But, perhaps, by the head of the spouse, here may be meant the doctrine which she holds, the doctrine of the gospel, which is represented as a glorious crown on her head in Rev. xii. 1. This may be compared to Carmel, that fruitful hill, because it is the doctrine that is according to godliness or to crimson, because Jesus Christ and him crucified, or Christ's shedding his blood, is the sum and substance of it.
Cant. vii. 7. "And thy breasts to clusters of grapes." By her breasts here, most probably, is intended the grace of love, or spiritual complacency; affection to her husband and his children. The bosom is put for love; so Christ is said to be in the bosom of the Father. This agrees with that in Prov. v. 19. "Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love." Christ's love is compared to wine, chap. i. And so is the love of the spouse, chap. iv. 10. "How much better is thy love than wine!" And here her breasts are compared to clusters of grapes. See No. 488.
Cant. vii. 8. "And the smell of thy nose like apples." As by the roof of the mouth in the next verse, is not intended simply the roof of the mouth itself, as though that were exceedingly pleasant to the bridegroom, this being a part of the body that is hidden; but thereby is probably meant the speech which comes from the mouth: so here, by the nose, is not meant the nose itself, but the breath; so the bridegroom would hereby signify that the smell of her breath was sweet, her vitals being sound, and pure, and sweet, being made so by the food she ate, viz. apples, the food she from time to time desires to be refreshed with, it being the fruit that he yields, who is as the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, whose fruit was sweet to her taste. Persons' breath commonly smells of the food which they eat; thus the breath of the spouse is represented as smelling like apples.
Cant. vii. 9. "And the roof of thy mouth like the best wine for my beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak." By the roof of the mouth is here probably meant his discourse, which is like excellent wine that goes sweetly down, and so refreshes and enlivens other saints whom here Christ calls his beloved, that it causes those of them that are asleep, and in the dullest frame, to speak; it enlivens their hearts and tongues in divine things.
Cant. viii. 1. "O that thou wert as my brother, that sucked the breasts of my mother I when I should find thee without, I would kiss thee, yea, I should not be despised." Which wish of the church is now accomplished, by Christ's incarnation; the Son of God, who is infinitely higher than we, is come down unto us in our nature, and has familiarized himself to us.
Isa. vii. 17. "The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah, even the king of Assyria." This seems not to be spoken of the king of Israel mentioned in the foregoing verse, but of Ahaz the king of Judah, to whom the prophet was then speaking. It could not be meant of Pekah, the king of Israel, because it speaks of bringing the king of Assyria in his father's house, but the family of Pekah was not cut off by the king of Assyria, but by Hoshea the son of Elah, who conspired against him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. 2 Kings xv. 30. God by the prophet had offered great encouragement to Ahaz under his present distress and fear of Pekah and Rezin, and gave him a glorious sign, which he would not give heed to, as appears by ver. 12. His confidence was not in God for help, but in the king of Assyria, whom he had hired by the treasures of both church and state, and by basely promising to be his servant. 2 Kings xvi. 7, 8. Seeing he would not believe God's promises, nor take encouragement from his signs, therefore he should not be established; and though God would do great things for his people by the Immanuel, that should be born in his family, yet he should have no benefit of it; and though it was true as the prophet had told him, that he should not be hurt by the kingdom of Syria, and kingdom of Ephraim, that was now plotting his ruin; yet seeing he would not believe, he should not be the better for it, for there should come a greater calamity upon him, than ever the kingdom of Judah suffered from the kingdom of Israel, and indeed greater than ever they suffered since the kingdoms were divided from them, and became unfriendly to them; and that from the king of Assyria himself, whom he trusted so much in for help, against the kingdom of Israel. The calamity came upon him in his life-time in a measure, as it is said in this verse [upon thee;] for when the king of Assyria came up he distressed him, and strengthened him not; 2 Chron. xxviii. 20, 21.; and afterwards it came upon his father's house, and on his people.
Isa. viii. 7, 8. "Now, therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks; and he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow, and go over." The river Euphrates was the ancient boundary that God had set to the possession of the children of Israel, and to the dominion of their princes. This is from time to time mentioned as their eastern limits in the book of Moses, and over all on this side the river. The kings of Judah and Israel had formerly reigned, and their territories were overrun by the people that dwelt about that river: it is well represented as though the river Euphrates, their ancient boundary, broke its banks, and not only encroached upon them to the straitening their limits, but even overflowed all their possessions. They have no more their own by God's grant, than is left them on this side the river Euphrates; and therefore, when those waters came to overflow all, they have none left. See Note on Isa. xxviii. 17.
Isa. ix. 9, 10,. &c. "And all the people shall know, even Ephraim, and the inhabitants of Samaria, that say in their pride and stoutness of heart, the bricks are hewn down, but we will build with hewn stones; the sycamores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars." They disregarded those awful and repeated judgments God had lately exercised upon them, whereby he had already greatly diminished their numbers and their wealth, and the extent of their dominions, when Pul, the king of Assyria, came up against the land, and took a thousand talents out of the land, as 2 Kings xv. 19. and when afterwards Tiglath-pileser, in the days of Pekah, he that was now king, came and destroyed so great a part of the land beyond Jordan, and in the northern parts, as 2 Kings xv. 29. and 1 Chron. v. 26. They were insensible and unhumbled under these awful rebukes of heaven, as ver. 13. "For the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them." But when the hand of heaven was so evidently against them to diminish them, yet they were full of contrivances, and big with expectations of conquests, and enlarging their dominions, as appears in Pekah's conspiring with Rezin, king of Syria, to go and conquer the kingdom of Judah, of which in the two foregoing chapters. Thus even in the midst of God's awful judgments they were full of haughty, ambitious designs, and big with expectations of aggrandizing them, and making themselves bigger than they were before; though they had lost their western and northern countries, yet they hoped to obtain the kingdom of Judah that should more than make up their loss, and so said, Though the bricks are fallen down, we will build with hewn stone, &c.
Isa. x. 26. "And the Lord of hosts shall stir up a scourge for him, according to the slaughter of Midian at the rock Oreb." The prophet is speaking here of the destruction of Sennacherib's army, and of himself afterwards. There was a remarkable agreement between this destruction of his army, and that of the vast army of the Midianites, which was without the children of Israel's striking a blow. Judg. vii. 20., &c. And as Oreb, one of their princes, was taken afterwards, and slain after the battle was over, as he was returning to his own land; so Sennacherib, after he had fled, was slain in the temple of his god, Nisroch. Isa. xxxvii. 38. So was that prayer against the enemies of the church, Psal. lxxxiii. 11. "Make their nobles like Oreb, and like Zeeb," now fulfilled in Sennacherib.
Isa. xi. 10. "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious;" or as the original is, "His rest shall be glory." There is an evident allusion in these words to the things which came to pass pertaining to the affair of God's redeeming the children of Israel out of Egypt, and leading them through the wilderness, and bringing them into Canaan. This is very manifest by the words immediately following, and by all the succeeding context to the end of the chapter. This is a prophecy of a second work, a greater work of salvation, wherein not only the Jews, but the Gentiles, and all nations, shall partake. When God redeemed his people out of Egypt to lead them to Canaan, which was God's rest, they were gathered together under ensigns, they were the standards or ensigns of the four quarters of the army. That of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan, and then the ensign for the whole army placed in the middle of the congregation, was the tabernacle and ark where was Moses, the captain and leader of the whole host, with his rod which was used from time to time as the banner or ensign of the congregation, as it was especially at the time when it was held up over Israel while they were fighting with Amalek, and obtained a signal victory under that ensign, on which occasion Moses built an altar and called it Jehovah-Nissi, The. Lord my Banner, or Ensign, (the word is the same in the original as here in this place, in Isaiah,) and both the rod and altar were types of Christ, who is Jehovah, who then was the ensign of his church, and would more especially and gloriously be exhibited as such in the days of the gospel, as is here foretold in Isaiah; and then it was a rod that was held up as an ensign of the people; so here, in this 11th of Isaiah., Christ is spoken of as a rod, as in the first verse; And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:" so in this 10th verse,. "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign;" i. e. plainly, a rod or plant from a root of Jesse (though something further may be aimed at in using the phrase, Root of Jesse).
As the rod of Moses was occasionally used as an ensign of the people, so more constantly the tabernacle and ark. These were placed in the midst of the congregation, and the whole was to pitch in exact order round about it, at due distance from it, all having equal respect to it. And the ark is represented as going before the people in their marches; Numb. x. 33.; because that, however it was in the middle of the army, yet they had respect to it as their guide, their banner, that all whose motions they were to attend; and when they went through the Jordan into Canaan, their rest, the ark was remarkably made use of as the ensign of the people; it was to be carried before them at such a distance that it might be well seen by all the leaders of the people, and they were to take heed to its motions, with the greatest care and exactness, and to follow where that went. Josh. iii. 3, 4.
