Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 42:13
The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
13. The reason for the universal exultation; Jehovah takes the field against His enemies. The gracious side of His intervention is reserved for Isa 42:16.
The Lord shall go forth ] The technical expression for the initiation of a campaign (2Sa 11:1; Amo 5:3 &c.)
as a mighty man (or, hero) a man of war ] Similar representations in ch. Isa 28:21, Isa 59:16 f.; Exo 15:3; Zec 14:3, &c. Jealousy (better, zeal) means “passion” in very varied senses. Here it seems equivalent to the “battle fever.” see ch. Isa 9:7.
he shall cry, yea, roar ] He shall raise His battle cry, yea, shout aloud.
he shall prevail ] R.V. “he shall do mightily”; lit., he shall play the hero. The form occurs elsewhere only in Job (Job 15:25, Job 36:9).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord shall go forth – This and the following verses give the reasons why they should praise Yahweh. He would go forth in his might to overcome and subdue his foes, and to deliver his people. In his conquests, and in the establishment of his kingdom, all people would have occasion to rejoice and be glad.
As a mighty man – As a hero, as a warrior. Yahweh is often in the Scriptures represented as a hero, or a man of war:
Yahweh is a man of war:
Yahweh is his name. – Exo 15:3.
Who is this King of glory?
Yahweh, strong and mighty;
Yahweh mighty in battle. – Psa 24:8.
Compare Psa 45:3; Isa 27:1; Isa 30:30,
He shall stir up jealousy – He shall rouse his vengeance, or his indignation. The word qin’ah means vengeance, or indignation, as well as jealousy. The image here is that of a warrior who rushes on impetuously to take vengeance on his foes.
He shall cry – He shall give a shout, or a loud clamor. Warriors usually entered a battle with a loud shout, designed to stimulate their own courage, and to intimidate their foes. All this language is taken from such an entrance on an engagement, and denotes the fixed determination of God to overthrow all his enemies.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 42:13
The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man
Jehovah, the Warrior.
Saviour
The Lord stirs Himself up to bring in the new things. (Prof. A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Shall go forth, to wit, to war, or battle, as this phrase is used, Num 1:3,28; 2Sa 11:1.
He shall stir up jealousy; he shall stir up himself, and his strength, and anger, against the obstinate and implacable enemies of his Son and gospel.
He shall cry, yea, roar, as a lion doth upon his prey, and as soldiers do when they begin the battle.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13-16. Jehovah will no longerrestrain His wrath: He will go forth as a mighty warrior (Ex15:3) to destroy His people’s and His enemies, and to deliverIsrael (compare Ps 45:3).
stir up jealousyrouseHis indignation.
roarimage from thebattle cry of a warrior.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man,…. In the ministry of the word,
conquering and to conquer; girding his “sword” on his thigh; causing his “arrows” to be sharp in the hearts of his enemies; clothing the word with power;
making the weapons of warfare, put into the hands of his ministering servants,
mighty, to pull down the “strong holds” of sin and Satan, to cast: down the proud “imaginations” of men’s hearts, and to
bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of himself; or in the army of Constantine, whom he used as his instrument for the destruction of the Pagan empire, and of Paganism in it, and for the establishment of Christianity:
he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war; or “a man of wars” x; that has been used to fight battles; Christ is represented as a warrior, Re 19:11, his church is in a warfare state; his subjects are soldiers; his ministers are his generals under him, and with them he goes forth, and stirs up his own jealousy, his wrath and fury against his enemies, and takes vengeance on them, and the jealousy of his ministers and people, for his own glory:
he shall cry, yea, roar; not only shout aloud, as soldiers do, when they make an onset, but make a hideous noise, as the old Romans did, to frighten and dispirit their enemies. Christ, in the ministry of the word, not only cries, and calls, and invites souls, sensible of themselves and their condition, to come unto him, and partake of his grace; but he roars as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and threatens impenitent and unbelieving sinners with his wrath and vengeance:
he shall prevail against his enemies: he shall conquer and subdue them by his Spirit and grace, and make them his willing people in the day of his power; and such who will not have him to reign over them, he will rule them with a rod of iron, and break them in pieces as a potter’s vessel.
x “sicut vir bellorum”, Montanus; “vir bellicosissimus”, Junius & Tremcellius, Piscator.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Judgment and Mercy. | B. C. 708. |
13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies. 14 I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once. 15 I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools. 16 And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them. 17 They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.
