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Educating Bill O’Reilly on the ‘Rape Factor’ in Islam
March 29, 2011
Andrew G. Bostom
Any sexual activity is considered the given right of a male…A Muslim woman cannot report being raped because she will be asked to provide four witnesses otherwise she will be accused of committing adultery, and she will be stoned to death.
Muslim jurists will only accept four male witnesses. These witnesses must declare that they have “seen the parties in the very act of carnal conjunction.” Once an accusation of fornication and adultery has been made, the accuser himself or herself risks punishment if he or she does not furnish the necessary legal proofs. Witnesses are in the same situation. If a man were to break into a woman’s dormitory and rape half a dozen women, he would risk nothing since there would be no male witnesses. Indeed the victim of a rape would hesitate before going in front of the law, since she would risk being condemned herself and have little chance of obtaining justice. “If the woman’s words were sufficient in such cases,” explains Judge Zharoor ul Haq of Pakistan, “then no man would be safe.
I find it hard to believe that the prophet Muhammad would preach a doctrine where any woman can be abused at any time by any Muslim man and be held not accountable.
You need to get familiar with Muhammad’s life and how he treated women in his life…Don’t forget, Muhammad is the role model for every Muslim man.
O Prophet, We have made lawful for thee thy wives whom thou hast given their wages and what thy right hand owns, spoils of war that God has given thee, and the daughters of thy uncles paternal and aunts paternal, thy uncles maternal and aunts maternal, who have emigrated with thee, and any woman believer, if she give herself to the Prophet and if the Prophet desire to take her in marriage, for thee exclusively, apart from the believers — We know what We have imposed upon them touching their wives and what their right hands own — that there may be no fault in thee; God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.
(Sunan Abu Dawud 2167) — Muhairiz said: I entered the mosque and saw Abu Sa’id al-Khudri. I sat with him and asked about withdrawing the penis (while having intercourse). Abu Sa’id said: We went out with the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) on the expedition to Banu al-Mustaliq, and took some Arab women captive, and we desired the women, for we were suffering from the absence of our wives, and we wanted ransom; so we intended to withdraw the penis (while having intercourse with the slave-women). But we asked ourselves: Can we draw the penis when the Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) is among us before asking him about it? So we asked him about it. He said: It does not matter if you do not do it, for every soul that is to be born up to the Day of Resurrection will be born.”
Sahih Muslim, Book 008, Number 3311: Aisha (Allah be pleased with her) reported that Allah’s Apostle (may peace be upon him) married her when she was seven years old, and she was taken to his house as a bride when she was nine, and her dolls were with her; and when he (the Holy Prophet) died she was eighteen years old.Sahih Bukhari, Volume 7, Book 62, Number 88: Narrated Ursa: The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e., till his death).Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 73, Number 151: Narrated Aisha: I used to play with the dolls in the presence of the Prophet, and my girl friends also used to play with me. When Allah’s Apostle used to enter (my dwelling place) they used to hide themselves, but the Prophet would call them to join and play with me. (The playing with the dolls and similar images is forbidden, but it was allowed for Aisha at that time, as she was a little girl, who had not yet reached the age of puberty.)Sahih Muslim, Book 031, Number 5981: Aisha reported that she used to play with dolls in the presence of Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) and when her playmates came to her they left (the house) because they felt shy of Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him), whereas Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) sent them to her.
“I told them I was terrified and desperate, that I was just a child and far too young to get married. I pleaded with them to help me escape, but no one saw anything wrong in what was happening. I begged my husband not to marry me, but he told me I had no choice.” Despite being two years below the British age of consent, Ayse was moved into her cousin’s family home, where she lived openly as his wife in the local Kurdish Turkish community. “I was all alone in a foreign country, unable to speak the language,” she said. “I was trapped. Until I escaped, I didn’t even realize that marrying at 14 wasn’t legal in Britain: everyone I knew in London regarded it as normal.” In the two years before she reached 16, the sex Ayse was coerced into having with her cousin was statutory rape. “It was disgusting, awful,” she said. “I used to scream and cry all night. I was too young, too tender. It killed me inside. Life became meaningless.”
Clearly there cannot be any “rape” within the marriage. Maybe “aggression”, maybe “indecent activity.”
…to make it exactly as the Western culture demands is as if we are compromising Islamic religion with secular non-Islamic values.
In Islamic sharia, rape is adultery by force. So long as the woman is his wife, it cannot be termed as rape.
No other sharia council can claim they are so diverse as ours because other sharia councils, they are following one school of fiqh [Islamic jurisprudence]. Ours is diverse -we are hanafi, shafi’i, hanbali.we have Bangladeshi…we have Pakistani, we have Indian, we have Palestinian, we have Somali scholars on our board.
In the name of Allah, all praise is for Allah, and may peace and blessing be upon the Messenger of Allah and his family. To proceed:For a wife to abandon the bed of her husband without excuse is haram [forbidden]. It is one of the major sins and the angels curse her until the morning as we have been informed by the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). She is considered nashiz (rebellious) under these circumstances. As for the issue of forcing a wife to have sex, if she refuses, this would not be called rape, even though it goes against natural instincts and destroys love and mercy, and there is a great sin upon the wife who refuses; and Allah Almighty is more exalted and more knowledgeable.
