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Commentary on Isaiah 57 verses 13–16
Here, I. God shows how insufficient idols and creatures were to relieve and succour those that worshipped them and confided in them (Isa 57:13): "When thou criest in thy distress and anguish, lamentest thy misery and callest for help, let thy companies deliver thee, thy idol-gods which thou hast heaped to thyself companies of, the troops of the confederate forces which thou hast relied so much upon, let them deliver thee if they can; expect no other relief than what they can give." Thus God said to Israel, when in their trouble they called upon him (Jdg 10:14), Go, and cry to the gods which you have chosen, let them deliver you. But in vain is salvation hoped for from them: The wind shall carry them all away, the wind of God's wrath, that breath of his mouth which shall slay the wicked; they have made themselves as chaff, and therefore the wind will of course hurry them away. Vanity they are, and vanity shall take them away, to vanity they shall be reduced, and vanity shall be their recompence. Both the idols and their worshippers shall come to nothing.
II. He shows that there was a sufficiency, an all-sufficiency, in him for the comfort and deliverance of all those that put their confidence in him and made their application to him. Their safety and satisfaction appear the more comfortable because their hopes are crowned with fruition, when those that seek to other helpers have their hopes frustrated: "He that puts his trust in me, and in me only, he shall be happy, both for soul and body, for this world and the other."
1.Observe, in general, (1.) Those that trust in God's providence take the best course to secure their secular interests. They shall possess the land, as much of it as is good for them, and what they have they shall have it from a good hand and hold it by a good title. Psa 37:3, They shall dwell in the land, and verily they shall be fed. (2.) Those that trust in God's grace take the best course to secure their sacred interests. They shall inherit my holy mountain. They shall enjoy the privileges of the church on earth, and be brought at length to the joys of heaven; and no wind shall carry them away.
2.More particularly,
(1.)The captives, that trust in God, shall be released (Isa 57:14): They shall say (that is, the messengers of his providence, in that great event shall say), Cast you up, cast you up, prepare the way. When God's time shall have come for their deliverance the way of bringing it about shall be made plain and easy, obstacles shall be removed, difficulties that seemed insuperable shall be speedily got over, and all things shall concur both to accelerate and facilitate their return. See Isa 40:3, Isa 40:4. This refers to the provision which the gospel, and the grace of it, have made for our ready passage through this world to a better. The way of religion is now cast up; it is a highway; ministers' business is to direct people in it, and to help them over the discouragements they meet with, that nothing may offend them.
(2.)The contrite, that trust in God, shall be revived, Isa 57:15. Those that trusted to idols and creatures for help went with their ointments and perfumes (Isa 57:9); but here God shows that those who may expect help from him are such as are destitute of, and set themselves at a distance from, the gaieties of the world and the delights of sense. God's glory appears here very bright, [1.] In his greatness and majesty: He is the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity. Let this inspire us with very high and honourable thoughts of the God with whom we have to do, First, That his being and perfections are exalted infinitely above every creature, not only above what they have themselves, but above what they can conceive concerning him, far above all their blessing and praise, Neh 9:5. He is the high and lofty One, and there is no creature like him, nor any to be compared with him. The language likewise intimates his sovereign dominion over all and the incontestable right he has to give both law and judgment to all. He is higher than the highest (Ecc 5:8), than the highest heavens, Psa 113:4. Secondly, That with him there is neither beginning of days nor end of life, nor change of time; he is both immortal and immutable. He only has immortality, Ti1 6:16. He has it of himself, and he has it constantly; he inhabits it, and cannot be dispossessed of it. We must shortly remove into eternity, but God always inhabits it. Thirdly, That there is an infinite rectitude in his nature, and an exact conformity with himself and a