It comes all to one whether we make these verses (as some do) the song itself that is to be sung by the Gentile world or a prophecy of what God will do to make way for the singing of that song, that evangelical new song.
I. He will appear in his power and glory more than ever. So he did in the preaching of his gospel, in the divine power and energy which went along with it, and in the wonderful success it had in the pulling down of Satan’s stronghold,Isa 42:13; Isa 42:14. He had long held his peace, and been still, and refrained himself, while he winked at the times of the ignorance of the Gentile world (Acts xvii. 30), and suffered all nations to walk in their own ways (Acts xiv. 16); but now he shall go forth as a mighty man, as a man of war, to attack the devil’s kingdom and give it a fatal blow. The going forth of the gospel is thus represented, Rev. vi. 2. Christ, in it, went forth conquering and to conquer. The ministry of the apostles is called their warfare; and they were the soldiers of Jesus Christ. He shall stir up jealousy, shall appear more jealous than ever for the glory of his own name and against idolatry. 1. He shall cry, in the preaching of his word, cry like a travailing woman; for the ministers of Christ preached as men in earnest, and that travailed in birth again till they saw Christ formed in the souls of the people, Gal. iv. 19. He shall cry, yea, roar, in the gospel woes, which are more terrible than the roaring of a lion, and which must be preached along with gospel blessings to awaken a sleeping world. 2. He shall conquer by the power of his Spirit: He shall prevail against his enemies, shall prevail to make them friends, Col. i. 21. Those that contradict and blaspheme his gospel, he shall prevail to put them to silence and shame. He will destroy and devour at once all the oppositions of the powers of darkness. Satan shall fall as lightning from heaven, and he that had the power of death shall be destroyed. As a type and figure of this, to make way for the redemption of the Jews out of Babylon, God will humble the pride, and break the power, of their oppressors, and will at once destroy and devour the Babylonian monarchy. In accomplishing this destruction of Babylon by the Persian army under the command of Cyrus, he will make waste mountains and hills, level the country, and dry up all their herbs. The army, as usual, shall either carry off the forage or destroy it, and by laying bridges of boats over rivers shall turn them into islands, and so drain the fens and low grounds, to make way for the march of their army, that the pools shall be dried up. Thus, when the gospel shall be preached, it shall have a free course, and that which hinders the progress of it shall be taken out of the way.
II. He will manifest his favour and grace towards those whose spirits he had stirred up to follow him, as Ezra i. 5. Those who ask the way to Zion he will show the way, and lead in it, v. 16. Those who by nature were blind, and those who, being under convictions of sin and wrath are quite at a loss and know not what to do with themselves, God will lead by a way that they knew not, will show them the way to life and happiness by Jesus Christ, who is the way, and will conduct and carry them on in that way, which before they were strangers to. Thus, in the conversion of Paul, he was struck blind first, and then God revealed his Son in him, and made the scales to fall from his eyes. They are weak in knowledge, and the truths of God at first seem unintelligible; but God will make darkness light before them, and knowledge shall be easy to them. They are weak in duty, the commands of God seem impracticable, and insuperable difficulties are in the way of their obedience; but God will make crooked things straight; their way shall be plain, and the yoke easy. Those whom God brings into the right way he will guide in it. As a type of this, he will lead the Jews, when they return out of captivity, in a ready road to their own land again, and nothing shall occur to perplex or embarrass them in their journey. These are great things, and kind things, very great and very kind; but lest any should say, “They are too great, too kind, to be expected from God by such an undeserving people as that of the Jews, such an undeserving world as that of the Gentiles,” he adds, These things will I do unto them, take my word for it I will, and I will not forsake them; he that begins to show this great mercy will go on to do them good.
