Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 41:1
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
1. Jehovah calls the heathen nations to a disputation concerning the appearance of Cyrus.
Keep silence before me ] A pregnant constr. in the Heb. = Listen in silence unto me. On islands, see on ch. Isa 40:15.
renew their strength ] The words are somewhat suspicious, as they are repeated from ch. Isa 40:31, and the thought is hardly suitable at the beginning of an argument. Job 38:3 is not an exact parallel. Possibly the eye of a scribe may have wandered to the previous verse.
judgment ] ( mishp) is used in the same sense as in Mal 3:5 (= “judicial process.”) Cf. Jdg 4:5.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The design of this chapter is the same as that of the preceding, and it is to be regarded as the continuation of the argument commenced there. Its object is to lead those who were addressed, to put confidence in God. In the introduction to Isa. 40 it was remarked, that this is to be considered as addressed to the exile Jews in Babylon, near the close of their captivity. Their country, city, and temple had been laid waste. The prophet represents himself as bringing consolation to them in this situation; particularly by the assurance that their long captivity was about to end; that they were about to be restored to their own land, and thai their trials were to be succeeded by brighter and happier times. In the previous chapter there were general reasons given why they should put their confidence in God – arising from the firmness of his promises, the fact that he had created all things; that he had all power, etc. In this chapter there is a more definite view given, and a clearer light thrown on the mode in which deliverance would be brought to them. The prophet specifies that God would raise up a deliverer, and that that deliverer would be able to subdue all their enemies. The chapter may be conveniently divided into the following parts:
I. God calls the distant nations to a public investigation of his ability to aid his people; to an argument whether he was able to deliver them; and to the statement of the reasons why they should confide in him Isa 41:1.
II. He specifies that he will raise up a man from the east – who should be able to overcome the enemies of the Jews, and to effect their deliverance Isa 41:2-4.
III. The consternation of the nations at the approach of Cyrus, and their excited and agitated fleeing to their idols is described Isa 41:5-7.
IV. God gives to his people the assurance of his protection, and friendship Isa 41:8-14. This is shown:
1. Because they were the children of Abraham, his friend, and be was bound in covenant faithfulness to protect them Isa 41:8-9.
2. By direct assurance that he would aid and protect them; that though they were feeble, yet he was strong enough to deliver them Isa 41:10-14.
V. He says that he will enable them to overcome and scatter their foes, as the chaff is driven away on the mountains by the whirlwind Isa 41:15-16.
VI. He gives to his people the special promise of assistance and comfort. He will meet them in their desolate condition, and will give them consolation as if fountains were opened in deserts, and trees producing grateful shade and fruit were planted in the wilderness Isa 41:17-20.
VII. He appeals directly to the enemies of the Jews, to the worshippers of idols. He challenges them to give any evidence of the power or the divinity of their idols; and appeals to the fact that he had foretold future events; that he had raised up a deliverer for his people in proof of his divinity, and his power to save Isa 41:21-29. The argument of the whole is, that the idol-gods were unable to defend the nations which trusted in them; that God would raise up a mighty prince who should be able to deliver the Jews from their long and painful calamity, and that they, therefore, should put their trust in Yahweh.
Keep silence before me – (Compare Zec 2:13) The idea is, that the pagan nations were to be silent while God should speak, or with a view of entering into an argument with him respecting the comparative power of himself and of idols to defend their respective worshippers. The argument is stated in following verses, and preparatory to the statement of that argument, the people are exhorted to be silent. This is probably to evince a proper awe and reverence for Yahweh, before whom the argument was to be conducted, and a proper sense of the magnitude and sacredness of the inquiry (compare Isa 41:21). And it may be remarked here, that the same reasons will apply to all approaches which are made to God. When we are about to come before him in prayer or praise; to confess our sins and to plead for pardon; when we engage an argument respecting his being, plans, or perfections; or when we draw near to him in the closet, the family, or the sanctuary, the mind should be filled with awe and reverence. It is well, it is proper, to pause and think of what our emotions should be, and of what we should say, before God (compare Gen 28:16-17).
O islands – ( ‘iyiym). This word properly means islands, and is so translated here by the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, the Syriac, and the Arabic. But the word also is used to denote maritime countries; Countries that were situated on seacoasts, or the regions beyond sea (see the note at Isa 20:6). The word is applied, therefore, to the islands of the Mediterranean; to the maritime coasts; and then, also, it comes to be used in the sense of any lands or coasts far remote, or beyond sea (see Psa 72:10; Isa 24:15; the notes at Isa 40:15; Isa 41:5; Isa 42:4, Isa 42:10, Isa 42:12; Isa 49:1; Jer 25:22; Dan 11:18). Here it is evidently used in the sense of distant nations or lands; the people who were remote from Palestine, and who were the worshippers of idols. The argument is represented as being with them, and they are invited to prepare their minds by suitable reverence for God for the argument which was to be presented.
And let the people renew their strength – On the word renew, see the note at Isa 40:31. Here it means, Let them make themselves strong; let them prepare the argument; let them be ready to urge as strong reasons as possible; let them fit themselves to enter into the controversy about the power and glory of Yahweh (see Isa 41:21).
Let us come near together to judgment – The word judgment here means evidently controversy, argumentation, debate. Thus it is used in Job 9:32. The language is that which is used of two parties who come together to try a cause, or to engage in debate; and the sense is, that God proposes to enter into an argumentation with the entire pagan world, in regard to his ability to save his people; that is, he proposes to show the reasons why they should trust in him, rather than dread those under whose power they then were, and by whom they had been oppressed. Lowth renders it, correctly expressing the sense, Let us enter into solemn debate together.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 41:1
Keep silence before Me, O islands
The convocation of the nations
(whole chapter):–The conception of this passage is superb.
Jehovah is represented as summoning the earth, as far as the remote isles of the west, to determine once and for ever who is the true God: whether He, or the idols and oracles of which there were myriads worshipped and believed in by every nation under heaven. The test proposed is a very simple one. The gods of the nations were to predict events in the near future, or to show that they had had a clear understanding of the events of former days. On the other hand, the servant of Jehovah was prepared to show how fast-sealed prophecies, committed to the custody of his race, had been precisely verified in the event, and to utter minute predictions about Cyrus, the one from the East, which should be fulfilled before that generation had passed away. Not, as in Elijahs case, would the appeal be made to the descending flame; but to the fitting of prophecy and historical fact. Immediately there is a great commotion, the isles see and fear, the ends of the earth tremble, they draw near and come to the judgment-seat. On their way thither each bids the other take courage. There is an industrious furbishing up of the dilapidated idols, and manufacturing of new ones. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith; and he that smooths with the hammer him that smites the anvil. They examine the soldering to see if it will stand, and drive great nails to render the idols steadfast. The universal desire is to make a strong set of gods who will be able to meet the Divine challenge–much as if a Roman Catholic priest were to regild and repaint the images of the saints on the time-worn altar of a fishing hamlet, in the hope of securing from them greater help in quelling the winter storms. Amidst the excitement of this vast convocation the idols are dumb. We can almost see them borne into the arena by their attendant priests, resplendent in gold and tinsel, flashing with jewels, bedizened in gorgeous apparel. They are set in a row, their acolytes swing high the censer, the monotonous drawl of their votaries arises in supplication. Silence is proclaimed that they may have an opportunity of pronouncing on the subject submitted to them; but they are speechless. Jehovah pronounces the verdict against which there can be no appeal, Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you (Isa 41:24). As Jehovah looks, there is no one. When He asks of them, there is no counsellor that can answer a word. Behold they are all vanity; their works are nought; their molten images are wind and confusion. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Heathen oracles and Scripture prophecy
History furnishes some interesting confirmations of this contrast between the predictions of heathen oracles and the clear prophecies of Old Testament Scripture, which were so literally and minutely realised. For instance, Herodotus tells us that when Croesus heard of the growing power of Cyrus, he was so alarmed for his kingdom, that he sent rich presents to the oracles at Delphi, Dodona, and elsewhere, asking what would be the outcome of his victorious march. That at Delphi gave this ambiguous reply, That he would destroy a great empire, but whether the empire would be that of Cyrus or of Croesus was left unexplained: thus, whichever way the event turned, the oracle could claim to have predicted it. This is a fair illustration of the manner in which the oracles answered the appeals made to them by men or nations when in the agony of fear. How striking a contrast the precise prediction of these pages which give us the name of the conqueror; the quarter from which he would fall upon Babylon; the marvellous series of successes that gave kings as dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow; his reverence towards God, his simplicity and integrity of purpose (Isa 41:2; Isa 14:3; Isa 14:25; Isa 45:1). (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
A drama
In form the chapter is dramatic. Two great debates are imagined: the first (Isa 41:1-7) between Jehovah and the nations; the second (Isa 41:21-29) between Jehovah and the idols, the subject of both being the appearance of Cyrus. In the intervening passage (Isa 41:8-20) Jehovah encourages His servant Israel in view of this great crisis of history. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
A trial at law
Chapter 41. is loosely cast in the same form of a trial at law which we found in chapter 1. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Gods response to Israels complaint
In reply to Israels complaint Isa 40:27) that his cause against the heathen oppressors is neglectedor dismissed by the Great Judge, God now summons the nations to His court of justice; and as Israel had just been assured that, if they would wait upon Jehovah, they would renew their strength and discern His wisdom, an interval is granted to the heathen and their gods, in which they too may renew their strength and have time to produce evidence of the powers of design and action possessed by their gods, and in virtue of which they claim the right to keep Israel in subjection. The solemn pause thus allowed–Keep silence . . . then let them speak–is filled (how bitter the irony!)by the nations employing their carpenters and goldsmiths m make a particularly good and strong set of gods, because there is a general alarm that the emergency is great. For it is already seen that the judgment goes against them by default: that these gods can show no plans, can do nothing good or bad; and that they and their worshippers have neither right nor power to break up the designs of Almighty wisdom. They have been trying to do this by those oppressions of Israel which were only permitted for a time, because they fell into and formed a part of Gods own plan. But Israel had from the first an appointed and chief place in that plan: He who is at once King of Israel and God of all the earth, has been maintaining His chosen people in their place, generation after generation, when He made Abraham His friend, and gave the blessing to his seed, and then He made the well yield springs of water under the rod of Moses; and now, though they are reduced to extremity of weakness and dismay, the Holy One of Israel bids them fear not, for He has taken upon Himself to be their Redeemer. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
A lawsuit
If Jehovah is a party, who then is the presiding judge? This question is to be answered as in Isa 5:3. The decisive authority is reason, which must acknowledge the state of the case and the conclusions following therefrom. (P. Delitzsch, D. D.)
A fair trial
1. The cause of God and His kingdom is not afraid of s fair trial. If the case be but fairly stated it will be surely carried in favour of religion.
2. The enemies of Gods Church and His holy religion may safely be challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their unrighteous cause. (M. Henry.)
Islands
A characteristic word of the second half of Isaiah occurring twelve times. In the general usage of the Old Testament it denotes the islands and coastlands of the Mediterranean (comp the use of the singular by Isaiah in Isa 20:6). Etymologically, it probably means simply habitable lands; and this prophet uses it with great laxity, hardly distinguishing it from lands (Isa 42:15). (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Solemn pleadings for revival
We also who worship the Lord God have a controversy with Him. We have not seen His Church and His cause prospering in the world as we could desire; as yet heathenism is not put to the rout by Christianity, neither does the truth everywhere trample down error. We desire to reason with God about this, and He Himself instructs us how to prepare for this sacred debate. He bids us be silent; He bids us consider, and then draw near to Him with holy boldness and plead with Him, produce our cause and bring forth our strong reasons.
I. FIRST, THEN, LET US BE SILENT.
1. Before the controversy opens let us be silent with solemn awe, for we have to speak with the Lord God Almighty! Let us not open our mouths to impugn His wisdom, nor allow our hearts to question His love. We are going to make bold to speak with Him, but still He is the eternal God, and we are dust and ashes. It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, and if He chooses to conceal it, let it be concealed. Truly, God is good to Israel, and His mercy endureth for ever.
2. Our silence of awe should deepen into that of shame; for, though it is true that the cause of God has not prospered, whoso fault is this?
3. Go further than this, and keep the silence of consideration. This is a noisy age, and the Church of Christ herself is too noisy. We have very little silent worship, I fear. Let us be silent, now, for a minute, and consider what it is that we desire of the Lord. The conversion of thousands, the overthrow of error, the spread of the Redeemers kingdom. Think in your minds what the blessings are which your soul pants after. Suppose they were to be now bestowed, are you ready? If thousands of converts were to be born unto this one Church, are you prepared to teach them and comfort them? You pray for grace–are you using the grace you have? You want to see more power–how about the power you have? Are you employing it? If a mighty wave of revival sweeps over London, are your hearts ready? Are your hands ready? Are your purses ready? If you reflect, you will see that God is able to give His Church the largest blessing, and to give it at any time. Keep silence and consider, and you will see that He can give the blessing by you or by me. Ask yourselves in the quiet of your spirits, what can we do to get the blessing? Are we doing that?
4. Then we shall pass on to the silence of attention. Keep silence that God may speak to you. We cannot expect Him to hear us if We will not hear Him.
5. If you have learned attention, be silent with submission.
II. In that silence LET US RENEW OUR STRENGTH. Noise wears us; silence feeds us, To run upon the Masters errands is always well, but to sit at the Masters feet is quite as necessary; or, like the angels which excel in strength, our power to do His commandments arises out of our hearkening to the voice of His Word. But how happens it that such silence renews our strength?
1. It does so by giving space for the strengthening word to come into the soul, and the energy of the Holy Spirit to be really felt.
2. We must be silent to renew our strength, by using silence for consideration as to who it is that we are dealing with. We are going to speak with God about the weakness of His Church, and the slowness of its progress. We are coming to plead now with One whose arm is not shortened, and whose ear is not heavy. Renew your strength as you think of Him. Hath not the Lord said concerning His beloved Son that He shall divide the spoil with the strong, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands? Shall it not be so? Think, too, that you are about to appeal to the Holy Spirit. What cannot the Spirit of God do?
3. In silence, too, let us renew our strength by remembering His promises. There are a thousand promises. Let us think of that, and however difficult the enterprise may be, and however dark our present prospects, we shall not dare to doubt when Jehovah has spoken and pledged His Word.
4. Our strength will be renewed next, if in silence we yield up to God all our own wisdom and strength.
5. Keep silence, then, ye saints, till ye have felt your folly and your weakness, and then renew your strength most gloriously by casting yourselves upon the strength of God.
III. Our text proceeds to add, Then let them draw near. You that know the Lord DRAW NEAR. You are silent, you have renewed your strength, now enjoy access with boldness. The condition in which to intercede for others is not that of distance from God, but that of great nearness to Him. Even thus did Abraham draw nigh when he pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah.
1. Let us remember how near we really are. We are one with Christ, and members of His body. How could we be nearer?
2. You are coming to a Father.
3. The desire in our heart for Gods glory and the extension of His Church, is a desire written there by the Holy Spirit.
4. What we ask, if we are about to plead with God concerning His kingdom, is according to His own mind.
5. Moreover, there is this further consideration; the Lord loves to be pleaded with. He might have given all the covenant blessings without prayer; wherefore does He compel us to use entreaties, unless it be that He loves to hear the voices of His children?
IV. I now come to the last point, which is, LET US SPEAK. Be silent, renew your strength, draw near, and then speak. What have we to say upon the matter which concerns us?
1. Let us first speak in the spirit of adoring gratitude. How sweet to think that there should be a Saviour at all. To think that there should be a heavenly kingdom set up, as it is set up; that it should have made such advances as it has made, and should still grow mightily!
2. Next, let us speak in humble expostulation.
3. Then turn to pleading.
4. Let us speak in the way of dedication.
5. Let us speak still in the way of confidence. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Silence and speech before God
God addresses men here by two designations, the one having reference to their remoteness and isolation, and the other to their unity. The series of injunctions begins with silence and ends with speech. Right silence before God, passing on through stirring up of energy and earnest confiding approach, issues m speech. We shall consider the beginning and the end of this series–silence before God and speech to God.
I. SILENCE BEFORE GOD. Shall we not be silent in the endeavour to realise that God is, and what He is? Would not this do more for us than any urging of ourselves or any kind of activity and noise whatever? And can anything have its proper effect on our soul without this? If we but realise with ourselves that we have to do with an Infinite One, that there is One Being of spotless perfection, almighty power, unchangeableness, boundless love, complete and earnest opposition to evil, what an effect this will produce on us! Unless we can bear to be silent and brood, the thought of God will not rise before us in fulness and splendour. But God speaks, and we must listen in silence. With what glad silence should we listen to the Divine voice. A single word of God must be worth more to us than all other words. When we read the Word of God we should say to ourselves, Hush! God is speaking. We should listen to it as a message conveying what we are to believe and embrace and ponder and do. We may spoil everything by letting the murmur of our own thoughts arise. Our silence in the presence of God will often take the form of thinking of ourselves. Thinking of self becomes sincere and profitable when it goes on consciously in Gods presence. The felt presence of God revives memory, prevents besetting self-deception, and turns the survey of the future from chaotic dreams into earnest outlook. Can any man make such a survey, however imperfectly, without shame? Shame makes him silent. He who knows the bitterness of being put to silence in the presence of God, will scarcely be without experience of the sweetness of silent satisfaction and rest. He will be led to see such a graciousness in God, such a benign healing aspect of His mercy, such a fulness in Christ, such a might of forgiveness, such a sublime oblivion, that he will feel for a while as if he had nothing more to ask. This satisfaction passes into expectation.
II. SPEECH TO GOD FOLLOWING UPON THE SILENCE. Silence before God in which such thoughts as these go on leads to a stirring of the soul, a forth-putting of endeavour, and a drawing near to God. Silence before God heaps a load on the heart which can only be thrown off by speaking to God. One thing after another brings fresh penitence, new discovery of sin, new sense of the greatness of God; new fears spring up, new resolutions gather, and all these weigh very heavily. And much more than freedom from pressure will be experienced. The convictions that gather in silence will be strengthened by speech. If they did not find expression they would begin to decay. In short, speaking to God of the things that have lain on the soul in its silence is a necessity at once for relief, for understanding, for intensity, for permanence, and for growth, It would be a wrong inference to draw from this passage that one ought not to speak to God without consciously going through these stages of the text. There may be true speaking to God which seems to break forth at once and immediately from the soul. It is not always a bad sign when we feel that we cannot speak, but must be silent before God. This state is not, indeed, to be prolonged. Nor must it be a dull, dead, distant silence, but one that has its own peculiar activities. Hasting to cut short the period of silence may enervate and chill. The silence may be more acceptable to God for the time than any words could be. We should expect times of silence before God–times in which speaking to God is not indeed absent, but in which silence is the dominating element. If it is a silence before God, it is a leaving of space for God to speak, and surely this is implied in communion. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
The silence of reverence
The silence of reverence is the soil in which earnestness and energy grow. By this reverent silence resolution takes shape and gathers force. Men gird up their energies afresh when in solemn silence they have gone over the actualities and the possibilities of life. Then with purpose and intensity they come near to God. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
The relief of speech after silence
You may have seen a reservoir of water which, by continuous rain, had become so full that it threatened to overflow all its banks or burst them–the rain through days and nights had been pouring on its broad bosom, and the brooks and rills from miles around had been hurrying their foaming tributes into it, till the ordinary small outlet is wholly unable to relieve the immense pressure, and the very edge of ruin is reached, when, lo! the great sluice is raised, and away rushes the pent-up flood in immense volume. There is relief and safety at once. So is it with the burdened soul on which silence before God has been laying load after load, pressing and crushing it with memories, convictions, fears, resolutions. Relief and freedom are gained by pouring out the soul in words before God. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
Conviction aided by both silence and speech
In silence there is the rooting of conviction, but in speaking to God its expansion and growth. When you have hyacinths in water glasses, you put them first in darkness for some weeks till the roots strike down into the water. You find that the roots have spread and filled the glass, but there is scarcely a sign of growth upward, the stalk remains undeveloped. Light is needed for that. So speech to God is needed to raise and expand the feelings that have been rooted in silence. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XLI
The prophet, having intimated the deliverance from Babylon, and
the still greater redemption couched under it, resumes the
subject. He begins with the Divine vocation of Abraham, the
root of the Israelitish family, and his successful exploits
against the idolaters, 1-7.
He then recurs to the Babylonish captivity, and encourages the
seed of Abraham, the friend of God, not to fear, as all their
enemies would be ultimately subdued under them, 8-16;
and every thing furnished necessary to refresh and comfort them
in them passage homewards through the desert, 17-20.
The prophet then takes occasion to celebrate the prescience of
God, from his knowledge of events so very distant as instanced
in the prediction concerning the messenger of glad tidings
which should be given to Jerusalem to deliver her from all her
enemies; and challenges the idols of the heathen to produce the
like proof of their pretended divinity, 21-27.
But they are all vanity, and accursed are they that choose
them, 28, 29.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLI
Verse 1. Keep silence before me, O islands – “Let the distant nations repair to me with new force of mind”] , Septuagint. For hacharishu, be silent, they certainly read in their copy hachadishu, be renewed; which is parallel and synonymous with yechalephu coach, “recover their strength; ” that is, their strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome those prejudices by which they have been so long held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has har, upon a rasure. The same mistake seems to have been made in this word, Zep 3:17. For yacharish beahabatho, silebit in directione sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems not consistent with what immediately follows, exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read yachadish beahabatho, “he shall be renewed in his love.” elai, to me, is wanting in one of De Rossi’s MSS. and in the Syriac.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Keep silence before me; attend diligently to my plea, and then answer it if you can.
O islands; O you inhabitants of islands, as the next clause explains this. By islands he here means, as he doth Isa 40:15, and elsewhere, countries remote from Judea, inhabited by the idolatrous Gentiles, with whom he here debateth his cause.
Let the people renew their strength; strengthen themselves to maintain their cause against me; let them unite all their strength together.
Let them come near unto me, that we may stand together, and plead our cause before any indifferent judge.
Let them speak; I will give them free liberty to say what they can on their own behalf.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. (Zec2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nationslisten in reverential silence. Compare Gen 28:16;Gen 28:17, as to the spirit inwhich we ought to behave before God.
before merather(turning), “towards me” [MAURER].
islandsincluding allregions beyond sea (Jer25:22), maritime regions, not merely isles in the strict sense.
renew . . . strengthLetthem gather their strength for the argument; let them adduce theirstrongest arguments (compare Isa 1:18;Job 9:32). “Judgment”means here, to decide the point at issue between us.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Keep silence before me, O islands,…. The great controversy in the world after the coming of Christ, which is expressly spoken of in the preceding chapter, was, as Cocceius observes, whether he was a divine Person; this was first objected to by the Jews, and afterwards by many that bore the Christian name; some, in the times of the apostles, especially the Apostle John; and others in later ages; some affirmed that he was a mere man, as Ebion and Cerinthus; others that he was a created God, as Arius; and others a God by office, as Socinus and his followers; now these are called upon, wherever they were, whether on the continent, or in the isles of the sea; and especially all such places which were separated from Judea by the sea, or which they went to by sea, were called islands, perhaps the European nations and isles are more particularly intended; and now, as when the judge is on the bench, and the court is set, and a cause just going to be tried, silence is proclaimed; so here, Jehovah himself being on the throne, and a cause depending between him and men being about to be tried, they are commanded silence; see Zec 2:13:
and let the people renew their strength; muster up all their force, collect the most powerful arguments they had, and produce their strong reasons in favour of their sentiments:
let them come near, then let them speak; let them come into open court, and at the bar plead their cause, and speak out freely and fully all they have to say; and let them not pretend that they were deterred from speaking, and not suffered to make their defence, or were condemned without hearing:
let us come near together in judgment: and fairly try the cause; the issue of which is put upon this single point that follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Summons to the contest: “Be silent to me, ye islands; and let the nations procure fresh strength: let them come near, then speak; we will enter into contest together.” The words are addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to the inhabitants of the western islands and coasts. This was the expression commonly employed in the Old Testament to designate the continent of Europe, the solid ground of which is so deeply cut, and so broken up, by seas and lakes, that it looks as if it were about to resolve itself into nothing but islands and peninsulas. is a pregnant expression for turning in silence towards a person; just as in Job 13:13 it is used with min, in the sense of forsaking a person in silence. That they may have no excuse if they are defeated, they are to put on fresh strength; just as in Isa 40:31 believers are spoken of as drawing fresh strength out of Jehovah’s fulness. They are to draw near, then speak, i.e., to reply after hearing the evidence, for Jehovah desires to go through all the forms of a legal process with them in pro et contra . The m ishpat is thought of here in a local sense, as a forum or tribunal. But if Jehovah is one party to the cause, who is the judge to pronounce the decision? The answer to this question is the same as at Isa 5:3. “The nations,” says Rosenmller, “are called to judgment, not to the tribunal of God, but to that of reason.” The deciding authority is reason, which cannot fail to recognise the facts, and the consequences to be deduced from them.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Idolatry Exposed. | B. C. 708. |
1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. 2 Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. 3 He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. 4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he. 5 The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. 6 They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. 7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. 8 But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. 9 Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
That particular instance of God’s care for his people Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and of his power to protect his people. Here is,
I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols to make good their pretensions, in competition with God and opposition to him, v. 1. Is is renewed (v. 21): Produce your cause. The court is set, summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out of God’s jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the ends of the earth, to make their appearance and give their attendance. Silence (as usual) is proclaimed while the cause is in trying: “Keep silence before me, and judge nothing before the time” ; while the cause is in trying between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan it becomes all people silently to expect the issue, not to object against God’s proceedings, but to be confident that he will carry the day. The defenders of idolatry are called to say what they can in defence of it: “Let them renew their strength, in opposition to God, and see whether it be equal to the strength which those renew that wait upon him (ch. xl. 31); let them try their utmost efforts, whether by force of arms or force of argument. Let them come near; they shall not complain that God’s dread makes them afraid (Job xiii. 21), so that they cannot say what they have to say, in vindication and honour of their idols; no, let them speak freely: Let us come near together to judgment.” Note. 1. The cause of God and his kingdom is not afraid of a fair trial; if the case be but fairly stated, it will be surely carried in favour of religion. 2. The enemies of God’s church and his holy religion may safely be challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their unrighteous cause. He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and the daughter of Zion despises them; for great is the truth and will prevail.
II. He particularly challenges the idols to do that for their worshippers, and against his, which he had done and would do for his worshippers, and against theirs. Different senses are given of v. 2, concerning the righteous man raised up from the east; and, since we cannot determine which is the true, we will make use of each as good.
1. That which is to be proved is, (1.) That the Lord is God alone, the first and with the last (v. 4), that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, that he governed the world from the beginning, and will to the end of time. He has reigned of old, and will reign for ever; the counsels of his kingdom were from eternity, and the continuance of it will be to eternity. (2.) That Israel is his servant (v. 8), whom he owns, and protects, and employs, and in whom he is and will be glorified. As there is a God in heaven, so there is a church on earth that is his particular care. Elijah prays (1 Kings xviii. 36), Let it be known that thou art God, and that I am thy servant. Now,
2. To prove this he shows,
(1.) That it was he who called Abraham, the father of this despised nation, out of an idolatrous country, and by many instances of his favour made his name great, Gen. xii. 2. He is the righteous man whom God raised up from the east. Of him the Chaldee paraphrast expressly understands it: Who brought Abraham publicly from the east? To maintain the honour of the people of Israel, it was very proper to show what a figure this great ancestor of theirs made in his day; and v. 8 seems to be the explication of it, where God calls Israel the seed of Abraham my friend; and (v. 4) he calls the generations (namely, the generations of Israel) from the beginning. Also, to put contempt upon idolatry, and particularly the Chaldean idolatry, it was proper to show how Abraham was called from serving other gods (Jos 24:2; Jos 24:3, c.), so that an early testimony was borne against that idolatry which boasted so much of its antiquity. Also, to encourage the captives in Babylon to hope that God would find a way for their return to their own land, it was proper to remind them how at first he brought their father Abraham out of the same country into this land, to give it to him for an inheritance, Gen. xv. 7. Now observe what is here said concerning him. [1.] That he was a righteous man, or righteousness, a man of righteousness, that believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness and so he became the father of all those who by faith in Christ are made the righteousness of God through him,Rom 4:3; Rom 4:11; 2Co 5:21. He was a great example of righteousness in his day, and taught his household to do judgment and justice, Gen. xviii. 19. [2.] That God raised him up from the east, from Ur first and afterwards from Haran, which lay east from Canaan. God would not let him settle in either of those places, but did by him as the eagle by her young, when she stirs up her nest: he raised him out of iniquity and made him pious, out of obscurity and made him famous. [3.] He called him to his foot, to follow him with an implicit faith; for he went out, not knowing whither he went, but whom he followed, Heb. xi. 8. Those whom God effectually calls he calls to his foot, to be subject to him, to attend him, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes; and we must all either come to his foot or be made his footstool. [4.] He gave nations before him, the nations of Canaan, which he promised to make him master of, and thus far gave him an interest in that the Hittites acknowledged him a mighty prince among them, Gen. xxiii. 6. He made him rule over those kings whom he conquered for the rescue of his brother Lot, Gen. xiv. And when God gave them as dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow (that is, made them an easy prey to his catechised servants), he then pursued them, and passed safely, or in peace, under the divine protection, though it was in a way he was altogether unacquainted with; and so considerable was this victory that Melchizedec himself appeared to celebrate it. Now who did this but the great Jehovah? Can any of the gods of the heathen do so?
(2.) That it is he who will, ere long, raise up Cyrus from the east. It is spoken of according to the language of prophecy as a thing past, because as sure to be done in its season as if it were already done. God will raise him up in righteousness (so it may be read, ch. xlv. 13), will call him to his foot, make what use of him he pleases, and make him victorious over the nations that oppose his coming to the crown, and give him success in all his wars; and he shall be a type of Christ, who is righteousness itself, the Lord our righteousness, whom God will, in the fulness of time, raise up and make victorious over the powers of darkness; so that he shall spoil them and make a show of them openly.
III. He exposes the folly of idolaters, who, notwithstanding the convincing proofs which the God of Israel had given of his being God alone, obstinately persisted in their idolatry, nay, were so much the more hardened in it (v. 5): The isles of the Gentiles saw this, not only what God did for Abraham himself, but what he did for his seed, for his sake, how he brought them out of Egypt, and made them rule over kings, and they feared, Exod. xv. 14-16. They were afraid, and, according to the summons (v. 1), they drew near, and came; they could not avoid taking notice of what God did for Abraham and his seed; but, instead of helping to reason one another out of their sottish idolatries, they helped to confirm one another in them, Isa 41:6; Isa 41:7. 1. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon their religion, which they were jealous for the honour of, and were resolved, right or wrong, to adhere to, and therefore were alarmed to appear vigorously for the support of it, as the Ephesians for their Diana. When God, by his wonderful appearances on the behalf of his people, went about to wrest their idols from them, they held them so much the faster, and said one to another, “Be of good courage; let us unanimously agree to keep up the reputation of our gods. Though Dagon fall before the ark, he shall be set up again in his place.” One tradesman encourages another to come into a confederacy for the keeping up of the noble craft of god-making. Thus men’s convictions often exasperate their corruptions, and they are made worse both by the word and the works of God, which should make them better. 2. They looked upon it as a dangerous design upon themselves. They thought themselves in danger from the growing greatness both of Abraham that was a convert from idolatry, and of the people of Israel that were separatists from it; and therefore they not only had recourse to their old gods for protection, but made new ones, Deut. xxxii. 17. So the carpenter, having done his part to the timberwork, encouraged the goldsmith to do his part in gilding or overlaying it; and, when it came into the goldsmith’s hand, he that smooths with the hammer that polishes it, or beats it thin, quickened him that smote the anvil, bade him be expeditious, and told him it was ready for the soldering, which perhaps was the last operation about it, and then it is fastened with nails, and you have a god of it presently. Do sinners thus animate and quicken one another in the ways of sin? And shall not the servants of the living God both stir up one another to, and strengthen one another in, his service? Some read all this ironically, and by way of permission: Let them help every one his neighbour; let the carpenter encourage the goldsmith; but all in vain; idols shall fall for all this.
IV. He encourages his own people to trust in him (Isa 41:8; Isa 41:9): “But thou, Israel, art my servant. They know me not, but thou knowest me, and knowest better than to join with such ignorant besotted people as these” (for it is intended for a warning to the people of God not to walk in the way of the heathen); “they put themselves under the protection of these impotent deities, but thou art under my protection. Those that make them are like unto them, and so is every one that trusts in them; but thou, O Israel! art the servant of a better Master.” Observe what is suggested here for the encouragement of God’s people when they are threatened and insulted over. 1. They are God’s servants, and he will not see them abused, especially for what they do in his service: Thou art my servant (v. 8), and (v. 9) “I have said unto thee, Thou art my servant; and I will not go back from my word.” 2. He has chosen them to be a peculiar people to himself. They were not forced upon him, but of his own good-will he set them apart. 3. They were the seed of Abraham his friend. It was the honour of Abraham that he was called the friend of God (James ii. 23), whom God covenanted and conversed with as a friend, and the man of his counsel; and this honour have all the saints, John xv. 15. And for the father’s sake the people of Israel were beloved. God was pleased to look upon them as the posterity of an old friend of his, and therefore to be kind to them; for the covenant of friendship was made with Abraham and his seed. 4. He had sometimes, when they had been scattered among the heathen, fetched them from the ends of the earth and taken them out of the hands of the chief ones thereof, and therefore he would not now abandon them. Abraham their father was fetched from a place at a great distance, and they in his loins; and those who had been thus far-fetched and dear-bought he could not easily part with. 5. He had not yet cast them away, though they had often provoked him, and therefore he would not now abandon them. What God has done for his people, and what he has further engaged to do, should encourage them to trust in him at all times.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
ISAIAH – CHAPTER 41
ISRAEL’S DELIVERANCE AND RESTORATION
Though this chapter is widely considered to point to deliverance from the Babylonian captivity, some aspects of it require a far more extensive view. In his monumental work entitled “The Theocratic Kingdom”, George N. H. Peters views this chapter as describing “the advent of Christ, the confederacy sustained by image worship, their overthrow, the restoration of God’s people and the millennial glory that shall follow”, (Vol. 2, p. 769). Some are inclined to ignore the fact that the “times of the Gentiles” has now extended over a period of 2,500 years. Nor will Gentile ascendancy be easily surrendered. Only through a terrible conflict will the Davidic throne and kingdom be re-established and its rule yielded to the absolute authority of the long-expected Messiah. Though the nation once rejected Him, Israel will ultimately receive Him with joyful and grateful hearts.
Vs. 1-7: SUMMONING IDOLATORS TO VINDICATE THEIR PRACTICE
1. Having shown what comfort, renewal and peace is given those who “wait on the Lord”, the idolators, of the nations, are now summoned to: strengthen themselves, draw near and vindicate their choice of dumb idols over the true and living God, (vs. 1-4; comp. Isa 1:18; Isa 34:1; Isa 48:16; Isa 50:8; Isa 43:26).
a. Do they know who has raised up the man from the East, whose actions are rooted in righteousness? (vs. 2, 25; Isa 45:1-2; Isa 46:11; Jdg 4:10) the one before whom kings and nations bow; their armaments being like dust to His sword (Isa 29:5; 2Sa 22:43; 2Ki 13:7) and like stubble before the wind, (40:24)?
1) In a typical sense this refers to Cyrus, who had not yet been born at the time Isaiah wrote, (2Ch 36:23).
2) But, the larger, fulfillment will be realized only in the second coming of Jesus, the Messiah.
b. Do the nations know who has done all this – “calling the generations from the beginning”? (vs. 4a; Isaiah 44; Isaiah 7; Isa 46:10)
c. They must realize that all this is the work of Jehovah -Israel’s covenant God – “the first, and with the last”, (vs. 4b; Isa 43:10; Isa 44:6).
2. Idolatrous nations, to the ends of the earth, recognize the Lord’s challenge, and tremble, (vs. 5-7; Eze 26:15-16; Jos 5:1; Psa 67:7).
a. In fear they unite and try to encourage each other, (Joe 3:9-11).
b. The manufacturers of portable gods place their workmen on overtime; they will greatly increase the number of gods to whom they may look for help, (Isa 40:19; Isa 44:13).
c. Declaring the work of their own hands to be “good”, they then fasten their deities securely with nails – lest they fall over and be unable to arise, (Isa 40:20; Isa 46:7), so different from our living God, Psa 115:5-9; Act 17:24-30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
1. Be silent to me, (133) O islands. Though the Prophet’s discourse appears to be different from the former, yet he pursues the same subject; for, in order to put the Jews to shame, he says that he would have been successful, if he had been called to plead with unbelievers and blind persons. Thus he reproves not only the sluggishness, but the stupidity of that nation, “to whom God had been so nigh” and so intimately known by his Law. (Deu 4:7.) Yet we need not wonder that the people, overtaken by many terrors, trembled so that they scarcely received solid consolation; for we have abundant experience how much we are alarmed by adversity, because amidst; this depravity and corruption of our nature, every man labors under two diseases. In prosperity, he exalts himself extravagantly, and shakes off the restraint; of humility and moderation; but, in adversity, he either rages, or lies in a lifeless condition, and scarcely has the smallest perception of the goodness of God. We need not wonder, therefore, that the Prophet dwells so largely on this subject, and that he pursues it in many ways.
He gives the name of islands to the countries beyond the sea; for the Jews, having no intercourse with them, gave to all that lay beyond the sea the name of “islands;” and therefore he addresses not only the nations which were at hand, but likewise those which were more distant, and requires them “to keep silence before him.” But of what nature is this silence? Isaiah describes a kind of judicial pleading which the Lord is not unwilling to enter into with all nations. He demands only that he shall be heard in his own cause, and that there shall be no confusion or disorder in the proceedings, which would be altogether at variance with a court of justice. On this account he commands the Gentiles to keep silence, that, when this has been done, he may openly plead his cause; for the order of a court of justice demands that every person shall speak in his turn; for, if all should cry aloud together, there must be strange confusion. (134)
This reminds us, that the reason why we do not think with so much reverence as we ought concerning the power and goodness and wisdom and other attributes of God, is, that we do not listen to him when he speaks. Men roar and murmur against God; some, swelling with their pride, openly despise his word; while others, through some kind of slothfulness, disregard him, and, in consequence of being buried in earthly delights, take no concern about aspiring to the heavenly kingdom. Even now we perceive with what insolence and rebellion many persons speak against God. How comes it that Papists are so obstinate and headstrong in their errors, but because they refuse to listen to God? for if they would listen to him in silence, the truth would speedily convince them. In a word, the Lord shews by these words that he will be victorious, if men listen to him attentively. He does not wish that they shall listen to him in a careless manner, as unjust and corrupt judges, having already determined what sentence they shall pronounce, are wont to do; but that they shall examine and weigh his arguments, in which they will find nothing but what is perfectly just.
It may be asked, “Does the Prophet now exhort the Gentiles to hear?” I reply, these things relate chiefly to the Jews; for it would be long before this prophecy would reach the Gentiles. But this discourse would be fitted more powerfully to remove the obstinacy of the Jews, when he shows that the Gentiles, though they were estranged from him, would speedily acknowledge his power, provided only that they chose to listen to him in silence. There is greater weight and force in these words addressed directly to the “islands” themselves than if he had spoken of them in the third person.
And let the people collect their strength. The Lord defies all the Gentiles to the contest, and in a contemptuous manner, as is commonly done by those who are more powerful, or who, relying on the goodness of their cause, have no doubt about the result. “Let them collect their strength and league against me; they will gain nothing, but I shall at length be victorious.” As we commonly say, “I disdain them, (Je les despite.) Even though they bend all their strength both of mind and of body, still they shall be conquered; all I ask is, that they give me a hearing.” By these words he declares that truth possesses such power that it easily puts down all falsehoods, provided that men give attention to it; and, therefore, although all men rise up to overwhelm the truth, still it will prevail. Consequently, if we are led astray from God, we must not throw the blame on others, but ought rather to accuse ourselves of not having been sufficiently attentive and diligent when he spoke to us; for falsehoods would not have power over us, nor would we be carried away by any cunning attempt of Satan to deceive us, or by the force of any attack, if we were well disposed to listen to God.
As to his assuming the character of a guilty person, in order that he may appear and plead his cause before a court of justice, it may be asked, “Who among men will be competent. to judge in so hard and difficult a cause?” I reply, there is nothing said here about choosing judges; the Lord means only, that he would be successful, if impartial judges were allowed to try this cause. He cannot submit either to men or to angels, so as to render an account to them; but, for the purpose of taking away every excuse, he declares that victory is in his power, even though he were constrained to plead his cause; and, consequently, that it is highly unreasonable to dispute among ourselves, and not to yield to him absolute obedience; that we are ungrateful and rebellious, in not listening to him, and in not considering how just are his demands. And, indeed, though nothing can be more unreasonable than for mortals to judge of God, yet it is still more shocking and monstrous, when, by our blind murmuring, we condemn him before he has been heard in his own defense.
(133) “ Devant moy “ “Before me.”
(134) “He alludes to the method observed in courts of judicature, where silence is always commanded to prevent interruption; he calls upon the idolatrous nations to appear at the bar with him, and see if they could give so convincing proofs of the divinity of their gods as he could of his own.” — White.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
THE CALL OF CYRUS A FRUIT OF THE CAPTIVITY
Isa. 41:1-2. Keep silence before Me, &c.
Behold how of old the Lord called the people and the distant nations into judgment, and condescended to plead and question with them concerning the dispensations of His providence, that they might see and know that He doeth according to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. Keep silence before Me, O islands, and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. This is as it is written in the Book of Job: Gird up now thy loins as a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou. Me.
The question which the prophet then proposes is one concerning the future, though in our English rendering it is put all in the past tense: Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? The Hebrew language has not the same certainty in the distinctions of time with ours; and it may be mentioned that the ancient Greek translators have put the question partly in the future, to which indeed it wholly refers. [The tenses of the Septuagint in Isa. 41:2-3, are the following: .] But the prophet in spirit here takes his stand in the future, and calls into judgment and investigation the things, the persons, and events of the future, as if they were before him, ere even they had budded and sprung forth (Isa. 42:9). Who hath raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to His foot, shall give the nations before him, and make him rule over kings? shall give them as the dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his bow? He shall pursue them and pass safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and doneit, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He. Even in the first member of the sentence the meaning is really predictive of that which then existed only in Gods purpose and in the preparation of His providence, who calleth the generations from the beginning. You will perceive more clearly that it has this prophetic force if you refer to Isa. 41:21-25 : Produce your cause, &c.
It is generally agreed that there is here a prediction of Cyrus; but what I chiefly call your attention to is, that the whole work is claimed by God as His own. It was not merely He that had predicted it, but it was He that purposed it and brought it to pass. As He saith, Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am He. An erroneous idea of prediction has grown up, as if God had left the things predicted utterly loose from the control of His providence, and as if the marvel were only in the foresight, and not in the power, wisdom, and faithfulness displayed in the bringing to pass. Not thus speaks the Word of God, but the prediction is the declaration of Gods purpose, and the event is His bringing it to pass. It is thus they stand related to one another (Num. 23:19).
