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A prophecy about Jesus

 

Yet once again it has to be insisted that the stirring events of Hezekiah's day are no more than a foundation on which to build a prophecy of more vital truth, with Christ at its centre. There is the Lord's own warrant for this: "Today is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears," he declared, after reading from this prophecy in the synagogue at Nazareth* (Lk. 4:17-21).

 

Truly the Spirit of the Lord was upon him (v. 1) — John saw the Spirit descending on him at his baptism (Jn. 1:32). Nor did God give the Spirit to him by measure (Jn. 3:34), but in overflowing fulness (Is. 11:2; 42:1; 48:16; Mic. 3:8).

 

First person pronoun — "upon me" — is unusual in Isaiah (cp. 48:16d; 49:1; 50:4). It undoubtedly identifies the Servant of the Lord, foretold in earlier prophecies (cp. especially 42:1). Yet the same person calls himself "I the Lord (Jehovah)" (v.8). So great, so divine, is this Servant. Nevertheless there is a distinc­tion made: "The Lord (Himself) hath anointed me" — "God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows" (Ps. 45:7; Heb. 1:9). There is pointed contrast here with Aaron who was anointed by Moses (Ex. 40:13). "God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit and with power" (Acts 10:38).

 

With this unique endowment of divine grace (Lk. 4:22RV), Jesus came preaching gospel news** to the meek: "The poor have the gospel preached to them," Jesus told the messengers of imprisoned John; yet, mysteriously enough, he did not "proclaim liberty to the captive" prophet. Thus, by that very fact he bade John look for another fulfilment of the prophecy over which he was brooding.

 

Jesus came also "to bind up the broken-hearted" (lovely phrase!)*** The true gospel of the kingdom, truly received, will do this for any man. Elsewhere Isaiah pro­claims the fulness of this blessing "in the day that the Lord bindeth up the hurt of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound." (30:26).

 

Very beautifully the LXX version turns the Hebrew for "proclaim liberty" into a word of striking double meaning — not only "letting go free", but also "forgiveness of sins." And this is the word Jesus used in his interpretation of the prophecy when he read it in the synagogue.

 

 


* Netzer, whence the name Nazareth, comes in the last verse of Is. 60.

** So LXX, and in 40:9; 52:7,8; 60:6; Joel 2:32; Ps. 96:2; 40:9; Nah. 1:15.

*** The tendency of modern versions to omit this phrase from Lk.4:18 must be resisted: (a) MSS evidence in Lk. 4 favours its inclusion, though not overwhelmingly; (b) it is incredible that Jesus' synagogue copy (in Hebrew) did not include it; and it is equally incredible that Jesus should skip this expression; (c.) verse 23: "Physician, heal thyself," alludes to it.

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Another winsome promise is: "the opening (of the prison) to them that are bound". In Luke 4:18 this becomes: "recovering of sight to the blind." The Hebrew word normally means the opening of the eyes; it is specially suitable to describe prisoners emerging out of black-dark dungeons, only to be blinded temporarily by a blaze of sunlight. The Truth of Christ has just that effect on many a man. He needs time to re-adjust to the vivid glory of the gospel (2 Cor. 4:4-6).

 

It is surely a mistake to assert, as is often done, that in his synagogue reading Jesus stopped at "the acceptable year of the Lord" because the next phrase: "the day of vengeance of our God," was not to be fulfilled then. This is short-sighted exegesis. Experience with NT quotations from the OT shows that frequently the relevance of the context is implied and included; in other words, only part of the ap­propriate Scripture is quoted in order to steer the reader to a consideration of the rest. Also, this was a synagogue lection, which would certainly not stop in the middle of a sentence. Most decisive of all — these words of Jesus proclaimed the day of vengeance, i.e. warned of its imminence — they did not inaugurate it.

It is even possible that the re-pointed Hebrew should read "the day of resurrec­tion" — a phrase soon to be literally true regarding Jesus himself, and at that very moment true in a spiritual sense for those in Nazareth who would give heed (Jn. 5:25)*.

 

This lovely idea leads on to another equally reassuring — "to comfort all that mourn.** Here is the original of one of the Lord's most indispensable Beatitudes (Mt. 5:4). It broadens out into a charming sequence of metaphors:

 

"To appoint for Zion's mourners (those who are bona fide citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem), to give unto them beauty for ashes***, the oil of joy (of Messiah's own anointing; Ps. 45:7) for mourning, the garment of praise (their praise of Him, or His of them?) for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might glorify himself (by glorifying His Sanctuary and His Land)" (v.3)****

 

Blessings in Christ

 

Alluring pictures of co-mingled material and spiritual blessings follow one another in quick succession. The language itself is comparatively easy. The chief difficulty is to decide whether the words are to be taken literally, with reference to Israel restored and glorified in Messiah's kingdom, or to be read figuratively as a sequence of impressions of the spiritual blessings of the New Israel. In the light of conclusions already reached earlier in this chapter, there should be room for both ideas, with the emphasis more particularly on the second.

 

"They shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations" (v.4). This is the language used with much foreboding by Moses (Lev. 26:31,33) — God's curse on a wayward Israel. But now, in Messiah's day all past suffering is forgotten, and the ravages of persecution are made good. "They" in the words quoted are explained to be "strangers...the sons of the alien" who also "stand and feed your flocks" and serve as "your ploughmen and your vinedressers" (v.5).

 

 


* Yet contrast 34:8; 49:8; 63:4. Is this another of Isaiah's double meanings?

** Vengeance (resurrection) — naqam. Comfort — nacham.

*** Yet another juggle with words: "Sashes for ashes," weddings for funerals (consider Lk. 7:32,22; Mt. 9:15; 2 Sam 13:19).

**** Phrase after phrase in verse 3 occurs first in ch. 60; see v. 15,18,20,21.

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Gentiles

 

This reversal of fortunes had already been anticipated: "And strangers shall be joined with them (Israel)...the house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids: and they shall take them captives, whose captives they were" (14:1,2). It happened literally in Isaiah's day when Sennacherib's army was brought to nought; most of the survivors were rounded up and made to serve those they had harried and despised. The gospel has brought and will yet bring other finer fulfilments: "strangers from the covenants of promise...now in Christ Jesus...are made nigh by the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:12,13). With what insight did Isaiah write: "strangers shall be joined with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob" (14:1).

 

Such a religious union is implied in the present prophecy: "Ye shall be named priests of the Lord: men shall call you the ministers of our God" (v.6). At Sinai the whole nation of Israel was called to be "a kingdom of priests" (Ex. 19:6), that is, a missionary people to educate benighted Gentiles. But the very next day they we're frantically clamouring for Moses as a go-between, to spare them from the searching Presence of Jehovah (Ex. 20:18-21). Then how could they take their God to the Gentiles? They never did! So the priesthood passed first to Moses' own tribe, and then later to "a royal priesthood" of humble Gentile believers brought near to God through Christ (1 Pet. 2:9; cp. Rom. 15:16,27).

 

But now Israel in the Land ("ye") will fulfil God's earlier intention through an educating mission to the Gentiles, "and in their (Gentile) glory shall ye speak yourselves", i.e. declare a message which comes from your own soul.