III. He will particularly put those to confusion who adhere to idols notwithstanding the attempts made by the preaching of the gospel to turn them from idols (v. 17): They shall be turned back, and greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images. The Babylonians shall when they see how the Jews, who despise their images, are owned and delivered by the God they worship without images, and the Gentiles when they see how idolatry falls before the preaching of the gospel, is scattered like darkness before the light of the sun, and melts like snow before its heat. They shall be ashamed that ever they said to these molten images, You are our gods; for how can those help their worshippers who cannot help themselves, nor save themselves from falling into contempt? In times of reformation, when many turn from iniquity, and sin, being generally deserted, becomes unfashionable, it may be hoped that those who will not otherwise be reclaimed will be wrought upon by that consideration to be ashamed of it.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
13. Jehovah like a giant. What Isaiah now adds is intended to surmount the temptations of believers. He ascribes to God strength and power, that they may know that they shall find in him a sure defense; for in adversity we are perplexed, because we doubt whether or not God will be able to render us assistance, especially when by delaying he appears in some measure to reject our prayers; and therefore the Prophet loudly extols the power of God, that all may learn to rely and place their confidence in him.
Will go forth. The going forth that is here mentioned must be taken metaphorically; for God seemed to be concealed at the time when he permitted his people to be affiicted and oppressed without any appearance of aid; and therefore the word means “to come forth publicly for the sake of giving assistance.” This is confirmed by what follows.
And as a warrior. When he attributes to God burning indignation, with which he rushes forth “like a warrior” against his enemies, the comparisons are drawn from human feelings, and declare to us the powerful assistance of God, which would not otherwise make a sufficiently powerful impression on our minds. He therefore accommodates himself to our capacity, as we have often said, that we may know how ardently he desires to preserve us, and how much he is distressed by the affliction and oppression of believers, and likewise how terrible is his anger, whenever he girds himself for battle.
We ought always to observe that peculiar season which the Prophet had in his eye, to which these predictions must be applied; for while the enemies were becoming more and more fierce, and were taunting a wretched people, it was the duty of believers to look at something quite different from what they beheld with their eyes, and to believe that God is sufficiently powerful to subdue their enemies, and rescue them out of their hands. Nor was it only during the captivity that it was of importance for them to have their sorrow alleviated by this promise, but almost till the coming of Christ; for they were continually and painfully constrained to encounter severe distresses, as is evident from history.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(13) The Lord shall go forth . . .The boldly anthropomorphic image prepares the way for the yet more awful picture of Isa. 63:1, which belongs outwardly to the same region. As if roused from slumber, Jehovah stirs up His jealous indignation against the idols, which had seemed to sleep, and rushes to the battle as with the war-cry of a mighty one.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Isa 42:13. The Lord shall go forth, &c. JEHOVAH shall march forth like a hero; like a mighty warrior shall he rouse his vengeance; He shall cry aloud; he shall shout amain; he shall exert his strength against his enemies. Lowth. These words are so connected with those preceding, as to contain the argument of the praise to which the prophet had incited the Gentiles: which argument appears to be, that sovereign blessing of divine grace set forth in the former part of this discourse, and for which he had called upon the Gentiles to give glory unto the Lord: but he does not end here. He continues the same argument, though under a different figure; for he introduces Jehovah, as a hero and warrior, who, having a long time borne the insults of his adversaries, at length comes forth, like a mighty warrior, endued with heroic strength, to oppose his enemies, to take from them the power they had long usurped, and to deliver his people from the oppression of that power. The reference is, evidently, to the destruction of the kingdom of Satan, of sin and idolatry, by the Son of God. Compare Mat 12:29. Joh 12:31. Luk 10:18.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Isa 42:13 The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
Ver. 13. The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man. ] Or, As a giant. And here, by an elegant hypotyposis, a the fierce wrath of God against his foes is set forth to the life, and appointed also to be sung for a second part of the ditty – viz., Christ’s conquest over sin, death, and hell, whereby we are made “more than conquerors.”
He shall cry, yea, roar.
a Vivid description of a scene, event, or situation, bringing it, as it were, before the eyes of the hearer or reader.
b Vegetius.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
go forth. This is an enlargement of Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16. Still more so in Rev 6:2; Rev 19:11.
mighty man. Hebrew. gibbor.
stir up = awaken, incite. See note on Son 2:7.
jealousy. Reference to Pentateuch (Exo 20:6). App-92.
