Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make you a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: you shall thresh the mountains, and beat them small… I. WHAT THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE OF GOD ARE. They are named by Him who misnames none, "worm Jacob." Their name from their nature is a worm; they are weak, despised creatures, ready to be crushed by the foot of every passerby: yet "worm Jacob," believing, praying, wrestling worm as he was. II. WHAT THEY SHALL CERTAINLY AND INFALLIBLY DO. "Thresh the mountains," etc. Interpreters generally understand by the "mountains" the great and lofty potentares of the earth, setting themselves against the Church. And, no doubt, these were in the prophet's view; but the view was not confined to them. God's bringing down the Babylonian monarchy at their prayers, and the victories afterward of the Maccabees over their enemies, cannot reasonably be supposed to complete the intent of this prophecy. We must needs look to the kingdom of Christ for it, of which there is plainly an account (vers. 17-19). Compare Daniel 2:34, 35. And we must carry on our view all along to the end of time (Revelation 2:26, 27); the rather that it is the manner of the prophet to wrap up in one expression, temporal, spiritual, and eternal deliverance; the deliverance from Babylon, which was temporal, being the first and nearest in view, but not terminating it. Here then we may consider — 1. What "worm Jacob" has to encounter. "Mountains," and "hills," whose weight is sufficient to crush millions of him; difficulties quite disproportionable to his strength, as a mountain to that of a worm. 2. The success of this so very unequal match. The mountains shall not crush the worm; but the worm shall thresh the mountains, as one does a sheaf of corn with repeated strokes. 3. The degree and pitch of the worm's success against those mountains. It shall beat them small, till they be like dust or chaff: so that they shall be blown away with the wind, and no vestige of them remain. 4. The insurance of this success of the worm. Who could insure it, but the mighty God? Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the most high God, and worm Jacob's Kinsman-Redeemer, hath, by His word of promise, engaged His almighty power on the side of the worm against the mountains. Let not then the worm fear or doubt the success. (T. Boston.) Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. |
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