In our text, the question is not put as to the marvel involved in the prediction, but rather as to the overruling power and wisdom manifested in the doing of it. The question is not, Whose was the foresight? but, Whose was the accomplishment? To whom appertained the raising of this righteous man? Whose was his training? Whose were his victories? The fact of Cyruss existence, viewed together with his character, actions, and achievements, was altogether more wonderful even than the prediction of him by name. And so will it be in regard to the predicted coming and glory of Christ. Men will cease to debate of the marvel of its being predicted when they see the greater marvel of its being brought to pass. Not that the correspondence of the prediction with its fulfilment will cease to be a subject of admiration; but the actual bringing such a thing to pass from the present state of the world is harder to be conceived than the prediction of anything future.
Now Cyrus was to the Gentiles a type of the Messiah, even as David or Solomon to the Jews; and accordingly we find him spoken of as THE LORDS ANOINTED (Isa. 45:1). Comparing the things which are related of him with the history of Eastern kings and conquerors of his age or that preceding, and especially with the monstrous oppressions, butcheries, massacres, and cruelties recorded on the slabs of Nineveh, he seems like a man of another world. It is a gleam of sunshine breaking through thunder-clouds. The soberest and most truthful of the Greek philosophers (himself a statesman, general, and historian) has selected him as the pattern of a perfect prince, and made his education the theme of a most interesting and instructive book. Whence had he that education? Who raised up that righteous man from the east? called him to His foot? At whose feet was he brought up? and from whose precepts did he receive instruction in righteousness?
I think that we have here one of those examples in which the tribulation of the Lords people has been made to work blessing to the human race. The centribes of Israel had been carried into captivity, and were placed in Halah and Habor, by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. Their princes were made eunuchs and officers in the palaces of their conquerors, and the daughters of Israel, admired for their beauty, sought after for the music of those exquisite songs of Zion, pitied for their exile and their sorrows, and honoured for their virtue, were not unfrequently made the favourite wives of the conquerors and princes among whom they were placed in captivity. The principles and character of the captives influenced the conquerors. The kingdom of heaven wrought after its own manner, like leaven hid in three measures of meal. Now the mother of Cyrus was a Mede, the daughter of the Median king; and Cyrus, though a Persian, was educated among the Medes, where the principles of the law of the Lord were silently working. Thus the Lord called him to His foot and instructed him; and the good seed in good ground brought forth an hundred-fold. From the rising of the sun he made mention of Jehovahs name. And so the captivity of Israel in the cities of the Medes served under the good providence of God to leaven the nation of the Medes, and to prepare an avenger of the cause of Judah upon Babylon, and a restorer of His ancient people to Jerusalem.W. B. Galloway, M.A.: Isaiahs Testimony for Jesus, pp. 277282.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
2. CONQUEST, CHAPTER 41
a. GENTILES SILENCED
TEXT: Isa. 41:1-7
1
Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the peoples renew their strength; let them come near; then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment.
2
Who hath raised up one from the east, whom he calleth in righteousness to his foot? he giveth nations before him, and maketh him rule over kings; he giveth them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow.
3
He pursueth them, and passeth on safely, even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.
4
Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I Jehovah, the first, and with the last, I am he.
5
The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near, and come.
6
They help every one his neighbor; and every one saith to his brother, Be of good courage.
7
So the carpenter encourageth the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smiteth the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth it with nails, that it should not be moved.
QUERIES
a.
Who is the one from the east raised up by God?
b.
Which isles fear, tremble and encourage one another?
PARAPHRASE
Shut up and listen to Me, all you heathen enemies of Mine. I challenge all My enemies to clothe themselves in all the power they can muster and present themselves before Me. Then, when they have all the strength they can muster, let them speak and we will enter into contest together. I want to ask you ahead of time, Who do you think is raising up from the east your conqueror and My executioner of justice? It is I, Jehovah, whose sovereign providence gives you into My servants hand. I give all your kings to be ruled over by him and I give your people to be ground into dust and smashed into pieces like stubble by the sword and bow of his warfare. He chases all My enemies away and goes wherever he wishes in safetyeven through territory unfamiliar and hostile to him. Who is capable of such omnipotence? It is He who, ever since there has been a human history, has called into existence the generations of meneven Jehovah, the Eternal, Uncaused First Cause. He is, I AM! The pagan peoples see and fear. My servant will strike trembling terror into the hearts of all people. Still they will draw together with one another and unite in their opposition to him to help and encourage one another insisting he is not capable of overcoming them all. They will feverishly engage themselves in the production of new and more ornate idols. The craftsmen will urge one another saying, We are doing a good job on these idolsthese will surely be great enough and permanent enough to keep us safe from him.
COMMENTS
Isa. 41:1-4 JEHOVAH REIGNS: Just as the predicted Comfort of chapter 40 was to come to the Jews after their exile but realized ultimately in the Messiah, so the Conquest of chapter 41 is to come to the Jews (through Cyrus) but will be realized ultimately in the Messiah. Both comfort and conquest are to come to Gods people through a servant. The Servant section (ch. 4053) portrays three servants of Jehovah engaged in fulfilling His redemptive plan for mankind. Cyrus, Israel and the Suffering Servant, are the three servants of Isaiahs message. Cyrus and Israel are apparently types of the Suffering ServantCyrus typifying the conquering, judging aspect of the Messiahs work and Israel typifying the atoning, sanctifying aspect of the Messiahs work. Isaiah intertwines or meshes the work of all these closely together in this Servant section until it is difficult to distinguish which one he is describing. At times it appears he is describing both the type and the Antitype (e.g., Cyrus and the Messiah) in the same passageas in our present passage.
The word hkeriyshu is translated keep silence and means literally, to be blunted, dull, dumb, silent, or to hold the peace. Jehovah commands silence. He is going to issue an omnipotent, omniscient edict. He is going to predict providential events which will alter the destinies of all men and all nations. He is about to tell the world how He is going to run things. Mankind insists it is going to tell God how it is going to run the world. But God, through His prophet, commands, Shut up, Im going to tell you how I am going to run things.
The islands are the islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean. The isthmus of Greece and the islands of the Aegean (known as Javan to the Hebrews) represented the remotest regions of heathendom to the Hebrews of Isaiahs day. The Lord God is challenging the world that stands in opposition to His redemptive program to come before Him having clothed (hkeliyphu, Heb.) themselves in renewed strength and vigor and meet Him in a contest. The outcome of this contest will determine who runs the world. Similar challenges are made by Jehovah in Joe. 3:1-15 (see our comments in Minor Prophets, College Press, pgs. 193196) and Ezekiel 38-39. Joel and Ezekiel are predicting the battle of God and the world through Jesus Christ at the cross and the resurrection. We suspect that Cyrus conquest of the world (bringing Gods judgment upon it) and Cyrus release of the Jews to return to their homeland (bringing Gods redemption to them) was typical of the same battle at Calvary and the empty tomb.
The present passage speaks of Cyrus, emperor of Persia (one from the east.). There can be little doubt about this when one sees the extended context of Isaiah (cf. Isa. 44:28; Isa. 45:1; Isa. 45:13; Isa. 46:11; Isa. 48:14-16). It predicts events and persons at least 100 years or more before they happened. Isaiah died about 700690 B.C. Cyrus conquered Astyages in 550 B.C. and became sole ruler of Elam (Persia). Cyrus was probably born about 590580 B.C.
Isaiah uses a word, leaumiym (root is loam), peculiar to his writings, which is translated peoples. It is less definite than either goiym or ammiym, two other Hebrew words translated peoples. Goiym stands for Gentiles; ammiym refers to a people as viewed by themselves, or, we people; loamiym stands for all races of people in general. Gods announcement that He is going to take another omnipotent, providential step in His program of redemption through Cyrus (bringing the world under the magisterial rule of Cyrus and return of the covenant people to their land) is not a provincial announcementit is worldwide! Cyrus will be Gods servant for all races!
Persia (todays Iran) was directly east of Palestine. In Isaiahs day it was known as Elam. The Persian empire flourished for approximately 200 years (549332 B.C.) until Alexander the Greek conquered the world and turned it into a semi-Greek culture. One from the east definitely means Cyrus but probably includes all succeeding Persian emperors since the restoration of the Jewish people proceeded under Cyrus successors (see our comments Daniel, College Press, pages 347349). Tsedeq (translated righteousness) would be better translated justice. It may refer to the justice of God upon His enemies accomplished through Cyrus as a secondary agent, or, it may refer to the personal character of Cyrus. Both would be appropriate since God uses secondary agents to govern the world and administer justice and Cyrus (as well as most of his successors) was known for fair, honest and just treatment of his subjects. The Jews, especially, held the Persians in high esteem for the treatment they received at their hand.
Gods challenge to the races is: Which god of the races is able to withstand the one from the east whom I will send to execute My justice? Jehovah, the God of Israel, gives temporary rule of His world to whomever He pleases (cf. Isa. 10:5-19; Jer. 27:1-11; Dan. 7:6; Dan. 9:24, etc.). When Gods providence is decreed and predicted, nothing can thwart it! Cyrus shall, as Gods servant, pound those who resist into dust and stubble with his weapons of war (sword and bow). Cyrus and his successors will conquer Asia Minor, Egypt, into India, and cross the Aegean and, for a time, occupy European soil in Greece. This is Cyrus II, or Cyrus The Great and few world conquerors have been regarded as highly as Cyrus. The Persians called him father. The Greeks regarded him as a master and lawgiver. When Alexander the Great found that Cyrus tomb had been rifled (by Greek soldiers and grave robbers), he ordered that the body be replaced and the contents of the tomb be restored as far as possible. To the Jews he was the Lords anointed who ended the Babylonian exile and opened a new era in the history of Israel. Cyrus did not force Persian ideas on his subjects, but rather formed a synthesis of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, the Greek cities, and parts of India. It is reported by some historians that he was a monotheist, which would have exalted his image in the eyes of the Jews.
Cyrus marched on and on in shalom (safety), into the far reaches of civilization unfamiliar and hostile to him, until he met his death in battle about 530 B.C. His body was carried back to Pasargadae, one of his capital cities. There his body was covered with wax, according to Persian custom, and placed in a stately, dignified tomb which was guarded by faithful priests for 200 years. The tomb is still standing, but its contents have long since been removed.
Who has wrought this? Are the passing events of history, the births of nations and their deaths, merely the results of chance arrangements of atoms? Is the governing of the world left to the whims of tyrants and anarchists? Is history cyclical and doomed to repeat itself foreverdoomed never to reach the perfection it longs for? No! No nation exists apart from God. He calls the generations into existence. He makes rulers His servants. All of history, in one way or another, serves Gods purpose. His purpose is to create out of mankind a kingdom of His own, trusting in His sovereignty, depending upon His grace, sanctifying itself in His holiness. The majority of men and women are in rebellion against Gods purposes. The establishment of the kingdom of God (Christ as King, the church as the kingdom) began in a family (Seth, Noah and Abraham), expanded to a nation (the Israelites), then encompassed the world (the church). The very fact of the establishment of the kingdom program on earth, through men, pronounced the judgment of God upon all human governments and efforts to usurp Gods sovereignty over man. Our text is simply another announcement by God that He is going to act through Cyrus to preserve His covenant people and His work of establishing His kingdom. Thus, all races are called together for a demonstration of His sovereignty by the very fact that God is able, through His prophet, to predict the conquest of Cyrus one hundred years before Cyrus was born!
Delitzsch says of verse four, It is the full meaning of the name Jehovah (Yaweh) which is unfolded here; for God is called Jehovah as the absolute I, the absolutely free Being, pervading all history, and yet above all history, as He who is Lord of His own absolute being, in revealing which He is purely self-determined; in a word, as the unconditionally free and unchangeably eternal personality.
Isa. 41:5-7 JAVAN REELS: One has only to read the history of Persian conquests to see the fulfillment of these verses. The isles of the Mediterranean and the Aegean reeled and trembled under the warfare of Persian armies. They formed alliances and coalitions against the Persians. By the summer of 539 B.C. the Persian armies were ready to attack Babylon. Nabonidus, sensing the situation, brought the gods of the outlying regions into his capital, trusting that they would aid him in his time of need. This antagonized the people whose gods were displaced and brought further resentment to the priests of Babylon. This appears to be a direct fulfillment of Isa. 41:5-7.
All during the Persian rule there were those segments of the empire resisting Persian friendship to the Hebrews (cf. Ezr. 4:3-16). After the Persian empire, the Syrians (under the Seleucids) and the Egyptians (under the Ptolemies) opposed the work of God by persecuting the Hebrew people. Daniel predicts all these times of trouble.
What Isaiah is predicting in Isa. 41:5-7 is that although Cyrus and the Persians shall be raised up by God to execute His judgment upon the heathen opposition to Gods kingdom work, the heathen will tremble but they will not repent. They will unite, encourage one another, and continue to trust in gods of gold and wood. They will make newer and more gods, complimenting themselves that they have done a good job and that they have made gods that will survive the Servant of Jehovah.
Of course, new and better gods did not stop Cyrus. The Lord used him to fulfill that portion of the plan of divine redemption for which Cyrus was needed. Then, when the Lord needed Alexander the Great and all that his hellenization of the world could contribute to that redemptive plan, He permitted the Greeks to serve Him. Jehovah runs the world and there are not any gods of any race to usurp His sovereignty. Jehovah has silenced them all! Ultimately God silenced all His opposition at the cross and the empty tomb. Perhaps, in type, His work through Cyrus points to that ultimate moment!
QUIZ
1.
Who are the three Servants of this section?
2.
Why does God command the peoples to be silent?
3.
Where else does God challenge the world to meet Him in contest?
4.
How does God call Cyrus in righteousness?
5.
How great was Cyrus?
6.
What is the point in God predicting through Isaiah, 100 years before, these events concerning Cyrus?
7.
Did the people of the isles actually try to make new and better gods to stop Cyrus? When?
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XLI.
(1) O islands.See Note on Isa. 40:15.
Let the people renew their strength . . .The same phrase as in Isa. 40:31, but here, perhaps, with a touch of irony. The heathen are challenged to the great controversy, and will need all their strength and strong reasons if they accept the challenge. In what follows we have to think of the prophet as having, like Balaam, a vision of what shall come to pass in the latter days (Num. 24:20), and seeing not only the forms of the old empires on their way to Hades, as in Isa. 14:9-12, but the appearance on the scene of the new conqueror.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Islands Poetical variation for lands all maritime lands and countries round about: here, the whole heathen world. It had just transpired, (Isa 40:31,) that those trusting in Jehovah “shall renew their strength,” etc. The summons now is, to the heathen world also to gather as best they can, and come into controversy with God.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
God’s Appeal To the People of the World ( Isa 41:1-7 ).
Isa 41:1-3
“Keep silence before me, O coastlands,
And let the peoples renew their strength.
Let them come near, then let them speak.
Let us come near together to judgment.
Who has raised up one from the east,
Whom he calls in righteousness to his foot?
He gives nations before him,
And makes him rule over kings.
He gives them as the dust to his sword,
As the driven stubble to his bow.
He pursues them and passes on safely,
Even by a way that he has not gone with his feet.”
Note God’s call to ‘the coastlands’. This call to the coastlands (the nations across the seas) is stressed in both sections (see Isa 49:1) where He then describes the activity of the Servant. Clearly the activity of the Servant and the far off nations are closely involved.
God calls to the coastlands (the far off nations across the Great Sea and in the isles) and the peoples (those around Palestine near and far) to be silent before Him, in awe and readiness to hear. And then like His own true people, they are to renew their strength by waiting on Him (as in Isa 40:31). They too are welcome to approach Him. He calls them to advance to His seat as world Judge and Ruler, and once they have come near to Him then they can speak to Him. Then they can consider things together and think over His past purposes and their significance. For He wants them to consider what He has done through Abraham His ‘loved one’ (friend) (Isa 41:8). Let them look at Abraham, ‘the one who loved Him’, the one through whom the whole world will be blessed (Gen 12:3).
‘Who has raised up one from the east, whom he calls in righteousness to his foot.’ He calls on them to consider Abraham, who was raised up by Him from Ur of the Chaldees in the east (Gen 11:31; Neh 9:7), the one who believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness (Gen 15:6), so that He called Him ‘in righteousness’ to His immediate service (to His foot). Abraham was the one who kept his charge, and walked in accordance with all His commandments and laws (Gen 26:5), walking in righteousness (Gen 15:6).
In the light of no further information being given and the reference to Abraham in Isa 41:8 the one called ‘from the east’ and ‘in righteousness to His foot,’ would to Israel naturally mean Abraham, (especially as he is mentioned in the context in Isa 41:8). He loomed large in their history and they would regularly hear at their festivals of his arrival from the east (Gen 11:31; Gen 12:1; Gen 12:5), coming as God’s Champion, to reveal his power in Canaan against the kings from the north and despoil them (Genesis 14) and to finally conquer Canaan through his descendants, with nations coming from him (Gen 17:20) and kings coming from his loins (Gen 17:6; Gen 17:16; Gen 35:11)
While the word ‘righteousness’ can signify ‘deliverance’ and is often used in parallel with it, it is righteous deliverance that is in mind. Its basic meaning of true goodness and justice, conformity to the norm of God’s Law is so prevalent in Isaiah, along with its meaning of salvation deliverance, that it can hardly be excluded here. Abraham was seen by God as righteous (Gen 15:6; Gen 26:5). The true Servant was also called in righteousness (Isa 42:6). The purpose of both was to bless the nations (Gen 12:3).
‘He gives nations before him and makes him rule over kings. He gives them as the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow.’ Nations and kings were not able to stand before Abraham. This applies first to Genesis 14 when the warrior Abraham defeated the four kings from the north led by Amraphel King of Shinar (Babylon), and including the King of the Nations, and also the kings of Elam and Eliasar, (and his readers would not make the distinctions that we would make) and then to the fact that his descendants, and especially David, conquered Canaan and beyond, defeating nations and ruling over kings, with the prospect of worldwide rule (Psalms 2). For his descendants, including David, were seen as having entered Canaan in the loins of Abraham and what they did would be seen as done by Abraham. And Yahweh made Abraham and them glorious so that their sword and bow were very powerful, with the result that the nations melted before them, becoming like dust and stubble.
‘As the dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow.’ Both sword and bow are connected with Abraham’s seed in Gen 27:3; Gen 27:40, as common weapons of his day in use by the family tribe.
‘He pursues them and passes on safely, even by a way that he has not gone with his feet.’ Abraham pursues them and goes on safely in a way that he has not gone with his feet. The way that he had not gone with his feet may indicate that the way he took was not one he had previously travelled when he entered Canaan, for this time he went up the King’s Highway; or it may indicate the speed with which he went, without as it were his feet touching the ground, which would fit his speedy chase of the four kings from the four powerful nations admirably. And he came away safely, because God was with him. Or it may refer to ‘going’ in his descendants, thus himself not passing that way with his feet. In that case it was Abraham in the mind of God who did it, although the feet of those who did it were not his own but his seed. Abraham was victorious through his descendants.
Isa 41:4
“Who has wrought and done it,
Calling the generations from the beginning?
I am Yahweh, the first, and with the last.
I am he.”
This confirms that God has both Abraham and his descendants in mind. He is speaking of a number of generations, all of them called from the very first beginning of the history of salvation (compare Gen 21:12 and see Isa 41:8 here). Although He may be looking back even further to the first call of man (Gen 3:9; Gen 4:26). And Who has done all this? Why, Yahweh, the One Who exists over time from beginning to end. Indeed He is the first before all, and He acted through Abraham in the beginning on his first entry into Canaan, and He is ‘with the last’ as is revealed in the victory of Israel/Judah over Sennacherib. Compare His claim in Isa 44:7, where as the First and the Last He is the One Who appointed both the ancient people and the things that are coming.
So Yahweh calls on the nations to recognise the wonderful work He has done through Abraham right up to His people of this day (Isa 41:8). Beginning with one man and his family tribe and increasing them until under David ‘he’ became a large empire. And He is with the descendants of Abraham even to this day, driving away Sennacherib by His power. The corollary is that they should respond in awe and follow Him, and recognise that He is Yahweh, the One Who is and the One Who is there.
‘I am Yahweh, the first, and with the last.’ So let the nations recognise Who He is, The One Who is, the One Who is first before all things. The One Who is always there at the end.
‘I am he.’ Not ‘I am’ but literally ‘I he’ (although LXX has ego eimi). Thus not the name revealed to Moses, although hinting at it. It is declaring that He is the One Who has wrought it and done it, the One Who is Yahweh. It is a regular Isaianic phrase.
Isa 41:5-7
‘The coastlands saw and were afraid,
The ends of the earth trembled.
They drew near and came.
They helped every one his neighbour,
And every one said to his brother, “Be of good courage.”
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith,
And he who smoothes with the hammer him who smites the anvil,
Saying of the soldering, “It is good.”
And he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved.’
There are two possible ways of looking at these verses. The first is to see them as the nations finally responding to the work of God begun through Abraham, possibly at first in the empire of David, where they used their skills to good account instead of making gods with them (see Isa 40:19-20) and then by entering into God’s kingdom of worldwide peace, a vision of the future The second is to see them as the nations cowering before the coming of Abraham and fleeing to their man-made gods.
Taking the first interpretation we find the picture as follows. In vision the nations responded. They saw, were afraid and trembled. And then they drew near to Yahweh and came (compare Isa 41:1). This resulted in a new harmony among men. All rivalry vanished and they encouraged each other, all jealousies ceased, all worked together for the good of the whole, all commended each other, all became good neighbours (Lev 19:15-18) and brothers. In this case there is a deliberate contrast to the making of idols. Instead of making idols they make what is good (see Exo 31:3-5; Exo 35:31-35). Idolatry is replaced by skilful workmanship, and it is quality work, fastened securely. It Isa 11:5-10 in another form, but this time the concentration is on the human, not the animal kingdom.
Many, however, follow the second interpretation and see this as referring to a flight to idolatry, a combined effort of the nations against God. They ‘drew near and came’, but then their response was a decisive ‘no’. Then they combined and sustained and strengthened each other by making idols which ‘could not be moved’, a pathetic attempt to parallel the permanence of the First and the Last. But they were lifeless. Those who interpret in this way see ‘it is good’ as demonstrating that the gods are seen as needing man’s approval (so much for their pre-eminence), and the combined working as proof of the effort that went into idol making, and of the united front of the world against God. Note that they had to strengthen each other in doing it for they received no help from the gods.
This case would be supported by the words ‘that it should not be moved’ in comparison with Isa 40:20, (see also Jer 10:3-4), but it could equally be argued that that is a deliberate contrast, that now what they ‘fasten with nails that it should not be moved’ is that which is good. For the whole atmosphere is one of neighbourliness, of brotherliness, of encouragement, and of skilful workmanship, giving the impression of the transformation of mankind.
The main argument that supports the second interpretation would be that here we have the pattern of what follows, a contrast between, on the one hand, the activity of the Servant, of Abraham and his seed, and on the other the futility of the gods.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Isa 41:1-9 Comments – What a great passage of Scripture on church growth. First, man tries his own way to succeed in life (Isa 41:5-7). God can raise up a church in a desert (Isa 41:18-19). God is saying he can grow a church anywhere.
Isa 41:4 Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
Isa 41:4
Isa 41:7 So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
Isa 41:7
Isa 40:20, “He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.”
Isa 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isa 41:10
Isa 41:14 Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Isa 41:14
Isa 41:17-18 Comments Praise Refreshes the Soul of Man – Note these words from Frances J. Roberts regarding this passage of Scripture:
“Behold, I have placed within thee a spring of living water. For My Spirit shall be a continual flowing forth of life from thine innermost being. This I have promised to all My children, and this ye may experience as ye claim it by faith. For all My promises are received by faith. None are gained by merit, nor are they awards for human achievements.
“It is My Life that I am giving you. It is not an emotion; it is not a virtue, though these may follow subsequently. It is Myself. Divine grace, heavenly love, infinite mercy, fathomless peace, – all these shall spring forth unbeckoned and irrepressible out of the deeps within thee because My Spirit has taken residence there.”
“ If there be dryness within thy soul and ye have not this life flowing forth, ye need not grieve, neither chide thyself for being empty. Fill up the empty place with praise . Thou mayest by praise open to Me the gates of the temple of thy soul. The King shall enter and bring His glory. The Rose of Sharon shall bloom in thy heart and His fragrance shall be shed abroad.” [58]
[58] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 42.
“Let thy praises rise in the daytime and in the night. Yea, when thou are utterly spent, then shall My speech fall upon thee. Then shalt thou lie down in peace and rise up in joy, and thou shalt be partaker of a perpetual fountain. As it is written: Out of thine innermost being shall gush forth rivers of living water.” [59]
[59] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 44.
Isa 41:19 I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
Isa 41:19
Isa 41:20 That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
Isa 41:20
Isa 41:21 Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
Isa 41:22 Isa 41:23 Isa 41:21-23
Job 38:1-3, “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Revelation of God as Creator – In Isa 40:12 to Isa 41:29 God challenges backslidden Israel to produce her reasons for trusting in idols (Isa 41:21) while revealing Himself as the Creator of all things. God establishes His omnipotence and omniscience through irrefutable testimony cited in this section of Isaiah as the Creator of the universe. Thus, He is able to bring to pass anything He declares.
We find a similar passage of Scripture in Job 38:1 to Job 41:34 where God challenges Job to produce his reasons for trusting in his own righteousness. In a similar manner God reveals to Job his frailty and weakness in the midst of His majestic creation that reveals Him as the divine creator of all things.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Glory of the Lord and the Vanity of the Heathen
v. 1. Keep silence before Me, O islands, v. 2. Who raised up the righteous man from the East, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? v. 3. He pursued them and passed safely, v. 4. Who hath wrought and done it, v. 5. The isles, the leaders among the heathen, saw it and feared, v. 6. They helped every one his neighbor, v. 7. So the carpenter,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
SECTION II.RECOVERY OF THE PEOPLE OF GOD FROM THEIR SIN, AND FROM THEIR BONDAGE IN BABYLON (CH. 41-48.).
EXPOSITION
Isa 41:1-7
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DELIVERER, AND EFFECT ON THE SURROUNDING NATIONS. Isaiah returns to the standpoint of Isa 40:9-11. A deliverer of Israel is about to appear. The nations are therefore summoned to attend, and consider the facts (Isa 40:1). He will carry all before him (Isa 40:2, Isa 40:3), being raised up by God (Isa 40:4). The nations will tremble, and seek the protection of their idol-deities (Isa 40:5-7).
Isa 41:1
Keep silence before me, O islands. God is the speaker. The “islands,” or maritime lands of Western Asia, are to be silent before him, pondering the facts with a view to future argument. “Then let them speak” (see Isa 41:21-29). Let the people renew their strength; rather, the peoples or the nations; i.e. the inhabitants of the maritime tracts. To judgment; i.e. to a discussion,, which shall terminate in a right verdict.
Isa 41:2
Who raised up the righteous man, etc.? rather, who raised up from the East one whom righteousness will call to his foot. It is generally agreed among moderns that the reference is to Cyrus, who is further referred to in Isa 41:25, in Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1-4, Isa 45:13; and Isa 46:11. Cyrus, whether we regard him as King of Persia, or as King of Elam (Susiana), would come from a land lying east of Babylon. “Righteousness called him to his foot” when God, the Righteous One, made him his minister, and gave him a certain task to perform (Isa 44:28). Gave the nations before him; rather, gives, or will give. That he was God’s instrument must be admitted by all who allow that the course of history is determined by a superintending Providence. Made him rule over kings. Mr. Cheyne translates, “makes him trample upon kings,” which seems to give the true sense. It was certainly not the general policy of Cyrus to establish under him a number of subject kings, but rather to rule the conquered countries by means of Persian or Median governors He gave them as the dust to his sword, etc.; or, according to some, he maketh their sword as dust, and their bow as driven stubble. The result is the same, whichever we regard as the true construction. The prophecy tells of the ease and completeness with which Cyrus vanquished his enemies.
Isa 41:3
He pursued them, and passed safely; rather, he shall pursue them, and shall pass on in safety. Even by the way that he had not gone with his feet; rather, a path with his feet he shall not tread. ,The meaning seems to be that he will dispense with customary paths, making his advance everywhere over all obstacles, by untrodden ways. Compare the frequent boasts of the Assyrian kings: “To the recesses of the deep forests and the peaks of the difficult mountains, which had never been trodden by the foot of man, I ascended’. “Difficult mountain chains, and inaccessible hills, which none of our kings had ever previously reachedtedious paths and unopened roadsI traversed”. “The lands of Sihak, of Arda, of Ulayan, of Alluria, inaccessible mountains, impossible for the horses, and inaccessible for myself, I went through”.
Isa 41:4
Who hath wrought and done it? i.e. “by whom has this mighty conqueror been raised up?” Can any of the idol-gods claim him as their protege? Assuredly not. He is my work; I, Jehovah, that have called (into being) the generations (of man) from the beginning (of the world)I, Jehovah, the First, and with the last, am he that he has done this thing. By “the First, and with the last”a favourite phrase in these later chapters (see Isa 45:6 and Isa 48:12)seems to be meant simply “the Eternal” (comp. Rev 1:8, Rev 1:11, Rev 1:17; Rev 2:8; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:13).
Isa 41:5
The isles saw it, and feared. A general terror seized the nations on the conquest of the Medes by Cyrus. Croesus of Lydia, Nabonidus of Babylon, and Amasis of Egypt, were at once drawn together by the common danger, and made alliance offensive and defensive (Herod; 1.77). The weaker tribes and peoples gave themselves up for lost. Scarcely any resistance seems to have been offered to the Persian arms by the tribes between the Halys and Indus, the Jaxartes and the Indian Ocean. Lydia and Babylon alone made a stout fight; but even these were conquered without very much difficulty. The ends of the earth drew near; i.e. distant nations held (will hold) consultation together on the danger which threatens them. The league of Lydia, Babylon, and Egypt is the only known instance of such “drawing near” (see the preceding note). Isaiah anticipates marked consultations and exhortations with respect to the idol-gods, in which trust should be put; but perhaps he is scarcely serious in verses 6, 7. Rather he is indulging his sarcastic humour at the expense of the idols and of those who put their trust in them.
Isa 41:7
The carpenter, etc. (comp. Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20 for the variety of workmen employed in the production of idols). Each encourages the others to manufacture a right good god. When all is done, there is, however, need of soldering, and of nails, that the wretched object may be kept erect, and not show its weakness by falling, like Dagon, upon its own threshold (1Sa 5:4).
Isa 41:8-20
A PROMISE TO ISRAEL OF GOD‘S PROTECTION AND SUPPORT THROUGH THE TROUBLOUS PERIOD THAT IS APPROACHING. Israel is assured
(1) of God’s faithfulness (Isa 41:8, Isa 41:9);
(2) of special divinely infused strength (Isa 41:10);
(3) of the infusion of weakness into their enemies (Isa 41:11, Isa 41:12);
(4) of external Divine aid (Isa 41:13, Isa 41:14);
(5) of an aggressive vigour that shall enable them to scatter their foes (Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16); and
(6) of spiritual refreshment even amidst their worst sufferings (Isa 41:17-19).
The eye of the prophet travels perhaps, in part, beyond the period of the Captivity; but he is mainly bent on giving the people grounds of comfort and trust during that trying time.
Isa 41:8
Israel my servant (comp. Isa 44:1, Isa 44:2, Isa 44:21; Isa 45:4; Isa 48:20; Isa 49:3-6, etc.). The title characterizes these later chapters, and, while standing no doubt in some special relation to the “Servant of Jehovah” who is the subject of Isa 42:1-5; Isa 49:5-7, etc; is perhaps mainly selected, and dwelt on, to console Israel in captivity, when servants of the King of Babylon (2Ch 36:20), by the thought that their true Master was God himself, and that to him, and him only, did they really belong. Jacob whom I have chosen (comp. Isa 44:1). (On this “choice,” and the love which it implied, see Deu 7:6-8; Deu 10:15) Abraham my friend; or, Abraham that loved me. It was the special privilege of Abraham to be known as God’s friend (see 2Ch 20:7; Jas 2:23) among the Hebrews, even as he is among the Arabs to this day. The “friendship” intended comprised, no doubt, both an active and a passive element, but it is the active element which the word principally enforces. Abraham loved God, and showed his love by his obedience.
Isa 41:9
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth; i.e. from Ur of the Chaldees (Mugheir in Lower Babylonia), and again from Egypt, another “end of the earth” compared with Palestine. The prophet views Palestine as Israel’s true habitat, whatever may be its temporary abiding-place. From the chief men thereof. Most moderns translate “from the corners thereof;” but atsilim has the meaning of “chief men” in the only other place where it occurs (Exo 24:11). And not cast thee away. Not even when in exile was Israel “cast away.” God’s care was still extended over them.
Isa 41:10
Fear thou not. This verse is most closely connected with the two preceding. The clauses in Isa 41:8, Isa 41:9 are one and all vocative; here the verb follows. The whole passage is one of great tenderness. I am with thee, on the force of the word” Immanuel”). I will strengthen thee; rather, I have strengthened thee, or I have chosen thee (Delitzsch, Cheyne). The two other verbs are also in the past tense. While primarily they declare past favours, they may also be regarded as prophetic of future ones, since “with God is no variableness.’
Isa 41:11, Isa 41:12
As Israel would grow strong through God’s help, so her enemies would grow weak through God’s disfavour. That enemies of all kinds may be seen to be included, the designation is four times varied”they that are angry with thee;” “that are at strife with thee;” “that are in conflict with thee;” “that are at war with thee.” The order is one of climax. Similarly, with each augmentation of the hostility there is an augmentation of the sentence of punishment”shall be covered with shame;” “shall perish;” “shall not be found;” “shall become as nothingness.”
Isa 41:13
I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand. God himself will be their Strength, will personally interfere on their behalf, taking them as it were by their right hand. Saying unto thee; rather, I who say to thee.
Isa 41:14
Thou worm Jacob. Though in thyself the weakest of the weak, grovelling in the dust, a mere worm (Job 25:6; Psa 22:6), yet thou hast no cause to fear, since God sustains thee. Ye men of Israel; rather, ye handful, Israel (Delitzsch). The term used is one of disparagement, corresponding to the “worm” of the parallel clause. Few and weak though they be, God’s people need not fear. Thy Redeemer. The word goel, here used for the first time by Isaiah, is frequent throughout the later chapters (Isa 43:14; Isa 44:6, Isa 44:24; Isa 47:4; Isa 48:17; Isa 49:7, Isa 49:26; Isa 54:5, Isa 54:8; Isa 59:20; Isa 60:16; Isa 63:16). It is used for the “nearest of kin,” and “avenger of blood,” in the Levitical Law, but has a sense similar to that of the present passage in Job 19:25; Psa 19:14 : Psa 78:35 : Psa 103:4; Pro 23:11; and Jeremiah I. 34. The sense “redeem” belongs to the verb of which goal is the participle, in Exo 6:6; Exo 15:13; Le Exo 25:25, Exo 25:33, 48, 49; Exo 27:13, Exo 27:19, Exo 27:21, etc. The Holy One of Israel Isaiah’s favourite designation of the Almighty in his covenant relationship to Israel, used eleven times in the earlier chapters (Isa 1:1-31 :35.), once in the middle or historical portion, and thirteen times in the later chapters (Isa 40:1-31 :66.); only used elsewhere in Psa 71:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:18; Jer 1:1-19 :29; and Jer 51:5.
Isa 41:15
I will make thee a new sharp threshing-instrument. Israel is to be more than sustained. Strength is to be given her to take the aggressive, and to subdue her enemies under her. She is to “thresh them” and “beat them small,” as with a threshing-instrument. In the literal sense, no earlier accomplishment of this prophecy can be pointed out than the time of the Maccahean war. Metaphorically, it may be said that Israel began to conquer the world when her literature became known to the Greeks through the expedition of Alexander the Great, and completed her conquest when the Roman empire succumbed to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. Having teeth. Threshing-instruments of the kind described are still in use in Syria and Asia Minor. The corn is spread out on the ground, and the machine, which is sometimes armed with sharp stones, sometimes with saws, is dragged ever it. The Arabic name is still noreg, a modification of the Hebrew moreg. Thou shalt thresh the mountains the hills; i.e. “thou shalt subdue proud and mighty foes” (Delitzsch).
Isa 41:17-20
The crowning promise is that of spiritual support and refreshment through’ the dull and dreary time of the Captivity, during which Israel dwells as it were in a desert, without water, or shade, or the relief to the eye which is furnished by the greenery of trees and shrubs. God was able to make of this “wilderness a standing water, and water-springs of the dry ground” (Psa 107:35), and he promises to do so (Isa 41:18). The soul that longs for him, that thirsts after him, feeling that it dwells “in a barren and dry land, where no water is” (Psa 63:1), shall be relieved and satisfied by a revelation of God’s presence, and an outpouring of his grace unusually copious and abundant. God’s grace is shadowed out under the two similitudes of water and verdure, as in Isa 35:7, and, to some extent, in Isa 30:23-25.
Isa 41:17
The poor and needy; i.e. primarily, Israel in captivity; but secondarily, also, the “poor in spirit,” and those that feel the need of God’s grace, everywhere and at all times.
Isa 41:18
I will open rivers in high places (comp. Isa 30:25). If even the “high places” had water, much more would-the low groundthe valleysbe abundantly supplied. The abundance is indicated by the fourfold designation of the water-supply, as coming from
(1) rivers;
(2) fountains (or wells);
(3) pools; and
(4) springs (comp. Isa 41:11, Isa 41:12).
Isa 41:19
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, etc. The “glory of Lebanon,” the “excellency of Carmel and Sharon” (Isa 35:2), shall be given to the “wilderness,” wherein Israel dwells. The trees named are the choicest of Syria and Palestine, viz. the cedar (erez). the great glory of Libanus; the acacia (shittah), abundant in the Jordan valley; the myrtle (hadas), which grew on the hills about Jerusalem (Neh 8:15); the olive, cultivated over the whole country; the fir (berosh), or juniper. a product of Lebanon (2Ch 2:8); the plane (tidhar), a tree far from uncommon in Coele-syria, sometimes growing to a great size; and the sherbin (teasshur), a sort of cedar, remarkable for the upward tendency of its branches. The list of names shows a writer familiar with the Palestinian region, but not familiar with Babylonia.
Isa 41:20
That they may see, etc. The change would be such that those who experienced it could not fail to recognize “Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel,” as its Author.
Isa 41:21-29
JEHOVAH‘S CONTROVERSY WITH THE NATIONS AND THEIR IDOL–GODS. The argument is now taken up from Isa 41:1-4. Jehovah and his worshippers are on the one side; the idol-gods and their votaries on the other. The direct challenge, however, is given by Jehovah himself to the idols:
1. What predictions of their own can they bring forward as proofs of supernatural knowledge?
2. What indications can they give of power either to do good or to do evil (Isa 41:22, Isa 41:23)? If they can do neither, they are vanity (Isa 41:24). Jehovah has both reared up Cyrus he and he onlyand has announced the good tidings to his people (Isa 41:25-27). No such announcement has been made by the idol-gods; they are therefore mere “wind and confusion” (Isa 41:28, Isa 41:29).
Isa 41:21
Produce your cause. The nations had been told to “draw near”to “keep silence” while God spokeand “then to speak” (Isa 41:1). Now the time for them to speak is come, and they are challenged to “produce“ and plead “their cause.” Your strong reasons; literally, your bulwarks, or defences. Saith the King of Jacob. The king and tutelary god of the nation, Israel, really holding the position that the idol-gods were regarded as holding towards the peoples that worshipped them. The “kingly” character of the idol-gods was indicated in such names as Moloch (equivalent to “king”), Melkarth (equivalent to “king of the city”), Adrammelech (equivalent to “glorious king”), Baal (equivalent to “lord”), Adonis (equivalent to “my lord”), etc.
Isa 41:22
Let them show us what will happen. God claims that the power of predicting the future is his own inalienable prerogative. He defies the idol-gods and their votaries to give any clear prediction of future events. No doubt the claim to possess the power was made very generally among the idolatrous nations, who almost universally practised divination, and in many cases possessed oracles. But it was a false claim, based upon fraud and cunning, which deceived men as often as dependence was placed upon it (Herod; 1:53, 91) and landed them in misfortune. The former things things for to come. Some commentators regard “the former things” as things actually past”the beginnings of history, for instance, which to the heathen nations were wrapped in darkness” (Kay); but it seems better, on the whole, to understand (with Vitringa, Stier, Hahn, Cheyne, and Delitzsch) by “the former things” those in the immediate future, by “things for to come” those about to happen in remoter times. The former are, of course, much the easier to predict, since they fall to some extent within the domain of human foresight; the latter are more difficult; but the idol-gods are challenged to produce either the one or the other. What they be. A definite and clear statement is required to preclude such vague and ambiguous utterances as the heathen oracles delighted to put forth. That we may consider them (or, lay them to heart), and know the latter end of them; i.e. compare them with the event, when the time comes.
Isa 41:23
Yea, do good, or do evil. Here the proof required of the idol-gods is changed. If they cannot prophesy, can they effect anything? Can they do either good or harm? Let them show this. It is a plain “abatement” from the first demand, and therefore properly introduced by “yea” (aph); comp. 1Ki 8:27. That we may be dismayed; i.e. rather, perhaps, that we may look to it, or examine it; i.e. see if yon have really shown a power of doing anything.
Isa 41:24
A pause may be supposed between Isa 41:23 and Isa 41:24, during which the idol-gods are given the opportunity of “bringing, forth their strong reasons,” and, in one way or other, proving their Divinity. But they are stricken dumb; they say nothing. Accordingly, “judgment goes against them by default” (Cheyne), and Jehovah breaks out upon them with words of contempt and contumely, Behold, ye are of nothing, etc. “Ye are utterly vain and futile.”
Isa 41:25
It remains for Jehovah to plead his own cause, to vindicate his own Divinity. He adduces, as proof of his power in action, the fact of his raising up Cyrus; as proof of his ability to predict, the fact that he has announced his coming. One from the north from the rising of the sun. Both as a Persian, and as King of Elam, Cyrus might be considered to come from the east. In fact, however, when he attacked Babylon, he fell upon it mainly from the north. After his conquest of Astyages (Istivegu), he made Ecbatana his capital (Herod; 1.153); and it was from this comparatively northern city that he directed his attack upon Nabonidus. His march lay by way of Arbela and Sippara, through the district called Akkad to the Chaldean capital. Herodotus agrees with the monuments in bringing him to Babylon from the north. Shall he call upon my Name; or, shall he. proclaim my Name. (For the actual proclamation of Jehovah’s Name by Cyros, see Ezr 1:3; and note especially the phrase, “He [i.e. Jehovah] is the God.”) Recent discoveries have raised the suspicion that Cyrus was a eyncretist, who was willing to accept the chief god of any nation as identical with his own Ormuzd. But it is to be borne in ‘mind that the document which has produced this impression is one issued by the priestly authorities of Babylon in their own language, and may have been quite unknown to the Persian court. Cyrus may have been a better Zoroastrian than he is represented by the priests of Merodach. The Zoroastrian religion was, as Delitzsch observes, “nearest to the Jewish religion of all the systems of heathenism”. He shall come upon princes as upon mortar; i.e. he shall tread them underfoot, mortar being commonly mixed with the feet, as was also clay for bricks and pottery (Herod; 2.36). The chief” princes” whom Cyrus is known to have conquered were Astyages of Media, Croesus of Lydia, and Nabenidus of Babylon. He was studiously mild in his treatment of royal captives, but naturally deprived them of all power.
