Isaiah 59

Wesley: he speaks of sentences in courts of judicature. Truth is cast to the ground and justice trampled under foot even in public. Equity will not be admitted in their courts.

This is Judah’s square. Courts can still turn around. Stumbled truth is a fall that happened in the open; entering can still be allowed if the people who just confessed (vv. 12–13) make room.

Calvin: not a return to punishments, but a further showing of the disease. Judgment is driven back because they have overthrown justice among themselves. In the street—public places of sentence. If judgments are corrupted, all things are infected; unbridled licentiousness is not ashamed of the light.

In vain we expect from God what we have refused to others. The confession of vv. 9–13 does not yet repair the square; the next verses will show God himself stepping in.

Wesley: all things are amiss. He that departs from evil is a prey—or accounted mad, laughed at. Josephus: before Jerusalem’s destruction it was scorn to be religious. The wicked, like wild beasts, devour such as are not as bad as themselves. Where wickedness rules, innocency is oppressed.

Departing from evil remains an act, and it costs. The Lord seeing and displeased is not indifference. Judah’s prey is the righteous remnant.

Calvin: whoever wishes to live among them must vie in wickedness; the innocent shall be torn as a sheep by wolves. Then consolation: though they have grievously offended, the Lord will have regard to his people and remember his covenant. He speaks of a future aid after calamities, lest the Jews lose heart.

First reprove so they cease to find fault with God; then promise mitigation, because he is unwilling that his Church perish. He punishes for a time so as not to suffer them to be ruined.

Wesley: no man to appear in behalf of equity. His arm—he would do his work without help from any other. Righteousness—his justice; seeing none among them, he would avenge the innocent himself.

Arminian and Reformed share the load here: when intercession is missing, God does not leave Zion without a Savior. The empty office does not cancel the arm. What they could not supply, he brings. The later Redeemer (v. 20) is already in this arm.

Calvin: no man to render assistance to the Church. He wondered—made himself astonished—that none came forward. The verb puts Jews to shame: was greater obstinacy possible, that they moved God to astonishment? He found not even one upright man. Hence the unspeakable mercy of rescuing, as from hell, a people whose condition was desperate.

Redemption of the Church is a wonderful blessing bestowed by God alone, from first to last. His arm brought salvation—not that God saves himself, but that he delivers the Church. Borrow nothing from any but him. When all remedies fail, sufficient assistance is in his own arm.

Wesley: God, resolving to appear as a man of war, puts on his arms. Righteousness as breastplate—justness of his cause and faithfulness to his promises. Vengeance—for their sakes whom he will destroy, his people’s enemies. Zeal—for his own honor and his people. Cause and effect together: righteousness and zeal in God; salvation to his people, vengeance on his enemies.

Shared christology: Paul will dress the church in this armor (Eph 6; 1 Thess 5:8) because the Lord wore it first. The Warrior is the same Redeemer who comes to Zion.

Calvin equips God with armor to confirm believers and strip confidence in human strength. From his righteousness, power, grace, and ardent love he makes complete armor. Our minds fasten on inferior means; Isaiah presents this description so we know God wants nothing to deliver us.

Vengeance and indignation as a cloak relate to enemies, against whom God is enraged for his people’s sake. The more Satan labors, the more God kindles with zeal. By his power alone he will defeat their efforts. Paul later clothes saints in the same pieces because they fight in the Warrior’s wake, not in a second timetable.

Wesley: he will recompense adversaries with the fury they have deserved. Islands—remoter nations under the king of Babylon that thought themselves secure.

Their deeds and God’s repayment match. Wrath is moral, not arbitrary. The God who heals mourners (57:18) still repays; gospel-wide mercy does not undo this verse.

Calvin: salvation of the Church is connected with destruction of the wicked; God must be armed against enemies who wish to destroy us. Infinite love: he bears hostility to our enemies and will render recompense. He sets a higher value on his little flock than on the whole world.

Begin with Satan, who is their head. Coastlands: to deliver his people he overthrew monarchies that appeared invincible. The repayment is the Lord’s, not a human crusade.

Wesley: they shall worship the Lord from the western part of the world, and his glory from the east. At what time soever the devil or his instruments make violent irruptions upon the church, God shall make himself known to defend them by his Spirit alone.

West and sunrise are the nations, the same horizon as 56:7 and 57:19. Fear here is worship. The rushing stream is the Lord’s coming. Spirit-defense of the church is already the gospel age’s help.

Calvin: the work of redemption shall be so splendid that the whole world shall wonder and, struck with fear, render glory. He prefers the conversion of the Gentiles: even to the utmost boundaries the name of God shall be revered, that they may serve him with true repentance. The enemy’s attack like a torrent shall subside because the Lord causes it.

Do not limit this to Babylon only or isolate it from Christ. The period after the return is included, and it was not fulfilled but in Christ, who achieved conquest over Satan, sin, and death.

Wesley: the Redeemer is Christ, of whom the apostle expounds it, Romans 11:26. The prophets usually conclude temporal deliverances with spiritual promises, of which the temporal were evident types. He comes to them that turn from transgression in Jacob.

Shared christology: Wesley and Calvin agree this is Christ coming to Zion. The turning is a grace-enabled return; the promise meets those who turn. Temporal return from exile is type, not a substitute for the Redeemer.

Calvin: the people shall be delivered, and God is the author. Zion denotes captives who carried the temple in their hearts. Not indiscriminately to all of Abraham’s line—redemption comes to those consecrated to the Lord, who turn from iniquity. External redemption may extend to hypocrites, but they have not embraced the blessing for salvation.

We cannot be reconciled through Christ’s blood unless we repent; yet salvation does not depend on repentance. They are joined, not mixed (against those who make justification partly pardon and partly renewal). Paul (Rom 11:26) infers a remnant among the Jews, because God’s gifts and calling are without repentance. Jews must at length be collected with the Gentiles, one fold under Christ. The Babylon deliverance is treated, and the kingdom of Christ is included.

Wesley: my covenant—what I have promised to them that turn from their iniquity. My words—uttered by virtue of my Spirit. Of thy seed—perpetual presence of his word and Spirit with the prophets, apostles, and teachers of the church to all ages.

Spirit and word stay in the mouth of a turning people and their children. Forevermore is the church’s age. The same Redeemer who comes to Zion keeps speaking by ministers until the end. Turning and remaining under the word are the grace-enabled life of those in the covenant.

Calvin: covenant points to the greatness of the promise—the foundation that upholds the mass. Implied contrast: look forward to the new covenant established in Christ’s hand. The Spirit that is upon thee and the words: God trains to patience and brings us back to doctrine. Word and Spirit must not be separated; the spirit of Satan is what is separated from the word.

He will never forsake his people. He addresses us through men like ourselves; it is vain for those who reject ministers to boast of obeying God. The Church will not be deprived of this blessing. When tempted by adversity, look here: we shall never be left destitute of the word and the Spirit.