1629. A Cry of Contrition

A Cry of Contrition

"Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts" (Isa_6:5).

1. The correct use of types. There are those who may read this lesson who may think that we are pressing matters too far when we make Isaiah's cry, "Woe is me" as a type of Israel's cry.

We must remember, however, that the Lord Himself placed this vision in the far distant years, and if the vision was placed there, could not also the effect of the vision upon Isaiah, be likewise placed there?

Again, we should remember that God frequently used His servants and their deeds as types of national Israel. This was true in the case of Hosea, who was told to love a woman, "according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel" (Hos_3:1).

This was pre-eminently true in the case of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Paul was saved ahead of his time that, in him, the Lord might show forth His kindness unto Israel.

Whether the Holy Ghost meant Isaiah's part in this vision as a type or not, as we study it we will see that what happened to Isaiah, will surely happen likewise to Israel.

2. Israel's cry of contrition. Isaiah said, "Woe is me;" so also will national Israel cry "Woe is me."

Isaiah cried, "Woe is me" when he saw the Lord high and lifted up; so will Israel cry "Woe is me" when she sees the Lord high and lifted up.

The story of Israel's contrition is told in Isaiah 63 and Isaiah 64. The Lord is described as coming with dyed garments, glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength, mighty to save. Israel beholds Him; and, seeing that her Deliverer is none other than her Saviour who died upon the Cross, she mourns her own iniquity, and pleads unto the Lord to rend the heavens and come down to save her.

The story of Israel's contrition is also told in Zec_12:10 :

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

The great tragedy of the day, so far as Israel is concerned, lies not so much in her failure to believe in the Messiah and His coming, as to believe that the Christ of Nazareth is that Messiah.

Did not the high priest ask Jesus, "Art Thou the Son of God?" The wrath of the priest and of the people was not because the Son of God, the Messiah, was to come; but because the meek and lowly Jesus set Himself forth as that Messiah.

The great burden of Paul's preaching to the Jews was not that there was a Messiah, the Son of God, for the scribes and the Pharisees of his day believed that; the burden of Paul's preaching (see Act_9:20-21) was to prove that Christ was that Messiah, the Son of God.

Thus when at last the Lord Jesus appears in glory, and the Jews who behold Him coming, see the nail prints in His hands, then it is that they will cry out, "Woe is me." They will confess their sins and acknowledge their failures.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR