9 For my name’s sake will I defer my anger, and for my praise will I refrain for you, that I not cut you off. 10 Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction. 11 For my own sake, for my own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? and my glory I will not give to another. 12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13 Yes, my hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand has spread out the heavens: when I call to them, they stand up together. 14 “Assemble yourselves, all you, and hear; who among them has declared these things? He whom Yahweh loves shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans. 15 I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 48:9-15
Commentary on Isaiah 48:9-15
(Read Isaiah 48:9-15)
We have nothing ourselves to plead with God, why he should have mercy upon us. It is for his praise, to the honour of his mercy, to spare. His bringing men into trouble was to do them good. It was to refine them, but not as silver; not so thoroughly as men refine silver. If God should take that course, they are all dross, and, as such, might justly be put away. He takes them as refined in part only. Many have been brought home to God as chosen vessels, and a good work of grace begun in them, in the furnace of affliction. It is comfort to God's people, that God will secure his own honour, therefore work deliverance for them. And if God delivers his people, he cannot be at a loss for instruments to be employed. God has formed a plan, in which, for his own sake, and the glory of his grace, he saves all that come to Him.