Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_014.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-02 | 7KB | 129 lines

this prophecy belongs to future times; for this has never
yet had its accomplishment in any sense; not in a literal
sense; for though there was an universal peace all the
world over, at the birth of Christ, in the times of Au-
gustus Caesar, yet there afterwards were, as our Lord
foretold there would be, wars, and rumours of wars, and
nation should rise against nation, and kingdom against
kingdom, and so it has been, more or less, ever since;
nor in a spiritual sense, for though Christ has made
peace by the blood of his cross, and came and preached
it by his ministers, and wherever the Gospel of peace
takes place, it makes men of peaceable dispositions,
and reconciles them, as to God and Christ, and the
way of salvation by him, so to one another; and it
is peace saints are called to, and, when grace is in
exercise, it rules in their hearts; and yet there have
been sad contentions and quarrels among the people
of God, and which yet still continue; but in the latter-
day glory, or spiritual reign of Christ, this prophecy
will be fulfilled in every sense; for after the hour of
temptation is over, that shall try all the earth, after
the slaying of the witnesses and their rising, after
the battle at Armageddon, when the beast and false
prophet will be taken and cast alive into the lake of
fire, there will be no more wars in the world, nor any
persecution of the saints; and then will the peaceable
kingdom of Christ appear, and all his subjects, and
the members of his church, will live in the utmost
unity and harmony together; they shall no more envy
and vex one another; and of this peace there will be
no end, \\#Ps 72:7 Isa 9:7 11:6-8,13\\
these words are applied to the times of the Messiah,
both by ancient {q} and modern {r} Jews.
\*Ver. 5. \\O house of Jacob\\, &c.] This is either an
exhortation of the prophet to the men of his genera-
tion, to attend to the light of the law, which the Lord
had given them, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi; or rather,
as the Targum and Jarchi suggest, an exhortation of
the nations to the people of Israel, and are indeed the
words of the converted Gentiles to the people of the
Jews, being concerned for their conversion and spiri-
tual welfare, as will appear in the latter day; when
they will not only encourage one another to go up to
the house of the Lord, as in the preceding verses, but
will be very solicitous that the Jews, the posterity of
Jacob, share with them in all that light and glory that
shall be risen upon Zion; as follows: \*\\come ye, and let
us walk in the light of the Lord\\; meaning either Christ,
in whom the light of the knowledge of the glory of
God is given, and the glory of all the perfections of the
divine nature is displayed; who is that light that dwells
with the Lord, was sent forth by him, and came into
this world as the light of it, and is given for a light to
the Gentiles, as well as the glory of the people of
Israel; and who is the author of all light; of corporeal
light, in the first creation; of the sun, moon, and
stars; of the light of nature in every man; of the light
of the Gospel of the grace of God; of the spiritual light
of grace in the hearts of his people; and of the light
of eternal glory: or else the Gospel is intended, called
the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, \\#2Co 4:4\\
by which some are only notionally enlightened, and some
spiritually and savingly, when it is attended with the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Christ: or rather, the light of the latter day glory,
which includes the other two; when Christ and his
Gospel will be more clearly revealed and seen, not
only by the watchmen, who will see eye to eye, but
by all the saints; when the light of the moon shall be
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun seven-
fold as the light of seven days, and the whole earth
shall be lightened with its glory, \\#Isa 30:26 Re 18:1\\
and to %walk% in this light, as it respects Christ,
is to walk by faith in him, to go on in believing views of
him, and to walk in imitation of him, and as he directs;
and as it respects the Gospel, it is to embrace it, pro-
fess it, hold it fast, and hold it forth; and to walk as
that prescribes and guides, and as becomes it; and to
walk as children of the light, wisely and circumspectly;
worthy of the vocation of God, of the grace he calls
by, and the kingdom he calls to: and to walk in the
light of the latter day glory is to enjoy it, and share
in all the blessings of it, with perseverance therein,
through the grace of God; and such walking is plea-
sant and comfortable; such shall have the communion
of God and Christ, and fellowship one with another,
and at last enjoy the light of life. See
\\#Joh 8:12 12:35,36 1Jo 1:7 Re 21:23,24\\.
\*Ver. 6. \\Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people, the
house of Jacob\\, &c.] These words contain a reason
of the divine conduct, in calling the Gentiles, and re-
jecting the Jews, because of the sins of the latter here-
after mentioned; though some, as the Targum and
R. Moses, refer this to the Israelites; and read, %be-
cause ye have forsaken%, &c. and interpret it of their
forsaking the Lord, his worship, and his law. What
is hereafter said does not agree with the Jews, lite-
rally understood, neither in the times of Isaiah, nor
when they returned from Babylon, nor in the times of
Christ, nor since the destruction of Jerusalem, or in
the latter day, a little before their conversion; for
after the Babyionish captivity they were not given to
idolatry, nor did they abound in riches, and much
less since their dispersion among the nations; nor will
this be their case in the latter day: wherefore Kimchi
applies the whole to the times of Solomon, when the
land abounded with gold and silver, with horses and
chariots, and with idolatry also, in the latter part of
his life: but it seems best to interpret this of anti-
christ and his followers, who call themselves the peo-
ple of God, and the house of Jacob, say they are Jews,
but are not, and are of the synagogue of Satan; and
are therefore rejected of the Lord, and will be given
up to utter ruin and destruction, for the evils found
in them, hereafter charged with. \*\\Because they be re-
plenished from the east\\, or %more than the east% {s}; than
the eastern people, the Syrians and Chaldeans; that
is, were more filled with witchcrafts and sorceries
than they, as Kimchi explains it; of the sorceries of
the Romish antichrist, see \\#Re 9:21 18:23\\
the words may be rendered, %because they be full from
of old time% {t}; or, as of old, or more than they were of

{q} T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 63. 1.
{r} R. Nachman. Disputat. cum fratre Paulo, p. 41. R. Isaac. Chizzuk
    Emuna, par. 1. cap. 1. p. 43, 44. Kimchi in Isa. lxv. 19.
{s} \^Mdqm\^ %prae oriente, vel filiis orientis%, Vatablus.
{t} \~ap' archv\~, Sept.; %ut olim%, Vulg. Lat. Sic Syr. & Ar.