But more especially was the pillar of cloud and fire, the ensign of that congregation in their marches from Egypt to Canaan, their rest. A banner or ensign was lifted up on high that it might be seen by the whole company. The ark and tabernacle could not be seen by the whole congregation, but the pillar of cloud and fire which abode on the tabernacle, and departed not from it, were lifted up to open sight, and displayed to the view of every individual person. That was the banner the people were listed under, that they were always to cleave to most strictly, and diligently to observe, stedfastly to follow, and never to depart from, and were to be directed by it in every step they took. When that moved, they were to move; when that rested, they must rest: see Numb. ix. 15., to the end. This pillar of cloud and fire was the special symbol of Christ's presence, and in that standing as an ensign, Christ stood as an ensign of the people. And it is moreover manifest that that pillar of cloud and fire was a remarkable type of Christ incarnate, or the Son of God in the human nature, concerning whom it is here prophesied that he should stand as an ensign of the people.
When it is said, "his rest shall be glory," there is doubtless an allusion to Canaan, the promised rest to which the ark and pillar of cloud and fire led the children of Israel, and the thing ultimately intended is heaven. It is said, Numb. x. 33. that the ark of the covenant of the Lord (over which was the pillar of cloud, as in the following verse) went before the people to search out a resting-place for them. That was the use of these ensigns under which that people were gathered together. They were to lead them to their rest. The rest spoken of in the text under consideration, is called Christ's rest, which is agreeable to the style used concerning the rest to which God was leading the congregation in the wilderness; Psal. xcv. 11. "To whom he sware in his wrath that they should never enter into my rest."
Here the rest to which Jesus Christ, God man, should bring the Gentiles, as well as Jews, after his incarnation, is spoken of as another rest, a different rest from that which God brought the Jews to of old, agreeably to the observation of the apostle, Heb. iv. 8, 9, 10. "For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterwards have spoken of another day: there remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God from his." Here it is remarkable, that take these words of the apostle with the foregoing context, he seems to signify that what is called God's rest, or Christ's rest, in the promises of the Old Testament, is so called, not only because it was a rest of God's providing and promising, but because it was his, personally. So here the rest which remains for the people of God, which Christ gives his people, is spoken of as Christ's own rest and happiness that he has entered into: and so the land of Canaan of old was represented as God's own dwelling-place, his inheritance, &c. his mountain in the field, &c. And therefore, when God brought the people out of Egypt to Canaan, he is represented as having brought them to himself. But especially was that particular part of Canaan which God chose to place his name there, represented as God's or Christ's rest, namely, Jerusalem, mount Zion, and the temple. Psal. cxxxii. 8. "Arise, O Lord, into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength." Ver. 13, 14. "The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever; here will I dwell, for I have desired it." 1 Chron. xxviii. 2. "It was in my heart to build an house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord." The temple that Solomon built was the rest of the ark, and the rest of the cloud of glory that abode over the ark; which had before that wandered long in the wilderness, and had walked in a tent and in a tabernacle, 2 Sam. vii. 6. But when the temple was built in the place which God chose, then the glory of the Lord had rest, and took up its settled abode there as the place it delighted in; and mount Zion and the temple are in Scripture often represented as the dwelling-place and quiet and delightful abode which they long after, and never can be at rest until they come to dwell in, and which shall be their settled dwelling-place. How often does the psalmist, speaking not only in his own name, but the name of the church, express his longings and pantings after God's courts, his amiable tabernacles, his altars, &c. and desire to make this place his rest, as the swallow and sparrow their nest! And how often do the prophets foretell a future redemption of God's people, and their coming from places of captivity and bondage, and from under the hand of their enemies, to dwell in mount Zion, and in God's holy mountain! &c.
But yet sometimes the prophets speak of no temple built by men as God's true rest, but represent heaven as God's true rest. Isa. lxvi. 1. "Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest?" And chap. lvii. 15. "For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place," &c.
The rest of that Root of Jesse, that should stand for an ensign, is said to be glory; so the land of Canaan, Zion, and the temple are said to be the rest of him, who, as an ensign to the people, is represented in the pillar of cloud and fire. The land of Canaan is called the glory of all lands, Ezek. xx. 5, 16. and the glorious land, Dan. xi. 16. and the glorious holy mountain; ver. 45. mount Zion is said to be beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth; and in another place, to be the perfection of beauty. So concerning the temple, it is spoken of as exceedingly magnificent of fame and of glory throughout all lands, 1 Chron. xxii. 5. So in Psal. xxix. 2. as the words might have been (and probably better) translated, it is said, "Worship the Lord in his glorious sanctuary." Psal. xcvi. 6. "Honour and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." Jer. xvii. 12. "A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." The temple was truly glorious in Solomon's time, when the people first began fully to enjoy the promised rest in Canaan; David having fully subdued the inhabitants of the land and their enemies round about; and then indeed the land was happy and glorious.
All these things show plainly that here is an allusion to God's salvation of Israel of old, when they were brought out of Egypt, and led through the wilderness to Canaan under Christ as their ensign, manifested by these types and symbols of his presence, Moses's rod, the tabernacle, the ark, and especially the cloud of glory above them; and that the Rod of Jesse here spoken of is that person there exhibited in these types and symbols. And they also manifestly show that the Messiah was to work out another redemption far greater than that of Egypt, of both Jews and Gentiles, and gather them both into one great congregation, and lead them to another and far more glorious rest than that of Canaan, Jerusalem, and the temple, even in their greatest glory in Solomon's time; and a rest which should be his own land, and his own dwelling-place, and temple, where his people should partake with him in his rest, happiness, and glory. And so that, as the apostle says, there remaineth a rest to the people of God, besides that which Joshua brought Israel into; and that heaven is that rest. Some description is given of the comfort and happiness of the rest to which this Ensign guides God's people, in No. 504. on Eph. ii. 7.
Isa. xiii. 20, 21, 22. "It shall never be inhabited. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures, and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces." Vide chap. xxxiv. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15. Babylon represents the whole church or congregation of the wicked; by her being to be destroyed, never to be built or inhabited again, is represented the eternal destruction of the congregation of the wicked; by those doleful creatures here mentioned, as possessing of Babylon, are represented devils which the church of the wicked shall be left to the possession of for ever. Babylon, after its destruction, full of these creatures, represents the church of the wicked in its state of punishment; therefore the apostle John, when speaking of the destruction of mystical Babylon, and alluding to this that is said of old Babylon, says expressly, "She is become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Rev. xviii. 2.
Isa. xxv. 11. "And he shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim;" which was the posture in which Christ was crucified in.
Isa. xxx. 27., to the end, and xxxi. 9. Mr. Bedford supposes (Scripture Chronology, p. 671.) that what is here said respects the time when Rabshakeh came against Jerusalem, and God did so wonderfully appear for the defence of the city, and miraculously slew such a multitude of their enemies in one night. Chap. xxx. 28. It is said that his breath as an overflowing stream should reach to the midst of the neck, i. e. should reduce them to the utmost extremity. "This is very agreeable to the manner in which Dr. Prideaux very probably supposes that Rabshakeh's army was destroyed, viz. by God's bringing on them a hot pestilential wind; vide Connect, p. 34, 35.; and where it is said here that there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err, this is agreeable to what is said concerning Rabshakeh and his army, chap. xxxvii. 29. It is here said, verse 29. that they should have a song, as in the night, when an holy assembly is kept, and gladness of heart; as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel: and God wrought this great deliverance by slaying Sennacherib's army in the night, as before he had done in Egypt, by slaying the first-born in the night, and thereby gave occasion to keep the night of the passover with joy, in a joyful manner, and with songs of praise, which probably was the holy solemnity that the prophet had a special respect to, as Bedford supposes what is said in the 30th verse, together with the 32d, of battles, of shaking, renders it probable that there was an earthquake accompanying that judgment, and also thunder, and lightning, and hail, as was common when God miraculously fought against the enemies of his people, as it was when he fought against Pharaoh and the Egyptians at the Red sea. Ps. lxxvii. at the latter end. "So God fought against the Amorites in Joshua's time, not only with hail, but thunder and lightning." Hab. iii. 11. So God seems to have fought against Sisera and his host. (See Notes on Judges v. 20.) So God fought against the Philistines in Samuel's time. So God seems to have fought sometimes for David, against his enemies, and particularly at Baal-Perazim. Vide Note on Psalm xviii. 7., &c. So Hannah prophesied that God would appear against the enemies of his people. 1 Sam. ii. 10.Thunder, lightning, hail, and rain, is God's artillery, that he was wont to make use of when he appeared in battle. Job xxxviii. 22, 23. "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow; or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?" It is probable that the greater part of them might be slain by such a sudden and extraordinary pestilence while asleep; and God might pursue the rest that awoke and escaped the pestilence with a tempest of thunder, lightning, and hail, until the greater part of them were destroyed. And what is said, ver. 32. seems to be much better translated in the margin, viz. "In every passing of the rod founded which the Lord shall cause to rest upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps;" this translation is word for word, as it is in the original, meaning the rod of God's anger on the Assyrian. In the foregoing verse with this, it is foretold that the Assyrian, that beat down others with his rod, should be beaten down in his turn with God's rod; and thus to speak of the wrath of God's anger is agreeable to the phraseology of Scripture: particularly, to call a judgmentthat God had appointed, a rod that God had founded or established, and to express his subjecting them to the judgment, by God's causing the rod to rest upon them, and to call the smiting with the rod at each stripe, the passings of the rod. We read of these passings of the rod, chap. xxviii. 18, 19. And when it is said it shall be with tabrets and harps, the meaning is, that when God's people shall behold the punishment which he shall bring upon them, it shall cause joy and songs in them, agreeable to verse 29. They shall, as it were, lift up the voice of music and joy, at every time, as they hear the voice or sound of God's avenging rod on their enemies, which is agreeable to what is said with respect to this very judgment on Kabshakeh's army, chap. xxxvii. 22. And what is said, ver. 33. seems well to agree with the place where this great destruction was, viz. Tophet, or the valley of the son of Hinnom, which was near Jerusalem, on the south side, whither Rabshakeh came from Lachish, Libnah, and Cush, and where he encamped before he could form the siege of the place, as Bedford observes.