cry . . . roar. Figure of speech Anthropopatheia.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
as a mighty: Isa 59:16-19, Isa 63:1-4, Exo 15:1-3, Psa 78:65, Psa 110:5, Psa 110:6, Jer 25:30
jealousy: Nah 1:2, Zep 1:18, Zep 3:8
shall cry: Isa 31:4, Hos 11:10, Joe 3:16, Amo 1:2
prevail: or, behave himself mightily, Psa 118:16
Reciprocal: Exo 11:4 – will I go Psa 9:19 – Arise Psa 35:2 – General Psa 50:3 – keep Psa 68:1 – God arise Psa 80:2 – stir up Pro 8:5 – General Isa 33:10 – Now will I rise Eze 38:19 – in my Hos 8:14 – I will send Hos 13:7 – General Joe 2:11 – utter Joe 2:18 – be Mic 2:13 – breaker Zec 1:14 – I am Zec 2:13 – for Zec 6:8 – quieted Zec 8:2 – I was jealous Rev 10:3 – loud
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 42:13-15. The Lord shall go forth Namely, to battle against his enemies. He shall stir up jealousy His fierce indignation against the obstinate enemies of his Son and gospel. He shall cry, yea, roar As a lion doth upon his prey, and as soldiers do when they begin the battle. I have long time held my peace I have been long silent, and not interposed in behalf of my cause, but have suffered Satan and his servants to prevail in the world, to afflict my people, and hinder the entertainment of my doctrine and worship among mankind; and this my forbearance has increased the presumption of my enemies. Now will I cry like a travailing woman Now I will no more contain myself than a woman in the pangs of travail can forbear crying out: but I will give vent to my just resentments for the injuries offered to myself and my oppressed people, by bringing some exemplary punishment upon their oppressors. I will destroy and devour at once I will suddenly and utterly destroy the incorrigible enemies of my truth. When mens provocations come to a great height, God is represented in Scripture as if his patience were quite tired out, and he could no longer forbear punishing them: see Jer 15:6; Jer 44:22. I will make waste mountains and hills He does not mean dry and barren ones, for these were waste already, but such as were clothed with grass and herbs. Which clause is to be understood metaphorically of Gods destroying his most lofty and flourishing enemies, often compared in Scripture to mountains and hills. I will dry up the pools Remove all the sources of their prosperity and comfort. As Gods mercy is represented by pouring water upon the dry ground, chap. 35:6, and 44:3, so his wrath is described as if it were a consuming fire, parching up every thing, and reducing it to barrenness.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
42:13 The LORD shall go forth as a {r} mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.
(r) He shows the zeal of the Lord, and his power in the conservation of his Church.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
This verse gives the reason for the praise just called for. Isaiah gloried in the fact that Yahweh would one day arise as a mighty warrior to overcome His enemies. He did this when He moved Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to their land. He did it more mightily when He sent Messiah to accomplish redemption. And He will do it most dramatically when Messiah comes back to the earth to defeat His enemies at Armageddon (Rev 14:14-20; Rev 19:17-19).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER VIII
THE PASSION OF GOD
Isa 42:13-17
AT the beginning of chapter 42 we reach one of those distinct stages, the frequent appearance of which in our prophecy assures us, that, for all its mingling and recurrent style, the prophecy is a unity with a distinct, if somewhat involved, progress of thought. For while chapters 40 and 41 establish the sovereignty and declare the character of the One True God before His people and the heathen, chapter 42 takes what is naturally the next step, of publishing to both these classes His Divine will. This purpose of God is set forth in the first seven verses of the chapter. It is identified with a human Figure, who is to be Gods agent upon earth, and who is styled “the Servant of Jehovah.” Next to Jehovah Himself, the Servant of Jehovah is by far the most important personage within our prophets gaze. He is named, described, commissioned, and encouraged over and over again throughout the prophecy; his character and indispensable work are hung upon with a frequency and a fondness almost equal to the steadfast faith, which the prophet reposes in Jehovah Himself. Were we following our prophecy chapter by chapter, now would be the time to put the question, Who is this Servant, who is suddenly introduced to us? and to look ahead for the various and even conflicting answers, which rise from the subsequent chapters. But we agreed, for clearness sake, to take all the passages about the Servant, which are easily detached from the rest of the prophecy, and treat by themselves, and to continue in the meantime our prophets main theme of the power and Righteousness of God as shown forth in the deliverance of His people from Babylon. Accordingly, at present we pass over Isa 42:1-9, keeping this firmly in mind, however, that God has appointed for His work upon earth, including as it does, the ingathering of His people and the conversion of the Gentiles, a Servant, -a human figure of lofty character and unfailing perseverance, who makes Gods work of redemption his own, puts his heart into it, and is upheld by Gods hand. God, let us understand, has committed His cause upon earth to a human agent.
