Isaiah 57

Wesley: the righteous are just and holy men; few or none lay it to heart as a sad sign of God’s displeasure. They are taken away from the evil to come.

Arminian readers hear a warning a people could have heeded. Mercy is not hiding; the sign is public. Hearts that will not be duly affected remain responsible. The devout are not lost; they are removed from a storm the living still refuse to name.

Calvin: we have been placed in a spacious theater to behold God’s works, and this event of providence is a mirror—he takes good men away when he means to chastise severely. No man considers it a token of approaching destruction. Wicked men deceive themselves, thinking long life the only happiness, and pluming themselves that they survive while servants of God die early.

God gathers the merciful and places them in safety from prevailing afflictions. Luther’s death before Germany’s war is Calvin’s modern instance of the same mercy. The death of the righteous is a call to the survivors, not a proof that the careless are favored.

Wesley: this just and merciful man enters rest, out of reach of approaching miseries. Beds are graves; death is sleep. The number shifts, as often in the prophets—he, then they.

Peace is a state the upright enter. It is not earned by surviving the drunk watchmen of 56:12. Walking in uprightness is the path grace enables; rest is the Lord’s gift when the path ends.

Calvin: peace shall come—more desirable than a thousand troubled lives, like soldiers discharged. They rest as if asleep on their beds. Whosoever walketh before him shall enjoy peace. They do not yet enjoy perfect glory, but wait for the resurrection.

Souls are immortal; if they had no feeling they could not enjoy peace. They live in Christ. The death of the righteous is precious; the death of the wicked is stormy. Faith yields some peace now, but the calm of being taken to himself is greater.

Wesley: draw near to God’s tribunal to receive sentence. Sons not by propagation but by imitation—not Abraham’s genuine children, but a bastardly brood whose dispositions fit the name.

Genealogy does not save. Imitation of sorcery and adultery is a chosen likeness. They can still draw near in another way; this summons is to judgment because they would not come in faith.

Calvin, after the peaceful death of the good, breaks out against the wicked who lead a base life unmoved. Good men enjoy peace; the wicked have ceaseless war. He orders them to the judgment-seat they hope to escape by disguises. The prophets beat down Jewish vanity of birth: not Abraham’s children, but bastards and traitors.

The contrast is walkers before God versus rebels. Hardened hearts need harsh excitation. They gain nothing by refusal; they shall be dragged forward.

Wesley: consider whom you mock when you deride God’s prophets. A seed of liars whose practices contradict their professions, dealing deceitfully with God and men.

Mockery of the word is not a private joke. Children of transgression can still stop opening the mouth. The question is meant to wake, not merely to brand.

Calvin: they boast of birth while they mock God and the prophets, thinking they deal only with men. Drag them to the light: if there be a God in heaven, they carry on war with him. Opening the mouth and putting forth the tongue describe wickedness that has left the heart and reached public jeers.

They are a lying seed; such contempt could not be found in Abraham’s children. The more they despise what is held out in God’s name, the more must the sacrilege be exposed.

Wesley: inflaming—lusting after idols, mad upon them. Slaying children as sacrifice. Valleys allude to Hinnom; clefts chosen for shade or dark vaults convenient to idolatry.

It is Israel’s cult: groves, Hinnom, child-sacrifice. Madness here is culpable imitation of Abraham without Abraham’s command. Grace still forbids the valley; they chose it.

Calvin: idolatrous ardor compared to a harlot’s love—no moderation, no reclaiming by argument. In God’s sight idolatry is a base fornication. Whether oaks or gods, the prophet condemns idolatry and shows they are not Abraham’s true seed.

Sacrificing children, cloaked under Abraham who did not spare Isaac—yet Isaac was not slain, and Abraham acted by command. Satan drives error to furious madness. Superstition often springs from this wicked imitation of the fathers without the word.

Wesley: thou hast chosen for thy portion those idols worshipped by brooks where smooth stones lie. Thou hast forsaken me. The devil is God’s ape: idolaters used the rites prescribed for the Lord. Should I be pleased with such a people and such actions?

Portion and lot are chosen. God asks whether he should take comfort in this. The answer is no—and the question is still a mercy, because it could have turned them.

Calvin continues: no corner free of monuments. They chose their own worship and turned from the Law’s rule. “They, they are thy lot”—emphatic permission, as if God said, Keep your inventions; I have nothing to do with traitors. He alludes to Moses: the Lord was to be their portion (Num 18:20).

Drink-offerings alienated to false gods kindle wrath the longer they last. “Shall I take pleasure in these things?” Men think God likes what they like. He declares that nothing pleases him but what agrees with his word.

Wesley: high places used by Israelites and heathens. The bed is the altar of spiritual whoredom with idols.

Going up is voluntary. Altitude does not make the bed holy. The mountain that should have been the Lord’s (56:7) is turned into a shrine of desertion.