The time when they were thus threatened by Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, was a time when they relied on Egypt for help, as appears by the words of Rabshakeh, chap. xxxvi. 6-9. which agrees with the beginning of 31st chap.; and what is said in the 4th, 5th, and 8th verses. of that chapter, exceedingly agrees with the way in which God did by himself, immediately, without making use of the sword of man, defend and fight for Jerusalem, and what is said in the 9th verse, of the Assyrian's passing over to his strong hold for fear, agrees with what is said, chap. xxxvii. 7, 29, 34, 37.
Isa. xxxi. 9. "Saith the Lord, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem:" i. e. There he has his throne of judgment, where he sits to judge the nations of the world, to try men as in a refiner's fire, to prove the righteous and justify them, and to consume the wicked. God in judging is represented in Scripture as doing the part of a refiner of metals. Mal. ii. 2, 3. "But who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth; for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver." The place where the refiner fines metals, is where he has his furnace; and so the place whence God judges the nations of the world, and executes judgment and justice on the earth, is where he has established his throne, which is in Zion. There God is represented as having his throne, and from thence all his judgments that are executed in the earth are represented as proceeding. So in the 1st chap. of Amos, God's judgments upon Syria, and upon the Philistines, Tyrus and Edom, and upon the Amorites, are represented as proceeding from God in Zion, and from Jerusalem, as ver. 2. "The Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem;" together with what follows in that chapter. So God is represented as judging all nations from thence in the last chapter of Joel, as ver. 16, 17. "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake." "So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain." And ver. 21. "For the Lord dwelleth in Zion;" together with the rest of the chapter. So it is said, Ps. lxxvi. 2, 3. "In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle." So God is represented as judging the nations of the world out of Zion. Ps. 1. at the beginning. "The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth, from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people." So Isa. ii. 3, 4. "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people." So here God is represented as judging the Assyrians from mount Zion. He that sits in Zion as a refiner, is represented as bringing their young valiant men to the furnace there, and melting them in the fire, as in the foregoing verse, his young men shall be for melting, as it is in the Hebrew. So in the 33rd chap. he is represented as destroying the enemies of Israel, as one that dwelleth on high, and fills Zion with judgment and righteousness. And as God's judgments on his enemies are represented as coming out of Zion, so is the salvation of his people, as Psal. xiv. 7. liii. 6. xx. 2. cx. 2. cxxviii. 5. cxxxiv. 3. The Assyrians that besieged Jerusalem are represented as consumed by fire. Chap. ix. 5. "Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood, but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire."
"As rivers of water in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." There is an allusion here to the deserts of Arabia, which was an exceeding hot and dry place, one might travel many days going, and see no sign of a river, brook, or spring, nothing but a dry and parched wilderness, so that travellers there were ready to be consumed with thirst, as the children of Israel were when they were in this wilderness, when they were faint because there was no water. Now when a man finds Jesus Christ, he is like a man that has been travelling in these deserts, until he is ready to perish with thirst, and at last finds a river of cool and clear water, it is exceeding refreshing. Christ was one actually typified by a river of water that was miraculously caused to flow in the dry deserts of Arabia, for the refreshing and satisfying God's people when they were almost consumed with thirst, even by that stream of water out of the rock, for as the apostle says, that rock was Christ. This stream of water issued out of the rock that was in Horeb, which word signifies a dry place. This was a river in a dry place. Psal. cv. 41. He opened the rock and the waters gushed out, they ran in the dry places like a river. This is called a land of great drought. Hosea xiii. 5. See also Deut. viii. 15. Christ is as a river of water, because there is such a fulness in him for the satisfaction of the needy, thirsty soul, and enough not only for one, but for all the multitude of God's people, as the stream out of the rock was sufficient for the whole congregation, which was doubtless more than two million souls and their cattle.
And when Christ is said to be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, the allusion is still to the deserts of Arabia. It is not said as the shadow of a tree, because in those vast deserts there are no trees; nothing for shade to protect travellers, but here and there a great rock. Christ is to the weary soul as the cool shadow of a great rock, or a steep rocky mountain, in the scorched deserts of Arabia.
Isa. xxxii. 2. "And a man shall be an hiding-place," &c. Here Christ is compared to three things that correspond with several things in the congregation in the wilderness, that were typical of Christ.
First. Christ is called "An hiding-place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest," which corresponds with the tabernacle. Tabernacles are made to shelter travellers in a strange land, where they have no abiding place from the injuries of the weather; and a tabernacle is also a hiding-place; the secret of God's tabernacle is especially spoken of as such. Psal. xxvii. 5. "In the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion; in the secret of his tabernacle;" and so in other places, there cited in the margin, and in the 4th chap. of Isaiah at the end. Christ is expressly compared to a tabernacle in both these respects, viz. as a shelter, and as a hiding-place, or refuge.
Secondly. Christ is compared to a river of water in a dry place, which answers to those rivers of water out of a rock, in that land of great drought. Vide No. 213. And,
Thirdly. Christ is compared to the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, which answers to the pillar of cloud, which shaded the children of Israel in that parched wilderness, to which Christ is compared, chap. iv. 5. Psal. cxxi. 5. Isa. xxv. 4, 5. And though it was not the shade of a rock, yet it was a rock that refreshed them otherwise, viz. with its cooling, refreshing waters.
Isa. xxxiii. 17. "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty; they shall behold the land that is very far off." This verse speaks of two different sorts of people that dwell in Zion, viz. 1. The true citizens of Zion, described here in the two preceding verses, much as the true citizens of Zion are described in the 15th Psalm., and Psal. xxiv. 4, 5.; and, 2. Sinners in Zion, spoken of in the 14th verse. Of the former it is said, "Thine eyes shall see the King in his beauty, i. e. those that are spoken of in the immediately foregoing words. They shall see the land that is very far off, i. e. they that were spoken of before. There is an evident antithesis in the words: as they are opposite kinds of persons that are spoken of, so they are opposite things that are predicated of them. The one should "see the land that is very far off," i. e should be led away captive thither; as it was threatened to the children of Israel if they were not obedient, that they should be driven out of their own land, and carried captive into a very far country. Deut. xxviii. 49. "The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth;" and 64th verse,. "And the Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from one end of the earth, even unto the other; and this is a judgment often threatened by the prophets to the wicked Israelites, and is threatened by this prophet in particular. Isa. v. 26. xiii. 5. "They came from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord, and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land." But the other should "see the King in his beauty;" this is here spoken of as the opposite to a being carried away into a far country. The literal and next meaning seems to be this, that while the sinners in Zion are cast out of Zion, and out of their own land to the ends of the earth, and made slaves to a foreign prince, thou shalt dwell peaceably and quietly in the land of Israel, and in Zion, (the true citizens of Zion shall abide in Zion, Psal. xv. 1.) under the peaceable and happy government of thine own prince, the King of Zion, the King that sits in the throne of David, who had his palace in Zion. Thou shalt see the King that reigns in Zion in his beauty, reigning and governing his people in great glory and prosperity, and thou shalt enjoy the blessing of his prosperous and glorious reign. Beauty is often put for glory and prosperity, as chap. xxviii. 1. and Ezek. xxvii. 3, 4, 11. and chap. xxviii. 12, 17. as ver. 20. of this context, Thou shalt see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, i. e. thou shalt enjoy the blessings of its safe and quiet state, as Psal. cxxviii. 5, 6. Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem and thou shalt see peace upon Israel. The blessing here promised to the righteous in Israel, seems to be the same with that which the queen of Sheba observed in Solomon's servants. 2 Chron. ix. 7. "Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee."
But although what the prophet here alludes to in the punishment threatened to the sinners in Zion, be the captivity into Babylon, and what he alludes to in the reward promised to the righteous, be the dwelling under the safe, and quiet, and prosperous government of their own king that sat on the throne of David, which was in Zion; yet the things chiefly meant, are spiritual things that are typified by these temporal things, for there never was literally any such distinction made between the wicked and righteous Israelites, as is here spoken of; for when the Jews were carried away into Babylon, there was no king left reigning in Zion in peace and prosperity, but it was a time of universal calamity throughout the whole land. Therefore, by being carried captive into a land very far off, seems to be intended chiefly the eternal rejection and banishment of hypocrites, who though they for the present dwell in Zion in God's church amongst his people, yet the time will come when they shall be removed at the utmost distance from it, and shall be sent into eternal banishment; and by the King that is here spoken of, that the true citizens of Zion shall see in his beauty, is meant Jesus Christ, even David their King, as he is called, Jer. xxx. 9. and Hos. iii. 5. The King spoken of in the beginning of the foregoing chapter, and every where throughout this book. They shall behold him in his beauty, and shall enjoy the blessings of his kingdom of grace here; and hereafter shall for ever dwell in his presence, and see his face, and rejoice in his kingdom of glory.
