Isaiah 63:10

63:7-14 The latter part of this chapter, and the whole of the next, seem to express the prayers of the Jews on their conversation. They acknowledge God's great mercies and favours to their nation. They confess their wickedness and hardness of heart; they entreat his forgiveness, and deplore the miserable condition under which they have so long suffered. The only-begotten Son of the Father became the Angel or Messenger of his love; thus he redeemed and bare them with tenderness. Yet they murmured, and resisted his Holy Spirit, despising and persecuting his prophets, rejecting and crucifying the promised Messiah. All our comforts and hopes spring from the loving-kindness of the Lord, and all our miseries and fears from our sins. But he is the Saviour, and when sinners seek after him, who in other ages glorified himself by saving and feeding his purchased flock, and leading them safely through dangers, and has given his Holy Spirit to prosper the labours of his ministers, there is good ground to hope they are discovering the way of peace.

Isaiah 63:10 . But they rebelled — Revolted from him and, as it were, took up arms against him, many instances of which we find in their history; and vexed, or grieved, his Holy Spirit — With their unbelief and murmuring, and continual proneness to idolatry, as well as by their repeated acts of obstinacy and disobedience. Therefore he was turned to be their enemy — Withdrew the tokens and evidences of his love and favour; and fought against them — By one judgment after another, both in the wilderness, and after their settlement in Canaan.

They rebelled: many of their rebellions we read of in Exodus and Numbers in their travels. The Lord tells Moses that they had tempted him ten times, and therefore severely threatens them, Numbers 14:22,23 . There were three principal times of their rebellion: 1. In the wilderness, where they murmured for want of bread and water. 2. In Canaan, in not destroying, but only making tributary, such nations as God commanded them to destroy. 3. Before the Babylonian captivity, when they set themselves against the prophets, which Stephen chargeth upon them, Acts 7:51,52 . Among which also we may reckon all their behaviours under their judges and their kings. Or we may understand it of their not answering God’s end and expectation. Vexed his holy Spirit; Spirit of his holiness; they vexed him by their obstinacy against his will and mind, and walking contrary unto him: not that there are such passions in God, but it is spoken after the manner of men, as they are vexed when their will is crossed. He was turned to be their enemy; overthrew them not only in the wilderness, Psalm 78:33,59,60 , &c., sending among them fiery serpents, Numbers 21:6 ; but even in Canaan, stirring up against them adversaries sometimes the Philistines, and the Midianites, and then the Moabites, &c.

10 . and vexed his holy Spirit ] Comp. Acts 7:51 ; Ephesians 4:30 . Except here and in Isaiah 63:11 and Psalm 51:11 the predicate “holy” is never in the O.T. used of the spirit of Jehovah. It is perhaps impossible to determine the exact connotation of the word in this connexion. It cannot be accidental that in all three cases the holy spirit is a principle of religious life; hence the phrase hardly signifies so little as merely “His divine spirit”; as Jehovah’s “holy arm” may mean no more than His divine arm. Nor is it likely that it describes the spirit as the influence that imparts to Israel the quality of holiness, i.e. separateness from other nations, and consecration to Jehovah. The idea rather is that the spirit is holy in the same sense as Jehovah Himself is holy,—a principle which is both pure and inviolable, which resents and draws back from the contact of human impurity and especially of wilful opposition. This spirit is a national endowment, residing in the community (see Isaiah 63:11 ); it is the spirit of prophecy, resting on Moses, but manifesting its presence also through other organs of revelation (see Deuteronomy 34:9 ; Numbers 11:25 ff.). Hence it is said to have led the people ( Isaiah 63:14 ), and to “vex” the spirit is to resist his guidance, by disobeying the divine word which he inspires. The use of this verb marks the highest degree of personification of the Spirit attained in the O.T., preparing the way for the N.T. doctrine concerning Him. 10–14 .

