Isaiah 8:16 ¶
Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. 17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth
his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath
given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts,
which dwelleth in mount Zion. 19 And
when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and
unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their
God? for the living to the dead? 20 To
the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it
is because there is no light in them. 21 And they shall pass through it, hardly
bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry,
they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.
22 And they shall look unto the earth;
and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be
driven to darkness.
God tells Isaiah to bind up, to take
care of, the testimony, the prophecy, he has been given. Notice how in
the previous passage broken in pieces is repeated three times to
underscore the determination of God to see it happen. See how Jesus repeated verily
to underscore the truth of a doctrine.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
It is to be sealed, made apparent to the
people of God but not understandable to unbelievers as we examine this passage
from a Christian perspective rather than a first millennium BC Israelite
perspective. Jesus spoke in parables which He explained to His disciples but
left others clueless, those who had no understanding or wish to know the truth.
Matthew 13:10
And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them
in parables?...13 Therefore speak I to
them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand.
Mark 4:11
And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the
kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in
parables: 12 That seeing they may see,
and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any
time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
The people of God, whether they were
Israelites in the Old Testament or Christians after Christ have a tremendous
blessing in being entrusted with the oracles of God and we must be faithful to
them, not like some of whom we were forewarned by Paul.
2Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the
word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we
in Christ.
For verse 17 John Gill interpreted this as
not only patiently waiting for the Lord God’s will to be done but actually
awaiting the Messiah to come, the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah says that God has
turned His back on Israel but Isaiah will seek Him out anyway. Christ will come
to present Himself to Israel.
Isaiah 45:15
Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
2Timothy 1:10
But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ,
who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel:
The promises made by God to Israel are to be
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ and God, at that time, gives Israel and the
entire world of men the opportunity to reconcile with Him.
See verse 18. Are not these the words of
Christ Himself as reported by Paul?
Hebrews 2:10 ¶ For it became him, for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For
both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, 12 Saying, I will declare thy name unto my
brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. 13 And again, I will put my trust in him. And
again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.
See how this can be viewed forward in
prophecy as Isaiah laments the then condition of Israel but the Holy Spirit
makes it clear that this can be applied to Christ.
Christ, as Immanuel, God with us, has
spiritual offspring that declare God’s glory and mercy through Him. They are,
we are, signs and wonders given by God. See in the Psalm Jesus quoted the first
verse of from the Cross.
Psalm 22:30
A seed shall serve him; it shall be accounted to the Lord for a
generation.
Galatians 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus.
But, essentially, in context Isaiah declares
that he and his children are declarations from God for the proof of His
promise. They are signs and wonders.
12 Say
ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A
confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.
So, while this has an immediate application,
commentators have moved it forward and applied it to Christ.
Why do the people seek after these wizards
who make unintelligible noises (perhaps like charismatic “tongues” of today”)
who pretend to communicate with the dead and not after the living God? Familiar
spirits is an interesting topic. This calling of the dead that God hates
has a root in mankind’s developed religion and turn from God before the Flood
of Noah. This began with Cain, Adam and Eve’s son.
Cain’s wife, who would have been
his sister as genetically humanity had just begun its slow deterioration that
lent deleterious mutations to every generation and made sexual union between
brother and sister very dangerous today for their offspring, gave him a son
named Enoch, whose name was given to the first city.
Here is the birthplace of ancient
religion as the ancient city was a religious entity, a type of church, started all
at once with invited families who would share in the same worship and the same
gods, although the individual family would have its own singular worship and
gods which represented their lars familiaris or familiar spirits (see Leviticus
20:27), the guiding divinities of ancestors dead.[1] It is likely that Cain’s false religion was
carried on and evolved through his city.
For the sentiment expressed in verse 20 see
this;
John 11:10
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light
in him.
Jesus is the light of mankind, the light of
salvation, the light that fills the universe.
John 1:1 ¶
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. 2 The same was in the beginning
with God. 3 All things were made by him;
and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the life was the light
of men.
5 ¶
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose
name was John. 7 The same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to
bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the
true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
By
comparison, in type, we can think of Christ as we think of physical light,
whose basic particle the physicists presume is a photon. The universe is bathed in that
light. For every estimated proton around the nucleus of an atom they say there
are a billion photons.[2] Of course, photons might
not even exist except as theoretical entities to explain things that can be
seen by mathematical constructs.
Psalm 19:1 « To the chief Musician, A Psalm of
David. » The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth
his handywork.
We can safely dismiss theoretical
entities, as said previously, which exist only as having explanatory power to
envision a universe without God, and understand that this is the Word of God
working in our universe. And, He holds it together, not non-existent Dark
Matter or Dark Energy, but God Himself, as the Word, Christ.
Colossians 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all
things consist.
Evidence of God is everywhere so they have no
excuse and those who reject Christ and His gospel have no light in them. They
are willfully ignorant and blind. Christ is the Word of God, by whom all things
were created and His gospel is our salvation and if humans do not walk in the
light of His Word and His words there is no light in them.
The context here, though, is the Law given to
Moses, the Law that bound a disobedient Israel to God, the Creator of all
things.
Disobedient Judah and Israel will pass
through a time of great trouble. This prophesies immediate trouble for the
people of Israel and Judah and the long term consequences for the Jews in
general. Commentators say they will be hungry not only for food but for God’s
word, and they shall be anxious and worried and disquieted and will defy God
and then, by extension, their Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking toward
heaven they will seek another Messiah but there is no other, not in any
personage or the false prophet that will come from the desert centuries after
Christ. Rejecting their Messiah they will have trouble and anguish for two
thousands years.
Matthew 27:24
When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult
was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I
am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. 25 Then answered all the people, and said, His
blood be on us, and on our children.
John 19:15
But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate
saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have
no king but Caesar.
[1] Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges, The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion,
Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome (1864, repr. Mineola, NY: Dover
Publications, 2006), 134.
[2] Lee Smolin, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, and Fall of a
Science, and What Comes Next (New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006), 75.
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