《Kretzmann’s Popular Commentary of the Bible - Isaiah》(Paul E. Kretzmann)
Commentator
The Popular Commentary is Lutheran to the core. Dr. Paul E. Kretzmann's commentary reproduces Luther, his theology and religion, his faith and piety. Dr. Kretzmann's commentary offers to Lutheran Christians nothing but sound, scriptural doctrine on the basis of believing, Biblical scholarship. Because of this, the Popular Commentary possesses a unique distinction. It is a popular commentary in the truest sense of the term; a commentary for the people and offering to the people nothing but unalloyed exposition of the Bible.
About the Author
Paul Edward Kretzmann was born in Farmers Retreat, Indiana in 1883. His early education started in Fort Wayne, Indiana at Concordia College and he went on to earn his Ph.D. and D.D. at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis Missouri. From 1906-1907 he moved to Shady Bend, Kansas to pastor a church and in 1907-1912 he resettled in Denver, Colorado. Kretzmann then traveled to St. Paul, Minnesota where he accepted a professorship at Concordia College from 1912-1919.
Concordia's Literary Board of 1918 initiated the undertaking of The Popular Commentary and, after very mature consideration, nominated the author and drafted the general character and scope of this popular commentary. Accordingly Kretzmann, was called from the position of instructor to work on this project. The two volumes on the New Testament were published in 1921 and 1922 respectively and in April of 1923 Kretzmann wrote the concluding chapters on the Old Testament. He helped form the the Orthodox Lutheran Conference in 1948 and was president of it's seminary in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Introduction
The Book Of The Prophet Of Isaiah
Introduction
Among the people of God of the Old Covenant who were actively engaged in His ministry were not only the priests, who were chiefly in charge of public worship, although they also did some teaching, but also the prophets, the official spokesmen of God to the children of Israel and others, whose work consisted not only in foretelling future events, but, in general, in uttering the message of God entrusted to them, whether this pertained to an exposition of the will of God, to an application of the Law to the circumstances of their time, or to an unveiling of the future, particularly of the glories of the Messianic period. The prophets were also called seers, men of God, messengers of Jehovah, servants of the Lord, in short, organs and instruments of the Lord in making Himself, His person and His will, known to men. They performed their work either in prophetical speech, spoken or written, or by the narration of visions and dreams vouchsafed to them by the Lord, or by symbolical acts signifying certain events in the coming history of God's people.
Among the men whose prophetical writings have been preserved in the canon of the Bible, Isaiah, the son of Amoz, stands first. Of the circumstances of his life little is known. He seems to have descended from a noble family, according to Jewish tradition a side-line of the reigning family of David. Isaiah was married and lived in Jerusalem, his two sons, by God's command, bearing names with symbolical meanings. He began his activity as prophet in the year in which King Uzziah died, 758 B. C. and appears to have been active for some sixty years. Beside his book of prophecy Isaiah also wrote a historical work, 2Ch_26:22. According to an ancient tradition, which, however, cannot be verified, Isaiah suffered martyrdom under King Manasseh.
The period of Isaiah's activity is that of the Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. In the first part of this period the kingdom of Judah was in a most flourishing condition, 2Ki_14:21, At this time the double kingdom once more had the extent which it had possessed in the days of David and Solomon. But with the accession of Ahaz came a period of disintegration and decay: gross idolatry, human sacrifices, desecration of the Temple, turning to the Assyrians for help, who, in turn, became a scourge of the country. With the accession of Hezekiah things took a turn for the better, since he restored the Temple services, celebrated the Passover, renounced the covenant with the Assyrians, and was miraculously delivered from the power of the Assyrian king. But when he gave himself to pride and made overtures to the Babylonians, he paved the way for the later ascendency of this world power and for the fall of the southern kingdom.
Isaiah stands midway between Moses and Christ. He was, at the same time, the great preacher of repentance and the evangelist of the Old Testament. To the godless he proclaimed the wrath of the Lord, the inevitable destruction, with an earnestness and impressiveness which is overwhelming in its force; to the believers, the small remnant, he preaches the comforting message of the deliverance of mankind through the Messiah, the Servant of Jehovah.
The Book of Isaiah is clearly divided into two parts 1 to 39 and 40 to 66, both parts being grouped about certain historical facts, the first being the hypocritical apostasy of Ahaz and the subsequent invasion of Sennacherib, the second the foolish act of Hezekiah in showing the envoys of the Babylonian king the treasures of his house and thus inviting the world power to covet the riches of Judah. The first group of prophecies concerns not only Judah and Jerusalem, but also the chief foreign countries and nations, chiefly Assyria, Babylon, Moab, Syria, Egypt, and Tyre. The second group is known as the Book of Consolations and pictures the restoration of the remnant of Israel, the Messianic King, and the final glory of the Church.