 

It is a satisfying picture of a new and better Israel.

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61 (2). "Everlasting Joy" (v.7-11)

 

The division that is made here in these studies is really distinctly arbitrary, for Isaiah 61,62 have essentially one theme, even though the prophet plays several variations, all of them full of charm and power.

 

It has already been suggested that the (double) allusion to "the double" (v. 7) is Jubilee language (cp. Zech. 9:12). But there are also other possibilities. For example: "Because their shame was double, and they possessed confusion as their portion therefore in their land double (blessing)" (cp. 40:1,2; Job 42:10). Or there could be reference to the double portion of the firstborn even though son of a wife held in low esteem (Dt. 21:17) — cp. "the seed which the Lord hath blessed" (v.9). In that case, the parallel mention of shame would suggest the re-acceptance of Israel after being rejected. This would harmonize well with the ensuing ideas about "forsaken...desolate...Hephzibah...Beulah" (62:4). Again, that significant word "portion" may be intended as a reminder of the Levitical inheritance (s.w. Num. 18:20); i.e. Israel accepted back as a priestly people (cp. 61:6,10; 62:4).

 

Here Isaiah slips in a telling reminder of former evils, now forsaken: "I hate robbery for (or, with) burnt offering" — sacrifice exploited as a means of plundering the poor, in the way that Annas and his unholy crew did with such sublime skill and efficiency in the time of Jesus.

 

But now, in sharp contrast, "I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them" (v.8) — it is the covenant made with Abraham: "they are the seed (53:10) which the Lord hath blessed" (i.e. forgiven, as in Gen. 22:17,18).

 

"Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the peoples (Israel)' (v.9). All acknowledge them. There is now no doubt about them being the true family of God. And they are "among Gentiles" and "among Israel" — the election of grace!

 

This fact is the very crown of Messiah's happiness: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God" (v.10). Why? Because he sees "of the travail of his soul, and is satisfied" (53:11). It was for this joy set before him that he endured (Heb. 12:2). This prospect of joy infected Christ's closest friend: "the friend of the bridegroom...rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice" (Jn. 3:29; cp. v.10 RVm).

 

Here, then, is the explanation of the unexpected phrasing which follows: "He (Jehovah) hath clothed me with the garments of salvation (wrought for others), he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness (to be imputed to them) ...as a bridegroom...and as a bride" (v. 10).

 

By a strange mixture of figures — marvellously apt nevertheless — it is both a marriage and a priesthood. Could it be that priestly language applied to a newly-wed husband is an unrecognized Hebrew idiom? The words describe priestly garments (Ps. 132:9,16; Is. 62:3; Ex. 39:22). It was Moses who clothed Aaron with garments "for glory and for beauty" (Ex. 28:2,40). But this priest is accoutred for his high office by God Himself: "He hath clothed me...as a bridegroom is priested with a garland, and as a bride is adorned with her jewels" (v. 10) — it is the same mixture of figure and reality.

 

The fruits of this happy heavenly marriage are now charmingly expressed in another very fitting simile: "For as the earth bringeth forth her bud*, and as the garden (of Eden restored) causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth (the same words come in Gen. 2:9; 1:11): so the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations" (v.11). Thus the lovingkindness of a Redeemer God will be made known in all the earth — "glory and beauty" for His Messiah who mediates this salvation, and joy and gladness for those whose undeserved redemption is so happily consummated.

 

 


* The Hebrew word sounds delightfully like "a wedding festivity". It also suggests the Branch; 4:2.

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62. Hephzibah — Beulah

 

The relevance of this prophecy to contemporary events continues to be readily discernible. There is a picture of the Land redeemed from desolation (v.4) and from the ravaging of invaders (v.8). The people hear a ringing call to centre their thanksgiving and praise on God, and to enjoy holy feasts at His Temple All is righteousness and joy. God's salvation for His people is fully assured. The themes of priesthood, royal glory, and marriage are unexpectedly intermingled. Did Hezekiah become a king-priest after his recovery? There is pointed allusion to

 

Hezekiah's wife Hephzibah* (2 Kgs. 21:1). Her reunion with him after the miraculous recovery from leprosy would be like re-marriage after a disheartening period of divorce. All the circumstances presented a most attractive miniature of God's recent dealings with His people — their spiritual sickness and desolation, the sudden dramatic divine deliverance, the regathering of the people to their Go6, the glorifying of Zion's Temple, and the awe-struck wonder of Gentile nations.

 

But all this is a springboard for a most attractive Messianic prophecy. It is this which is undeniably the main purpose behind all that is written here.

 

In the first sentence, Messiah is the speaker (as at the beginning of ch. 61): "For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness go forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burneth" (v.1). Soon after this, Zion's watchmen are bidden hold not their peace out of con­cern for Jerusalem (v.6). But evidently their work as "the Lord's remembrancers" is secondary to what Messiah himself is eager to do. It is an aspect of Christ's high-priestly work not greatly appreciated that he too "prays for the peace of Jerusalem," a peace with God which the holy city has not known these many centuries. In this way also "he makes intercession for the transgressors" (53:12). And this earnest pleading will go on, must go on, until the righteousness of Zion is declared by the "brightness**" of the Glory of the Lord. What a contrast with past times when "we wait...for brightness (nogah again), but we walk in darkness" (59:9).

 

The figure of "a lamp that burneth" (i.e. continually) provides a most fitting reminder of God's great covenant with Abraham when the Glory of the Lord as "a smoking furnace and a burning lamp" passed between the pieces of the divided covenant sacrifices (Gen. 15:17). All that was then being promised, or implied, now comes to fruition in Christ.

 

Also, the Lord God promised David "a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his Son after him, and to establish Jerusalem" (62:7; 1 Kgs. 15:4). Now the picture of fulfilment fills out.

 

New names

 

This new Messianic era is appropriately signified by new names "which (as with Abram and Jacob) the mouth of the Lord shall name" (v. 2). No longer Forsaken or Desolate. The first of these describes a wife put away as unworthy (54:6,7; 49:14), the second a ravaged land (nearly always). King Asa's wife was named Azubah (Forsaken), and the reader is left to speculate why (1 Kgs. 22:42). Such a name would hardly be borne from birth. So presumably her husband, zealous against idolatry, put her away because she encouraged the apostasy he hated (cp. 2 Chr. 15:16). Such a parallel with the nation is hinted at here in Isaiah.

 

The alternative new names are all full of charm and attractiveness: Hephzibah — my delight is in her; Beulah — married (to the Messiah; Rev. 21:9); Sought out; Not Forsaken (v.4,12). The reversal in these names is akin to those used symbolically in Hosea's family, when Lo-ammi and Lo-Ruhamah are changed to "My people" and "Blessed with forgiveness": and Jezreel (scattering) becomes Jezreel (sown in fruit­fulness).

 

But the best of all new names "which the mouth of the Lord shall name" is The Lord our Righteousness (hinted at in v.2a). For this is "the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God...and my new name" (Jer. 33:16; Jer. 23:6 Rev. 3:12).

 


* According to the Talmud she was Isaiah's daughter, but Ps. 45:10,12 suggests differently.