Assassinating Gaddafi
March 29, 2011
Assassinating Gaddafi
By Paul Kengor
When we think of the French, America, and Gaddafi’s Libya, we tend to think of April 1986, when America fighter planes swarmed Tripoli, lighting up the Libyan night, barely missing Moammar Gaddafi, who had been sleeping in a tent outside his compound. The French, led by President Francois Mitterand, had not exactly supported us. Today, ironically, the French are demonstrating clearer resolve and purpose over the Libyan skies than our own commander-in-chief.In 1986, our president was Ronald Reagan; today, it isn’t.There’s an especially fascinating tidbit concerning the French, Gaddafi, and America, which, to my knowledge, went unreported (and remains largely unknown) until disclosed in my 2007 biography of Bill Clark, titled, The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan’s Top Hand.A quick word on Clark: Bill Clark is a great man — some would argue a national hero. He was Ronald Reagan’s closest adviser. Next to Reagan himself, no American did more to defeat the USSR in the 1980s. And then, after all that, the unassuming Clark rode off into the sunset, retreating to his ranch in central California. He refused to cash in on a million-dollar book deal. Reagan insiders and biographers, from Cap Weinberger to Lou Cannon, pleaded with Clark to write memoirs, knowing he had much to tell — things the world didn’t know. A model of humility, Clark wouldn’t do it.Finally, two decades after leaving the Reagan administration, Clark grudgingly relented to agree to a biographer: me. Among the things Clark revealed to me was a French request to the Reagan administration to assassinate Gaddafi. Here’s what I learned:Shortly after Reagan’s inauguration, French intelligence came to the new president with a highly sensitive plan. Alexandre de Marenches, director of France’s external intelligence agency, arrived in Washington with a plan to assassinate the Libyan dictator during a parade, by use of an explosive device placed near the reviewing stand. As Clark and I revisited this meeting over 20 years later, we were unable to locate notes. After consulting several former U.S. intelligence officials, plus other materials, we estimated that the meeting probably occurred in early February 1981, not even a full month into the Reagan presidency. And what was Reagan’s response?“Our answer,” said Clark, “was that we understood their [the French] feelings toward the man, but we don’t do assassinations.”There was an executive order banning assassinations, first signed by President Gerald Ford and supported by President Jimmy Carter. The Reagan administration had no intention of violating the order, especially as one of its first foreign-policy acts. Reagan was already holding meetings with his foreign policy team, including our own intelligence chief, Bill Casey, on how to kill the Soviet Union — not Gaddafi.It’s important to place de Marenches’ request in presidential context. Jimmy Carter had allowed Gaddafi to push the American Sixth Fleet out of the Gulf of Sidra, among other stunning shows of weakness. Carter was out, and Reagan was in. Reagan had met de Marenches before, specifically in Los Angeles on December 16, 1980 during the transition for the president-elect. The Frenchman was impressed, remarking on Reagan’s “modesty” and lack of “self-importance,” and shared Reagan’s view on the evils of communism; on that December day, he warned Reagan of “the empire of evil.” (De Marenches later titled his memoirs, The Evil Empire.)Intelligence sources that I interviewed for The Judge confirmed Clark’s recollection of de Marenches’ request. “He came over to the U.S. probably in early February 1981,” said one source. “His interlocutor was Vice President Bush. The purpose of the visit was to discuss the removal of Gaddafi. He came to try to get us involved operationally in the plan…. He wanted not just our moral or political support but to get us involved in the actual operation.”This same source underscored the so-called “Safari Club,” the group of countries — France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the Shah’s Iran — which banded together to fight the spread of Soviet communism, particularly in Africa, as well as halting Gaddafi’s adventures in neighboring Chad. The group was formed by intelligence heads in the mid-1970s, with de Marenches its catalyst. They were appalled by the United States’ unwillingness to no longer stand up to the Soviets, in a post-Vietnam era marked by a liberal Democratic Congress and president.The Club sought to fill a vacuum left by weak American liberals.In short, de Marenches’ offer to Reagan was consistent with the concerns and purposes of the Safari Club.As indication of the highly confidential nature of his overture, de Marenches, tellingly, didn’t discuss his offer to Reagan in his 1986 and 1992 books. Quite the contrary, he noted that Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat on March 1, 1978 had asked de Marenches for help in “disposing of him [Gaddafi] physically.” De Marenches merely recorded his confusion regarding precisely what Sadat had in mind. “The fact is,” wrote de Marenches, “I was not in charge of a team of hired assassins.”Classic French behavior.Ironically, Bill Clark was soon surprised to learn that he was an assassination target himself, by no less than Moammar Gaddafi. An NSC staffer named Oliver North informed Clark that he was being targeted.Obviously, the Gaddafi assassination never happened. How different things might have been, even now, 30 years later, had it taken place.I’m not disappointed in Reagan for not joining the French. He couldn’t. With the ban on assassinations, championed by weak Republican and Democratic “détente” presidents, Reagan’s hands were tied, especially so early in the administration and with the ultimate goal focused on taking down an Evil Empire.In fact, Reagan certainly did what he could with Gaddafi. He wasted little time, mere months later, smacking down Gaddafi in the Gulf of Sidra (click here), and then, five years later, hitting the Libyan dictator even more personally in bombing Tripoli in April 1986.Nonetheless, this is a fascinating what-might-have-been, one that has slipped through the cracks of history. Clearly, it couldn’t be more relevant right now, as Moammar Gaddafi continues to be a menace to the world.Paul Kengor is professor of political science at Grove City College. His books include The Judge: William P. Clark, Ronald Reagan’s Top Hand, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, and the newly released Dupes: How America’s Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century.
5 Articles; * Egypt: Morality Police and Dress Code? * President Obama’s Failure to Support–With Words Not Guns–Iranian and Syrian Oppositionists Is A Disgrace * The Intervention in Libya: A Feel-Good Mirage * Egypt’s Revolution: Full Circle With Ban on Strikes and Protests * My Talk About Contemporary Middle East Issues
From Rubin Reports.Blogspot.Com
- Egypt: Morality Police and Dress Code?
- President Obama’s Failure to Support–With Words Not Guns–Iranian and Syrian Oppositionists Is A Disgrace
- The Intervention in Libya: A Feel-Good Mirage
- Egypt’s Revolution: Full Circle With Ban on Strikes and Protests
- My Talk About Contemporary Middle East Issues
| Egypt: Morality Police and Dress Code?