Isa 41:26
Who hath declared from the beginning? Which of the idol-gods has announced the coming of a conqueror? If any, we on Jehovah’s side are quite willing to acknowledge it, and to say, He is righteous; or rather, he is right. But, in fact, there is none of them that showeth, none that declarethno one has heard of any such announcement as delivered by any of them.
Isa 41:27
The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them; rather, the first has said. By “the first” must certainly be meant Jehovah” the First, and with the last” of Isa 41:4. He has already announced to Zion her deliverance (see Isa 40:9-11; Isa 41:2, etc.). I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings. Perhaps Isaiah himself (Grotius, Stier, Delitzsch). Perhaps some prophet of the Captivity, as Daniel, who “knew by books” when the Captivity was drawing to a close (Dan 9:2), and may be supposed to have announced the good tidings to the other exiles.
Isa 41:28
For I beheld. “Jehovah once more looks round to see if any of the idols possess an ability to prophesy, but in vain” (Cheyne). He finds no counsellor, i.e. no prophet, among them. Hence the final “outburst of scorn” in Isa 41:29, which, however, is directed primarily against the idol-worshippers, and, only through them, against the idols.
HOMILETICS
Isa 41:14-20
God’s strength made perfect in weakness.
It is when Jacob is brought so low that his only fitting designation is “thou worm,” and Israel is so reduced as to be a mere “handful of men,” that the promise is made of the triumphant crushing of enemies, and scattering of them “like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor.” It is when the nation generally feels itself to be “poor and needy” (Isa 41:17), when it is as it were at the last gasp, actually perishing of thirst, that it is raised to paradisaical bliss, that it finds itself in a veritable “garden of Eden.” Exaltation follows abasement, not however by any mere law of alternation, as if men having reached the very bottom of the wheel of fortune must begin to rise, much less by any mere caprice of the power that rules the universe, but by the law of moral fitness. “He that would be great among you let him be your servant.” It is when men, chastened by God’s afflicting rod, abase themselves in the dust, feeling and acknowledging their weakness, and throwing themselves wholly upon God for strength and power, that they are most fit to become his instruments for the chastisement of others, and to occupy a high position among the nations. His strength is made perfect in their weakness; and this for two principal reasons.
I. IT IS FOR GOD‘S GLORY THAT HE SHOULD ASSERT HIS POWER BY WEAK INSTRUMENTS. The poorer the instrument, the more evident that it is the workman to whom the work is due. Egypt is subdued by plagues of frogs and lice and locusts. Sisera falls by the hand of a woman. The Midianites are smitten by the three hundred who lapped with the tongue (Jdg 7:5-22). David slays Goliath of Gath with a sling end a stone. Great miracles are wrought by a rod, a word, some spittle. And so also with the events that revolutionize the world. “Big battalions” do not always carry the day. The host of Zerah is smitten by Asa (2Ch 14:9-12). Ben-hadad and the thirty-two kings are repulsed by “the young men of the princes of the provinces” (1Ki 20:1-20). Cyrus, with a handful of Persian rustics, defeats Astyages. Three hundred Greeks decimate the myriads of Xerxes at Thermopylae. Judas Maccabaeus, with a few thousands, destroys half a dozen Syrian armies three or four times as numerous (1 Macc. 4:26-34:; 7:40-47; 2 Mace. 12:13-37; 15:20-28). God’s hand is the more clearly seen, the weaker and poorer the means that he uses.
II. IT IS FOR MAN‘S ADVANTAGE THAT HE SHOULD HAVE IT IMPRESSED UPON HIM THAT HIS SUCCESSES ARE NOT DUE TO HIMSELF. As man’s arrogance is one of the chief causes of God’s judgments upon him, it is well that success should be given him under circumstances which make it almost impossible that he should ascribe the merit of it to his own efforts or abilities. Best, far best for him to know that it is “when he is weak, that he is strong” (2Co 12:10). So long as we are conscious that we are instruments, we are less inclined to exalt ourselves, to be puffed up, to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We feel our dependence upon God, realize his power upholding us, lean upon him, and have a sweet satisfaction in so leaning. As our day is, so we feel that our strength will be (Deu 33:25). His grace will be always sufficient, just sufficient, for us. So we avoid all boasting and self-complacency, and are able to “rest in the Lord,” to “stay upon him” and to maintain a perpetual consciousness of his mighty arm supporting us.
Isa 41:21-29
The futility and absurdity of false systems do not prevent them from keeping their hold on men.
At the present day, men are apt to find it strange that the prophets should spend so much time, employ so many words, in confuting idolatry and showing it to be utter and absolute folly. To us of the present age the absurdity seems palpable and grosstherefore not worth arguing against. But systems of religion or of irreligion, whenever they have become established and have got possession of men’s minds, are very hard to root out. Those who have been brought up in them, who have been accustomed all their lives to bear them spoken of as undoubtedly true, who have found all those about them of one mind respecting them, can with difficulty be persuaded that there is any absurdity in notions with which they have been from infancy familiar. The force of prejudice is in most minds stronger than the force of reason, and often renders men impervious to all argument which runs counter to their long-cherished opinions. Still, as nothing but argument can shake such opinions, it has to be used, nay, to be insisted on, to be reiterated, to be dinned into people’s ears, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. Many systems quite as absurd as idolatry have been accepted by men, and have stood them in the stead of true religion for centuries: some such are accepted even at the present day. An instance of the former kind may be found in the system of Democritus and Epicurus; instances of the latter in the pantheism of India and the more fashionable theory of evolution.
I. THE SYSTEM OF EPICURUS AND DEMOCRITUS. TO suppose the universe nothing but a congeries of minute atoms, existing from all eternity, and moving as chance directs, combining accidentally into forms more or less permanent and after a while falling apart, ungoverned by any mind, without object, intention, or cause; and to suppose life, intelligence, thought, the accidental results of certain positions or combinations of the atoms;is a theory so intrinsically absurd and ridiculous, that it might have seemed impossible for the wildest fancy to have conceived it, much more of any man of sane mind to have persuaded himself of its truth. Yet this theory, elaborated by Democritus and Leucippus about b.c. 430-400, embraced by Epicurus about b.c. 300-270, and recommended by the genius of Lucretius about b.c. 75, became the favourite creed of educated Greeks and Romans in the century before and the century after our era. St. Paul found two sects predominant at AthensStoics and Epicureans. Epicureans preponderated in Italy, where their treatises are found to have been the favorite reading of the rich men who built their villas on the soft shores of the bay of Naples, at the fashionable watering-place of Herculaneum. Among the adversaries which Christianity had to meet and subdue, this Epicurean philosophy was one of the most formidable.
II. THE PANTHEISM OF INDIA. That God exists and nothing else; that he is “the One without a second;” that individual men are God, duplications of him, imagining themselves separate; that the material world is absolutely non-existent; and that all sights and sounds and actions are “illusions,” cheats, nonentities with a semblance of being;this, which is the creed of the educated Hindoo, is another belief so contradictory to common sense, that it might have been supposed impossible of acceptance by any considerable number el men. It is held, however, by thousands, who see no absurdity in it, and arc convinced that it is the only rational theory of existence; and, so far as present appearances go, there seems to be no probability that either Christianity or modern science will succeed in shaking the belief, however absurd it may be and however mischievous.
III. THE MODERN THEORY OF EVOLUTION. The spontaneous origin of life from inorganic matter, the development of protoplasm from molecules, of vegetable life from protoplasm, of animal life from vegetable life, and of humanity from advanced animals, which, though a pure hypothesis, has been accepted almost universally by physicists in the present day, is intrinsically as absurd and unthinkable a theory as either Epicureanism or Hindoo pantheism. But its absurdity is not seen by those who have been taught it from the time that they first turned their attention to physical science, who find it accepted by all their teachers, and assumed as a basis by every book that is put into their hands, who live as it were in an atmosphere saturated with evolutionism, and absorb it with every breath that they inhale. The time will probably come, perhaps after no great delay, when a reaction will set in, and the ability of unintelligent matter to improve itself and advance to perfection will be seen to be as absurd and as self-contradictory as the ability of images carved out of wood and stone to affect the course of eventsto “do good or to do evil.” Meanwhile, however, the existing false system is almost as impervious to argument and criticism as was the system of heathen idolatry. It has possession of the field (the so-called scientific field), as that had of the general field of human society; it supports itself by a number of interconnected propositions, no one of which rests upon any sure basis; and it does not even perceive the force of the arguments which are brought against it. Thus it may keep its hold upon men for some considerable time, before it takes its final place as “a chapter in the history of human error.”
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Isa 41:1-7
Argument with the nations.
Jehovah calls the countries to “come silently” unto him. Let the people pluck up what strength they may have, and let the cause between them and Jehovah come to the tribunal of reason. Have the idols any spiritual power? or is Jehovah only the true God?
1. THE VICTORIOUS CAREER OF CYRUS. This great man has, in the prophet’s thought, a vocation from God. He is the minister of the Divine righteousness (Isa 42:6; Isa 45:13). Cyrus is supported by the unseen might of Jehovah, who gives peoples into his hands, makes him tread on the necks of kings, whose swords turn to dust, whose warlike bow becomes as powerless as stubble driven before the blast. On the hero goes, in swift; pursuit, penetrating into trackless districts, or those inaccessible to the ordinary traveller, where he cannot be followed. Or the meaning may be, his passage is swift as that of eagle or vulture (Isa 46:11), and he leaves no trace of his feet behind. Now, “who hath produced and carried out this?” “In all religions men have found it necessary, in any great action, to engage some other agent and principle beside the man himself. The god becomes coadjutor in every noble or heroic achievement. Homer brings in Diomed and Ulysses, assisted by Mars and Pallasone notable for acts of valour, and the other for those of counsel and wisdom; and the like is said of many others.” And now which of the heathen gods has been the coadjutor of Cyrus? Why, he has come to overthrow the worshippers of the heathen gods. The deities are chiefly bound up with the futures of their peoples, and with them they fall. Who, then, can have raised up the great conqueror and destroyer, but he who alone abideswho called forth the generations from the beginning of “the vanished past and the vanishing present,” who is Alpha and Omega, who preceded all, and will be self-existent in the ages to come. The expression, “I am he,” briefly and suggestively conveys this idea of self-existence, of eternity (Isa 43:10, Isa 43:13; Isa 46:4; Isa 48:12; Deu 32:39; Psa 102:28): “Thou art he, and thy years will not come to an end.” Also Psa 44:5.
“The nameless, he whose nod is Nature’s birth.”
II. THE ANXIETY OF THE PEOPLES. The decision of the question is postponed; but a scene of alarm among the peoples is depicted. They have heard the news of Cyrus’s conquests; the world is shuddering with apprehension. They huddle together like a frightened flock of sheep, trying to impart to one another a courage not really felt. The carpenter and the caster and the goldsmith are all busy among the Western nations, making “a particularly good and strong set of gods.” A significant touch is the lastone is strengthening an idol with nails, for fear it should fall, which would be an omen full of dread, as the fall of Dagon of the Philistines may remind us. And so, even as Elijah with the worshippers of Baal, the prophet employs that irony and ridicule which is the test of truth, against the idolaters. And the scene may be regarded as a standing satire against all weak, anxious, fussy resort to human means and devices, and to idle superstitions, when the name of true religion has been paralyzed, when faith in the spiritual and eternal is extinct.J.
Isa 41:8-13
The blessed condition of Israel.
I. ISRAEL IS THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH. There can be no higher title of honour, privilege, affection, than son. Though the designation reminds us of the infinite distance between God and man, in another way it reminds us of his nearness. The Master and Lord is here the loving and protecting Patron and Friend; the servant, one who reciprocates his affection. They are the descendants of Abraham, who “loved God.” The title “reminds the Jews that they had come very far short of their ideal, but at the same time inspires a well-grounded hope that Abraham’s “love” will call forth the Divine mercy towards his seed.”
II. THE PEOPLE IS CHOSEN OF GOD. And the choice of God is irretractable (Rom 2:29). And the election was made manifest in a wondrous history. They had been fetched from the ends of the earth. The patriarch from Ur of the Chaldees in Mesopotamia; Israel from Egypt. And what are the consequences of this Divine choice? All that is most dear and precious in the relation of marriage or in that of friendship may be called to mind. The nation is wedded to an all-powerful Husband, is linked to a faithful Protector and Friend. Then she may enjoy fearless freedom from fear; the just hand will uphold her. And all her enemies will be thrown into shame and confusion; those that strove with her be brought to nought. Held fast in the right hand of God, Israel may ever hear the assuring word, “Fear not; I do help thee.” He is One “who gives salvation to kings;” with one hand giving the Law, with the other defending the obedient. Omniscience watches over the chosen, and omnipotence supports them. Among other “gifts and graces” let us recognize courage and resolution. Timidity, faint-heartedness, is a universal weakness, and the higher or sacred courage one of the rarest possessions of the soul. Perhaps, next to wisdom, it is Heaven’s greatest gift. It “gives and obtains kingdoms, turns swords into sceptres, crowns the valiant with victory, and the victorious often with a diadem.” Presence of mind: what can impart it like the feeling that God is ever with us, that our feeble hand is enclosed in his? “It is a kind of ecstasy and inspiration, a beam of Divine light darting in upon reason, and exalting it to a pitch of operation beyond its natural and accustomed measures. Perhaps there was never any person in the world remarkably and heroically great, without some such kind of enthusiasma mighty principle which at certain times raised him up to strange, unaccountable heights of wisdom and courage. He who in the strength of such a spirit can look the most menacing dangers in the face, and, when the state of all things about him seems desperate, can yet bear his great heart above despairsuch a one for the most part makes fortune itself bend and lull down to him, difficulties vanish, and dangers fly before him; so much is victory the claim of the valiant, and success the birthright of the bold.”J.
Isa 41:14-16
Weakness made strong.
“A fine touch is lost in the English here. In the Hebrew, Israel is addressed in the feminine gender, as a weak and suffering woman. It is not so in the preceding verses, and in Isa 41:15 the prophet significantly reverts to the masculine” (Cheyne).
I. HUMILITY THE CONDITION OF STRENGTH. Jacob is a worm, Israel a “petty folk.” This was, we know, a clear historic fact. It was not by armies or by navies, by numerous fortresses and serried ranks, and an impregnable land, that she was strong. She was “diminutive Israel,” as the LXX. render. At this moment she might well be thought of as a poor, trembling, defenceless woman. In that one simple oracle, “I will help thee, saith Jehovah,” realized, lay her might; and all possible might was there. It is not in human nature to depend where it can stand alone. It is when we feel “what worthless worms are we,” that the contrast of God’s almightiness comes upon us, and the sense that we may connect ourselves with it. Thrown upon our own resources, and finding them at an end, we “catch at God’s skirts, and pray.” Then it is no longer we, but our enemies, who fear. We cannot have too low an opinion of ourselves, nor too high an opinion of God. He is here described as the Goel, the Defender of the right, the Avenger of the wrongs of his people. He is the redeeming God (Isa 47:3, Isa 47:4; Jer 50:33, Jer 50:34). The verbal root means to ransom by the payment of a price, and to deliver from danger, distress, captivity.
II. WEAKNESS MADE STRONG. This petty nation shall become a power against which nothing can stand. Israel becomes as a threshing-roller, sharp, new, and double-edged, which shall crush the mountains, and make the hills as chaff; he shall winnow the nations, and they shall be scattered. With the two-edged sword in their hand, they will execute vengeance on the heathen, and punishments on the people, binding their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron (Psa 149:1-9.). Perhaps the allusion is to the Maccabean period, and to the glorious wars of the Jews under the priests Simon and Hyrcanus, against the kings of Syria. The oracle which begins by touching the chord of humility ends with the note of boasting: “Thou shalt exult in Jehovah, and in Israel’s Holy One shalt make thy boast” Thus the spirit of the true Israel is the spirit of true religion, the spirit of Christ exemplified in St. Paul: “I will glory in infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”J.
Isa 41:17-29
The claims of Jehovah.
The thought seems to resume the thread broken off at the beginning of the chapter. Jehovah appeals to what he has done and to what he is.
I. HIS MERCIFUL DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE. The scene and state of exile is brought before us. They are dwelling in the “tents of Kedar.” They are in the midst of a flourishing commercial empire; yet it is to them as a desert where no water is (cf. Psa 63:1). The true desert is the soul without the sense of God’s presence. But God is not limited by place; and why, in lands of exile, should not the spiritual be as near as at home? The mind is its own place, and can be made happy if it only possesses God. This highest happiness is figured as abundance of streams among the bare hills and the highland plains. In the Orient, water is synonymous with relief from intense suffering, deliverance from deathin a word, with gladness, salvation, life itself; and the sight of lovely Paradises as they were called, i.e. parks of treesthe stately cedar, and the brilliant plane and others. Such scenery enters into pictures of the Greek Elysium, and probably of the happiness of the future life among other nations, and doubtless with a correspondence to the truth. Trees and living water: what more beautiful parable can Nature offer of the eternal energy of the living God? what better hint of the future state reserved for his chosen? The design of all these merciful and wonderful deliverances is that Jehovah’s nature may be unveiled, and that the nations may contemplate it with reverence and joy”that they may at once see, and acknowledge, and consider, and understand, that Jehovah’s hand hath performed this, and Israel’s Holy One hath created it.”
II. JEHOVAH‘S CHALLENGE. Let the gods of the heathen bring forward their cause; let them point out the bulwarks of argument behind which they entrench themselves. The “King of Jacob” calls these daemonic patrons and kings of other peoples to confront him. Have they insight into the future? Can they predict the coming event? Can they “declare the roots of the future in the past, or give a direct forecast of the future? God alone can reveal the secrets of the past. If the idols can do this, they are Jehovah’s equals, and may be trusted for their ability to predict the future” (according to some, this is the meaning). Or let them do some signal deed, whether of good or evil, and prove at least that they are alive. Some wonder should be performed, at which. mankind may gaze, and by which they may be convinced. But judgment must go by default. The gods “can show no prophecies, cannot so much as speak, are dumb, not gods (Hab 2:18).” And they must be known for what they are”nothing in the world.”
III. SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE. Jehovah raised up Cyrus. When called from the north, he came; and from the east, he shall proclaim Jehovah’s Name, and diffuse his worship. Some see (combining this oracle with that in Isa 65:3-7) the announcement of a spiritual change in Cyrus. He is made to say that Jehovah gave him all the kingdoms of the earth, and charged him to build a house at Jerusalem (Ezr 1:2). He may have come to believe in the God of the Jews, and so to be their brother. The Persians were monotheists, and held a missionary religion. And the Jews may have recognized such a religion as that of Jehovah (cf. Mal 1:11; Act 10:35; Act 17:23). And projecting themselves to the time of the fulfilment of the prediction, Jehovah and his worshippers point to it as evidence of the truth of the religion. And while Jehovah announces the good news of his return to Zion, that is, of Israel’s redemption, the idols are dumb. They have no help, no counsel, to give; for they are vanity, nothingness, wind and chaos. Compare with this nothingness the sentences of Jehovah in Isa 10:12; Jer 25:12. Such is the conclusion of the trial. The idols are utterly destitute of strength to aid their friends or distress their foes. Jehovah alone is worthy of confidence and regard, as the true God, Protector, and Guide. In times of deepest distress be can raise up a deliverer like Cyrus, and in his own way and time rescue his people from all their calamities.J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM
Isa 41:6
Mutual help.
“They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.” The subject isHelpfulness. Not mere help, but fulness of help. There may be a help that is tardy, that is somewhat sparse and niggardly; and there may be help which is not helpful in the best sense. This help to which our text refers was accompanied by encouragementthat truest and wisest of all help, which, by giving courage, gives strength. Buildings cannot be built by an architect alone. The inferior hand is as needful as the superior. Read the description: “So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering.” Each man in his place, and fit for his place. So it must be in human life; and, as civilization develops, each man must attend more and more upon one thing. It will not do to play at art, or architecture, or merchandise, or ministry. Each in his place. So it must be in the Churchthere must be mutual help, mutual encouragement. We ought to feel indebted to each other. We ought to be inspirational to each other.
I. HELP IS TO BE UNIVERSAL. They helped “every one.” It will not do to evade our own share of toil. Work cannot be done by command or contrivance, but by the constraint of a ready mind. Socialism seems to be disturbing the Continent. It may be a destructive power, but never can be a constructive one. If human beings were machines to be set in order by one hand, it might be so; but they are not. See how Proudhon and Fourier adjust all the social arrangements to a nicety; the Phalange, or the body of associated labourers; the Phalanstere, or the habitation assigned to each, where the four great departments of naturethe material, the organic, the animal, and the socialare provided for. What a scheme! How philosophic it lookson paper! But what madness to try and make it work, when the derangement of one part would be the derangement of the complicated whole! Who is to restrain the leaders and organizers from craft and selfishness and guile? Difficult as it is to secure good government in general functions in society, who could secure it in a ramified system? Then one will not work, and another will drink, and another will laugh, and another will sleep, and in one brief day some will be better off than others, and the perfect arrangements will fly to pieces before the touchstone of actual life. No; God meant diversity. God meant diligence to be rewarded. Riches and honour come of the Lord, and if there were no incentives to progress and culture and invention, there would be no advancing civilization. Socialism cannot make men work; it would want an army to compel them. The right way is Christ’s way. Look every man also on the things of another. Use ability, genius, education, wealth, honour, well, so as to bless others. None are more despicable than those who look alone to being helped. Everything must be ready for them. The way they speak to servants is detestable. They complain if the physician does not come at onceif they are not the first considered by others. Don’t they pay? Terrible neglect; they are not helped. Money does not satisfy their indebtedness. Let us see whom they helpif they are swift to speak the generous word, to perform the brave and noble deed. There are, however, some livesand they must be dread historieswhich are spent in fashionable gossip and superficial pleasure-seeking, with no care for others. We see, then,
(1) there must be mutuality;
(2) there must be energy.
Not the help which is mere gift, perhaps easy and costless, but the help which costs service and sacrifice.
II. HELP IS TO BEGIN AT THE NEAREST POINT. “His neighbour”the nearest person to him. The gospel teaching is to begin at Jerusalem. Home, for instance, is to be a scene of help. There are occasions every day in which we can help each other’s comfort, growth, education, freedom from anxiety, and increase in the pleasure of life as life. A man’s character is judged of in his home, his Church, his village, his town, his neighbourhood. The eloquent assailer of public wrongs may be other than a patriot at home.
1. This is the help which only he can render; being the neighbour, he is the nearest.
2. This does not bind him by religious “views” or party spirit. He is to help in the great temple of humanity as well as the temple of the Lord God. “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them.” There are charities, I find, which, not content with being Christian, wish to know what people’s “views” are! What an atmosphere! No. Christ did not ask who were Samaritans, Syro-phoenicians, Greeks, or Jews. “He went about doing good.”
III. HELP IS TO BE INSPIRATIONAL, That is to say, it is not to assist laziness or to excuse mere incompetence. “Every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.”
1. Courage; for fear is weakness. Those who expect failure court failure. I am wonderstruck at Stanley’s courage at the Falls, especially after Pocock was dead. It is marvellous! Think of that poor native who rushed from the presence of the dreadful roaring river into the wilderness.
2. Courage; for God is your Helper. Man is weak! Yes; but read the tenth verse: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee.” That is an inspiration indeedGod in Christ working in us and with us. He who gave himself’ for us, now working in and with us. What courage this inspires! “In me is thine help found.” “Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help!” We shall find all worldliness to be weakness in the end.
3. Courage; for no work is so hard as it looks. There are creative times. What is the dreamer worth when difficult duties have to be done?
4. Courage; for cowards make cowards. Live with persons constantly afraid of fire, of midnight marauders, of infection, of disease, and you will become nervous yourself. If children grow up amid the timorous, they become timorous. But born in the fishing-cove on the beach, how they pull out the boat into the wild sea! accustomed to scenes of courage, they learn courage. Never dispirit others. Say not, “This sum will never be raised. These schools can never be built. This class will never prosper.” But say rather, “Be of good courage.”
5. Courage; for hindrances will flee before faith. Say to the mountain, “Be thou cast into the sea.” Strange that it should obey thee! But it does, for it was a mountain of the mind. Courage is not quixotic; it is founded on faithon the Word, and cross, and throne of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mutual hell) is what we want. Not the sentimental grievance from some that they are not the subjects of perennial attention and ever-delicate consideration, but the help which is the spirit of all Christian life, because it was the law of his life” who came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”W.M.S.
Isa 41:18
Water in the wilderness.
“I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.” The place of the fountain is the key-note of this sermon. We are not surprised to find a fountain in the grove or the gardenthere, amidst its diamond spray the birds brighten their plumage. But here the caravan halts, whilst men and women fall on their breasts and drink in the living nectarthe sweet water that never harms. We have to meditate upon this subject, however, in its highest aspects. We see not all of life. In nature we come upon unexpected spots of verdure in sterile places; in human life we come upon a true friend in the thorny experiences of adversity. Best of all we have herein this world, which in so many aspects is a wildernessOne who gives us the testimony concerning himself, that he will be in us “a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” We have
I. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SIN. What depth of meaning there is in the promise, “The Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s head”! All seemed lost; and yet at his very feet there sprang up for man “a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness.” This is God’s revelation fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Often revelations are left to human discovery. There have been hidden beauties in the universeunknown continents which man must search out and explore. There are hidden adaptations in nature to the need of man, which will reward his enterprisemedicaments for disease, ministrants of alleviation. And there are yet “hidden fountains,” which the discovering hand of man will lay bare in the wilderness. But sin must be met by grace at once, that man may be savedthat the child may yet say, “Father.”
II. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SORROW. Hagar flies. Not the first, nor the last, that the east wind of bitter hatred has driven from the protecting doors. The newspapers record crime. We shudder. But blows at the heart, deeds never reported, never known, borne in the silence of suffering, are often the worst.
1. In solitude Hagar finds an angel. In earliest times they were ministering spirits, and we are distinctly told that they not only were, but are. We lose much comfort from forgetting that they are ministers to us! How? That is what the inquisitive mind is always asking. It is the “how?” which makes such piles on piles of useless divinity. The Word of God is inspired! How? The atonement is made! How? The dead shall arise! How?
2. In want she finds refreshment. Weary and worn and sad, God does not allow her to lack refreshment. Sarah dealt hardly with her, and she fled front her face. But another face was looking down upon her. How kind and considerate ought those to be who have others under them! Often far away from home and friends, there should ever be in our relationships all that we mean by kind consideration.
3. In misery she found peace. The mind filled with tumultuous thoughts was calmed! The angel tells her that “the Lord hath heard her affliction.” What a sermon in a sentence! Teach and preach this, brethren. No eloquent words! No explanatory sentences! Sorrow itself has a voice, and God hears that. What rest comes to the heart that feels God has seen and knows all! “She called the Name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me; for she said, Have I also here looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called Beer-laha-roi;” that is, “the well of him that liveth and seeth me.”
III. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SOLITUDE. What shall I do? Where shall I go? Am I to leave home? Am I to enter a wilderness that I know not? Yes; anywhere, everywhere; but remember God is there. “Whither shall I go from thy presence?” What will to-morrow bring? A Father. Whence will come my supply? Do not knowthe fountain is hidden. But it is there. What is needful for me to do is to drink and liveto taste the living waters. Many analyze themadmit their purity, but do not drink! Our solicitudes are natural. Especially so when life is, like Hagar’s, dependent on others. Some here may be driven out into the wilderness at any time. True; but Christ is there! You will, perhaps, never know how precious this fountain is tilt you are away from the old home.
IV. SPRINGS IN THE DRY LAND OF SEPARATION. Alas! other fountains dry up. That is to say, they are sealed to us for a time. But in the hours of bereavement and desolation I call on you to witness:
1. What hidden fountains there are in the Bible. How its histories live when we read our own experiences into them! How its psalms pulse with life when we too are panting after the water-brooks!
2. What hidden revelations in Christ. We know him as a Saviour. But how little we know yet! “In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” We “grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Some persons we need to know less of to preserve our respect and love. Jesus our Lord is infinite in all beauty, purity, and glory; and the more we know of him the more intense will be our devotion, the more complete our trust, the more fervent our love. Let the hidden fountains be not only rejoiced in by us, but let our voice be heard, “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters!” We think little of water till we are feverish with thirst on shipboard or in an Eastern wilderness. Some of you perchance may have known what thirst is, and how much less precious is the jewelled cup than the water it contains. Yet from the beginning God has sent the rivers through the deserts one day to be peopled, and the springs as at Damascus run through the valleys. Every nation under heaven can bless God for the rain from heaven and for the water-springs! Soon may all tribes and peoples surround “the fountain.” We drink of earthly fountains, and thirst again. But whoso drinketh of the water which Christ will give them shall never thirst again. Within, in the wilderness of these poor hearts, he strikes the fountain that is to lift up its pure springs through the immortal ages.W.M.S.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Isa 41:1-7
The false refuge and the true.
In the regulation of his life, a wise man will give a large place to the consideration of what resources he will have in the times of great emergency. For he knows that such times must come to him as they come to all men, and when they come there is urgent and even terrible need of a refuge to which the stricken soul may flee. We are here reminded of
I. THE REFUGE WHICH IS FALSE, AND WHICH WILL FAIL US. (Isa 41:5-7.) We smile with pity, perhaps even a contemptuous pity, as we read of the carpenter and the smith joining their labour in order to produce the well-made idol, before which the offerings shall be presented, etc. But may it not be that those who watch us from above, and who are so much wiser than we, sometimes sigh, not contemptuously but sadly, as they see us putting our trust and finding our refuge in that which is little better than the carefully manufactured image? When trouble has come, or when dangers thicken, when the heart is agitated or concerned, then the foolish sometimes resort to their idolsto those things which are nearly as impotent and as untrustworthy as these.
1. To the stimulant or the drug.
2. To the social excitement or the stress of business engagement.
3. To the comfort of human affection.
But these are wholly unsatisfactory, because:
1. They are not on a level with the height of our spiritual nature; they are not worthy of us who are created in the image of God, and who are bound to find, in our sorrows and our straits, a resource which answers to the spiritual powers we have received of him.
2. They are transient in their influence; they gradually become less efficacious, and at last lose all power to soothe and to sustain.
3. They themselves are temporary; at any moment they may be removed from our sight and grasp.
II. THE REFUGE WHICH IS TRUE, AND ON WHICH WE MAY CONFIDENTLY RELY. (Isa 41:2-4.) It is none other than the living God himself. “In the time of trouble he will hide us in his pavilion.” There are three strong assurances of Divine succour.
1. Particular instances of Divine interposition. (Isa 41:2, Isa 41:8.) The God who raised up Cyrus, who constrained him to answer his own Divine ends, who empowered him to do such great things, and to triumph over such serious obstacles, is One who evidently gives heed to individual souls, and who both can and will select the very instruments which are needed to work out the redemption for which we are waiting and hoping. He who similarly raised up Luther, Zwingle, Calvin, Tyndale, Knox, etc; to take their place and do their work when such men as they were wanted, will not fail us in our emergency now.
2. His government of the whole human race. “Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning?’ All human history attests the presence, the power, the righteousness, the providence, of the Lord.
3. His Divine nature. “I the Lord, the First, and with the last, I am he.” In God, our Father and our Saviour, we have
(1) One who, whatever passes, will be always with us (Mat 28:20); and
(2) One who, whatever changes, remains constantly the same (Jas 1:17; Joh 13:1; Heb 13:8).C.
Isa 41:8, Isa 41:9
His grace and our heritage.
We are reminded here of
I. THE SENSE IN WHICH GOD HAS CHOSEN US. “Jacob, whom I have chosen I have chosen thee.” The way in which God’s ancient people were chosen of God is familiar biblical history. Abraham was called out of Chaldea, Israel (the people) out of Egypt, the Jews out of Babylonia, in order that they might receive, retain, and reflect the truth of the living God; in other words, this nation was the recipient of those distinguishing mercies which could alone account for their national redemption and their spiritual condition. We are now the subjects of God’s electing, his distinguishing grace in these respects;in ways which are not common to the whole of our race, perhaps not even to the generality of our fellow-men, we have been
(1) acquainted with his redeeming truth, made to know and to understand it in its purity and fulness;
(2) wrought upon by kindly, helpful, winning influences, in the home or in the Church;
(3) affected by the direct and immediate influences of his Divine Spirit. Thus has God chosen and called us to himself
II. THE LIFE TO WHICH WE HAVE BEEN CALLED. A life of holy service. “Thou, Israel, art my servant.” We are not called merely to enjoyment or to privilege; we are summoned to God’s presence and kingdom” called to his foot” (Isa 41:2), in order that we may serve. Our Christian life is that most honourable, most elevating, most useful, one of service. It is the life
(1) of sacred worship;
(2) of cheerful obedience;
(3) of active helpfulness.
III. THE INTIMATE AND HONOURABLE RELATIONSHIP IN WHICH WE ARE INVITED TO STAND. “The seed of Abraham my friend.“ Behold, what manner of love and of condescension is this, that we should be called the friends of God! All that Abraham was to God it is certain that we may be,we who are brought nigh by Jesus Christ. And what his disciples were to him, we also are invited to be (see Joh 15:14, Joh 15:15). We are God’s friends, inasmuch as:
1. We have a profound sympathy with him in the principles he holds and in the work in which he is engaged.
2. We are trusted by him to do what is right and worthy, and are entrusted by him with that which is high and, arduous.
3. We are admitted to his near presence, and are invited to constant fellowship with him.
4. We are the objects of his love and his good pleasure.C.
Isa 41:10-14
God our Strength.
Israel in captivity, hoping for return from exile, but fearing lest its enemies should prevail and the desire of its heart be defeated, might well delight in such reassuring words as these. In the battle and burden of our life we also gladly welcome them to our hearts.
I. SOURCES OF DISQUIETUDE.
1. The strength of the forces which are against us. “All they that were incensed against thee;” “they that strive with thee;” “they that war against thee.” We may say as Paul said, “There are many adversaries.” There are the evil tendencies of our own nature not yet extirpated; there are the vicious, the ungodly, the half-hearted men, who act injuriously upon us; and there are the “principalities and powers” of the evil spiritual world.
2. The weight of the burden of responsibility laid upon us. We are God’s servants, his children, his spokesmen, his representatives. He is our God (Isa 41:10), and we owe to him the faithful discharge of varied and weighty obligations.
3. Our personal feebleness. “Thou worm Jacob;” “Ye men [mortals]of Israel.” Who is sufficient for all these things? With our bodily weakness, our mental poverty and our spiritual failures, with the limitations of our humanity, we look forward to the work which we have to do, to the sufferings we shall be called to bear, to the battle we shall have to fight, with serious apprehension. We are inclined to give way to “fear,” to allow ourselves even to “be dismayed.”
II. OUR STAY IN GOD.
1. His sympathizing presence. “I am with thee.” The presence of a friend or of a parent in the time of trouble is, in itself and independently of any expectation of help, a reassuring thought. That God our Divine Father, that Christ our unfailing Brother and Friend is with us, is by our side, with purest interest and tender sympathy in his heart,this is a strength and a stay to our trembling hearts.
2. His strengthening aid. “I am thy God: I will strengthen thee,” etc. God helps his people
(1) by making their difficulties to disappear, so that “they that are against them are as nothing;” e.g. the drowning of the Egyptian host, and the slaughter of the army of Sennacherib; or, and more often,
(2) by imparting courage and strength to overcome them. He “holds our right hand;” he inspires us with skill and energy to act, with fortitude to endure, with patience to persist, with victorious strength. He “always causeth us to triumph.”
3. His faithful, redeeming word. When he is not actually interposing on our behalf we may rest on his sure promise. He has assured. us of our ultimate triumph, not only for ourselves, but for the cause of truth and righteousness in which we are engaged. On this word we may absolutely build.
(1) It is a Divine word; “he is our God” (Isa 41:10, Isa 41:13).
(2) It is the word of one whose faithfulness cannot fail; it comes from him whose hand is “the right hand of his righteousness.”
(3) It is the word of One whose compassion is well proved. He is “the Lord, our Redeemer.”C.
Isa 41:15, Isa 41:16
The triumph of the truth.
I. THE MOUNTAINOUS OBSTACLES THAT HAVE TO BE OVERCOME. These are not kingdoms, military forces, or fortifications, but things which are far mightier than theyerror, prejudice, passion, pride, habit of life, materialism, self-will. These are high hills, massive mountains in the way of the world’s welfare.
II. THE INSTRUMENT BY WHICH THEY ARE TO BE SURMOUNTED. This is none other than a living Church. “I will make thee,” etc. The Israel which is to “thresh” these mountains is “the Israel of God,” the Church of Jesus Christ; not, indeed, any one organization so called or calling itself by that name, but the whole “host of God’s elect “the unnumbered multitude of souls that, under every sky, accept his truth, trust in his Name, love his appearing, toil in his vineyard.
III. THE TRIUMPH OF THE TRUTH. This is twofold.
1. The disappearance of all that is evil, the scattering of the chaff (Isa 41:16).
2. The exaltation of Christ: “Thou shelf glory in the Holy One of Israel.” In the day of redemption men will glory in no one and in nothing but in the Lord that redeemed them; they will enthrone him in their hearts and in the world.
IV. THE PRIZE OF VICTORY. “And thou shalt rejoice in the Lord.” The Church will not be filled with a perilous complacency; it will rejoice in the Lord its Godin the honor in which he is universally held; in the love with which all hearts are filled toward him; in the service which every human life is paying him. These ingredients will fill to the brim its pure cup of joy.C.
Isa 41:17-20
The pity and the purpose of Christ and his Church: a missionary sermon.
With what different eyes do we look out on to the world, and how varied a spectacle it presents, according to our views, our spirits, our aims! To the geographer and discoverer it appears in one aspect, to the statesman and the historian in another. The artist sees it in one light, the man of science in a different one. The sportsman and pleasure-hunter has his view of it, the trader has his, etc. But from the standpoint of the sanctuary, and so far as our minds are filled with God’s truth and our hearts with the love of Christ, we shall look at the vast, outlying human world with very different eyes. We shall see before us
I. A POOR AND NEEDY WORLD ATHIRST FOR THE TRUTH AND LOVE OF GOD.
1. We think of those multitudes of our race, beneath every sky, of every hue, of every clime and tongue, who are utterly dissatisfied with their life, their creed, or their character; the many millions who are the victims of human oppression, of intolerable tyranny, or of heartless cruelty (social or domestic), or abject slavery; those who are the heirs of grinding poverty, seeking for the bare sufficiency or the comfort or the success which they never gain, which perpetually eludes them; those who are vain seekers after happiness, the voice of whose life is this, “Who will show us any good?” whose experience is one long sad heart-ache; those who are unsuccessful inquirers after God, after truth and righteousness, who say, not in sarcasm, but in sadness, “What is truth?” “Oh that we knew where we might find him!” “What shall we do that we may inherit eternal life?” and to whom no answer comes from the deep void, who have to go groping on in the darkness. These are the poor and needy, seeking water and there is none, “whose tongue faileth for thirst.”
2. We include in our view that other multitude who lack the water of life, but who are not conscious of their need. Did it enfeeble the argument for emancipation that so many of the slaves, before their liberty was given them, were content to wear their bonds and to be deprived of the rights of manhood, the claims of womanhood? Or did it not, on the other hand, immeasurably strengthen the case of the emancipators and the cause of the slave? And does it relieve the situation that millions of Chinese are content to live the sordid, selfish, godless lives they are living, and to die the hopeless deaths they are dying? Does it make less pitiful and pathetic the fact that millions of our fellow-subjects in India are content to bow down before images their own hands have carved, and to worship gods and goddesses to honour whom is to be dishonoured and degraded in and by the very act of devotion? Surely this fact only multiplies the reasons for regret and for sympathy. The very muteness of the appeal is the most eloquent plea on their behalf.
II. THE PITY AND THE PURPOSE OF CHRIST ON ITS BEHALF. “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, I the Lord will hear them I will not forsake them.! will open rivers I will plant trees,” etc. If this be primarily applicable to the Israelites in captivity (or on their way home), it must be true of all God’s children. He who pitied the thousands of bodily sufferers will much more pity the millions of his sons and daughters who are in the last extremity of spiritual destitution. When Christ “saw the multitude,” hungry and weary, he was “moved with compassion” for them. With what profounder pity and intenser feeling does he look down on these far greater multitudes, who are pining and perishing in the famine of the soul! And then does the Church of Christ enter into his spirit and rise toward his stature when it also is stirred to strong, deep sympathy with these poor and needy ones, hungering and athirst for the truth and love of God. And as Christ’s purpose answered to his pity, and he came, by the sacrifice of himself, to put away our sin and to take away our sorrow, so must ours also. Pity must end in.provision, in causing the rivers to flow and the fountains to spring and the trees to bear their fruit. Such sources and springs of health and life are our mission Churches. Heathenism is a desert place, a wild waste, where there is no provision for human need. But our Christian Churches, planted in the midst of the ignorant and idolatrous, are rivers in the high places, fountains in the valleys, trees in the desert; there is bread for the hungering, water for those who are perishing with thirst, life for dying souls.C.
Isa 41:21-29
A true test of Divinity.
When these words were written the question to be solved wasWhich god, of all the rival deities, is worthy of human trust and worship? The question now isWhat is the authority to which we shall submit our judgment and in which we shall rest?is it human nature, or is it the forces of the material world, or is it the Lord God? The verses before us suggest to us that one criterion in this state of inquiry is to be found in the consideration that we cannot find rest in anything which does not tell us what we most want to know as dependent, struggling, sorrowing, sinning, dying men. The idols of the heathen were valueless; they could not tell “things to come hereafter;” they were utterly ignorant; they had no voice to answer the most urgent and pressing questions which men were asking. Those great and profound inquiries which we are now putting are beyond the reach of nature and of man. Nature, at the demand of science, can shed no light at all on the most sacred problems, the solution of which is everything to us. It makes no sign, it leaves us as we were. Its teaching is as consistent with one conclusion as with the opposite. Man, unaided by special illumination, can reach no certainty, can attain to nothing like assurance; he can guess, can argue, can hope, but he cannot know. God alone, the Author of our being, the Lord of our life, the Arbiter of our destiny, can tell us whence we came and whose we are and whither we go. He can tell us “things to come hereafter,” and much else which it is as urgent that we should know. He makes plain and sure to us the truth concerning
I. THE ORIGIN, SUSTENANCE, AND GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD.
II. OUR HUMAN NATURE. That it is not what it was when it came forth from his creative hand; that it has fallen through sin; that there is a way back which is a way up, toward himself and his favour.
III. HIMSELFHIS NATURE, CHARACTER, AND WILL.
IV. THE FUTURE.
1. Future things here.
2. The great futurethe fact of another life, of a day of accounteternal life through faith in Jesus Christ.C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK
Isa 41:4
The eternal Alpha and Omega.