steady design of his own glory in all that he does; and this appears in every thing by which he has made himself known, for his name is holy, and all that desire to be acquainted with him must know him as a holy God. Fourthly, That the peculiar residence and manifestation of his glory are in the mansions of light and bliss above: "I dwell in the high and holy place, and will have all the world to know it." Whoever have any business with God must direct to him as their Father in heaven, for there he dwells. These great things are here said of God to inspire us with a holy reverence of him, to encourage our confidence in him, and to magnify his compassion and condescension to us, that though he is thus high yet he has respect unto the lowly; he that rides on the heavens by his name JAH stoops to concern himself for poor widows and fatherless, Psa 68:4, Psa 68:5. [2.] In his grace and mercy. He has a tender pity for the humble and contrite, for those that are so in respect of their state. If they be his people, he will not overlook them though they are poor and low in the world, and despised and trampled upon by men; but he here refers to the temper of their mind; he will have a tender regard to those who, being in affliction, accommodate themselves to their affliction, and bring their mind to their condition, be it ever so low and ever so sad and sorely broken - those that are truly penitent for sin, who mourn in secret for it, and have a dread of the wrath of God, which they have made themselves obnoxious to, and are submissive under all his rebukes. Now, First, With these God will dwell. He will visit them graciously, will converse familiarly with them by his word and Spirit, as a man does with those of his own family; he will be always nigh to them and present with them. He that dwells in the highest heavens dwells in the lowest hearts and inhabits sincerity as surely as he inhabits eternity. In these he delights. Secondly, He will revive their heart and spirit, will speak that to them, and work that in them by the word and Spirit of his grace, which will be reviving to them, as a cordial to one that is ready to faint. He will give them reviving joys and hopes sufficient to counterbalance all the griefs and fears that break their spirits. He dwells with them, and his presence is reviving.
(3.)Those with whom he contends, if they trust in him, shall be relieved, and received into favour, Isa 57:16. He will revive the heart of the contrite ones, for he will not contend for ever. Nothing makes a soul contrite so much as God's contending, and therefore nothing revives it so much as his ceasing his controversy. Here is, [1.] A gracious promise. It is not promised that he will never be angry with his people, for their sins are displeasing to him, or that he will never contend with them, for they must expect the rod; but he will not contend for ever, nor be always wroth. As he is not soon angry, so he is not long angry. He will not always chide. Though he contend with them by convictions of sin, he will not contend for ever; but, instead of the spirit of bondage, they shall receive the Spirit of adoption. He has torn, but he will heal. Though eh contend with them by the rebukes of providence, yet the correction shall not last always, shall not last long, shall last no longer than there is need (Pe1 1:6), no longer than they can bear, no longer than till it has done its work. Though their whole life be calamitous, yet their end will be peace, and so will their eternity be. [2.] A very compassionate consideration, upon which this promise is grounded: "If I should contend for ever, the spirit would fail before me, ever the souls which I have made." Note, First, God is the Father of spirits, Heb 12:9. Those with whom he will not always contend are the souls that he has made, that he gave being to by creation and a new being to by regeneration. Secondly, Though the Lord is for the body, yet he concerns himself chiefly for the souls of his people, that the spirit do not fail, and its graces and comforts. Thirdly, When troubles last long, the spirit even of good men is apt to fail. They are tempted to entertain hard thoughts of God, to think it in vain to serve him; they are ready to put comfort away from them, and to despair of relief, and then the spirit fails. Fourthly, It is in consideration of this that God will not contend for ever; for he will not forsake the work of his own hands nor defeat the purchase of his Son's blood. The reason is taken not from our merit, but from our weakness and infirmity; for he remembers that we are flesh (Psa 78:39) and that flesh is weak.