Posted: 28 Mar 2011 02:32 PM PDT By Barry Rubin A text message has been widely sent around in Egypt demanding that women, including Christians, dress in the proper “Islamic” manner. March 29 has been announced as a special day for enforcing this demand. Fear of harassment has made many women plan to stay home on Tuesday. The army has not made any response on this warning, making some people believe it in effect endorses the idea. Would soldiers step in and protect women who are being pressured by self-proclaimed guardians of Islam? People are watching to see what, if anything, happens as a sign of where Egypt is heading. |
| President Obama’s Failure to Support–With Words Not Guns–Iranian and Syrian Oppositionists Is A Disgrace
Posted: 28 Mar 2011 12:04 PM PDT By Barry Rubin At the moment in history when people are not just rebelling in the Middle East but when the opposition movements in Iran and Syria are at a high point, the fact that the U.S. government is standing by and not only doing nothing but virtually saying nothing. No, it is even worse. For Secretary of State Hillary Clinton actually praised Syrian dictator Bashar al-Asad. She said that “members of Congress” who have gone to Damascus (notably Senator John Kerry who should henceforth be known as an apologist for an oppressive anti-American dictator), have found Bashar al-Asad to be a “reformer.” Can anyone tell us what reforms he has made? This is a dictator who is Iran’s chief ally; who has actively encouraged and helped terrorists in Iraq to kill Americans; who has tried to launch his own secret nuclear weapons program (stopped only by an Israeli bombing attack); who is chief backer of Hamas in killing Israelis; and who has reimposed Syrian control over Lebanon by using terrorism against Lebanese moderates. And so, the secretary of state of the United States has praised a dictator who is murdering unarmed demonstrators in the streets of Syria. Mubarak, a U.S. ally and far less oppressive than Syria or Iran, was bad; but Asad, an enemy of the United States and a far more repressive dictator is good? Note that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates took a much tougher stance on criticizing Syria. I suggested that he was contradicting administration policy in doing so. Unfortunately, that assessment was correct. But good for Gates in taking a good stance. Presumably, he won’t be around much longer. Note that he also correctly said that intervention in Libya wasn’t a vital U.S. interest, again contradicting Clinton and the White House. Let’s be clear here: Administration officials are (deliberately?) misinterpreting what’s they’re being asked to do. The issue is not a Libyan-style military intervention but rather daily statements and covert aid if appropriate. NOBODY IS ASKING THE UNITED STATES TO SEND MILITARY FORCES TO SYRIA OR IRAN. We are only asking that U.S. policy give support to oppositionists trying to overthrow repressive dictatorships that are America’s worst enemies in the Middle East and–arguably–in the world. Is that clear enough? Remember covert operations? It’s something the United States used to do during the Cold War, sometimes with great effectiveness. Doing something like that on the side of people who want freedom seems a good idea. But won’t the regimes denounce the opposition as American agents? The fear of this seems to be one factor paralyzing the Obama Administration. Guess what? They’ll do it anyway! Every day and with every means at their disposal. Yes, I know some claim that in his Iranian NewYear’s message, President Obama did support Iranian oppositionists one time. But my reading of that statement is that it did the exact opposite, skirting the issues to avoid offending the Iranian regime too much. It is time for the U.S. government to speak up. By making it publicly clear that the United States will not even end the engagement with Syria and start bashing it publicly, it is signalling the Syrian government that it can shoot down as many demonstrators it wants and torture people with no international consequences. This is against U.S. interests, against democracy and freedom, and against common sense. If President Obama can say that “Mubarak must go” and “Qadhafi must go” why can’t he at least say: “Ahmadinejad must go” and “Asad must go.” |
| The Intervention in Libya: A Feel-Good Mirage
Posted: 28 Mar 2011 12:07 PM PDT By Barry Rubin The Western intervention in Libya is the kind of thing that makes governments feel good and look good–provided they have a tame media unwilling to ask tough questions–but is of little or no strategic importance. There are two good rationales for the operation: If Qadhafi survives he is likely to return to a high priority on international terrorism and subversion and if he won he probably would have murdered hundreds, even thousands of people. While Syria and the Hamas regime in the Gaza Strip are high-profile terrorism sponsors that U.S. policy accepts, next to them Qadhafi is the worst such figure and he is highly adventurous. So a case can be made for intervention. Yet there are also points on the other side. Note that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates publicly contradicted the White House by saying that intervention in Libya isn’t a vital U.S. interest, again contradicting Clinton and the White House. Also note that the U.S. military commanders are unanimously opposed to taking on this additional mission with an ill-defined goal. Consider also the following points: 1. The intervention has not brought the civil war one inch (or one millimeter if you prefer) closer to resolution. 2. The intervention has done virtually nothing to bring victory to the opposition and the defeat and departure of dictator Muammar Qadhafi. 3. The intervention has not brought us any nearer to understanding the nature of the Libyan opposition. The idea that the Libyan rebels are mostly or all al-Qaida and Islamists is absurd and there’s no evidence for it. Certainly there are Islamists. And of course, the idea that they are mostly–or are mainly led by–moderate liberal democrats is equally absurd. What are their motives? Understandable hatred for a terrible, corrupt, repressive regime led by a madman, horrible even by Middle Eastern, Arab world standards. Regional antagonisms against domination by western Libyans. This implies, however, that a lot of Libyans in the western part of the country support Qadhafi. Tribal anger from the feeling that other tribes get the loot. By the same token, Qadhafi has a loyal base of support among the tribes who have received benefits from him. And of course Islamist influences, too. There is no doubt that there are a few among the rebels with al-Qaida ties and more with Muslim Brotherhood links. But the question is whether these people are dominant in the movement, and the answer is “no.” Tunisia is not Egypt is not Libya. In Tunisia, organized Islamists have a real but limited base, in part because of systematic repression in the past. In Egypt, they have a much larger base given the movement’s deep roots and also, ironically, because the Mubarak regime was much more tolerant of the Brotherhood operating than is understood in the West. Libya has more in common with Tunisia in this respect than it does with Egypt. The problem, then, is not that the rebels are all Islamist radicals. The problem is: –Nobody has bothered to investigate this issue in the U.S. government, an act of monumental irresponsibility especially before intervening militarily on their side. –There is not even a glimmer of a strategy to help the least objectionable people and groups against those who might create a post-Qadhafi anti-American, radical Islamist regime. –3. Islamists have an attractive ideology and are well-organized so they may well come out first in a post-Qadhafi regime. –Islamists will also have a lot of international support and funding from the Muslim Brotherhood, Iran, etc. Finally, the international leadership of the rebels are “respectable” former government officials. But, of course, they have no real control over what goes on inside the country. (Consider what happened in Iraq for example). So the problem is not that the Libyan rebels are mostly revolutionary Islamists as a group but that a thoughtless, careless policy might end up installing revolutionary Islamists in power some day. Sort of like…Egypt. 4. The intervention has not in any way prevented Libyan civilians from being killed or wounded by rifles, machine-guns, artillery, or various other weapons. It has only prevented them from being killed by planes, helicopters, or–to a limited extent–tanks. Can anyone challenge any of these assertions? No. They can only ignore or distort them. So what has the intervention achieved in terms of Libya? It has slowed, but not necessarily stopped Qadhafi’s victory. Thus, the war will go on longer. Perhaps the country will be split in two for a long period of time. Oil production will remain largely off-line. The U.S. government says, on one hand, that this operation is only for a limited time while simultaneously announcing it will continue throughout 2011. And 2012? The intervention has also prevented Qadhafi from importing arms, though there is no proof that he needed to do so. Finally, it has prevented Libyan oppositionists from being killed by planes or helicopters. Finally, it has unintentionally showed that the Western alliance is in tatters and that there is no substitute for American leadership. By the way, it is pretty horrifying when the president of the United States says, as Obama did, “It is U.S. policy that Qadhafi needs to go.” Note the passive form. It says: it’s not U.S. policy to get rid of Qadhafi but he ought to leave to spare us the problem altogether. In other words, we aren’t going to resolve it so let Qadhafi do so for us by disappearing of his own accord. The implication here is that he should just decide to move to southern France or that his own colleagues should get rid of him. (The latter idea worked in Egypt, but conditions were different there.) But this phrasing makes the United States an onlooker. It expresses a hope, not a strategy and not an operation to be implemented. Of course, Obama also justifies his policy on international consensus rather than U.S. national interests. And he also justifies it on the basis of a humanitarian defense of civilians, which is not the same as overthrowing governments. |
| Egypt’s Revolution: Full Circle With Ban on Strikes and Protests
Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:50 AM PDT By Barry Rubin The cabinet appointed by the military junta in Egypt has proposed to the ruling military council to outlaw strikes or protests that harm the economy. The young pro-democratic activists protested this as a violation of the rights the revolution was waged to achieve. What nobody will notice, though, is the even greater irony here: the April 6 Youth Movement, which launched the revolution in the first place, was begun in support of a labor strike outlawed by the Mubarak regime about three years ago. Well, the regime does need to keep the economy afloat. It isn’t the fault of the junta so much as the result of Egypt’s objective circumstances. This is a country, after all, where a few days ago police striking for higher pay set fire to the Interior Ministry! But what’s going to happen in two or three years when the elected president and parliament have no money to raise living standards, increase salaries, maintain subsidies on food, provide jobs, or build housing? Then the need to repress demonstrations and strikes may lead to renewed repression, another revolution, or the government’s use of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Israel demagoguery to stay in power. |
| My Talk About Contemporary Middle East Issues
Posted: 28 Mar 2011 09:48 AM PDT By Barry Rubin I did a phone conference on recent developments in the Middle East and here’s the audio for those who’d like to listen. |
Before its News: Daily Featured 5 Stories – 29th March 2011
Daily Featured 5 Stories
Welcome to the Before It’s News Daily Featured 5 Stories. Each weekday we deliver the most important and interesting alternative stories to your inbox. Be the first among your friends and colleagues to get the scoop on the stories everyone should be talking about today.
Western Governments Admit To “False Flag” Terror
Indiana prosecutor told Wisconsin governor to stage ‘false flag’ operation. An Indiana prosecutor and Republican activist has resigned after emails show he suggested Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker stage a fake attack on himself to discredit unions protesting his budget repair bill. The Republican governor signed a bill on March 11 that eliminates most union rights for public employees…
Click here to read, “Western Governments Admit To “False Flag” Terror”…
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Japan On Maximum Alert: Radiation Levels Outside Plant Signal Meltdown (video)
A comprehensive roundup of the latest reports on Japan’s Fukushima nuclear reactor crisis. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said his government is in a state of maximum alert over the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. Plutonium has been detected in soil at the facility and highly radioactive water has leaked from a reactor building. Officials say the priority remains injecting water to cool the fuel rods…
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9 Ways To Prepare For Food Inflation
Food is a unique budget category in that normally when you are struggling with less income and/or increased costs, the natural inclination is to turn to cheaper alternatives. Unfortunately, as many people are discovering, when it comes to food this means an unhealthy diet…
Click here to read, “9 Ways To Prepare For Food Inflation”…
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Wow That Was Fast! Libyan Rebels Have Already Established A New Central Bank Of Libya
What a skilled bunch of rebels – they can fight a war during the day and draw up a new central bank and a new national oil company at night without any outside help whatsoever. If only the rest of us were so versatile! But isn’t forming a central bank something that could be done after the civil war is over? …
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Antioxidant Formula Prior To Radiation Exposure May Prevent DNA Injury
A unique formulation of antioxidants taken orally before imaging with ionizing radiation minimizes cell damage, noted researchers at the Society of Interventional Radiology’s 36th Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago, Ill. In what the researchers say is the first clinical trial of its kind, as much as a 50 percent reduction in DNA injury was observed after administering the formula prior to CT scans…
Click here to read, “Antioxidant Formula Prior To Radiation Exposure May Prevent DNA Injury”…
Isaiah 6:9-13; Judicial Blindness Threatened; These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in Gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgments the most dreadful; Note, Spiritual judgments often bring temporal judgments along with them upon persons and places. B.C. 758
| Judicial Blindness Threatened. | B. C. 758. |
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Isaiah 6:9-13
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand–to foretell the ruin of his people and even to ripen them for that ruin–to preach that which, by their abuse of it, would be to them a savour of death unto death. And this was to be a type and figure of the state of the Jewish church in the days of the Messiah, when they should obstinately reject the gospel, and should thereupon be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part, or referred to, six times, in the New Testament, which intimates that in gospel time these spiritual judgments would be most frequently inflicted; and though they make the least noise, and come not with observation, yet they are of all judgments the most dreadful. Isaiah is here given to understand these four things:–
1. That the generality of the people to whom he was sent would turn a deaf ear to his preaching, and willfully shut their eyes against all the discoveries of the mind and will of God which he had to make to them (v. 9): “Go, and tell this people, this foolish wretched people, tell them their own, tell them how stupid and sottish they are.” Isaiah must preach to them, and they will hear him indeed, but that is all; they will not heed him; they will no understand him; they will not take any pains, nor use that application of mind which is necessary to the understanding of him; they are prejudiced against that which is the true intent and meaning of what he says, and therefore they will not understand him, or pretend they do not. They see indeed (for the vision is made plain on tables, so that he who runs may read it); but they perceive not their own concern in it; it is to them as a tale that is told. Note, There are many who hear the sound of God’s word, but do not feel the power of it.
2. That, forasmuch as they would not be made better by his ministry, they should be made worse by it; those that were wilfully blind should be judicially blinded (v. 10): “They will not understand or perceive thee, and therefore thou shalt be instrumental to make their heart fat, senseless, and sensual, and so to make their ears yet more heavy, and to shut their eyes the closer; so that, at length, their recovery and repentance will become utterly impossible; they shall no more see with their eyes the danger they are in, the ruin they are upon the brink of, nor the way of escape from it; they shall no more hear with their ears the warnings and instructions that are given them, nor understand with their heart the things that belong to their peace, so as to be converted from the error of their ways, and thus be healed.” Note,
(1.) The conversion of sinners is the healing of them.
(2.) A right understanding is necessary to conversion.
(3.) God sometimes, in a way of righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind and strong delusions, because they would not receive the truth in the love of it, 2 Thess. 2:10-12. He that is filthy let him be filthy still.
(4.) Even the word of God oftentimes proves a means of hardening sinners. The evangelical prophet himself makes the heart of this people fat, not only as he foretells it, passing this sentence upon them in God’s name, and seals them under it, but as his preaching had a tendency to it, rocking some asleep in security (to whom it was a lovely song), and making others more outrageous, to whom it was such a reproach that they were not able to bear it. Some looked upon the word as a privilege, and their convictions were smothered by it (Jer. 7:4); others looked upon it as a provocation, and their corruptions were exasperated by it.