** Heb: nogah always signifies the Shekinah Glory.

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A Royal Priesthood

 

With such a new name goes also a new standing in the sight of God — a royal priesthood, such as natural Israel was called to but never showed any sign of attain­ing:

 

"Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God" (v.3). Here, the key words: "crown" and "diadem" are both royal and priestly in their use*. In "Revelation: a Biblical approach" (p.13), the suggestion is made that the high priest's crown was not a bonnet with a golden plate attached over the forehead, but a circlet of seven diamonds. "A crown of glory in the hand of the Lord" is, in part, interpreted in Rev. 1:16: "And he (the one like the Son of man) had in his right hand seven stars" which are "the angels of the seven (Gentile) churches" (v.20).

 

But why in Messiah's hand, and not on his head? Is it because, there (in Rev. 1), he is about to wear a royal crown?

 

Marriage

 

The figure moves from priesthood back to marriage (61:10mg): "As a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee" (62:5). There is incongruity here, for natural sons do not marry their mother. Probably "sons" is to be read as "disciples" - a common enough idiom (e.g. 1 Kgs. 20:35; Heb. 2:13; Mt. 12:27). Alter­natively, it has been proposed to read "thy builders" — a slight emendation; for the next verse goes on to speak of the walls of Jerusalem.

 

"So shall thy God rejoice over thee" — as he promised to do when His people return to Him with a good heart (Dt. 30:2,9,10). The loveliness of the union of a young man with his bride tells better than any other figure the story of God's redemption of His own.

 

No silence, no rest

 

So it is only right that this desired consummation shall never be out of mind either of those who aspire after its blessings or of the gracious God who brings it to pass. Accordingly the "watchmen upon the walls of Jerusalem" are most urgently exhorted never to "hold their peace day nor night**: ye that are the Lord's re­membrancers***, let there be no silence to you. And give no silence to him, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (v.6,7).

 

Here is a clear mandate to the Lord's faithful remnant to besiege heaven with their prayers for the open assertion of the authority and righteousness of God in the earth. Isaiah knew nothing of the doctrine that God is working to a rigid unadjustable chronological time-table. He had no use for disciples who faithlessly omit to pray with all their heart and soul for the vindication of the holiness of their God. The N.T. counterpart to these words is the Lord's intense parable about the importunate widow, a parable framed before and behind with warnings about the Second Coming. But today the Lord's people have mostly wedded themselves to the comfortable misconstruction that the Almighty hath appointed a date in which he will judge the world in righteousness. So they "keep silence" and cease to be watchmen. But Isaiah himself was different: "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down..." (64:1).

 

"Till he establish" (v. 7) employs one of the key words of the great covenant made with David (2 Sam. 7:13). "The Lord hath sworn by his right hand" makes the same allusion. So there can be no doubt that the prayers of the watchmen are to be for the coming of the Messianic kingdom. The next verse refers to "his strength." This conjunction of phrases looks back to Jachin and Boaz, (1 Kgs. 7:21), the brazen pillars of the temple specially associated in the minds of Israel with the renewal of "the sure mercies of David" (2 Kgs. 11:14; 23:3). Here is a remarkable paradox, truly, that "the Lord hath sworn" — so the thing is certain! — yet He is to be given no rest until He establish the throne of David.

 


* For the latter consider Ex. 28:36-38; Lev. 16:4; Zech. 3:5; Rev. 19:12(7).

** Literally: "all the day and all the night continually" (the word describes the continual burnt offering).

*** He doesn't need any, but loves to be reminded all the same!

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Plundered no more

 

Fulfilment will mean an end to the long sequence of tense unhappy times when the fruits of labour have been triumphantly snatched away by rapacious plunderers: "Surely I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies" (v.8). There is clear implication here that the experiences, now at an end, came about not in spite of the will of God but because of it (1:7,20). But now, for sure, it will never happen again. There is many a comfortable word of this kind in Isaiah*.

 

Furthermore, these blessings will not be received in any spirit of selfish self-indulgence: "The wine for which thou hast laboured...they that have gathered it shall drink it in the courts of my holiness" (v.8,9: Jer. 31:12). Bread and wine will happily celebrate the greatest goodness of God (Mt. 26:29), in a world without end.

 

Messiah's triumphal entry

 

Describing the urgent preparations for Messiah's coming, Isaiah harnesses the fine phrases of his own earlier prophecy: "Prepare ye the way...cast up the highway...say ye to the daughter of Zion...Behold, his reward is with him, and his recompence before him" (v.10,11; 40:3,9,10).**

 

Jesus proclaimed his own right to fulfil this prophecy when he made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It is not by accident that in the record of that great occasion when Matthew introduces his interpretive citation of Zechariah's familiar words: "Behold, thy king cometh unto thee...", with others from Isaiah: "Say ye to the daughter of Zion." Here the sequence is: "Behold thy salvation (thy Jesus, who is also thy king) cometh" (v.11). The context here turns immediately to judgment (63:1-6) — and in his lament over Jerusalem, Jesus likewise forewarned of dire tribulation to come. So also will it be, when he comes not for a dress rehearsal but for final fulfilment; then the judgment will not fall on Zion: "Sought out, a city not for­saken," but on the implacable enemies of the Lord in Edom.

 

Called "the holy people," saints in Christ (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2) will be joined by an Israel made new in God's sight by their new-found faith in a Messiah they have hitherto ignored. Jerusalem became a city forsaken when Jesus declared: "Your house is left unto you desolate" (Mt. 23:38). But now, as with the ominously named children of Hosea (Hos. 1:9; 2:23), there comes a dramatic reversal of status: "The redeemed of the Lord."

 

 


* Consider 4:6; 32:18; 33:20; 52:12; 54:9-11,15-17; 65:21,22.

** Compare the alternative offered by the modernist: Chapter 40 comes from an unknown prophet of the time of Cyrus, and is now echoed by another, also unknown, of the time of Nehemiah or later. And both of them spoke prophecies which are pathetically without fulfilment!

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63 (1). The Winepress (v.1-6)

 

This is one of the most dramatic paragraphs in the whole of Isaiah. A powerful blood-stained figure is accosted coming from Edom, and in response to eager questioning explains the accomplishment of a mission of retribution for the despite done to God's helpless people.

 

For such a short prophecy there are some extraordinarily tricky problems to be solved.

 

Edom the enemy

 

First, is the prophecy really about Edom? The Hebrew text can be read in such a way as to eliminate all geographical allusion: "Who is this that comes, more than a man, raiment more crimsoned than the grape-gatherer?" Read thus, the words use the figure of the winepress for judgment, as in plenty of other Scriptures, but without special reference to Edom. At the same time, "more than man" would point specifically to the Lord Jesus returned in glory.

 

The weight of evidence is, however, in favour of retaining the familiar reading. The very close parallel with Isaiah 34 is surely decisive. That prophecy also is about "the year of recompence for the controversy of Zion" and "the day of the Lord's vengeance" (34:8); it, too, is a judgment of blood (34:6,7). Since Edom is specifically the subject of the earlier prophecy, the same is almost certainly the case with this later one.

