Isaiah 59:9 - Meaning and Application

The point of this paragraph is the same as the last one. Sin is the great troublemaker. It keeps good things from us, and it also brings bad things on us. Here, though, it sounds like the people are speaking to God. They are admitting what the prophet had already told them, and they are bowing to the justice of God’s actions against them.

Their hearts are still hard in some ways, but they are humbled enough to confess that God had acted fairly. He had turned against them because they had turned against him. Their condition was miserable, and they could see that the Lord had dealt with them justly.

First, they admit that they were under pressure from enemies and had no relief. They were trampled down, treated unfairly, and ruled harshly. Yet God did not come forward to defend their rightful cause. They say, “Justice is far from us,” because even if they were being wronged by their persecutors, they were still not delivered. They had not done justice to one another, and so God allowed their enemies to deal unjustly with them.

Their hopes had also failed them, which made their misery worse. They had waited for light the way people wait for morning, but all they saw was darkness. They looked for judgment and rescue, but neither God nor man seemed to come to help. They had prayed and fasted, and they had expected God’s salvation, but it still seemed far away.

They were also helpless and confused. They groped along like blind people, unable to see any clear way to relief. If people shut their eyes against God’s truth, it is fair for God to hide from them the things that would lead to peace. Those who refuse to see their duty will not see what is good for them. When God gives people over to a judgment of blindness, they become deeply foolish, stumbling in broad daylight as if it were night.

They had fallen into despair, and their grief showed on every face. They became gloomy, avoided company, and wanted to be alone. They say they were like dead men in desolate places, helpless and cut off. Some of their sorrow came out in loud cries, like bears roaring. Other grief was quiet and deep, like mourning doves. They were grieving both over their sins and over the disasters those sins had brought.

Second, they admit that they had brought this trouble on themselves. God had done right, because they had done wrong. Their sins were still with them. The guilt was still on them, the power of sin was still at work among them, and they had not turned from it. In fact, their sins had grown worse and more numerous. They could not look anywhere without seeing them. Their wrongdoing was plain before God, and they knew it themselves. They could not excuse it or hide it.

They also confess how evil sin is. Their sin was not just breaking God’s law, it was lying against the Lord. For people who claim to belong to God, sin is even worse, because it falsely reflects on him. It makes him seem harsh or unfair, as if he had not dealt rightly with them. It is also breaking covenant with him, which means failing to keep the sacred promises made to him. In that way, it is turning away from the God to whom they were bound as their own God.

There had also been a general collapse of honesty among the people. This was no surprise, because those who were unfaithful to God would also be unfaithful to one another. They spoke oppression openly, as if they stood for it, even though it was a rebellion against God and against the truth. They thought up lies and then spoke them. Many people may have bad thoughts and stop there, but these sinners were bold enough to give their evil thoughts approval and publish them. To think evil is bad, but to speak it is worse. Some lies are spoken in a hurry, without thought, but these were carefully planned and deliberately spoken.

They spoke words of falsehood, yet these words are said to come from the heart. That is because, while the words did not match their real thoughts, they did match the malice and evil in their hearts. In that sense, they were the natural voice of a divided heart, as in Psalm 12:2. Even those who, by God’s grace, kept themselves from these terrible sins still joined in the confession of sin, because they belonged to a nation that was generally corrupted.

They also admitted that what should have been done to correct the land was not done, as in Isaiah 59:14. Judgment should have moved forward, like a river or a strong stream that overpowers resistance. Instead, it was turned back. Justice should have stopped fraud and violence, but it was pushed aside, so evil people kept going confidently.

Justice stood far away, even from the courts, which were so full of supporters of oppression that fairness could not get in. Equity could not enter those unrighteous laws they were making, as in Isaiah 10:1. Truth had fallen in the street and was left there to be trampled by the proud. No one would help her up. Truth also failed in ordinary conversation and in dealings between people, so no one knew whom to trust.

They admitted there was open hatred against good people. Those who did wrong went unpunished, but those who turned away from evil were treated like prey by those same violent people described earlier. Among such people, it was enough to make a man an enemy that he would not join them in their sin. A person who departed from evil was even counted as mad, as the margin says. Quiet faithfulness was mocked as foolishness, and anyone who swam against the strong current was thought to be almost insane.

They also owned that all of this must have been deeply offensive to the God of heaven. The evil was done in his sight. They knew very well, even if they did not want to admit it, that the Lord saw it all. Though it was done in secret and covered with fine excuses, nothing could hide it from his all-seeing eye. He sees all wickedness, and because his eyes are pure, he cannot approve of it.

He saw it, and it displeased him, even though it was among his own professing people. He saw the evil itself, but what most offended him was that there was no justice, no reform, and no turning from sin. If he had seen any signs of repentance, then though the sin still grieved him, he would soon have received the sinners back when they turned from their evil ways. A nation’s sin becomes a national sin, and it brings public judgment, when public justice does not restrain it.