Isa. xl. 1, 2. "Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God; speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem; and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned; for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins." God often executes very severe judgments on his visible church for their sins, and though her punishment be never double to her deserts, or more than her deserts, yet she oftentimes suffers double in two respects.
1. Double to the sufferings which their sins, their violations of duties of the second table of the law, have brought on others, in which sense the false church is commanded to be punished. Rev. xviii. 6. "Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double."
2. Double to all the pleasure or benefit, the wealth or worldly advancement, which she hath obtained or aimed at by her sins, as in the place in Revelations, it follows in the next verse., How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliriously, so much torment and sorrow give her." By double, is not meant precisely twice so much, but vastly more. Thus God does not only punish Babylon, or the false church, but his own visible church, when they corrupt themselves, and make themselves in a great measure a false church, like as Jerusalem and Israel of old did. God punished them with great severity; he punished them doubly. Jer. xvi. 18. "I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have defiled my land." God caused all the idolatrous nations to drink the wine cup of his fury, and especially Sheshack, or Babylon, but he in the first place gave it to Jerusalem. Jer. xxv. God takes notice of the great severity with which he had punished Jerusalem; for this is manifestly the language of compassion. A father, while in wrath he is correcting his child, makes light of its sufferings; but when his heart begins to relent, and bowels of compassion to yearn, his sufferings begin to look great in his eyes. God is often represented as thus exercising the bowels of a merciful father towards his people after severe correction. See Judg. x. 6. Jer. xxxi. 20. Isa. xv. 16. Nahum ix. 32.
Isa. xl. 15. "He taketh up the isles as a very little thing." A very fine remark, and a solid correction of the common translation, is here made by that learned, sagacious, and devout expositor, Vitringa. He observes that the common translation is neither answerable to the import of the original, nor consonant to the structure of the discourse. The prophet had no intention to inform mankind what the Almighty could do with regard to the islands, if he pleased to exert his power, but his design was to show how insignificant. or rather what mere nothings, they are in his esteem, and before his majesty. The islands, says he, though so spacious as to afford room for the erection of kingdoms and the abode of nations, though so strong as to withstand for many thousands of years the raging and reiterated assaults of the whole watery world, are yet before the adored Jehovah small as the minutest grain, which the eye can scarce discern, light as the feathered mote, which the least breath hurries away like a tempest, SltS1 pT3 D"S, Insulæ sunt, ut levi quid, quod avolat. "The deep-rooted islands are as the volatile atom, which, by the gentlest undulations of the air, is wafted to and fro in perpetual agitations." Hervey's Meditations, vol. 2. p. 130.
Isa. xli. 18, 19, 20. "I will make the wilderness pools of water I will plant in the wilderness the cedar That ye may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." God will cause waters to flow in the dry desert, and turn the barren wilderness into a pleasant garden, and bring forth these glorious things in such places that were most likely and most distant from any thing of this nature, and where was the least of any previous disposition, preparation, or foundation for any thing of this, that his hand might be the more visible, and his power and efficacy the more apparent and undeniable; as of old, when God furnished a table in the wilderness, and brought forth water out of the flinty rock. Therefore here it is said, "The Holy One of Israel hath created it." To create, as the word is in Scripture, is either to make out of nothing, or, which is equivalent, to make out of that which has in itself no natural fitness, disposition, or proportion, or foundation for such an effect.
Isa. xli. 22. "Let them bring forth and show us what shall happen: let them show us former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come." See alsoverse 4. and verses 23, 26. chap. xlii. 9. xliii. 9, 10, 11, 12. xliv. 6, 7, 8. xlv. 21, 22. xlvi. 9, 10. xlviii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 16.
By former things in these passages of the prophet, is meant former predictions of future events, or former and ancient dispensations, or works that pointed at things future, either by representing and typifying them, or by preparing for them, and ordering things with an evident respect to future events; or more briefly, by former things is meant such words or works as so pointed at things future, as to show plainly that they, whose words or works they were, had the foreknowledge and ordination of those future events. It is evident that by former things are meant former signs of future events, by what is said here in chap. xli. 22. "Let them show us former things, what they be, that we may consider them what they be, and know the latter end of them;" i. e. let them bring forth their ancient predictions or dispensations pointing at future events, that we may consider them, and compare them with the event, and see how they prove in the latter end, see how they come out in the event of things. This is confirmed by ver. 26. "Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and before time, that we may say, He is righteous?" i. e. that we may acknowledge that his cause is good, and that he is to be justified in his pretences; for here God is calling of them to come near together with him to judgment, that it may be tried who can best make out their pretences to divinity and claims of divine honours: see ver. 1. and 21. This is further manifest by chap. xlii. 9. "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them." And xliii. 9, 10. "Let all nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled, who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses;" i. e. let them bring forth their witnesses, that such and such things they foretold, or by some dispensation of theirs showed their foreknowledge of such and such events; and that the events exactly agreed with the prediction. Producing witnesses, that they may be justified, is a form of speech still alluding to a coming together in judgment. See also ver. 10, 11, 12. and chap. xliv. 6, 7, 8. xlv. 21, 22. xlvi. 9, 10. xlviii. 3, 4,. &c.
Isa. xli. 25. "I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name; and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay." Probably some respect may be here had to Cyrus, who came from the north-east, being sent by the king of Media to destroy Babylon; and so this place seems parallel with chap. xliv. 28. xlv. 1 and 13. But yet the Holy Ghost seems principally to have an eye here to some other prince, an antitype of Cyrus, that shall come from the north-east to destroy the spiritual Babylon, or antiChristian church, which shall be raised up at the time when that glory shall be accomplished for the church that is here prophesied of in this chapter, and the foregoing and following chapters. The chief of them that are called the kings of the east, that are represented as coming to destroy the spiritual Babylon on the drying up of the river Euphrates, in Rev. xvi. 12. as Cyrus and other princes of the east had their way prepared to destroy the literal Babylon on the drying up of the literal river Euphrates, and probably the emperor of Muscovy. This better agrees with the context, which evidently speaks of the glorious times of the church of God, and it better agrees with the words themselves, that speak of the person that shall be raised up as one that shall call on God's name, which was not fully accomplished in Cyrus, though he showed great respect to the true God; yet never properly became a worshipper of the true God, but lived and died an idolater: and it better agrees with the following words, which speak of the glory of God in foretelling this thing so long aforehand.
The princes that the emperors of Muscovy shall probably come upon as mortar, are those two great princes that the devil has set up in opposition to Christ, viz. the emperor of the Turks and the pope. The emperor of the Turks first, so drying up the river Euphrates; and then the pope, when his way is thus prepared. The princes of these very countries, whose former princes overthrew the literal Babylon, will be joined with the princes of Muscovy, as they have of late been in war with the Turks.
Isa. xlii. 3. "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench; he shall bring forth judgment unto truth." The thing most directly intended in this verse seems to be the perseverance of the Christian church, and of particular saints; the church shall not be extinct, though it shall be greatly oppressed and persecuted, and shall be as a bruised reed, but it shall not be wholly broken; when once the fire is kindled it shall never be quenched; but though it do but just smoke at first, afterwards it shall flame out; it shall be as a grain of mustard-seed that by degrees shall become a great tree, or as the little leaven that was hidden in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened, or as the stone out of the mountain. Though the church sometimes be so oppressed that it is hardly visible, we can hardly see whether there be any fire or no, but only the smoke; yet it shall never be wholly destroyed. The same may be applied to particular saints, for he that has begun a good work in them shall carry it on to the day of Christ.
Isa. xlii. 8. "I am the Lord Jehovah, that is my name, and my glory I will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." Concerning this text, these things may be remarked confirming the divinity of Christ.
1. The name Jehovah is a peculiar name of the true God. See also Psalm lxxxiii. 18. "That men may know that thou, whose name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth."
2. That the name Jehovah here spoken of, is often undeniably given to Christ, as is not denied by Arians themselves. It is given in this very book; see chap. vi. 1,. &c. compared with John xii. 41.
3. God says expressly concerning Christ, who is called the Angel of the Lord, "My Name is in him," and therefore he requires the children of Israel to obey his voice.
4. He is often called "the Name of God."
5. The glory of the Lord was given to him; so that glory with which the angel of the Lord was wont to appear, was in a peculiar manner called the glory of the Lord.
6. He is himself often called the glory of the Lord. The apostle expressly says, he is "the brightness of God's glory."
Isa. li. 9. "Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon." The word Rahab here is not the same with Rahab the harlot in Joshua: that is Rachab with n; this is with n. The word signifies pride, probably so called from the exceeding pride that the Egyptians manifested in the time here spoken, viz. when God cut or broke that land, and wounded the dragon; the task-masters of the Israelites and Pharaoh the dragon, here spoken of, manifested an exceeding haughtiness of spirit, in so standing it out with God, who appeared in such awful judgments against them. On this account Egypt is the more fit type of the antiChristian church, that is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt; and Pharaoh the dragon, here spoken of, the fitter type of the great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and the pope his image.
