Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/5_500_p.lzh/5_576.TXT

Text File | 1994-08-15 | 7KB | 129 lines

Scriptures; in pertinaciously rejecting 'the Messiah,
next prophealed of; all which folly the Jews are still
guilty of, and continue in. So the word signifies in
the Arabic language {b}. For the Lord hath created a new
thing in the earth, a woman ghalt compass a man; a
mighty one, a mighty man, 'the man Jehovah's fellow;
conceived, contained, and encompassed, in the womb
of the virgin, the woman, whose seed he was to be of,
and of whom he was: this was a new, unheard-of, extra-
ordinary thing, a creation, a work of altnighty power !
the human natureofChristwas formed and prepared by
the power of the Holy Ghost, without the help of man;
and this now is mentioned as an argument and an en-
couragement to the Jews to return 'to their own land,
since the Messiah is born there of a virgin, as it was
foretold he should. This seems to be the true and ge-
nuine sense of the words, and other senses weak and im-
pertinent; as when they are made to refer to the heroic
 spirit in some women superior 'to men; to the unusual
practice 6f women suefag to men for marriage; and to
the people of Israel returning to the Lord from their
apostacy. So theTargum," for, behold, the Lord hath
"created a new thing in the earth. and the people of
"the house of Israel have given themselves up to the
"law." And very foreign are the senses which some
Christian interpreters give of this passage; as when
they interpret it of the Jews conquering andoppressing
their enemies; or of the Jewish church seeking after
God, her husband, when separated from him; or of
the Christian church, though weak, resisting her
mighty persecutors by her confession of faith, and
overcoming them; or of the church under the New
Testament embracing Christ; which indeed is prefer-
able to the other, and especially to that Popish one of
the eucharist containing the body of Christ {c}; but the
true sense is what is before gi'ven: and even some of
the Jewish doctors themselves have acknowledged,
that the Messiah is here intended. In an ancient a book
of theirs, on mention of these words, 'tis added, "this
"shall be in the time of the Messiah, which will be
"on the sixth day ;" i.e. the sixth millennium. And
elsewhere {c}a woman shall compass a man; says R.
Hona, in the name of' R. Ame, this is the King Messiah.
So says R. Joshua ben Levi {f}," he, i.e. God, heals with
"the same he wounds; so will you find in Israel, they
"sinned by a virgin, and were punished in virgins,
"Ezek. xxiii. Lam. v. so he comforts them by a virgin,
"according to Jer. xxxi. c2.1, 22. turn again, 0 virgin
"of Israel, &c. a woman shall compass a man. R. Huna,
· " in the name of R. Idi and R. Joshua, said, that this
"man lathe King Messiah, of whom it is said, Paul. if.
"7. this day have I begotten thee {g}."
Ver. 23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, theGod of Israel,
&c.] The Governor of the whole world, the Lord of
armies above and below; and yet has a peculiar regard
to Israel, his spiritual Israel, whose covenant God and
Father he is; and is to be believed in what he after says,
the fulfilment of which may be depended on: as yet
they shall use this speech in the land of Judah, and
in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their cap-
tivity; not the Babylonish captivity, but their present
one; for, upon their return from Babylon, though
there was a reformation among them, by means of Ezra,
and Nehemiah, and others, yet not so great an one as
is here suggested; when, by way of salutation and
prayer, the following words will be said by all that
know them, and wish well to them, as had been here-
tofore: the Lord bless thee, 0 habitation of justice, and
mountain of holiness; for now Jerusalem will be the
habitation of righteous men, and every pot or person in
it, and in Judah, shall be holiness to the Lord, Zech. xiv.
21. and so shall be blessed of God, and pronounced
blessed by men, by all good men, among the Gentiles,
who will rejoice at their conversion, restoration, and
reformation.
Vet. 24. And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in
all the cities thereof together, &c.] In peace and unity,
in great concord and harmony: husbandmen, and those
that go forth with flocks ; husbandmen and shepherds;
meaning such not merely in a temporal sense, but in
a spiritual one; minister. s of the Gospel, labourers with
God, and under him, in the husbandry of his church;
pastors after his own heart, to feed his people, iris
flocks, his sheep and lambs, with know.ledge and un-
derstanding; who shall agree in their ministry, teach-
ing the same doctrines, and administering the same
ordinances, according to the rule of the word.
Ver. 25. For I have satiated the weary soul, &c.]
As sinners are at first awakenlags and convictions;
when sin is made exceeding sinful and loathsome to
them, and becomes an uneasiness, and they a burden
to themselves on account of it; when they labour, till
they are weary, to get food for their fa.mishing souls;
weary in seeking for righteousness to cover them, in
working for life to save them, and inquiring after rest;
but can't find neither food, nor righteousness, nor life,
nor rest, till they come to Christ; and as all the saints
are weary of a body of sin and death, with mourning
over it, and groaning under it; weary of Satan's
temptations and buffetlags; weary of the world, and
the men of it, and with affiictive dispensations of Pro-
vidence in it; and are as weary travellers passing
through a waste howling wilderness; these the Lord
satiates, refreshes, and even inebriates{h}, as the word
used signifies, with his love; which is very reviving
and refreshing, and is a feast of itself; and is very
satisfying when it is shed abroad in the heart; when
souls have a del.ightful sense of it, and see their in-
terest in it; particularly satiates with his pardoning
grace and mercy, and with food, and fulness of it, in
Christ; with righteousness, life, and salvation by him;
and with rest, peace, joy, and comfort in him: and
this, though a promise and prophecy of what would
be, yet, because eft the certainty of it, is represented as
if it had been done already; as also what follows: and
I have replenished every sorrowful soul; that is sorry for

{b} ? mente laboravit, stultus fuit, Golius, col. 653. & dementer,
more fatui egit, Camus & Giggeius apud Castel. col. 1289- Arab. \^qmx\^
fatuatus, nugatus fuit, ineptiit, Schindler, col. 603.
{c} Vid. Erlmanni, novum omnium novorum, &c. ad Jet. xxxi. 22
in Thesaur. Dissert. Theolog. Philolog. tom 1. p. 851.
{d} Zohar in Gen. tom. 13.4.
{e} In Abarbinel. Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 37.4.
{f} Apud Moses Hadarsan in Gen. c. 41. Vid. Galatin. de Arcanis Cath.
Ver. 1. 7. c. 14. p. 52, 526.
{g} See my book of the Prophecies of the Messiah, &c. p. 100,101.
{h} \^ytywrh\^ inebriavi, V. L. Vatablus; inebriabo, Piscator.