Isaiah 49

But Zion said, The LORD has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me. Wesley: But—this is an objection. How can these things be true, when the condition of God’s church is now so desperate? The complaint is the church’s, after 49:13 has already said the LORD has comforted his people.

The objection is honest, not a feint. Desperate circumstance looks like forgetfulness; the next verses answer it without making the cry a puppet-string. Zion speaks; forsaken and forgotten are the words. The Servant who is light for the nations and covenant of the people has not dropped Zion. The fork is whether the cry is mainly a circumstantial objection, or, with Calvin, distrust that almost shuts the road.

But Zion said, Jehovah hath forsaken me. Calvin: in order to magnify his grace the more, God complains that the hearts of the Jews were so narrow and close that the road was almost shut against him. Despair creeps in when God delays; unbelief is manifested by not relying on the promises. He remonstrates with the Jews for rejecting by wicked distrust the salvation offered to them; he will be kind and bountiful toward them beyond the measure of their faith. The whole Church is in the accusation; God strives with them so that by his salvation he may break through. Zion said it; the LORD answers it. Whether the cry is unbelief God still outruns.

Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Wesley’s head-note on the stretch: God’s love to his church perpetual. The nursing comparison is the LORD’s own answer to Zion’s cry.

A mother’s compassion is the measure, and God outruns even that. The word is held out seriously; Zion is not told she was never forgotten in some hidden ledger. Even these may forget; I will not. The covenant of the people from 49:8 still stands. The point is the LORD who will not forget.

Shall a woman forget her child! Calvin: he adds to the remonstrance an exhortation full of the sweetest consolation. He chose to liken himself to a mother, and calls them not merely children but the fruit of the womb. Even if they shall forget, still he will never forget his people. The affection which he bears toward us is far stronger and warmer than the love of all mothers. God, who is goodness itself, will not lay aside a father’s love.

Comfort: inconceivable carefulness; we may be fully convinced he will never forsake us, though afflicted with great calamities. Both readings hold: a woman may forget; he will not. The body under the Head is the people he will not forget.

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. Wesley: Graven—he alludes to the common practice of men who put signs upon their hands or fingers of such things as they would remember.

Remembrance is as near as the hand, not a later-age scheme. Walls before him means Zion is not lost to sight. The Servant given as covenant in 49:8 is the same LORD whose hands will not drop the people.

Calvin: a common proverb, that we have it on our fingers’ ends when anything is fully fixed on the memory. I cannot look at my hands without beholding thee in them; I carry thee engraved on my heart, so that no forgetfulness can efface thee; in a word, I cannot forget thee without forgetting myself. God has neither hands nor bodily shape; Scripture accommodates itself to our weak capacity. Thy walls: the peace and prosperity of the Church, of which God will be the unwearied guardian. Accomplished in desolation, when walls were down and everything nearly razed; he promises they shall be restored. A love that cannot forget.

Your children hurry. Your destroyers and those who devastated you will leave you. The head-note still governs: God’s love to his church perpetual. Builders hasten because he has not forgotten what is engraved.

Haste is restoration, not a feint. Destroyers actually go out. Neither side disputes this: builders in; wasters out. The land established and desolate heritages apportioned in 49:8 now have workmen.

Thy builders hasten. Calvin: it will indeed be thrown down, but afterwards built anew. Though God could rebuild the Church without the aid of men, he deigns to employ their hands; he alone by the Spirit completes the building, yet he blesses their labor. From him we ought to ask builders, and that he drive destroyers far away; Satan by innumerable arts invades the Church.

Pray for laborers and for their strength, and that attacks be warded off. Both agree: haste of builders; going out of destroyers. If the result is not according to expectation, Calvin says, blame our own sins—not a sneer at Wesley’s perpetual love, but the very LORD who builds.

Lift up your eyes all around, and see: all these gather themselves together, and come to you. As I live, says the LORD, you shall surely clothe yourself with them all as with an ornament, and dress yourself with them, like a bride does. Wesley: These—Gentiles. Thy church shall not only be restored, but vastly enlarged and adorned by the accession of the Gentiles.

The nations given light in 49:6 now become Zion’s clothing. The oath As I live makes the gathering sincere, not a later scheme of ages. Lift up your eyes; they come; bride’s ornament. The conversion of the Gentiles is the glory, as already in 49:12.

