The wisdom of God in his punishments.
"Yet he also is wise." These words seem to have been spoken as an ironical parenthesis. He also, as well as the Jewish politicians. "The words vindicate to Jehovah the skill and power adequate to inflict punishment on both the contracting parties, together with veracity in carrying his threatenings into execution." "God was as wise as the Egyptians, and ought therefore to have been consulted; he was as wise as the Jews, and could therefore thwart their boasted policy." As Isaiah leads us to consider so many phases of the subject of Divine punishment, we only suggest this topic as giving a fresh point of view. We are reminded of the wisdom, rather than the mysteriousness, severity, or love, of the Divine judgments and chastisements. In sending calamities "God is wise." Covering the whole subject, the following divisions may be taken.
I. God's wisdom is seen in the threatenings, which act as warnings, and increase the guiltiness of the willful.
II. God's wisdom is seen in making his threatenings conditional, so that repentance of, and forsaking, sin may be hopeful.
III. God's wisdom is seen in fulfilling threatenings, so that no willful men may dare to presume.
IV. God's wisdom is seen in what he does for sinners themselves by his judgments.
V. God's wisdom is seen in what he does by his judgments for the spiritual training of the onlookers. "He is known by the judgments which he executeth."—R.T.