124. The People Of Thy Holiness (2)

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Hymns: RHC 351 He Leadeth Me 353 God Will Take Care of You 354 God Leads Us Along

Isaiah 63

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. 10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? 12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? 14 As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name. 15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? 16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. 17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. 18The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. 19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

The People Of Thy Holiness (2)

OUTLINE

  • Judgement at Christ’s Return (v1-6)
  • His Presence with His People and their Rebellion (v7-14)
  • His Mercy to Restore His people (v15-19) 

… 9 In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

Throughout Israel’s history, the LORD has been their constant anchor and help. This is the message for God’s people. How good and gracious is the LORD to His people.

Exodus 3:7-9 (KJV) And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; 8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them.

Exodus 14:19 (KJV) And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them:

Deuteronomy 7:7-10 (KJV) The LORD did not set his love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: 8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the LORD brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD thy God, he isGod, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations; 10 And repayeth them that hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him that hateth him, he will repay him to his face.

10 But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. 

Israel’s history sadly filled with numerous episodes of rebellion against the LORD their God. A clear reflection of the situation since the days of Adam. 

To rebel is to be disobedient. Israel’s problem was going against the known will of God. 

This was Isaiah’s ministry from the beginning – Isaiah 1:2 (KJV) Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Isaiah 65:2 (KJV) I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;

The psalmist also wrote of Israel’s waywardness – Psalm 78:8 (KJV) And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

Psalm 78:40 (KJV) How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!

Psalm 78:49 (KJV) He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Psalm 95:9-11 (KJV) When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. 10 Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: 11 Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

During Israel’s exile in Babylon and the scene of their idolatry before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem –Ezekiel 6:9 (KJV) And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall lothe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

The testimony of Stephen – Acts 7:51 (KJV) Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Time and again, Israel was exhorted to obey the voice of the LORD – Exodus 23:21 (KJV) Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.

The admonition of God’s wrath against them when they turned from the LORD is clearly given in Leviticus 26:15-19 (KJV) And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: 16 I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. 17 And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. 18 And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. 19 And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:

Further confrontation of the LORD for their sins has been stated – Leviticus 26:20-24 (KJV) And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. 21 And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. 22 I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. 23 And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; 24 Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.

11 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? 12 That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? 13 That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble?

When Israel were in dire straits and remember the old days of blessing when the LORD was with them and turn to Him again, there will be restoration.

He did not forget His solemn promises to be their Protector and their God. For their crimes they were subjected to punishment, but God did not forget that they were His people, nor that He had entered into covenant with them. The object of this part of the petition seems to be, to recall the fact that in former times God had never wholly forsaken them, and to plead that the same thing might occur now. Even in the darkest days of adversity, God still remembered His promises, and interposed to save them. Such they trusted it would be still. [Barnes]

Leviticus 26:39-46 (KJV) And they that are left of you shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies’ lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them. 40 If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, with their trespass which they trespassed against me, and that also they have walked contrary unto me; 41 And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity: 42 Then will I remember my covenant with Jacob, and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land. 43 The land also shall be left of them, and shall enjoy her sabbaths, while she lieth desolate without them: and they shall accept of the punishment of their iniquity: because, even because they despised my judgments, and because their soul abhorred my statutes. 44 And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God. 45 But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD. 46 These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the LORD made between him and the children of Israel in mount Sinai by the hand of Moses.

Deuteronomy 4:30-31 (KJV) When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; 31 (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

Psalm 25:6 (KJV) Remember, O LORD, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

The backslider in solemn soul-searching comes back to the LORD, pleading for His mercy and restoration – Psalm 77:5-11 (KJV) I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. 6 I call to remembrance my song in the night: I commune with mine own heart: and my spirit made diligent search. 7 Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? 8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? 9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah. 10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. 11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

14 As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD caused him to rest: so didst thou lead thy people, to make thyself a glorious name. 

This image would be much more striking in the intense heat of an Oriental climate. This is undoubtedly the most poetical and beautiful of a herd of cattle leaving the hills, and seeking a cooling shade and quiet retreat in a well-watered vale. Such repose, such calm, gentle, undisturbed rest, God gave His people. Such He gives them now, amidst sultry suns and storms, as they pass through the world.

As a herd of cattle in the heat of the day descends into the shade in order to find rest. In the vale, streams of water usually flow. By those streams and fountains trees grow luxuriantly, and these furnish a cool and refreshing shade. 

The cattle, therefore, in the heat of the day, naturally descend from the hills, where there are no fountains and streams, and where they are exposed to an intense sun, to seek refreshment in the shade of the valley. 

The figure here is that of resting in safety after exposure; and there are few more poetic and beautiful images of comfort than that furnished by cattle lying quietly and safely in the cool shade of a well-watered vale. 