Lift up thine eyes round about. Calvin: he arouses the Church to survey this magnificent work. The elect of the Church are gathered into one bosom, one fold under one shepherd. Whoever would be regarded as a child of God, let him be a son of the Church; all who are separated from it will be aliens from God. The true ornament of the Church is a great number of children brought to her by faith and guided by the Spirit. I live, saith Jehovah: an oath against distrust. Do not be terrified by being inconsiderable in number; many of the elect, now wandering, God will assemble. They gather; the bride is clothed. Zion’s children come by faith.

For your waste and desolate places, and your land that has been destroyed, will now be too small for the inhabitants, and those who swallowed you up will be far away. Wesley: Thy waste places—thy own land, whereof divers parts lie waste for want of people to possess them. Land of destruction—which before was desolate and destroyed.

The desperate church of v. 14 becomes too small for her children. Not a map of later Israels. Waste filled; swallowers far. The desolate heritages of 49:8 are now overcrowded.

God speaks to Zion’s desolate places. Calvin: the Church which was long waste may speedily have many inhabitants, so that the place may be too narrow. He means not only the return from Babylon, but the restoration through Christ, when the Church was spread throughout the whole world. Destroyers shall remove far away: God will drive them far, not that the Church shall ever enjoy perfect peace, but that the kingdom of Satan might not grow out of her ruins.

Christ, not a later-age chart, is the spread. Weakness is borne with; enemies are restrained.

The children of your bereavement will say in your ears, This place is too small for me. Give me a place to live in. Wesley: The children—those Gentiles which shall be begotten by thee, when thou shalt be deprived of thine own natural children, when the generality of the Jews cut themselves off from God.

Gentile issue when Jewish children are lost is the conversion already promised as light for the nations in 49:6, and not a sneer at Jacob. Jacob was still to be brought back in 49:5–6; those who cut themselves off do so. Bereavement has children; This place is too small.

Shall again say in thine ears. Calvin: he compares her to a widowed or barren mother; the remembrance of the nation appeared to have perished. The children of thy bereavement are those who, contrary to expectation, had been given to her who was bereaved and barren. This happened when the Lord collected innumerable persons out of the whole world; suddenly the Church which had been empty was filled.

Again means God can restore what he formerly gave, though withdrawn for a time. Too narrow; make room. Not only Babylon; the Church’s increase, Gentiles associated with Jews, as already in 49:6.

Then you will say in your heart, Who has conceived these for me, since I have been bereaved of my children and am alone, an exile, and wandering back and forth? Who has brought these up? Behold, I was left alone. Where were these come? Wesley: Who—whence have I this numberless issue? Seeing I was in a manner left childless. Desolate—without an husband, being forsaken by God, who formerly owned himself for my husband. The heart-cry matches v. 14’s forgotten-me, now turned to astonishment at issue. The husband who seemed to forsake is the same LORD. Bereaved, barren, left alone—yet these. Numberless children from where she had none.

And thou shalt say in thy heart. Calvin: the restoration will be wonderful; children of God are born not from flesh and blood but by the secret power of God. By nature we have no share in the kingdom of God. Who would have thought that Gentiles of their own accord desired to be associated with the Jews? The partition-wall hindered foreigners from entering. The Church is called barren not because God hath forsaken her, but because his presence is not always visible. The Lord, who has no need of human aid, begets his children by the astonishing power of his Spirit.

Do not be distressed beyond measure if the Church resemble a bereaved woman; he can raise her in a moment. Both hear: who has conceived these for me, since. The fork on how they are begotten waits in v. 22; here both hear astonishment.

Thus says the Lord GOD says, Behold, I will lift up my hand to the nations, and lift up my banner to the peoples; they shall bring your sons in their bosom, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders. Wesley: Behold—I will call them to me. Set my standard—as generals do to gather their forces together. Thy sons—those who shall be thine by adoption, that shall own God for their father, and Jerusalem for their mother. Carried—with great care and tenderness, as nurses carry young infants.

The call is earnest, the adoption is true, the carrying is tender. Nations bring sons because the Servant is already light for the nations (49:6). The passage is not a chart of military ages. Both see: hand lifted; signal raised; sons and daughters carried.

I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles. Calvin: he will give children to the Church not only from among the Jews but from among the Gentiles. This generation shall be spiritual through the grace of adoption. Those who think the hand and banner are nothing more than the preaching of the Gospel, and set aside the power of the Spirit, are mistaken; both ought to be united. All the Gentiles will assist him; this ought to be extended to all the elect of God.

