The Pulpit Commentary on Isaiah 66:16

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

The slain of the Lord.

While it is doubtful as to what special juncture the prophet refers when he says that" the slain of the Lord shall be many," it is painfully and practically certain that at all times these slain ones are many. For—

I. THE VICTIMS OF SIN ARE THE SLAIN OF THE LORD. The laws which work the penalty they suffer are God's laws. It is under his administration that pain, weakness, impotence, trouble, sorrow, death, slay guilty souls. These are his sword, and they do his work, his "strange work," but yet his.

II. THEIR NUMBER IS TERRIBLY LARGE. Who shall count the number of those that have fallen, or of those that are falling now? In every city, town, village, hamlet, men are to be found who, through their folly, or their vice, or their crime, or their ungodliness, are suffering pitifully from the sword of Divine retribution.

III. WE MAY BRING THEM INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE DIVINE HEALER. Many of the slain survive. Our mission is to bring these to that merciful and mighty One who can and will "make them whole."—C.

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