Isaiah 50:11

Isaiah DYING FIRESIsaiah 50:11 . The scene brought before us in these words is that of a company of belated travellers in some desert, lighting a little fire that glimmers ineffectual in the darkness of the eerie waste. They huddle round its dying embers for a little warmth and company, and they hope it will scare wolf and jackal, but their fuel is all burned, and they have to go to sleep without its solace and security. The prophet’s imaginative picture is painted from life, and is a sad reality in the cases of all who seek to warm themselves at any fire that they kindle for themselves, apart from God. I. A sad, true picture of human life. It does not cover, nor is presented by the prophet as covering, all the facts of experience. Every man has his share of sunshine, but still it is true of all who are not living in dependence on and communion with God, that they are but travellers in the dark. Scripture uses the image of darkness as symbolic of three sad facts of our experience: ignorance, sin, sorrow. Are not all these the characteristics of godless lives? As for ignorance-a godless man has no key to the awful problems that front him. He knows not God, who is to him a dread, a name, a mystery. He knows not himself, the depths of his nature, its possibilities for good or evil, whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. He has no solution for the riddle of the universe. It is to him a chaos, and darkness is upon the face of the deep.

As to sin, the darkness of ignorance is largely due to the darkness of sin. In every heart comes sometimes the consciousness that it is thus darkened by sin. The sense of sin is with all men more or less-much perverted, often wrong in its judgments, feeble, easily silenced, but for all that it is there-and it is great part of the cold obstruction that shuts out the light. Sin weaves the pall that shrouds the world. As for darkness of sorrow-we must beware that we do not exaggerate. God makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and there is gladness in every life, much that arises from fulfilled desires, from accomplished purposes, from gratified affections. But when all this has been freely admitted, still sadness crouches somewhere in all hearts, and over every life the storm sometimes stoops. We need nothing beyond our own experience and the slightest knowledge of other hearts to know how shallow and one-sided a view of life that is which sees only the joy and forgets the sorrow, which ignores the night and thinks only of the day; which, looking out on nature, is blind to the pain and agony, the horror and the death, which are as real parts of it as brightness and beauty, love and life. Every little valley that lies in lovely loneliness has its scenes of desolation, and tempest has broken over the fairest scenes. Every river has drowned its man. Over every inch of blue sky the thunder cloud has rolled.

Behold, all ye that kindle {m} a fire, that surround yourselves with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of my hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow. (m) You have sought consolation by your own devises, and have refused the light and consolation which God has offered: therefore you will remain in sorrow and not be comforted.

All ye that kindle a fire, that you may enjoy the light and comfort of it, as it is explained in the following words. You that reject the light which God hath set up, and refuse the counsel of his servant, and seek for comfort, and safety, and the knowledge of God’s mind, and the enjoyment of his favour, by your own inventions; which was the common error of the Jews in all ages, and especially in the days of the Messiah, when they refused him, and that way of righteousness and salvation which he appointed, and rested upon their own traditions and devices, going about to establish their own righteousness, and not submitting unto the righteousness of God , as is expressed, Romans 10:3 . That compass yourselves about; endeavouring to warm and refresh yourselves on all sides. With sparks; or rather, with firebrands , as this very word is fitly rendered, Proverbs 26:18 , which is better than sparks or flames , which is there put in the margin, because firebrands only, and not sparks or flames, are capable of being thrown by one man at another. And this word is no where else used in Scripture. He mentions firebrands , either to imply that these fires yielded more smoke than heat or light, of because these were the usual materials of a fire. Walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled; use your utmost endeavours to get comfort and satisfaction from these devices.

This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in sorrow; this shall be the fruit of all, through my just judgment, that instead of that comfort and security which you expect by these means, you shall receive nothing but vexation and misery, which shall pursue you both living and dying; for this word, which is here rendered lie down, is frequently used for dying, as Genesis 47:30 Job 21:26 , and elsewhere. Or it is a metaphor from a man that lying down on his bed for rest and ease, meets with nothing but trouble and pain, as Job complained, Job 7:13,14 .

11. In contrast to the godly (Isa 50:10), the wicked, in times of darkness, instead of trusting in God, trust in themselves (kindle a light for themselves to walk by) (Ec 11:9). The image is continued from Isa 50:10, "darkness"; human devices for salvation (Pr 19:21; 16:9, 25) are like the spark that goes out in an instant in darkness (compare Job 18:6; 21:17, with Ps 18:28). sparks—not a steady light, but blazing sparks extinguished in a moment. walk—not a command, but implying that as surely as they would do so, they should lie down in sorrow (Jer 3:25). In exact proportion to mystic Babylon's previous "glorifying" of herself shall be her sorrow (Mt 25:30; 8:12; Re 18:7).

11 . that compass yourselves about with sparks ] Lit. as R.V., that gird yourselves about with firebrands (cf. Proverbs 26:18 ). The verb “gird” hardly suits the metaphor; hence it is better with many authorities to change מאזרי into מאירי (“that kindle”). “Fire” and “firebrands” are both images for the machinations of the ungodly party against the true servants of Jehovah (cf. Psalm 7:13 ; Ephesians 6:16 ). walk in the light &c. ] Rather: walk into the flame of your fire &c. Their mischievous designs shall recoil on themselves ( Psalm 7:15 f.). this shall ye have of mine hand ] Better: from my hand is this ( appointed ) for you . ye shall lie down in sorrow ] perhaps: in the place of torment ; see on ch. Isaiah 66:24 .

Verse 11. - All ye that kindle a fire , that compass yourselves about with sparks; or, with firebrands. The persons intended seem to be those whose "tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity" ( James 3:6 ), and who by means of it are employed in "stirring up strife all the day long." They are condemned to be scorched by the fire which they have themselves kindled, to be made wretched by the strife which they have themselves caused to spring up. Their end, moreover, will be to lie down in sorrow; or, in torture (Cheyne). God will punish them in the next world for the misery which they have brought about in this, and will thus exercise retributive justice upon the wicked ones, whose main object in life has been to embitter the lives of their fellow-men. Isaiah 50:11

(11) All ye that kindle a fire. —The words obviously point to any human substitute for the Divine light, and thus include the two meanings which commentators have given them: (1) Man’s fiery wrath, that worketh not the righteousness of God; and (2) man’s attempt to rest in earthly comforts or enjoyments instead of in the light and joy that comes from God. That compass yourselves about with sparks.—The words are rendered by many commentators, gird yourselves with burning darts, or firebrands, i.e., with calumnies and execrations as your weapons of warfare (Comp. Ephesians 6:16.) Ye shall lie down in sorrow.—The words point to a death of anguish, perhaps to the torment that follows death (comp. Luke 16:24), as the outcome of the substitution of the earthly for the heavenly light.