Isa. lii. 7. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings!'' Jerusalem was compassed round with mountains, and therefore he that brought tidings to Zion must come over the mountains, and as he was coming over might therefore be seen in the city. The like expression is in Nahum i. 15.
Isa. liii. 1, 2. "To whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant," &c. That He that the prophet speaks of, as it is most natural to understand, is the arm of the Lord, spoken of in the first verse, and in the two foregoing chapters, as in the 5th and 9th verses of the 51st chap. and in the 10th verse of the 52d,. who is the same as his servant spoken of in the three last verses of that chapter. Hereby two things are evident:
1. That He that is the subject of this chapter, is no mere man, as the Jews suppose: this is evident by the 9th and 10th verses of the 51st chapter.; and,
2. By the same verse it is evident that it was Christ, the second person of the Trinity, that went before Israel when they came out of Egypt. God calls his son his arm, as Jacob calls his son his right hand. Genesis xxxv. 18.
Isa. liii. 12. "Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong." Intending at least partly that Christ's portion should be the most perfect and glorious kingdom of the earth, the most wise, opulent, and learned nations of the world. Ps. xlv. 12. "And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift, even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour." Isa. lx. 13. "The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir-tree, the pine-tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious." Ps. lxxii. 10. "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts."
Jer. i. 5. "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee; and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." In the same manner as God is said to sanctify Jeremiah as a prophet before he was, whom he had elected to be such, for he said he foreknew the elect or saints, and children and heirs of life. Exod. xxiii. 12, 17.
Jer. ii. 2, 3. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown." Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase. See ver. 21. "Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed.'' Ps. lxviii. 14. This has not respect to that generation that went out of Egypt, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness, that were a very corrupt generation, but the generation of their children spoken of Numb. xiv. 31. "But your little ones which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised." So Deut. i. 39. It has respect to those spoken of Jer. xxxi. 2. The people which were left to the sword found grace in the wilderness. The same generation that entered into the land of Canaan, with Joshua, and took possession of the good land, it was the generation that God planted in Canaan, as is evident by verse 21. And the going after God in the wilderness that is here spoken of, is not the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness of Sinai, but their following God through that dreadful wilderness in which the congregation long wandered after they went back from Kadesh-barnea, which is spoken of Deut. viii. 15. "Who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, wherein were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought; where there was no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint." Although this generation had a much greater trial than the generation of their fathers had before they came to Kadesh-barnea, yet they never murmured against God in anywise as their fathers had done. But their trials had a contrary effect upon them, viz. to humble them, and fit them for great mercy. Deut. viii. 2, 3. "And thou shalt remember the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, and to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or no. And he humbled thee," &c. And ver. 16. "Who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness, &c. that he might humble thee, and that he might prove thee, to do thee good in thy latter end." And therefore it is said, Hosea xiii. 5. "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought."
This generation were eminent for piety, as appears by many things said of them in the book of Numbers, as especially Joshua. See Josh. xxiii.8. xxii. 1, 2. Deut. iv. 3, 4. See also Note on Hos. xi. 1. Jer. xxxi. 2, 3. Hos. ix. 10. Jer. ii. 21. Ps. lxviii. 14. Josh. i. and three last verses. Judg. ii. 7, 17, 22. And though there were some wicked men amongst them, they were not like their fathers, unbelieving generation; but believed God, and followed him, and by faith overcame Sihon and Og, and the giants and mighty nations of Canaan. They showed a laudable and fervent zeal for God on several occasions, on occasion of Achan's sin, but especially when they suspected the two tribes and half had set up an altar in opposition to the altar of burnt-offering before the tabernacle. Israel feared and served the Lord all the days that the men of that generation lived. See Notes on Judg. ii. 7.
Jer. ii. 2, 3. "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth," &c. It is probable that all those open rebellions, which were in the congregation of Israel during the whole forty years that the congregation was in the wilderness, were what the men of that perverse generation, who were adults when they came out of Egypt, were principally active and leading in, as the rebellion of Korah and his company that we have an account of Num. xvi. evidently was, for it was managed by some of the principal men in the congregation, which were wont to be their elders, or elderly men, see ver. 2. Their contesting with Moses and Aaron, such aged persons as those that ought to be esteemed equal with them, and other circumstances of the story, show it. And so it is probable was the rebellion at the place where they set up the fiery serpent; Num. xxi.; and the rebellion and wickedness in the matter of Peor.; Num. xxv. Those that remained of that wicked generation seem to have led in it; for the heads or chief of the people, which doubtless were some of their elders, had a chief hand in it, and consequently were hung up before the sun. Num. xxv. 4. That wicked generation continued their rebellions after that God for their rebelling had sworn in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest, as is implied in Psal. lxxxi. 12. "So I gave them up to their own hearts' lust, and they walked in their own counsels." This seems to refer to something in their history as delivered by Moses, as all other passages in the Psalms, concerning the church of Israel in Egypt, and the wilderness, do; but there is nothing else in that history they can refer to but those rebellions that have been spoken of. We may argue in like manner from Acts vii. 41-43. "And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the work of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch," &c.
Wherein God was grieved by the congregation during the whole forty years in the wilderness, it seems to have been chiefly by that generation, by Psal. xcv. 10, 11. "Forty years long was I grieved with this generation unto whom I sware in my wrath," &c. It was their carcasses, chiefly, that fell in the matter of Korah, and by the fiery serpents; and. the destruction that was of them in the matter of Peor, seems to have accomplished the threatening, and to have purged the congregation of the remains of that wicked generation, Jer. xxxi. 2.
That there was a time of remarkable influence of God's Holy Spirit in the younger generation during the forty years' travel, is confirmed by comparing Neh. ix. 20, 21. and Deut. xxxii. 10. and also Deut. viii. 2 5. and v. 15. See also Num. xxxi. 48., to the end, and Deut. xxxiv. 9. A considerable instance of the faith and obedience of that generation was their readily complying with God's command by Joshua in submitting to that painful rite of circumcision, which had been disused for above thirty-eight years; and that, just as they were entering into the land of Canaan full of their strong enemies, being now shut in by the Jordan. It was not only a considerable thing for the whole congregation under forty years at once to submit to what was so painful and disagreeable, but so to expose themselves to their enemies; for, excepting the divine protection, they must in those circumstances have been an easy prey to their enemies, if they had immediately fallen upon them, as the Shechemites were to Simeon and Levi. Their having just entered the country of their gigantic and numerous enemies, of whom they had heard such formidable accounts, and their not knowing what preparation their enemies had made, nor how soon they would fall upon them, tended to make them the more fearful and cautious; but they obeyed God, and trusted in his protection without murmuring against God or Joshua, as Zipporah did against Moses, saying, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.1 "
Concerning what the congregation of Israel were to do in order to the taking of Jericho. It was to try the faith, and obedience, and patience of the people; to try whether they would obey, and believe a promise, which in human probability seemed impossible to be performed. They were also proved whether they could patiently bear the reproaches of their enemies, and patiently wait for the salvation of the Lord. Thus by faith the walls of Jericho fell down. (Heb. xi. 30.) They were commanded to be silent, not to speak a word nor make any noise, ver. 10. which intimates their reverent expectation of the event. Zech. ii. 13. "Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord." Exod. xiv. 14. God shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." They were to go round the city blowing the trumpet for six days together; and they did so, and seven times the seventh day, ver. 14. God could have caused the walls of Jericho to fall upon the first surrounding them; but they must go round them thirteen times before they fall, that they may be kept waiting patiently for the Lord. Though they were newly come into Canaan, and their time was very precious, for they had a great deal of work before them, yet they must linger so many days about Jericho, seeming to do nothing, nor to make any progress in their business. He that believes does not make haste. Go yet seven times before any thing appears. 1 Kings xviii. 43. Henry.
Their faith was further tried in this, that one of the seven days must needs be the sabbath, on which they were commanded to rest. An unbelieving mind would have objected on this account, as the unbelieving Jews objected against Christ's healing, and commanding the man to carry his bed, on the sabbath-day. It is to be noted that it was the same person, even Jesus Christ, who now commanded the people to go round Jericho, and the priests all the while to blow the trumpets on the sabbath, which commanded the impotent man to carry his bed on the sabbath. John v. 11. Compare chap. v. 13-15. and vi. 2,. &c.
A further trial of the people's faith was that all the men of war in going round the city were obliged to leave their camp and all their goods, and their wives and children, every day defenceless, as to any other guard but the divine protection.
This last observed is agreeable to God's proceedings in the course of his providence, in the revolutions of the natural world, and in the revolutions of the world of mankind. Things only seem to go round and round, and return where they were before, as though no progress was made, until God's time comes. But this is through the narrowness of our views. He that looks only on a wheel of a chariot, and sees nothing beyond it, will not see that it does any thing but go round, the same spoke rising and falling alternately to the same place. But he that looks beyond the wheel to the world around, may see the progress that is made continually to an appointed journey's end.
