8 -- And thou, O Israel, My servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, Seed of Abraham, My lover,
and fulfilled was the Writing that is saying, `And Abraham did believe God, and it was reckoned to him -- to righteousness;' and, `Friend of God' he was called.
`Art not Thou our God? Thou hast dispossessed the inhabitants of this land from before Thy people Israel, and dost give it to the seed of Abraham Thy friend to the age,
Remember these, O Jacob, and Israel, For My servant thou `art', I formed thee, a servant to Me thou `art', O Israel, thou dost not forget Me.
Therefore, thus said Jehovah, Who ransomed Abraham, Concerning the house of Jacob: `Not now ashamed is Jacob, Nor now doth his face become pale,
for a holy people `art' thou to Jehovah thy God, and on thee hath Jehovah fixed to be to Him for a people, a peculiar treasure, out of all the peoples who `are' on the face of the ground.
Look attentively unto Abraham your father, And unto Sarah -- she bringeth you forth, For -- one -- I have called him, And I bless him, and multiply him.
ye are my friends, if ye may do whatever I command you; no more do I call you servants, because the servant hath not known what his lord doth, and you I have called friends, because all things that I heard from my Father, I did make known to you.
They answered him, `Seed of Abraham we are; and to no one have we been servants at any time; how dost thou say -- Ye shall become free?' Jesus answered them, `Verily, verily, I say to you -- Every one who is committing sin, is a servant of the sin, and the servant doth not remain in the house -- to the age, the son doth remain -- to the age; if then the son may make you free, in reality ye shall be free. `I have known that ye are seed of Abraham, but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you; I -- that which I have seen with my Father do speak, and ye, therefore, that which ye have seen with your father -- ye do.' They answered and said to him, `Our father is Abraham;' Jesus saith to them, `If children of Abraham ye were, the works of Abraham ye were doing; and now, ye seek to kill me -- a man who hath spoken to you the truth I heard from God; this Abraham did not; ye do the works of your father.' They said, therefore, to him, `We of whoredom have not been born; one Father we have -- God;' Jesus then said to them, `If God were your father, ye were loving me, for I came forth from God, and am come; for neither have I come of myself, but He sent me; wherefore do ye not know my speech? because ye are not able to hear my word. `Ye are of a father -- the devil, and the desires of your father ye will to do; he was a man-slayer from the beginning, and in the truth he hath not stood, because there is no truth in him; when one may speak the falsehood, of his own he speaketh, because he is a liar -- also his father.
`Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise -- So that they are no more a people before them!
For Thou `art' our Father, For Abraham hath not known us, And Israel doth not acknowledge us, Thou, O Jehovah, `art' our Father, Our redeemer from the age, `is' Thy name.
Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called one, I `am' He, I `am' first, and I `am' last;
And now, thus said Jehovah, Thy Creator, O Jacob, and thy Fashioner, O Israel, Be not afraid, for I have redeemed thee, I have called on thy name -- thou `art' Mine.
O the happiness of the nation whose God `is' Jehovah, Of the people He did choose, For an inheritance to Him.
only in thy fathers hath Jehovah delighted -- to love them, and He doth fix on their seed after them -- on you, out of all the peoples as `at' this day;
`And now, if ye really hearken to My voice, then ye have kept My covenant, and been to Me a peculiar treasure more than all the peoples, for all the earth `is' Mine; and ye -- ye are to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation: these `are' the words which thou dost speak unto the sons of Israel.'
`For they `are' My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold `with' the sale of a servant;
for it hath been written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the maid-servant, and one by the free-woman, but he who `is' of the maid-servant, according to flesh hath been, and he who `is' of the free-woman, through the promise; which things are allegorized, for these are the two covenants: one, indeed, from mount Sinai, to servitude bringing forth, which is Hagar; for this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and doth correspond to the Jerusalem that now `is', and is in servitude with her children, and the Jerusalem above is the free-woman, which is mother of us all, for it hath been written, `Rejoice, O barren, who art not bearing; break forth and cry, thou who art not travailing, because many `are' the children of the desolate -- more than of her having the husband.' And we, brethren, as Isaac, are children of promise, but as then he who was born according to the flesh did persecute him according to the spirit, so also now; but what saith the Writing? `Cast forth the maid-servant and her son, for the son of the maid-servant may not be heir with the son of the free-woman;' then, brethren, we are not a maid-servant's children, but the free-woman's.
who are Israelites, whose `is' the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises, whose `are' the fathers, and of whom `is' the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen. And it is not possible that the word of God hath failed; for not all who `are' of Israel are these Israel; nor because they are seed of Abraham `are' all children, but -- `in Isaac shall a seed be called to thee;' that is, the children of the flesh -- these `are' not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;
and father of circumcision to those not of circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith, that `is' in the uncircumcision of our father Abraham. For not through law `is' the promise to Abraham, or to his seed, of his being heir of the world, but through the righteousness of faith;
For He hath remembered His holy word, With Abraham His servant, And He bringeth forth His people with joy, With singing His chosen ones. And He giveth to them the lands of nations, And the labour of peoples they possess, That they may observe His statutes, And His laws may keep. Praise ye Jehovah!
for a holy people `art' thou to Jehovah thy God; on thee hath Jehovah thy God fixed, to be to Him for a peculiar people, out of all the peoples who `are' on the face of the ground. `Not because of your being more numerous than any of the peoples hath Jehovah delighted in you, and fixeth on you, for ye `are' the least of all the peoples, but because of Jehovah's loving you, and because of His keeping the oath which He hath sworn to your fathers, hath Jehovah brought you out by a strong hand, and doth ransom you from a house of servants, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Isaiah 41
Commentary on Isaiah 41 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 41
This chapter, as the former, in intended both for the conviction of idolaters and for the consolation of all God's faithful worshippers; for the Spirit is sent, and ministers are employed by him, both to convince and to comfort. And however this might be primarily intended for the conviction of Babylonians, and the comfort of Israelites, or for the conviction of those in Israel that were addicted to idolatry, as multitudes were, and the comfort of those that kept their integrity, doubtless it was intended both for admonition and encouragement to us, admonition to keep ourselves from idols and encouragement to trust in God. Here,
So that the chapter may be summed up in those words of Elijah, "If Jehovah be God, then follow him; but, if Baal be God, then follow him;' and in the people's acknowledgment, upon the issue of the trial, "Jehovah he is the God, Jehovah he is the God.'
Isa 41:1-9
That particular instance of God's care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,
Isa 41:10-20
The scope of these verses is to silence the fears, and encourage the faith, of the servants of God in their distresses. Perhaps it is intended, in the first place, for the support of God's Israel, in captivity; but all that faithfully serve God through patience and comfort of this scripture may have hope. And it is addressed to Israel as a single person, that it might the more easily and readily be accommodated and applied by every Israelite indeed to himself. That is a word of caution, counsel, and comfort, which is so often repeated, Fear thou not; and again (v. 13), Fear not; and (v. 14), "Fear not, thou worm Jacob; fear not the threatenings of the enemy, doubt not the promise of thy God; fear not that thou shalt perish in thy affliction or that the promise of thy deliverance shall fail.' It is against the mind of God that his people should be a timorous people. For the suppressing of fear he assures them,
Isa 41:21-29
The Lord, by the prophet, here repeats the challenge to idolaters to make out the pretentions of their idols: "Produce your cause (v. 21) and make your best of it; bring forth the strongest reasons you have to prove that your idols are gods, and worthy of your adoration.' Note, There needs no more to show the absurdity of sin than to produce the reasons that are given in defence of it, for they carry with them their own confutation.