The Conviction of the Song (Part 4)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 26:11

¹¹Lord, when Your hand is lifted up, they will not see. But they will see and be ashamed For their envy of people; Yes, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them.

Isaiah 26:11

LORD, when Your hand is lifted up - This is an explanation of the sentiment expressed in the former verse. The lifting up of the hand here refers, no doubt, to the manifestations of the majesty and goodness of the Lord.

They will not see - They are blind to all the exhibitions of power, mercy, and goodness. God lifts up his hand to give them warning, that they may, by repentance and prayer, make their peace with him; but they take no notice of it, are not aware that God is angry with them, or coming forth against them: They will not see, and none so blind as those who will not see, who shut their eyes against the clearest conviction of guilt and wrath, who ascribe that to chance, or common fate, which is manifestly a divine rebuke, who regard not the threatening symptoms of their own ruin, but cry Peace to themselves, when the righteous God is waging war with them.

But they will see - They shall yet be brought to recognize thy hand. They shall see thy favor toward thy children, and thy judgment on thy foes. The divine dealings will be such that they shall be constrained to recognize him, and to acknowledge his existence and perfections.

And be ashamed - Be confounded because they did not sooner recognize the divine goodness. How God will at length be too hard for them; for, when he judges, he will overcome: They will not see, but they shall see, shall be made to see, whether they will or no, that God is angry with them. Atheists, scorners, and the secure, will shortly feel what now they will not believe, that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. They will not see the evil of sin, and particularly the sin of hating and persecuting the people of God; but they shall see, by the tokens of God’s displeasure against them for it and the deliverances in which God will plead his people’s cause, that what is done against them he takes as done against himself and will reckon for it accordingly. They shall see that they have done God’s people a great deal of wrong, and therefore shall be ashamed of their enmity and envy towards them, and their ill usage of such as deserved better treatment. Note, Those that bear ill-will to God’s people have reason to be ashamed of it, so absurd and unreasonable is it; and, sooner or later, they shall be ashamed of it, and the remembrance of it shall fill them with confusion.

For their envy of people - The word ‘their’ is not in the Hebrew, and the sense is, that they shall see the zeal of YAHWEH in behalf of his people, and shall be ashamed that they did not sooner recognize his hand. The word rendered ‘envy’ may indeed mean envy (Eccl. 4:4; 9:6), but it more properly and frequently means zeal, ardor, (2 Kings 10:16; Isa. 9:6). Thus we might read it, They shall see and be confounded for the zeal of the people, by the zeal God will show for his people; when they shall be made to know how jealous God is for the honor and welfare of his people they shall be confounded to think that they might have been of that people and would not.

Yea, the fire of Your enemies shall devour them - Or rather, ‘Yea, the fire in regard to thy enemies shall devour them.’ The sense is, that when his people were delivered, his foes would be destroyed; his zeal for his people would also be connected with indignation against his foes. The deliverance of his people from Babylon, and the commencement of the downfall of that city, was simultaneous, and the cause was the same. Their doom therefore is that, since they slighted the happiness of God’s friends, the fire of his enemies shall devour them, that is, the fire which is prepared for his enemies and with which they shall be devoured, the fire designed for the devil and his angels. Note, Those that are enemies to God’s people, and envy them, God looks upon as his enemies, and will deal with them accordingly.