This generation failed not of their duty under such temptations as Saul failed under when he was sent to destroy Agag. They destroyed all the inhabitants, cattle, and goods of Jericho, the first city they took; when they were under the greatest temptations greedily to take them to themselves, being lately come out of the wilderness where they had been destitute of all such things for so long a time. None transgressed but Achan; and when he was found out, none stood in his defence, but all Israel stoned him with stones. See how Joshua commands the soldiers of the two tribes and a half, Josh. xxii. 1-3.
Jer. ii. 32. "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number." For our holiness is all the righteousness of God, all the beauty of the soul is wholly and only divine light reflected; all grace is nothing but the Holy Spirit dwelling in us; and all these graces and spiritual beauties, which are to the mind as attire and ornament are to the body, are Christ in the soul, and nothing else; wherefore we are commanded to put on Christ.
Jer. v. 22. "Fear ye not me, saith the Lord? will ye not tremble at my presence, which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetual decree that it cannot pass it; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, yet can they not prevail; though they roar, yet can they not pass over it?" The unreasonableness and folly of their not fearing God appears from the consideration of the greatness and majesty of God's appearing in his works. And this work of his ruling and restraining the raging waves of the sea, is mentioned in particular, because that wickedness of theirs, described in the foregoing part of the chapter, might fitly be compared to the raging waves of the sea in a storm. We are told, Isa. lvii. 20. that the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. God puts a stop to the waves of the tempestuous sea; let them toss themselves never so proudly, and rage never so violently, as though they would carry all before them, and scorned any restraint. So the mighty God was able to put a stop to that rage and violence of theirs in wickedness, spoken of in verses 3, 5, 7, 8, 12. However headstrong, obstinate, and violent they were in it, God could curb and tame them by his almighty hand. He that looks on every one that is proud, and abases him, could bring down their pride, whereby they toss themselves up against the heavens like the waves of the sea. He could break their power, and subdue their spirits; he could bring them down with a strong hand, however set they were in their way. He could do it very easily by weak and despicable means; he could crush them before the moth; he could show them that his weakness was stronger than they, and could say concerning their wickedness, Job xxxviii. 11. Hitherto shalt thou come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed," as the highest and most raging waves of the sea were brought down and broken, and brought to nothing, by such contemptible means as the sand. Thus God often pours contempt on wicked men, even on the greatest princes.
Such was the obstinacy and violence of the men of Judah and Jerusalem, that men and means could do nothing with them; no human power could stop them; the prophets had tried, and used their utmost endeavours, to counsel them; it was like preaching to the raging waves of the sea, as verses 3, 4, 5, 12,13. Therefore, God would take the work in hand himself. God's subduing the rage of the sea, and the rage of men's spirits, and the wickedness of his enemies, are spoken of as parallel works of God. Psal. lxv. 7. "Who stilleth the noise of the seas, the noise of their waves, and the tumult of the people;" and Psal. lxxxix. 9, 10. "Thou rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them. Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm." However for a while, and sometimes, wicked men may seem to carry all before them, and their wickedness rages without restraint; yet there are certain limits set to it, that are unalterable as the sands on the sea-shore, which here are said to be placed for the bound of the sea, by a perpetual decree.
Jer. vii. 33. "And the carcasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth, and none shall fray them away." As this Tophet here spoken of represents hell, so those fowls and wild beasts that feed upon the carcasses of those men, represent the devils who shall feed upon the souls of the wicked. The devils, we know, are compared to fowls of the air, in the parable of the sower and the seed, as Christ himself explains it. These fowls of the air that devoured these carcasses, were ravens and eagles, and other unclean and ravenous birds, that do fitly represent the impure spirits of the air, and those ravenous beasts do well represent him who is a roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour.
Jer. x. 16. "Israel is the rod of his inheritance." Deut. xxxii. 9. called the cord of inheritance, which in our translation is rendered the lot of his inheritance, that is, he is the inheritance as it were measured by a cord, or by a rod. Sometimes they were wont to lay out and measure land by a cord, sometimes by a rod or pole.
Jer. xi. 20. "Let me see thy vengeance on them, for unto thee have I revealed my cause." Also Jer. xviii. 21. "Therefore deliver up their children to the famine," &c. We hence learn that these imprecations that are to be found in Scripture, are not to be understood as expressions of a private desire of ill to their enemies contrary to the precepts of the gospel, for it is evident that Jeremiah did not hate his country, or desire or rejoice in its overthrow.
Jer. xii. 3. "But thou, O Lord, knowest me; thou hast seen me, and tried mine heart toward thee; pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter." The prophets pray for evil to their enemies. When we find passages of this kind in the Psalms, or the prophets, we are to look upon them as prophetical curses; they curse them in the name of the Lord, as Elisha did the children that mocked him, as Noah cursed Canaan. We have instances of this kind, even in the apostles, and the disciples of the Lamb of God; as Paul curses Alexander the coppersmith, 2 Tim. iv. 14. and Peter says to Simon Magus, "Thy money perish with thee;" as also they wish them ill, not as personal but as public enemies, enemies to the church. Sometimes what they say is in the name of the church. Jer. li. 34, 35.
Jer. xiii. 11. "For as a girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel, and the whole house of Judah." As the body of a man is incomplete and defective without his garment, so does Christ look on himself as incomplete without his church.
Jer. xiii. 12. "Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Every bottle shall be filled with wine; and they shall say unto thee, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?" which' denotes, bottles were made, prepared to be filled with wine; they are fitted for it; you tell us no news in saying so: but so are wicked men vessels fitted to be filled with the wine of God's wrath, as bottles are fitted to be filled with wine: they are vessels of wrath filled to destruction.
Jer. xvi. 15. "But, The Lord liveth that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them; and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers." This has not merely nor principally a respect unto the return of the captivity of the Israelites from Babylon, but unto the gathering of the gospel church, the gathering together the elect (the spiritual Israel) from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other, into the church their own land, from whence they were captivated by Satan. Matt. xxiv. 31. This is one sense of all those prophecies of the Old Testament, that speak of the recalling of the Jews.
Jer. xxx. 21. "Their nobles shall be of themselves, and their Governor shall proceed from the midst of them; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach unto me; for who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me?" This, as Dr. Ridgley, in his Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 366, 367. observes, seems to be a prophecy of Christ. The chapter is evidently a prophecy of the gospel times of the church, the times when the spiritual David was to be their Noble and Governor, as appears by verse 9. "They shall serve the Lord their God, and David their King, whom I will raise up unto them:" And what is in this verse translated nobles, is in the Hebrew in the singular number, their noble; it is the more probable that this is to be understood of Christ, and not of Zerubbabel, or any other governor after the Babylonish captivity, because the supreme governor of Israel was very rarely of themselves after the captivity, even till after their destruction by the Romans." They scarcely ever had this privilege in this sense to so great a degree as before their captivity. But when we look on this chapter, we cannot think it is a prophecy of less prosperity to God's people than what they now enjoyed; and then what is said here of this governor or noble, agrees peculiarly with Christ, and particularly that clause, "For who is this that hath engaged his heart to approach unto me!" The word translated engaged is, to become, or act, the surety for any one; to mingle himself with another, or unite himself to another, us a surety; and so the word is commonly used in Scripture, as Gen. xliii. 9. and xliv. 32. Prov. xi. 15. Job xvii. 3. 2 Kings xviii. 23. and elsewhere. See Buxtorf. So that the words might well have been translated, "Who is this that hath mingled or united his heart as a surety to approach unto me!" It is here inquired with a note of admiration, Who is this that hath engaged his heart in suretyship to approach unto me! probably for two reasons, viz. because of the wonderfulness of his person, and because of the greatness of the undertaking; and whether we understand by the Israel, whose prosperity is here prophesied of, the Israelitish nation, or God's spiritual Israel, yet Christ, their Governor, is of themselves; he has taken on him the human nature; he is of the human race, and is our brother, and he is a child of the church; he has sucked the breasts of our mother; he is one of the holy nation, the spiritual seed of Abraham, and he is also of the Israelitish nation, and he took on him the seed of Abraham in a literal sense. In the following verse is mentioned the consequence of Christ's approaching to God as his people's surety, viz. their covenant interest in God, "And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God."
Jer. xxxi. 33. "But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people." I think the difference here pointed out between these two covenants, lies plainly here, that in the old covenant God promised to be their God upon condition of hearty obedience; obedience was stipulated as a condition, but not promised. But in the new covenant, this hearty obedience is promised if a man be but of the house of Israel, as by faith he becomes so. God promises expressly in this new dispensation that he shall perform a hearty obedience, and so have God for his God. That old covenant they broke, as it is said in the foregoing verse. The house of Israel, these were called so under the Old Testament, could break that; but the new covenant is such as cannot be broken by the spiritual house of Israel, because obedience is one thing that God engages and promises; and therefore this is called an everlasting covenant upon this account, as is plain from chap. xxxii. 40. It is true the true saints, in the Old Testament, could not fall away any more than they can now, but they were not the Old-Testament Israel; and, though God had engaged in his covenant with Christ that they should not fall away, yet he had not expressly revealed that to them. God had not in those days so plainly revealed the primary and fundamental condition of the covenant of grace, viz. faith; but insisted more upon the secondary condition, universal and persevering obedience, the genuine and certain fruit of faith.
