The Commentary by Wm. C. Gage

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 2, 1867

The Commentary.

By Wm. C. Gage

Tell me the meaning of Scriptures. One gem from that ocean is worth all the pebbles of earthly streams.—M'Cheyne.

Brief Exposition of Isa. XXXIV and XXXV.

This prophecy contains a description of the punishment and desolation of Idumea, and its subsequent occupation by the redeemed of God. Let us briefly consider the time of these events. Those who endeavor to prove all the prophecies of God’s word fulfilled in the past, apply this one to the literal land of Idumea and its present desolated condition. This cannot be true for several reasons. It is highly improbable that such fearful consequences should accrue from the desolation of ancient Idumea, which was only a strip of mountainous region, about a hundred miles in length by fifteen or twenty in width.

Again, it takes place in “the day of the Lord’s vengeance” (chapter XXXIV, 8), when his “indignation is upon all nations, and his fury upon all their armies,” verse 2, and when “the Heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll,” and their hosts fall down “as a falling fig from the fig-tree.” Verse 4. By reference to Rev. vi, 13–17, we see that these events are located in close connection with the awful scenes of the great day of final accounts.

From these evidences, and from further proof brought to view in the prophecy, we are compelled to believe that it refers to the time when the Lord arises “to shake terribly the earth,” and the great Day of Judgment dawns upon a guilty world, while Idumea signifies the earth, or some portion of it, which is to receive the judgments of God when the nations are gathered to the “battle of that great day of God Almighty.” Rev. xvi, 14.

In the thirty-fifth chapter, we have a vivid picture of the awful desolation of the earth while the righteous are absent from it, reigning with Christ a thousand years, as priests of God and of Christ. Rev. xx, 4, 6.

But “the ransomed of the Lord shall RETURN, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads;” verse 10; and when the people of God come into possession of the earth it will no longer remain a wilderness, but, as described by the prophet in verses 7 and 9, “the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water;” “No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there.”

In view of this we cannot wonder that the prophet should say: “Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; he will come and save you.” Verses 3 and 4.

May it be our happy lot to be among the redeemed when “they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away;” verse 10; which will take place when “God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Rev. xxi, 4. WM. C. GAGE. Manchester, N.H.