Calvin: superstitious persons commit fornication with idols by forsaking the word and violating holy marriage with God. Setting the bed on a lofty place means they are not ashamed—like a harlot who has lost all shame. Altars and groves are the beds; sacrificers are abandoned harlots.

They imagined they obeyed God; the Lord rejects what men contrive according to their own pleasure.

Wesley: behind the posts where heathens set tutelar gods. Remembrance—monuments of idol-gods. Uncovered to another than the husband; enlarged the bed to receive many adulterers; multiplied idols; covenanted to serve them.

Covenant with idols is a contract they made. Deuteronomy told them to write the Law on the posts; they wrote another loyalty. Desertion is not an accident of culture; it is a widened bed.

Calvin hears Moses: the Law on doorposts (Deut 6:9). They polluted the same posts with idolatry and forgot God. The married wife, uncovered, enlarged her bed, made a covenant with them, loved their bed at a glance.

Hasty love for any place of worship we select is diabolical sagacity. God commands the eyes fixed on himself and his word, closed against everything else.

Wesley: the king of Assyria, to whom Israel in Isaiah’s days was prone to trust and send presents. The prophet passes from idolatry to confidence in heathen princes. Far off—Assyria. Debase—willing to submit to the basest terms for aid.

Two sins, one heart—idols at home, a king abroad. Trust can still be recalled from Sheol’s embassy. The weariness of v. 10 will show the road was chosen, not assigned.

Calvin: ungodliness begets errors and drives frivolous minds into distress. Hearts estranged from God seek assistance elsewhere, and by great labor bring severer distresses. Without God’s authority they vex themselves in vain (Ps 127:2).

The Spirit’s punishment is that they wander and never rest. Assyria and Egypt, then Babylon, were unprofitable and fatal. Detestable is the confidence that, having forsaken God, places itself in human defenses (Jer 17:5).

Wesley: thou hast not eased but tired thyself. Yet thou didst not perceive the labor was lost. Sometimes thou foundest success in these ways, and therefore didst not repent.

Classical Arminians: “It is in vain” was the sentence they would not speak. Success that keeps a sinner ungrieved is a dreadful mercy abused. They could have turned when weary; they found a second wind for the same road.

Calvin: superfluous labors when men do not follow God. He taunts those who waste themselves rather than walk where God calls. Fools, when unsuccessful, usually repent; these are obstinate when even failure does not make them ask, What are you doing?

“Life of thine hand”—prosperity blinded them, or the prophet mocks a life they thought they had found. Treaties first with Egypt, then Assyria, then Babylon were destructive. They rush to ruin and will not gain wisdom by misery.

Wesley: who are they whose fear drives thee to these courses? Thou hast dealt perfidiously. Hast thou forgotten what I have done for thee? I forbore to punish from time to time, that by goodness I might oblige thee to love me. Therefore thou dost not fear me. Thou abusest my long-suffering.

Held peace was meant to draw love. Refusing to remember is a slight of patience that could have softened them. Fear of the wrong party crowded out fear of the Lord.

Calvin: true fear of God cannot exist where worship is not pure and agreeable to his word. Plausible forms are wickedness. Superstition tests whether they love him with all the heart (Deut 13:3). They have forgotten him—obstinate wickedness, not mere ignorance; they had a sure rule and broke the promise.

They abused forbearance that should have softened them. “Therefore thou dost not fear me, because I held my peace.” It was necessary that he assume another character and punish more severely. They cannot complain of excessive severity.

Their righteousness is named only to be exposed. Deeds that looked like worship—offerings, beds, envoys—will be announced as empty.

Profit is the test they used; God uses it against them. Works without refuge (v. 13) cannot buy the mountain. The declaration is still a call to drop the mask before the wind takes the collection.

Calvin, ironic: I will show what is the nature of your righteousness. So long as God holds his peace, the most unrighteous appear righteous; when he ascends the judgment-seat, baseness is dragged forth. Men judge by effect and profit; he threatens that the works from which they hoped profit shall be destructive.

The longest flattery ends when God speaks. Hypocrites’ righteousness is a file the Lord will read aloud.

Wesley: they shall be carried away suddenly by the blast of mine anger. Vanity—a vapour. Inherit—shall enjoy my favour and presence in my temple.

Classical Arminians hear the last line as a sincere refuge still offered. Collections of idols cannot deliver; taking refuge can. Land and holy mountain are restoration language—canonical. The same mountain that was a house of prayer for all peoples (56:7) is inherited by the one who trusts, Jew or joined Gentile.

Calvin: when they come to close quarters they shall be ashamed. Let thy troops deliver thee—they will not. All means of defense assembled without his authority are unavailing. Detestable is confidence that, having forsaken God, rests in this world.

What else do you seek than to remain safe and have the inheritance uninjured? It is I who can do this. Who brought you into this country? Our affairs succeed if we hope in the Lord; if we throw that away, we need not wonder that we waver. The mountain of holiness means life is desirable so that God may have a people who worship him purely.