 

Here, also, contemporary events supply reason for an Edomite application. The men of Edom were always glad of an excuse to give vent to their bitter hatred of Israel. In the preceding reign of Ahaz Edomites joined with other plunderers of that stricken kingdom (2 Chr. 28:17). Psalm 83 — almost certainly a psalm of Hezekiah's reign* — has Edom as a leading marauder. Psalm 137 identified by Thirtle as another Hezekiah psalm**, speaks bitterly about the rancorous hostility of "the sons of Edom." Obadiah similarly is probably to be read with primary reference to the Sennacherib crisis.***

 

Punitive expeditions

 

Most relevant of all is the brief account in 1 Chr. 4:39-43 of a series of punitive expeditions in the days of Hezekiah against neighbouring peoples, including mount Seir. This, in particular, would provide the prototype for the picture of Messianic judgment in Isaiah 63:1-6. Once the prophecy of Joel is accepted as belonging to the same period, 3:19 is also suddenly seen to fit the present thesis remarkably well: "Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah."

 

It is easy to see how events would develop after the destruction of Sennacherib's army****. From being threatened with extermination, Hezekiah's hard-pressed state suddenly became the dominant power of that area. No longer were the Assyrians to be feared; and those who had entered the conflict alongside them, eager for the plunder of the rich Judaean countryside, would now cower in terror, fearing retribution. It is hardly to be expected that the men of Israel, finding themselves suddenly on the crest of the wave, would not use the opportunity to assert themselves against those who had lately gloated over their helplessness.

 

Thus, even this most unlikely prophecy turns out to be founded, like its predecessors, in the events of the prophet's own day. And the phrase: "the year of redemption" (v.4) is likewise seen to be a carry-over from the Jubilee allusions of ch.61,62.

 

 


* Not the Jehoshaphat period, as is often assumed. The verbal contacts are all with the prophecy of Isaiah. And the details of the psalm simply do not fit the earlier occasion.

** SeeThirtle's remarkably fine study of this problem in "Old Testament Problems," pp.130-140.

*** The last five verses are irrelevant to any other suggested application. They fit into the Hezekiah period without difficulty.

**** Herodotus refers to him as "king of the Arabians" — a crashing howler unless the Assyrian was helped by a variety of loyal allies.

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Messianic fulfilment

 

Here, then, is the occasion, yet future, of Messiah's judgment against the enemies of his people.

 

The assumption is often made that all this will come about when Messiah is leading his glorified saints from mount Sinai to Jerusalem. This is an ill-conceived interpretation. True, the language of the Exodus is often employed in the prophets, and especially in Isaiah, to picture the Lord's salvation of his people; but a careful ex­amination of examples soon makes it clear that a similar, not an identical, exercise of divine power is intended.* In any case, the idea of a "wilderness march of Christ and the saints" explicitly contradicts plain scriptures that the Lord comes to the mount of Olives and Jerusalem (Acts 1:11; Zech. 14:4).

 

This appears to be the picture in Revelation 19 also. The King of kings is seen "clothed in a vesture dipped in blood" (19:13) and with an army of angels (Mt. 24:31) at his back (19:13,14), "He tramples** the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (19:15). Yet it is after this that "the beast and the kings of the earth, and their armies, are gathered together to make war" against him (v. 19).

 

The idea of a punitive expedition against Edom after Messiah has asserted his authority in Jerusalem is fully confirmed by Revelation 19 just quoted. There the divine leader is already King of Kings and Lord of Lords (v. 16). Also, Psalm 2 is quoted: "he shall rule them with a rod of iron." But this is true after God has set His king upon the holy hill of Zion.

 

"The peoples"

 

A problem of a very different sort arises from the use in these verses of the word for "peoples":

 

"Of the peoples there was none with me" (v.3)

 

"I trod down the peoples in mine anger" (v.6).

 

All expositors tacitly assume that the second of these describes the judgment on Edom and others. But this meaning makes nonsense of the earlier occurrence. There (in v.3) the meaning must be: "Of Israel there was none with me" — in other words Messiah comes not to co-operate with Israel but to save Israel.

 

The normal usage of this word amim (peoples) is with reference to Israel. In Isaiah 40-66 all 46 occurrences have this meaning.

 

If, then, there is to be consistency in the interpretation of this passage, "I trod down the peoples in mine anger" implies first a judgment which has already taken place on Israel. The phrases "there was none to help...none to uphold" implies an Israel going through the mill of Gentile oppression in the Last Days — but it is God-wrought; it is He who has contrived this final retribution against a wayward people. Then, after repentance long overdue, comes the saving of Israel by Messiah's intervention.

 

The sense of Psalm 60 is remarkably similar: "Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies" (v.12) — but this follows after: "thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment" (v.3); cp. also Is. 51:22,23; Jer. 25:15-33; especially v.17,18,26,30.

 

This last and greatest deliverance is brought by Messiah. There is no other saviour available: "I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought salvation..." (v.5). Why should there be this marvelling at lack of aid for Israel? Because there is "a prince (Michael) which standeth for the children of God's people" (Dan. 12:1), His appointment to this high office of caring for Israel dates at least from the time of the Exodus (Ex. 23:20-23). His protecting work is alluded to in this very prophecy: "the angel of his presence saved them" (v.9).

 

Then why should Michael not be at hand to help Israel once again in this last dire extremity? The Lord Jesus supplies the answer in his own prophecy of the Last Days: "the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Lk. 21:26). In a time of trouble the like of which the world has never known, the upsurge of evil will be so universal and violent as to make continued angelic control unsure!

 

At such a time, Messiah — greater than all angels and archangels — will himself redeem in garments stained*** with blood.

 

 


* One detail of special significance — here there is dramatic judgment against Edom; but ancient Israel were ex­plicitly forbidden to take action against "Edom, thy brother."

** The word "trample" (v.3) implies a multitude of helpers, as here.

*** These two words (v.3,4) are essentially the same in Hebrew. Different aspects of the same great work.

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63 (2). The Great Intercession (v.7-19)

 

Just as Isaiah's earlier denunciation of judgment on Edom (ch.34) gave way suddenly to an entrancing picture of the blessings of the Messianic kingdom (ch. 35), so now in similar fashion the treading of the winepress in Edom (63:1-6) changes to an eloquent reminiscence of God's gracious goodness to his people in days gone by (63:7-14); and this merges into a sustained appeal for heavenly help (together with abject confession of utter unworthiness), the like of which is only to be matched in the Old Testament in Moses' unflagging self-less appeal for his people at their worst (Ex. 32,33). The sub-division of the text at 64:1 is unfortunate, but it will have to be followed here, to avoid too long a section of commentary.

 

Who is the speaker?

 

The singular pronoun with which this section begins immediately presents a problem of identification. Thereafter the pleading is always on behalf of "us" — God's Israel (the one apparent exception — "towards me," v.15 — is a dubious reading). The most natural interpretation is to read the intercession as offered by the prophet himself on behalf of his nation, like the other great intercessions by Daniel and Nehemiah. But since the "I" of verses 1 -6 is undoubtedly the Messiah, one is inclined to take verse 7 in the same way — Messiah at last including cast-off Israel in his heavenly pleading because they are now turned to him in repentance confessing their sins (64:5,6). From this point of view the prophecy hangs together, as spoken against the background of Israel's final and greatest tribulation.