3. That the consequence of this would be their utter ruin, v. 11, 12. The prophet had nothing to object against the justice of this sentence, nor does he refuse to go upon such an errand, but asks, “Lord, how long?” (an abrupt question): “Shall it always be thus? Must I and other prophets always labour in vain among them, and will things never be better?” Or, (as should seem by the answer) “Lord, what will it come to at last? What will be in the end hereof?” In answer to this he is told that it should issue in the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation. “When the word of God, especially the word of the gospel, had been thus abused by them, they shall be unchurched, and consequently undone. Their cities shall be uninhabited, and their country houses too; the land shall be untilled, desolate with desolation (as it is in the margin), the people who should replenish the houses and cultivate the ground being all cut off by sword, famine, or pestilence, and those who escape with their lives being removed far away into captivity, so that there shall be a great and general forsaking in the midst of the land; that populous country shall become desert, and that glory of all lands shall be abandoned.” Note, Spiritual judgments often bring temporal judgments along with them upon persons and places. This was in part fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, when the land, being left desolate, enjoyed her sabbaths seventy years; but, the foregoing predictions being so expressly applied in the New Testament to the Jews in our Saviour’s time, doubtless this points at the final destruction of that people by the Romans, in which it had a complete accomplishment, and the effects of it that people and that land remain under to this day.
4. That yet a remnant should be reserved to be the monuments of mercy, v. 13. There was a remnant reserved in the last destruction of the Jewish nation (Rom. 11:5, At this present time there is a remnant); for so it was written here: But in it shall be a tenth, a certain number, but a very small number in comparison with the multitude that shall perish in their unbelief. It is that which, under the law, was God’s proportion; they shall be consecrated to God as the tithes were, and shall be for his service and honour. Concerning this tithe, this saved remnant, we are here told,
(1.) That they shall return (ch. 6:13; 10:21), shall return from sin to God and duty, shall return out of captivity to their own land. God will turn them, and they shall be turned.
(2.) That they shall be eaten, that is, shall be accepted of God as the tithe was, which was meat in God’s house, Mal. 3:10. The saving of this remnant shall be meat to the faith and hope of those that wish well to God’s kingdom.
(3.) That they shall be like a timber-tree in winter, which has life, though it has no leaves: As a teil-tree and as an oak, whose substance is in them even when they cast their leaves, so this remnant, though they may be stripped of their outward prosperity and share with others in common calamities, shall yet recover themselves, as a tree in the spring, and flourish again; though they fall, they shall not be utterly cast down. There is hope of a tree, though it be cut down, that it will sprout again, Job 14:7.
(4.) That this distinguished remnant shall be the stay and support of the public interests. The holy seed in the soul is the substance of the man; a principle of grace reigning in the heart will keep life there; he that is born of God has his seed remaining in him, 1 John 3:9. So the holy seed in the land is the substance of the land, keeps it from being quite dissolved, and bears up the pillars of it, Ps. 75:3. See ch. 1:9. Some read the foregoing clause with this, thus: As the support at Shallecheth is in the elms and the oaks, so the holy seed is the substance thereof; as the trees that grow on either side of the causeway (the raised way, or terrace-walk, that leads from the king’s palace to the temple, 1 Kings 10:5, at the gate of Shallecheth, 1 Chron. 26:16) support the causeway by keeping up the earth, which would otherwise be crumbling away, so the small residue of religious, serious, praying people, are the support of the state, and help to keep things together and save them from going to decay. Some make the holy seed to be Christ. The Jewish nation was therefore saved from utter ruin because out of it, as concerning the flesh, Christ was to come, Rom. 9:5. Destroy it not, for that blessing is in it (ch. 65:8); and when that blessing had come, it was soon destroyed. Now the consideration of this is designed for the support of the prophet in his work. Though far the greater part should perish in their unbelief, yet to some his word should be a savour of life unto life. Ministers do not wholly lose their labour if they be but instrumental to save one poor soul.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Isaiah 6:5-8; Isaiah’s Heavenly Vision [Part 2]; He saw God’s sovereignty to be incontestable–He is the King; and His power irresistible–He is the Lord of hosts; We are undone if there be not a Mediator between us and this holy God, 1 Sam. 6:20; Note, Those are fittest to be employed for God who are low in their own eyes and are made deeply sensible of their own weakness and unworthiness; “Whom shall I send? And who will go?”–None are allowed to go for God but those who are sent by Him; He will own none but those whom He appoints, Rom. 10:15; “Then said I, Here am I; send me”–send me, and then, no doubt, Thou wilt stand by me. B.C. 758
| Isaiah’s Heavenly Vision.[Part 2] | B. C. 758. |
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Isaiah 6:5-8
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Our curiosity would lead us to enquire further concerning the seraphim, their songs and their services; but here we leave them, and must attend to what passed between God and his prophet. Secret things belong not to us, the secret things of the world of angels, but things revealed to and by the prophets, which concern the administration of God’s kingdom among men. Now here we have,
I. The consternation that the prophet was put into by the vision which he saw of the glory of God (v. 5): Then said I, Woe is me! I should have said, “Blessed art thou, who hast been thus highly favoured, highly honoured, and dignified, for a time, with the privilege of those glorious beings that always behold the face of our Father. Blessed were those eyes which saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and those ears which heard the angels’ praises.” And, one would think, he should have said, “Happy am I, for ever happy; nothing now shall trouble me, nothing make me blush or tremble;” but, on the contrary, he cries out, “Woe is me! for I am undone. Alas for me! I am a gone man; I shall surely die (Judges 13:22; Judges 6:22); I am silenced; I am struck dumb, struck dead.” Thus Daniel, when he heard the words of the angel, became dumb, and there was no strength, no breath, left in him, Dan. 10:15, 17. Observe,
1. What the prophet reflected upon in himself which terrified him: “I am undone if God deal with me in strict justice, for I have made myself obnoxious to his displeasure, because I am a man of unclean lips.” Some think he refers particularly to some rash word he had spoken, or to his sinful silence in not reproving sin with the boldness and freedom that were necessary–a sin which God’s ministers have too much cause to charge themselves with, and to blush at the remembrance of. But it may be taken more generally; I am a sinner; particularly, I have offended in word; and who is there that hath not? Jam. 3:2. We all have reason to bewail it before the Lord,
(1.) That we are of unclean lips ourselves; our lips are not consecrated to God; he had not had the first-fruits of our lips (Heb. 13:15), and therefore they are counted common and unclean, uncircumcised lips, Exod. 6:30. Nay, they have been polluted with sin. We have spoken the language of an unclean heart, that evil communication which corrupts good manners, and whereby many have been defiled. We are unworthy and unmeet to take God’s name into our lips. With what a pure lip did the angels praise God! “But,” says the prophet, “I cannot praise him so, for I am a man of unclean lips.” The best men in the world have reason to be ashamed of themselves, and the best of their services, when they come into comparison with the holy angels. The angels had celebrated the purity and holiness of God; and therefore the prophet, when he reflects upon sin, calls it uncleanness; for the sinfulness of sin is its contrariety to the holy nature of God, and upon that account especially it should appear both hateful and frightful to us. The impurity of our lips ought to be the grief of our souls, for by our words we shall be justified or condemned.