The idea of these verses seems to be thislook back, if you will, to the very beginnings of nations: God is there. Watch the changes of nations, the uprising of great kings and leaders: God is presiding over all. Peer into the dim mysteries of the future, and still God is controlling and overruling all. The thought here set before the nation finds expression in the private meditations of the psalmist (Psa 139:1-24.). Nowhere can he get away from the sense of God’s presence, and nowhere would he if he could. How fully the Apostle John was imbued with the spirit of the great prophets is well illustrated in the fact that his thought of the manifested God is the old prophetic thought. The glorified and living Christ is revealed to him as saying, “I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty” (Rev 1:8). Some think the “righteous man,” referred to in verse 2, is Abraham, regarded as the first father of the Hebrew nation; and this view finds some support in the expression found in verse 4, “calling the generations from the beginning;” but it is evident that the mind of Isaiah was at this time filled with the return from captivity, and with the Divine raising up of Cyrus as the human agent in effecting that return. And this Cyrus is to him the suggestion of the glorious spiritual Deliverer, who should appear later on to redeem his people from their sins; not first from their sorrows, but first and chiefly from their sins. So we may cover the long ages in our thought. Abraham raised up by God. Moses set forth by God. Cyrus called out by God. Messiah the Sent One of God. “I the Lord, the First, and with the last, I am he.” This view of our God may be taken as
I. A CONTRAST WITH ALL MAN–MADE GODS. This is the prophet’s great point. A man-made, or man-conceived, god comes second. Man, in that case is first; the god is his creature, and the creation of a being involves that it is inferior to its creator. God comes first; he is before man. Man is his creature, and set under his conditions.
II. A HOPE WHEN MAN CAN MAKE NO MORE GODS. That time comes by dissatisfaction. None of his gods bring him rest, and at last he will try to make no more. Then God lives, and may be the soul’s Rest. That time comes by the ending of the earth-life; but even then God lives, and we may live in him.
III. A SATISFACTION FOR ALL BETWEEN TIMES. If he is first, and is last, then surely he covers and includes all the space between, and we may well turn from all self-trusts and idol-trusts, and seek now the rest, the joy, of his love and favour and service. “This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our Guide unto death.”R.T.
Isa 41:6, Isa 41:7
Man’s devices to do without God.
A curious and interesting fact is connected with the reference in this passage to hammering an idol into shape. Ancient hammers had no handles; the workman held in his hand the metal piece with which he worked. In all the copies of Egyptian figures engaged in various arts, there does not appear to be one representation of a handled hammer. Mr. Osburn, remarking on this, says, “The jar occasioned to the nerves of the hand by this violent contact of metal with metal, without the interposition of a wooden handle, or other deadening substances, would be intolerable to a modern workman, or, if he had resolution to persevere, would probably bring on tetanus. Long practice from an early age had habituated the robust frames of the ancient mechanics to these rude concussions.” This passage is of a satirical character; the folly of idolaters in trusting to gods made by common workmen, and dependent on the most trivial mechanical operations for their form and their stability, is vigorously presented. We regard all this idol-making as man’s device to do without the one living and true God; and, so regarded, it is suggestive of applications which may be made to our own times. Now men try to do without God because
I. THE CONCEPTION OF HIM IS TOO SPIRITUAL. We are not permitted to think of him through any material associations, or to image him in any creaturely shapes. He is to be to us a Spirit. But that sets him out of reach; and since men will not cultivate their spiritual faculties for the apprehension, they put him aside, and try to find what they may put in his place in art-creations, art-ideals. This is their devicelet us create the “beautiful,” and make it do for us instead of the spiritual God. The “beautiful” is their idol.
II. THE REQUIREMENTS OF GOD ARE TOO STRICT. He gives no chance to self-willed-ness, no opportunity for the pleasantness of doing wrong. So their device is to arrange a training of the body, a system of rules and restraints by which they may regulate themselves and their relationships. Because religion is too severe they try to be satisfied with a morality which reaches no higher than a man’s idea of goodness. Morality is their idol.
III. THE ATMOSPHERE OF GOD IS TOO PURE. “Nothing entereth his presence that defileth;” and it is characteristic of him that he “desireth truth in the inward parts.” There man finds the demand too great, and is set on the endeavour to satisfy himself with a ceremonial purity, which does not disturb the inward corruptions. Ceremonies may express heart-piety; but they may be put instead of heart-piety. Ceremonies and ritual too often become men’s idols, whose worship is easier and more comfortable to the natural man. So men help one another to make their own idols, and shift the one true God into the background.R.T.
Isa 41:8
The Divine choices are wise selections.
Abraham and Jacob are God’s chosen ones as founders, and first fathers, of the Israelite race. By this we are to understand that they were selected, in the Divine wisdom, as having just the qualities which, developed in a race, would make a people precisely fitted to carry out ibis purposes. We are not to understand that, in a way of accident, or in a way of mere sovereignty, these first fathers were picked out. God’s choices are never arbitrary; they are always judicious selections. “The race is described as God’s servant and his elect, or, combining the two characters, his chosen servant, chosen to be his servant.” This special relation to Jehovah is the thing which distinguishes the people of Israel from the heathen nations around them. “What advantage then hath the Jew? Much every way’ chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God” (Rom 3:1, Rom 3:2). The truth that the Divine choices are selections, on the ground of recognized fitness, may gain illustration from three distinct spheres.
I. FROM THE SPHERE OF THE SACRED SCRIPTURES, These cover long spaces of the earth’s history, and the most marked feature of them is the way in which individuals are set forth prominently; we are shown the precise work they did, and then it is impressed on us that these are the Lord’s chosen ones. In the light of that view we read again their story, appraise their qualities and gifts, set their endowments alongside their life-mission; and then we can see clearly that they were selected because they were precisely fitted for their particular work. If we think that subtle laws of heredity have gone to the making and endowing of men, we may also think of God as watching the fitnesses of men, and taking them out for the doing of certain parts of his work. Illustration may be taken from Moses, who was characteristically patriotic and disinterested; or David, whose poetical genius sanctified song for Divine worship; or Paul, whose natural impetuosity adapted him for his service as the first Christian missionary.
II. FROM THE SPHERE OF COMMON LIFE. For Scripture is but. the illustration “in the small” of what God is ever doing “in the large.” The mistake is so often made of thinking that God exhausted himself, or limited himself, to the spheres dealt with in Scripture. The true view is that God illustrated himself there. Cyrus is the man in common life of whom God says, “I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.” We see God’s selections in the fitting of men to places, men of genius and common men, the Tennysons and ourselves.
III. FROM THE SPHERE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Here too there are evidently elect men and women; but we need to see that God has no “pets,” only “servants”men whose fitnesses are recognized, and who are consequently selected for office to praise, to preach, to pray, or variously to minister to the Church’s needs.R.T.
Isa 41:10
The supreme promise.
“I am with thee.” This assurance is the application of that truth of God’s infinite superiority to all idols on which the prophet has been, sometimes so seriously, and sometimes so scornfully, dwelling. Here is the argumentGod is God alone. He is your God. He is with you. It is a promise specially adapted to the apparently helpless and hopeless condition of Israel in Babylon. There was no relief to the darkness that hung about them, but there was this comfort in the darknessthe almighty, all-wise, all-creating, all-controlling God, was with them, and their trust in him was security for their safety, and for their coming out into the light by-and-by, for he was their God. Matthew Henry paraphrases the text in this way, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee, not only within call, but present with thee; be not dismayed at the power of those who are against thee, for I am thy God, and engaged for thee. Art thou weak? I will strengthen thee. Art thou destitute of friends? I will keep thee in time of need. Art thou ready to sink, ready to fall? I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness, that right hand which is full of righteousness, in dispensing rewards and punishments.” The verse, setting before us such varied assurances of Divine help, upholding, and strengthening, seems to bid us think of all that the presence of God with us may be thought to include. If he is, indeed, our God, then
I. HE KNOWS US. We often distinguish between the outside person, who is interested in us and knows about us, and the friend in intimate personal relations, who knows us. We are permitted to think of God as the Friend in close fellowship, from whom none of our secrets are hid. He is the safe Friend, of whose wise help we are always assured, and in whom we may fully trust, because of the knowledge which his love brings.
II. HE PROVIDES FOR US. This is the work of him who is our God, and on whom we are dependent. But it is precious to be assured that he is in gracious relations with us, and will do for us his good work.
III. HE DEFENDS US. If with us, then “greater is he who is with us than all who can be against us.” “What terror can confound me, with God at my right hand?”
IV. HE CORRECTS US. When we know ourselves, and our own frailties and inability to walk alone, we find that God, who can chasten and will chasten, who “corrects in measure,” and “scourges every son whom he receives,” is the God in whose constant presence we can rejoice.
V. HE GUIDES US. If with us, he must go first, for he is our God. And the darkness does not matter if he is firston before, only just before. It must be a plain path, and a safe path, when we simply follow his footsteps.
VI. HE REDEEMS US. This is the large word which embraces all the material and spiritual needs we can know. Israel wanted redemption from captivity: God gave that. Israel wanted redemption from idolatry: God gave that. Israel even wanted redemption from “bad self,” and, it they would have it so, God would give even that.R.T.
Isa 41:13, Isa 41:14
The supreme prayer.
“Lord, help me;” responded to by God in the gracious assurance, “I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Likening Israel to a worm, reminds us of its despised and depressed condition in captivity. “However weak and despised and trodden underfoot thou mayest be, in thy captivity and exile, yet fear not, I will help thee.” It is a painful suggestion of hopelessness and helplessness that no cry can now rise but the brief, intense, “Lord, help me.” And yet it is full of hope that any cry at all can rise, and that, even in despair, men are turning yearning eyes toward God. Of this we may be assured, when man cries, out of the depths, his cry, “Lord, help me,” God will answer, out of his heavens, “I will help thee.” The associations of the ancient goel, or family avenger, may be used in illustration, as the word translated “Redeemer” is in the original Goel. And the certainty of response to prayer by him who liveth, and is our God and Father, may be illustrated by an incident in the life of Luther. Usually he was of a cheerful temperament, but he was subject to occasional fits of severe depression. Once, when nothing seemed to avail, he was induced to leave home for a few days, in the hope that he might recover his cheerfulness; but he returned with a cloudy and dejected countenance. How great was his surprise, on entering the house, to find his wife seated in the middle of the room, attired in black garments, and with a mourning cloak thrown over her, while she pressed to her eyes her handkerchief, as if weeping bitterly! He eagerly inquired the cause of her distress, which she seemed loth at first to communicate; but on his again imploring her to speak, she answered, “Only think, dear doctor, our Father in heaven is dead! Judge if I have not cause for my grief.” Upon this, immediately comprehending her riddle, he laughed, and embracing her, said, “You are right, dear Kate; I am acting as if there were no God in heaven;” and from that hour his melancholy left him. Only two points are suggested for elaboration and illustration.
I. PRAYER NEVER REACHES ITS FULL INTENSITY WHILE IT CAN BE SET IN HUMAN WORDS. We say the same of grief. It never hurts, or imperils reason or life, while it can find expression. Silent grief hurts. A man is not utterly broken down while he can make a prayer and express his wants.
II. PRAYER REACHES ITS INTENSITY WHEN IT CAN BE NO MORE THAN A VOICELESS CRY. A simple “Lord, help me.” When the soul is quite full there can be no utterance. A man must go into the presence of God, and leave him to read heart, thought, and desire. Such experiences only come at times into any life. Yet they are the times when we are most really, most wholly, cast on God. Here is a sacred paradoxour best times of prayer are the times when we cannot pray.R.T.
Isa 41:15
Doing surprising things in the strength of God.
Compare with the very striking figure of this text, 2Co 10:4, 2Co 10:5, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God.” While there may be designed prophetical allusion to the mastery of Babylonian evils, to the triumphs of the Maccabean era, and to the spiritual victories of Messiah, the general meaning of the figure is that Israel, in the strength of Jehovah, shall overcome all the obstacles to the fulfilment of his destiny. Porter describes the “threshing-instruments” as “flat, heavy, wooden slabs, some five feet long by three wide, slightly turned up in front. The under surface is thickly studded with hobs of hard stone or iron. A massive prison door, with its rows of projecting nail-heads, will give the best idea of a mowrej, as the instrument is now called. Each is drawn by a ‘yoke of oxen.’ The driver stands on the mowrej, urging the oxen on with his formidable ox-goad. The oxen advance in front, ‘treading out the grain,’ and the mowrej follows, crushing and cutting the straw with its ‘teeth,’ till it is reduced almost to dust.” With this instrument the Roman tribulum, from which we get our suggestive word “tribulation,” should be compared. There is a marked poetical exaggeration in the association of a threshing-instrument with hills and mountains, designed to impress on us that “nothing is too hard for the Lord,” or for his people when they are strengthened by him. Making application of the text to our own circumstances, we note
I. LIFE AS A WHOLE OFTEN SEEMS BEYOND US; out Of our control; we fear to enter on itwe fed we cannot make the best of it. It is so with only such expectations as we can form, on the basis of what is known or other men’s lives. It would indeed be so, if God were to show us beforehand the scenes through which we were to be led. Yet let us but lay hold of the strength of God, and our whole life shall be a mountain which we shall thresh and beat small. It shall not master us; we will master it, and make it yield its best.
II. THE SPECIAL DEMANDS OF LIFE OFTEN SEEM BEYOND US. Face to face with duty, we anxiously say, “Who is sufficient for these things?” For us to undertake these duties seems as absurd as for a mowrej to think of threshing a mountain. And yet experience abundantly confirms the fact that, when a man is called of God to do anything, God surely gives him strength for the doing, What is “impossible with men is possible with God,” and with all those whom God aids. For things that are right there is no such word as “impossible” in a Christian’s vocabulary. Compare Jonathan defeating the Philistines, David overcoming Goliath, and the Apostle Paul saying, “I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me.” We have often seen the marvel of God’s overcomings when the pressure of circumstances was extreme, and the thwarting of enemies painful. “Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel [the God-helped man] thou shalt become a plain.”R.T.
Isa 41:23
The helplessness of idols.
Before God can hopefully intervene on behalf of man, man must have become thoroughly convinced of his own helplessness, and of the insufficiency of all on whom he is disposed to rely. In the time of the Babylonish captivity, many, surrounded day by day with idolatrous sentiments and associations, would incline to reliance on these idols, and to seeking help and deliverance from them. Therefore the prophet, by solemn warnings, by satire and taunt, strives to break God’s people away from all such vain confidences. We have some idea of the boastings of the Assyrians in the power of their idol-gods given in the Rabshakeh’s messages to Hezekiah. He glories in the superiority of the Assyrian gods over all the gods of the conquered nations; and the discouraged exiles might be tempted to say, “Even our God, Jehovah. could not stand against these Assyrian gods; then let us seek to them for help and deliverance.” And if such formal idolatries belong to the past, answering spiritual idolatries belong to the present; and we also are ready enough to turn away from God, when he does not let things be “according to our mind,” and we easily take up with idol-devices of our own hearts. So Israel and we may profitably be reminded that all self-made idols are vanity, and must utterly fail all who put their trust in them when the testing-day comes. In our text the idol-claimants are put to a test. Let them do something. Helpless things’. A great deal is done for them; now let things be turned about, and let them do something. We need not be over-particular. If it is inconvenient for them to do something good, let them do something evilonly let it be something. But they cannot. “They are of nothing, and their work of nought” (see 1Co 8:4). Cheyne says, “The Divine Speaker waives the question of foreknowledge, and makes the least requirement possible.” Prove that you are alive, by performing some act whether good (for your friends) or bad (for your foes).’ Or, we may empty the terms ‘good’ and ‘evil’ of their moral meaning, and suppose them to be used proverbially to express the one simple notion of anything, exactly as the two words ‘right and left’ merely conveyed the idea of anywhere.“ Matthew Henry paraphrases thus: “Let them do, if they can, anything extraordinary, that people may admire and be affected with. Let them either bless or curse, with power. Let us see them inflict such plagues as God brought on Egypt, or bestow such blessings as God bestowed on Israel. Let them do some great thing, and we shall be amazed when we see it, and frightened into a veneration of them, as many have been into a veneration of the true God.” The point suggested for illustration is that it would be well to put nineteenth-century idols also to the test, and see whether they are worthy of confidence because they have power to do either good or evil. What may be regarded as idols must be decided by each teacher of men for himself. We can only venture to hint that the following may come under the denomination. Indeed, an idol is anything which so occupies the interest of man as to push God out of his supreme place in man’s affection and service.
I. THE IDOL OF SCIENCE. Worshipped by many in our day. What can it do? What can it do towards meeting the spiritual need, the sense of sin, the soul-cry, of man? And it can do nothing if it can bear no relation to them.
II. THE IDOL OF LUXURY. Pleasure has numberless votaries, who delight in her service. Yet is she but the syren, who floats on, just a little in front, luring her worshippers into headlessness of the black storms that are gathering in the sky. What can she do in the day of calamity? Then her votaries find she is “all vanity, and her works are nothing.”
III. THE IDOL OF SELF. Taking often very interesting shapes, as socialistic theories of man’s regeneration by man. Very attractive is the notion that all earth-woes would fade away if only men would bind themselves together in a universal “Help-Myself” Society. And yet the story of the ages is the ever-fresh illustration of the fact that it is not, and it never has been, in “man that walketh to direct his steps.” Ask “Self” what it can do for our best and highest interests, and it is as dumb as any idol-block. None hear, and there is no one to answer. Only when the claims of idol Self had been thoroughly worked out, and “man by his wisdom evidently knew not God,” did Divine love intervene and send the Son. The “fulness of times” was precisely the time when helpless “Self” was proved to be of nothing, and his works of nought. And yet round these and other idol-shrines men crowd to-day, and need to heat’ the solemn appeal of the last of Christ’s apostles, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.“R.T.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Isa 41:1. Keep silence, &c. This whole section, connected with that preceding, makes the fourth part of the discourse. The prophet, having in view the subversion of idolatry under the Messiah, had in the former section, from Isa 41:18 argued against idolatry, from the essence and nature of God, the Supreme Creator and Ruler of the world, being such as not to be represented by any corporeal matter or figure. To this disputation he subjoined a consolation, directed to the people of God, from the 27th verse to the end of the preceding chapter. Therefore, after this consolatory parenthesis, he continues or renews his disputation against idolaters by an argument taken from God’s certain foreknowledge and foretelling of future events: from which he selects that remarkable one respecting Cyrus, as the deliverer of the people of God, and the destroyer of Babylon: an event utterly unknown to idols and idolaters, and, therefore, an astonishment to the nations; and yet an event which God so long time before exactly foretold in every circumstance by our prophet. He who can thus predict future events, the prophet urges, must be allowed to possess true divinity. He who cannot, has no claim to that honour; for the prediction of future events depends upon the certain foreknowledge of those events; but that foreknowledge can be conceived only in the understanding of that Sovereign Ruler, whose providence is over all things. This whole section, except the consolatory part, is employed in proving this; and the prophet the rather made use of this argument, because Paganism so much gloried in its false prophesies and oracles. Here then God is exhibited as if appearing in public, and preparing himself to dispute with idolaters for his truth and glory; and, therefore, the islands and people, all the nations of the world, are summoned to plead their cause; and an awful silence is enjoined, according to the forms observed in courts of justice: for both in this and the 21st verse, the expressions and ideas are taken from those courts. The phrase, Let the people renew their strength, signifies, “Let them prepare themselves and come forth to the cause, furnished with all the strength of argument and reason that they are able to acquire.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
II.THE SECOND DISCOURSE
The First Appearance of the Redeemer from the East and of the Servant of Jehovah, and also the First and Second Conversion of the Prophecy relating to this into a Proof of the Divinity of Jehovah.
Isaiah 41
1. THE FIRST CHIEF FIGURE: THE DELIVERER CALLED FROM THE EAST. THE FIRST APPLICATION OF THE PROPHECY AS A TEST OF DIVINITY
Isa 41:1-7
1Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people 1renew their strength;
2Let them come near; then let them speak:
3Let us come near together to judgment.
2Who raised up 4the righteous man from the east,
Called him to his foot,
Gave the nations before him,
And made him rule over kings?
5He gave them as the dust to his sword,
And as driven stubble to his bow,
3He pursued them, and passed 6safely;
7Even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
4Who hath wrought and done it, 8calling the generations from the beginning?
I the Lord, the first,
And with the last; I am he.
5The Isles saw it, and feared;
The ends of the earth were afraid,
Drew near, and came.
6They helped every one his neighbour;
And every one said to his brother,9Be of good courage.
7So the 10carpenter encouraged the 11goldsmith,
And he that smootheth with the hammer 12him that smote the anvil,
13Saying, it is ready for the sodering:
And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
See List for the recurrence of the words: Isa 41:1. . Isa 41:2. . Isa 41:3. . Isa 41:4. . Isa 41:5. . Isa 41:6. . Isa 41:7.
Isa 41:1. We have a pregnant construction in, comp. Job 13:13.
Isa 41:2. The perfect is only the prophetic perfect, representing the fact of awaking, not as one actually past, but as actually certain, i. e., all the same as happened. It indicates thus the objective reality, but not the time, as indeed generally the Hebrew modi express primarily not the time but the modality of being. The same is true of Isa 41:25.What is the object of ? Modern expositors, since Vitringa, so far as I see, are all of them of the opinion that the words , to be construed as a relative clause, are the object: him whom right (salvation, victory) meets at his feet. This exposition rests on the Masoretic punctuation But this does not give an absolute rule. It has the great disadvantage that it compels us to take in the sense of and , accordingly, in the sense of before him, ante pedem ejus. Now the first would present no difficulty, since occurs often enough in the sense of . But the latter is very serious since in all other places of its occurrence means to follow on the feet of. In Gen 30:30 it stands directly in antithesis with : little hadst thou before me, but it spreads out to a multitude behind me (on my foot ). Deu 33:3 is they turned after thy foot-print, (comp. Schrader in loc). Compare the usage in 1Sa 25:42; Job 18:11; Hab 3:5. Only in these passages does occur with denoting place. Thus the objection to taking in the sense of obviam, towards, is certainly justified. Then we must take and in their common meaning, to call, and after him. Moreover we must take as object of as all the ancient translations and many later expositors have done. The LXX.: , ; Vulg. quis suscitavit ab oriente justum, vocavit eum, ut sequeretur se, etc.The expression reminds one of Deu 28:7; Deu 28:24-25.If we take as Hiph. of conculcare, then it means conculcare faciet. Of course is object: he will make him trample down kings. But it might be taken as Kal. ( instead of on account of the pause). The only difference in sense would be: he will himself trample down. . It seems to me over-ingenious, when Delitzsch construes the as the mere intimation of a comparison that is left to the readers fancy to be completed. All depends on making and subject. That it does not read because and are feminine, makes not the least difficulty. For the ideal subject is he that holds the sword and bow. Comp. Isa 17:5; Isa 51:5. Rueckert, Knobel and others needlessly supply before . After one may supply , as often the pronominal object is omitted (comp. Gen 2:19; Gen 6:19 sqq., and especially 1Ki 22:6; 1Ki 22:15, where also the object is omitted after ); or, still more simply, one may regard and as the immediate object of : his sword shall make like dust, his bow like scattered chaff, i. e., sword and bow when set to work will produce that effect, likeness to dust and chaff.Note the assonance in and , and , and .
Isa 41:3. either adjective or adverbial accusative.I believe that and stand in antithesis. For, as is well known, often has the sense of going back in antithesis to verbs meaning to go thither, go out. Thus and are often used in antithesis; comp. Jos 6:1; 1Ki 3:7. Hence they are used of the rising and setting of the sun (Gen 19:23; Isa 13:19, and Gen 15:12; Gen 15:17; Gen 18:11, etc.). Comp. Isa 37:28; Num 27:17 : 1Sa 29:6; 1Ki 15:17; 2Ch 1:10, etc.). But also stands in antithesis to other verbs in this sense; thus Psa 126:6. Forth goes the bearer of the seeding, hither comes with rejoicing the bearer of his sheaves. Consider in addition that probably corresponds to Isa 41:2. For is to the question where? the same that is to the question whither? Thus to go very often means to go on the track of one (comp. Exo 11:8; Jdg 4:10; Jdg 8:5; 1Sa 25:27; 2Sa 15:17, etc.). One may, indeed, translate in our text: he will not measure backwards with his feet the way; for in itself it may very well mean that (comp. Num 20:19; Deu 2:28; Jdg 4:15; Jdg 4:17; Pro 19:2, etc.). But every one feels that this sense here were superfluous. It might be urged in reference to taking in the sense of redire, that then, too, were superfluous. But the antithesis of and is not so pregnant as that of and , and hence the Prophets intended meaning of this word is not so plainly recognizable, and indeed, so far, as I know, no one has recognized it. Thus, to give a hint to the reader of the sense he would convey by , the Prophet adds .
Isa 41:4. When stands emphatically for God, as it does here, it always refers backward, either to an unnamed and unnameable something in the preceding context, yet known as assumed, that involves the notion the One-All who upholds all things and comprehends everything. So it seems to me to be used Deu 32:39; Isa 43:10; Isa 48:12. In such a case is predicate. Or it so refers back to that great Unnamed, that is known to be taken for granted, that it appears as in apposition with the subject. Then it = talis. is used thus of men, Jer 49:12, and after Isa 50:9, etc. But it stands for God in this sense, 2Sa 7:28; Isa 37:16; Neh 9:6-7. But it can also be predicate in this way, that it only introduces the predicate notion as one already known. Then it is = ille, is, and always has a participle after it (ego sum ille, qui, comp. Isa 51:9-10, Isa 43:25; Isa 51:12.But further appears also to be the simple connecting it, which says that the preceding statement appertains as predicate to the subject represented by or Isa 43:13; Jer 14:22; Psa 44:5. But finally serves the purpose of affirming the identity of the predicate clause with the predicate of a preceding clause that is expressed or implied. Then it acquires the meaning idem. So here and Psa 102:28 (comp. Job 3:19; Heb 13:8). In our passage manifestly affirms that Jehovah is with those that are last that one that He was as the first, i. e., the same.
Isa 41:5. see Isa 41:1; and on see Isa 40:28.
Isa 41:7. Drawing the accent back in to avoid the collision of two tone syllables is normal, but the change of Tsere to Seghol is not normal (comp. Isa 49:7; Isa 66:3; Num. 17:23; 24:22; Eze 22:25). The latter is probably occasioned by the effort to better imitate the beat of the hammer strokes. in the sense of anvil only here.One need not construe participle. It may stand in the sense of a finite verb (comp. Isa 2:6; Isa 24:2; Isa 29:8; Isa 32:12). adhaesio, agglutinatio signifies that whereby the work of the is joined to that of the ; = in reference to (Isa 5:1; Gen 20:13, etc.).
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. God has a twofold object in view: 1) He would announce that He will raise up for His people a deliverer from the East; this is the chief contents of the first Ennead. 2) By this act of deliverance He would demonstrate His divinity in contrast with the nothingness of idols. This twofold object He attains by summoning the heathen nations to a trial in which He gives the proofs of His divinity (Isa 41:1-5); but they on their part do not respond, for the powerlessness of their idols is shown by a brief reference to the manner in which they originate (Isa 41:6-7).
2. Keep silencejudgment.
Isa 41:1. With reverential silence (comp. on ) must the islands (comp. on Isa 40:15) come to the Lord. For that He is the speaker appears from Isa 41:1-2, and especially from Isa 41:4. The expression , they shall renew their strength, stands here so near to Isa 40:31, that we must regard it as a link that binds the two chapters together. The Lord would intimate by these words that the task the nations will have to perform before the judgment, is a difficult one, that therefore they must in respect to strength make change, i. e., renew strength, put on new strength. [As if He had said: they that hope in Jehovah shall renew their strength; but those that refuse renew theirs as they can.J. A. A.] The Lord demands politeness, reverence from the nations even before the controversy is decided, so certain is He that He will gain it. They must not come on with rude noise, but modestly and then speak. , to judicial trial, is used here as in Isa 54:17; Num 35:12; Jos 20:6; Jdg 4:5; 2Sa 15:2; 2Sa 15:6. If Jehovah is Himself a party, who is then the judge? To this question Rosenmueller (with whom Delitzsch agrees) well replies: Vocantur gentes in judicium ad tribunal non Dei sed rationis.
3. Who raisedwith his feet.
Isa 41:2-3. With these words the Lord deposeth before the judgment a proof of His divinity. It does not consist merely in the fact that the deeds of the hero announced here shall give their right to the people of God, i. e., deliverance from the unrighteous tyranny of the heathen, while He will destroy the latter; but above all it consists in the fact that the Lord prophesies the appearance of the hero, and thus stakes His honor on the fulfilment of it. For that this hero brings deliverance to the people may be accident, an effect of His fancy, of arbitrariness, of a rulers caprice. In hat would therefore lie no strict proof of the divinity of Jehovah. But if Jehovah prophesies the appearance and doing of that hero, and it happens accordingly, then it is proved that the Lord is a living, omniscient, and almighty God. One may not object that what is future and unfulfilled would be without present power to prove (Delitzsch). For the text has nothing to do with an historical, actual disputation with heathen, in which, of course, a prophecy would be no proof. But the supposed disputation is only a rhetorical form that the Prophet uses in order to make the Israelites sensible of their folly and wrong, who, though they knew the living divinity of Jehovah, and that idols were without life, turned to the latter notwithstanding. This meaning appears by a comparison with Isa 41:21 sqq. For there the idols are very expressly challenged to prophesy future events, and from their powerlessness to do so is inferred their nothingness. And hence it appears to me that the verses 17 stand first as theme. The redemption, that in them is only intimated, is more particularly described, Isa 41:8-20, while Isa 41:21-29 amplify in respect to the way in which the appearance of the deliverer will be a proof for Jehovah who had foretold it, and against the idols which were unable to foretell it. Thus I do not believe that the argumentation of the Prophet presupposes the victorious career of Cyrus as begun, either in an ideal or in a real sense. It is wholly a thing of the future, and must be so contemplated. For how otherwise could the Prophet prophesy it?
It is plain that Cyrus is the hero referred to, and not Abraham, or Christ, or even the Apostle Paul, as, until Vitringa, was the opinion of the ancient expositors. The way for naming this name, which is produced at last in Isa 44:28, is prepared with much art. The hints of its coming may be compared to the gleams of light that, beginning feebly, and increasing in strength and extent, precede the sunrise. The first hint is that the East is to be the point whence the grand appearance shall issue. Persia in fact lies east of Babylonia. It accords also with the purpose of beginning small that the Prophet does not once name a definite, personal object of . We must take as that object (see Text and Gram.) Regarding the meaning of , I would repeat the remark already made, that the Old Testament righteousness is not the antithesis of grace, but of violent oppression, and hence that a , righteous man, is one who, though he has the power to the contrary, still lets right reign, and thereby both uses gentleness and dispenses happiness, salvation, and blessing [see comm. on Isa 1:21; Isa 1:26, Tr.]. Israel in exile was oppressed by its enemies, and though in respect to Jehovah this was a deserved punishment, still their enemies had, ex propriis, aggravated it, and thereby done a wrong to Israel (comp. Isa 10:5 sqq.). If now the hero from the East acts justly toward Israel, he shows himself to be a mild lord, and helps Israel to its rights against the oppression of the heathen, and thereby to happiness and salvation. Hence I believe that all these meanings are implied in . But they can only become operative through a person, a , righteous man. To this latent notion in , of a righteous man, the following suffixes [pronouns] must be referred. It suits the purpose of the Prophet already noticed, to let the person of the deliverer appear by degrees and unfold itself. One may say that his personality develops itself here, as it were, out of an impersonal germ. This one awakened to do righteousness the Lord calls after Him (comp. Isa 42:6, which passage the Masorets perhaps had in mind when they connected with ), i. e., he leads him further and fur ther [, see Text. and Gramm.]. Is there thus in a formal definition of , so in there is a definition as to matter. The words last named say what the hero, by extending his power, will do. All these clauses stand under the influence of the interrogative . Nations are properly not things that one gives away, and kings rule and are not themselves ruled. But here is an exception. Jehovah gives to this hero nations to do as he pleases with them, and subjects kings to him so that they must serve him. His sword made them as dust, etc., describes the degree to which they are given to him which was before said in and . His sword and bow, once set to work, will do such work that the result will be the likeness of dust and chaff (see Text. and Gram.) On see on Isa 40:24; comp. Isa 19:7. But not merely a battle in one place shall occur, but also pursuit of the fugitives. He, the conquering hero, shall go on well-preserved (), and always forwards, never backwards (see Text. and Gram. on , etc.). He will not go back in his own foot-prints (il ne reviendra pas sur ses pas). [J. A. A. agrees with Ewald, the clause describes the swiftness of his motions, as flying rather than walking on foot, and cites in support Dan 8:5.Tr.].
4. Who hath wroughtand came.
Isa 41:4-5. The Lord has announced a majestic appearance of world-wide significance. But, though it is something still future, He has let it appear as an image of the past before the eyes of those that were summoned. Hence, as Isa 41:2 He asked: who has awakened? so He now asks, using the past tense, who has prepared and made this? Of course the same that foreknew and predicted it, and who could do this because He is the One who from the beginning called the generations of men into existence, and hence can say of Himself: I Jehovah the first and I am still with the last (see Text. and Gram.). The Lord summoned the heathen to a controversy (Isa 41:1). He has laid down the proof of His divinity (Isa 41:2-4). Now it is the turn of the heathen to produce a similar performance on the part of their idols. Notice that the Prophet opposes the heathen nations to God, and not their idols. This is quite natural. For the idols have no actual existence. Hence it comes that the heathen must defend the cause of their idols; whereas Israels God defends the cause of His people. Therefore, obedient to the summons of Isa 41:1, the heathen nations approach. They see the proof that the Lord has presented in His own favor, and with dismay, for they know at once that they cannot match the performance with any thing similar. And so they approach trembling, as it were, to look at this trial-sample of Jehovahs on all sides. That they would have said something is not declared. Speechless they keep silence before the majesty of the Lord.
5. They helpedbe moved.
Isa 41:6-7. It is too incredible that the heathen, seized with fear, and in order to find help against the threatening appearance of the predicted hero, turn in haste to the fabrication of idol images (Delitz.), or that they nailed fast those threatened by Cyrus (Hitzig). No, these verses would show, by the manner in which idols originate, that they cannot possibly triumph in the controversy to which they are challenged (Isa 41:1). How can such productions of mens hands maintain themselves against Him who can speak of Himself as in Isa 41:4? I accordingly connect Isa 41:6 with what follows, and not with what precedes. For Isa 41:5 evidently corresponds to Isa 41:1. For there the nations are required to approach reverently and in silence; for this very reason they are unable to respond to the they shall speak (Isa 41:1): there the nations are called on to get strength, and Isa 41:5 we see them draw near, afraid and trembling; they drew near and came of Isa 41:5 corresponds to they shall approach, we will draw near ( ) of Isa 41:1. With this the cyle of thought beginning with Isa 41:1 is concluded. Thus Isa 41:5 looks backwards; Isa 41:6 forwards. The latter says in general the same that Isa 41:7 a says in reference to particular relations. Both verses have for their chief idea that idol-making is a fatiguing labor, costing not only much money (Isa 40:19), but also much sweat, in which one must encourage and aid the other in order to get it done. What a shameful difference then between idols and Jehovah.
The , smith, prepares the body of the image; the , founder, makes ready the covering. The former strengthens the latter by good preparatory work and cheering words. The smoother with the hammer seems to me to be identical with the , for the metal would surely be smoothed by him who moulded it. On the other hand, the , the smiter on the anvil, is identical with the ; for he that works at the anvil makes the iron body, makes the nails, and fastens the image with them. The smoother with the hammer is the subject of , for he has made the soldering, and by the call it is good he cheers the smith to continue and complete the work that consists in fastening the image with nails to the place where it is to be set up. It is good, comp. Exo 2:2; Gen 1:4; Gen 1:8, etc. , clavi, only here in Isaiah. Comp. Jer 10:3-5, which passage is evidently copied after ours and Isa 40:19 sq.; Isa 44:9-17; Isa 46:6 sq. , comp. Isa 40:20.
Footnotes:
[1]shall renew.
[2]Then shall come, they shall speak.
[3]We will come.
[4]Heb. Righteousness.
[5]His sword shall make them as dust, his bow, etc.
[6]Heb. in peace.
[7]He returns not the way on his foot-prints.
[8]he that called.
[9]Heb. Be strong.
[10]the smith.
[11]Or, founder.
[12]Or, the smiting.
[13]Or, Saying of the soder, It is good.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet continues his sermon through this Chapter, which he had begun in the former. The chief points here dwelt upon, are the proofs of God’s power and grace, in testimony of his Godhead, both in creation and redemption, in opposition to all the idols which the corruption of man’s fallen nature hath set up.
Isa 41:1
It should seem that this verse forms an immediate inference from the last verse of the former chapter. Silent waiting upon the Lord, at his footstool, when drawing nigh, in and through Jesus, being the way to renew the spiritual strength; it were to be wished, that this humbleness of soul, and waiting for the Lord’s preparation to approach his throne, were more considered than it is; for it is very awful to rush into the presence of the Lord, as the unthinking horse rushed to the battle. See those scriptures, Ecc 5:2 ; Pro 16:1 ; Jas 1:17 . and Psa 62:1 as the margin renders it, silent before God.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Antidote to Fear
Isa 41:10
Fear is common to man; increased by, if it does not originate in, a consciousness of sin. The text indicates three reasons why the Christian should not be afraid.
I. God’s Presence. ‘I am with thee.’ Powerful, wise, and loving.
II. God’s Relationship. ‘I am thy God.’ These words imply on our part reverence, obedience, and submission; on His part guardianship and blessing. We naturally take special care of that which is our own.
III. God’s Promise.
1. ‘I will strengthen thee’ fortify thy heart against trial and suffering.
2. ‘I will help thee’ render thee personal assistance; direct, protect, fight with and for thee.
3. ‘I will uphold thee.’
‘The right hand of My righteousness’ My faithful right hand; i.e. a hand that could be relied upon.
The right hand is generally used for work.
The right hand is offered in friendship.
The right hand is placed on those whom we wish to honour.
F. J. Austin, Seeds and Saplings, p. 53.
References. XLI. 10. A. Maclaren, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 201. “Plain Sermons” by contributors to the Tracts for the Times, vol. vii. p. 1. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 760; vol. xvi. No. 930. XLI. 13. E. L. Hull, Sermons Preached at King’s Lynn (3rd Series), p. 157. XLI. 14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. Nos. 156, 157. XLI. 17. Ibid. vol. xlvi. No. 2696. XLI. 18. Ibid. vol. xxxviii. No. 2270. XLI. 22. W. M. Punshon, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 205. XLII. 1. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 27. XLII. 1-3. G. Matheson, Voices of the Spirit, p. 66. XLII. 1-4. A. B. Davidson, Waiting Upon God, p. 27. W. M. Punshon, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 206. XLII. 1-5. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part ii. p. 97.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Isa 41
1. Keep silence before me, O islands [a word which always signifies far-off lands, sea-coasts distant as the horizon]; and let the people renew their strength [pull themselves together, gird up their loins, that they may wrestle with almightiness]: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment [let us wrestle together, let us enter into this controversy: the tone is that of a challenge, a contemptuous defiance].
2. Who raised up the righteous man from the east [who hath raised up from the east the man whom righteousness calls to tread in his steps?], called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? [Is the reference to Abraham the pilgrim, or to Cyrus the conqueror? The question is, Who raised up this righteous man?] he [God] gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow [hardly was their blood shed or stained upon the ground than they were trampled under foot: it was a humiliating death].
3. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. [A new way, a path found in pathlessness].
4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? [Let us look to facts, to experience, to proofs that cannot be gainsaid: the appeal of God is always to history. Having asked the question, he answers it] I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.
5. The isles [distant undiscovered places] saw it, and feared [felt a singular action at the heart, vibrated, wondered, and almost prayed]; the ends of the earth were afraid [felt a sense of ghostliness, immeasurableness; was sure there was a spectral presence in the air], drew near, and came [fell into committee, constituted a council of paganism],
6. They helped every one his neighbour [they said, We must join together in this matter, for no single man can fight the spirits of the air]; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage [they thought that a multiplication, of cowardice would add up to courage; they cheered one another; every man thought his brother was courageous, and every brother was timid with pitiable timidity].
7. So the carpenter [rather, the founder; the idols were metallic, not wooden] encouraged the goldsmith [put something in his way, kept his trade going], and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil [they must keep their bellows blowing, and their fire alight], saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails [the supreme irony! he fastened the little god with nails], that it should not be moved [and secured him against the wall].
8. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. [Will that word ever be applied to Christian believers? Is it an incommunicable honour?]
9. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. [I turned thee from a villager into a cosmopolitan; I brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, and made thee a light flooding the world with splendour: I enlarge men, I ennoble human functions; out of the mustard seed I bring a great tree.].
10. Fear thou not; for I am with thee [a sentiment based upon reason]: be not dismayed; for I am thy God [a flower growing upon a rock]: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. [The rhetoric of God ” I will, I will, I will:” the redundance of almightiness; there shall be strength enough, and all that is left over shall be more than what was given.]
11. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded [ashamed of their own fuming and vapouring and impotent anger]: they shall be as nothing [it is well when rhetoric fails to catch a figure; it is better that some rhetoric should thus fall down in pitiable humiliation, for there is no simile or personification or imaginable figure that can set forth the confusion of those whom God confounds]; and they that strive with thee shall perish [wither at the top, wither at the root, wither all through, and disappear completely],
12. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contendeth with thee [not an inch of their steel shall be left behind; net a footprint can be found by concentrated light; wert thou to focalise the sun upon their standards, tip of toe or stump of heel thou couldst not find]: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought
13. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. [The encouragement is never given without the reason.]
14. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel [the beginning was small; God started with dust; and so far he has made intelligent responsible men men who can curse and pray; go to hell, or rise to heaven: what a miracle in dust!]; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer,the Holy One of Israel.
15. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth [thou shalt beat whatever comes in thy way to small dust, or disentangle it; it shall be wholly in thy power]: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. [Thou shalt almost touch the mystery of omnipotence: but, observe, it is “I will make thee” I will do it: even the threshing instrument is only in the hands of an instrument: the Lord reigneth.]
16. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. [Triumph shall lead to worship; along the high road of victory men shall walk to the altar; there shall be no vapouring and self-boasting, but a great magnifying of God.]
17. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. [I will make the cisterns and the rocks fountains, and there shall be streams above all known water-levels, and all the streamlets and rills shall flow down into the valleys, and make them green with spring and summer].
18. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. [What a speech, viewed from the point of human weakness! But nothing can be beyond the altitude of omnipotence.]
19. I will plant in the wilderness [anybody can plant in a garden] the cedar, the shittah tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree; I will set in the desert [where nobody ever expected anything to grow] the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together:
20. That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand [if providence ever can be made into a theological argument] together, that the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.
21. Produce your cause, saith the Lord [let us have both sides of the argument]; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob [be at your best, in your highest form, in your most eloquent frame of mind, and let the foremost speaker amongst you state the case].
22. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen [not what shall happen ten centuries hence, but what shall happen in the near future say, the day after tomorrow: I will not tax them that they may overlook all the lapse of ages, I will set before them a child’s task, if they be prophets at all: what shall happen the next thing but one, is the literal meaning]: let them shew the former things [not the things that happened yesterday, but the things that will happen just before the things that are going to happen], what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come.
23. Shew the things that are to come hereafter [that is, almost immediately], that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together [prove yourselves].
24. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you [the greater fool of the two].
25. I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay [he shall not shed their blood, but shall tread them out of existence; they shall be crushed, not slaughtered, with sharp instruments, the potter treading clay is the image of this man of woe who shall crush his foe].
26. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words. [If there be, produce him; prove the case: the appeal must always be to history, to fact, to reality, to known experience.]
27. The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings.
28. For beheld, and there was no man [that could argue the case with me, no man that could prove that history had ever grown one man who was almighty]; even among them, and there was no counseller, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. [They were all dumb; they could boast when they were by themselves; a great meeting of pagans could applaud one another, but when the divine question was asked they were silent.]
29. Behold, they are all vanity [a veering wind, dying whilst it blows]; their works are nothing [again and again the word of humiliation recurs]: their molten images are wind and confusion [impalpable, imponderable, noisy, self-confounding, and ending in mortification and disappointment]
Note
“This section (Isaiah chapters 40-48) has for its main topic the comforting assurance of the deliverance from Babylon by Koresh (Cyrus), who is even named twice (Isa 41:2-3 , Isa 41:25 ; Isa 44:28 ; Isa 45:1-4 , Isa 45:13 ; Isa 46:11 ; Isa 48:14-15 ). This section abounds with arguments against idolatry, founded mainly (not wholly, see the noble passage Isa 44:9-20 ) upon the gift of prediction possessed by Jehovah’s prophets, especially as shown by their predicting Cyrus, and even naming him (Isa 41:26 ; Isa 44:8 , Isa 44:24-26 ; Isa 45:4 , Isa 45:19 , Isa 45:21 ; Isa 46:8-11 ; Isa 48:3-8 , Isa 48:15 ). Idols and heathen diviners are taunted with not being able to predict (Isa 41:1-7 , Isa 41:21-24 ; Isa 43:8-13 ; Isa 45:20-21 ; Isa 47:10-13 ). This power of foretelling the future, as shown in this instance, is insisted upon as the test of divinity. It is of importance to observe, in reference to the prophet’s standing-point in this second part, that in speaking both of the captivity in Babylon and of the deliverance out of it, there is (excepting Cyrus’ name) no specification of particular circumstances, such as we might expect to find if the writer had written at the end of the exile; the delineation is of a general kind, borrowed frequently from the history of Moses and Joshua. Let it be observed, in particular, that the language respecting the wilderness (e.g. Isa 41:17-20 ), through which the redeemed were to pass, is unmistakably ideal and symbolical.
“It is characteristic of sacred prophecy in general, that the ‘vision’ of a great deliverance leads the seer to glance at the great deliverance to come through Jesus Christ. This association of ideas is found in several passages in the first part of Isaiah, in which the destruction of the Assyrian army suggests the thought of Christ ( e.g. Isa 10:24 to Isa 11:16 ; Isa 31:8 to Isa 32:2 ). This principle of association prevails in the second part taken as a whole; but in the first section, taken apart, it appears as yet imperfectly. However, Isa 42:1-7 is a clear prediction of the Messiah, and that too as viewed in part in contrast with Cyrus; for the ‘servant’ of Jehovah is meek and gentle ( Isa 40:2-3 ), and will establish the true religion in the earth ( Isa 40:4 ). Nevertheless, since the prophet regards the two deliverances as referable to the same type of thought (comp. Isa 41:1-3 ), so the announcement of one ( Isa 40:3-5 ) is held by all the four Evangelists, and by John Baptist himself, as predictive of the announcement of the other.”
Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXVII
THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH
The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.
Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.
In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.
In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.
In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.
The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.
In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.
In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.
In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.
In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:
And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17
And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7
In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:
1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.
2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.
3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:
According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .
In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.
In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.
In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”
In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”
The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.
The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.
In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”
In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”
Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .
The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”
So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?
In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”
The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”
The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14
For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23
QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?
2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?
3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?
4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?
5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?
6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?
7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?
8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?
9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?
10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?
11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?
12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?
13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?
14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?
15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?
16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?
17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?
18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?
19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?
20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?
21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?
22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?
23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?
24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?
25. Where is the great invitation and promise?
26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?
27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?
28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?
29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?
30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?
31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
XVIII
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH PART 10
Isaiah 40-42
This great section (Isaiah 40-66) of Isaiah is called “The Old Testament Book of Comfort.” The New Testament correspondence to this book of comfort is John 14-17.
This section is addressed chiefly to the Israelitish exiles in Babylon. The conservative critics regard this as one of the greatest marvels of predictive prophecy. As Isaiah had already announced the Babylonian exile in Isa 39:6-7 he was further commissioned to provide comfort for those who should be tempted to despair by reason of their distress in captivity.
In 2Ch 32:25-33 we have an account of the condition at the close of the first part of the book, which does ample justice to the great and excellent Hezekiah as a ruler and a servant of Jehovah, yet it points out the sin of his heart in not rendering again according to the benefit done unto him. His heart was lifted up, which was no trivial sin, but he repented of this sin and thereby averted the immediate judgment from Judah. All this made Isaiah feel more and more distinctly the meaning of the Remnant, of which he bad had much to say. True, Assyria was never to destroy Jerusalem, but Isaiah saw behind Assyria a dark cloud arising which was to cover the whole face of heaven and burst upon the guilty city and people. This Isaiah saw clearly and distinctly. It was this very Babylon who at that time opposed Assyria, so that it was easy for Hezekiah and his people to take them as an ally. In view of this rising cloud Isaiah’s responsibility was increased. So now he directs his latest ministry to the future glory of Israel. The ten tribes were already in captivity and Judah was ripe for it. No time now to call to repentance until the Remnant should be purified by the judgment which was already decreed.
These last twenty-seven chapters are divided into three consecutive portions of nine chapters each which are externally marked off by a sad refrain: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.” In like manner each of these divisions is subdivided into three equal parts of three chapters each. The central verses of the central chapter of the central division of this section contains the very essence of the gospel (see Isa 53:5-8 ). The progress of revelation is also indicated by the subject, or general theme, of each division of nine chapters. The first is “Theology,” or the doctrine of God; the second is “Soteriology,” or the doctrine of salvation; the third is “Eschatology,” or the doctrine of the last things. Who could imagine that such an arrangement could have come to be by mere chance in the hands of a number of Isaiah’s?
In Isa 40:1-2 we have an introduction to the rest of the book. This contains (1) the theme of this entire section, (2) the announcement that the warfare of Jerusalem was accomplished, (3) that her iniquity was pardoned, and (4) that she had received of Jehovah’s hand double for all her sins.
The theme of this last part of the book, as herein contained, has been fully explained already. But what is the meaning of Jerusalem’s “warfare” being accomplished? This means that her service was fulfilled, the long period of hardship and drudgery during which she has borne the brunt of the enemies’ attacks; that the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand. A new day had dawned for Jerusalem. Her “iniquity pardoned” means God’s reconciliation to her and that he would not impute sin to her or punish her any longer for it. “Her receiving double of Jehovah’s hand” means, not twice as much as her sins deserved, but that she had received “abundantly” for her iniquity and therefore she might be assured that, having been amply punished, she need not fear further vengeance. All this is spoken from the standpoint of the captivity from which they are to return.
The theme of Isaiah 40-42 is the conflict with idolatry inside of Israel.
The prophecy of Isa 40:3-5 is a distinct prediction of the work of John the Baptist and is so declared to be in Mat 3:3 : “For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight.”
This is confirmed by Mark (Isa 1:3 ), Luke (Isa 3:4-6 ), and John (Isa 1:23 ). But Luke’s quotation of Isa 40:3-5 throws more light on the interpretation than that of the other evangelists. He says that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, which indicates that this prophecy reaches over into the gospel dispensation and takes in the Gentiles.
The main work of John the Baptist is here set forth. His work, according to this prophecy, was preparatory and is set forth in figures of speech showing the levelling and adjusting work of repentance. Every valley shall be filled, all the hills shall be leveled and all rough places shall be made plain. The import of all these figures can be expressed in the one word, “grading”; so the work of John the Baptist was compared to the grading of a highway over which Christ was to come to his people. Then the prophet turns from the figure of grading to one of agriculture, expressing thereby the same preparatory nature of John’s work. The image employed is that of burning the grass of a field. (Isa 40:6-8 ). John’s preaching subsequently fulfilled this figure, of withering the grass of the flesh, in a most striking manner, by destroying all hope of fitness for the kingdom of God based on fleshly descent from Abraham. In Isa 40:9-11 , the verses following the description of John’s preparatory work, we have the thought carried on by a call to the messenger to get up on a high mountain and proclaim to the cities of Judah, with a lifted voice, the coming of their God, who would come as a mighty one to rule and to feed the sheep. This was all fulfilled in the coming of our Lord, who, heralded by John the Baptist, stretched forth his hand with authority, fed the sheep and tenderly cared for the lambs.
The picture of Isa 40:12-17 is that of the incomparably lofty One, the Jehovah of Israel, who is here exalted above all creation, showing God’s eternal wisdom and power versus man’s finiteness and insignificance. This passage is quoted by Paul in his great exclamation over the supreme wisdom and knowledge of God (Rom 11:33-35 ).
The picture presented in Isa 40:18-24 is a contrast between Jehovah and the senselessness of idolatry, as the preceding passage is a contrast between Jehovah and man. In the light of this truth the prophet shows how monstrous appeared the folly of those who made an image to represent or symbolize Deity. This passage is a complement of Isa 40:12-17 showing that if God be all that is there said of him, how strange that man should produce the poor, mean likeness of God which he has in his folly, set up in various times and places. The prophet here sarcastically contrasts these idols with Deity in their power, again magnifying Jehovah’s wisdom and power above every other being in the whole scope of the universe. Doubtless this argument, together with the many others made by Isaiah, against idolatry”, helped greatly to bring about the freedom from Polytheism, which has marked the Jewish people ever since the restoration from the Babylonian captivity.
The brief paragraph, Isa 40:27-31 , sets forth the comfort to God’s people of knowing the foregoing things concerning their God: that their way was open to Jehovah and he had not forgotten the justice due to them; that Jehovah is an everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth and does not grow weary, and that they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, shall mount up with wings as eagles, shall run and not be weary, shall walk and not faint. But what does the last verse mean? This passage seems, at first thought, to be an anticlimax, but it is a real climax. The first part of a journey is accomplished under the impulse of ardent feeling, as the eagle mounting upon wings for a long flight. The second stage of the journey is made by robust and energetic effort; as the traveler, not so fresh and buoyant, runs and by such effort presses on the way. The last stage of the journey is made by a steady, but tranquil and almost unconscious, advance, as when almost exhausted the traveler walks steadily onward. This verse taken in connection with the preceding one means this: Though the journey be such that the strongest, humanly speaking, may be weary and fall, the Lord giveth such power to those that wait upon him, though they be faint and have no might, that, in the first part of the journey, they shall be fresh and buoyant; in the second stage of the journey they shall run, as other men would, but unlike them they shall not be weary; and in the third stage of the journey where there is falling and fainting, with these it shall not be so, but they shall all have strength to complete the journey. How beautifully this applies to Christian service in this life. “They that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.”
The special theme of Isa 41 is Jehovah’s contest with idols, the outcome of which is that Jehovah proves his Deity in two ways: (1) by stirring up Cyrus as a scourge to the heathen nations, and (2) by predicting the future which the false gods of the heathen could not do.
The prophetic picture in Isa 41:1-7 is a challenge to the isles and nations to match Jehovah’s strength with the power of their idols. Jehovah invites them to consider well the evidence. Then he marches out Cyrus at his word. He passes swiftly to chastise the heathen nations who tremble at his approach. They assemble, combine their efforts and encourage one another to make the very best god possible, so as to meet the power of Cyrus.
The thought is carried on in Isa 41:8-16 . In the midst of the consternation produced by Cyrus, Israel is encouraged not to fear; that Jacob is the chosen seed and he will be gathered from the ends of the earth; that Jehovah will be his God, singing in his ear, How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent Word; that he would infuse weakness into their enemies and that he would give Israel an aggressive vigor that would enable them to scatter their foes, which was fulfilled, perhaps, in the Maccabean period.
The crowning promise in Isa 41:17-20 is that of spiritual support and refreshment through the dull and dreary time of the captivity, which would find its full fruitage in the gospel days. The picture here is one that cheers the lonely traveler in a desert land. The anticipation of the blessings of the oasis stimulates and encourages. Here we have a desert converted into a garden, such as the gospel alone could do.
A contest between Jehovah and idols is described in Isa 41:21-29 . Here Jehovah challenges them to try their hand on revealing the past, predicting the future, or to demonstrate their claim by performing the supernatural, to which he himself replies that they are nothing and render people who choose them abominable. Then the prophet gives a sample of Jehovah’s prediction, which these idols were not able to match, because they were confusion. The prediction here is respecting Cyrus who should come from the north and should make the rulers as potter’s clay under his feet.
Who was the “Servant of the Lord,” occurring so often in Isaiah? Israel was God’s national son and it was the vocation of Israel to be God’s servant. So long as they served him loyally, they had true freedom, but when they ceased to do so they were chastised and had to learn the service of other kingdoms (2Ch 12:8 ). Yet their vocation was not annulled. The promise to Abraham’s seed stood firm. The “holy seed” was the germ of life which continued intact throughout their history. The title, “Servant of the Lord,” is applied to Israel, or Jacob, in Isa 41 ; Isa 44 ; Isa 45 ; Isa 48 . In other places where the title occurs, as Isa 42 ; Isa 43 ; Isa 44:26 ; Isa 49 ; Isa 52 ; Isa 53 , it is evident that a person is addressed who, while he is so closely related to Israel that he can be its representative, has at the same time a transcendent personality which enables him to stand outside of Israel and to act independently of it or in antagonism to it, as in Isa 49:5-6 ; Isa 53 .
It is to be noted in this connection that the title “Servant of the Lord,” occurring nineteen times in Isaiah 41-53 disappears after Isa 53:11 . The reason is obvious. His work as a servant is thenceforth finished. The everlasting covenant has been established (Isa 55:3 ). On the other hand after Isa 53 we have “Servants of the Lord,” which does not occur at all before Isa 44 , but occurs ten times in Isaiah 44-66. The relation between the two complementary series is fully explained by Isa 53:10 : “He shall see his seed,” and Isa 53:11 : “He shall see of the travail of his soul.” Through the obedience of one righteous servant many are made righteous (Rom 5:12-19 ).
The special theme of Isa 42 is “The Servant of Jehovah and His Work.”
In Isa 42:1-4 we have set forth the character, anointing, gentleness, and work of the Messiah. The New Testament (Mat 12:18-21 ) applies this expressly to Christ. In this we see that he was chosen with special delight and anointed in the Holy Spirit for his mission by Jehovah himself. His mission to the Gentiles, his quietness in his work, and his gentleness in dealing with backsliders are all noted with marked distinction. He will establish justice in truth and his administration shall include all the nations. The “bruised reed” refers to a musical instrument in need of repair, and the “smoking flax” refers to the wick of an old-fashioned lamp, nearly gone out. Both of these refer spiritually to the backslider and illustrate the tenderness with which Christ deals with the backslider. He will not break the bruised flute, but will fix it up again. Nor will he snuff the candle, but will trim it so that it will give forth its light. Brother Truett had a great sermon on this text in which he magnified the tenderness of Christ to backsliders.
The thought of Isa 42:1-4 is carried on in Isa 42:5-9 . This is a solemn reaffirmation that the mission of the “Servant of Jehovah” was from the Almighty and that the success of it was assured by him. This mission of the “Servant” is here declared to be twofold: (1) for a light of the Gentiles; (2) to open the eyes of the blind, to liberate the captives from the dungeon and from the prison house.
The “former things” here (Isa 42:9 ) are the former prophecies concerning Israel’s captivity which had been fulfilled, and the “new things” are the predictions respecting the restoration of the captive people to their own land.
The thought expressed in Isa 42:10-17 is a new song to Jehovah for his triumph over idolatry and for the deliverance of his people. The surrounding nations are called upon to join in this song, i.e., the nations about Palestine. This is a song of praise for the gospel and has its fullest realization in the antitype’s victory over superstition and idolatry. Isa 42:16 is a striking statement: “I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them.” This is an appeal to trust Jehovah in the darkest hours. The poet has expressed this great need thus: When we in darkness walk, Nor feel the heavenly flame, Then is the time to trust our God, And rest upon His name.
In Isa 42:18-25 Israel is represented as blind and deaf, grinding in prison houses because of disobedience, very much like national Israel in the days of our Lord, who had eyes but saw not and ears but heard not. They are also represented as a plundered people, but this is the judgment of Jehovah upon Jacob, because he was not obedient to his law. Again he is represented as not laying the matter of Jehovah’s dealings with him to heart. Is it not true that Jacob is in this condition today? He has never yet laid the folly of his sin of rejecting the Saviour to heart. But he will one day be made to consider his rebellious way of unbelief, the veil will fall from his blind eyes and he will receive our Lord and go with us after a lost world with a zeal that the world has never yet seen.
QUESTIONS
1. What is this section (Isaiah 40-66) of Isaiah called and what the New Testament correspondence to it?
2. To whom is it addressed and how is it regarded by the conservative critics?
3. Give a brief statement of the general condition in the kingdom at the close of the first part of the book (Isa 39:8 ).
4. Restate here the artistic features of this last section of the book.
5. What is contained in. Isa 40:1-2 and what the explanation of each of the items?
6. What is the general theme of the subdivision, Isaiah 40-42?
7. What is the prophecy of Isa 40:3-5 and where do we find the distinct fulfilment?
8. How is the main work of John the Baptist here set forth?
9. How is this thought of the preparatory work of John the Baptist for the coming king carried forward?
10. What is the picture of Isa 40:12-17 ?
11. What is the picture presented in Isa 40:18-26 and how does it seem to have impressed the Jewish people?
12. What is the thought in Isa 40:27-31 and what the interpretation of verse 31?
13. What is the special theme of Isa 41 and what the outcome?
14. What is the prophetic picture in Isa 41:1-7 ?
15. How is the thought carried on in Isa 41:8-16 ?
16. What is the crowning promise here (Isa 41:17-20 )?
17. Describe the contest between Jehovah and idols in Isa 41:21-29 .
18. Who was the “Servant of Jehovah,” occurring so often in Isaiah and what of the usage of the term by this prophet?
19. What is the special theme of Isa 42 ?
20. What are the contents of Isa 42:1-4 ?
21. How is the thought of Isa 42:1-4 carried on in Isa 42:5-9 ?
22. What are the “former things” and the “new things” in Isa 42:9 ?
23. What is the thought expressed in Isa 42:10-17 ?
24. What is Israel’s condition as described in Isa 42:18-25 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Isa 41:1 Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
Ver. 1. Keep silence before me, O islands, ] i.e., O islanders (so the Hebrews called all that were beyond sea to them), with whom God, being about to contest, calleth for silence that he may be heard. The people of Rome could hardly digest a S , or keep silence from their emperor Adrian, as too severe; a but when God thundereth it, men wriggle into their holes as so many worms.
And let the people renew their strength.
Let them come near together in judgment.
a Dio in Adrian.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Isaiah Chapter 41
This chapter, if it be not a second part the preceding one being the first, is a most appropriate sequel. For Jehovah, having opened His counsels as to Jerusalem and its comfort (after, many vicissitudes and troubles) at His coming in power and glory, turns now to the Gentiles, challenging them to meet Him in judgement. He had there been displayed in His shepherd care over Israel, in His might and wisdom over all, needing no counsellor, and the nations counted less than a cipher and vanity, so that comparison or image was futile, and Israel’s unbelief was the more deplorable because of His special goodness to all amongst them who waited on Him. Now He says (v. 1), “Keep silence before me, islands, and let the peoples renew [their] strength: let them come near, then let them speak; let us draw near together to judgement.”
Cyrus is meant though not yet named. It is no question of a past name of renown, but of a future deliverer, of whom God knew all: man and his idols could say nothing. Before the prescient eye of the prophet stands the mighty conqueror of Babylon. None but the true God, Who made him the instrument of His designs in providence, had anticipated his rise. Jehovah here describes him, but typically (in the manner of the prophetic Spirit) as the shadow of a greater than Cyrus, Who should for ever overturn the idols of the nations, judge their pride, and deliver the people of Israel from all their dispersions, as well as from the sins which brought them under wrath in the righteous ways of Jehovah. “Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness calleth to its foot? He gave the nations before him, and made [him] rule over kings; he gave [them] as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, he passed on safely, by a way he had not come with his feet. Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the beginning? I Jehovah, the first, and with the last; I [am] He” (vv. 2-4).
It is as vain to drag in the gospel of Christ here as in Isa 40 to interpret Jacob and Israel of Christendom. Nor is the plea at all valid that the Jews will never more meddle with idols. Mat 12:43 ; Mat 24:15 , not to speak of the Revelation, are clear evidence confirmatory of Isa. 65-66, and of other passages in the Old Testament, which prove that the end of the age will see a fatal revival of idolatry, the return of the unclean spirit (Mat 12:43-45 ) with the full antichristian power of Satan, which will bring down the Assyrian scourge on the Jews and thereon also the Lord’s coming in vengeance, when the indignation shall be accomplished, and Jehovah’s anger, in the destruction of the foe. The last state of that generation which rejected Christ will then be characterized both by idol worship and the Antichrist; so that, on this score, there is no pretence for turning aside the expostulation, here addressed to the peoples, to the Gentiles that are now baptized, or for interpreting Jacob and Israel of Christendom as some have done who ought to have known better.
Again, it is absurd to say that the gospel could be foreshown by the first one raised up from the east; for, among the Jews, the east was always reckoned from Palestine, never Palestine itself. The Rabbinical idea (strange to say, espoused by Calvin, Hausschein, Piscator, Lowth the younger, Bengel, and stranger still, by the late Mr. Birks) was not so unreasonable: the allusion, they thought, was to Abraham, who was a righteous man called out of Mesopotamia. But this idea fails. For who could think that the patriarch’s exceptional sally against the kings of the east who were returning after their successful raid into the valley of the Jordan, or the incidents of Pharaoh and Abimelech, duly answer to the discomfiture of nations and subjugation of kings, making his sword as a column of dust and as the driven stubble his bow in resistless progress? Still less does verse 2 suit the testimony of Christ in the gospel.
The comparison of Isa 45:1 , Isa 45:13 , ought to convince any unbiased thoughtful mind that Cyrus is really in view, but of course ultimately the foreshadowed triumph when Christ comes in His kingdom, putting all enemies under His feet instead of gathering souls out of the world in one body for heaven, as He is now doing by the Holy Ghost’s power through the gospel. (Compare also Ezr 1:1-3 ) If the Babylonish captivity of Judah was the divine chastening of their idolatry by means of the chief patron of idols on earth, the fall of Babylon was a tremendous blow on its own idolatry, predicted as this was by the Jewish prophet long before either event. These were among the reasons which made the first success and the final ruin of Babylon so important in scripture. They were bound up with God’s ways in His people. And hence the answer to the infidel sneer touching the silence of prophecy respecting America. What has the discovery or growth of the New World in the far west to do with Israel? From the New Testament again all such matters are excluded, because the rejected Messiah involves not only the disappearance of Israel and the kingdoms of the earth from the foreground, but the calling of the church for glory in the heavenly places as the body and bride of Christ, at least until the corruption of Christendom becomes morally unbearable. For the age ends in the judgement of apostate Jews and Gentiles under the Beast and the false prophet, when Christ and His glorified saints appear from heaven, and the godly remnant of Jews here below will become a strong nation, the earthly centre of His kingdom under the whole heaven.
Hence the suitability here of confronting in this very connection “Jehovah, the first, and with the last,” the One Who had wrought and spoken. Why were the gods of the nations silent and powerless? why were the boasted oracles dumb? If the fall of Judah, moral necessity as it was (unless Jehovah must sanction His own dishonour in the midst of His people, and sustain them to give His glory to a graven image), made His power questionable in a Gentile’s eyes, let them learn in the downfall of Babylon, which the Jews alone knew generations beforehand, even to the name and race of him who was its instrument, that His righteousness and wisdom were no less than His power, and that the chastised Jews were the people of His choice. “The isles saw [it] and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. They helped every one his neighbour, and [each] said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the founder, he that smootheth [with] the hammer him that smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, [it is] good: and he fasteneth it with nails, [that] it be not moved. But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend, whom I have grasped from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners (or, nobles), and said unto thee, Thou [art] my servant; I have chosen thee, and not rejected thee. Fear not, for I [am] with thee; be not dismayed, for I [am] thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness” (vv. 5-10).
The honour to which Cyrus was called by the way was no change in His purposes or affections respecting Israel. Not Cyrus but Israel was His servant. “Behold, all they that are incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they that strive with thee shall be as nothing, and shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, – them that contend with thee. They that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I Jehovah thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, ye few men of Israel; I will help thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat small the mountains, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel” (vv. 11-16).
These last words, however, render it beyond just doubt that the prophet carries his eye far beyond the immediate occasion, and presents, not the condition of the Jews under their Persian or other Gentile lords, but days still future when Israel shall take them captive whose captives they were, and shall rule over their oppressors. It is impossible to apply to the same period the prophetic description here and Nehemiah’s language: “Behold, we [are] servants this day, and [for] the land that thou gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good thereof, behold, we [are] servants in it; and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set over us because of our sins: also they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at their pleasure, and we [are] in great distress” (Neh 9:36 , Neh 9:37 ). Here the word is in manifest contrast, and in figurative language, no doubt; but it prefigures neither servitude, nor the grace of the gospel, but triumph when the true Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and Israel shall flourish and tread down the wicked in the day that shall burn all the proud and lawless as an oven.
The Maccabean or the apostolic triumphs of Vitringa and others are a burlesque on a sound interpretation. Not only must we leave room for the future, but for a total change from the character of God’s actual working in and by the church. Now it is grace building living stones on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone; then it will be the awful descent of the Stone cut without hands on the statue of Gentile empire in its last phase, which leads to, as it corresponds with, the judicial functions of Israel here described in “that great day” of the future.
Not that refreshment will fail from Jehovah for Israel. “The afflicted and the needy seek water, and [there is] none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I Jehovah will hear them, [I] the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry lands into water-springs. I will give in the wilderness the cedar, acacia, and myrtle, and oleaster; I will set in the desert the cypress, pine (or, plane), and box-tree together; that they may see and know and consider and understand together, that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it” (vv. 17-20).
Jehovah then recurs to a renewal of His challenge to the Gentiles and their idols, but in terms of justly increased contempt for their trust in a thing of naught, again grounding His appeal on their ignorance of the scourge of idolatry who should come from the north and east. “Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong [reasons] saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring [them] forth and show us what shall happen: show the former things, what they [be], that we may pay heed to them, and know their issue; or declare us things to come. Show the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye [are] gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold [it] together. Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of naught: an abomination [is he that] chooseth you. I have raised up [one] from the north, and he shall come; from the rising of the sun will he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as [upon] mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared [it] from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, Right? Indeed there is none that declareth, indeed there is none that showeth, indeed there is none that heareth your words. The first [I say] to Zion, Behold, behold them; and to Jerusalem I will give one that bringeth good tidings. For I look, and there is no man; even among them, and there is no counsellor, that, when I ask of them, can answer a word” (vv. 21-28). The oracles are dumb, even reason abashed – nothing but insensate folly is in men owning as gods things which could neither speak nor hear. “Behold, they [are] all vanity: their works [are] naught: their molten images [are] wind and confusion” (v. 29). Human helps to devotion are the death-bed of faith. Man by his devices, now as of old, only succeeds in shutting himself out from the living God; and the mercy He reveals in His word, as well as His judgements, are sealed up in the darkness of unbelief. Prophecy is the truest and most permanent witness of the true God, till His power overwhelm those that dispute it and dishonour Him. Hence the gravity of the present scepticism in Christendom which will issue in “the falling away” or apostasy (2Th 2:3 ).
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 41:1-4
1Coastlands, listen to Me in silence,
And let the peoples gain new strength;
Let them come forward, then let them speak;
Let us come together for judgment.
2Who has aroused one from the east
Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet?
He delivers up nations before him
And subdues kings.
He makes them like dust with his sword,
As the wind-driven chaff with his bow.
3He pursues them, passing on in safety,
By a way he had not been traversing with his feet.
4Who has performed and accomplished it,
Calling forth the generations from the beginning?
‘I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’
Isa 41:1 Isa 41:1 is a literary technique used often in the OT (i.e., a court scene, cf. Isa 1:18-20; Isa 43:26; Isa 50:8; Hosea 4; Micah 6). YHWH brings the nations, and in Isa 41:21, their idols before His judgment seat.
NASB, NKJV,
NRSVcoastlands
TEVdistant lands
NJB, REBcoasts and islands
The word (BDB 15) means coast or region. Isaiah uses it often to refer to Gentile nations in the Mediterranean area (cf. Isa 11:11; Isa 24:15; Isa 41:1; Isa 41:5; Isa 42:4; Isa 42:10; Isa 42:12; Isa 49:1; Isa 51:5; Isa 59:18; Isa 60:9; Isa 66:19).
It is parallel to peoples (BDB 522, cf. Isa 49:1). It seems that the nation of Edom is used as a symbol for all rebellious nations (i.e., Isa 34:5-17; Isa 63:1-6; Jer 49:7-22; Lam 4:21-22; Eze 25:12-14; Eze 35:1-15; Obadiah, Mal 1:2-4). In Isaiah this term often stands for Gentile nations, like Philistia and Phoenicia (cf. Isa 23:2-6).
in silence This is another term related to a court scene (cf. Hab 2:20; Zec 2:13). There is nothing to say in light of YHWH’s presence and power.
gain new strength It is surprising that the same VERB (BDB 322, KB 321, Hiphil IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense) used of God’s people in Isa 40:31 is now used for the peoples (i.e., Gentiles).
come forward This VERB, draw near (BDB 620, KB 670, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense) can be used of priests approaching YHWH in sacrifice and worship, but here it is approaching the judge for a defense (cf. Isa 34:1; Isa 48:16).
Isa 41:2 one from the east This refers to Cyrus II (cf. one from the north, Isa 41:25). He is mentioned specifically by name in Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1. Cyrus II
1. became King of Anshan in 558 B.C.
2. gained control of Media in 550 B.C.
3. controlled Lydia in 546 B.C.
4. controlled Babylon in 539 B.C.
5. issued a decree in 538 B.C. that all the deported people groups exiled by Assyria and Babylon could go home, including the Jews
Whom He calls in righteousness The JPSOA translates this by uniting the thoughts of lines 1 and 2, who has roused a victor from the east.
The Jewish Study Bible (864) mentions that the Targums translate this so as to refer to Abraham whom YHWH called from Ur of the Chaldees. The military part of Isa 41:2 would then refer to Genesis 14, Abraham’s defeat of the kings.
to His feet It must be remembered that the Ark of the covenant was viewed as the footstool for YHWH’s feet and, thereby, His presence. This is an anthropomorphic phrase.
SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD DESCRIBED AS HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHISM)
He Notice all the things that YHWH does for Cyrus II.
1. arouses from the east
2. calls in righteousness
3. delivers up nations before him
4. subdues kings
a. like dust
b. like chaff
Isa 41:3 describes the swiftness of his victories. Isa 41:4 describes the Lord who accomplishes the victories for His own purposes of redemption and restoration for His people.
NASBsubdues
NKJVrule over
NRSV, JPSOAtramples
TEVvictory
NJBsubjects
REBoverthrowing
The problem is the rare VERB (BDB 921, KB 1190, Hiphil JUSSIVE). It does not seem to fit the context, so the various options. The VERB must refer to Cyrus.
Isa 41:3
NASBtraversing with his feet
NKJVhe had not gone with his feet
NRSV, NJBscarcely touching the path with his feet
REBswifter than any traveler on foot
JPSOAno shackle is placed on his feet
The Hebrew is ambiguous. The ancient versions did not understand it.
1. LXX – the way of his feet shall proceed in peace
2. Peshitta – he shall not pass that way on foot
3. DSS – they do not discern the path of his feet
Most modern English translations see it as a metaphor of speed. However, the JPSOA translates the word path as shackles from an Old Aramaic root. It could refer to new territory (NET Bible).
Isa 41:4 Calling forth the generations from the beginning This is an idiom for YHWH’s control of time and history (cf. Isa 40:21; Isa 41:26; Isa 44:7; Isa 45:21). YHWH directs creation, the call of Abraham, and his seed for His purposes. OT predictive prophecy is the strongest evidentiary basis for the inspired Bible!
‘I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last. I am He’ There is a series of Hebraic terms and forms used here to describe God.
1. the LORD comes from the Hebrew VERB to be (cf. Exo 3:14, see Special Topic at Isa 40:3)
2. the first and the last (cf. Isa 44:6)
3. I am He reflects the term YHWH (cf. Isa 43:10; Isa 46:4; Joh 8:57-58; Joh 13:19)
Collectively, these terms seem to reflect that God is the only-living, ever-living God (see Special Topic: MONOTHEISM ). They are used for Jesus, YHWH’s Messiah (see Special Topic: Messiah ) in Rev 1:8; Rev 1:17; Rev 22:13.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
islands = coast-lands. See note on Isa 11:11.
renew. Same word as in Isa 40:31.
strength = strength (to endure).
come near = draw nigh.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
In the forty-first chapter of Isaiah in the first part of the chapter, God begins His predictions concerning Cyrus who was not yet born. A man who was not to be born for a hundred and fifty years. But God begins to talk about him. How he’s going to raise him up. How he’s going to prosper him. How he’s going to give him a kingdom and subdue nations before him. As we progress in our study tonight, we’ll find that God actually names him. “In order to prove that I’m really God, there’s no one else like Me, I’m going to call you by your name. It is Cyrus,” and He calls him His servant. So that it is interesting that God begins a hundred and fifty years before a man is born to tell about his life and what God is going to do through his life.
Keep silence before me, O ye coast ( Isa 41:1 );
The word islands there is literally coast.
and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; let them speak: let us come near together to judgment ( Isa 41:1 ).
Now as He speaks of Cyrus, He said,
Who raised up the righteous man from the east, he called him to his foot, he gave the nations before him, and made him to rule over the kings? ( Isa 41:2 )
Now the question is: who did this? And the answer is, “I the Lord,” the last part of verse Isa 41:4 . “He made him to rule over the kings.”
he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. For he [that is, Cyrus] pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? ( Isa 41:2-4 )
Or naming the persons from the beginning.
I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he ( Isa 41:4 ).
So the question: who’s raised up this man? Who’s brought him forth? Who’s given him the kingdom? “I the Lord.”
The coast saw it, and they feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, and they drew near, and came. They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend ( Isa 41:5-8 ).
Now beginning with verse Isa 41:8 , he turns the attention away from Cyrus and now to Israel, the nation, to Jacob. “You’re my servant,” God declares. And in Isaiah, Isaiah speaks of Israel as the servant of the Lord and then, of course, it speaks of Jesus Christ as the servant of the Lord. And also David is mentioned as God’s servant in the book of Isaiah. We will, as we progress in two weeks, come to quite a discourse on that righteous servant Jesus Christ that God has raised up. But here Jacob and Israel. “I have chosen the seed of Abraham, My friend.” And Abraham has the title of the friend of God. What a beautiful title.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and I have called thee from the chief men, and I have said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness ( Isa 41:9-10 ).
Now, in a very narrow sense, this is the promise that God has made unto His chosen. Unto Jacob and Israel whom He will call together from the ends of the earth where they have been scattered. God said, “I have not cast thee away.”
Now there is a teaching today that is not scriptural, and that is that God has cast away the nation of Israel and that God’s purposes now will be fulfilled through the church, that Israel has been rejected and cast away. That is not scriptural. In fact, the whole prophecy of Hosea is dedicated to God taking back the unfaithful wife and redeeming her again and taking her for His bride once more. And the whole book of Hosea is a simile. It’s an allegorical type of a book and even as God said, “Go down and take a wife and marry her.” And he bore children and then he had a child but he said, “That’s not mine.” Called it, “Loruhamah, not my child.” And she left and went out and became a harlot, a prostitute. And after years of time God said to Hosea, “Now go find your wife and redeem her.” She had sold her life and God said, “Buy her back and take her as your wife once again and restore her.” And then God spoke about how He was going to restore Israel.
Paul said, “Has God cast them away whom He has chosen? God forbid.” And Paul all the way through his teaching tells about how God is going to restore them again and that the cutting off was the salvation of the Gentiles. What will the gathering together of them be? God’s working with them once more. But the Kingdom Age. “Know ye not,” he said, in Rom 11:1-36 , “that blindness has happened to Israel in part until the fullness of the Gentiles come in? But then all Israel shall be saved. Thus saith the scripture, There shall go forth, shall deliver out of Zion'” and so foRuth ( Rom 11:25-26 ). So God is yet to work with them. And when God begins to work with them, we will have entered into the final seven years of Satan’s rule upon the earth. The final seven years prior to the establishing of God’s kingdom upon the earth.
In the ninth chapter of Daniel, we’ll be coming to Daniel in a few months, he declares, “Seventy sevens are determined upon the nation Israel. And from the time the commandment goes forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah the Prince will be sixty-nine sevens. But the Messiah will be cut off” ( Dan 9:25-26 ). So the seventieth seven will complete the prophecies. To seal up the prophecies. To anoint the most holy place and to bring in the everlasting righteousness, that kingdom of everlasting righteousness. So you’ve got a seventieth seven that was unfulfilled which is yet future. Which will begin when Russia is destroyed by God in her aborted invasion of Israel.
So God is going to once more deal with the nation Israel in a very special way, after He has completed His work among the Gentiles. So here God declares, “I have chosen thee, I have not cast thee away.” They are God’s chosen people. You can’t get away from it. God has not cast them away. They have, in a sense, cast God away as Isaiah will talk in the next few chapters of how they have not offered the sacrifices to God. How they have shut God out. But God has not shut them out, but shall yet deal with them in a very remarkable way.
Now God speaks about those that have been incensed against them, and surely these people have been a persecuted people. And it is indeed tragic that much of the persecution against the Jew has arisen from the church. I think that God is one of the most maligned persons in the universe. Maligned by Satan. How he has maligned God. And in the eyes of the people of the world, they say, “Well, the Protestants are fighting the Catholics over in Ireland.” That’s not a Protestant-Catholic kind of a thing; it’s a political thing. They are not Christians against Christians as such. It’s a whole political issue, but yet they call it the Protestants against the Catholics. And makes it look like God is stirring up people against each other. Surely it is not Christian nor have many of the things that have been done by the church or in the name of the church through history been Christian at all. Many things have been done in the name of Christianity. And you look… People say, “We are Christians,” and they are not. Jesus said, “Not all who say, ‘Lord, Lord,’ are going to enter into the kingdom of heaven” ( Mat 7:21 ).
And so, because of what people have done in the name of Christ, because of those that have persecuted the Jews in the name of Jesus Christ, it has created a great bitterness in the heart of many Jews. And rightfully so, for the church and against Christianity, because they usually equate the church with Christianity.
We are over in Israel quite a bit and we have many friends over there and they’ll get going in their talking and all. And they’ll start talking about, “Those Christians, those Christians.” We say, “Wait a minute. Hold on. We’re Christians.” “Oh no,” they said, “you’re Calvary Chapel Christians. You’re different. You love us. We know you love us.” And they recognize over there a difference between Christians and Christians. They have a greater discernment than we often do. People so often just lump Christian America. And so if you’re not a communist, not an atheist, you’re a Christian. But a Christian is much more than that. He is one who has submitted his life to the lordship of Jesus Christ; one who seeks to follow Jesus Christ; one who lives his whole life governed by the Lord. So it is not loving Him in word, but in deed and in truth.
Now God said, “I am… “
All of those that were incensed against you shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish ( Isa 41:11 ).
It doesn’t pay to strive with them. God says, “I’ve chosen you. I’ve not cast you away. And those that strive with you are going to perish.” God promised to Abraham, “I will bless those that bless thee, and I will curse those that curse thee” ( Gen 12:3 ).
Jesus in the judgment, not the final judgment, but in the judgment that He will bring when He returns to the earth and gathers together the nations for judgment, the judgment against the nations will be concerning their treatment of the Jews. For He said, “I was hungry and you did not feed Me. Thirsty, you did not give Me to drink. Naked, you did not clothe Me. Sick and you did not help Me.” “Lord, when did we see You hungry, naked, thirsty, sick?” He said, “Inasmuch as you did it not to the least of these My brethren, the Jews, you have not done it unto Me” ( Mat 25:42-45 ). He still refers to them as His brethren. They’ve been chosen of God. God has not cast them away.
I oftentimes get hate mail from even ministers because they’ve heard of how Calvary Chapel has sought to help the Jewish people, what a love we have for them, and how that we’ve sought to demonstrate our love in practical ways. Contributing to their hospitals, contributing to many of the projects in Israel. This year we’ve given over $460,000 to the nation of Israel in various projects. And we get all this kind of hate mail because of it, a lot of times from pastors. For they feel that God has cut them off. That God is through with them and how can you reach out an arm to help and to love those that God has cast off? But God says, “I’ve not cast them off.” And God has promised to bless those that bless them. And God has blessed us. Who can deny it? And so, “All of those that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed. They’ll be confounded. They’ll be as nothing. They that strive with thee shall perish.”
You will seek them, and you will not find them, even those that contended with you: and they that war against you shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nothing ( Isa 41:12 ).
Boy, it doesn’t pay to go over and talk to the Egyptians, I’ll tell you. Be at war with these people.
For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee ( Isa 41:13 ).
And who can deny but what God has not helped these people immeasurably.
Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: and you will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, you will make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them. I will open up rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, and the acacia trees, and the myrtle, and the oil trees; I will set in the desert the fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together: That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it ( Isa 41:14-20 ).
To go over to Israel today is just a live experience in the fulfillment of prophecy, as you see these things of which Isaiah spoke actually being fulfilled. Areas that were once parched wilderness, desert areas, you see the vast irrigation project, the pools of water. You see the giant sprinkler systems and all that they have, as they have become a very strong agricultural nation. Planting hundreds of millions of trees in those wilderness areas, and the interesting thing, the various types of trees for the various benefits that each tree gives. Planting the pine tree and the fir tree because they have a capacity of growing almost on rocks. The roots go down into the crevices and as they grow down and they begin to grow, then they crack the rocks and with the rocks cracking, the rain of course, comes and carries the top soil on down. And they’re forming tremendous topsoil in the valleys and getting tremendous agricultural crops again and planting the eucalyptus trees in the marsh areas because they drink up so much water. And their whole project of reforestation of Israel is just an exciting thing. And here all predicted in Isaiah as God declares, “I’ve not cast them off,” and what He is going to do. And the purpose of doing is that they might see, and know, and consider, and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done this.
Now I like this. God makes a challenge to those false gods that the people were worshipping at that time. And He said,
Produce your cause, saith the LORD; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things that are yet to come. Show the things that are to come after these things, that we may know that ye are gods: yea, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold it together. Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he who chooses you ( Isa 41:21-23 ).