 

Reminiscences of the Exodus

 

There is an unsurpassed eloquence about the opening appeal as it celebrates the gracious acts of the Lord — His lovingkindnesses, His praises, His great goodness, His mercies — with special reference, doubtless, to His covenant promises (as in 55:3). Even though repeated waywardness has written off Israel as Lo-Ammi, not My people, the loving kindness of God must finally reassert itself, as in times past: "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie (i.e. not disbelieving or disloyal; Ps. 116:11) — children who will not reject (me), LXX — "so he was their Saviour" (v.8). That word moshiya echoes the name of Mosheh, Moses, round whom all this paragraph centres. The whole point of it is just this: Lord, remember what You did for us in ancient days; now come to our aid in like fashion, for our need and our undeserving are alike greater!

 

"In all their affliction he was afflicted" (v.9). Who would not be reluctant to re­linquish these lovely words, expressing in such matchless fashion how God entered with yearning compassion into the sufferings of His people (cp. Ex. 3:7; Jud. 10:16). Yet other readings are possible. "In all their adversity he was no adversary" (RVm). This fits into the picture of Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage.* Then "the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them (Ex. 6:6); and he bare them (Ex. 19:4; Dt. 1:31), and carried them all the days of old" (v.9).

 

Israel's Guardian Angel

 

This theme of the angel of God's presence with Israel is a fascinating one, and well worth tracing through Scripture.

 

The guiding and protecting angel, who appeared to Abraham and Jacob and also to Moses at the burning bush (Ex. 3:2) also provided safety for Israel when beset by the Egyptians at the Red Sea (Ex. 14:19,20). He was permanently assigned as Israel's guardian through the wilderness: "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way...Beware of him; and obey his voice, be not rebellious against him; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for my Name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries" (Ex. 23:20-24).

 

From this time forward, this heaven-sent helper is constantly referred to as "the angel of the Lord." His activities on behalf of Israel can be readily traced. He confounds the nefarious work of Balaam. As "a man with a drawn sword in his hand" he is captain of the Lord's host for the invasion of Canaan. He guides deliverers like Gideon. He rebukes Israel with corrective affliction. He rescues Jerusalem with hammer blows of destruction against the Assyrians. He holds out a drawn sword over Jerusalem in A.D.70. In the Last Days, he is named (very appropriately) at last as Michael "who stands for the children of God's people" (Dan. 12:1; Rev. 12:7?; Dan. 10:13,21)**.But at this time "the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Lk. 21:26), so that without the advent of Messiah in supreme power and glory there would be little hope for Israel.

 

There are plenty of other allusions that fit into this framework in intriguing fashion.

 

 


* LXX, influenced doubtless by v.5a, reads: "Not an ambassador (prophet) nor an angel, but himself saved them." Attractive as this reading is, it hardly fits into the Exodus context, when God certainly did work through his deliver­ing angel and through the prophet Moses. "Similarly, Gabriel appears to have a special role; see B.S. ch.16.07.

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Provocation

 

The prophet in his reminiscences of the awe-inspiring experiences and surpass­ing blessings of Israel's early days does not lose his sense of proportion. There was that other sickening inescapable theme of Israel's wretched failure and faithlessness: "They rebelled, and grieved his Holy Spirit" (v. 10). "They provoked the spirit of Moses, so that he pronounced (their condemnation) with his (own unaid­ed) lips" (Ps. 106:33; cp. 95:10).

 

It was a close parallel to the days of Noah. "My spirit shall not always abide in man " God had said (Gen. 6:3RVm). "It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart" (6:6). So "he turned to be their enemy."

 

In Isaiah's day, thanks to the influence of prophets and a pious king, some at least of the people learned to read the lesson of past history: "Then his people remembered the ancient days of Moses, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock (Moses leading Israel through the Red Sea)? Where is he that put his Holy Spirit in the midst of them (the angel of God's presence)? that led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm (the angel again?), dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name (as a God who raises His own from the dead)?" (v.11,12).

 

That fervent repeated appeal was heard, and Jerusalem delivered by a stroke of divine power every bit as sensational as that deliverance at the Red Sea.

 

New Testament Commentary

 

The use made in the NT. of this scripture is both copious and impressive:

 

  1. “They grieved his Holy Spirit" (v. 10) becomes Paul's exhortation to his converts: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30; for 'redeem' see 51:5,9). In Isaiah the allusion is to the angel of God's presence. In the NT. his place is taken by a more intimate bestowal of divine power.
  2. "Spirit came down from the Lord, and guided them" (v. 14 LXX). One of Christ's promises of the Holy Spirit used this very expression: "He (the Comforter) will guide you into all truth" (Jn. 16:13). It is easier now to under­stand the seeming repetition in this passage.
  3. “Where is he that brought them up out of the sea (figure of the grave; Dt. 30:13), with the shepherd(s) of his flock?" (v.11). In Heb. 13:20 this becomes: "Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant...". In the Hebrew text, "shepherd" is plural — evidently intended to be read as an intensive plural: "that great shepherd." The Exodus context in Isaiah shows that "the blood of the everlasting covenant" is not the covenant made later at Sinai, but the blood of the Passover lamb which meant dramatic deliverance from bondage.
  4. "He turned (repented!)...and fought against them" (v. 10). In Rev. 2:16: "repent; or else.../ will fight against them with the sword of my mouth (this last phrase is from Is. 49:2). The next verse mentions manna in the wilderness and the Lord's everlasting name given to him that overcometh.

It is easier now to understand the seeming repetition in this passage:



Verses 11,12


Verses 13,14

a.

That brought them up out of the

a.

That led them through the deep.


sea.



b.

With the Shepherd of his flock.

b.

As an horse in the wilderness.



c.

That they should not stumble.

d.

Dividing the water before them

d.

As a beast goeth down into the




valley.

e.

That put his Holy Spirit in the

e.

The Spirit of the Lord caused him


midst of them


to rest.

f.

That led them by the right hand

f.

So didst thou lead thy people.


of Moses.



g.

To make himself an everlasting

g.

To make thyself a glorious name.


name.


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Importunity in the Last days

 

These correspondences, together with the NT allusions already listed point strongly to the idea of a further fulfilment of all these words with reference to those in Christ. He is the greater Moses, sent by God once and again to deliver a people groaning in bondage.

 

Then the impassioned pleading of verses 15-19, repeated with equal intensity in 64:8-12, should have its counterpart in the fervent prayers of God's people today It is a moving picture of people made miserable not only by their evil circumstances but also by an overpowering sense of personal helplessness. In these paragraphs the exhortation already addressed so eloquently to the Lord's watchmen: "Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, take ye no rest, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth" (62:6,7), finds its response in an insistent desperate importunity matched only by that of Daniel pray­ing for Messiah the Prince and for the consolation of Israel (Dan. 9):

 

"Look down from heaven, and behold...where is thy zeal and thy strength?...hold not back!...O Lord, why hast thou made us to err, from thy ways?...Return, for thy servants' sake...O thou that wouldest rend the heavens, and come down..." (63:15 - 64:1).

 

Here is prayer as it should be prayed, prayer of a kind that 20th century saints have surely not learned to pray, for had they done so, mightier events than earth­quakes, famines, pestilences, wars and rumours of wars, would have happened ere this.

