Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_000_p.lzh/5_042.TXT

Text File | 1995-01-16 | 7KB | 128 lines

that the earth might gape and open its mouth, as in
the days of Moses; or that the sun might stand still,
as in the times of Joshua; or that a dead man might
be raised out of the depth of the earth; or that there
might be some strange appearances in the heavens.
\*Ver. 12. \\But Ahaz said, I will not ask\\, &c.] That
is, a sign or miracle to be wrought; being unwilling
to take the advice to be still and quiet, and make
no preparation for war, or seek out for help from the
Assyrians, and to rely upon the promise and power of
God, and therefore chose not to have it confirmed by a
sign; adding as an excuse, \*\\neither will I tempt the Lord\\,
by asking a sign; suggesting that this was contrary to
the command of God, \\#De 6:16\\ so pretending re-
ligion and reverence of God; whereas, to ask a sign of
God, when it was offered, could not be reckoned a
tempting him; but, on the contrary, to refuse one;
when offered, argued great stubbornness and ingrati-
tude, as Calvin well observes.
\*Ver. 13. \\And he said\\, &c.] That is, the Prophet
Isaiah; which shews that it was by him the Lord
spoke the foregoing words: \*\\hear ye now, O house of
David\\; for not only Ahaz, but his family, courtiers,
and counsellors, were all of the same mind with him,
not to ask a sign of God, nor to depend upon, his pro-
mise of safety, hut to seek out for help, and provide
against the worst themselves. Some think that Ahaz's
name is not mentioned, and that this phrase is used by
way of contempt, and as expressive of indignation and
resentment: \*\\[is it] a small thing for you to weary man\\;
meaning such as himself, the prophets of the Lord; so
the Targum, \*\\"is it a small thing that ye are trouble-
"some to the prophets;"\* disturb, grieve, and vex
them, by obstinacy and unbelief: \*\\but will ye weary my
God also\\? the Targm is, \*"for ye are troublesome to
"the words of my God;"\* or injurious to them, by not
believing them; or to God himself, by rejecting such
an offer of a sign as was made to them.
\*Ver. 14. \\Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a
sign\\, &c.] Whether they would ask one or no; a sign
both in heaven and earth, namely, the promised Mes-
siah; who being the Lord from heaven, would take
flesh of a virgin on earth; and who as man, being
buried in the heart of the earth, would be raised from
thence, and ascend up into heaven; and whose birth,
though it was to be many years after, was a sign of pre-
sent deliverance to Judah from the confederacy of the
two kings of Syria and Israel; and of future safety,
since it was not possible that this kingdom should
cease to be one until the Messiah was come, who was
to spring from Judah, and be of the house of David;
wherefore by how much the longer off was his birth,
by so much the longer was their safety. \*\\Behold, a
virgin shall conceive, and bear a son\\; this is not to be
understood of Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz, by his wife,
as some Jewish writers interpret it; which interpreta-
tion Jarchi refutes, by observing that Hezekiah was
nine years old when his father began to reign, and this
being, as he says, the fourth year of his reign, he must
be at this time thirteen years of age; in like manner,
Aben Ezra and Kimchi object to it; and besides, his
mother could not be called a %virgin%: and for the same
reason it cannot be understood of any other son of his
either by his wife, as Kimchi thinks, or by some young
woman; moreover, no other son of his was ever lord
of Judea, as this Immanuel is represented to be, in
\\#Isa 8:8\\ nor can it be interpreted of Isaiah's wife and
son, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi think; since the prophet
could never call her a %virgin%, who had bore him chil-
dren, one of which was now with him; nor indeed a
%young woman%, but rather %the prophetess%, as in \\#Isa 8:3\\
nor was any son of his king of Judah, as this appears to
be, in the place before cited: but the Messiah is here
meant, who was to be born of a pure virgin; as the
word here used signifies in all pJaces where it is men-
tioned, as \\#Ge 24:43 Ex 2:8 Ps 68:21 So 1:3 6:8\\
and even in \\#Pr 30:19\\ which is the
instance the Jews give of the word being used of a
woman corrupted; since it does not appear that the
maid and the adulterous woman are one and the same
person; and if they were, she might, though vitiated,
be called a maid or virgin, from her own profession
of herself, or as she appeared to others who knew her
not, or as she was antecedent to her defilement; which
is no unusual thing in Scripture, see \\#De 22:28\\to
which may be added, that not only the Evangelist
Matthew renders the word by \~paryenov\~, %a virgin%; but
the Septuagint interpreters, who were Jews, so rendered
the word hundreds of years before him; and best agrees
with the Hebrew word, which comes from the root
\^Mle\^, which signifies to %hide% or %cover%; virgins being
covered and unknown to men; and in the eastern
country were usually kept recluse, and were shut up
from the public company and conversation of men: and
now this was the sign that was to be given, and a
miraculous one it was, that the Messiah should be
born of a pure and incorrnpt virgin; and therefore a %be-
hold% is prefixed to it, as a note of admiration; and what
else could be this sign or wonder? not surely that a
young married woman, either Ahaz's or Isaiah's wife,
should be with child, which is nothing surprising, and
of which there are repeated instances every day; nor
was it that the young woman was unfit for conception
at the time of the prophecy, which was the fancy of
some, as Jarchi reports, since no such intimation is
given either in the text or context; nor did it lie in
this, that it was a male child, and not a female, which
was predicted, as R. Saadiah Gaon, in Aben Ezra,
would have it; for the sign or wonder does not lie in
the truth of the prophet's prediction, but in the great-
ness of the thing predicted; besides, the verification of
this would not have given the prophet much credit,
nor Ahaz and the house of David much comfort, since
this might have been ascribed rather to a happy con-
jecture than to a spirit of prophecy; much less can the
wonder be, that this child should eat butter and honey,
as soon as it was born, as Aben Ezra and Kimchi
suggest; since nothing is more natural to, and common
with young children, than to take down any kind of
liquids which are sweet and pleasant. \*\\And shall call
his name Immanuel\\; which is, by interpretation, God
with us, \\#Mt 1:23\\ whence it appears that the Mes-
siah is truly God, as well as truly man: the name is
expressive of the union of the two natures, human
and divine, in him; of his office as Mediator, who,
being both God and man, is a middle person between
both; of his converse with men on earth, and of his