ISAIAH 30
— 3. We find here details. They seek for help from Egypt in that day, when “in returning and quietness” should have been their strength; therefore the Lord would leave them to [p. 40] the strength of their enemies. But He will wait till they have tasted all this, and then be gracious Himself, for the destruction of the Assyrian shall be the joy of a Remnant. Tophet is also prepared for the king.
— 12. “This word” refers, I suppose, to verses 6 and 7.
— 18. Compare chapters 8: 17, and 18: 4. Indeed it is the whole history as chapter 6, and originally at Sinai; Exodus 33:19. God must retreat into His own sovereignty to spare, though He punish according to our responsibility in government or in righteousness. And faith, founded on righteousness, waits for Him — or even in hope through grace, where divine righteousness is not yet known.
— 20. It would seem from this verse (of those chapters which enter into the detail of Israel in the latter day) that though fed and nourished with affliction, yet they shall leave their teachers, in spite of all who shall guide them in the way.
— 28. “Peoples.”
— 33. “For the king also it is prepared.” “The king” is mentioned three times in prophecy; here, in chapter 57: 9, and in Daniel 11.
ISAIAH 31 and 32 Isaiah 31; Isaiah 32 We have here a special introduction of the circumstances of the change of dispensation — the first chapter which, by the grace of my God, opened my ignorant eyes to this serious and all-important subject — things important to us. The Lord is wise, though He is not looked to. The Lord shall fight for Zion, and the Assyrian shall fall, but not by “a mighty man.” Then the King, reigning in righteousness, is introduced — His righteous character — and the manifestation of villainy as vile. The city forsaken, Jerusalem trodden down, till the Spirit be poured out on the Jews. Note the synchronism, and a total change of dispensation — all before should be but as an uncultivated fruit, and so it is. Still, blessing should be universal on Jew and Gentile; the city only should be brought low, and the Gentile fruit judged.