(2.) That we dwell among those who are so too. We have reason to lament not only that we ourselves are polluted, but that the nature and race of mankind are so; the disease is hereditary and epidemic, which is so far from lessening our guilt that it should rather increase our grief, especially considering that we have not done what we might have done for the cleansing of the pollution of other people’s lips; nay, we have rather learned their way and spoken their language, as Joseph in Egypt learned the courtier’s oath, Gen. 42:16. “I dwell in the midst of a people who by their impudent sinnings are pulling down desolating judgments upon the land, which I, who am a sinner too, may justly expect to be involved in.”
2. What gave occasion for these sad reflections at this time: My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. He saw God’s sovereignty to be incontestable–he is the King; and his power irresistible–he is the Lord of hosts. These are comfortable truths to God’s people, and yet they ought to strike an awe upon us. Note, A believing sight of God’s glorious majesty should affect us all with reverence and godly fear. We have reason to be abased in the sense of that infinite distance that there is between us and God, and our own sinfulness and vileness before him, and to be afraid of his displeasure. We are undone if there be not a Mediator between us and this holy God, 1 Sam. 6:20. Isaiah was thus humbled, to prepare him for the honour he was now to be called to as a prophet. Note, Those are fittest to be employed for God who are low in their own eyes and are made deeply sensible of their own weakness and unworthiness.
II. The silencing of the prophet’s fears by the good words, and comfortable words, with which the angel answered him, v. 6, 7. One of the seraphim immediately flew to him, to purify him, and so to pacify him. Note, God has strong consolations ready for holy mourners. Those that humble themselves in penitential shame and fear shall soon be encouraged and exalted; those that are struck down with the visions of God’s glory shall soon be raised up again with the visits of his grace; he that tears will heal. Note, further, Angels are ministering spirits for the good of the saints, for their spiritual good. Here was one of the seraphim dismissed, for a time, from attending on the throne of God’s glory, to be a messenger of his grace to a good man; and so well pleased was he with the office that he came flying to him. To our Lord Jesus himself, in his agony, there appeared an angel from heaven, strengthening him, Luke 22:43. Here is,
1. A comfortable sign given to the prophet of the purging away of his sin. The seraph brought a live coal from the altar, and touched his lips with it, not to hurt them, but to heal them–not to cauterize, but to cleanse them; for there were purifications by fire, as well as by water, and the filth of Jerusalem was purged by the spirit of burning, ch. 4:4. The blessed Spirit works as fire, Matt. 3:11. The seraph, being himself kindled with a divine fire, put life into the prophet, to make him also zealously affected; for the way to purge the lips from the uncleanness of sin is to fire the soul with the love of God. This live coal was taken from off the altar, either the altar of incense or that of burnt-offerings, for they had both of them fire burning on them continually. Nothing is powerful to cleanse and comfort the soul but what is taken from Christ’s satisfaction and the intercession he ever lives to make in the virtue of that satisfaction. It must be a coal from his altar that must put life into us and be our peace; it will not be done with strange fire.
2. An explication of this sign: “Lo, this has touched thy lips, to assure thee of this, that thy iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged. The guilt of thy sin is removed by pardoning mercy, the guilt of thy tongue-sins. Thy corrupt disposition to sin is removed by renewing grace; and therefore nothing can hinder thee from being accepted with God as a worshipper, in concert with the holy angels, or from being employed for God as a messenger to the children of men.” Those only who are thus purged from an evil conscience are prepared to serve the living God, Heb. 9:14. The taking away of sin is necessary to our speaking with confidence and comfort either to God in prayer or from God in preaching; nor are any so fit to display to others the riches and power of gospel-grace as those who have themselves tasted the sweetness and felt the influence of that grace; and those shall have their sin taken away who complain of it as a burden and see themselves in danger of being undone by it.
III. The renewing of the prophet’s mission, v. 8. Here is a communication between God and Isaiah about this matter. Those that would assist others in their correspondence with God must not themselves be strangers to it; for how can we expect that God should speak by us if we never heard him speaking to us, or that we should be accepted as the mouth of others to God if we never spoke to him heartily for ourselves? Observe here,
1. The counsel of God concerning Isaiah’s mission. God is here brought in, after the manner of men, deliberating and advising with himself: Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? God needs not either to be counselled by others or to consult with himself; he knows what he will do, but thus he would show us that there is a counsel in his whole will, and teach us to consider our ways, and particularly that the sending forth of ministers is a work not to be done but upon mature deliberation. Observe,
(1.) Who it is that is consulting. It is the Lord God in his glory, whom he saw upon the throne high and lifted up. It puts an honour upon the ministry that, when God would send a prophet to speak in his name, he appeared in all the glories of the upper world. Ministers are the ambassadors of the King of kings; how mean soever they are, he who sends them is great; it is God in three persons (Who will go for us? as Gen. 1:26, Let us make man), Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They all concur, as in the creating, so in the redeeming and governing of man. Ministers are ordained in the same name into which all Christians are baptized.
(2.) What the consultation is: Whom shall I send? And who will go? Some think this refers to the particular message of wrath against Israel, v. 9, 10. “Who will be willing to go on such a melancholy errand, on which they will go in the bitterness of their souls?” Ezek. 3:14. But I rather take it more largely for all those messages which the prophet was entrusted to deliver, in God’s name, to that people, in which that hardening work was by no means the primary intention, but a secondary effect of them, 2 Cor. 2:16. Whom shall I send? intimating that the business was such as required a choice and well-accomplished messenger, Jer. 49:19. God now appeared, attended with holy angels, and yet asks, Whom shall I send? For he would send them a prophet from among their brethren, Heb. 2:17. Note,
[1.] It is the unspeakable favour of God to us that he is pleased to send us his mind by men like ourselves, whose terror shall not make us afraid, and who are themselves concerned in the messages they bring. Those who are workers together with God are sinners and sufferers together with us.
[2.] It is a rare thing to find one who is fit to go for God, and carry his messages to the children of men: Whom shall I send? Who is sufficient? Such a degree of courage for God and concern for the souls of men as is necessary to make a man faithful, and withal such an insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven as is necessary to make a man skilful, are seldom to be met with. Such an interpreter of the mind of God is one of a thousand, Job 33:23.
[3.] None are allowed to go for God but those who are sent by him; he will own none but those whom he appoints, Rom. 10:15. It is Christ’s work to put men into the ministry, 1 Tim. 1:12.
2. The consent of Isaiah to it: Then said I, Here am I; send me. He was to go on a melancholy errand; the office seemed to go a begging, and every body declined it, and yet Isaiah offered himself to the service. It is an honour to be singular in appearing for God, Judges 5:7. We must not say, “I would go if I thought I should have success;” but, “I will go, and leave the success to God. Here am I; send me.” Isaiah had been himself in a melancholy frame (v. 5), full of doubts and fears; but now that he had the assurance of the pardon of his sin the clouds were blown over, and he was fit for service and forward to it. What he says denotes,
(1.) His readiness: “Here am I, a volunteer, not pressed into the service.” Behold me; so the word is. God says to us, Behold me (ch. 65:1), and, Here I am (ch. 58:9), even before we call; let us say so to him when he does call.