Verse 10. - But they rebelled . The rebellions of Israel against God commenced in the wilderness. They rebelled at Sinai, when they set up the golden calf; at Meribah ( Numbers 20:24 ); at Shittim, when they consorted with the daughters of Moab ( Numbers 25:6 ). Under the Judges, their conduct was one long rebellion ( Judges 2:11 ; Judges 3:7, 12 ; Judges 4:1 ; Judges 6:1 ; Judges 8:33 ; Judges 10:6 ; Judges 13:1 ). They rebelled in Samuel's time by asking for a king ( 1 Samuel 8:5, 19, 20 ). The ten tribes rebelled under Jeroboam, and set up the idolatry of the calves at Dan and Bethel. Worse idolatries followed, and in two centuries and a half had reached such a height, that God was provoked to "remove Israel out of his sight" ( 2 Kings 17:23 ). Judah remained, but "rebelled" under Manasseh, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah, "transgressing very much after all the abominations of the heathen, and polluting the very house of the Lord at Jerusalem" ( 2 Chronicles 36:14 ). These rebellions against God vexed his Holy Spirit - "provoked him," "grieved him," "moved the Holy One in Israel" ( Psalm 78:40, 41 ; Psalm 106:43 ). Therefore he was turned to be their enemy (comp. Jeremiah 30:14 ; Lamentations 2:4, 5 ). Judah had "filled up the measure of her iniquities," had gone on "until there was no remedy" ( 2 Chronicles 36:16 ).

God's indignation was therefore poured out upon her without let or stint. "He cut oft' in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he drew back his right hand from before the enemy; he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about. He bent his bow like an enemy ; he stood with his right hand as an adversary , and slew all that were pleasant in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion; he poured out his fury like fire. The Lord was as an enemy" ( Lamentations 2:3-5 ). He fought against them; rather, he himself fought against them. God himself, though they were "his people," yet fought against them and for the Chaldeans in that final struggle. He "gave the city into the hand of the King of Babylon" ( Jeremiah 34:2 ). Isaiah 63:10

(10) Vexed his holy Spirit . . . —Literally, his Spirit of holiness. So St. Paul speaks of Christians as “grieving the Holy Spirit.” Here, and in Psalm 51:11 , as in the “Angel of the Presence,” we may note a foreshadowing of the truth of the trinal personality of the unity of the Godhead, which was afterwards to be revealed. That which “vexed” the Holy Spirit was, in the nature of the case, the unholiness of the people, and this involved a change in the manifestation of the Divine Love, which was now compelled to show itself as wrath.

But they rebelled - Against God. This charge is often made against the Jews; and indeed their history is little more than a record of a series of rebellions against God. And vexed - Or rather 'grieved.' The Hebrew word עצב ‛âtsab, in Piel, means to pain, to afflict, to grieve. This is the idea here. Their conduct was such as was suited to produce the deepest pain - for there is nothing which we more deeply feel than the ingratitude of those who have been benefited by us. Our translators have supposed that the word conveyed the idea of provoking to wrath by their conduct (thus the Septuagint renders it παρώξυναν τὸ πνεύμα, κ.τ.λ. parōxunan to pneuma, etc.; but the more appropriate sense is, that their conduct was such as to produce pain or grief. Compare Ephesians 4:30 : 'Grieve not (μὴ λυπεῖτε mē lupeite) the Holy Spirit.' Psalm 78:40; Psalm 95:10. Hebrews 3:10-17. His Holy Spirit - The Chaldee renders this, 'But they were unwilling to obey, and they irritated (provoked, blasphemed רגז râgaz) against the words of the prophets.' But the reference seems rather to be to the Spirit of God that renewed, comforted, enlightened, and sanctified them. Grotius, Rosenmuller, and Gesenius, suppose that this means God himself - a Spirit of holiness. But, with the revelation of the New Testament before us, we cannot well doubt that the real reference here is to the third person of the Trinity - the renewer and sanctifier of the people of God.

It may be admitted, perhaps, that the ancient Hebrews would refer this to God himself, and that their views of the offices of the different persons in the divine nature were not very clearly marked, or very distinct. But this does not prove that the real reference may not have been to 'the Holy Spirit.' The renewer and sanctifier of the human heart at all times has been the same. And when any operations of the mind and heart pertaining to salvation are referred to in the Old Testament, nothing should forbid us to apply to the explanation of the expressions and the facts, the clear light which we have in the New Testament - in the same way as when the ancients speak of phenomena in the physical world, we deem it not improper to apply to the explanation of them the established doctrines which we now have in the physical sciences. By this we by no means design to say that the ancients had the same knowledge which we have, or that the language which they used conveyed the same idea to them which it now does to us, but that the events occurred in accordance with the laws which we now understand, and that the language may be explained by the light of modern science. Thus the word eclipse conveyed to them a somewhat different idea from what it does to us. They supposed it was produced by different causes. Still they described accurately the facts in the case; and to the explanation of those facts we are permitted now to apply the principles of modern science.