John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 43:24

"Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices; but thou hast burdened me with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities." — Isaiah 43:24 (ASV)

You have not bought cane for me. He means the cane or calamus of which the precious ointment was composed, as we are informed (Exodus 30:23). For the high priests, the tabernacle of the congregation, and the ark of the testimony, together with its vessels, were anointed with it. He says, therefore, “Although you buy cane for me with money, yet you ought not to reckon that to be expense bestowed on me, as if I approved of it.” Their labor was in vain in all those ceremonies, because they did not look to the proper end, since they did not exercise faith, or worship God with a pure conscience.

And you have not made me drunk. This corresponds to a mode of expression employed in the law, in which God testifies that sacrifices are pleasant and delightful feasts to him; not that he took pleasure in the slaughter of animals, but that by these exercises he wished to lead his people to true obedience. He means that here, on the contrary, the people did not offer sacrifices in a proper manner, because they polluted everything with impiety; and, consequently, that he might be said to be hungry and faint, because they offered nothing in a right manner, but everything was corrupted and was without savor.

But you have made me serve with your sins. The Prophet now aggravates the heinousness of that offense, by saying that the people not only were deficient in their duty, and did not submit to God, but that they even endeavored to make God submit to them, and “to serve” their will, or rather their lust.

Those who explain this passage as referring to Christ torture the Prophet’s meaning, and therefore I consider this interpretation to be more natural. The Lord complains that men compelled him to carry a heavy burden, instead of submitting to him with reverence, as they ought to have done. For when we rise up against God, we treat him as a slave by our rebellion and insolence.

He explains this more fully when he says, You have wearied me; that is, that God suffered much uneasiness on account of the wickedness of his people. For in some respects, we wound and “pierce him,” as the Prophet says (Zechariah 12:10), when we reject his voice and do not allow ourselves to be governed by him.

Apparently, he alludes to what he had previously said about the weariness or uneasiness of the people in worshipping God; for God declares, on the contrary, that the people have caused him great distress.