Commentary on Isaiah Volume 2 John Calvin (continued)
COMMENTARY ON ISAIAH
emotion in God, who desires the salvation of his people, but to ourselves, who provoke him by our transgressions; for he has just cause to be angry, though he does not cease to love us. Accordingly, while he "profanes" his Church, that is, abandons her, and gives her up as a prey to her enemies, still the elect do not perish, and his eternal covenant is not broken. And yet, in the midst of anger, the Lord remembers his mercy, and mitigates the strokes by which he punishes his people, and at length even inflicts punishment on those by whom his people have been cruelly treated. Consequently, if for a time the Lord "profanes" his Church, if she is cruelly oppressed by tyrants, let us not lose courage, but betake ourselves to this promise, "He who avenged this barbarous cruelty of the Babylonians will not less avenge the savageness of those tyrants."
It ought also to be carefully observed that no one should abuse victory so as to be cruel to captives, which we know is often done; for men, when they see that they are stronger, lay aside all humanity, and are changed into wild beasts, and spare neither age nor sex, and altogether forget their condition. After having abused their power, they shall not at length pass unpunished; for
"judgment without mercy shall be experienced by those who shewed no mercy."* *(James 2:13.) But it is asked, "How could the Babylonians go beyond the limit which God had assigned to them, as if their lawless passions were laid under no restraint?" And what will become of that promise,
"Not a hair shall fall from your head without the appointment of your Father?" (Luke 21:18.)
The answer is easy. Though it was not in their power actually to go beyond the limit, yet he looked at their cruelty, because they endearvored utterly to ruin unhappy persons who had surrendered at discretion. Thus Zechariah complains of the unbridled rage of the Gentiles, because, when "he was angry with his people for a little," they rushed forward with violent fury to destroy them. (Zechariah 1:15.)
On the old man. He states an aggravation of their guilt, that they did not spare even "the old men," for whom age naturally procures reverence; and hence he draws an inference, how savage was their cruelty towards armed foes.
7. And thou saidst, I shall for ever 224 be a mistress. Here he censures the haughtiness of the Babylonians, in promising to themselves perpetual dominion, and in thinking that they could not fall from their elevation through any adverse event. Thus the children of this world are intoxicated by prosperity,
224"The apparent solecism of remembering the future may be solved by observing that the thing forgotten was the knowledge of the future once possessed, just as in common parlance we use the word hope in reference to the past, because we hope to find it so, or hope that something now questionable will prove hereafter to be thus and thus." — Alexander.
JOHN CALVIN
and despise all men as compared with themselves; but Isaiah mocks at this confidence, and shews that God regards it with the greatest abhorrence. To say, means here to conclude in one's own mind, as will be more clearly evident from what the Prophet says shortly afterwards; for proud men do not publicly speak in this manner, but entertain this conviction, though they pretend the contrary. It is intolerable madness when men, forgetting their frailty, look upon themselves as not sharing in the common lot; for in this way they forget that they are men. Believers, too, have their conviction of being safe, because, under the protecting hand of God, they are prepared boldly to encounter every danger. And yet they do not cease to consider that they are liable to many distresses, because nothing in this world is lasting. Irreligious men, therefore, mock God whenever, through a foolish imagination, they promise to themselves lasting peace amidst the constant changes of the world.
Hitherto thou hast not applied thy mind to it. 225 For the purpose of heightening the description of their madness, he adds that even a long course of time did not render them more moderate. To become elated immediately after having obtained a victory, is not so wonderful; but to become more fierce from day to day, and to throw out taunts against their captives, was altogether savage and intolerable. This arose, as we have said, from pride; because they did not consider that a revolution of affairs would afterwards take place, or that a condition so magnificent could be changed. Consequently, this is the second reason why the Lord overtumed the monarchy of the Babylonians.
And didst not remember her end. 226 Some think that there is a change of the person here, but I consider that to be too forced; and indeed I have no doubt that he speaks of the "end" of Jerusalem, which is the opinion most commonly received. The Lord often speaks of the Church, by way of eminence, {κατ᾿} {ἐξοχὴν} without mentioning the name, as we do when our feelings are powerfully affected towards any person. Now, wicked men do not know the "end" of the Church, and the reason why the Lord chastises her. They mock at the calamities of good men, because they would wish them to be utterly destroyed and ruined, and do not consider that God takes care of them.
If it be objected that the Babylonians could not know this, that is nothing to the purpose; for they could not be ignorant that he was the God whom the Israelites worshipped. Consequently, when they treated the Jews with
225"Ewald agrees with the English Version and the Vulgate in explaining it to mean propter, 'on account of,' and supposing it to be a new specific charge against the Babylonians, by assigning a new cause for their destruction, namely, their cultivation of the occult arts. Gesenius and the other recent writers follow Calvin and Vitringa in making it mean notwithstanding, as in Isaiah 5:25, and Numbers 14:11. There is then no new charge or reason assigned, but a simple declaration of the insufficiency of superstitious arts to save them. But a better course than either is to give the particle in its proper sense of in or in the, midst of, which suggests both the other ideas, but expresses more, namely, that they should perish in the very act of using these unlawful and unprofitable means of preservation." — Alexander.
226"Nonobstant la multitude des derins et augures." "Notwithstanding the multitude of divinations and auguries."