The banner is Gospel and Spirit together, not a bare word. The covenant of the people in 49:8 now has a worldwide gather.

Kings shall be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down to you with their faces to the earth, and lick the dust of your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; and those who wait for me won’t be disappointed. Wesley: Lick the dust—they shall highly reverence and honour thee. These expressions are borrowed from the practice of the eastern people, who bowed so low as to touch the ground. Ashamed—their expectations shall not be disappointed. The wait is not disappointed because the LORD is who he says. Kings honoring Zion is. Agreed on both sides: foster fathers; nursing mothers; waiters not ashamed. The light for the nations now has kings in the nurse’s office.

Kings shall be thy nursing fathers. Calvin: this relates not to the common people only but to kings, who shall supply what is necessary for nourishing the Church’s offspring. Having formerly driven out Christ, they shall acknowledge him to be the supreme King. The honor belongs to Christ; when bestowed on the Church it still continues to belong undivided to him alone. By the obedience of piety kings yield to the doctrine of Christ, not to the yoke of men. They shall not be ashamed: God will not suffer those who hope in him to be ashamed. I am Jehovah: he connects his own truth with our salvation.

Kings as guardians of the Word, not a palace gospel. Undisputed: kings and queens; dust of the feet; waiters not ashamed. The Head is honored in the body.

Can the plunder be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captives be rescued? Wesley: Shall the prey—here is a double impediment to their deliverance, the power of the enemy who kept them in bondage, and the justice of God which pleads against their deliverance.

Both bars are true. The enemy is mighty; justice also pleads. The next verse is not a denial of either but I the almighty God will undertake. No dispute here: prey, mighty, captives. The prisoners told to come out in 49:9 now look unrescuable.

Shall the plunder be taken from the mighty? Calvin: it might have been thought incredible that the Jews should be rescued from so powerful an enemy. The Church is called the prey of the mighty and the captivity of the righteous, that is, lawful captivity—as if the conqueror were a righteous possessor. This is shamefully wicked, but thus were our fathers treated. The question is the people’s; he immediately replies.

The Church looks like just prey, exposed to the jaws of wolves. Neither side disputes this: can prey be taken. The fork is Wesley’s second bar—the justice of God pleading against—versus Calvin’s lawful-captivity metaphor, which he will answer by calling the tyrants robbers.

Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will save your children. Wesley: For I—I the almighty God will undertake this work.

The double impediment of v. 24 is not stronger than this I. Captives of the mighty are actually taken; children actually saved. I will contend; I will save. The Servant’s prisoners in 49:9 are here the children he saves. Those who stay bound do not stay because he would not undertake.

The prey of the tyrant shall be delivered. Calvin: however they boast of a right to govern, the Lord declares they are most wicked robbers. God does not overturn just dominion; hence their dominion over the people of God is robbery. This promise relates also to the tyranny of Satan, from which we are rescued by the wonderful power of God; he takes away his arms and demolishes his fortresses. I will contend with him that contendeth with thee; I will save thy children. When we are saved, it is not a work of man.

Commit the whole matter to God alone. Captives taken; children saved. Calvin’s Satan-clause is the same mighty one the Gospel already unbound in 49:9, not a second gospel.

I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, the LORD, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Wesley’s head-note on the stretch: its powerful deliverance out of captivity. All flesh knowing is the public end of Zion’s forgotten-me.

Savior and Redeemer are names held out so that flesh may know, not a private ledger. The Mighty One of Jacob is the same LORD who named the Servant Israel in 49:3 and made him a light for the nations. Neither side disputes this: oppressors fall; all flesh shall know. The point is the LORD your Savior.

I will feed thy oppressors with their own flesh. Calvin: they shall slay each other by mutual slaughter; struck with giddiness they wear themselves out, as the Midianites did. All flesh shall know: he will be acknowledged by all to be the God of Israel and the true and only God, when he has delivered his people. The Mighty One of Jacob: he testifies that he is the Savior, Redeemer, and Mighty One of Israel, that they may rely with their whole heart on his defense.

A demonstration of his Divinity. Agreed on both sides: all flesh; Savior; Redeemer; Mighty One of Jacob. The Head’s people are kept; the nations see it. Comfort from 49:13 lands as knowledge, not as a scheme of ages.