Gods commission of His Servant is hailed by a hymn. Earth answers the proclamation of the “new things” which the Almighty has declared (Isa 42:9) by “a new song” (Isa 42:10-13). But this song does not sing of the Servant; its subject is Jehovah Himself.
Sing to Jehovah a new song,
His praise from the end of the earth;
Ye that go down to the sea, and its fulness,
Isles, and their dwellers!
Let be loud, -the wilderness and its townships,
Villages that Kedar inhabits!
Let them ring out-the dwellers of Sela!
From the top of the hills let them shout!
Let them give to Jehovah the glory,
And publish His praise in the Isles!
Jehovah as hero goes forth,
As a man of war stirs up zeal,
Shouts the alarm and battle cry,
Against his foes proves Himself hero.
The terms of the last four lines are military. Most of them will be found in the historical books, in descriptions of the onset of Israels battles with the heathen. But it is no human warrior to whom they are here applied. They who sing have forgotten the Servant. Their hearts are warm only with this, that Jehovah Himself will come down to earth to give the alarm, and to bear the brunt of the battle. And to such a hope He now responds, speaking also of Himself and not of the Servant. His words are very intense, and glow and strain with inward travail.
I have long time kept my peace,
Am dumb and hold myself in:
Like a woman in travail I gasp,
Pant and palpitate together.
Remember it is God who speaks these words of Himself, and then think what they mean of unsharable thought and pain, of solitary yearning and effort. But from the pain comes forth at last the power.
I waste mountains and hills,
And all their herb I parch;
And I have set rivers for islands,
And marshes I parch.
Yet it is not the passion of a mere physical effort that is in God; not mere excitement of war that thrills Him. But the suffering of men is upon Him, and He has taken their redemption to heart. He had said to His Servant (Isa 42:6-7): “I give thee to open the blind eyes, to bring out from prison the bound, from the house of bondage the dwellers in darkness.” But here He himself puts on the sympathy and strain of that work.
And I will make the blind to walk in a way they know not,
By paths they know not I will guide them;
Turn darkness before them to light,
And serrated land to level.
These are the things that I do, and do not remit them.
They fall backwards, with shame are they shamed,
That put trust in a Carving,
That do say to a Cast, Ye are our Gods.
Now this pair of passages, in one of which God lays the work of redemption upon His human agent, and in another Himself puts on its passion and travail, are only one instance of a duality that runs through the whole of the Old Testament. As we repeatedly saw in the prophecies of Isaiah himself, there is a double promise of the future through the Old Testament:-first, that God will achieve the salvation of Israel by an extraordinary human personality, who is figured now as a king, now as a Prophet, and now as a Priest; but, second also, that God Himself, in undeputed, unshared power, will come visibly to deliver His people and to reign over them. These two lines of prophecy run parallel, and even entangled through the Old Testament, but within its bounds no attempt is made to reconcile them. They pass from it still separate, to find their synthesis, as we all know, in One of whom each is the incomplete prophecy. While considering the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, which run upon the first of these two lines, we pointed out, that, though standing in historical connection with Christ, they were not prophecies of His divinity. Lofty and expansive as were the titles they attributed to the Messiah, these titles did not imply more than an earthly ruler of extraordinary power and dignity. But we added that in the other and concurrent line of prophecy, and especially in those well-developed stages of it which appear in Isa 40:1-31; Isa 41:1-29; Isa 42:1-25; Isa 43:1-28; Isa 44:1-28; Isa 45:1-25; Isa 46:1-13; Isa 47:1-15; Isa 48:1-22; Isa 49:1-26; Isa 50:1-11; Isa 51:1-23; Isa 52:1-15; Isa 53:1-12; Isa 54:1-17; Isa 55:1-13; Isa 56:1-12; Isa 57:1-21; Isa 58:1-14; Isa 59:1-21; Isa 60:1-22; Isa 61:1-11; Isa 62:1-12; Isa 63:1-19; Isa 64:1-12; Isa 65:1-25; Isa 66:1-24, we should find the true Old Testament promise of the Deity in human form and tabernacling among men. We urged that, if the divinity of Christ was to be seen in the Old Testament, we should more naturally find it in the line of promise, which speaks of God Himself descending to battle and to suffer by the side of men, than in the line that lifts a human ruler almost to the right hand of God. We have now come to a passage, which gives us the opportunity of testing this connection, which we have alleged between the so-called anthropomorphism of the Old Testament, and the Incarnation, which is the glory of the New.