(Verse 13, 14.) And the wind will carry them away: the breeze will lift them. But those who have confidence in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain. And I will say, Make a way, offer a path, turn aside from the path, remove stumbling blocks from my people's way. LXX: For the wind will carry away all of them, and the tempest will take them away. But those who hope in me will possess the land and inherit my holy mountain, and they will say: Make his ways clean and remove stumbling blocks from my people's way. The Jews of Babylon assert that these things are prophesied: that, by the power of God, after overcoming their enemies, the people will return to Judah and possess Mount Zion, and all obstacles of the journey will be removed, and they will not suffer any ambush from any nation, because the Lord will make a straight path for His people. And they claim that these things were fulfilled under Zerubbabel and Ezra. But we, joining what has been said before, assert that the wind and storm will remove all the idols that could not save them, and they will be like dust that the wind blows away from the face of the earth. But those who have trust in the Lord will possess the land which we will read about in this same Prophet: He will exalt you to the good things of the land. From which it is clear that this land is not below, but above. To which the holy one, lifted up by the Lord, will ascend, of which we have often said: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land (Matthew 5:4); and I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13). But the holy mountain of God, that is to be understood, is the one about which he speaks to the Hebrews, who wrote the Letter: You have come to Mount Zion and to the heavenly city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the countless angels and the assembly of the firstborn who are written in heaven (Hebrews 12:22). We can understand the land and mountain of the Lord, which the saints will possess, and the holy Scriptures, which were to be carried from the Jews, the Lord threatens, saying: The kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits (Matt. XXI, 43); so that they may find in them that same mountain, of which we read in this same Prophet (Isaiah II), and in Micah: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord will be made manifest (Micah IV, 5). And the Lord himself commanded the Apostles and all the teachers of the Church to dissolve with their interpretation whatever seemed harsh and difficult, and to provide the way of understanding, and to remove all scandals from among them so that the people of the Lord may understand what they read without any impediment, and may progress in the fear of God. Concerning these ways, John the Baptist said: Prepare the way of the Lord, etc. (Matthew 3:3). Where we have taken the place of God, and I will say, the 70 translators have put and will say: namely those who will possess the land, and inherit the holy mountain of God. They will not be content with their own salvation, but they will also challenge others to teach the people. Symmachus interpreted this passage as follows: But whoever trusts in me will possess the land and will inherit my holy mountain, and will say: Make the way straight and the rest. Because he, who possesses the land and the mountain himself, should instruct others, so that they may obey the way of the Lord.
This, as I have said, is obscure: “shall possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain.” After all, if we take it literally and materialistically, we won’t be cleansing ourselves from every defilement of flesh and spirit; and God will have procured for us to no purpose the conjunction of the end of the reading from the prophet with the beginning of the reading from the apostle, if to possess some earthly mountain we start getting ourselves ready for avarice, not for godliness. Well, but what should we understand by the mountain? It is obscure what [Isaiah] meant by “mountain.”Yes, but if God had really let us down, he would nowhere say what mountain means. Where he does tell us openly, that is where you must love the mountain. Where he openly recommends a mountain to you, and Scripture opens itself up to say what mountain means, that is where you must love it. Yes, wherever you hear such a mountain promised you, set your sights on it.… What sort of mountain really has been promised us?…
The church itself is the mountain … we are going to rise again, and we shall be the holy mountain of God. On this mountain dwells whoever has given himself to God. “But those who have given themselves to me shall possess the land and inhabit my holy mountain.”
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SUMMARY
Isaiah 57:13 presents a profound prophetic contrast, unequivocally exposing the utter futility of seeking deliverance from idols, human alliances, or any earthly "companies" that promise false security. It powerfully asserts that such dependencies are fleeting and ultimately worthless, destined to be swept away like dust by the wind. In stark opposition, the verse proclaims God's unwavering promise of enduring blessing, true possession, and spiritual inheritance for those who abandon all other trusts and place their complete reliance and faith in Him alone.