(3)His Mercy to Restore His People (v15-19)

15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained? 

This commences an earnest appeal that God would have mercy on them in their present calamities and trials. They entreat Him to remember His former mercies, and to return and bless them, as He had done in ancient times.

16 Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, artour father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. 

Though disowned by all others, we will still believe that thou dost sustain the relation of a Father to them. 

Though they saw no human aid, yet their confidence was unwavering that He had still tender compassion toward them.

Though Abraham be ignorant of us – Abraham was the father of the nations – their pious and much venerated ancestor. His memory they cherished with the deepest affection, and him they venerated as the illustrious patriarch whose name all were accustomed to speak with reverence. 

The idea here is, that though even such a man – one so holy, and so much venerated and loved – should refuse to own them as his children, yet that God would not forget His paternal relation to them. 

A similar expression of His unwavering love occurs in Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” 

The language here expresses the unwavering conviction of the pious, that God’s love for His people would never change; that it would live when even the most tender earthly ties are broken, and when calamities so thicken around us that we seem to be forsaken by God; and are forsaken by our sunshine friends, and even by our most tender earthly connections.

And Israel acknowledge us not – And though Jacob, another much honoured and venerated patriarch, should refuse to recognize us as his children. The sentiment here is, that we should have unwavering confidence in God. 

We should confide in Him though all earthly friends refuse to own us, and cast out our names as evil.

Though father and mother and kindred refuse to acknowledge us, yet we should believe that God is our unchanging friend; and it is of more value to have such a friend than to have the most honoured earthly ancestry and the affections of the nearest earthly relatives. 

How often have the people of God been called to experience this! How many times in the midst of persecution; when forsaken by father and mother; when given up to a cruel death on account of their attachment to the Redeemer, have they had occasion to recoil this beautiful sentiment, and how unfailingly have they found it to be true! 

Forsaken and despised; cast out and rejected; abandoned apparently by God and by people, they have yet found, in the arms of their heavenly Father, a consolation which this world could not destroy, and have experienced His tender compassions attending them even down to the grave.

Our Redeemer – The idea is that which results from a deeply affecting and tender view of God as the Redeemer of His people. The heart, overflowing with emotion, meditates upon the eternal honours of His name, and is disposed to ascribe to Him everlasting praise.

17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. 

These are the words, of the truly godly, lamenting and confessing their wandering from the ways, commands, and ordinances of God, the hardness of their hearts; their want of devotion and affection for God; and their neglect of His worship; not blaming Him for these things, or complaining of Him as having done anything amiss or wrong; but expostulating with Him, and wondering at it, that He, who was their loving and tender Father, that He should suffer them to err from His ways, and to wander from His worship, by withholding His grace and withdrawing His presence from them; by leaving them to the corruptions and hardness of their hearts; by chastising them sorely, and suffering the enemy to afflict them in such a severe manner as laid them under temptation to desert the worship of God, and cast off the fear of him. 

Their being hardened from the fear of God, and made to err from His ways by seeing the prosperity of the wicked, and their own long captivity, troubles, and distresses. 

return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance; or turn, turn from Thine anger and displeasure to Thy people; 

been so long withdrawn; or “return” thy people from their captivity, the twelve tribes, thy portion and “inheritance”; and do this “for thy servants’ sake”; for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: or because of the covenant made with them; or for the sake of all thy people, who are thy servants, and which also are the tribes of thine inheritance, return unto them. [Gill]

18 The people of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down thy sanctuary. 

The people of thy holiness – The people who have been received into solemn covenant with thee. [Barnes]

Have possessed it but a little while – That is, the land meaning that the time during which they had enjoyed a peaceable possession of it, compared with the perpetuity of the promise made, was short. Such is the idea given to the passage. 

19 We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name.

We are thine – We urge it as a reason for thy interposition to restore the land and the temple, that we are thine from ancient times. 

The idea is, that it is an argument why God should interpose in their behalf, that they had been for a long time His people, but that His foes, who then had possession of the land, had never submitted to His laws. 

Thou never barest rule over them – Over our enemies – regarded in the prophetic vision as then in possession of the land. The idea is, that they have come into thy land by violence, and laid waste a nation where they had no right to claim any jurisdiction, and have now no claim to thy protection.

They were not called by thy name – They were aliens and strangers who had unjustly intruded into the heritage of the Lord. [Barnes]

CONCLUSION

Here is the concluding thought: The LORD does not forsake His people, let His people take comfort!

1 Samuel 12:22 (KJV) For the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.

Psalm 37:25 (KJV) I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

Psalm 37:28 (KJV) For the LORD loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off.

Isaiah 41:10 (KJV) Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

Isaiah 41:17 (KJV) When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.

Amen.