 

But this prayer is not just pathetic pleading. It has a backbone of educated spiritual understanding capable of appreciating the basic principles of God's redeeming work: "Doubtless thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not" (v.16). The faithful remnant whom Isaiah represented had the insight to realise that it was no virtue of theirs if the blood of Abraham flowed in their veins. Much more fundamentally, they claimed kinship with Abraham's God': "O Lord, thou art our father, our redeemer." Moses had tried to teach this high ideal: "Is he not thy father, that hath gotten thee? He hath made thee, and established thee" (Dt. 32:6). And David remembered it: "Blessed art thou, Lord God of Israel our father" (1 Chr. 29:10). But missing it badly, the adversaries of Jesus boasted brashly: "We be Abraham's seed" (Jn. 8:33), as though that in itself put them beyond criticism.

 

"Our redeemer" also emphasizes kinship, for this is the word which describes the near kinsman who comes to the rescue of an afflicted member of the family suffer­ing from slavery or oppression or imprisonment for debt. In all this there is a deep appreciation of the saving grace of God to those who are His.

 

Yet the prayer remonstrates that these who now plead for God's aid, because there is no other to be had, find themselves baffled by being treated rather as God treated recalcitrant Pharaoh in the time of Moses: "O Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways (shutting their eyes lest they should see; 6:10), and hardenest our heart from thy fear*" (v.1 7).

 

This had certainly happened in Isaiah's day when, led in stubborn perversity by their king Ahaz, the people had shown no inclination whatever to lean on the Lord their God. "Ask a sign," Isaiah had invited, only to be told by the mulish king: "I want no sign from either heaven or hell"; yet, transparent hypocrite that he was, he must needs switch piteously to: "Neither will I tempt the Lord" (7:10-12).

 

Hezekiah and his faithful ones were different, hence this insistent plea: "Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance" (v.17). Here (as in 52:8RV) there is allusion again to Israel in the wilderness. The ark and the Shekinah Cloud went before them "to seek out a resting place." When it rested, the liturgical word of Moses was: "Return, O Lord, unto the ten thousands of the thousands of Israel" (Num. 10:36). That word: "Return" celebrates God among His people again after a period of separation. So, well might the faithful of this age make the same petition with heartfelt fervour.

 

Problem

 

But there is here a puzzling mention of adversaries treading down the sanctuary (v.18). This (with 64:11) is usually quoted with special confidence by those assign­ing an exilic or post-exilic date to this part of Isaiah. The details are not as conclusive as they might seem, for there is evidence that at the behest of Tiglath-pileser III Ahaz accepted an Assyrian garrison in Jerusalem **, and that these men were quartered in the temple area: "Ahaz took away (literally: divided) a portion of the house of the Lord, and gave it unto the king of Assyria" (2 Chr. 28:21 )***

 

Hence the lament: "We are become as they over whom thou never barest rule; as they upon whom thy name has not been called" (v.19). With a stricken king unable to exercise government, and with boastful Assyrian threats ringing in their ears, it might well seem that their God had let them lapse into Gentiledom.

 

In days to come this sense of hopelessness will recur more acutely than ever before. And at that time, only the prayers of the faithful in Israel will save Holy City and Holy Land from final irrevocable dereliction.

 

 


* Here is an allusion to Isaac (Gen. 31:42,53), to match the earlier mention of Abraham and Jacob.

** Tiglath-pileser followed this policy with other defeated nations.

*** Cp. also Ps. 74:3-8; 79:1; and the implications behind Is. 7:13; 11:9a; 52:1; Mic. 5:5.

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64. "Rend the heavens!" (v.1-12)

 

An earlier section of Isaiah 63 is filled with reminiscences of Israel's deliverance from Egypt, and their unworthiness of such a salvation. Now, after a moving in­tercession on the people's behalf, the prophet revives other memories of Israel in the wilderness. The language of the first half of chapter 64 is extremely difficult. It is only a recognition of the allusions to Israel at Sinai which gives intelligibility and coherence to the obscure phraseology. But it will also be seen by and by that Isaiah is using this to frame a prophecy of a new Covenant greater than that made with Israel there.

 

The language in Exodus about the theophany at Sinai is very highly-coloured; and since the Bible narrative is not in the habit of going in for purple prose, it may be taken that the sight and sound of that theophany was so overpowering as almost to provide an adequate excuse for the people's demand to Moses: "Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:19). So they chose Moses instead of the Voice of God, and have been dying ever since.

 

At that time "mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descend­ed upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly" (Ex. 19:18). The same awesome Shekinah Glory of God had appeared to Moses in a bush which burned but never consumed. The same Glory had protected Israel at the Red Sea and had guided them to Sinai by a pillar of cloud and fire.

 

Theophany in the wilderness

 

It was these remarkable experiences which are now made the basis of Isaiah's allusive language:

 

  1. "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence" (v.1). This is what happened at Sinai: "The whole mount quaked greatly...and the Lord came down on mount Sinai" (Ex. 19:18,20).
     
  2. "As when fire kindleth the brushwood" (v.2RV) — an allusion to the Glory of God in the bush.
     
  3. "The fire causeth the waters to boil" (v.2). This appears to be an indirect reference to the mighty pillar of cloud which was the constant witness to God's Presence in the wilderness.
     
  4. "To make thy Name known to thine adversaries" (v.2). Compare the Lord's word to Pharaoh: "...to show thee my power, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth" (Ex. 9:16).
     
  5. "Thou earnest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence" (v.3) -Sinai, once again (cp. Mic. 1:3,4).
     
  6. "For from of old, men (Israel) have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen..." (v.4). This, too, alludes to Sinai: "When the people saw it (thunderings, lightnings, earthquake, smoking mountain), they removed and stood afar off...Let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Ex. 20:18,19).
     
  7. "Which he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him" (v.4) — Moses beholding the Glory of the Lord in the mount.
     
  8. So also verse 5: "Thou meetest him that rejoiceth (in God)*". Compare how the angels of God met Jacob (Gen 32:1 s.w.).
     
  9. "We have sinned in them (in thy ways) constantly, yet we shall be saved" (v.5). A reminiscence, probably, of the sin of the golden calf and other defections, from which Israel were saved only by the intercession of Moses
     
  10. The allusion to righteousness as "filthy rags" (v.6) — surely a mistranslation — now comes in with remarkable fitness, for the Hebrew word is essentially the same as that translated "ornaments" — which the sinners in Israel were bidden put off them (Ex. 33:4,6) after the apostasy of the golden calf And appropriately the word for "unclean thing" (v.6) is that employed scores of times in the Law of Moses for the defilement which excludes from fellowship in the congregation of the Lord.
     
  11. "Thou hast hid thy face from us" (v.7). These words describe the divine reaction to Israel's apostasy in the wilderness: "And when the Lord saw it, he abhorred them...and he said, I will hide my face from them" (Dt. 32:19,20).

 

The point of all these allusions to Israel in the wilderness is evident enough. They make confession that the people of Isaiah's day had gone as far away from their God as their fathers did. Yet God had not forsaken them, little though they deserved His care. With a lovingkindness past believing, He continued to manifest His Glory among them and to bring them through their troubles to the Land of Promise.