Ezekiel. chapter 1. Concerning Ezekiel's wheels. Divine Providence is most aptly represented by the revolution and course of these wheels: things in their series and course in providence do as it were go round like a wheel in its motion on the earth. That which goes round like a wheel, goes from a certain point or direction, until it gradually returns to it again; so is the course of things in providence.
God's providence over the world consists partly in his governing the natural world according to the course and laws of nature. This consists wholly as it were in the revolution of wheels. So the annual changes that appear in the natural world are as it were by the revolution of a wheel, or the course of the sun through that great circle the ecliptic, or the ring of that great wheel the zodiac. And so the monthly changes are by the revolution of another lesser wheel within that greater annual wheel; which, being a lesser wheel, must go round oftener, to make the same progress. Ezekiel's vision was of wheels within wheels, of lesser wheels within greater, which all went round, as though running upon several parallel plains, each touching the circumference of its respective wheel, and all making the same progress, keeping pace one with another; and therefore the lesser wheels must go round so much oftener, according as their circumference was less.
So again the diurnal changes in the natural world are by the revolution of a wheel still within the monthly wheel, and going round about thirty times in one revolution of the other. The system of the universe may exactly answer what is here said of these wheels, and livelily represents God's providence in the government of the moral world. There is as it were a wheel within a wheel; the whole system is nothing else but wheels within wheels, lesser wheels within greater, revolving oftener. There is the sphere of the fixed stars, which is the greatest wheel, includes all the others, and is many thousand years in performing its revolution. This includes the circle of Saturn's course, which is a lesser wheel within the other, finishing its revolution in about thirty years. That includes the circle of Jupiter, a lesser wheel, revolving in about twelve years: that includes the circle of Mars, that the circle of the Earth, that of Venus, that of Mercury, that of the Sun, which revolves about its own axis. And some of the greater wheels include lesser and of various kinds, as the great wheel of Saturn, besides those of the inferior planets, has annexed to it those lesser wheels of his satellites one within another, and then its ring, and then its own body about its axis. So of Jupiter, and so of the earth and moon. So some of the grand revolutions of providence that are but parts of the grand system of providence, have a particular system as it were belonging to themselves, wherein the great revolution includes lesser revolutions that are not parallel with any like them, continued from the beginning to the end of time, but begin their various revolutions with that particular great wheel that they are fixed to, and end with it. So it is with that great wheel, the continuance of the Jewish state; so it is with the continuance of the Christian church; so it is with the state of some particular kingdoms and empires; so it is with the motion of the air in the winds, it goes and returns according to its circuits; and so it is with the motion of the water in the tides, and in their course out of the sea, and into the clouds, springs, and rivers, and into the sea again. So it is with the circulation of the blood in a man's body, and the bodies of other animals; so it is with the life of man; it is like the revolution of a wheel; he is from the earth and gradually rises, and then gradually falls and returns to the earth again. Dust we are, and unto dust we return; we came naked out of our mother's womb, and naked must we go and return. The dust returns to earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. So it is with the world of mankind; it is the whole of it like a wheel; it as it were sinks and goes down to the earth in one generation, and rises in another, as it is with a wheel, at the same time that one side is falling to the earth, another part of the wheel is rising from the earth. Solomon takes notice of these things. Eccles. i. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. "One generation passeth away, and another cometh: but the earth abideth for ever. The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to the place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth about continually, and the wind retumeth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it."
So it is in the course of things in God's providence over the intelligent and moral world, all is the motion of wheels; they go round and come to the same again; and the whole series of divine providence, from the beginning to the end, is nothing else but the revolution of certain wheels, greater and lesser, the lesser being contained within the greater: what comes to pass in the natural world, is in this respect typical of what comes to pass in the moral and intelligent world, and seems to be spoken of by the wise man in that forementioned place in Ecclesiastes, as the words that follow next after those that were mentioned respecting the natural world, do respect the intelligent world. Ver. 9, 10. "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun," &c.
Things in their series and course in providence, do as it were return to the same point or place whence they began, as in the turning of a wheel, but yet not so, but that a further end is obtained than was at first, or the same end is obtained in a much further degree; so that in the general there is a progress towards a certain and final issue of things, and every revolution brings nearer to that issue, as it is in the motion of a wheel upon the earth, as in the motion of the wheels of a chariot, and not like the motion of a wheel by its axis, for if so, its motion would be in vain.
The entire series of events in the course of things through the age of the visible universe, may fitly be represented by one great wheel, exceeding high and terrible, performing one great revolution. In the beginning of this revolution all things come from God, and are formed out of a chaos; and in the end, all things shall return into a chaos again, and shall return to God, so that he that is the Alpha will be the Omega. This great wheel contains a lesser wheel that performs two revolutions, while that performs one. The first begins at the beginning of the world, and ends at the coming of Christ, and at the ending of the Old-Testament dispensation, which is often represented as the end of the world in Scripture. The first revolution began with the creation of the world, so the second revolution began with the creation of new heavens and a new earth.
The course of things from the beginning of the world to the coming of Christ, may be represented as one great wheel performing one revolution; all things in the beginning of this revolution were from Christ the Creator of man, and the whole motion henceforward until Christ came was to bring things about to Christ again, and so to prepare the way for his coming, and to introduce him as the Redeemer of man. This wheel contains a lesser wheel, that performs two revolutions, while the great one does one; the first revolution ending at the calling of Abraham, at which time God did as it were plant the tree of his church anew, which he had planted at first in his revealing the covenant of grace to Adam; the second ending at the coming of Christ, the promised seed of Abraham and his antitype, in whom all the families of the earth are blessed, and in whom the church was planted anew, and in a far more glorious manner.
The course of things from the beginning of the world to the flood may be looked upon as the revolution of a wheel. At the beginning of it, God created the world, and the face of the earth was covered with waters, and the world was all of one man and his posterity. At the end of it, the world was destroyed and reduced to the same state again; the world was covered with waters, and the world of mankind was began anew with one man and his posterity. The course of things from the flood to Abraham, was as it were the revolution of another wheel, or another revolution of the same wheel, as at the beginning of it. The world was corrupt, and therefore one man and his family separated to be the father of the church; so it was again at the end of it. The space from Abraham to Moses was as it were another revolution of the same wheel; for, as God established his covenant with Abraham, and then separated his church from the heathen, in calling Abraham out of Chaldea and Syria, so in the end of it he again renewed his covenant, and again separated his church from the heathen world, by bringing them up out of Egypt. From Moses and Joshua, to Samuel, David, and Solomon, was another revolution of the same wheel: as in the beginning of it God gave the spirit of prophecy to Moses; so he renewed it in Samuel: as in the beginning of it God gloriously conquered the enemies of Israel, and settled them in Canaan in peace, by the hand of Moses and Joshua; so in the end of it God gloriously subdued the enemies of Israel, and subdued the remains of the inhabitants of Canaan, and the nations round about, and gave them the full and peaceable possession of the land of promise, in the full extent of it, from the river Euphrates to the river of Egypt. The space from David and Solomon, to the return out of the captivity, is another revolution of the same wheel: in the beginning of it, the temple was built; in the end it was built again, and the temple and worship, and the courses of the priests and Levites, again restored, which David and Solomon had established, and the church-state of the Jews, as it had been settled by David and Solomon, was again renewed. From the return out of the captivity, until Christ came and established the Christian dispensation, is another revolution of the same wheel: at the beginning of it God redeemed the church out of Babylon; at the end of it he redeemed his church from sin and Satan, and accomplished that great redemption, of which the redemption from the Babylonish captivity was a great type.
The course of things during the Jewish state was, as it were, the revolution of a great wheel. This course, as it respects the national state of that people, began with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of that nation. The national state of that people was then in its infancy; the wheel then began to rise from the ground, and it rose to the height in Solomon's time, when the temple was built, and Solomon's kingdom in its greatest prosperity, which was about the middle of the space between the birth and calling of Abraham and Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem; thenceforward they declined in numbers, and wealth, and strength, until they came to the ground again, when Christ came, and Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Their state, with respect to their ecclesiastical constitution, began in Moses, the first prophet, and came to the height in Isaiah's time, that most evangelical prophet, who lived about the middle of the space between Moses and Christ, and came to the ground again in Christ's time. It was with the Jewish state, in this respect, as it is with the life of man, which I before showed was as the revolution of a wheel that began at the ground, and gradually rose to the height, and then gradually came to the ground again. So it is with kingdoms and empires; their state and course are very much like the revolution of a wheel, beginning at the ground, and rising to the height, and coming to the ground again. So it was with the four great monarchies of the world, and so it is with the reign of antichrist, and the continuance of the Mahometan empire, and other states and kingdoms; and when one nation or kingdom comes to the ground, another comes to the greatest height, that before was at the ground, as it is with the different parts of a wheel in motion. The space of time from Christ to the end of the world, is as the revolution of a great wheel. In the beginning of it Christ comes into the world, and the wicked Jews were judged at the destruction of Jerusalem, and after them the wicked heathen world, in Constantine's time, and the old world comes to an end, and the church's glory follows, and then things in the Christian church gradually sink, until they come to the ground in the darkest times of antichrist, and then gradually rise again until Christ comes again and judges the world, and destroys the church's enemies, and destroys the old heavens and earth, and then the church's glory follows.
