Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_034.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-13 | 6KB | 121 lines

from thence there is no deliverance as yet to this
day.
\*Ver. 30. \\And in that day they shall roar against them
like the roaring of the sea\\, &c.] That is, the Romans
against the Jews; whose attacks upon them should be
with so much fierceness and power, that it should be
like the roaring of the sea, which is very dreadful, and
threatens with utter destruction; the roaring of the
sea and its waves is mentioned among the signs pre-
ceding Jerusalem's destruction by the Romans, \\#Lu 21:25\\:
\*\\and if [one] look unto the land\\: the land of
Judea, when wasted by the Romans, or whilst those
wars continued between them and the Jews; or %into
it% {k} \*\\behold darkness\\; great affliction and tribulation
being signified by darkness and dimness; see \\#Isa 8:21 9:1\\
\*\\[and] sorrow\\ or %distress%, great straits and
calamities: \*\\[and]\\, or %even%, \*\\the light is darkened in the
heavens thereof\\; in their civil and church state, the
kingdom being removed from the one, and the priest-
hood from the other; and their principal men in both,
signified by the darkness of the sun, moon, and stars.
\\#Mt 24:29\\.

\*Ver. 1. \\INTRODUCTION TO ISAIAH 6\\

\*This chapter contains a vision of the glory and ma-
jesty of Christ, the mission and commission of the
prophet, and the destruction of the Jews. In the vi-
sion may be observed the time of it, and the object
seen; who is described by the throne on which he sat,
\\#Isa 6:1\\ and by his ministers about him; and these, by
their name, by their situation, by their wings and the
use of them, and by their employment, \\#Isa 6:2,3\\ and
by the effects their crying to one another had upon
the place where they were, \\#Isa 6:4\\ and next follows
the effect the whole vision had on the prophet, which
threw him into great distress of mind; and the relief
he had by one of the seraphim, and the manner of it,
\\#Isa 6:6,7\\ upon which a question being put, concerning
sending some person, the prophet makes answer, ex-
pressing his readiness to go, \\#Isa 6:8\\ when a commis-
sion is given him, and the message he is sent with is
declared, \\#Isa 6:9,10\\ whereupon he asks how long it
would be the case of the Jews mentioned in the mes-
sage he was sent with; and he is told it would continue
until the utter destruction of them, \\#Isa 6:11,12\\ and
yet, for the comfort of him and other saints, it is inti-
mated that there would be a remnant among them,
according to the election of grace, \\#Isa 6:13\\.

\*Ver. 1. \\In the year that King Uzziah died\\, &c.]
Which was the fifty second year ot his reign, and in the year
3246 from the creation of the world; and, according
to Jerom {l}, was the year in which Romulus, the
founder of the Roman empire, was born: some un-
derstand this not of his proper death, but of his being
stricken wfth leprosy, upon his attempt to burn in-
cense in the temple; upon which he was shut up in a
separate house, which was a kind of a civil death: so
the Targum, \*"in the year in which King Uzziah was
"smitten;"\* that is, with leprosy; and so Jarchi and
others interpret it, from the ancient writers; but the
first sense is the best. Some, as Aben Ezra, would
have this to be the beginning of the prophecy of Isaiah,
because of the mission of the prophet in it; but others
rightly observe, that this mission respects not the pro-
phecy in general, but the particular reproof the pro-
phet was sent to give to the Jews herein mentioned.
The title of this chapter, in the Arabic version, is
remarkable; according to which, this chapter contains
the vision which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw three
years, or, as others affirm, thirty years, after prophecy
was taken from him. He had prophesied about ten
years before this, in the reign of Uzziah; and only
this vision was in the reign of Jotham; the next pro-
phecy was delivered out in the reign of Ahaz, \\#Isa 7:1\\
and others in the time of Hezekiah; and the date of
this vision is only mentioned, to observe the order of
the visions, agreeably to \\#Isa 1:1\\ and moreover it may
be observed from hence, that kings must die as well as
others; but the King of kings ever lives, he is the
living God, and the everlasting King, as follows: \*\\I saw
also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up\\;
not God essentially considered, whose essence is not
to be seen; but personally, Father, Son, and Spirit,
for all the three Persons appear in this vision, \\#Isa 6:3,8\\
particularly Christ, as, is clear from \\#Joh 12:41\\ who
is the %Adonai%, or Lord; he is Lord of all, of all men,
even of the greatest among them, and of all the angels
in heaven, and of the church of God, by his Father's
gift, by his own purchase, in right of marriage, and
through the conquest of his grace. This sight was not
corporeal, but with the eyes of the understanding, in
the vision of prophecy; and to have a sight of Christ
as the Lord, and especially as our Lord, is very de-
lightful and comfortable; for though he is a sovereign
Lord, he is no tyrannical one, is very powerful to pro-
tect and defend, and has all fulness for supply; and
particularly as %sitting upon a throne% as a king, for he
having done his work as a priest, sits down on his
throne as a king; and a lovely sight it is to see him
enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high;
and therefore is said to be %high and lifted up%; for this
is to be understood not of his throne, as if that was
high and lifted up in the highest heavens, as the
Targum paraphrases it; but of himself, who is high
and exalted above all creatures, as Aben Ezra observes;
and this sense the accents determine for: the vision
refers to the exaltation of Christ, after his humiliation
here on earth; and to behold him crowned with glory
and honour is very delightful, since he is exalted as
our head and representative in our nature, and acts for
us in this his exalted state; and we may be assured
of being exalted also. It follows, \*\\and his train filled
the temple\\; either the material temple visionally seen,
where his feet were, and his throne in heaven, as

{k} \^Ural\^ %in terram%, Montanus, Piscator; %in hanc terram%,
    Junius & Tremellius.
{l} Epist. Damaso, tom. 3. fol. 37. K.