 


* The Hebrew word always implies this.

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Isaiah's intercession

 

With all this as background to his thinking the prophet now bursts once again (as in 63:15-19) into an impassioned prayer fit to rank with the intense moving inter­cession which Moses made on their behalf (Ex. 32:11-14,31,32):

 

"But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. Be not wroth very sore, O Lord, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people...Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?" (Is. 64:8,9,12).

 

The prophet speaks not just for himself but for his undeserving people. Four times (v.6,8,9) that emphatic "we-all" comes in to bear up all the nation before their God of compassion and comfort.

 

Here is the resolution of the strange paradox: (v.5,6) "we all as an unclean thing" may nevertheless claim God as a Father because he is happy to accept repentance as righteousness. Remarkably, but also appropriately, this passage (with its parallel in 63:16) is the only place in the OT. where "Our Father" becomes a prayer.

 

And just as Moses built his petition for forgiveness on an eloquent plea that God vindicate His own honour (Ex. 32:12,13), so now Isaiah also: "Thy holy cities* are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire" (v. 10,11).

 

What historical background?

 

These words about the temple are made one of the chief reasons to be urged by modernists against any possible authorship by Isaiah, contemporary of Hezekiah, since that first temple was not burnt till the days of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 52:13).** There is not sufficient ground here on which to build an entire theory of author­ship, especially when it is seen that the Hebrew past tenses (v. 10,11) may be read as expressing the threats and intention of the brutal Assyrian enemy. *** "Of a truth, Lord," Hezekiah was driven to lament in his prayer for deliverance, "the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire" (2 Kgs. 19:17,18). There is here an implication that Rabshakeh, the great boaster, had threatened the same fate for the holy temple in Jerusalem.

 

Then well might the prayer end with the desperate remonstration: "Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?" (v. 12). Faced with such a decisive challenge to the God of Israel as that made by the Assyrian, Jehovah simply had to vindicate Himself, and He did! After the time of Hezekiah there was no open manifestation of divine power to save the holy city, nor will there be until Israel prays with heart and soul for the Messiah to whom they have hitherto shown indifference.

 

 


* Intensive plural for "thy unique holy city"? Note the parallelism: "Zion...Jerusalem".

** Certainly v. 10,11 could not apply to Zerubbabel's temple (the suggested alternative), for the fathers did not praise God in it, nor was it burned with fire. And if a Nebuchadnezzar reference is insisted on, then certainly this most moving penitential prayer brought no response whatever.

*** Cp. especially the intention in Ps. 74:7,8, a psalm which belongs to Hezekiah's days.

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New Testament applications

 

Long after the time of Isaiah, the faithful remnant who repented at the preaching of John the Baptist had the answer to their prayer: "Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down" (v.1). It came when they saw their leader baptize Jesus and "he saw the heavens rent asunder (RV), and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him" (Mk. 1:10). Further fulfilment should have confirmed their faith at the crucifixion when "the earth did quake, and the rocks rent" (Mt. 27:51) as at Sinai, and also the veil of the temple which symbolized the barrier between heaven and earth, "was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" as by a divine hand.

 

Thereafter the divine revelation which Israel refused at Sinai became the special privilege of those who saw the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But the wisdom of God in him was shut to Israel's leader — "none of the princes of this (Jewish) world knew it." In effect they were repeating the attitude of Israel at Sinai. So Paul quoted, appropriately with reference to Jewry: "Eye did not see, nor did ear hear, neither did it enter into the heart of man (this last phrase from Is. 65:17 LXX), whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. But God revealed them by His Spirit" (1 Cor. 2:8-10).

 

Those who see themselves as "unclean" in the sight of God and yet "saved" (v.5,6) rejoice in the over-ruling providence of God: "We are the clay, and thou our potter" (v.8). Paul's comment: "Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" (Rom. 9:21). This is a truth many, even in Christ, are loth to accept — that there is no virtue in those whom God fashions "unto honour", but only in the One who does the fashioning:

 

"We are all the work of thy hand" (v.8). On this also Paul adds his expository com­ment: "we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God afore prepared (in Christ?) that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10).

 

In view of the systematic NT. application of this Isaiah prophecy to saints in Christ, it would seem eminently reasonable to find room for its other details in the same context. Before many years are past, once again Zion will be destined to be a wilderness and Jerusalem a desolation (v.10). At that grim time if there is to be salvation for Israel it will only be through the importunity (as in v.8-12) of saints in Israel and among the Gentiles. When saints pray as they have never prayed, then and only then will the redemption come.

 

A useful parallel



63:15ff


64;7-12

16.

Thou art our father.

8.

Thou art our father

16.

Thy name.

7.

Thy Name

17.

Made us to err from thy ways.

5.

We have sinned in thy ways




continually.

17.

Hardened our heart — (quoted:

8.

We are the clay, and thou our


Rom. 9:18).


potter (quoted: Rom. 9:21).

18.

The people of thy holiness

9.

We are thy people.

18.

Thy sanctuary trodden down.

11.

Our holy and our beautiful




house...burned...laid waste.

15.

Thy mercies...are they restrained?

12.

Wilt thou refrain thyself, O Lord?

64:2

The fire of meltings (mg).

7.

Thou hast melted us.
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65(1). The Faithful Remnant — and the rest (v.1-16)

 

There is no difficulty in recognizing the contemporary reference of this part of the prophecy. Whereas modernists, driven by their theories to postulate a Third Isaiah (ch. 56-66), grope around uncertainly trying to find some sort of connection between this chapter and the times of Zerubbabel (or later)*, the well-defined theme here of the faithful and the apostates fits the reformation period of Hezekiah's reign with little difficulty.

 

It has to be remembered, then, that the northern kingdom of Israel, after genera­tions of spiritual degeneration (2 Kgs. 17:15-17), was left shattered and leaderless after the inroads of Tiglath-pileser III, Shalmaneser V and Sargon II. Hezekiah, set on religious reformation and political unification of the nation, made an eloquent appeal to the northern tribes (for in spite of deportations most of the Israelitish population was still in the land). He besought them to return to the God of the Fathers. This call to signify a change of heart by keeping the Passover once again at Jerusalem was scorned by many but heeded by some (2 Chr. 30:5-11,18) who thus gave themselves the biggest spiritual treat of their lives when they shared the fellowship and joy of a double Passover week (2 Chr. 30:22-26) along with their brethren of Judah from whom they had been so long separated.

 

Easy contemporary reference

 

Here, then, is the background to the text of Isaiah 65,66. "I am sought of them that asked not for me: I am found of them that sought me not" (v.1). The primary reference is to the people of the northern kingdom who had in effect become Gentile by their centuries of disloyalty to the God of Israel. But now many of them, although only a remnant of the mass of the nation, responded to Hezekiah's appeal to join in Passover observance at Jerusalem. "I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation (the ten tribes) that hath not called upon my Name. I spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people" (v.1,2) — how well these words describe Hezekiah's call to national repentance, addressed to Judah as well as to those in the north: This is evidently the way Paul reads the words (Rom. 10:20,21).