The whole series of things through the age of the world may be represented as a wheel of various rings one within another, and some less than others: each one going round but once, the lesser ones finishing their revolution soonest, and each beginning at the creation of the old heavens and earth, which, in some respects, had different beginnings; one when Adam was created; another in Noah's time; the settling of the world after the building of Babel, and another at the establishment of the Jewish state. And the revolution of each wheel ends in an end of the world, and a day of judgment, and a creation of new heavens and a new earth; the last wheel finishes its revolution at the coming of Christ, and the destruction of Jerusalem, and overthrow of the heathen empires that followed, when the world, in a sense, came to an end, and there was a day of judgment. This began at the creation of the Jewish state in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Joshua, and the total apostacy of the Gentile world to heathenism. The next wheel, which is larger, began its revolution at Noah's coming out of the ark, and the building of Babel, and the dispersing of the nations, and the settling the world from thence; which is, as it were, another beginning of the world, and ends at the destruction of Antichrist, or the spiritual Babylon, and Satan's visible kingdom on earth, (which began in the building of Babel,) and the commencing of the glorious times of the church. This is another end of the world, and day of judgment, and building of the new heavens and new earth. The third and greatest wheel begins its revolution at the creation, and finishes it at Christ's second coming to judge the world, and destroy heaven and earth, in a literal sense.
Every wheel, or every revolution, begins and proceeds from God, and returns to God; as in Ezekiel's vision God is represented as appearing above the wheels, so that to him they continually returned. God remarkably appears both in the beginning and ending of each of these wheels that have been mentioned, especially in those that respect the state of the church of God. As to human things, however, such as human kingdoms, and empires, they rise from the earth, and return to the ground again; but spiritual things begin their revolution from God on high, and thither they return again.
The changes that are in the world with respect to the profession of the truth, and rise and fall of heresies, is very much like the motion of wheels, they rise and fall, and rise and fall again.
These wheels, in this vision, are represented as God's chariot wheels. The world is the chariot of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in which he makes his progress to that glory; that glorious marriage with his spouse, that eternal feast, that everlasting kingdom of rest, and love, and joy, which the Father hath designed him.
What Ezekiel there saw was designed to represent God's chariot, in which God rode, and those wheels are the wheels of his chariot, and God, who sat on his throne above the firmament, over these wheels and cherubim, is represented as on the seat in which he rides, and makes progress with the wheels and cherubim. God came to Ezekiel to speak to him, and gave him his mission on this chariot, and is so represented in his first chapter. In the second and third chapters we have an account of what he said to him from this seat. In the 12th and 13th verses of the 3rd chapter., we have an account of his departure when he had done speaking with him, which was with a great rustling and noise of the wings of the cherubim, and the noise of the wheels. God rode on these cherubim as those that drew his chariot, as it is said, Psal. xvii. 10. " He rode on a cherub, and did fly." And Psal. lxviii. 17. "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels." And therefore God, in being in that chariot drawn by these cherubim, is said to be upon the cherub. Ezek. ix. 3. "And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house;" and God appeared about to leave the temple, and his glory departed from off the threshold into this same chariot. Chap. x. 18. with the foregoing verses; and then it is said the cherubim lift up their wings and mounted from the earth in his sight; and the wheels also went beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above; and after this, chap. xi. 22, 23. God is represented as departing in this manner up out of the midst of the city, ascending up to the top of mount Olivet, being about from thence to ascend into heaven, from whence this same person afterwards ascended after his resurrection. (See Note on that verse.) And when it was represented in vision to Ezekiel how God would afterwards return to the city and temple in those happy days that were to come, he is represented as returning in the same manner, chap. xliii. 2, 3, 4.
This chariot represents the world, which is confirmed by this, that one part of it is called the firmament, which was the upper part, but yet the pavement of it, above which was the seat of God, who sat and rode in that chariot, agreeably to Deut. xxxiii. 26. "Who rideth upon the heaven in thine help, and in his excellency on the sky;" and to Psal. lxviii. 4. "Extol him that rideth upon the heaven of heavens, which were of old." God appeared here on the same pavement as he appeared to the seventy elders on mount Sinai. (See Notes on Exod. xxiv. 10.) What is signified by the wheels which were under the firmament, but above us upon the earth, is, God's providence in this visible world, especially representing mankind that dwell on the earth.
Christ was the person that appeared riding in this chariot, as is confirmed from that, that he appeared in the likeness of a man, ver. 26. and also from the description that is given of his appearance. (See Note on ver. 27.)
This chariot is drawn on those wheels by the four animals, which denote God's power, wisdom, justice, and mercy, and all proceed on feet like a calf's foot, because the great work of providence, that is as it were the sum of all providences, is that work of mercy, the work of redemption.
Corol. Hence I would argue that the affairs of heaven have doubtless great respect to the affairs of this lower world, and God's providence here; and that the church in heaven, as to the progress it makes in its state of glory and blessedness, keeps pace with the church on earth; that the glory of both is advanced together. These great dispensations of providence, by which glorious things are brought to pass for the church on earth, are accompanied with like advances made at the same time in the church in heaven. And also that the affairs of the church in heaven, have some way or other a dependence on God's providence towards his church on earth, and that their progress is dependent on the progress of things in God's providence towards his church here. For heaven and earth are both framed together. It is the same chariot, one part has relation to another, and is connected with another, and is all moved together; the motion of one part depends on the motion of the other; the upper part moves on the wheels of the lower part, for heaven is the room and seat of the chariot that is above the firmament that moves on the wheels that are under the firmament, and that go upon the earth; when these wheels are moved by the cherubim, then the upper part moves; when they stop that stops, and wherever the wheels go that goes. It is on these wheels that Christ, the King of heaven, in his throne in heaven, makes progress to the final issue of all things. It is in the wheels of his providence that move on earth, that he in his throne in heaven makes progress towards the ultimate end of the creation of both heaven and earth, and the ultimate end of all the affairs of both; for this is the end of the journey of the whole chariot, both wheels and throne, for both are moving towards the same journey's end. And the motion of all is by the wheels on earth; and if so, doubtless it is on these wheels that all the inhabitants of heaven, both saints and angels, are carried towards their ultimate end; for all are Christ's family, they are either his servants and attendants in the affair of redemption, which is the grand movement of the wheels, and are the ministers that draw the wheels, or are his members and parts of his body.
This therefore confirms that the saints and angels in heaven do make progress in knowledge and happiness, by what they see of God's works on earth. We know that all the happiness of the saints in heaven is entirely dependent on those great things that Christ did on earth, in the work of redemption, as it was purchased by it; and there is reason to think that their knowledge and glory is in other respects, by what they see of these great works of providence which God carries on in the world in the prosecution of the grand design of redemption.
Ezek. i. 4. "And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, and a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire." This that was here seen by Ezekiel was the Shechinah, or the symbol and representation of the Deity.
Here is a cloud and fire as God appeared in the wilderness, as in a pillar of cloud and fire. Psal. xviii. 11. "His pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies." And Psal. xcvii. "Clouds and darkness are round about him." And there was a whirlwind, which was an usual symbol of the divine presence, as Job xxxviii. 1. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind;" so again Job xl. 6. and Nahum i. 3. "The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and the storm."
The fire that appeared, which did in a special manner represent the divine essence, is said to be a fire infolding itself, or catching itself, as it is in the margin, or receiving or taking itself into its own bosom; which represents the action of the Deity towards itself, in the action of the persons of the Trinity towards each other. The Godhead is perceived only by perceiving the Son and the Spirit, for no man hath seen God at any time; he is seen by his image, the Son, and is felt by the Holy Spirit, as fire is perceived only by its light and heat, seen by one, and felt by the other. Fire, by its light, represents the Son of God, and by its heat the Holy Spirit. God is light, and he is love. This light, in the manner of the subsisting of the Father and the Son, shines on itself: it receives its own brightness into its own bosom. The Deity, in the generation of the Son, shines forth with infinite brightness towards itself, and in the manner of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost, it receives all its own heat into its own bosom, and burns with infinite heat towards itself. The flames of divine love are received and infolded into the bosom of the Deity.
It is the nature of all other fire to go out of itself, as it were to fly from itself, and hastily to dissipate. The flames are continually going forth from the midst of the fire towards the exterior air, but this fire receives itself into its own bosom. Ezekiel saw this cloud of glory and fire infolding, or taking in itself, before he saw the chariot of God, the cherubim, and wheels, and firmament, and throne, and the appearance of a man above upon it, which came out of that cloud of fire; and therefore this fire, infolding itself, does especially represent the Deity before the creation of the world, or before the beginning of the being of this chariot with its wheels, when all God's acts were only towards himself, for then there was no other being but He.
This appeared coming out of the north, from whence usually came whirlwinds in that country, and possibly because in the north is the empty place. The chariot of the world came forth out of nothing.