01 Chapter 1
Verses 1-4
The Address
v. 1. The vision of Isaiah ("The Lord will save"), the son of Amos, which he saw, by special enlightenment and inspiration of the Lord, concerning Judah, the southern kingdom, and Jerusalem, the capital of Judah, the site of the Temple, and therefore the center of theocratic worship, in the days of Uzziah, also known as Azariah, 2Ki_14:21, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
v. 2. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, the witnesses who were present at the giving of the Law, Deu_4:36, were to hear the complaint of the Lord, as He entered into judgment with His people after seven centuries, Cf Deu_32:1; for the Lord hath spoken, the very words of Jehovah, the self-existing and unchangeable God, being quoted here, I have nourished, brought to maturity, to adult age, and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me, for so Israel, the first-born son of God, Exo_4:22, had rewarded the blessings received at the hand of God during these many years since the deliverance out of the serfdom of Egypt. Rebellion against God, apostasy from God: that is the chief characteristic in the history of Israel since the days of Solomon.
v. 3. The ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib, the very unthinking brutes acquiring a certain attachment for their master, so that they will not voluntarily leave him; but Israel doth not know, does not realize, My people doth not consider, does not meditate and reflect upon it, continues in deliberate ignorance of its Lord and Provider.
v. 4. Ah! sinful nation, going its way of willful error, a people laden with iniquity, with guilt and corruption of right, burdened with transgressions, a seed of evil-doers, a brood of such as prefer wickedness to the holiness required of them, children that are corrupters, themselves subject to spiritual decay and infecting others with their corruption; they have forsaken the Lord, they are guilty of apostasy in heart and mind, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they have gotten into the habit of blaspheming and mocking or rejecting with scorn, Him who is spotlessly pure and who chose these people to be a holy nation unto Himself; they are gone away backward, following their own corrupt ways, especially in sins of idolatry. Such is the sevenfold woe of the Lord, which may rightly be applied wherever apostasy is found in His Church, also in our days.
Verses 5-9
The Desolation of Zion
v. 5. Why, that is, to what end and purpose, should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more, or, "while ye are revolting more and more. " The case was such that Israel heaped rebellion upon blasphemy, always becoming subject to more severe forms of punishment, and yet no beneficial result showed. The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint, that is, the entire nation, leaders and followers, within and without, were suffering from the consequences of tile many wounds received at the hands of God.
v. 6. From the sole of the foot even unto the head, that is, the whole body of the people, from the lowest to the highest and most honorable, there is no soundness in it, not a healthy spot, but wounds, gaping as from the stroke of a sword, and bruises, contusions as from the blows of fists, and putrefying sores, from which the pus must be drawn; they have not been closed, by pressing the gaping edges together, both to remove all foreign matter and to cause an even healing, neither bound up, by a cool and softening bandage, neither mollified with ointment, to hasten the healing process. In other words, when the prophets tried to heal the various wounds and bruises of Israel by using the knife of the Law, by calling the people to repentance, in order to apply the cooling ointment of the Gospel afterwards, the people resented the treatment and hindered the healing; they refused the assistance of the Lord and repudiated His mercy. The prophet now abandons his figurative language for a concrete description of the situation in Judah and Jerusalem at that time.
v. 7. Your country is desolate, it has been made a desert by the inroads of the enemies, your cities are burned with fire, laid waste by plundering hordes; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, that is, the fruits of the ground, of fields and orchards, were taken by the invaders, and it is desolate, turned into a wilderness, as overthrown by strangers, conditions such as barbarians usually bring about.
v. 8. And the daughter of Zion, the city of Jerusalem with its inhabitants, is left as a cottage in a vineyard, the shack of a watchman, offering meager shelter, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, a similar shelter in a truck-garden, temporary and frail, as a besieged city, for the devastated country is inhabited by enemies, and therefore the inhabitants of Jerusalem were practically cut off from all outside intercourse.
v. 9. Except the Lord of hosts, Jehovah Sabaoth, in whose hands, after all, are the destinies of all people and especially of His Church Militant, had left unto us a very small remnant, some who had escaped the general desolation behind the walls of Jerusalem, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah, visited by a total destruction. Thus far God's judgment upon the backsliding Jews had proceeded. But the climax of His punishment had not yet struck Jerusalem; there were still such as had escaped. Let all sinners everywhere heed the warning of the Lord, lest the final judgment strike them.
Verses 10-15
Rebuke of Hypocritical Worship
v. 10. Hear the Word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, for as such Jehovah addresses the princes of Jerusalem; give ear unto the Law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah, whose conduct was characterized by pride, the lust of the flesh, and lack of mercy. The thought underlying this turn of the prophet's solemn appeal is this, that the Jews might have desired to object to his rebuke by pointing to the apparent splendor of the Temple-worship.
v. 11. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto Me? saith the Lord, for the people were still observing the letter of the Law with great exactness, depending upon this outward fulfillment of God's command as sufficient to gain and retain His good will toward them. I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, He is surfeited with their dead worship, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats, such sacrifices indeed having been commanded by the Lord, but not in a lifeless, mechanical form of worship, for such hypocritical conduct is ever an abomination to the Lord.
v. 12. When ye come to appear before Me, namely, in person, to attend any of the festivals of the Jewish Church, who hath required this at your hand to tread My courts? The presence of a person's body in the place of worship, without worship in spirit and in truth, is of no value, for all hypocrites and Christians in name only trample the Lord's courts and waste the Church's property without benefit to themselves.
v. 13. Bring no more vain oblations, offerings of vanity and lying, the reference being to such as were made of flour, principally in the form of fried and boiled cakes; Incense is an abomination unto Me, namely, if brought by a mere mechanical act; the new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, as it was solemnly done at the direction of the priests and rulers, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting, rather, "I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly," namely, as practiced by these people.
v. 14. Your new moons and your appointed feasts My soul hateth, they are a matter of loathing to Him on account of the total lack of spirituality in the people; they are a trouble, a grievous burden, unto Me; I am weary to bear them, He must soon shake them off and reward the hypocrites according to their deserts.