So God speaks out against the worship of the false gods that the Israelites were involved in at this particular period of their history. “Now look, if they’re really God, let them tell us something before it happens, so that after it happens we really know that they know what they’re talking about.” And He’s challenging them in the area of prophecy. Now prophecy is one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures. The fact that God has spoken in advance of things that would happen, giving the names of persons, the names of places, and detailing the events that would be happening and the fact that they have been fulfilled becomes one of the strongest arguments for the inspiration of the scriptures.
For you see, when you delve into this area of prophecy, in order to prove the inspiration of the scriptures, it is necessary that you have one hundred percent accuracy. If one word of God failed, then it means that it wasn’t God who spoke. But when you have thousands of prophecies that have come to pass exactly as declared, then it begins to give extremely strong evidence that it was indeed God who spoke. Now there was a very tragic day in the history of Israel when the Roman government took away from the Jews the rite of capital punishment. And when the Roman government removed from them the rite of capital punishment, they felt that at that point they had lost their power to govern. For they related capital punishment to government, for when God established human government under Noah, He established it with the provision of capital punishment.
Now you remember when Jacob was pronouncing the prophecies upon his sons on his dying bed, he said unto Judah that, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah until the Messiah comes” ( Gen 49:10 ). The sceptre being the ruling power. And when the government of Rome took away in about 12 A.D., they took away from the Jews the power of capital punishment, the rabbis and the priests put on sackcloth. They put ashes on their heads. And for a week they went wailing through the streets of Jerusalem because they said, “God’s Word has failed. The scepter has departed. Shiloh has not come.” What they didn’t know was that in the village of Nazareth at that time He was there growing up. But they really felt that God’s Word had failed. And that means that it wasn’t God’s Word because God’s Word can’t fail. And to them it was a national disaster that God’s Word should fail. But not one word of God’s prophecy has failed.
And so God challenges the other gods, “If you’re really gods, you say you’re gods, all right then, do something. Show yourself. Make us amazed. Tell us something before it happens so that when it comes to pass, we will really know that you are gods.” And I love the way God challenges these false gods. Now God goes on to declare,
I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: from the rising of the sun he shall call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declares, yea, there is none that hears your words ( Isa 41:25-26 ).
God was speaking again of Cyrus. “I’ve raised up one. He’s going to come and you’re going to know that I know what I’m talking about. But which of you, the false gods, have declared anything before it happened and it actually came to pass?”
The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them: and I will give to Jerusalem one that brings good tidings. For I beheld, and there was no man; even among them, and there was no counselor, that, when I asked of them, could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion ( Isa 41:27-29 ).
These false gods that the people were worshipping. God says there’s no counselor among them. They’re empty. They’re vain.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
God enters into a controversy with those who had fallen into the worship of idols.
Isa 41:1. Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
He challenges them to a debate. He gives them breathing time bids them prepare themselves, and come with the best arguments that their minds could find.
Isa 41:2-3. Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
Who was it that raised up Cyrus, and who made him strong to defeat the foe? Did the false gods do it? Could they claim any share therein? He puts it to them.
Isa 41:4. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am he.
Long before Cyrus was born, God thus spoke of him. It is declared what work he should do. What better proof could there be that God is God? Do the false gods foretell the future? Are their oracles to be depended upon? Yet the Lords word is true and standeth fast for ever. I Jehovah, first, and with the last, I am he.
Isa 41:5-6. The isles saw it, and feared; the ends of the earth were afraid, drew near, and came. They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.
When men fight against God, they get united. What a very sad thing it is that Gods children should ever fall out. There is one sin that I never heard charged upon the devils namely, the sin of disunity. Of all the evil things we have heard, I have never heard that among the principalities of the pit there has ever been any division into sects and parties. Oh! sad that in this respect we should fall short of them. The enemies of God helped everyone, his neighbour, and everyone said to his brother, Be of good courage.
Isa 41:7. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
What a sarcastic description of god-making this is! There is the carpenter, and then the goldsmith to spread the plates of gold over the wood, and then it is soldered, and it has to be fastened with nails. The simple facts about the making of gods are sufficient to pour ridicule upon idolatry. God deliver us from idolatry of any form or shape, whether it comes from Rome or Canterbury. May we have no symbol no visible object of worship whatever, but get rid of all that, and before the great invisible Spirit let us bow, worshipping him in spirit and in truth. For the least touch of the symbolical soon leadeth on to the idolatrous, and what at the first seemed harmless soon cometh to be harmful so that well doth the law say, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God. Oh! to keep clear of this great and heinous sin!
Isa 41:8-9. But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away.
The people of Israel were reserved by God that they might worship him. While other nations went to their idols, the Israelites were to be his servants, chaste in heart towards himself. It is so with the Lords believing people. Ye are elected and selected, chosen and ordained, and set apart. You may fear the Lord, and not give your hearts to any other. May God grant that we may be true to this our sacred trust. Notice how very sweetly in this text the Lord alludes to his friendship to Abraham, The seed of Abraham, my friend. When the Lord makes a friend of a man, he means it, and he keeps up that friendship to his children and his childrens children. Happy are they who have a father who is a friend of God. Just as David did good to Mephibosheth for the sake of Jonathan, so, doubtless, many blessings come to the children for the sake of their parents. The Lord keepeth mercy to the third and fourth generation, yea, and throughout all generations to them that keep his covenant.
Isa 41:10. Fear thou not; for I am with thee:
What cause for fear now? If I am with thee, thou needest not fear all the men on earth, nor all the demons of the pit. Fear thou not, for I am with thee.
Isa 41:10. Be not dismayed; for I am thy God:
Thy God. Lay the stress there if you will, or thy God, therefore thine all-sufficient helper thine immutable, faithful, everlasting friend.
Isa 41:10-12. I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.
Go on, then, child of God. All thy foes that resist thy salvation shall disappear before thy onward march. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Advance to meet thy cares, and God shall take thy cares away. Only be thou strong and of a good courage, and rest in the everlasting arm, and thou shalt be more than a conqueror.
Isa 41:13-14. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob,
Poor worm! How can it take care of itself? Even a bird can destroy it. Fear not, thou worm Jacob. You know what a worm does for its defense. It is all that it can do: it hides itself in the earth. Hide thyself in thy God. Get thee into the rock, and there be hidden till the danger be overpast. Fear not, thou worm Jacob.
Isa 41:14. And ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
How many times the Lord puts it, I will help thee! How again and again, he saith, Fear not! For despondency is deeply graven in some spirits. There are some minds that seem to gravitate that way again and again, and again; and even the divine assurances have to be given repeatedly before they feel comfort. have any of you been troubled because your children do not learn the first time you teach them? See how you are towards your heavenly Father! how many times he has to teach you, line upon line, precept upon precept here a little, and there a little; and if he hath patience with our infirmities, we may very readily have patience with the infirmities of our little ones.
Isa 41:15. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth:
He will make poor feeble worms to be like that great corn-drag which they were accustomed to draw over the straw to bruise out the wheat.
Isa 41:15-16. Thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in the LORD, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel.
Truly, when mountains are beaten into chaff, and blown away with the winnowing fan, there is room for rejoicing and magnifying God. If there were no difficulties, there would be no victories. If we had no trials, we should have no tests of Jehovahs strength; but out of our afflictions we get our joys. The deeper our sorrows, the higher our exultations when God helps us through them.
Isa 41:17 When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the LORD will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
What a blessed promise that is! God thinks of poor and needy men. When they are in their greatest extremity, with nothing to quench their thirst, and they are ready to die, then he is pleased to make the rocks run with rivers, in order that they may be supplied.
Isa 41:18. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys: I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Isa 41:1-7
Isa 41:1-7
GOD SUMMONS THE NATIONS AND THEIR IDOLS TO COURT
Isa 41:1-7
“Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near, then let them speak; let us come near together to judgment. Who hath raised up one from the east, whom he calleth in righteousness to his foot? he giveth nations before him, and maketh him rule over kings; he giveth them as dust to his sword, as the driven stubble to his bow. He pursueth them, and passeth on safely, even by a way that he had not gone by his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Jehovah, the first, and with the last, I am he. The isles have seen, and fear; the ends of the earth tremble; they draw near, and come. They help every one his neighbor; and everyone saith to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encourageth the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smiteth the anvil, saying of the soldering, It is good; and he fasteneth it with nails, that it should not be moved.”
“Here the call for silence opens the imaginary proceedings of a court, where God will face the heathen world with a test question (The call to renew their strength may be a warning that the encounter will be formidable).
This type of an imaginary court session was a device frequently used by a number of God’s prophets, in Hosea, especially.
Isa 41:2, is interpreted by practically all of the present-day commentators as a reference to God’s raising up Cyrus the King of Persia as the deliverer of God’s people from their Babylonian bondage; but we do not accept that interpretation of this passage. Of course, there is no doubt whatever of Isaiah’s prophesying the rise of Cyrus and of his reporting his very name over a century before he appeared upon the historical scene; but that certainty, in our opinion, falls far short of injecting Cyrus into this particular passage. We have noted one commentator who mentioned Cyrus fifteen times in his writings on these seven verses, but the text does not even mention him at all!
Here are our reasons for applying Isa 41:2 to Abraham, rather than to Cyrus.
1. Cyrus is not mentioned here; and when Isaiah introduced him in Isa 45:1 ff, there is no notice whatever of his having already been introduced.
2. As noted above, there were three Great Servants of God who would figure prominently in the lifting of Israel’s captivity, these being Israel herself, Cyrus, and the Messiah; and there is no way that Cyrus qualifies for being mentioned first. He simply does not belong first in that triad.
3. As Douglas observed, “The Jewish writers and earlier Christian expositors applied this to Abraham. What is it that “moderns” have learned that generations of earlier scholars did not know?
4. Righteousness is not a term that suggests Cyrus; and the KJV translates the opening clause here thus: “Who raised up the righteous man from the east, etc.?” Yes, they have been fiddling with this passage, and have rendered it differently; but we remain convinced that the KJV is correct, and that the attempts to change the meaning here are anchored in what may be described as translators trying to support a false interpretation.
5. Furthermore, the injection of Cyrus into this paragraph destroys the unity of the chapter. Note that the very next verse (Isa 41:8) speaks of Abraham and Israel. Douglas affirmed flatly that interpreting Isa 41:2 as a reference to Cyrus “breaks the unity of the chapter.
6. Isaiah’s design of comforting the chosen people in their captivity is far better served by understanding this paragraph as a reference to Abraham, the great ancestor of Israel, than by a reference to one who would not even appear until the captivity was practically terminated already. To us, that makes no sense at all. On the other hand, think of Abraham. God called him, prophesied that his posterity would be a great nation, that they would endure captivity for four hundred years in Egypt, that God would deliver them with great wealth out of the land of Egypt, and that they would inherit the land of Palestine! All of those marvelous prophecies through Abraham, known to every Israelite on earth, were a thousand times more comforting than this passage could possibly have been if it were nothing more than an ambiguous prophecy of a ruler who would appear on earth near the very end of their captivity.
7. The last three verses of this paragraph introduce the idolatrous peoples as greatly alarmed about the great man God raised up (Isa 41:2); and they are represented as going to work and making or repairing idols as rapidly as possible. This can be a reference only to Abraham’s utter rejection of idols; because, “There was nothing in the character of Cyrus to cause any such alarm among idolaters.”[7] Abraham was called for the very purpose of casting the idolaters out of Canaan; and the success of the Hebrew people through the long generations had indeed put the fear of God upon all the idolatrous nations on earth (Jos 2:8-11). There is nothing like this that may be said of Cyrus. He simply is not in this passage.
8. Isa 41:3-4 could have been said of Abraham, but not of Cyrus, there being no record whatever that he ever pursued anyone! On the other hand, Abraham defeated the coalition of the kings in Genesis 14 and pursued them beyond Damascus. Some pursuit! We fully agree that, “This passage does not very well suit Cyrus.
9. The multitude of ancient interpreters who favored the view that this passage refers to Abraham is impressive. Although Barnes disagreed, he pointed out that:
“The Chaldee Paraphrast translates Isa 41:2, “Who has publicly led from the east Abraham, the chosen of the just”; and this translation has been adopted by Jewish writers generally. They say that it means that God had called Abraham from the east, that he conducted him to the land of Canaan, and enabled him to vanquish the people who resided there, and particularly that he vanquished the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and rescued Lot from their hands; and that the fact of God’s bringing Abraham from the east was a sure and comforting sign that God would also deliver Israel from their captivity in the east.
10. Notice here, that this great man of God spoken of in Isa 41:2 would be from “the east.” Cyrus, on the other hand was from “the north.” Rawlinson quoted Herodotus as saying that, “When Cyrus attacked Babylon, he fell upon the city mainly from the north. Of course, by misapplying Isa 41:25, some would attempt to make it appear that Cyrus came upon Babylon from the east, which is inaccurate. Thus, in order to support the Cyrus interpretation of this paragraph, men have not only changed the meaning of “righteous man” but also have perverted the truth on the direction from which Cyrus came. It appears to us that the Cyrus interpretation requires entirely too much fiddling with the Scriptures.
Isa 41:1-4 JEHOVAH REIGNS: Just as the predicted Comfort of chapter 40 was to come to the Jews after their exile but realized ultimately in the Messiah, so the Conquest of chapter 41 is to come to the Jews (through Cyrus) but will be realized ultimately in the Messiah. Both comfort and conquest are to come to Gods people through a servant. The Servant section (ch. 40-53) portrays three servants of Jehovah engaged in fulfilling His redemptive plan for mankind. Cyrus, Israel and the Suffering Servant, are the three servants of Isaiahs message. Cyrus and Israel are apparently types of the Suffering Servant-Cyrus typifying the conquering, judging aspect of the Messiahs work and Israel typifying the atoning, sanctifying aspect of the Messiahs work. Isaiah intertwines or meshes the work of all these closely together in this Servant section until it is difficult to distinguish which one he is describing. At times it appears he is describing both the type and the Antitype (e.g., Cyrus and the Messiah) in the same passage-as in our present passage.
The word hkeriyshu is translated keep silence and means literally, to be blunted, dull, dumb, silent, or to hold the peace. Jehovah commands silence. He is going to issue an omnipotent, omniscient edict. He is going to predict providential events which will alter the destinies of all men and all nations. He is about to tell the world how He is going to run things. Mankind insists it is going to tell God how it is going to run the world. But God, through His prophet, commands, Shut up, Im going to tell you how I am going to run things.
The islands are the islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean. The isthmus of Greece and the islands of the Aegean (known as Javan to the Hebrews) represented the remotest regions of heathendom to the Hebrews of Isaiahs day. The Lord God is challenging the world that stands in opposition to His redemptive program to come before Him having clothed (hkeliyphu, Heb.) themselves in renewed strength and vigor and meet Him in a contest. The outcome of this contest will determine who runs the world. Similar challenges are made by Jehovah in Joe 3:1-15 and Ezekiel 38-39. Joel and Ezekiel are predicting the battle of God and the world through Jesus Christ at the cross and the resurrection. We suspect that Cyrus conquest of the world (bringing Gods judgment upon it) and Cyrus release of the Jews to return to their homeland (bringing Gods redemption to them) was typical of the same battle at Calvary and the empty tomb.
The present passage speaks of Cyrus, emperor of Persia (one from the east.). There can be little doubt about this when one sees the extended context of Isaiah (cf. Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1; Isa 45:13; Isa 46:11; Isa 48:14-16). It predicts events and persons at least 100 years or more before they happened. Isaiah died about 700-690 B.C. Cyrus conquered Astyages in 550 B.C. and became sole ruler of Elam (Persia). Cyrus was probably born about 590-580 B.C.
Isaiah uses a word, leaumiym (root is loam), peculiar to his writings, which is translated peoples. It is less definite than either goiym or ammiym, two other Hebrew words translated peoples. Goiym stands for Gentiles; ammiym refers to a people as viewed by themselves, or, we people; loamiym stands for all races of people in general. Gods announcement that He is going to take another omnipotent, providential step in His program of redemption through Cyrus (bringing the world under the magisterial rule of Cyrus and return of the covenant people to their land) is not a provincial announcement-it is worldwide! Cyrus will be Gods servant for all races!
Persia (todays Iran) was directly east of Palestine. In Isaiahs day it was known as Elam. The Persian empire flourished for approximately 200 years (549-332 B.C.) until Alexander the Greek conquered the world and turned it into a semi-Greek culture. One from the east definitely means Cyrus but probably includes all succeeding Persian emperors since the restoration of the Jewish people proceeded under Cyrus successors. Tsedeq (translated righteousness) would be better translated justice. It may refer to the justice of God upon His enemies accomplished through Cyrus as a secondary agent, or, it may refer to the personal character of Cyrus. Both would be appropriate since God uses secondary agents to govern the world and administer justice and Cyrus (as well as most of his successors) was known for fair, honest and just treatment of his subjects. The Jews, especially, held the Persians in high esteem for the treatment they received at their hand.
Gods challenge to the races is: Which god of the races is able to withstand the one from the east whom I will send to execute My justice? Jehovah, the God of Israel, gives temporary rule of His world to whomever He pleases (cf. Isa 10:5-19; Jer 27:1-11; Dan 7:6; Dan 9:24, etc.). When Gods providence is decreed and predicted, nothing can thwart it! Cyrus shall, as Gods servant, pound those who resist into dust and stubble with his weapons of war (sword and bow). Cyrus and his successors will conquer Asia Minor, Egypt, into India, and cross the Aegean and, for a time, occupy European soil in Greece. This is Cyrus II, or Cyrus The Great and few world conquerors have been regarded as highly as Cyrus. The Persians called him father. The Greeks regarded him as a master and lawgiver. When Alexander the Great found that Cyrus tomb had been rifled (by Greek soldiers and grave robbers), he ordered that the body be replaced and the contents of the tomb be restored as far as possible. To the Jews he was the Lords anointed who ended the Babylonian exile and opened a new era in the history of Israel. Cyrus did not force Persian ideas on his subjects, but rather formed a synthesis of the ancient cultures of Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor, the Greek cities, and parts of India. It is reported by some historians that he was a monotheist, which would have exalted his image in the eyes of the Jews.
Cyrus marched on and on in shalom (safety), into the far reaches of civilization unfamiliar and hostile to him, until he met his death in battle about 530 B.C. His body was carried back to Pasargadae, one of his capital cities. There his body was covered with wax, according to Persian custom, and placed in a stately, dignified tomb which was guarded by faithful priests for 200 years. The tomb is still standing, but its contents have long since been removed.
Who has wrought this? Are the passing events of history, the births of nations and their deaths, merely the results of chance arrangements of atoms? Is the governing of the world left to the whims of tyrants and anarchists? Is history cyclical and doomed to repeat itself forever-doomed never to reach the perfection it longs for? No! No nation exists apart from God. He calls the generations into existence. He makes rulers His servants. All of history, in one way or another, serves Gods purpose. His purpose is to create out of mankind a kingdom of His own, trusting in His sovereignty, depending upon His grace, sanctifying itself in His holiness. The majority of men and women are in rebellion against Gods purposes. The establishment of the kingdom of God (Christ as King, the church as the kingdom) began in a family (Seth, Noah and Abraham), expanded to a nation (the Israelites), then encompassed the world (the church). The very fact of the establishment of the kingdom program on earth, through men, pronounced the judgment of God upon all human governments and efforts to usurp Gods sovereignty over man. Our text is simply another announcement by God that He is going to act through Cyrus to preserve His covenant people and His work of establishing His kingdom. Thus, all races are called together for a demonstration of His sovereignty by the very fact that God is able, through His prophet, to predict the conquest of Cyrus one hundred years before Cyrus was born!
Delitzsch says of verse four, It is the full meaning of the name Jehovah (Yaweh) which is unfolded here; for God is called Jehovah as the absolute I, the absolutely free Being, pervading all history, and yet above all history, as He who is Lord of His own absolute being, in revealing which He is purely self-determined; in a word, as the unconditionally free and unchangeably eternal personality.
Isa 41:5-7 JAVAN REELS: One has only to read the history of Persian conquests to see the fulfillment of these verses. The isles of the Mediterranean and the Aegean reeled and trembled under the warfare of Persian armies. They formed alliances and coalitions against the Persians. By the summer of 539 B.C. the Persian armies were ready to attack Babylon. Nabonidus, sensing the situation, brought the gods of the outlying regions into his capital, trusting that they would aid him in his time of need. This antagonized the people whose gods were displaced and brought further resentment to the priests of Babylon. This appears to be a direct fulfillment of Isa 41:5-7.
All during the Persian rule there were those segments of the empire resisting Persian friendship to the Hebrews (cf. Ezr 4:3-16). After the Persian empire, the Syrians (under the Seleucids) and the Egyptians (under the Ptolemies) opposed the work of God by persecuting the Hebrew people. Daniel predicts all these times of trouble.
What Isaiah is predicting in Isa 41:5-7 is that although Cyrus and the Persians shall be raised up by God to execute His judgment upon the heathen opposition to Gods kingdom work, the heathen will tremble but they will not repent. They will unite, encourage one another, and continue to trust in gods of gold and wood. They will make newer and more gods, complimenting themselves that they have done a good job and that they have made gods that will survive the Servant of Jehovah.
Of course, new and better gods did not stop Cyrus. The Lord used him to fulfill that portion of the plan of divine redemption for which Cyrus was needed. Then, when the Lord needed Alexander the Great and all that his hellenization of the world could contribute to that redemptive plan, He permitted the Greeks to serve Him. Jehovah runs the world and there are not any gods of any race to usurp His sovereignty. Jehovah has silenced them all! Ultimately God silenced all His opposition at the cross and the empty tomb. Perhaps, in type, His work through Cyrus points to that ultimate moment!
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Having thus announced the majesty of Jehovah, the prophet proceeds to utter his general manifesto. This occupies chapters forty-one and forty-two. In chapter forty-one Jehovah challenges the island and the people to come near to judgment, that is, to consider what He has to say. He declares that He, and He alone has raised up the one from the East whose progress is victorious. The confederacy of the people against Cyrus is described, and then the prophet declares Jehovah’s purpose of peace for Israel. Israel is the chosen and kept servant of God, upheld against foes, and the prophet predicts the ultimate restoration of the chosen people. Again he challenges the enemies to prove their power by prophetic utterance.
Finally Jehovah declares that it is He who alone can raise up the deliverer, or declare beforehand the fact of His coming. The whole movement of this chapter is a challenge preparatory to the presentation of the Servant of God. It is intended to show that apart from Jehovah the people cannot know the course of events, neither can they produce one strong enough to work deliverance. It opens with the command to keep silence in the presence of God, and closes with a declaration of the weakness and vanity of all that are opposed.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Lord Upholdeth His Servant
Isa 41:1-16
The conception of this passage is superb. Jehovah is represented as summoning the earth to determine whether He or some idol of the heathen is the true God, Isa 41:7. Also see Isa 41:23. The test proposed is a simple one! Which can most precisely predict the future? Not, as in Elijahs case, is the appeal made to fire, but to the fitting of prophecy with historical fulfillment. See Isa 41:22-23.
While this great arbitration is in process, God turns with tender assurances to His own people. They were at this time captives in Babylon. They were poor and needy. They were surrounded by strong and crafty foes, against whom they were as powerless as a worm. But no height, however precipitous, or depth, however profound, could separate them from His love. Heart and flesh might fail, but He would strengthen; difficulties might appear insurmountable, but He would help. He does more. He takes His people, weak as worms, and makes them, if they but yield to Him, sharp threshing instruments having teeth before which the powers of evil become as chaff. O man, listen to God saying, I will make.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
EXPOSITORY NOTES ON
THE PROPHET ISAIAH
By
Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.
Copyright @ 1952
edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago
ISAIAH CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
THE INFINITELY STRONG ONE
“Keep silence before me, O islands; and let the people renew their strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment. Who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings? he gave them as the dust to his sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them, and passed safely; even by the way that he had not gone with his feet. Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he” (verses 1-4).
IN CHAPTER forty-one GOD is still put in contrast with man’s weakness. These are promises made to Israel when they are restored to Him, but they follow the account of the majesty of GOD, and it is man in his weakness depending on the infinitely Strong One.
“But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof, and said unto thee, Thou art my servant; I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills as chaff” (verses 8-15).
To know GOD and to confide in Him is to be invincible. None can really injure one whose confidence is in the Lord, for He will cause all that seems to be evil to work for the good of those who put their trust in Him. It is thus that fear, that deadly enemy of the heart, is overcome.
In due time GOD will deal with those who seek to injure His people. He will mete out righteous judgment to those who trouble His saints (2Th 1:6, 7). The believer can afford to leave all in His hands and so go on in quietness and confidence, through good or evil report.
Since retribution is in GOD’s hands the enemies of GOD’s people shall soon pass away and be forgotten, but those who do the will of GOD abide forever. We have the reassuring promise, “Fear not; I will help thee.” It is GOD Himself who has given this word.
Faith lays hold of it and the heart enters into rest, content to know that He who loved us enough to give His Son to die for us will never fail those who commit their ways unto Him. These promises come in as an encouraging preface before the Lord points out the folly of turning to senseless idols who are absolutely unable to help.
The words here, “Abraham My friend,” are referred to in Jam 2:23, where Abraham is called “the friend of God.” What a wonderful thing for GOD to say of any man – “My friend”! The Lord JESUS said to His disciples: “Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: I have called you friends.” The servant is to do what he is told. It is not for him to ask, “Why should I do this?” But to a friend one unburdens his heart, and the Lord speaks of Abraham as “My friend.”
He took him into His confidence in regard to Sodom’s judgment. So all the way through, GOD delights to open up His heart and mind to His friends. That is the object of the prophetic Scriptures. They open up GOD’s truth so that His friends may enter into it and understand that which He is about to do.
The expression concerning Israel that GOD will make them a “sharp threshing instrument with teeth,” points on to the great harvest of the last days when a remnant of Israel restored to the Lord will be used of Him to bring many down before Him in repentance and lead them to put faith in the message that they proclaim.
As servants of CHRIST we also need to be sharp threshing instruments with teeth. A great deal of preaching has very few “teeth.” We should be faithful in pointing out the wickedness of mankind and the exceeding sinfulness of sin that men may realize where they stand before GOD. So preaching needs to have “teeth,” else it may be absolutely powerless and colorless, and saved or unsaved can sit and listen to it and enjoy it.
~ end of chapter 41 ~
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Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Isa 41:1
God addresses men here by two designations, the one having reference to their remoteness and isolation, and the other to their unity. To the Hebrew all distant places were islands. They were afar, scattered and lonely. Keeping silence before God and renewing strength are duties prescribed to all men, as are also the coming near and the speaking. The series of injunctions begins with silence and ends in speech.
I. Silence before God. (1) Shall we not be silent in the endeavour to realise that God is, and what He is? Unless we can bear to be silent and brood, the thought of God will not rise before us in fulness and splendour. (2) God speaks and we must listen in silence. With what glad silence should we listen to the Divine voice! Every one that would be truly in heart and soul God’s must have times when he is purely passive and recipient, letting the word of God, in small select portions, drop into his soul in silence, his only effort being to realise that God is speaking. (3) Our silence in the presence of God will often take the form of thinking of ourselves. Thinking of self becomes sincere and profitable when it goes on consciously in God’s presence.
II. Speech to God, following upon the silence. Silence before God leads to a stirring of the soul, a forth-putting of endeavour and a drawing nearer to God. Silence before God heaps a load on the heart, which can only be thrown off by speaking to God. Words before God give a relief that nothing else can. The relief will be in proportion to the entireness of the outpouring and to the nearness to God. If a man does not come near to God in confidence and trust, the relief obtained even by thousands of words will be small. But coming near to God and speaking to Him will relieve any soul, however burdened. And much more than freedom from pressure will be experienced. The convictions that gather in silence will be strengthened by speech. If they did not find expression they would begin to decay. Light injures roots, but it is needed for branches. In silence there is the rooting of conviction, but in speaking to God its expansion and growth.
J. Leckie, Sermons Preached at Ibrox, p. 81.
References: Isa 41:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi., No. 1215; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 2.
Isa 41:4
I. Look at God in His primary relation to His creature. “I the Lord, First.” Understand clearly that everything which is was first an idea in the mind of God. Thence, by a creative act, it came forth and took form and being. So God was First, long before all His works-as the mould is before the castings. Here is the truth and glory of predestination, that great argument of all comfort. It places God far away, beyond our little horizon, in advance of everything. Whatever is, is to fulfil its preordained purpose; each thing coming up and rising in its turn; everything a reflection of the eternal love, care, and wisdom, which dwelt from everlasting in the mind of God.
II. “With the Last.” God is the God of the years that are past. There are those who say, “This world is on the decline and growing worse.” Can it be, if He who was First is with the Last-the same God yesterday, today, and for ever, the equal portion of all times? Is it not sufficient argument? The golden age cannot be over. From the fleeting and the changing, from the disappointing and the dying, I yearn to ask, “Where is the true?” Where is that which my soul wants, and for which my restless spirit has so long been craving, what shall satisfy my immortality? And the answer comes, as a whisper in the desert, louder and clearer from the solitude of my heart’s waste places, “I the Lord, the First, and with the Last; I am He.”
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 8th series, p. 149.
Isa 41:6-7
I. Encouragement must be lived as well as spoken.
II. Encouragement must begin at the nearest point.
III. Encouragement must not be merely seasonal.
IV. Encouragement must not be withdrawn by frequent failures.
V. Encouragement must be true, based on reasons.
W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 408.
References: Isa 41:7.-E. P. Thring, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxii., p. 136. Isa 41:9.-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 138.
Isa 41:10
God can be God and fearless, but we can scarcely be creatures and fearless. Still less is it likely that sinful creatures should be fearless. It is more than the Father looks for under the present mode of our existence. But when the fearful thing is coming down, or when the children see it looming in the distance and are frightened, and they catch the Father’s countenance, and see that He is not frightened, it wonderfully reassures the poor children to see a fearlessness on the Father’s face. Heaven is full of “Fear nots.” And if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, it will break out of your midnight, and up from your deepest valley too, that voice of the Father, the All-in-all.
I. Of course the meaning of the word is, in the first place, that God is our All-sufficiency, and not disrelated but related to us. God, the Creator, who has related the universal deficiency to His own universal all-sufficiency, from a blade of grass up and up and up to immortal spirits, and Himself the Father, is Himself nearer to you than any other thing which He has made. Behold that blade of grass. Is it not bathed every moment with what it needs? Does it not touch it? Does not the atmosphere press sweetly round about its edge and ask to be received, and give itself into the myriads of little mouths of the blade of grass that it may lift itself up and be strong? So can we lie in God’s bosom. We are His children. It only needs to be quiet enough to feel the throbbing of the eternal heart against me, and the instreaming of the fountain spirit through all the avenues and channels of my being.
II. Consider the use the children should make of this sufficiency of their Father. See what liberties we take with God’s earth. We get stones wherever we like. They are not our stones. And we get gold wherever we like, and we get iron wherever we like, and we get coal wherever we can. I hope the day will come when, even without thought or intention, we shall, from the new nature of our being, take up God as easily as the blade of grass takes up atmosphere and light. Let us enter our home-enter and be comforted, as all helpless things are, to find their source of supply so near. And let us not leave our nest and then fret that our rest is gone, but abide encircled by the everlasting strength.
J. Pulsford, Penny Pulpit, No. 729.
References: Isa 41:10.-Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. vii., p. 1; A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 201; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvi., No. 930, vol. xiii., No. 670; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 357; A. M. Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 353; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 351.
Isa 41:13
Courage, its source and necessity.
I. Its source. You can scarcely fail to observe the broad sense of the Divine presence and aid which is expressed by the figures of the promise we have read, “I will hold thy right hand.” The grasp of the hand is significant of close and present friendship, of the living nearness of the Deliverer. And that sense of God’s presence, so near that our faith can touch His hand and hear the deep still music of His voice-realised as it may be in Christ, is the source of a courage which no danger can dispel, no suffering exhaust, and no death destroy. The clearest way of illustrating this will be to take the higher forms of courage among men, and observe what states of soul are most conducive to it. (1) Beginning with the courage of active resistance, we find its great element in the fixed survey of the means of conquest. Fear rises from the contemplation of difficulties, courage from the perception of the thing to be done. Rise now to spiritual courage, and the same principle holds true. It is by the aid of God that we conquer in spiritual battle; our reliance is on the constant influence of His strengthening grace. And while our gaze is fixed on that, fear vanishes. (2) Passing on to the courage needful for passive endurance, we find that its great feature is self-surrender to the highest law of life. The Christian endures, because the law of his being has become resignation to the will of God.
II. Notice the necessity for this courage. It is essential to Christian life for three reasons. (1) It requires courage to manifest the Christian character before men. (2) It requires courage to maintain steadfast obedience to the will of God. (3) It demands courage to hold fast to our highest aspirations.
E. L. Hull, Sermons, 3rd series, p. 157.
References: Isa 41:14.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., Nos. 156, 157; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 16. Isa 41:17, Isa 41:18.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 353. Isa 41:22.-W. M. Punshon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 205.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 41
Jehovahs Challenge
1. The address to the islands and the peoples (Isa 41:1) 2. Jehovahs question, Cyrus and his ways predicted (Isa 41:2-4) 3. Nations troubled on account of Cyrus (Isa 41:5-7) 4. Israel as Jehovahs servant (Isa 41:8) 5. The message of comfort and assurance of restoration (Isa 41:9-20) 6. Jehovahs second challenge: He alone can declare things to come (Isa 41:21-24) 7. The future things revealed (Isa 41:25-29) Cyrus is here mentioned for the first time, though not yet by name. He is in view in Isa 41:2-3 and Isa 41:25. His work as a mighty conqueror is outlined and the consternation of the surrounding nations on account of it is described. Isa 41:18-20 go beyond the times of Cyrus. They can only be fulfilled when He who is greater than Cyrus will appear.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
silence: Isa 49:1, Psa 46:10, Hab 2:20, Zec 2:13
let the people: Isa 41:6, Isa 41:7, Isa 41:21, Isa 41:22, Isa 8:9, Isa 8:10, Job 38:3, Job 40:7, Joe 3:10, Joe 3:11
let us: Isa 1:18, Job 23:3-7, Job 31:35, Job 31:36, Job 40:8-10, Mic 6:1-3
Reciprocal: 2Ki 2:5 – I know it Job 5:1 – and to which Isa 23:2 – still Isa 34:1 – Come Isa 45:21 – and bring Isa 50:8 – let us Jer 31:10 – declare
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Isa 41:1. Keep, &c. The prophet, having in view the subversion of idolatry, had, in the former chapter, from Isa 41:18, argued against it, from the essence and nature of God, the supreme Creator and Ruler of the world, being such as not to be represented by any corporeal matter or figure. To this disputation he subjoined a consolation, directed to the people of God, from Isa 41:27 to the end of the chapter. Therefore, after this consolatory parenthesis, he renews his disputation against idolaters, by an argument taken from Gods certain foreknowledge, and foretelling of future events, from which he selects that remarkable one respecting Cyrus, as the deliverer of the people of God, and the destroyer of Babylon: an event utterly unknown to idols and idolaters, and therefore an astonishment to the nations; and yet an event which God so long time before exactly foretold in every circumstance by our prophet. He who can thus predict future events, the prophet urges, must be allowed to possess true divinity. He who cannot, has no claim to that honour. The prophet the rather makes use of this argument, because paganism so much gloried in its false prophecies and oracles. Here then is God exhibited, as if appearing in public, and preparing himself to dispute with idolaters, for his truth and glory; and therefore the islands and people, all the nations of the world, are summoned to plead their cause; and an awful silence is enjoined, according to the forms observed in courts of justice, for both in this and Isa 41:21 the expressions and ideas are taken from those courts. See Vitringa and Dodd. The phrase, Let the people renew their strength, signifies, Let them prepare themselves, and come forth to the cause, furnished with all the strength of argument and reason they can collect; let them unite all their powers, and set their cause in the best light possible.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 41:1. Keep silence before me, oh islands. Commentators here refer us to the time of our Saviours birth, for the isles of Chittim designate the Roman power. In the Augustan age, the temple of Janus for the third time was shut, in commemoration of peace throughout the world, and when the stormy shouts of war were heard no more. Thus, when the fulness of time was come, providence prepared the way, by peace and concord, for the Saviours advent. Christian doctors seem agreed, that Janus and Noah are the same person. Italian tradition is constant, that he reigned in Italy, for all nations are willing enough to claim kindred with a god. They built a temple to his memory; and in the worship of their gods, the name of Janus was first invoked. Jupiter taught him the way and manner of life, which before his time had been belligerent and savage, but now became mild, innocent, and social. The poets call this the golden age. The verses of Vola speak of those pristine days in the same manner, as cited in Exo 4:2.
As Noah taught astronomy to the new world, the poets make him ruler of the heavenly bodies, and give his name to the first month of the year. His statue was constructed with a double face, looking at once both at the old and the new world. Ovid addresses him in these words. Who shall explain to me thy nature, oh Janus, and the attributes of thy double front? For the gods of Greece do not resemble thee: a deity peculiar among those assembled on the high Olympiade. Instruct me concerning thyself, and say why thou seest at once both before and behind.
Quem tamen esse Deum te dicam, Jane biformis?
Nam tibi par nuilum Grcia numen habet. Ede simul causam, cur de clestibus unus, Sitque quod tergo, sitque quod ante vides. FASTORUM, lib. 1. Ed. Paris, 1804.
Isa 41:2. A righteous man from the east. The Jews say this is Abraham; but this construction not agreeing with the universal wars and conquests here mentioned, the words are understood of Cyrus, as in chap. 44, 45. He it was who drove the nations as stubble; and in a career of conquests, where his feet had never gone before. He is called a righteous man, because he was Gods minister of justice to Babylon, and because he restored the Jews, as well as other nations, to their own land.
Isa 41:7. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith. See other satires in Isa 40:18; Isa 44:9-17. Psalms 115.
Isa 41:23. Shew the things that are to come. Here is a challenge of the truth of prophecy, and a defiance given to all idols. Here is a declaration that God alone knows the events of futurity; yea, all contingencies, which have a dependence on the will of man. The testimony of the truth of all predictions is the Divinity. He alone has power to contemplate the future, and from eternity to look through all clouds, in all the wide-extended chain of cause and consequence. No creature ever had or can have this power. Here the words of the holy prophets are justified, and all idols, and all lying oracles, are covered with eternal shame.
The prophet here treats the heathen oracles with contempt; but that contempt admits their existence in his own times; and that existence was wide as the gentile world. The Chaldeans, the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Druids, in every land, consulted their gods.
In 1711 a collection of letters was printed at Paris from missionaries in India. Among these is one from the venerable father Bouchet to father Baltus. He states that demons still gave oracles, not from the mouth of the statues, but from men; and in a manner which could not proceed from the artifices of the priests. But that with regard to future events their oracles were ambiguous, and often false; for those things the demons could know only by conjecture.
If we disbelieve the oracles of heathen temples, we disbelieve the testimony of the most accredited gentile historians, and many christian fathers. Herodotus, a judicious historian, mentions many instances, and sometimes names deceptions. The defeat of Perseus, king of Macedonia, was known at Rome on the fourth day. The battle gained by five thousand Croatians, was known in Peloponnesus the same day. The defeat of the Tarquin, near the Lake Regilla, was almost instantly published by two young men in Rome. Plutarch reports these in his life of Paul Emilius: p. 547. Still the words of our prophet are correct, no demon speaking either by priest, or pythoness, could tell the future.
REFLECTIONS.
The church in Judea must have been greatly depressed to hear this eminent prophet declare, that all the boasted glory of Israel should go into captivity. He foresaw that after all the struggles and labours of the holy prophets, the false prophets would be the favourite preachers to the rulers of Judah, and that the gods of Jerusalem would be as numerous as her streets. The discourse that follows must therefore be regarded as a cup of strong consolation handed to the saints under the hopeless aspects of their country, while the body of the nation was diseased with every vice of the gentile world.
The prophet next proceeds to satirize the trade of making gods; the panting of the carpenter at every hard blow, the sweatings and the melting heats at the foundries, the strokes of the hammer, and the joyful voice at lastIt is ready for sodering! Ah, dirty, sooty race; vile as you are, and brutish too, it must require the strong charms of a consecration, and liberal libations of wine, to induce you to bow the knee to idols which cost you so much fatigue. The Almighty therefore saw it was preferable that his true people should suffer hard labour in Babylon, than endure the insults of apostasy in Judea.
When the time comes for the visitation of nations, the Lord encloses his church in the innermost circles of his providence. Yea, amid the storms of war the Captains voice is heard, But thou Israel art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend. I will never forget my covenant with thy fathers, nor with their children. Though the mountains depart, and empires be removed, my kindness shall not depart from thee: Isa 54:10. Fear not, look to none but me; for I am with thee. I will be poor in thy poverty, and share in thy captivity. My glory shall be seen by the river Chebar. Eze 1:3. I will strengthen thee for labour, and for war with all thy foes. Yea, I will help thee, and come opportunely to thine aid in the day of trouble. Fear not; you are yet the heirs of grace and glory. Thy seed shall inherit the gentiles. I will uphold thee with my arm, in all the weary years of thy pilgrimage. I will not leave thee till I have performed all that I have sworn to Abraham.
Again I say, fear not, worm Jacob, though the enemy in the years of thine affliction trample upon thee. When the poor and needy seek water in the sandy deserts, and there is none; when they cry to me, they shall not perish like the wicked. I will open rivers for them in dry places, and springs in the vallies, and will prepare pools in the parched ground. Rejoice, oh Zion, thou shalt yet survive to see the world like the garden of Eden, and all thine enemies under thy feet. The invading army from the north shall come only to burn the chaff, while my sanctified ones shall gather the wheat into my garner.
Amidst all the difficulties and troubles of life, let us take encouragement from Gods promises, especially that in Isa 41:10. Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee. We assuredly know that this promise has afforded support and comfort to many souls in the most afflicting circumstances, and even in dying moments. What beautiful and tender language is itthe language of an indulgent parent teaching a little child to go. Whoever forsakes us, God will be with us. Whatever difficulties surround us, he will strengthen us; whatever enemies attack us, he will help us. When faint, trembling, and ready to sink, he will uphold us with the right hand of his righteousness. Though we are weak as worms, and like them despised, yet our Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, will help us. Let us wait on the Lord then, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen our hearts.
Let us learn the vanity of idols, and keep ourselves from idolatry. See what ignorant, impotent things all gods are, but JEHOVAH. Let us reverence him who revealeth secrets, foretelleth things to come, does good and permits evil; and who gives us in his works, his providence and his word, a thousand proofs that he is the true God, and the everlasting King. Let us therefore, dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Let us worship the Lord our God with a veneration and affection suited to his greatness, power, and knowledge, and make him our hope and our confidence; for he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Isa 41:1-5. The Conquering Career of Cyrus Claimed by Yahweh as Evidence of His Power.
Isa 41:5 is probably an insertion made to connect Isa 41:4 with Isa 41:6 f. after Isa 41:6 f.for which see Isa 40:19had been wrongly interpolated here. Yahweh calls the nations to listen while He, as though they might be in a court of justice, puts forward His claim. He it is who has raised up Cyrus, and caused nations to bow before him: He who ordains the whole course of history.
