Isaiah 60

Wesley: minister—administer all necessaries. As I afflicted thee in anger, so out of compassion I will abundantly bless thee. Strangers building walls is gospel gathering: Gentiles in the work.

Wrath and favor are serious. Zion was struck; the church is the same people under mercy. Kings can still serve rather than hinder. The turn from strike to pity is the Lord’s, and it invites trust.

Calvin: as foreigners help build the temple, so sons of the stranger labor on the walls. Cyrus supplied gold; in Christ it is fulfilled when he raises pastors from strangers and would have foreign princes be nursing-fathers. Papists twist this into papal tyranny over kings; Christ’s kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). Kings remain kings, using power to preserve worship.

Do not imagine chance. Wrath smote; undeserved kindness delivers. Calamities do not happen by chance, nor is he angry without leaving room for compassion (Hab 3:2).

Wesley: for that purpose—the conflux of people continually flocking thither. Open gates are welcome. Revelation 21:25 borrows the same peace.

Day and night means the gathering does not clock out. Wealth of nations is consecration, as in 60:5–9. Kings led in procession are those who come to the light (v. 3).

Calvin: not merely safety, but gates open so riches may be brought from every quarter. Day will not suffice; carrying will be constant. Riches of the Gentiles belong to the Church as obedience rendered to God, not carnal luxury; what is offered to God belongs to the Church because he has nothing separate from her.

He keeps the participle—kings naturally haughty shall be led, submitting to God and the Church. They do not cease to be kings.

Wesley: serve—that will not submit to Christ’s scepter.

Nations can still serve. Perish is what unbelief earns. The scepter is Christ’s already (59:16–20). Gospel-wide light (v. 3) does not make this verse optional.

Calvin: Gentiles will aid restoration; kingdoms that will not serve the Church shall be destroyed. If the careless do not pass unpunished, what of tyrants who labor to destroy her? Even the whole world, if involved in the same guilt, shall perish; multitude is no excuse.

Kings and nations serve the Church not because she lords over them, but because God committed to her the scepter of his word by which he rules.

Wesley: kings and great ones, and persons of a lower rank, shall be the materials and members of Christ’s church. Sanctuary—the temple. Place of my feet—the ark. All this is made good in the gospel-church.

Beautifying is God’s end. Trees of Lebanon are people. The footstool lifts worshipers toward the Holy One, as 57:15 already stooped to the contrite.

Calvin: fir, pine, box from Lebanon—excellent materials for the building. Under figures, spiritual worship. He holds out the temple pattern that under it we may contemplate the spiritual temple of which we are living stones (Eph 2:21; 1 Pet 2:5).

He dwells so that majesty is not confined; feet only, that we may ascend to heaven and not fix on outward signs. Worship the footstool (Ps 99:5)—not that God is divided, but that he lifts servants from feet to head.

Wesley: sons—posterity or themselves. Bending—humbling as penitents. Call thee—they shall acknowledge her to be so.

The name City of the Lord is confession, the honor of the Head shining in the church. Bowing is repentance toward Christ in Zion. Afflicters can still bend.

Calvin: persecutors shall submit with their whole heart. Partly fulfilled at the return; that return was a shadow of deliverance through Christ. Accomplished under Christ’s reign, with full accomplishment at his second coming. Honor is rendered to the Head, who is worshipped in the Church by those who formerly hated him.

They obey his doctrine. Jerusalem was almost obliterated; it shall be restored so all acknowledge the city of God. High rank is for the temple’s sake—the worship established there.

Wesley: forsaken both of God and of her inhabitants; streets left desolate. Forever and age to age are the church’s comfort after exile’s empty streets.

Forsaken is not the last tense. Majestic forever is gift. Zion’s hate-season does not void the joy promised to generations who come to the light.

Calvin eyes the captivity at hand, lest they despair. Grievous calamities cannot prevent God from restoring them. If the splendor was not of long duration, those things were still fulfilled: under the cross the glory of Christ shines, the name of God remains, a people calls on him by faith.

We interrupt God’s works by malice. The Prophet embraces the whole course of redemption from the end of captivity through the gospel to the end of Christ’s reign.

Wesley: the church shall receive the wealth of nations and the power of kings freely and affectionately, as milk from the mother. Knowledge of the Savior is the end.

Redeemer and Mighty One of Jacob (cf. 49:24–26; 59:20) is christology already shared. Milk is support for Zion’s children, not a license to drain the world. Kings still may nurse rather than strike.

Calvin: from a slender remnant the seed spread through the world. Milk and breasts are service for supporting her offspring. Kings are named because harder to believe, and they are reminded of duty: servants of the Church (Ps 2:10–11) or the Lord will call them to account.

