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God's servants are his
sons, for he has provided an inheritance for them, rich, sure, and indefeasible
- God's promises are their heritage forever and their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord. God will clear up the righteousness of their cause before men. Or
their reward for their righteousness, and for all that which they have suffered
unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in the earth, and with whom
verily there is a reward for the righteous
mybible.com
“’No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And
every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,’ says
the Lord.” - Isaiah 54:17
NKJV
The
promise of God concerning the church's safety solemnly laid down, as the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, as that which they may depend upon and be
confident of, that God will protect them from their adversaries both in camps
and courts.
First, From
their field-adversaries, that think to destroy them by force and violence, and
dint of sword: "No weapon that is formed against thee (though ever so
artfully formed by the smith that blows the coals, though ever so skillfully
managed by the waster that seeks to destroy) shall prosper; it shall not prove
strong enough to do any harm to the people of God; it shall miss its mark,
shall fall out of the hand or perhaps recoil in the face of him that uses it
against thee."
It
is the happiness of the church that no weapons formed against it shall prosper
long, and therefore the folly of its enemies will at length be made manifest to
all, for they are but preparing instruments of ruin for themselves.
Secondly, From their law-adversaries, that think to run them
down under colour of right and justice. When the weapons of war do not prosper
there are tongues that rise in judgment. Both are included in the gates of
hell, that seek to destroy the church; for they had their courts of justice, as
well as their magazines and military stores, in their gates.
The
tongues that rise in judgment against the church are as such as either demand a
dominion over it, as if God's children were their lawful captives, pretending
an authority to oppress their consciences, or they are such as misrepresent
them, and falsely accuse them, and by slanders and calumnies endeavour to make
them odious to the people and obnoxious to the government.
This
the enemies of the Jews did, to incense the kings of Persia against them, Ezra 4:12; Esther. 3:8.
"But these insulting threatening tongues thou
shalt condemn; thou shalt have wherewith to answer their insolent demands, and
to put to silence their malicious reflections.
Thou shalt do it by well-doing (1 Peter 2:15), by doing that which will make thee manifest in the
consciences even of thy adversaries, that thou art not what thou art
represented to be.
Thou shalt condemn them, that is, God shall condemn
them for thee. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, Psalm 37:6.
Thou shalt condemn them as Noah condemned the old
world that reproached him, by building the ark, and so saving his house, in
contempt of their contempts."
The
day is coming when God will reckon with the wicked men for all their hard
speeches which they have spoken against him, Jude 15.
The
last words refer not only to this promise, but to all that go before: This is
the heritage of the servants of the Lord.
God's servants are his sons, for he has provided an
inheritance for them, rich, sure, and indefeasible. God's promises are their
heritage forever (Psalm 119:111); and their righteousness is of me,
saith the Lord.
God will clear up the righteousness of their cause
before men. It is with him, for he knows it; it is with him, for he will plead
it.
Or their reward for their righteousness, and for all
that which they have suffered unrighteously, is of God, that God who judges in
the earth, and with whom verily there is a reward for the righteous.
Or their righteousness itself, all that in them which
is good and right, is of God, who works it in them; it is of Christ who is made
righteousness to them.
In those for whom God designs a heritage hereafter he
will work righteousness now. - Matthew Henry
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