Isa 41:1. renew . . . strength: accidental repetition from Isa 40:31, replacing some such phrase as await my argument.
Isa 41:2. whom . . . foot: render, whom victory (righteousness often bears this sense) attends wherever he goes.Read at the end, His sword makes them like dust, his bow like driven chaff.
Isa 41:3. So swift his march that he seems not to touch the road with his feet.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
41:1 Keep {a} silence before me, O isles; and let the people {b} renew [their] strength: let them come near; then let them speak: let us come near together to judgment.
(a) God as though he pleaded his cause with all nations requires silence, that he may be heard in his right.
(b) That is, gather all their power and supports.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The servant of the Lord 41:1-44:22
There is an emphasis on the uniqueness of the Lord compared to other gods in this section, a theme that Isaiah introduced earlier (ch. 40 especially). The prophet particularly stressed Yahweh’s ability to control history in this connection. He did this to assure Israel that God loved her and had a future for her beyond the Exile, specifically to serve Him by demonstrating to the world that He is sovereign over history. These emphases become increasingly apparent as the section unfolds. Calls to praise form bridges from one section to the next (Isa 42:10-13; cf. Isa 44:23; Isa 45:8).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The fearful servant, Israel 41:1-20
The Lord, through His prophet, assured fearful Israel in this segment. Israel need not fear the nations (Isa 41:1-7) because Yahweh remained committed to His people and would use them to accomplish His purposes in the world (Isa 41:8-20). This expression of God’s grace would have encouraged and motivated the Israelites to serve their Lord.
The courtroom setting pictured in Isa 41:1-7 enabled Isaiah to make God’s transcendent monotheism clear and compelling (cf. Isa 1:18; Isa 43:26; Isa 50:8). Isa 41:1 is a call to judgment, Isa 41:2-4 set forth God’s case, namely, his acts in history, and Isa 41:5-7 relate the frightened response of the Gentile nations.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
God’s promises to His servants 41:1-42:9
The intent of this unit of material was to assure Israel that God had both the power and the desire to deliver her and to bring salvation to the whole world. It contains three basic themes: the pagans’ inability to refute Yahweh’s sovereignty, the promise to deliver fearful Israel, and the divine plan to use an ideal servant as redeemer.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The "coastlands" were the farthest reaches of the Gentile world: the ends of the earth then known. By summoning them to be silent, the Lord was appealing to all the Gentiles to listen to Him (cf. Isa 1:2). In chapter 40 Isaiah spoke of God in the third person, but in this chapter, God Himself speaks. Note this oscillation in the chapters that follow. By heeding Him they would gain new strength, the same strength that was Israel’s privilege (cf. Isa 40:31). The Gentiles were to be fellow heirs with Israel (cf. Isa 19:24-25; Isa 27:13). But before that could happen, they had to meet with the Lord and arrive at a decision (cf. Job 38:3).
"The words are addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to the inhabitants of the western islands and coasts. This was the expression commonly employed in the Old Testament to designate the continent of Europe, the solid ground of which is so deeply cut, and so broken up, by seas and lakes, that it looks as if it were about to resolve itself into nothing but islands and peninsulas." [Note: Delitzsch, 2:157.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
CHAPTER I
THE DATE OF 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
THE problem of the date of 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 is this: In a book called by the name of the prophet Isaiah, who flourished between 740 and 700 B.C., the last twenty-seven chapters deal with the captivity suffered by the Jews in Babylonia from 598 to 538, and more particularly with the advent, about 550, of Cyrus, whom they name. Are we to take for granted that Isaiah himself prophetically wrote these chapters, or must we assign them to a nameless author or authors of the period of which they treat?
Till the end of the last century it was the almost universally accepted tradition, and even still is an opinion retained by many, that Isaiah was carried forward by the Spirit, out of his own age to the standpoint of one hundred and fifty years later; that he was inspired to utter the warning and comfort required by a generation so very different from his own, and was even enabled to hail by name their redeemer, Cyrus. This theory, involving as it does a phenomenon without parallel in the history of Holy Scripture, is based on these two grounds: first, that the chapters in question form a considerable part-nearly nine-twentieths-of the Book of Isaiah; and second, that portions of them are quoted in the New Testament by the prophets name. The theory is also supported by arguments drawn from resemblances of style and vocabulary between these twenty-seven chapters and the undisputed oracles of Isaiah but, as the opponents of the Isaian authorship also appeal to vocabulary and style, it will be better to leave this kind of evidence aside for the present, and to discuss the problem upon other and less ambiguous grounds.
The first argument, then, for the Isaian authorship of chapters 40-66 is that they form part of a book called by Isaiahs name. But, to be worth anything, this argument must rest on the following facts: that everything in a book called by a prophets name is necessarily by that prophet, and that the compilers of the book intended to hand it down as altogether from his pen. Now there is no evidence for either of these conclusions. On the contrary, there is considerable testimony in the opposite direction. The Book of Isaiah is not one continuous prophecy. It consists of a number of separate orations, with a few intervening pieces of narrative. Some of these orations claim to be Isaiahs own: they possess such titles as “The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz.” But such titles describe only the individual prophecies they head, and other portions of the book, upon other subjects and in very different styles, do not possess titles at all. It seems to me that those who maintain the Isaian authorship of the whole book have the responsibility cast upon them of explaining why some chapters in it should be distinctly said to be by Isaiah, while others should not be so entitled. Surely this difference affords us sufficient ground for understanding that the whole book is not necessarily by Isaiah, nor intentionally handed down by its compilers as the work of that prophet.
Now, when we come to chapters 40-66, we find that, occurring in a book which we have just seen no reason for supposing to be in every part of it by Isaiah, these chapters nowhere claim to be his. They are separated from that portion of the book, in which his undisputed oracles are placed, by a historical narrative of considerable length. And there is not anywhere upon them nor in them a title nor other statement that they are by the prophet, nor any allusion which could give the faintest support to the opinion, that they offer themselves to posterity as dating from his time. It is safe to say, that, if they had come to us by themselves, no one would have dreamt for an instant of ascribing them to Isaiah; for the alleged resemblances, which their language and style bear to his language and style, are far more than overborne by the undoubted differences, and have never been employed, even by the defenders of the Isaian authorship, except in additional and confessedly slight support of their main argument, viz., that the chapters must be Isaiahs because they are included in a book called by his name.
Let us understand, therefore, at this very outset, that in discussing the question of the authorship of “Second Isaiah,” we are not discussing a question upon which the text itself makes any statement, or into which the credibility of the text enters. No claim is made by the Book of Isaiah itself for the Isaian authorship of chapters 40-66.
A second fact in Scripture, which seems at first sight to make strongly for the unity of the Book of Isaiah, is that in the New Testament, portions of the disputed chapters are quoted by Isaiahs name, just as are portions of his admitted prophecies. These citations are nine in number. {Mat 3:3, Mat 8:17, Mat 12:17, Luk 3:4, Luk 4:17, Joh 1:23, Joh 12:38, Act 8:28, Rom 10:16-20} None is by our Lord Himself. They occur in the Gospels, Acts, and Paul. Now if any of these quotations were given in answer to the question, Did Isaiah write chapters 40-66 of the book called by his name? or if the use of his name along with them were involved in the arguments which they are borrowed to illustrate as, for instance, is the case with Davids name in the quotation made by our Lord from Psa 110:1-7, then those who deny the unity of the Book of Isaiah would be face to face with a very serious problem indeed. But in none of the nine cases is the authorship of the Book of Isaiah in question. In none of the nine cases is there anything in the argument, for the purpose of which the quotation has been made, that depends on the quoted words being by Isaiah. For the purposes for which the Evangelists and Paul borrow the texts, these might as well be unnamed, or attributed to any other canonical writer. Nothing in them requires us to suppose that Isaiahs name is mentioned with them for any other end than that of reference, viz., to point out that they lie in the part of prophecy usually known by his name. But if there is nothing in these citations to prove that Isaiahs name is being used for any other purpose than that of reference, then it is plain-and this is all that we ask assent to at the present time-that they do not offer the authority of Scripture as a bar to our examining the evidence of the chapters in question.
It is hardly necessary to add that neither is there any other question of doctrine in our way. There is none about the nature of prophecy, for, to take an example, chapter 53, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ, is surely as great a marvel if yon date it from the Exile as if you date it from the age of Isaiah. And, in particular, let us understand that no question need be started about the ability of Gods Spirit to inspire a prophet to mention Cyrus by name one hundred and fifty years before Cyrus appeared. The question is not, Could a prophet have been so inspired?-to which question, were it put, our answer might only be, God is great!-but the question is, Was our prophet so inspired? does he himself offer evidence of the fact? Or, on the contrary, in naming Cyrus does he give himself out as a contemporary of Cyrus, who already saw the great Persian above the horizon? To this question only the writings under discussion can give us an answer. Let us see what they have to say.
Apart from the question of the date, no chapters in the Bible are interpreted with such complete unanimity as 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. They plainly set forth certain things as having already taken place-the Exile and Captivity, the ruin of Jerusalem, and the devastation of the Holy Land. Israel is addressed as having exhausted the time of her penalty, and is proclaimed to be ready for deliverance. Some of the people are comforted as being in despair because redemption does not draw near; others are exhorted to leave the city of their bondage, as if they were growing too familiar with its idolatrous life. Cyrus is named as their deliverer, and is pointed out as already called upon his career, and as blessed with success by Jehovah. It is also promised that he will immediately add Babylon to his conquests, and so set Gods people free.
Now all this is not predicted, as if from the standpoint of a previous century. It is nowhere said-as we should expect it to be said, if the prophecy had been uttered by Isaiah-that Assyria, the dominant world-power of Isaiahs day, was to disappear and Babylon to take her place; that then the Babylonians should lead the Jews into an exile which they had escaped at the hands of Assyria; and that after nearly seventy years of suffering God would raise up Cyrus as a deliverer.
There is none of this prediction, which we might fairly have expected had the prophecy been Isaiahs; because, however far Isaiah carries us into the future, he never fails to start from the circumstances of his own day. Still more significant, however-there is not even the kind of prediction that we find in Jeremiahs prophecies of the Exile, with which indeed it is most instructive to compare 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 Jeremiah also spoke of exile and deliverance, but it was always with the grammar of the future. He fairly and openly predicted both; and, let us especially remember, he did so with a meagreness of description, a reserve and reticence about details, which are simply unintelligible if 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 was written before his day, and by so well-known a prophet as Isaiah.
No: in the statements which our chapters make concerning the Exile and the condition of Israel under it, there is no prediction, not the slightest trace of that grammar of the future in which Jeremiahs prophecies are constantly uttered. But there is a direct appeal to the conscience of a people already long under the discipline of God; their circumstance of exile is taken for granted; there is a most vivid and delicate appreciation of their present fears and doubts, and to these the deliverer Cyrus is not only named, but introduced as an actual and notorious personage already upon the midway of his irresistible career.
These facts are more broadly based than just at first sight appears. You cannot turn their flank by the argument that Hebrew prophets were in the habit of employing in their predictions what is called “the prophetic perfect”-that is, that in the ardour of their conviction that certain things would take place they talked of these, as the flexibility of the Hebrew tenses allowed them to do, in the past or perfect as if the things had actually taken place. No such argument is possible in the case of the introduction of Cyrus. For it is not only that the prophesy, with what might be the mere ardour of vision, represents the Persian as already above the horizon and upon the flowing tide of victory; but that, in the course of a sober argument for the unique divinity of the God of Israel, which takes place throughout chapters 41-48, Cyrus, alive and irresistible, already accredited by success, and with Babylonia at his feet, is pointed out as the unmistakable proof that former prophecies for a deliverance for Israel are at last coming to pass. Cyrus, in short, is not presented as a prediction, but as the proof that a prediction is being fulfilled. Unless he had already appeared in flesh and blood, and was on the point of striking at Babylon, with all the prestige of unbroken victory, a great part of Isa 41:1-29 – Isa 48:1-22 would be utterly unintelligible.
This argument is so conclusive for the date of Second Isaiah, that it may be well to state it a little more in detail, even at the risk of anticipating some of the exposition of the text.
Among the Jews at the close of the Exile there appear to have been two classes. One class was hopeless of deliverance, and to their hearts is addressed such a prophecy as chapter 40: “Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people.” But there was another class, of opposite temperament, who had only too strong opinions on the subject of deliverance. In bondage to the letter of Scripture and to the great precedents of their history, these Jews appear to have insisted that the Deliverer to come must be a Jew, and a descendant of David. And the bent of much of the prophets urgency in chapter 45 is to persuade those pedants, that the Gentile Cyrus, who had appeared to be not only the biggest man of his age, but the very likely means of Israels redemption, was of Jehovahs own creation and calling. Does not such an argument necessarily imply that Cyrus was already present, an object of doubt and debate to earnest minds in Israel? Or are we to suppose that all this doubt and debate were foreseen, rehearsed, and answered one hundred and fifty years before the time by so famous a prophet as Isaiah, and that, in spite of his prediction and answer, the doubt and debate nevertheless took place in the minds of the very Israelites, who were most earnest students of ancient prophecy? The thing has only to be stated to be felt to be impossible.
But besides the pedants in Israel, there is apparent through these prophecies another body of men, against whom also Jehovah claims the actual Cyrus for His own. They are the priests and worshippers of the heathen idols. It is well known that the advent of Cyrus cast the Gentile religions of the time and their counsellors into confusion. The wisest priests were perplexed; the oracles of Greece and Asia Minor either were dumb when consulted about the Persian, or gave more than usually ambiguous answers. Over against this perplexity and despair of the heathen religions, our prophet confidently claims Cyrus for Jehovahs own. In a debate in chapter 41, in which he seeks to establish Jehovahs righteousness-that is, Jehovahs faithfulness to His word, and power to carry out His predictions – the prophet speaks of ancient prophecies which have come from Jehovah, and points to Cyrus as their fulfilment. It does not matter to us in the meantime what those prophecies were. They may have been certain of Jeremiahs predictions; we may be sure that they cannot have contained anything so definite as Cyrus name, or such a proof of Divine foresight must certainly have formed part of the prophets plea. It is enough that they could be quoted; our business is rather with the evidence which the prophet offers of their fulfilment. That evidence is Cyrus. Would it have been possible to refer the heathen to Cyrus as proof that those ancient prophecies were being fulfilled, unless Cyrus had been visible to the heathen, -unless the heathen had been beginning already to feel this Persian “from the sunrise” in all his weight of war? It is no esoteric doctrine which the prophet is unfolding to initiated Israelites about Cyrus. He is making an appeal to men of the world to face facts. Could he possibly have made such an appeal unless the facts had been there, unless Cyrus had been within the ken of “the natural man”? Unless Cyrus and his conquests were already historically present, the argument in 41-48 is unintelligible.
If this evidence for the exilic date of 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 -for all these chapters hang together-required any additional support, it would find it in the fact that the prophet does not wholly treat of what is past and over, but makes some predictions as well. Cyrus is on the way of triumph, but Babylon has still to fall by his hand. Babylon has still to fall, before the exiles can go free. Now, if our prophet were predicting from the standpoint of one hundred and forty years before, why did he make this sharp distinction between two events which appeared so closely together? If he had both the advent of Cyrus and the fall of Babylon in his long perspective, why did he not use “the prophetic perfect” for both? That he speaks of the first as past and of the second as still to come, would most surely, if there had been no tradition the other way, have been accepted by all as sufficient evidence, that the advent of Cyrus was behind him and the fall of Babylon still in front of him, when he wrote these chapters.
Thus the earlier part, at least, of 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 -that is, chapters 40-48-compels us to date it between 555, Cyruss advent, and 538, Babylons fall. But some think that we may still further narrow the limits. In Isa 41:25, Cyrus, whose own kingdom lay east of Babylonia, is described as invading Babylonia from the north. This, it has been thought, must refer to his union with the Medes in 549, and his threatened descent upon Mesopotamia from their quarter of the prophets horizon. If it be so, the possible years of our prophecy are reduced to eleven, 549-538. But even if we take the wider and more certain limit, 555 to 538, we may well say that there are very few chapters in the whole of the Old Testament whose date can be fixed so precisely as the date of chapters 40-48.
If what has been unfolded in the preceding paragraphs is recognised as the statement of the chapters themselves, it will be felt that further evidence of an exilic date is scarcely needed. And those, who are acquainted with the controversy upon the evidence furnished by the style and language of the prophecies, will admit how far short in decisiveness it falls of the arguments offered above. But we may fairly ask whether there is anything opposed to the conclusion we have reached, either, first, in the local colour of the prophecies: or, second, in their language; or, third, in their thought – anything which shows that they are more likely to have been Isaiahs than of exilic origin.
1. It has often been urged against the exilic date of these prophecies, that they wear so very little local colour, and one of the greatest of critics, Ewald, has felt himself, therefore, permitted to place their home, not in Babylonia, but in Egypt, while he maintains the exilic date. But, as we shall see in surveying the condition of the exiles, it was natural for the best among them, their psalmists and prophets, to have no eyes for the colours of Babylon. They lived inwardly; they were much more the inhabitants of their own broken hearts than of that gorgeous foreign land; when their thoughts rose out of themselves it was to seek immediately the far-away Zion. How little local colour is there in the writings of Ezekiel! 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 has even more to show; for indeed the absence of local colour from our prophecy has been greatly exaggerated. We shall find as we follow the exposition, break after break of Babylonian light and shadow falling across our path, -the temples, the idol-manufactories, the processions of images, the diviners and astrologers, the gods and altars especially cultivated by the characteristic mercantile spirit of the place; the shipping of that mart of nations, the crowds of her merchants; the glitter of many waters, and even that intolerable glare, which so frequently curses the skies of Mesopotamia. {Isa 49:10} The prophet speaks of the hills of his native land with just the same longing, that Ezekiel and a probable psalmist of the Exile {Psa 121:1-8} betray, -the homesickness of a highland-born man whose prison is on a flat, monotonous plain. The beasts he mentions have for the most part been recognised as familiar in Babylonia; and while the same cannot be said of the trees and plants he names, it has been observed that the passages, into which he brings them, are passages where his thoughts are fixed on the restoration to Palestine. Besides these, there are many delicate symptoms of the presence, before the prophet, of a people in a foreign land, engaged in commerce, but without political responsibilities, each of which, taken by itself, may be insufficient to convince, but the reiterated expression of which has even betrayed commentators, who lived too early for the theory of a second Isaiah, into the involuntary admission of an exilic authorship. It will perhaps startle some to hear John Calvin quoted on behalf of the exilic date of these prophecies. But let us read and consider this statement of his: “Some regard must be had to the time when this prophecy was uttered; for since the rank of the kingdom had been obliterated, and the name of the royal family had become mean and contemptible, during the captivity in Babylon, it might seem as if through the ruin of that family the truth of God had fallen into decay; and therefore he bids them contemplate by faith the throne of David, which had been cast down.”
2. What we have seen to be true of the local colour of our prophecy holds good also of its style and language. There is nothing in either of these to commit us to an Isaiah authorship, or to make an exilic date improbable; on the contrary, the language and style, while containing no stronger nor more frequent resemblances to the language and style of Isaiah than may be accounted for by the natural influence of so great a prophet upon his successors, are signalised by differences from his undisputed oracles, too constant, too subtle, and sometimes too sharp, to make it at all probable that the whole book came from the same man. On this point it is enough to refer our readers to the recent exhaustive and very able reviews of the evidence by Canon Cheyne in the second volume of his Commentary, and by Canon Driver in the last chapter of “Isaiah: His Life and Times,” and to quote the following words of so great an authority as Professor A. B. Davidson. After remarking on the difference in vocabulary of the two parts of the Book of Isaiah, he adds that it is not so much words in themselves as the peculiar uses and combinations of them, and especially “the peculiar articulation of sentences and the movement of the whole discourse, by which an impression is produced so unlike the impression produced by the earlier parts of the book.”
3. It is the same with the thought and doctrine of our prophecy. In this there is nothing to make the Isaian authorship probable, or an exilic date impossible. But, on the contrary, whether we regard the needs of the people or the analogies of the development of their religion, we find that, while everything suits the Exile, nearly everything is foreign both to the subjects and to the methods of Isaiah. We shall observe the items of this as we go along, but one of them may be mentioned here (it will afterwards require a chapter to itself), our prophets use of the terms righteous and righteousness. No one, who has carefully studied the meaning which these terms bear in the authentic oracles of Isaiah, and the use to which they are put in the prophecies under discussion, can fail to find in the difference a striking corroboration of our argument-that the latter were composed by a different mind than Isaiahs, speaking to a different generation.
To sum up this whole argument. We have seen that there is no evidence in the Book of Isaiah to prove that it was all by himself, but much testimony which points to a plurality of authors; that chapters 40-66 nowhere assert themselves to be by Isaiah; and that there is no other well-grounded claim of Scripture or doctrine on behalf of his authorship. We have then shown that chapters 40-48 do not only present the Exile as if nearly finished and Cyrus as if already come, while the fall of Babylon is still future; but that it is essential to one of their main arguments that Cyrus should be standing before Israel and the world, as a successful warrior, on his way to attack Babylon. That led us to date these chapters between 555 and 538. Turning then to other evidence, -the local colour they show, their language and style, and their theology, -we have found nothing which conflicts with that date, but, on the contrary, a very great deal, which much more agrees with it than with the date, or with the authorship, of Isaiah.
It will be observed, however, that the question has been limited to the earlier chapters of the twenty-seven under discussion, viz., to 40-48 Does the same conclusion hold good of 49 to 66? This can be properly discovered only as we closely follow their exposition; it is enough in the meantime to have got firm footing on the Exile. We can feel our way bit by bit from this standpoint onwards. Let us now merely anticipate the main features of the rest of the prophecy.
A new section has been marked by many as beginning with chapter 49. This is because chapter 48, concludes with a refrain: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked,” which occurs again at the end of chapter 57, and because with chapter 48. Babylon and Cyrus drop out of sight. But the circumstances are still those of exile, and, as Professor Davidson remarks, chapter 49 is parallel in thought to chapter 42, and also takes for granted the restoration of Israel in chapter 48, proceeding naturally from that to the statement of Israels world-mission. Apart from the alternation of passages dealing with the Servant of the Lord, and passages whose subject is Zion – an alternation which begins pretty early in the prophecy, and has suggested to some its composition out of two different writings-the first real break in the sequence occurs at Isa 52:13, where the prophecy of the sin-bearing Servant is introduced. By most critics this is held to be an insertion, for Isa 54:1 follows naturally upon Isa 52:12, though it is undeniable that there is also some association between Isa 52:13 – Isa 53:1-12, and chapter 54. In chapters 54-55, we are evidently still in exile. It is in commenting on a verse of these chapters that Calvin makes the admission of exilic origin which has been quoted above.
A number of short prophecies now follow, till the end of chapter 59 is reached. These, as we shall see, make it extremely difficult to believe in the original unity of “Second Isaiah.” Some of them, it is true, lie in evident circumstance of exile; but others are undoubtedly of earlier date, reflecting the scenery of Palestine, and the habits of the people in their political independence, with Jehovahs judgment-cloud still unburst, but lowering. Such is Isa 56:9 – Isa 57:1-21, which regards the Exile as still to come, quotes the natural features of Palestine, and charges the Jews with unbelieving diplomacy-a charge not possible against them when they were in captivity. But others of these short prophecies are, in the opinion of some critics, post-exilic. Cheyne assigns chapter 56 to after the Return, when the temple was standing, and the duty of holding fasts and sabbaths could be enforced, as it was enforced by Nehemiah. I shall give, when we reach the passage, my reasons for doubting his conclusion. The chapter seems to me as likely to have been written upon the eve of the Return as after the Return had taken place.
Chapter 57, the eighteenth of our twenty-seven chapters, closes with the same refrain as chapter 48, the ninth of the series: “There is no peace, saith Jehovah, to the wicked.” Chapter 58, has, therefore, been regarded, as beginning the third great division of the prophecy. But here again, while there is certainly an advance in the treatment of the subject, and the prophet talks less of the redemption of the Jews and more of the glory of the restoration of Zion, the point of transition is very difficult to mark. Some critics regard chapter 58, as post-exilic; but when we come to it we shall find a number of reasons for supposing it to belong, just as much as Ezekiel, to the Exile. Chapter 59 is perhaps the most difficult portion of all, because it makes the Jews responsible for civic justice in a way they could hardly be conceived to be in exile, and yet speaks, in the language of other portions of “Second Isaiah,” of a deliverance that cannot well be other than the deliverance from exile. We shall find in this chapter likely marks of the fusion of two distinct addresses, making the conclusion probable that it is Israels earlier conscience which we catch here, following her into the days of exile, and reciting her former guilt just before pardon is assured. Chapters 60, 61, and 62 are certainly exilic. The inimitable prophecy, Isa 63:1-6, complete within itself, and unique in its beauty, is either a promise given just before the deliverance from a long captivity of Israel under heathen nations (Isa 63:4), or an exultant song of triumph immediately after such a deliverance has taken place. Isa 63:7 – Isa 64:1-12 implies a ruined temple (Isa 63:10), but bears no traces of the writer being in exile. It has been assigned to the period of the first attempts to rebuild Jerusalem after the Return. Chapter 65 has been assigned to the same date, and its local colour interpreted as that of Palestine. But we shall find the colour to be just as probably that of Babylon, and again I do not see any certain proofs of a post-exilic date. Chapter 66, however, betrays more evidence of being written after the Return. It divides into two parts. In Isa 66:1-4 the temple is still unbuilt, but the building would seem to be already begun. In Isa 66:5-24, the arrival of the Jews in Palestine, the resumption of the life of the sacred community, and the disappointments of the returned at the first meagre results, seem to be implied. And the music of the book dies out in tones of warning, that sin still hinders the Lords work with His people.
This rapid survey has made two things sufficiently clear. First, that while the bulk of chapters 40-66 was composed in Babylonia during the Exile of the Jews, there are considerable portions which date from before the Exile, and betray a Palestinian origin; and one or two smaller pieces that seem-rather less evidently, however-to take for granted the Return from the Exile. But, secondly, all these pieces, which it seems necessary to assign to different epochs and authors, have been arranged so as to exhibit a certain order and progress-an order, more or less observed, of date, and a progress very apparent (as we shall see in the course of exposition) of thought and of clearness in definition. The largest portion, of whose unity we are assured and whose date we can fix, is found at the beginning. Chapters 40-48 are certainly by one hand, and may be dated, as we have seen, between 555 and 538-the period of Cyrus approach to take Babylon. There the interest in Cyrus ceases, and the thought of the redemption from Babylon is mainly replaced by that of the subsequent Return. Along with these lines, we shall discover a development in the prophecys great doctrine of the Servant of Jehovah. But even this dies away, as if the experience of suffering and discipline were being replaced by that of return and restoration; and it is Zion in her glory, and the spiritual mission of the people, and the vengeance of the Lord, and the building of the temple, and a number of practical details in the life and worship of the restored community, which fill up the remainder of the book, along with a few echoes from pre-exilic times. Can we escape feeling in all this a definite design and arrangement, which fails to be absolutely perfect, probably, from the nature of the materials at the arrangers disposal?
We are, therefore, justified in coming to the provisional conclusion, that Second Isaiah is not a unity, in so far as it consists of a number of pieces by different men, whom God raised up at various times before, during, and after the Exile, to comfort and exhort amid the shifting circumstance and tempers of His people; but that it is a unity, in so far as these pieces have been gathered together by an editor very soon after the Return from the Exile, in an order as regular both in point of time and subject as the somewhat mixed material would permit. It is in this sense that throughout this volume we shall talk of “our prophet,” or “the prophet”; up to chapter 49, at least, we shall feel that the expression is literally true; after that it is rather an editorial than an original unity which is apparent. In this question of unity the dramatic style of the prophecy forms, no doubt, the greatest difficulty. Who shall dare to determine of the many soliloquies, apostrophes, lyrics, and other pieces that are here gathered, often in want of any connection save that of dramatic grouping and a certain sympathy of temper, whether they are by the same author or have been collected from several origins? We must be content to leave the matter uncertain. One great reason, which we have not yet quoted, for supposing that the whole prophecy is not by one man, is that if it had been his name would certainly have come down with it. Do not let it be thought that such a conclusion, as we have been led to, is merely a dogma of modern criticism. Here, if anywhere, the critic is but the patient student of Scripture, searching for the testimony of the sacred text about itself, and formulating that. If it be found that such a testimony conflicts with ecclesiastical tradition, however ancient and universal, so much the worse for tradition. In Protestant circles, at least, we have no choice. Litera Scripta manet. When we know that the only evidence for the Isaiah authorship of chapters 40-66 is tradition, supported by an unthinking interpretation of New Testament citations, while the whole testimony of these Scriptures themselves denies them to be Isaiahs, we cannot help making our choice, and accepting the testimony of Scripture. Do we find them any the less wonderful or Divine? Do they comfort less? Do they speak with less power to conscience? Do they testify with more uncertain voice to our Lord and Saviour? It will be the task of the following pages to show that, interpreted in connection with the history out of which they themselves say that Gods Spirit drew them, these twenty-seven chapters become only more prophetic of Christ, and more comforting and instructive to men, than they were before.
But the remarkable fact is that anciently tradition itself appears to have agreed with the results of modern scholarship. The original place of the Book of Isaiah in the Jewish canon seems to have been after both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, a fact which goes to prove that it did not reach completion till a later date than the works of these two prophets of the Exile.
If now it be asked, Why should a series of prophecies written in the Exile be attached to the authentic works of Isaiah? that is a fair question, and one which the supporters of the exilic authorship have the duty laid upon them of endeavouring to answer. Fortunately they are not under the necessity of falling back, for want of other reasons, on the supposition that this attachment was due to the error of some scribe, or to the custom which ancient writers practised of filling up any part of a volume, that remained blank when one book is finished, with the writing of any other that would fit the place. The first of these reasons is too accidental, the second too artificial, in face of the undoubted sympathy which exists among all parts of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah himself plainly prophesied of an exile longer than his own generation experienced, and prophesied of a return from it (chapter 11). We saw no reason to dispute his claims to the predictions about Babylon in chapters 21 and 39 Isaiahs, too, more than any other prophets, were those great and final hopes of the Old Testament – the survival of Israel and the gathering of the Gentiles to the worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. But it is for the express purpose of emphasising the immediate fulfilment of such ancient predictions, that 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 were published. Although our prophet has “new things to publish,” his first business is to show that the “former things have come to pass,” especially the Exile, the survival of a Remnant, the sending of a Deliverer, the doom of Babylon. What more natural than to attach to his utterances those prophecies, of which the events he pointed to were the vindication and fulfilment? The attachment was the more easy to arrange that the authentic prophecies had not passed from Isaiahs hand in a fixed form. They do not bear those marks of their authors own editing, which are borne by the prophecies both of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. It is impossible to be dogmatic on the point. But these facts-that our chapters are concerned, as no other Scriptures are, with the fulfilment of previous prophecies; that it is the prophecies of Isaiah which are the original and fullest prediction of the events they are busy with; and that the form, in which Isaiahs prophecies are handed down, did not preclude additions of this kind to them-contribute very evident reasons why 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, though written in the Exile, should be attached to Isa 1:1-31; Isa 2:1-22; Isa 3:1-26; Isa 4:1-6; Isa 5:1-30; Isa 6:1-13; Isa 7:1-25; Isa 8:1-22; Isa 9:1-21; Isa 10:1-34; Isa 11:1-16; Isa 12:1-6; Isa 13:1-22; Isa 14:1-32; Isa 15:1-9; Isa 16:1-14; Isa 17:1-14; Isa 18:1-7; Isa 19:1-25; Isa 20:1-6; Isa 21:1-17; Isa 22:1-25; Isa 23:1-18; Isa 24:1-23; Isa 25:1-12; Isa 26:1-21; Isa 27:1-13; Isa 28:1-29; Isa 29:1-24; Isa 30:1-33; Isa 31:1-9; Isa 32:1-20; Isa 33:1-24; Isa 34:1-17; Isa 35:1-10; Isa 36:1-22; Isa 37:1-38; Isa 38:1-22; Isa 39:1-8.
Thus we present a theory of the exilic authorship of 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 within itself complete and consistent, suited to all parts of the evidence, and not opposed by the authority of any part of Scripture. In consequence of its conclusion, our duty, before proceeding to the exposition of the chapters, is twofold: first, to connect the time of Isaiah with the period of the Captivity, and then to sketch the condition of Israel in Exile. This we shall undertake in the next three chapters.
NOTE TO CHAPTER I
Readers may wish to have a reference to other passages of this part, in which the questions of the date, authorship and structure of 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, are discussed. See: Introduction to Book III; opening paragraphs of chapter 18, and of chapter 19, etc.
CHAPTER II
FROM ISAIAH TO THE FALL OF JERUSALEM
701-587 B.C.
AT first sight, the circumstances of Judah in the last ten years of the seventh century present a strong resemblance to her fortunes in the last ten years of the eighth. The empire of the world, to which she belongs, is again divided between Egypt and a Mesopotamian power. Syria is again the field of their doubtful battle, and the question, to which of the two shall homage be paid, still forms the politics of all her states. Judah still vacillates, intrigues, and draws down on herself the wrath of the North by her treaties with Egypt. Again there is a great prophet and statesman, whose concern is righteousness, who exposes both the immorality of his people and the folly of their policies, and who summons the “evil from the North” as Gods scourge upon Israel: Isaiah has been succeeded by Jeremiah. And, as if to complete the analogy, the nation has once more passed through a puritan reformation. Josiah has, even more thoroughly than Hezekiah, effected the disestablishment of idols.
Beneath this circumstantial resemblance, however, there is one fundamental difference. The strength of Isaiahs preaching was bent, especially during the closing years of the century, to establish the inviolableness of Jerusalem. Against the threats of the Assyrian siege, and in spite of his own more formidable conscience of his peoples corruption, Isaiah persisted that Zion should not be taken, and that the people, though cut down to their roots, should remain planted in the land, -the stock of an imperial nation in the latter days. This prophecy was vindicated by the marvellous relief of Jerusalem on the apparent eve of her capture in 701. But its echoes had not yet died away, when Jeremiah to his generation delivered the very opposite message. Round him the popular prophets babbled by rote Isaiahs ancient assurances about Zion. Their soft, monotonous repetitions lapped pleasantly upon the immovable self-confidence of the people. But Jeremiah called down the storm. Even while prosperity seemed to give him the lie, he predicted the speedy ruin of Temple and City, and summoned Judahs enemies against her in the name of the God on whose former word she relied for peace. The contrast between the two great prophets grows most dramatic in their conduct during the respective sieges, of which each was the central figure. Isaiah, alone steadfast in a city of despair, defying the taunts of the heathen, rekindling within the dispirited defenders, whom the enemy sought to bribe to desertion, the passions of patriotism and religion, proclaiming always, as with the voice of a trumpet, that Zion must stand inviolate; Jeremiah, on the contrary, declaring the futility of resistance, counselling each citizen to save his own life from the ruin of the state, in treaty with the enemy, and even arrested as a deserter, -these two contrasting figures and attitudes gather up the difference which the century had wrought in the fortunes of the City of God. And so, while in 701 Jerusalem triumphed in the Lord by the sudden raising of the Assyrian siege, three years after the next century was out she twice succumbed to the Assyrians successor, and nine years later was totally destroyed.
What is the reason of this difference which a century sufficed to work? Why was the sacredness of Judahs shrine not as much an article of Jeremiahs as of Isaiahs creed, -as much an element of Divine providence in 600 as in 700 B.C.? This is not a very hard question to answer, if we keep in our regard two things, -firstly, the moral condition of the people, and, secondly, the necessities of the spiritual religion, which was identified for the time with their fortunes.
The Israel which was delivered into captivity at the word of Jeremiah was a people at once more hardened and more exhausted than the Israel, which, in spite of its sin, Isaiahs efforts had succeeded in preserving upon its own land. A century had come and gone of further grace and opportunity, but the grace had been resisted, the opportunity abused, and the people stood more guilty and more wilful than ever before God. Even clearer, however, than the deserts of the people was the need of their religion. That local and temporary victory-after all, only the relief of a mountain fortress and a tribal shrine-with which Isaiah had identified the will and honour of Almighty God, could not be the climax of the history of a spiritual religion. It was impossible for monotheism to rest on so narrow and material a security as that. The faith, which was to overcome the world, could not be satisfied with a merely national triumph. This time must arrive-were it only by the ordinary progress of the years and unhastened by human guilt-for faith and piety to be weaned from the forms of an earthly temple, however sacred: for the individual-after all, the real unit of religion-to be rendered independent of the community and cast upon his God alone; and for this people, to whom the oracles of the living God had been entrusted, to be led out from the selfish pride of guarding these for their own honour-to be led out, were it through the breaches of their hitherto inviolate walls, and amid the smoke of all that was most sacred to them, so that in level contact with mankind they might learn to communicate their glorious trust. Therefore, while the Exile was undoubtedly the penance, which an often-spared but ever more obdurate people had to pay for their accumulated sins, it was also for the meek and the pure-hearted in Israel a step upwards even from the faith and the results of Isaiah-perhaps the most effectual step which Israels religion ever took. Schultz has finely said: “The proper tragedy of history-doom required by long-gathering guilt, and launched upon a generation which for itself is really turning towards good-is most strikingly consummated in the Exile.” Yes: but this is only half the truth. The accomplishment of the moral tragedy is really but one incident in a religious epic-the development of a spiritual faith. Long-delaying Nemesis overtakes at last the sinners, but the shock of the blows, which beat the guilty nation into captivity, releases their religion from its material bonds. Israel on the way to Exile is on the way to become Israel after the Spirit.
With these principles to guide us, let us now, for a little, thread our way through the crowded details of the decline and fall of the Jewish state.
Isaiahs own age had foreboded the necessity of exile for Judah. There was the great precedent of Samaria, and Judahs sin was not less than her sisters. When the authorities at Jerusalem wished to put Jeremiah to death for the heresy of predicting the ruin of the sacred city, it was pointed out in his defence that a similar prediction had been made by Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah. And how much had happened since then! The triumph of Jehovah in 701, the stronger faith and purer practice, which had followed as long as Hezekiah reigned, gave way to an idolatrous reaction under his successor Manasseh. This reaction, while it increased the guilt of the people, by no means diminished their religious fear. They carried into it the conscience of their former puritanism-diseased, we might say delirious, but not dead. Men felt their sin and feared Heavens wrath, and rushed headlong into the gross and fanatic exercises of idolatry, in order to wipe away the one and avert the other. It availed nothing. After an absence of thirty years the Assyrian arms returned in full strength, and Manasseh himself was carried captive across the Euphrates. But penitence revived, and for a time it appeared as if it were to be at last valid for salvation. Israel made huge strides towards their ideal life of a good conscience and outward prosperity. Josiah, the pious, came to the throne. The Book of the Law was discovered in 621, and king and people rallied to its summons with the utmost loyalty. All the nation “stood to the covenant.” The single sanctuary was vindicated, the high places destroyed, the land purged of idols. There were no great military triumphs but Assyria, so long the accepted scourge of God, gave signs of breaking up; and we can feel the vigour and self-confidence, induced by years of prosperity, in Josiahs ambition to extend his borders, and especially in his daring assault upon Necho of Egypt at Megiddo, when Necho passed north to the invasion of Assyria. Altogether, it was a people that imagined itself righteous, and counted upon a righteous God. In such days who could dream of exile?
But in 608 the ideal was shivered. Israel was threshed at Megiddo, and Josiah, the king after Gods own heart, was slain on the field. And then happened what happened at other times in Israels history when disillusion of this kind came down. The nation fell asunder into the elements of which it was ever so strange a composition. The masses, whose conscience did not rise beyond the mere performance of the Law, nor their view of God higher than that of a patron of the state, bound by His covenant to reward with material success the loyalty of His clients, were disappointed with the results of their service and of His providence. Being a new generation from Manassehs time, they thought to give the strange gods another turn. The idols were brought back, and after the discredit which righteousness received at Megiddo, it would appear that social injustice and crime of many kinds dared to be very bold. Jehoahaz, who reigned for three months after Josiah, and Jehoiakim, who succeeded him, were idolaters, The loftier few, like Jeremiah, had never been deceived by the peoples outward allegiance to the Temple or the Law, nor considered it valid either to atone for the past or now to fulfil the holy demands of Jehovah; and were confirmed by the disaster at Megiddo, and the consequent reaction to idolatry, in the stern and hopeless views of the people which they had always entertained. They kept reiterating a speedy captivity. Between these parties stood the formal successors of earlier prophets, so much the slaves of tradition that they had neither conscience for their peoples sins nor understanding of the world around them, but could only affirm in the strength of ancient oracles that Zion should not be destroyed. Strange is it to see how this party, building upon the promises of Jehovah through a prophet like Isaiah, should be taken advantage of by the idolaters, but scouted by Jehovahs own servants. Thus they mingle and conflict. Who indeed can distinguish all the elements of so ancient and so rich a life, as they chase, overtake, and wrestle with each other, hurrying down the rapids to the final cataract? Let us leave them for a moment, while we mark the catastrophe itself. They will be more easily distinguished in the calm below.
It was from the North that Jeremiah summoned the vengeance of God upon Judah. In his earlier threats he might have meant the Scythians; but by 605, when Nebuchadrezzar, Nabopolassar of Babylons son, the rising general of the age, defeated Pharaoh at Carchemish, all men accepted Jeremiahs nomination for this successor of Assyria in the lordship of Western Asia. From Carchemish Nebuchadrezzar overran Syria. Jehoiakim paid tribute to him, and Judah at last felt the grip of the hand that was to drag her into exile. Jehoiakim attempted to throw it off in 602; but, after harassing him for four years by means of some allies, Nebuchadrezzar took his capital, executed him, suffered Jehoiachin, his successor, to reign only three months, took Jerusalem a second time, and carried off to Babylon the first great portion of the people. This was in 598, only ten years from the death of Josiah, and twenty-one from the discovery of the Book of the Law.
The exact numbers of this first captivity of the Jews it is impossible to determine. The annalist sets the soldiers at seven thousand, the smiths and craftsmen at one thousand; so that, making allowance for other classes whom he mentions, the grown men must alone have been over ten thousand; but how many women went, and how many children-the most important factor for the period of the Exile with which we have to deal-it is impossible to estimate. The total number of persons can scarcely have been less than twenty-five thousand. More important, however, than their number was the quality of these exiles, and this we can easily appreciate. The royal family and the court were taken, a large number of influential persons, “the mighty men of the land,” or what must have been nearly all the fighting men, with the necessary artificers; priests also went, Ezekiel among them, and probably representatives of other classes not mentioned by the annalist. That this was the virtue and flower of the nation is proved by a double witness. Not only did the citizens, for the remaining ten years of Jerusalems life, look to these exiles for her deliverance, but Jeremiah himself counted them the sound half of Israel-“a basket of good figs,” as he expressed it, beside “a basket of bad ones.” They were at least under discipline, but the remnant of Jerusalem persisted in the wilfulness of the past.
