John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 65:8

"Thus saith Jehovah, As the new wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it: so will I do for my servants` sake, that I may not destroy them all." — Isaiah 65:8 (ASV)

Thus saith Jehovah. Here the Prophet softens the preceding statement. Otherwise, it would have been very hard to say that the iniquities of the fathers would be brought to remembrance in such a manner that the Lord would destroy the fathers and the children along with them. These things might strike believers with such horror as to lead them to think that their salvation was past all hope.

We must therefore be carefully on our guard and observe the reason why the Lord is angry with us, for He wishes to terrify us so as to lead us to Himself, and not so as to throw us into despair. For this reason, He holds out hope to believers, that they may not lose courage; and, by offering consolation, He encourages them to repentance. He confirms it by a comparison.

As if one found a grape in a cluster. As if a person who has determined to root out a vine that is inconvenient or injurious to him, and finds a fruit-bearing branch, will spare it; so the Lord will refrain from tearing up those in which He will find no strength or flavor. Formerly He complained that the people were useless, and even that they yielded bitter fruits (Isaiah 5:2, 4, 7). Isaiah retains the same comparison but applies it in a different manner: “Though the people may be said to be an unfruitful and degenerate vine, yet there are still left some fruit-bearing branches which the Lord will not allow to perish.”

But this may be understood in two ways: either that the Lord will preserve His people for the sake of the elect, or that, when the reprobate are destroyed, He will rescue believers from destruction. There is a wide difference between these two interpretations.

Regarding the first, we know that the wicked are sometimes spared on account of good men, whom God does not wish to destroy or to involve in the same judgment, as various examples of Scripture sufficiently show. For instance, the Lord would have spared Sodom if He had found but ten good men in it (Genesis 18:32).

Furthermore, all who sailed with Paul, to the number of two hundred and seventy-six (Acts 27:37), were given to him (Acts 27:24) and rescued from shipwreck, so that the power He manifested in His servant might be more illustriously displayed. The Lord also blessed the house of Potiphar and made it prosper in all things for the sake of Joseph, who was in his family (Genesis 39:5). There are other examples of the same kind, which everyone will easily recall.

But I approve more highly of the other interpretation: that the Lord will punish the sins of His people in such a manner as to have regard nevertheless for His own, and not to involve all universally in the same destruction. Nor does He mean only that believers will be saved, but that a people will be left among whom men will call on His name. And the comparison ought to be carefully observed, for he shows that the remnant will be small, as compared with the multitude which was at that time, as has been already explained (Isaiah 1:9).

Now, as to believers being often punished along with the reprobate, let us not think that it is wrong, for the Lord will often find in each of us enough blame to afflict and punish us. Besides, He wishes to instruct and arouse us by His chastisements. Seeing that we have been joined to a certain people and, as it were, ingrafted into their body, we undoubtedly ought not to think it strange if we, who may be said to be diseased members, will share in the same strokes and pains. Yet the Lord moderates the punishment so as not to tear up the elect plants by the roots.