Isaiah 63:9

Isaiah THE SYMPATHY OF GODIsaiah 63:9 . I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God. It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking by reason of the other sides of the divine nature which the Old Testament gives so strongly; as, for instance, the unapproachable elevation and absolute sovereignty of God, and the retributive righteousness of God. Affliction is His chastisement, and is ever righteously inflicted. But here is something more, tender and strange. Sympathy is a necessary part of love. There is no true affection which does not put itself in the place and share the sorrows of its objects. And His sympathy is none the less because He inflicts the sorrow. These afflictions wherein He too was afflicted, were sent by Him. Like an earthly father who suffers more than the child whom he chastises, the Heavenly Father feels the strokes that He inflicts. That sympathy is consistent with the blessedness of God. Even in the pain of our human sympathy there is a kind of joy, and we may be sure that in His nature there is nothing else. Contrast with other thoughts about God.

The vague agnosticism of the present day, which knows only a dim Something of which we can predicate nothing. The God of the philosophers-whom we are bidden to think of as passionless and unemotional. No wave of feeling ever ripples that tideless sea. The attribute of infinitude or sovereign completeness is dwelt on with such emphasis as to obscure all the rest. The gods of men’s own creation are careless in their happiness, and cruel in their vengeance. But here is a God for all the weary and the sorrowful. What a thought for us in our own burdened days! II. The mystery of the divine salvation. Of course the salvation here spoken of is the deliverance from Egyptian bondage. This is a summary of the Exodus. But we must mark well that significant expression, ‘the angel of His face’ or ‘presence.’ We can only attempt a partial and bald enumeration of some of the very remarkable references to that mysterious person, ‘the angel of the Lord ‘or ‘of the presence.’ The dying Jacob ascribed his being ‘redeemed from all evil’ to ‘the Angel,’ and invoked his blessing on ‘the lads.’ ‘ The angel of the Lord’ appeared to Moses out of the midst of the burning bush. On Sinai, Jehovah promised to send an ‘angel’ in whom was His own name, before the people.

In all their affliction he was {i} afflicted, and the angel {k} of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them, and carried them all the days of old. (i) He bore their afflictions and griefs as though they had been his own. (k) Which was a witness of God's presence, and this may be referred to Christ, to whom belongs the office of salvation.

9. he was afflicted—English Version reads the Hebrew as the Keri (Margin), does, "There was affliction to Him." But the Chetib (text) reads, "There was no affliction" (the change in Hebrew being only of one letter); that is, "In all their affliction there was no (utterly overwhelming) affliction" [Gesenius]; or, for "Hardly had an affliction befallen them, when the angel of His presence saved them" [Maurer]; or, as best suits the parallelism, "In all their straits there was no straitness in His goodness to them" [Houbigant], (Jud 10:16; Mic 2:7; 2Co 6:12). angel of his presence—literally, "of His face," that is, who stands before Him continually; Messiah (Ex 14:19; 23:20, 21; Pr 8:30), language applicable to no creature (Ex 32:34; 33:2, 14; Nu 20:16; Mal 3:1). bare them—(Isa 46:3, 4; 40:11; Ex 19:4; De 32:11, 12).

In all their affliction he was afflicted; because of all the afflictions they endured in Egypt: this notes the sympathy that is in Christ, he having the same Spirit in him that the church hath, and her Head and Father. Or, In all their afflictions no affliction ; so the words may be read; their afflictions were rather favors than afflictions ; all that befell them from the Red Sea through the wilderness; and then tzar is taken actively, he afflicted not : this may note his clemency, their sting was taken out; either way it may be read according to the different spelling of lo , whether by aleph or vau . The first seems the more genuine; they that list to drive this notion further may consult the Latin Synopsis, and the English Annotations. The angel of his presence ; the same that conducted them through the wilderness, called an angel , Exodus 33:2 , and his presence , Isaiah 63:14 , and Jehovah, Exodus 13:21 ; so that it must be the Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to Moses in the bush, as Stephen doth interpret it, Acts 7:35 , &c. Other angels are in his presence, but they were not always; he was ever so, therefore so called by way of eminency; hence the LXX. express it not a legate , or angel , but himself. Saved them from the house of bondage; brought them through the Red Sea, the wilderness, &c. Their Rock was Christ , 1 Corinthians 10:4 .

In his love and in his pity: this shows the ground of his kindness; they were a stubborn, superstitious, idolatrous people, yet Christ’s love and pity saved them for all that; it was because he loved them. He bare them, and carried them; he left them not to shift for themselves, but bare them as a father his child, or an eagle her young ones; he carried them in the arms of his power; see Isaiah 46:4 ; and on the wings of his providence: see Deu 32:10-12 ; and See Poole "Deu 1:31" . And he is said to do it of old, to remember his ancient kindness for many generations past; elam signifies an eternity, or a long time past, as well as to come; from the clays of Abraham or Moses, from their bondage in Egypt, to the time of Isaiah; and it is used as an argument to move him to do so still; he will carry her till he bring her unto his Father.

9 . In all their affliction he was afflicted ] (lit. “there was affliction to Him”). This is the sense of the Qĕrê , which substitutes lô (to him) for the lô’ (not) of the Kĕthîb (see on ch. Isaiah 9:3 ). It is impossible to obtain a good sense from the consonantal text; and it is accordingly rejected in favour of the Qĕrê by nearly all commentators. There is, however, no equally strong expression of Jehovah’s sympathy with His people in the O.T.; both Jdg 10:16 , and Psalm 106:44 fall far short of it. The LXX. (joining “in all their affliction” to the previous verse) continues: οὐ πρέσβυς οὐδὲ ἄγγελος , ἀλλ ʼ αὐτὸς ἔσωσεν αὐτούς ; i.e. Not a messenger or an angel (but) His Presence saved them . The only textual difference here is that צִיר (“messenger” or “ambassador”) is read instead of צָר (“affliction”). It is true that צִיר is not elsewhere used of an angelic representative of Jehovah; but the metaphor is a natural one, and otherwise the translation has much to recommend it. ( a ) The “Presence” (lit. “Face”) of Jehovah is used elsewhere of His self-manifestation. The fundamental passage is Exodus 33:14-15 : “My presence shall go … If thy presence go not, &c.” But comp. also Deuteronomy 4:37 ; Lamentations 4:16 , and see on ch.

Isaiah 59:2 . ( b ) An “angel of the Presence” on the other hand is a figure elsewhere unknown to the O.T.; the phrase would seem to be “a confusion of two forms of expression, incident to a midway stage of revelation” (Cheyne). ( c ) The “Face” of Jehovah, however, is not (as the LXX. inferred) just the same as Jehovah Himself in person. It is rather a name for His highest sensible manifestation, and hardly differs from what is in other places called the Mal’ak Yahveh (Angel of Jehovah). This is shewn by a comparison of Exodus 33:14 f., with Exodus 23:20-23 . The verse therefore means that it was no ordinary angelic messenger, but the supreme embodiment of Jehovah’s presence that accompanied Israel in the early days. The idea has its analogies in Semitic heathenism, as when at Carthage the goddess Tanit was worshipped as the “Face of Baal,” although this has been otherwise explained (Euting, Punische Steine , p. 8). and he bare them ] Better, took them up , as in ch. Isaiah 40:15 . Cf. Deuteronomy 32:11 .