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Isaiah 57:13 masterfully employs several potent Literary Devices to convey its urgent and profound message. The most prominent is Antithesis, which creates a sharp and dramatic contrast between two opposing ideas: the utter futility and destruction awaiting those who rely on "companies" (representing idols or human alliances) versus the blessed security and enduring inheritance promised to those who trust solely in God. This contrast is powerfully amplified by the use of Irony in the opening phrase, "When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee," which sarcastically highlights the inherent inability of these false supports to provide any genuine deliverance. The vivid phrase "the wind shall carry them all away" functions as a compelling Metaphor and a form of Hyperbole, illustrating the complete, effortless, and swift destruction or disappearance of these unreliable dependencies, likening them to something as insubstantial as dust or chaff. Furthermore, the use of "vanity" (hebel) as an active agent that "shall take them" is a clear instance of Personification, imbuing an abstract concept with destructive power, thereby further emphasizing the emptiness and ultimate demise associated with idolatry. Finally, the deliberate and repeated use of verbs of possession and inheritance ("possess," "inherit") for those who trust in God, juxtaposed with the "carrying away" and "taking" by vanity for the idolaters, creates a strong Parallelism of consequence, reinforcing the central theological message of divine justice and faithfulness.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Isaiah 57:13 stands as a foundational text on the nature of divine trust and the severe consequences of idolatry, resonating deeply with the consistent biblical theme that God alone is worthy of absolute reliance and worship. It powerfully underscores that any object of trust outside of God—whether human power, material wealth, political alliances, or false deities—is ultimately "vanity" (hebel), fleeting, insubstantial, and utterly incapable of delivering true security or lasting blessing. The promise of possessing the land and inheriting God's holy mountain speaks to the unwavering covenantal faithfulness of God, who rewards unwavering devotion with genuine, enduring inheritance, encompassing both physical and profound spiritual realities. This timeless truth challenges humanity's perennial temptation to seek refuge and fulfillment in created things rather than in the Creator Himself, reminding us that true life, authentic security, and ultimate peace are found exclusively in Him.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Isaiah 57:13 offers a profound challenge and a deep comfort for contemporary believers navigating a world saturated with competing claims for our allegiance and trust. This verse compels us to honestly and introspectively examine where our ultimate security and hope truly lie. Do we, perhaps subtly, place our hope in financial stability, career success, political leaders, social influence, or even our own abilities, believing these "companies" will deliver us from life's anxieties, uncertainties, and challenges? Or do we, with unwavering conviction and a surrendered heart, place our trust solely in the sovereign, faithful God who promises an enduring inheritance that transcends all earthly limitations? The "wind" of life's inevitable uncertainties, trials, and the inherent "vanity" of earthly pursuits will inevitably expose the hollowness and inadequacy of anything less than divine trust. This passage calls us to a radical reorientation of our hearts, to abandon all forms of functional idolatry—anything that takes God's rightful place as our ultimate source of security and significance—and instead, to find our true refuge, profound peace, and lasting inheritance in Him alone. It serves as a powerful reminder that genuine security is not found in what we accumulate or who we align with, but in the steadfast, unchanging character of the One who never fails.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What are the "companies" mentioned in Isaiah 57:13?
Answer: The "companies" (Hebrew: qibbûwts) refer to the various entities or alliances upon which the people of Israel were wrongly relying instead of God. Historically and culturally, as depicted throughout Isaiah 57, this could encompass foreign political alliances they sought for protection (e.g., with powerful empires like Egypt or Assyria), the numerous idols and false gods they worshipped, or even the pagan cultic groups and practices they engaged in. The prophet uses this term to encapsulate all the human-made or false spiritual supports that were ultimately powerless, transient, and fleeting, contrasting them sharply with the singular, steadfast, and all-sufficient power of Yahweh.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Isaiah 57:13, while deeply rooted in the Old Covenant context of Israel's pervasive idolatry and the promise of land inheritance, finds its ultimate and most profound fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The "holy mountain" and the "land" promised to those who trust in God are not merely physical territories but powerfully foreshadow the spiritual reality of God's eternal kingdom and His intimate presence. Jesus, as the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, is the one in whom all who "putteth his trust" find ultimate deliverance from the "vanity" of sin, death, and all earthly futility. He is the Substance of all the Old Testament shadows, including the security and enduring inheritance that the land symbolized. Through His atoning work and victorious resurrection, believers are granted not just a temporal land but an eternal inheritance, a "kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews 12:28). The futility of relying on anything other than Christ is powerfully echoed throughout the New Testament, which consistently calls believers to place their complete and exclusive faith in Him alone for salvation and abundant life (Acts 4:12). Thus, the "holy mountain" becomes the heavenly Jerusalem, the new creation, where believers dwell eternally in God's glorious presence, an inheritance secured by Christ's resurrection and guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit, who serves as the "deposit guaranteeing our inheritance" (Ephesians 1:13-14). In Christ, the promise of possessing the land and inheriting the holy mountain is transformed into the spiritual reality of co-heirship with Him, granting access to "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms" (Ephesians 1:3).