When God presents Himself in the Old Testament as His peoples Saviour, it is not always as Isaiah mostly saw Him, in awful power and majesty-a “King high and lifted up,” or as “coming from far, burning and thick-rising smoke, and overflowing streams; causing the peal of His voice to be heard, and the lighting down of His arm to be seen, in the fury of anger and devouring fire-bursting and torrent and hailstones.” {Isa 31:1-9} But in a large number of passages, of which the one before us and the famous first six verses of chapter 63 (Isa 63:1-6), are perhaps the most forcible, the Almighty is clothed with human passion and agony. He is described as loving, hating, showing zeal or jealousy, fear, repentance, and scorn He bides His time, suddenly awakes to effort, and makes that effort in weakness, pain, and struggle, so extreme that He likens Himself not only to a solitary man, in the ardour of battle, but to a woman in her unsharable hour of travail. To use a technical word, the prophets in their descriptions of God do not hesitate to be anthropopathic-imparting to Deity the passions of men.
In order to appreciate the full effect of this habit of the Jewish religion, we must contrast it with some principles of that religion, with which at first it seems impossible to reconcile it.
No religion more necessarily implies the spirituality of God than does the Jewish. It is true that in the pages of the Old Testament, you will nowhere find this formally expressed. No Jewish prophet ever said in so many words what Jesus said to the woman of Samaria, “God is Spirit.” In our own prophecy, spirit is frequently used, not to define the nature of God, but to express His power and the effectiveness of His will. But the Jewish Scriptures insist throughout upon the sublimity of God, or, to use their own term, . His holiness. He is the Most High, Creator, Lord, -the Force and Wisdom that are behind nature and history. It is a sin to make any image of Him; it is an error to liken Him to man. “I am God and not man, the Holy One.” {Hos 11:9} We have seen how absolutely the Divine omnipotence and sublimity are expressed by our own prophet, and we shall find Him again speaking thus: “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” {Isa 55:8-9} But perhaps the doctrine of our prophet which most effectively sets forth Gods loftiness and spirituality is his doctrine of Gods word. God has but to speak and a thing is created or a deed done. He calls and the agent He needs is there; He sets His word upon him and the work is as good as finished. “My word that goeth forth out of My mouth, it shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” {Isa 55:11} Omnipotence could not farther go. It would seem that all man needed from God was a word, -the giving of a command, that a thing must be.
Yet it is precisely in our prophecy that we find the most extreme ascriptions to the Deity of personal effort, weakness, and pain. The same chapters which celebrate Gods sublimity and holiness, which reveal the eternal counsels of God working to their inevitable ends in time, which also insist, as this very chapter does, that for the performance of works of mercy and morality God brings to bear the slow creative forces that are in nature, or which again (as in other chapters) attribute all to the power of His simple word, -these same Scriptures suddenly change their style and, after the most human manner, clothe the Deity in the travail and passion of flesh. Why is it, that instead of aspiring still higher from those sublime conceptions of God to some consummate expression of His unity, as for instance in Islam, or of His spirituality, as in certain modern philosophies, prophecy dashes thus thunderously down upon our hearts with the message, scattered in countless, broken words, that all this omnipotence and all this sublimity are expended and realised for men only in passion and in pain?
It is no answer, which is given by many in our day, that after all the prophets were but frail men, unable to stay upon the high flight to which they sometimes soared, and obliged to sacrifice their logic to the fondness of their hearts and the general habit of man to make his god after his own image. No easy sneer like that can solve so profound a moral paradox. We must seek the solution otherwise, and earnest minds will probably find it along one or other of the two following paths.
