Isaiah 44:3-5

Isaiah 44:3-5. For I will pour water— A general promise of help and protection appearing less efficacious, God promises something more great and sublime to his church: for when that church might appear to apprehend nothing but destruction amid so many calamities, the Almighty promises to it, both a remarkable enlargement of its body, that is, the mystical body of Christ, and also the spiritual blessings of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, to be poured forth abundantly upon the enlarged church. This promise is two-fold: In the third verse we have, first, the spiritual blessing to be imparted to the seed of the church; and secondly, the fruit of that blessing, in the wonderful increase of the church; which consists of two articles; the former of which describes this increase of the spiritual state of believers metaphorically, Isa 44:4 and the latter literally, without any figure, Isaiah 44:5. See on chap. xllii. 7. Every one must clearly discern the completion of this prophesy in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and the wonderful effusion of the Spirit upon the first believers, with its reference particularly to that covenant in baptism, when the baptized in effect subscribe with their hand unto the Lord, and surname themselves with the name of Christian. But the prophesy probably includes also the great out-pouring of the Spirit in the latter days. See Vitringa.