Untitled Sermon (16)
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This seems to be the only OT reference to asses as beasts of burden, rather than as riding animals (
It is not to the beasts as such that the prophet directs attention but to the beasts as they trudge through a land of sorrow and distress. This land is not Egypt nor is it Judah, but the wasted desert that lies between them
7 This verse corresponds to verse 5 as verse 6 corresponded to verse 4. It sets forth the reason why Egypt is a land that will not profit
9 Had Israel been an obedient people there probably would have been no need to preserve the prophetic message in writing, for then the mere word of the prophet would have been sufficient.22 But Israel was not obedient, and for that reason the message must be preserved that the justice of God’s judgment and the truthfulness of His words may be known by posterity, and that the Israelites themselves may have a constant reminder before their own eyes. Using language which he had employed in the first chapter (cf. 1:4, people, sons) Isaiah identifies the nation as a people, but of rebellion. It is a nation of sons, to be sure, but of sons who are lying.23 There is question as to the precise significance of the epithet. Some think that the emphasis falls upon a habitual denying of God the Father; others that it is found in a deceiving of the hopes and expectations of the One who had been so gracious. Perhaps one cannot decide positively between these two views, although the context points to a relation between children and the One who has blessed them. They are children who disappoint this One.
