 6–7: if they will turn unto him. He does not gloss this verse.

The call to return comes right after the promise of protection (v. 5). The deep revolt is named honestly, and so is the way back.

Calvin: return according as you have made a deep revolt. He does not follow the Hebrew commentators who read, return to the Lord, for you have multiplied revolts. The aggravated nature of their wickedness does not shut the door against them from returning to God, if they repent. He uses this spur that they may not aim at a half repentance. O children of Israel: he does not intend to shew them respect, but reproaches them for their ingratitude; yet he means that the Lord had not forgotten the covenant with their fathers.

Not in vain does the Lord invite us to repentance; he likewise offers pardon. The turn stays with that generation’s revolt.

Wesley ties this verse to the call of v. 6 and the promise that follows “if they will turn unto him.”

Casting away the idols grows from the turning called for in v. 6. The silver and gold were made by their own hands, so the renunciation is theirs to make.

Calvin: he points out the fruits of repentance. Shall cast away the idols: the beginning of repentance is the change of the heart; next we come to outward fruits. He calls them the idols of his silver and of his gold, because they who sincerely repent do not spare any expense in order to possess the pure worship of God. Which your own hands have made: he bids them look to their own hands, that they may know they have committed so great a crime. God rejects everything that is of our contrivance.

When we persevere in being wicked, we restrain his grace from assisting us. The silver and gold stay with Israel’s sin.

Wesley: the sword—not of any man, but of an angel. Discomfited—Heb. shall melt away, a great part of them being destroyed by the angel; and the hearts of the rest melting for fear.

The prophecy is fulfilled in 37:36, when the Lord’s angel strikes the Assyrian camp. Jerusalem’s deliverance comes by no human sword, which is exactly why Egypt’s help was never needed.

Calvin: then the Assyrian shall fall down; that is, when you shall have turned to the Lord, and when your life shall testify a sincere repentance, then the enemy shall fall. By the sword not of a man: the deliverance of the Church is God's own work; God's secret power is sufficient to deliver them. This prediction was fulfilled when the Assyrian army was destroyed, and Sennacherib was put to flight; not by the arm of man was he destroyed. His young men shall melt away: the hearts of young men, who in other circumstances are wont to be fierce, shall be altogether softened and melt like wax.

Let us not inquire how it shall be done, but be satisfied with the bare promise. Asshur falls in that history.

Wesley: he—Sennacherib shall flee away, from Jerusalem, to his strong city of Nineveh. The ensign—of the Lord's ensign, which he hath lifted up against them. Whose fire—who is, and will appear to be in Zion, like a fire to defend his people, and to consume their enemies.

Sennacherib’s courage will fail and his officers will flee at the LORD’s banner. The LORD’s fire in Zion defends his people and consumes their enemies.

Calvin: he shall pass to his stronghold for fear. He now speaks of Sennacherib himself, who, trembling, shall betake himself in base and shameful flight to his fortress, Nineveh. His princes shall tremble at the banner. Who hath a fire in Zion: God is justly called a fire in reference to the Assyrians, whom he will consume; some take it of sacrifices, but that interpretation is feeble. This fire is kindled in Zion and Jerusalem, that the persecution of the Church by wicked men shall not pass unpunished.

Let us be fully convinced that the Lord will be a fire to our adversaries.