9 For My name's sake I defer Mine anger, And My praise I restrain for thee, So as not to cut thee off. 10 Lo, I have refined thee, and not with silver, I have chosen thee in a furnace of affliction. 11 For My sake, for Mine own sake, I do 'it', For how is it polluted? And Mine honour to another I give not. 12 Hearken to me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called one, I 'am' He, I 'am' first, and I 'am' last; 13 Also, My hand hath founded earth, And My right hand stretched out the heavens, I am calling unto them, they stand together. 14 Be gathered all of you, and hear, Who among them did declare these things? Jehovah hath loved him, He doth His pleasure on Babylon, And His arm 'is on' the Chaldeans. 15 I—I have spoken, yea, I have called him, I have brought him in, And he hath made prosperous his way.
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.