(2.) His resolution; “Here I am, ready to encounter the greatest difficulties. I have set my face as a flint.” Compare this with ch. 50:4-7.
(3.) His referring himself to God: “Send me whither thou wilt; make what use thou pleasest of me. Send me, that is, Lord, give me commission and full instruction; send me, and then, no doubt, thou wilt stand by me.” It is a great comfort to those whom God sends that they go for God, and may therefore speak in his name, as having authority, and be assured that he will bear them out.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Isaiah 6:1-4; Isaiah’s Heavenly Vision [Part 1]; A very awful vision which Isaiah saw of the glory of God, the terror it put him into; Hear the anthem, or song of praise, which the angels sing to honour of Him that sits on the throne; Two things the seraphim here give God the praise of— His infinite perfections in Himself; The manifestation of these to the children of men. B.C. 758
I S A I A H.
CHAPTER 6
Hitherto, it should seem, Isaiah had prophesied as a candidate, having only a virtual and tacit commission; but here we have him (if I may so speak) solemnly ordained and set apart to the prophetic office by a more express or explicit commission, as his work grew more upon his hands: or perhaps, having seen little success of his ministry, he began to think of giving it up; and therefore God saw fit to renew his commission here in this chapter, in such a manner as might excite and encourage his zeal and industry in the execution of it, though he seemed to labour in vain. In this chapter we have, I. A very awful vision which Isaiah saw of the glory of God (ver. 1-4), the terror it put him into (ver. 5), and the relief given him against that terror by an assurance of the pardon of his sins, ver. 6, 7. II. A very awful commission which Isaiah received to go as a prophet, in God’s name (ver. 8), by his preaching to harden the impenitent in sin and ripen them for ruin (ver. 9-12) yet with a reservation of mercy for a remnant, (ver. 13). And it was as to an evangelical prophet that these things were shown him and said to him.
| Isaiah’s Heavenly Vision.[Part 1] | B. C. 758. |
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Isaiah 6:1-4
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel, established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. 3:20), was intended,
1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied of the truth of those things which should afterwards be made known to him. This God opened the communications of himself to him; but such visions needed not to be afterwards repeated upon every revelation. Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham (Acts 7:2), and to Moses, Exod. 3:2. Ezekiel’s prophecies and St. John’s, begin with visions of the divine glory.
2. To work upon his affections, that he might be possessed with such a reverence of God as would both quicken him and fix him to his service. Those who are to teach others the knowledge of God ought to be well acquainted with him themselves.
The vision is dated, for the greater certainty of it. It was in the year that king Uzziah died, who had reigned, for the most part, as prosperously and well as any of the kings of Judah, and reigned very long, above fifty years. About the time that he died, Isaiah saw this vision of God upon a throne; for when the breath of princes goes forth, and they return to their earth, this is our comfort, that the Lord shall reign for ever, Ps. 146:3, 4, 10. Israel’s king dies, but Israel’s God still lives. From the mortality of great and good men we should take occasion to look up with an eye of faith to the King eternal, immortal. King Uzziah died under a cloud, for he was shut up as a leper till the day of his death. As the lives of princes have their periods, so their glory is often eclipsed; but, as God is everliving, so his glory is everlasting. King Uzziah dies in an hospital, but the King of kings still sits upon his throne.
What the prophet here saw is revealed to us, that we, mixing faith with that revelation, may in it, as in a glass, behold the glory of the Lord; let us turn aside therefore, and see this great sight with humble reverence.
I. See God upon his throne, and that throne high and lifted up, not only above other thrones, as it transcends them, but over other thrones, as it rules and commands them. Isaiah saw not Jehovah–the essence of God (no man has seen that, or can see it), but Adonai–his dominion. He saw the Lord Jesus; so this vision is explained John 12:41, that Isaiah now saw Christ’s glory and spoke of him, which is an incontestable proof of the divinity of our Saviour. He it is who when, after his resurrection, he sat down on the right hand of God, did but sit down where he was before, John 17:5. See the rest of the Eternal Mind: Isaiah saw the Lord sitting, Ps. 29:10. See the sovereignty of the Eternal Monarch: he sits upon a throne–a throne of glory, before which we must worship,–a throne of government, under which we must be subject,–and a throne of grace, to which we may come boldly. This throne is high, and lifted up above all competition and contradiction.
II. See his temple, his church on earth, filled with the manifestations of his glory. His throne being erected at the door of the temple (as princes sat in judgment at the gates), his train, the skirts of his robes, filled the temple, the whole world (for it is all God’s temple, and, as the heaven is his throne, so the earth is his footstool), or rather the church, which is filled enriched, and beautified with the tokens of God’s special presence.
III. See the bright and blessed attendants on his throne, in and by whom his glory is celebrated and his government served (v. 2): Above the throne, as it were hovering about it, or nigh to the throne, bowing before it, with an eye to it, the seraphim stood, the holy angels, who are called seraphim-burners; for he makes his ministers a flaming fire, Ps. 104:4. They burn in love to God, and zeal for his glory and against sin, and he makes use of them as instruments of his wrath when he is a consuming fire to his enemies. Whether they were only two or four, or (as I rather think) an innumerable company of angels, that Isaiah saw, is uncertain; see Dan. 7:10. Note, It is the glory of the angels that they are seraphim, have heat proportionable to their light, have abundance, not only of divine knowledge, but of holy love. Special notice is taken of their wings (and of no other part of their appearance), because of the use they made of them, which is designed for instruction to us. They had each of them six wings, not stretched upwards (as those whom Ezekiel saw, ch. 1:11), but,
1. Four were made use of for a covering, as the wings of a fowl, sitting, are; with the two upper wings, next to the head, they covered their faces, and with the two lowest wings they covered their feet, or lower parts. This bespeaks their great humility and reverence in their attendance upon God, for he is greatly feared in the assembly of those saints, Ps. 89:7. They not only cover their feet, those members of the body which are less honourable (1 Cor. 12:23), but even their faces. Though angel’s faces, doubtless, are much fairer than those of the children of men (Acts 6:15), yet in the presence of God, they cover them, because they cannot bear the dazzling lustre of the divine glory, and because, being conscious of an infinite distance from the divine perfection, they are ashamed to show their faces before the holy God, who charges even his angels with folly if they should offer to vie with him, Job 4:18. If angels be thus reverent in their attendance on God, with what godly fear should we approach his throne! Else we do not the will of God as the angels do it. Yet Moses, when he went into the mount with God, took the veil from off his face. See 2 Cor. 3:18.