For although Jeremiah remained in the city, and the house of David and a considerable population, and although Jeremiah himself held a higher position in public esteem since the vindication of his word by the events of 598, yet he could not be blind to the unchanged character of the people, and the thorough doom which their last respite had only more evidently proved to be inevitable. Gangs of false prophets, both at home and among the exiles, might predict a speedy return. All the Jewish ability of intrigue, with the lavish promises of Egypt and frequent embassies from other nations, might work for the overthrow of Babylon. But Jeremiah and Ezekiel knew better. Across the distance which now separated them they chanted, as it were in antiphon, the alternate strophes of Judahs dirge. Jeremiah bade the exiles not to remember Zion, but “let them settle down,” he said, “into the life of the land they are in, building houses, planting gardens, and begetting children, and seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto Jehovah for it, for in the peace thereof ye shall have peace-the Exile shall last seventy years.” And as Jeremiah in Zion blessed Babylon, so Ezekiel in Babylon cursed Zion, thundering back that Jerusalem must be utterly wasted through siege and famine, pestilence and captivity. There is no rush of hope through Ezekiel. His expectations are all distant. He lives either in memory or in cold fancy. His pictures of restoration are too elaborate to mean speedy fulfilment. They are the work of a man with time on his hands; one does not build so colossally for tomorrow. Thus reinforced from abroad, Jeremiah proclaimed Nebuchadrezzar as “the servant of Jehovah,” and summoned him to work Jehovahs doom upon the city. The predicted blockade came in the ninth year of Zedekiah. The false hopes which still sustained the people, their trust in Egypt, the arrival of an Egyptian army in result of their intrigue, as well as all their piteous bravery, only afforded time for the fulfilment of the terrible details of their penalty. For nearly eighteen months the siege closed in-months of famine and pestilence, of faction and quarrel and falling away to the enemy. Then Jerusalem broke up. The besiegers gained the northern suburb and stormed the middle gate. Zedekiah and the army burst their lines only to be captured on an aimless flight at Jericho. A few weeks more, and a forlorn defence by civilians of the interior parts of the city was at last overwhelmed. The exasperated besiegers gave her up to fire-“the house of Jehovah, the kings house, and every great house”-and tore to the stones the stout walls that resisted the conflagration. As the city was levelled, so the citizens were dispersed. A great number-and among them the kings family-were put to death. The king himself was blinded, and, along with a host of his subjects, impossible for us to estimate, and with all the temple furniture, was carried to Babylon. A few peasants were left to cultivate the land; a few superior personages-perhaps such as, with Jeremiah, had favoured the Babylonians, and Jeremiah was among them-were left at Mizpah under a Jewish viceroy. It was a poor apparition of a state; but, as if the very ghost of Israel must be chased from the land, even this small community was broken up, and almost every one of its members fled to Egypt. The Exile was complete.
CHAPTER III
WHAT ISRAEL TOOK INTO EXILE
BEFORE we follow the captives along the roads that lead to exile, we may take account of the spiritual goods which they carried with them, and were to realise in their retirement. Never in all history did paupers of this world go forth more richly laden with the treasures of heaven.
1. First of all, we must emphasise and define their monotheism. We must emphasise it as against those who would fain persuade us that Israels monotheism was for the most part the product of the Exile; we must analyse its contents and define its limits among the people, if we would appreciate the extent to which it spread and the peculiar temper which it assumed, as set forth in the prophecy we are about to study.
Idolatry was by no means dead in Israel at the fall of Jerusalem. On the contrary, during the last years which the nation spent within those sacred walls, that had been so miraculously preserved in the sight of the world by Jehovah, idolatry increased, and to the end remained as determined and fanatic as the peoples defence of Jehovahs own temple. The Jews who fled to Egypt applied themselves to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, in spite of all the remonstrances of Jeremiah; and him they carried with them, not because they listened to him as the prophet of the One True God, but superstitiously, as if he were a pledge of the favour of one of the many gods, whom they were anxious to propitiate. And the earliest effort, upon which we shall have to follow our own prophet, is the effort to crush the worship of images among the Babylonian exiles. Yet when Israel returned from Babylon the people were wholly monotheist; when Jerusalem was rebuilt no idol came back to her.
That this great change was mainly the result of the residence in Babylon and of truths learned there, must be denied by all who remember the creed and doctrine about God, which in their literature the people carried with them into exile. The law was already written, and the whole nation had sworn to it: “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God; Jehovah is One, and thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.” These words, it is true, may be so strictly interpreted as to mean no more than that there was one God for Israel: other gods might exist, but Jehovah was Sole Deity for His people. It is maintained that such a view receives some support from the custom of prophets, who, while they affirmed Jehovahs supremacy, talked of other gods as if they were real existences. But argument from this habit of the prophets is precarious: such a mode of speech may have been a mere accommodation to a popular point of view. And, surely, we have only to recall what Isaiah and Jeremiah had uttered concerning Jehovahs Godhead, to be persuaded that Israels monotheism, before the beginning of the Exile, was a far more broad and spiritual faith than the mere belief that Jehovah was the Sovereign Deity of the nation, or the satisfaction of the desires of Jewish hearts alone. Righteousness was not coincident with Israels life and interest; righteousness was universally supreme, and it was in righteousness that Isaiah saw Jehovah exalted. There is no more prevailing witness to the unity of God than the conscience, which in this matter takes far precedence of the intellect; and it was on the testimony of conscience that the prophets based Israels monotheism. Yet they did not omit to enlist the reason as well. Isaiah and Jeremiah delight to draw deductions from the reasonableness of Jehovahs working in nature to the reasonableness of His processes in history, -analogies which could not fail to impress both intellect and imagination with the fact that men inhabit a universe, that One is the will and mind which works in all things. But to this training of conscience and reason, the Jews, at the beginning of the Exile, felt the addition of another considerable influence. Their history lay at last complete, and their conscience was at leisure from the making of its details to survey it as a whole. That long past, seen now by undazzled eyes from under the shadow of exile, presented through all its changing fortunes a single and definite course. One was the intention of it, one its judgment from first to last. The Jew saw in it nothing but righteousness, the quality of a God, who spake the same word from the beginning, who never broke His word, and who at last had summoned to its fulfilment the greatest of the world-powers. In those historical books, which were collected and edited during the Exile, we observe each of the kings and generations of Israel, in their turn, confronted with the same high standard of fidelity to the One True God and His holy Law. The regularity and rigour, with which they are thus judged, have been condemned by some critics as an arbitrary and unfair application of the standard of a later faith to the conduct of ruder and less responsible ages. But, apart from the question of historical accuracy, we cannot fail to remark that this method of writing history is at least instinct with the Oneness of God, and the unvarying validity of His Law from generation to generation. Israels God was the same, their conscience told them, down all their history; but now as He summoned one after another of the great world-powers to do His bidding, -Assyria, Babylon, Persia, -how universal did He prove His dominion to be! Unchanging through all time, He was surely omnipotent through all space.
This short review-in which, for the sake of getting a complete view of our subject, we have anticipated a little-has shown that Israel had enough within themselves, in the teaching of their prophets and in the lessons of their own history, to account for that consummate expression of Jehovahs Godhead, which is contained in our prophet, and to which every one allows the character of an absolute monotheism. We shall find this, it is true, to be higher and more comprehensive than anything which is said about God in pre-exilic Scriptures. The prophet argues the claims of Jehovah, not only with the ardour that is born of faith, but often with the scorn which indicates the intellect at work. It is monotheism, treated not only as a practical belief or a religious duty, but as a necessary truth of reason; not only as the secret of faith and the special experience of Israel, but also as an essential conviction of human nature, so that not to believe in One God is a thing irrational and absurd for Gentiles as well as Jews. Gods infinitude in the works of creation, His universal providence in history, are preached with greater power than ever before; and the gods of the nations are treated as things, in whose existence no reasonable person can possibly believe. In short, our great prophet of the Exile has already learned to obey the law of Deuteronomy as it was expounded by Christ. Deuteronomy says, “Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.” Christ added, “and with all thy mind.” This was what our prophet did. He held his monotheism” with all his mind.” We shall find him conscious of it, not only as a religious affection, but as a necessary intellectual conviction; which if a man has not, he is less than a man. Hence the scorn which he pours upon the idols and mythologies of his conquerors. Beside his tyrants, though in physical strength he was but a worm to them, the Jew felt that he walked, by virtue of his faith in One God, their intellectual master.
We shall see all this illustrated later on. Meantime, what we are concerned to show is that there is enough to account for this high faith within Israel themselves-in their prophecy and in the lessons of their history. And where indeed are we to be expected to go in search of the sources of Israels monotheism, if not to themselves? To the Babylonians? The Babylonians had nothing spiritual to teach to Israel; our prophet regards them with scorn. To the Persians, who broke across Israels horizon with Cyrus? Our prophets high statement of monotheism is of earlier date than the advent of Cyrus to Babylon. Nor did Cyrus, when he came, give any help to the faith, for in his public edicts he owned the gods of Babylon and the God of Israel with equal care and equal policy. It was not because Cyrus and his Persians were monotheists, that our prophet saw the sovereignty of Jehovah vindicated, but it was because Jehovah was sovereign that the prophet knew the Persians would serve His holy purposes.
2. But if in Deuteronomy the exiles carried with them the Law of the One God, they preserved in Jeremiahs writings what may be called the charter of the individual man. Jeremiah had found religion in Judah a public and a national affair. The individual derived his spiritual value only from being a member of the nation, and through the public exercises of the national faith. But, partly by his own religious experience, and partly by the course of events, Jeremiah was enabled to accomplish what may be justly described as the vindication of the individual. Of his own separate value before God, and of his right of access to his Maker apart from the nation, Jeremiah himself was conscious, having belonged to God before he belonged to his mother, his family, or his nation. “Before I found thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest out of the womb I consecrated thee.” His whole life was but the lesson of how one man can be for God and all the nation on the other side. And it was in the strength of this solitary experience, that he insisted, in his famous thirty-first chapter, on the individual responsibility of man and on every mans immediate communication with Gods Spirit; and that, when the ruin of the state was imminent, he advised each of his friends to “take his own life” out of it “for a prey.” {Jeremiah 65} But Jeremiahs doctrine of the religious value and independence of the individual had a complement. Though the prophet felt so keenly his separate responsibility and right of access to God, and his religious independence of the people, he nevertheless clave to the people with all his heart. He was not, like some other prophets, outside the doom he preached. He might have saved himself, for he had many offers from the Babylonians. But he chose to suffer with his people-he, the saint of God, with the idolaters. More than that, it may be said that Jeremiah suffered for the people. It was not they, with their dead conscience and careless mind, but he, with his tender conscience and breaking heart, who bore the reproach of their sins, the anger of the Lord, and all the agonising knowledge of his countrys inevitable doom. In Jeremiah one man did suffer for the people.
In our prophecy, which is absorbed with the deliverance of the nation as a whole, there was, of course, no occasion to develop Jeremiahs remarkable suggestions about each individual soul of man. In fact, these suggestions were germs, which remained uncultivated in Israel till Christs time. Jeremiah himself uttered them, not as demands for the moment, but as ideals that would only be realised when the New Covenant was made. Our prophecy has nothing to say about them. But that figure, which Jeremiahs life presented, of One Individual-of One Individual standing in moral solitude over against the whole nation, and in a sense suffering for the nation, can hardly have been absent from the influences, which moulded the marvellous confession of the people in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, where they see the solitary servant of God on one side and themselves on the other, “and Jehovah made to light on him the iniquities of us all.” It is true that the exiles themselves had some consciousness of suffering for others. “Our fathers,” cried a voice in their midst, when Jerusalem broke up, “Our fathers have sinned, and we have borne their iniquities.” But Jeremiah had been a willing sufferer for his people; and the fifty-third chapter is, as we shall see, more like his way of bearing his generations guilt for loves sake than their way of bearing their fathers guilt in the inevitable entail of sin.
3. To these beliefs in the unity of God, the religious worth of the individual, and the virtue of his self-sacrifice, we must add some experiences of scarcely less value rising out of the destruction of the material and political forms-the temple, the city, the monarchy-with which the faith of Israel had been so long identified.
Without this destruction, it is safe to say, those beliefs could not have assumed their purest form. Take, for instance, the belief in the unity of God. There is no doubt that this belief was immensely helped in Israel by the abolition of all the provincial sanctuaries under Josiah, by the limitation of Divine worship to one temple and of valid sacrifice to one altar. But yet it was well that this temple should enjoy its singular rights for only thirty years and then be destroyed. For a monotheism, however lofty, which depended upon the existence of any shrine, however gloriously vindicated by Divine providence, was not a purely spiritual faith. Or, again, take the individual. The individual could not realise how truly he himself was the highest temple of God, and Gods most pleasing sacrifice a broken and a contrite heart, till the routine of legal sacrifice was interrupted and the ancient altar torn down. Or, once more, take that high, ultimate doctrine of sacrifice, that the most inspiring thing for men, the most effectual propitiation before God, is the self-devotion and offering up of a free and reasonable soul, the righteous for the unrighteous-how could common Jews have adequately learned that truth, in days when, according to immemorial practice, the bodies of bulls and goats bled daily on the one valid altar? The city and temple, therefore, went up in flames that Israel might learn that God is a Spirit, and dwelleth not in a house made with hands; that men are His temple, and their hearts the sacrifices well-pleasing in His sight; and that beyond the bodies and blood of beasts, with their daily necessity of being offered, He was preparing for them another Sacrifice, of perpetual and universal power, in the voluntary sufferings of His own holy Servant. It was for this Servant, too, that the monarchy, as it were, abdicated, yielding up to Him all its title to represent Jehovah and to save and rule Jehovahs people.
4. Again, as we have already hinted, the fall of the state and city of Jerusalem gave scope to Israels missionary career. The conviction, that that had inspired many of Isaiahs assertions of the inviolableness of Zion, was the conviction that, if Zion were overthrown and the last remnant of Israel uprooted from the land, there must necessarily follow the extinction of the only true testimony to the living God which the world contained. But by a century later that testimony was firmly secured in the hearts and consciences of the people, wheresoever they might be scattered; and what was now needed was exactly such a dispersion, -in order that Israel might become aware of the world for whom the testimony was meant, and grow expert in the methods by which it was to be proclaimed. Priesthood has its human as well as its Godward side. The latter was already sufficiently secured for Israel by Jehovahs age-long seclusion of them in their remote highlands-a people peculiar to Himself. But now the same Providence completed its purpose by casting them upon the world. They mixed with men face to face, or, still more valuably to themselves, on a level with the most downtrodden and despised of the peoples. With no advantage but the truth, they met the other religions of the world in argument, debating with them upon the principles of a common reason and the facts of a common history. They learned sympathy with the weak things of earth. They discovered that their religion could be taught. But, above all, they became conscious of martyrdom, the indispensable experience of a religion that is to prevail; and they realised the supreme influence upon men of a love which sacrifices itself. In a word, Israel, in going into exile, put on humanity with all its consequences. How real and thorough the process was, how successful in perfecting their priesthood, may be seen not only from the hopes and obligations towards all mankind, which burst in our prophecy to an urgency and splendour unmatched elsewhere in their history, but still more from the fact that when the Son of God Himself took flesh and became man, there were no words oftener upon His lips to describe His experience and commission, there are no passages which more clearly mirror His work for the world, than the words and the passages in which these Jews of the Exile, stripped to their bare humanity, relate their sufferings or exult in their destiny that should follow.
5. But with their temple in ruins, and all the world before them for the service of God, the Jews go forth to exile upon the distinct promise of return. The material form of their religion is suspended, not abolished. Let them feel religion in purely spiritual aspects, unassisted by sanctuary or ritual; let them look upon the world and the oneness of men; let them learn all Gods scope for the truth He has entrusted to them, -and then let them gather back again and cherish their new experience and ideas for yet awhile in the old seclusion. Jehovahs discipline of them as a nation is not yet exhausted. They are no mere band of pilgrims or missionaries, with the world for their home; they are still a people. with their own bit of the earth. If we keep this in mind, it will explain certain apparent anomalies in our prophecy. In all the writings of the Exile the reader is confused by a strange mingling of the spiritual and the material, the universal and the local. The moral restoration of the people to pardon and righteousness is identified with their political restoration to Judah and Jerusalem. They have been separated from ritual in order to cultivate a more spiritual religion, but it is to this that a restoration to ritual is promised for a reward. While Jeremiah insists upon the free and immediate communication of every believer with Jehovah, Ezekiel builds a more exclusive priesthood, a more elaborate system of worship. Within our prophecy, while one voice deprecates a house for God built with hands, affirming that Jehovah dwells with every one who is of a poor and contrite spirit, other voices dwell fondly on the prospect of the new temple and exult in its material glory. This double line of feeling is not merely due to the presence in Israel of those two opposite tempers of mind, which so naturally appear in every national literature. But a special purpose of God is in it. Dispersed to obtain more spiritual ideas of God and man and the world, Israel must be gathered back again to get these by heart, to enshrine them in literature, and to transmit them to posterity, as they could alone be securely transmitted, in the memories of a nation, in the liturgies and canons of a living Church.
Therefore the Jews, though torn for their discipline from Jerusalem, continued to identify themselves more passionately than ever with their desecrated city. A prayer of the period exclaims: “Thy saints take pleasure in her stones, and her dust is dear to them.” {Psa 102:14} The exiles proved this by taking her name. Their prophets addressed them as “Zion” and “Jerusalem.” Scattered and leaderless groups of captives in a far-off land, they were still that City of God. She had not ceased to be; ruined and forsaken as she lay, she was yet “graven on the palms of Jehovahs hands; and her walls were continually before Him.” {Isa 49:15} The exiles kept up the register of her families; they prayed towards her; they looked to return to build her bulwarks; they spent long hours of their captivity in tracing upon the dust of that foreign land the ground plan of her restored temple.
With such beliefs in God and man and sacrifice, with such hopes and opportunities for their world-mission, but also with such a bias back to the material Jerusalem, did Israel pass into exile.
CHAPTER IV
ISRAEL IN EXILE
FROM 589 TILL ABOUT 550 B.C.
IT is remarkable how completely the sound of the march from Jerusalem to Babylon has died out of Jewish history. It was an enormous movement: twice over within ten years, ten thousand Jews, at the very least, must have trodden the highway to the Euphrates; and yet, except for a doubtful verse or two in the Psalter, they have left no echo of their passage. The sufferings of the siege before, the remorse and lamentation of the Exile after, still pierce our ears through the Book of Lamentations and the Psalms by the rivers of Babylon. We know exactly how the end was fulfilled. We see most vividly the shifting panorama of the siege, -the city in famine, under the assault, and in smoke; upon the streets the pining children, the stricken princes, the groups of men with sullen, famine-black faces, the heaps of slain, mothers feeding on the bodies of the infants whom their sapless breasts could not keep alive; by the walls the hanging and crucifixion of multitudes, with all the fashion of Chaldean cruelty, the delicate and the children stumbling under heavy loads, no survivor free from the pollution of blood. Upon the hills around, the neighbouring tribes are gathered to jeer at “the day of Jerusalem,” and to cut off her fugitives; we even see the departing captives turn, as the worm turns, to curse “those children of Edom.” But there the vision closes. Was it this hot hate which blinded them to the sights of the way, or that weariness and depression among strange scenes, that falls upon all unaccustomed caravans, and has stifled the memory of nearly every other great historical march? The roads which the exiles traversed were of immemorial use in the history of their fathers; almost every day they must have passed names which, for at least two centuries, had rung in the market-place of Jerusalem-the Way of the Sea, across Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, round Hermon, and past Damascus; between the two Lebanons, past Hamath, and past Arpad; or less probably by Tadmor-in-the-Wilderness and Rezeph, -till they reached the river on which the national ambition had lighted as the frontier of the Messianic Empire, and whose rolling greatness had so often proved the fascination and despair of a people of uncertain brooks and trickling aqueducts. Crossing the Euphrates by one of its numerous passages-either at Carchemish, if they struck the river so high, or at the more usual Thapsacus, Tiphsah, “the passage,” where Xenophon crossed with his Greeks, or at some other place-the caravans must have turned south across the Habor, on whose upper banks the captives of Northern Israel had been scattered, and then have traversed the picturesque country of Aram-Naharaim, past Circesium and Rehoboth-of-the-River, and many another ancient place mentioned in the story of the Patriarchs, till through dwindling hills they reached His-that marvellous site which travellers praise as one of the great viewpoints of the world-and looked out at last upon the land of their captivity, the boundless, almost level tracts of Chaldea, the first home of the race, the traditional Garden of Eden. But of all that we are told nothing. Every eye in the huge caravans seems to have been as the eyes of the blinded king whom they carried with them, -able to weep, but not to see.
One fact, however, was too large to be missed by these sad, wayworn men; and it has left traces on their literature. In passing from home to exile, the Jews passed from the hills to the plain. They were highlanders. Jerusalem lies four thousand feet above the sea. From its roofs the skyline is mostly a line of hills. To leave the city on almost any side you have to descend. The last monuments of their fatherland, on which the emigrants eyes could have lingered, were the high crests of Lebanon; the first prospect of their captivity was a monotonous level. The change was the more impressive, that to the hearts of the Hebrews it could not fail to be sacramental. From the mountains came the dew to their native crofts-the dew which, of all earthly blessings, was likest Gods grace. For their prophets, the ancient hills had been the symbols of Jehovahs faithfulness. In leaving their highlands, therefore, the Jews not only left the kind of country to which their habits were most adapted and all their natural affections clung; they left the chosen abode of God, the most evident types of His grace, the perpetual witnesses to His covenant. Ezekiel constantly employs the mountains to describe his fatherland. But it is far more with a sacramental longing than a mere homesickness that a psalmist of the Exile cries out, “I will lift up mine eyes to the hills: from whence cometh mine help?” or that our prophet exclaims: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.”
By the route sketched above, it is at least seven hundred miles from Jerusalem to Babylon-a distance which, when we take into account that many of the captives walked in fetters, cannot have occupied them less than three months. We may form some conception of the aspect of the caravans from the transportations of captives which are figured on the Assyrian monuments, as in the Assyrian basement in the British Museum. From these it appears as if families were not separated, but marched together. Mules, asses, camels, ox-waggons, and the captives themselves carried goods. Children and women suckling infants were allowed to ride on the waggons. At intervals fully-armed soldiers walked in pairs.
I.
Mesopotamia, the land “in the middle of the rivers,” Euphrates and Tigris, consists of two divisions, an upper and a lower. The dividing line crosses from near Hit or His on the Euphrates to below Samarah on the Tigris. Above this line the country is a gently undulating plain of secondary formation at some elevation above the sea. But lower Mesopotamia is absolutely flat land, an unbroken stretch of alluvial soil, scarcely higher than the Persian Gulf, upon which it steadily encroaches. Chaldea was confined to this Lower Mesopotamia, and was not larger, Rawlinson estimates, than the kingdom of Denmark. It is the monotonous level which first impresses the traveller; but if the season be favourable, he sees this only as the theatre of vast and varied displays of colour, which all visitors vie with one another in describing: “It is like a rich carpet”; “emerald green, enamelled with flowers of every hue”; “tall wild grasses and broad extents of waving reeds”; “acres of water-lilies”; “acres of pansies.” There was no such country in ancient times for wheat, barley, millet, and sesame; tamarisks, poplars, and palms; here and there heavy jungle; with flashing streams and canals thickly athwart the whole, and all shining the more brilliantly for the interrupting patches of scurvy, nitrous soil, and the grey sandy setting of the desert with its dry scrub. The possible fertility of Chaldea is incalculable. But there are drawbacks. Bounded to the north by so high a tableland, to the south and southwest by a super-heated gulf and broad desert, Mesopotamia is the scene of violent changes of atmosphere. The languor of the flat country, the stagnancy and sultriness of the air, of which not only foreigners but the natives themselves complain, is suddenly invaded by southerly winds, of tremendous force and laden with clouds of fine sand, which render the air so dense as to be suffocating, and “produce a lurid red haze intolerable to the eyes.” Thunderstorms are frequent, and there are very heavy rains. But the winds are the most tremendous. In such an atmosphere we may perhaps discover the original shapes and sounds of Ezekiels turbulent visions-“the fiery wheels; the great cloud with a fire infolding itself; the colour of amber,” with “sapphire,” or lapiz lazuli, breaking through; “the sound of a great rushing.” Also the Mesopotamian floods are colossal. The increase of both Tigris and Euphrates is naturally more violent and irregular than that of the Nile. Frequent risings of these rivers spread desolation with inconceivable rapidity, and they ebb only to leave pestilence behind them. If civilisation is to continue, there is need of vast and incessant operations on the part of man.
Thus, both by its fertility and by its violence, this climate-before the curse of God fell on those parts of the world-tended to develop a numerous and industrious race of men, whose numbers were swollen from time to time both by forced and by voluntary immigration. The population must have been very dense. The triumphal lists of Assyrian conquerors of the land, as well as the rubbish mounds which today cover its surface, testify to innumerable villages and towns; while the connecting canals and fortifications, by the making of them and the watching of them, must have filled even the rural districts with the hum and activity of men. Chaldea, however, did not draw all her greatness from herself. There was immense traffic with East and West, between which Babylon lay, for the greater part of antiquity, the worlds central market and exchange. The city was practically a port on the Persian Gulf, by canals from which vessels reached her wharves direct from Arabia, India, and Africa. Down the Tigris and Euphrates rafts brought the produce of Armenia and the Caucasus; but of greater importance than even these rivers were the roads, which ran from Sardis to Shushan, traversed Media, penetrated Bactria and India, and may be said to have connected the Jaxartes and the Ganges with the Nile and the harbours of the gean Sea. These roads all crossed Chaldea and met at Babylon. Together with the rivers and ocean highways, they poured upon her markets the traffic of the whole ancient world.
It was, in short, the very centre of the world-the most populous and busy region of His earth-to which God sent His people for their exile. The monarch, who transplanted them, was the genius of Babylonia incarnate. The chief soldier of his generation, Nebuchadrezzar will live in history as one of the greatest builders of all time. But he fought as he built – that he might traffic. His ambition was to turn the trade with India from the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf, and he thought to effect this by the destruction of Tyre, by the transportation of Arab and Nabathean merchants to Babylon, and by the deepening and regulation of the river between Babylon and the sea.
There is no doubt that Nebuchadrezzar carried the Jews to Babylon not only for political reasons, but in order to employ them upon those large works of irrigation and the building of cities, for which his ambition required hosts of labourers. Thus the exiles were planted, neither in military prisons nor in the comparative isolation of agricultural colonies, but just where Babylonian life was most busy, where they were forced to share and contribute to it, and could not help feeling the daily infection of their captors habits. Do not let us forget this. It will explain much in what we have to study. It will explain how the captivity, which God inflicted upon the Jews as a punishment, might become in time a new sin to them, and why, when the day of redemption arrived, so many forgot that their citizenship was in Zion, and clung to the traffic and the offices of Babylon.
The majority of the exiles appear to have been settled within the city, or, as it has been more correctly called, “the fortified district,” of Babylon itself. Their mistress was thus constantly before them, at once their despair and their temptation. Lady of Kingdoms she lifted herself to heaven from broad wharves and ramparts, by wide flights of stairs and terraces, high walls and hanging gardens, pyramids and towers-so colossal in her buildings, so imperially lavish of space between! No wonder that upon that vast, far-spreading architecture, upon its great squares and between its high portals guarded by giant bulls, the Jew felt himself, as he expressed it, but a poor worm. If, even as they stand in our museums, captured and catalogued, one feels as if one crawled in the presence of the fragments of these striding monsters, with how much more of the feeling of the worm must the abject members of that captive nation have writhed before the face of the city, which carried these monsters as the mere ornaments of her skirts, and rose above all kingdoms with her strong feet upon the poor and the meek of the earth?
Ah, the despair of it! To see her every day so glorious, to be forced to help her ceaseless growth, -and to think how Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, lay forsaken in ruins! Yet the despair sometimes gave way to temptation. There was not an outline or horizon visible to the captive Jew, not a figure in the motley crowds in which he moved, but must have fascinated him with the genius of his conquerors. In that level land no mountain, with its witness of God, broke the skyline; but the work of man was everywhere: curbed and scattered rivers, artificial mounds, buildings of brick, gardens torn from their natural beds and hung high in air by cunning hands to please the taste of a queen; lavish wealth and force and cleverness, all at the command of one human will. The signature ran across the whole, “I have done this, and with mine own hand have I gotten me my wealth”; and all the nations of the earth came and acknowledged the signature, and worshipped the great city. It was fascinating merely to look on such cleverness, success, and self-confidence; and who was the poor Jew that he, too, should not be drawn with the intoxicated nations to the worship of this glory that filled his horizon? If his eyes rose higher, and from these enchantments of men sought refuge in the heavens above, were not even they also a Babylonian realm? Did not the Chaldean claim the great lights there for his patron gods? were not the movements of sun, moon, and planets the secret of his science? did not the tyrant believe that the very stars in their courses fought for him? And he was vindicated; he was successful; he did actually rule the world. There seemed to be no escape from the enchantments of this sorceress city, as the prophets called her, and it is not wonderful that so many Jews fell victims to her worldliness and idolatry.
II.
The social condition of the Jews in exile is somewhat obscure, and yet, both in connection with the date and with the exposition of some portions of “Second Isaiah,” it is an element of the greatest importance, of which we ought to have as definite an idea as possible.
What are the facts? By far the most significant is that which faces us at the end of the Exile. There, some sixty years after the earlier, and some fifty years after the later, of Nebuchadnezzars two deportations, we find the Jews a largely multiplied and still regularly organised nation, with considerable property and decided political influence. Not more than forty thousand can have gone into exile, but forty-two thousand returned, and yet left a large portion of the nation behind them. The old families and clans survived; the social ranks were respected; the rich still held slaves; and the former menials of the temple could again be gathered together. Large subscriptions were raised for the pilgrimage, and for the restoration of the temple; a great host of cattle was taken. To such a state of affairs do we see any traces leading up through the Exile itself? We do.
The first host of exiles, the captives of 598, comprised, as we have seen, the better classes of the nation, and appear to have enjoyed considerable independence. They were not scattered, like the slaves in North America, as domestic bondsmen over the surface of the land. Their condition must have much more closely resembled that of the better-treated exiles in Siberia; though of course, as we have seen, it was not a Siberia, but the centre of civilisation, to which they were banished. They remained in communities, with their own official heads, and at liberty to consult their prophets. They were sufficiently in touch with one another, and sufficiently numerous, for the enemies of Babylon to regard them as a considerable political influence, and to treat with them for a revolution against their captors. But Ezekiels strong condemnation of this intrigue exhibits their leaders on good terms with the government. Jeremiah bade them throw themselves into the life of the land; buy and sell, and increase their families and property. At the same time, we cannot but observe that it is only religious sins, with which Ezekiel upbraids them. When he speaks of civic duty or social charity, he either refers to their past or to the life of the remnant still in Jerusalem. There is every reason to believe, therefore, that this captivity was an honourable and an easy one. The captives may have brought some property with them; they had leisure for the pursuit of business and for the study and practice of their religion. Some of them suffered, of course, from the usual barbarity of Oriental conquerors, and were made eunuchs; some, by their learning and abstinence, rose to high positions in the court. (The Book of Daniel) Probably to the end of the Exile they remained “the good figs,” as Jeremiah had called them. Theirs was, perhaps, the literary work of the Exile; and theirs, too, may have been the wealth which rebuilt Jerusalem.
But it was different with the second captivity, of 589. After the famine, the burning of the city, and the prolonged march, this second host of exiles must have reached Babylonia in an impoverished condition. They were a lower class of men. They had exasperated their conquerors, who, before the march began, subjected many of them to mutilation and cruel death; and it is, doubtless, echoes of their experience which we find in the more bitter complaints of our prophet, This is a people robbed and spoiled; all of them snared in holes, and hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and for a spoil. “Thou” (that is, Babylon), “didst show them no mercy; upon the aged hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.” {Isa 42:22; Isa 47:6} Nebuchadrezzar used them for his building, as Pharaoh had used their forefathers. Some of them, or of their countrymen who had reached Babylonia before them, became the domestic slaves and chattels of their conquerors. Among the contracts and bills of sale of this period we find the cases of slaves with apparently Jewish names.
In short, the state of the Jews in Babylonia resembled what seems to have been their fortune wherever they have settled in a foreign land. Part of them despised and abused, forced to labour or overtaxed: part left alone to cultivate literature or to gather wealth. Some treated with unusual rigour-and perhaps a few of these with reason, as dangerous to the government of the land-but some also, by the versatile genius of their race, advancing to a high place in the political confidence of their captors.
Their application to literature, to their religion, and to commerce must be specially noted.
1. Nothing is more striking in the writings of Ezekiel than the air of large leisure which invests them. Ezekiel lies passive; he broods, gazes, and builds his vision up, in a fashion like none of his terser predecessors; for he had time on his hands, not available to them in days when the history of the nation was still running. Ezekiels style swells to a greater fulness of rhetoric; his pictures of the future are elaborated with the most minute detail. Prophets before him were speakers, but he is a writer. Many in Israel besides Ezekiel took advantage of the leisure of the Exile to the great increase and arrangement of the national literature. Some Assyriologists have lately written, as if the schools of Jewish scribes owed their origin entirely to the Exile. But there were scribes in Israel before this. What the Exile did for these, was to provide them not only with the leisure from national business which we have noted, but with a powerful example of their craft as well. Babylonia at this time was a land full of scribes and makers of libraries. They wrote a language not very different from the Jewish, and cannot but have powerfully infected their Jewish fellows with the spirit of their toil and of their methods. To the Exile we certainly owe a large part of the historical books of the Old Testament, the arrangement of some of the prophetic writings, as well as-though the amount of this is very uncertain-part of the codification of the Law.
2. If the Exile was opportunity to the scribes, it can only have been despair to the priests. In this foreign land the nation was unclean; none of the old sacrifice or ritual was valid, and the people were reduced to the simplest elements of religion-prayer, fasting, and the reading of religious books. We shall find our prophecy noting the clamour of the exiles to God for “ordinances of righteousness”-that is, for the institution of legal and valid rites. {Isa 58:2} But the great lesson, which prophecy brings to the people of the Exile, is that pardon and restoration to Gods favour are won only by waiting upon Him with all the heart. It was possible, of course, to observe some forms; to gather at intervals to inquire of the Lord, to keep the Sabbath, and to keep fasts. The first of these practices, out of which the synagogue probably took its rise, is noted by our prophet, {Isa 58:13-14} and he enforces Sabbath-keeping with words that add the blessing of prophecy to the laws ancient sanction of that institution. Four annual fasts were instituted in memory of the dark days of Jerusalem-the day of the beginning of Nebuchadrezzar’s siege in the tenth month, the day of the capture in the fourth month, the day of the destruction in the fifth month, and the day of Gedaliahs murder in the tenth month. It might have been thought, that solemn anniversaries of a disaster so recent and still unrepaired would be kept with sincerity; but our prophet illustrates how soon even the most outraged feelings may grow formal, and how on their days of special humiliation, while their captivity was still real, the exiles could oppress their own bondsmen and debtors. But there is no religious practice of this epoch more apparent through our prophecies than the reading of Scripture. Israels hope was neither in sacrifice, nor in temple, nor in vision nor in lot, but in Gods written Word; and when a new prophet arose, like the one we are about to study, he did not appeal for his authorisation, as previous prophets had done, to the fact of his call or inspiration, but it was enough for him to point to some former word of God, and cry, “See! at last the day has dawned for the fulfilment of that.” Throughout Second Isaiah this is what the anonymous prophet cares to establish that the facts of today fit the promise of yesterday. We shall not understand our great prophecy unless we realise a people rising from fifty years close study of Scripture, in strained expectation of its immediate fulfilment.
3. The third special feature of the people in exile is their application to commerce. At home the Jews had not been a commercial people. But the opportunities of their Babylonian residence seem to have started them upon those habits, for which, through their longer exile in our era, the name of Jew has become a synonym. If that be so, Jeremiahs advice “to build and plant.” {Jer 29:1-32} is historic, for it means no less than that the Jews should throw themselves into the life of the most trafficking nation of the time. Their increasing wealth proves how they followed this advice, -as well as perhaps such passages as Isa 55:2, in which the commercial spirit is reproached for overwhelming the nobler desires of religion. The chief danger, incurred by the Jews from an intimate connection with the commerce of Babylonia, lay in the close relations of Babylonian commerce with Babylonian idolatry. The merchants of Mesopotamia had their own patron gods. In completing business contracts, a man had to swear by his idols, and might have to enter their temples. In Isa 65:11, Jews are blamed for “forsaking Jehovah, and forgetting My holy mountain; preparing a table for Luck, and filling up mixed wine to Fortune.” Here it is more probable that mercantile speculation, rather than any other form of gambling, is intended.
III.
But while all this is certain and needing to be noted about the habits of the mass of the people, what little trace it has left in the best literature of the period! We have already noticed in that the great absence of local colour. The truth is that what we have been trying to describe as Jewish life in Babylon was only a surface over deeps in which the true life of the nation was at work-was volcanically at work. Throughout the Exile the true Jew lived inwardly. “Out of the depths do I cry to Thee, O Lord.” He was the inhabitant not so much of a foreign prison as of his own broken heart. “He sat by the rivers of Babylon; but he thought upon Zion.” Is it not a proof of what depths in human nature were being stirred, that so little comes to the surface to tell us of the external conditions of those days? There are no fossils in the strata of the earth, which have been cast forth from her inner fires; and if we find few traces of contemporary life in these deposits of Israels history now before us, it is because they date from an age in which the nation was shaken and boiling to its centre.
For if we take the writings of this period-the Book of Lamentations, the Psalms of the Exile, and parts of other books-and put them together, the result is the impression of one of the strangest decompositions of human nature into its elements which the world has ever seen. Suffering and sin, recollection, remorse and revenge, fear and shame and hate-over the confusion of these the Spirit of God broods as over a second chaos, and draws each of them forth in turn upon some articulate prayer. Now it is the crimson flush of shame: “our soul is exceedingly filled with contempt.” Now it is the black rush of hate; for if we would see how hate can rage, we must go to the Psalms of the Exile, which call on the God of vengeance and curse the enemy and dash the little ones against the stones. But the deepest surge of all in that whirlpool of misery was the surge of sin. To change the figure, we see Israels spirit writhing upward from some pain it but partly understands, crying out, “What is this that keeps God from hearing and saving me?” turning like a wounded beast from the face of its master to its sore again, understanding as no brute could the reason of its plague, till confession after confession breaks away and the penalty is accepted, and acknowledged guilt seems almost to act as an anodyne to the penalty it explains. “Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? If Thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquity who shall stand?” No wonder, that with such a conscience the Jews occupied the Exile in writing the moral of their delinquent history, or that the rest of their literature which dates from that time should have remained ever since the worlds confessional.
But in this awful experience, there is still another strain, as painful as the rest, but pure and very eloquent of hope-the sense of innocent suffering. We cannot tell the sources, from which this considerable feeling may have gathered during the Exile, any more than we can trace from how many of the upper folds of a valley the tiny rivulets start, which form the stream that issues from its lower end. One of these sources may have been, as we have already suggested, the experience of Jeremiah; another very probably sprang with every individual conscience in the new generation. Children come even to exiles, and although they bear the same pain with the same nerves as their fathers, they do so with a different conscience. The writings of the time dwell much on the sufferings of the children. The consciousness is apparent in them, that souls are born into the wrath of God, as well as banished there. “Our fathers have sinned and are not, and we bear their iniquities.” This experience developed with great force, till Israel felt that she suffered not under Gods wrath, but for His sake; and so passed from the conscience of the felon to that of the martyr. But if we are to understand the prophecy we are about to study, we must remember how near akin these two consciences must have been in exiled Israel, and how easy it was for a prophet to speak-as our prophet does, sometimes with confusing rapidity of exchange-now in the voice of the older and more guilty generation, and now in the voice of the younger and less deservedly punished.
Our survey of the external as well as the internal conditions of Israel in Exile is now finished. It has, I think, included every known feature of their experience in Babylonia, which could possibly illustrate our prophecy-dated, as we have felt ourselves compelled to date this, from the close of the Exile. Thus, as we have striven to trace, did Israel suffer, learn, grow, and hope for fifty years-under Nebuchadrezzar till 561, under his successor Evil-merodach till 559, under Neriglassar till 554, and then under the usurper Nabunahid. The last named probably oppressed the Jews more grievously than their previous tyrants, but with the aggravation of their yoke there grew evident, at the same time, the certainty of their deliverance. In 549 Cyrus overthrew the Medes, and became lord of Asia from the Indus to the Halys. From that event his conquest of Babylonia, however much delayed, could only be a matter of time.
It is at this juncture that our prophecy breaks in. Taking for granted Cyrus sovereignty of the Medes, it still looks forward to his capture of Babylon. Let us, before advancing to its exposition, once more cast a rapid glance over the people, to whom it is addressed and whom in their half century of waiting for it we have been endeavouring to describe.
First and most manifest, they are a people with a conscience-a people with the most awful and most articulate conscience that ever before or since exposed a nations history or tormented a generation with the curse of their own sin and the sin of their fathers. Behind them, ages of delinquent life, from the perusal of the record of which, with its regularly recurring moral, they have just risen: the Books of Kings appear to have been finished after the accession of Evil-merodach in 561. Behind them also nearly fifty years of sore punishment for their sins-punishment, which, as their Psalms confess, they at last understand and accept as deserved.
But, secondly, they are a people with a great hope. With their awful consciousness of guilt, they have the assurance that their punishment has its limits; that, to quote Isa 40:2, it is a “set period of service”: a former word of God having fixed it at not more than seventy years, and having promised the return of the nation thereafter to their own land.
And, thirdly, they are a People with a great opportunity. History is at last beginning to set towards the vindication of their hope: Cyrus, the master of the age, is moving rapidly, irresistibly, down upon their tyrants.
But, fourthly, in face of all their hope and opportunity, they are a people disorganised, distracted, and very impotent-“worms and not men,” as they describe themselves. The generation of the tried and responsible leaders of the days of their independence are all dead, for “flesh is like grass”; no public institutions remain in their midst such as ever in the most hopeless periods of the past proved a rallying-point of their scattered forces. There is no king, temple, nor city; nor is there any great personality visible to draw their little groups together, marshal them, and lead them forth behind him. Their one hope is in the Word of God, for which they “wait more than they that watch for the morning”; and the one duty of their nameless prophets is to persuade them that this Word has at last come to pass, and, in the absence of king, Messiah, priest, and great prophet, is able to lift them to the opportunity that Gods hand has opened before them, and to the accomplishment of their redemption.
Upon Israel, with such a Conscience, such a Hope, such an Opportunity, and such an unaided Reliance on Gods bare Word, that Word at last broke in a chorus of voices.
Of these the first, as was most meet, spoke pardon to the peoples conscience and the proclamation that their set period of warfare was accomplished; the second announced that circumstances and the politics of the world, hitherto adverse, would be made easy to their return; the third bade them, in their bereavement of earthly leaders, and their own impotence, find their eternal confidence in Gods Word; while the fourth lifted them, as with one heart and voice, to herald the certain return of Jehovah, at the head of His people, to His own City, and His quiet, shepherdly rule of them on their own land.
These herald voices form the prologue to our prophecy, Isa 40:1-11, to which we will now turn.