She may not be an insatiable gulf. These things relate to spiritual condition—pure worship, the ministry, discipline. It is more blessed to give (Acts 20:35). Then they shall know by experience the Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob—what he was to the fathers.

Wesley: an allusion to Solomon, when gold was as brass. Peace—loving, meek, peaceable. Righteousness—most righteous; even thy tax-gatherers shall be such.

The upgrade is moral before it is mineral. Peace and righteousness in government answer the unjust gain of 57:17 and the true fast of 58. Restoration first; gospel holiness of rule in the church.

Calvin compares the ancient temple with the spiritual. This was never completed in the external restoration; the later temple was inferior. Hence he discourses of the spiritual temple, the Church of Christ. Gifts of the Spirit are more excellent than gold.

Peace and righteousness contrast unjust Babylonian rule. More fully when through Christ we were delivered from the devil’s tyranny; the gospel set up a kingdom of righteousness not yet completed. Look to his last coming; be satisfied with firstfruits.

Wesley: they shall be safe; thou shalt be as safe as salvation itself can make thee. Within and upon gates and walls, thou shalt sing praises. He adds that this will be fulfilled during the thousand years wherein Christ shall reign upon earth—his own note on the safety-language, not a camp to force on the whole Arminian tradition.

Shared ground: walls named Salvation and gates Praise are the Lord’s doing. Both want a people safe enough to praise.

Calvin: he contrasts former miseries. They shall not afterwards be subjected to such afflictions so as to have no remaining form of the Church. Not exemption from every annoyance; God spares his Church. Under the cross there is peace, kept by his hand.

Safety with joy; she rejoices at being safe. Keep in remembrance that these things are experienced only in part; Christ’s kingdom has not yet been completed. Walls and gates here are.

Wesley: these shall not be esteemed in comparison of the spiritual light of the church. God will be not only a shield but a sun. Christ shall scatter darkness and ignorance; this light shall not wax and wane, suffer eclipses and settings, but be constant. The glory—always matter of glorying in him.

Everlasting light is Christ in the gospel church, already, not postponed to a later sun. Revelation 21 sings the same song.

Calvin: prosperity shall not be temporary. Distinguish the Church from the ordinary lot under the sun. Do not judge safety from present appearance; it is laid up in God. He will be thy sun. This does not deprive God’s children of ordinary benefits; it names a still greater blessing—heavenly light which ungodly men hate.

Even if elements cease or threaten, it is enough that God is reconciled. Sun and moon include the whole changing condition of man. The fatherly kindness of God shines on believers in thick darkness.

Wesley’s former verse still governs: no eclipse of this light. Mourning ended is the church’s comfort after 57:18’s mourners and 59:11’s groans.

Days of mourning have a term. The Lord as light is enough to end them. Exile’s grief, gospel consolation, and the last day agree without splitting the camps over a thousand years.

Calvin continues: the children of God are distinguished from the ordinary lot. Mourning ended does not mean a church without a cross in history; it means God himself is the unchanging light when sun and moon fail as measures.

The glory comes in part now and in fullness later. The Lord who rose on Zion (v. 1) will be everlasting light until mourning’s days are actually done.

Wesley: the branch—thy people being of my planting, the work of my hands. All righteous is the gospel people, planted, not self-grown.

Forever in the land is the family of God kept in the promise. Work of my hands keeps boasting out. He is glorified when a people actually walks righteous—the true fast’s fruit (58) under the Redeemer (59:20).

Calvin: the Church is established when purged of the ungodly. Hypocrites have always been mingled; this describes Christ’s whole reign in its perfection, not one moment. He began at his coming, goes on till harvest. Thy people excludes hypocrites who snatch promises.

“Land”—not a code for heaven only. Canaan meant remaining in God’s family. The new branch is his work; we were planted before the world (Eph 1:4) and ingrafted. Wicked men are not his planting (Matt 15:13). End: that he may be glorified (Eph 1:12; 1 Pet 2:9).

Wesley: in due time, the time that I have appointed. Small becoming a nation is the Gentile church’s story (Matt 13:31 sits nearby). Hasten is his verb.

The least may still become a clan. Appointed time is not delay as denial. The mouth that said arise (v. 1) will not be late. Trust the schedule; do the shining.

Calvin: though few, the Church will be populous. After diminution, a vast body. What was said to the Jews is said to us: the Church cannot perish; it is God’s planting. I Jehovah—not like men whose efforts pass away. He speaks of a wonderful work, not ordinary government.

Hasten it in her time—the Church’s season. Exhorts to patience; do not plunge headlong. He delays for our benefit. He appears idle; he hastens to the proper season he knows.