1. The highest moral ideal is not, and never can be, the righteousness that is regnant, but that which is militant and agonising. It is the deficiency of many religions, that while representing God as the Judge and almighty executor of righteousness, they have not revealed Him as its advocate and champion as well. Christ gave us a very plain lesson upon this. As He clearly showed, when He refused the offer of all the kingdoms of the world, the highest perfection is not to be omnipotence upon the side of virtue, but to be there as patience, sympathy, and love. To will righteousness, and to rule life from above in favour of righteousness, is indeed Divine; but if these were the highest attributes of divinity, and if they exhausted the Divine interest in our race, then man himself, with his conscience to sacrifice himself on behalf of justice or of truth, -man himself, with his instinct to make the sins of others his burden, and their purity his agonising endeavour, would indeed be higher than his God. Had Jehovah been nothing but the righteous Judge of all the earth, then His witnesses and martyrs, and His prophets who took to themselves the conscience and reproach of their peoples sins, would have been as much more admirable than Himself, as the soldier who serves his country on the battle-field or lays down his life for his people is more deserving of their gratitude and more certain of their devotion, than the king who equips him, sends him forth and himself stays at home.
The God of the Old Testament is not such a God. In the moral warfare to which He has predestined His creatures, He Himself descends to participate. He is not abstract-that is, withdrawn-Holiness, nor mere sovereign Justice enthroned in heaven. He is One who “arises and comes down” for the salvation of men, who makes virtue His Cause and righteousness His Passion. He is no whit behind the chiefest of His servants. No seraph burns as God burns with ardour for justice; no angel of the presence flies more swiftly than Himself to the front rank of the failing battle. The human Servant, who is pictured in our prophecy, is more absolutely identified with suffering and agonising men than any angel could be; but even he does not stand more closely by their side, nor suffer more on their behalf, than the God who sends him forth. “For the Lord stirreth up jealousy like a man of war; in all His peoples affliction He is afflicted; against His enemies He beareth Himself as a hero.” So much from the side of righteousness.
2. But take the equally Divine attribute of love. When a religion affirms that God is love, it gives immense hostages. What is love without pity and compassion and sympathy? and what are these but self-imposed weakness and pain? Christ has told of the greatest love. “Greater love than this hath no man, that a man lay down his life for his friends”; and the cost and sacrifice in which He thus outmatched man is one that the prophets before He came did not hesitate to impute to God. As far as human language is adequate for such a task, they picture Gods love for men as costing Him so much. He painfully pleads for His peoples loyalty; He travails in pain for their new birth and growth in holiness; in all their afflictions He is afflicted, and He meets their stubbornness, not with the swift sentence of outraged holiness, but with longsuffering and patience, if so in the end He may win them. But the pain, that is thus essentially inseparable from love, reaches its acme when the beloved are not only in danger but in sin, when not only the future of their holiness is uncertain, but their guilty past bars the way to any future at all. We saw how Jeremiahs love thus took upon itself the conscience and reproach of Israels sin; how much distress and anguish, how much sympathy and self-sacrificing labour, and at last how much hopeless endurance of the common calamity, that sin cost the noble prophet, though he might so easily have escaped it all. Now even thus does God deal with His peoples sins; not only setting them in the light of His awful countenance, but taking them upon His heart; making them not only the object of His hate, but the anguish and the effort of His love. Jeremiah was a weak mortal, and God is the Omnipotent. Therefore, the issue of His agony shall be what His servants never could effect, the redemption of Israel from sin; but in sympathy and in travail the Deity, though omnipotent, is no whit behind the man.
We have said enough to prove our case, that the true Old Testament prophecy of the nature and work of Jesus Christ is found not so much in the long promise of the exalted human ruler, for whom Israels eyes looked, as in the assurance of Gods own descent to battle with His peoples foes and to bear their sins. In this God, omnipotent, yet in His zeal and love capable of passion, who before the Incarnation was afflicted in all His peoples affliction, and before the Cross made their sin His burden and their salvation His agony, we see the love that was in Jesus Christ. For Jesus, too, is absolute holiness, yet not far off. He, too, is righteousness militant at our side, militant and victorious. He, too, has made our greatest suffering and shame His own problem and endeavour. He is anxious for us just where conscience bids us be most anxious about ourselves. He helps us because He feels when we feel our helplessness the most. Never before or since in humanity has righteousness been perfectly victorious as in Him. Never before or since, in the whole range of being, has any one felt as He did all the sin of man with all the conscience of God. He claims to forgive, as God forgives; to be able to save, as we know only God can save. And the proof of these claims, apart from the experience of their fulfilment in our own lives, is that the same infinite love was in Him, the same agony and willingness to sacrifice Himself for men, which we have seen made evident in the Passion of God.