2. Two were made use of for flight; when they are sent on God’s errands they fly swiftly (Dan. 9:21), more swiftly with their own wings than if they flew on the wings of the wind. This teaches us to do the work of God with cheerfulness and expedition. Do angels come upon the wing from heaven to earth, to minister for our good, and shall not we soar upon the wing from earth to heaven, to share with them in their glory? Luke 20:36.
IV. Hear the anthem, or song of praise, which the angels sing to the honour of him that sits on the throne, v. 3. Observe,
1. How this song was sung. With zeal and fervency–they cried aloud; and with unanimity–they cried to another, or one with another; they sang alternately, but in concert, and without the least jarring voice to interrupt the harmony.
2. What the song was; it is the same with that which is sung by the four living creatures, Rev. 4:8. Note, Praising God always was, and will be to eternity, the work of heaven, and the constant employment of blessed spirits above, Ps. 84:4. Note further, The church above is the same in its praises; there is no change of times or notes there. Two things the seraphim here give God the praise of:–
(1.) His infinite perfections in himself. Here is one of his most glorious titles praised: he is the Lord of hosts, of their hosts, of all hosts; and one of his most glorious attributes, his holiness, without which his being the Lord of hosts (or, as it is in the parallel place, Rev. 4:8, the Lord God Almighty) could not be so much as it is the matter of our joy and praise; for power, without purity to guide it, would be a terror to mankind. None of all the divine attributes is so celebrated in scripture as this is. God’s power was spoken twice (Ps. 62:11), but his holiness thrice, Holy, holy, holy. This bespeaks,
[1.] The zeal and fervency of the angels in praising God; they even want words to express themselves, and therefore repeat the same again.
[2.] The particular pleasure they take in contemplating the holiness of God; this is a subject they love to dwell upon, to harp upon, and are loth to leave.
[3.] The superlative excellency of God’s holiness, above that of the purest creatures. He is holy, thrice holy, infinitely holy, originally, perfectly, and eternally so.
[4.] It may refer to the three person in the Godhead, Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Spirit (for it follows, v. 8, Who will go for us?) or perhaps to that which was, and is, and is to come; for that title of God’s honour is added to this song, Rev. 4:8. Some make the angels here to applaud the equity of that sentence which God was now about to pronounce upon the Jewish nation. Herein he was, and is, and will be, holy; his ways are equal.
(2.) The manifestation of these to the children of men: The earth is full of his glory, the glory of his power and purity; for he is holy in all his works, Ps. 145:17. The Jews thought the glory of God should be confined to their land; but it is here intimated that in the gospel times (which are pointed to in this chapter) the glory of God should fill all the earth, the glory of his holiness, which is indeed the glory of all his other attributes; this then filled the temple (v. 1), but, in the latter days, the earth shall be full of it.
V. Observe the marks and tokens of terror with which the temple was filled, upon this vision of the divine glory, v. 4.
1. The house was shaken; not only the door, but even the posts of the door, which were firmly fixed, moved at the voice of him that cried, at the voice of God, who called to judgment (Ps. 50:4), at the voice of the angel, who praised him. There are voices in heaven sufficient to drown all the noises of the many waters in this lower world, Ps. 93:3, 4. This violent concussion of the temple was an indication of God’s wrath and displeasure against the people for their sins; it was an earnest of the destruction of it and the city by the Babylonians first, and afterwards by the Romans; and it was designed to strike an awe upon us. Shall walls and posts tremble before God, and shall we not tremble?
2. The house was darkened; it was filled with smoke, which was as a cloud spread upon the face of his throne (Job 26:9); we cannot take a full view of it, nor order our speech concerning it, by reason of darkness. In the temple above there will be no smoke, but everything will be seen clearly. There God dwells in light; here he makes darkness his pavilion, 2 Chron. 6:1.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
But thou hast not called upon Me
Isaiah 43:22
But thou hast not called upon Me, O Jacob; but thou hast been weary of Me, O Israel.
Nothing is a surer gauge of our spiritual state than our prayers.
There may be a weariness of the brain which is the reaction of overstrain, and against which it is not wise to struggle.
When mind and heart are so overpowered by the fatigues of the body that an inevitable drowsiness closes the eye and restrains the flow of thought, it is better to say, with the great Bengel, as we yield ourselves to sleep, “O Lord we are on the same terms as yesterday.”
But this is very different from the perfunctory and hurried devotions which arise from the preoccupation of the mind in things of time and sense, or the alienation of the heart from God by sin.
If this lethargy is stealing over thee, beware! – F.B. Meyer.
Yes – beware! For when our devotions become hurried and perfunctory they soon become irksome.
Yes – beware! For prayerlessness means powerlessness, fruitlessness, worldliness, sinfulness, darkness, death!
- Daily Meditations for Prayer.
Psalm 6 [Amplified Bible]
Psalm 6 (Amplified Bible)
Psalm 6
To the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments, set [possibly] an octave below. A Psalm of David.
1O LORD, rebuke me not in Your anger nor discipline and chasten me in Your hot displeasure.
2Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am weak (faint and withered away); O Lord, heal me, for my bones are troubled.
3My [inner] self [as well as my body] is also exceedingly disturbed and troubled. But You, O Lord, how long [until You return and speak peace to me]?
4Return [to my relief], O Lord, deliver my life; save me for the sake of Your steadfast love and mercy.
5For in death there is no remembrance of You; in Sheol (the place of the dead) who will give You thanks?
6I am weary with my groaning; all night I soak my pillow with tears, I drench my couch with my weeping.
7My eye grows dim because of grief; it grows old because of all my enemies.
8Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.(A)
9The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord receives my prayer.
10Let all my enemies be ashamed and sorely troubled; let them turn back and be put to shame suddenly.
God knows our possibilities
Exodus 3:11
And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
Judges 6:15
Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
Jeremiah 1:6-7
I cannot speak: for I am a child. But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child.
Do we not come to feel how almost absolutely worthless are men’s descriptions of their own impossibilities.
I used to be imposed on by such statements. When a man said any of these things about himself, it seemed as if it might be true, as if here might be a man in whom this one capacity of manhood had been left out.
But so constantly the flowers have broken out of such unlikely soils, so often the darkest heavens have burst forth in unexpected stars, that it has come to seem as if no man’s assertion of his own deficiency were trustworthy.
“God knew things of him that he did not of himself,” we say when some new life opens upon a man who thought he had exhausted his capacity of living.
Let us expect surprise out of the bosom of a life which God made, and which you whom He has set to live in it only half realize – as a tenant who came but yesterday into a palace only half knows the mystery and richness of the great house where he has been sent to live. – Phillips Brooks.
Great occasions do not make heroes of cowards; they simply unveil them to the eyes of men.
Silent and imperceptible, as we wake or sleep, we grow strong or grow weak, and at last some crisis shows us what we have become. – Canon Westcott.
- The Christian’s Daily Challenge: E.F. & L. Harvey
