John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 1:29

"For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen." — Isaiah 1:29 (ASV)

For (or, that is) they shall be ashamed. In Hebrew, the particle כי (ki) is used, which properly denotes a cause, but frequently also denotes exposition. Now, since the Prophet does not state anything new here, but only explains the cause of the destruction that awaited the ungodly, rendering כי (ki) as that is appears to connect it better with the preceding word, כלה (kalah), consumed: They shall be consumed, that is, they shall be ashamed of the oaks which you have desired. It is as if the Prophet had said that no evil will be more destructive to them than their own superstition. The idols, he says, which you call upon for your protection and safety will instead bring destruction upon you.

The word אלים (elim), oaks, has sometimes been rendered Gods, but this meaning is set aside by the context, for immediately afterward he adds the word ‘groves’: You shall be ashamed of the groves which you have chosen. Now, under the image of both trees and groves, the Prophet, by a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole, reproves every kind of false worship. For although among the Jews there were many forms of idolatry, the custom mentioned here, of choosing groves and forests for offering sacrifices, was the most common of all.

Whether the word גנות (gannoth) in the second clause is translated groves or gardens, there can be no doubt that it means the altars and sacred buildings in which they performed their idolatrous worship. Although they did not intend openly to revolt from God, they invented new kinds of worship. As if one place had been more acceptable to God than another, they devoted it to His service, as we see done by the papists. Next follows a change of person; for, to make the reproof more severe, those wicked men of whom he spoke in the third person are now directly addressed: You shall be ashamed.

Which you have desired. By the word desired, he reproves the mad and burning eagerness with which wicked men follow their superstitions. They ought to have been earnestly devoted with their whole heart to the service of one God, but they rush with blind violence to false worship, as if they were driven by brutish lust. In almost every human mind, this disease naturally exists: they have forsaken the true God and run mad in following idols. Hence, Scripture frequently compares this madness to the loves of harlots, who shake off shame as well as reason.

For the gardens that you have chosen. It is evident from this second clause, in which he says that they chose gardens, that the Prophet describes not only their excessive zeal but also their presumption in corrupting the worship of God, for this term is contrasted with the injunction of the law. Whatever plausible appearances unbelievers may use to cloak their superstitions, this saying still remains true: obedience is better than all sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22). Accordingly, under the term will-worship (ἐθελοθρησκεία), Paul includes (Colossians 2:23) all kinds of false worship which men contrive for themselves without the command of God.

On this account, God complains that the Jews have despised His word and have delighted themselves with their own inventions. It is as if He had said, “It was your duty to obey, but you wished to have an unfettered choice, or rather an unbounded liberty.”

This single consideration is sufficient to condemn the inventions of men: that it is not in their power to choose the manner of worshipping God, because the right to command belongs to Him alone. God had at that time enjoined that sacrifices should not be offered to Him anywhere else than at Jerusalem (Deuteronomy 12:13). The Jews thought that they pleased Him in other places, and that false imagination also deceived the heathen nations. Would that it had gone no further! But we see how the papists are involved in the same error, and, in short, experience shows that this disease has prevailed extensively in every age.

If it is objected that there was not so much importance in the place that God ought to have regarded with such strong abhorrence the worship that was everywhere offered to Him—first, we should consider the reason why God chose at that time for there to be only one altar: it was so that it might be a bond of holy unity for an uncivilized nation, and that by means of it their religion might continue unchanged.

Besides, granting that this spiritual reason was only of temporary force, we must hold to the principle that commandments were given in the smallest matters so that the Jews might be better trained to obedience. For since superstition conceals itself under the pretense of devotion, it is almost inevitable that men will flatter themselves with their own inventions. But since obedience is the mother of true religion, it follows that when men exercise their own fancy, it becomes the source of all superstitions.

It must also be added that, just as Isaiah formerly complained of those crimes which were contrary to brotherly love and to the second table of the law, so he now complains that they have transgressed the first table. For since the whole perfection of righteousness consists in keeping the law, when the Prophets wish to reprove men for their sins, they sometimes speak of the first and sometimes of the second table of the law. But we should always observe the figurative mode of expression when, under one class, they include the whole.