 

Then comes a purple description of the foul religious practices which they had taken up. There were abominations in the temple itself — "provoking me to anger continually** to my face"; they had been encouraged to it by Ahaz (cp. 2 Kgs. 23:12). There was ritual fornication in gardens; they queued up for it! (66:17 RVm) — it was their way of achieving Paradise Restored. Copying the Assyrian*** they burned incense on brick altars (instead of unhewn stone: Ex. 20:25): v.3. In their craze for spiritualism they held séances in cemeteries and sepulchres (cp. 8:19,20). They flouted Moses' explicit commandments, eating swine's flesh**** and partook of nauseating meals of other unclean food (v.4; 66:17). And a man could be a murderer (66:3a)***** and still be welcomed into this unholy "fellowship". The high places did a roaring trade (65:7), especially those dedicted to the gods of Good Luck and Destiny (v.11 RV).

 

 


* 65:3,4,7,11; 66:3,6 very effectively forbid any reference to the Babylonian captivity or to any period after that.

** The word commonly used for the continual burnt offering!

*** Archaeological evidence for this.

**** Macalister found this at Gezer.

***** It is tempting to suggest that 66:3,4,17 are verses belonging after 65:4 or 5. Omit them from ch. 66 and there is very good continuity there.

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The faithful remnant

 

And alongside all this, which evidently went on openly and unashamed and was even officially encouraged until zealot Hezekiah got into his stride, there was the faithful remnant who clung earnestly to the God of their Covenant and who cringed at the shameless shame in which their fellows of both Israel and Judah were steeped.

 

These were "the new wine found in the cluster" (v.8), the bunch of fine fruit in a bad vine which seemed only fit for burning. "Destroy it not; for a blessing is in it" (v.8). For the sake of those who would fain be worthy of their father Abraham, the undeserving nation was to be preserved: "So will I do for my servants' sakes, that I may not destroy them all."*

 

The piety of these faithful ones brought its own immediate reward, for it is possible to infer that Jerusalem was beleaguered by the Assyrians at Passover (cp. the phraseology of 30:29; 31:5); so those whose religious duty took them to Jerusalem for the Feast found themselves in the only place that was safe from the ferocity of the invaders**: "I will bring a seed out of Jacob (the north), and out of Judah (the south) an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit her (Jerusalem), and my servants shall dwell there" (v.9).

 

In the impressive sustained antithesis (v.11-16) the destinies of these two sharply-contrasting sections of the nation are set out:

 

"I will number*** you to the sword, ye shall all bow down to the slaughter...Ye shall be hungry, thirsty, ashamed...Ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for vexation of spirit. Ye shall leave your name for a curse...the Lord thy God shall slay thee" (v.12-15) — this is terrible language, describing all the havoc of the Assyrian war!

 

The emphasis of this grim picture is accentuated by the constant repetition — four times in ch. 65, and nine times in ch. 66 — of "thus saith the Lord."

 

But "I will first measure their work into their bosom**** (v.7) implies blessing after­wards. Accordingly, by contrast with this reprobation: "My servants (the faithful remnant) shall eat...and drink...and rejoice...and be called by another name" (v.13-15). Each of these "shall bless himself in the God of truth...and shall swear by the God of truth." For all such "former troubles are forgotten...they are hid from mine eyes" (v. 16) — this with reference to the mighty contrast of blessing which followed after the Assyrians were so astonishingly destroyed. The very routes by which Jerusalem could best be attacked — via Sharon or the Valley of Achor — were instead to be "a fold of flocks...a place for herds to lie down in" (v.10)*****

 

The captivating picture of peace and happiness which now follows (v.17-25) is a Messianic expansion of the wonderful wave of prosperity which swept through the Land after this divine rescue operation.

 

 


* Isaiah’s attention to the faithful remnant is most marked, as this list of passages shows: 1:9, 10, 28; 4:3;6:11-13; 13:12; 17:4-6; 24:13-16; 33:15-17; 51:1-3; 57:13; 66:5,10-14. Cp. also Amos 5:13-15; 8:1; 9:8,9; Jer. 24. Ps. 74, with the same theme, has Al Taschith — destroy not! — as its subscription.

** Of course, this Passover was not the one detailed in 2 Chr. 30; but it may be confidently assumed that after the great success of that big occasion, the observance was continued in every year of Hezekiah's reign.

*** ln the Hebrew a deliberate play on the name of the god of Good Luck (v.11 RV), this is a numbering without any "atonement for your souls" (Ex. 30:12-16).

**** Alternatively this passage could read, very trenchantly: "I will measure their work, all of it, and will recompense it (LXX) into their bosom."

***** Note that those who offer offensive sacrifice (v.3,4) do not enjoy the blessing of the New Age, but the animals themselves do! (v.25).

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New Testament allusions

 

The NT. makes use of this prophecy in an astonishing number of ways, but how to mould these together into a consistent pattern is a task the present writer does not have the insight for. Even taken piecemeal they are not without their problems.

 

  1. Paul's use of verses 1,2 is at first glance rather startling (Rom. 10:20,21), for he applies verse 1 to Gentiles seeking the gospel, and verse 2 to obdurate Israel. But of course this is right, for the language of verse 1 implies a willing heart: "I am sought...I am found," whereas verse 2 has only the opposite idea: "a rebellious people."
     
    This follows the prototype splendidly, for verse 1 originally applied to those from Galilee of the Gentiles who responded to Hezekiah's call, whilst verse 2 focusses on the unregenerate in Judah.
     
    In the Last Days there will be a startling reversal of this Scripture, for then, goaded and driven by hard circumstances, Jewry will begin to turn to the God of their fathers, pleading for aid which can come from no other, whilst certain of those Gentiles who call themselves Brethren in Christ will find themselves disregarded because of the emptiness of their pretensions: "Lord, we have eaten and drunk in thy presence..." (Lk. 13:26).
     
  2. Indeed this reversal of status is already evident in the Apocalypse, for Isaiah's apostrophe to them "that forsake the Lord" is several times alluded to in Christ's caustic message to Laodicea. "When I called, ye did not answer" (v.12). And the judgment that "ye shall be hungry...thirsty...ashamed" (v 17,18) is made even more graphic: "wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked...the shame of thy nakedness" (3:17,18). The "new name" (LXX) promised to the faithful (v.15) is there also in Revelation (3:12).
     
    The promise of blessed eating and drinking (v. 13) becomes a meal of matchless fellowship: "I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me" (3:20). And blessing in "the God of Amen" (v. 16) is unexpectedly matched by the introduction of the same letter: "These things saith the Amen" (3:14). When these associated ideas are recognized, Laodicea's warning becomes specially ominous as addressed to Gentiles who have become Jews and are now in danger of reverting to type.
     
  3. It may be taken as fairly certain that Jesus meant his healing of the Gadarene demoniac (Mk. 5:2,15) to be seen and read as a picture of what he will one day do for a demented desperate Israel, abhorred and alone among the nations: "which remain among the graves, and lodge in the sepulchres, which eat swine's flesh...which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me..." (v.4,5). All these details are accurately echoed in the gospel story. The type is most impressive ("Gospels", p.286).
     
  4. In harmony with this use of Isaiah is Paul's allusive warning to the Corinthians: "Ye cannot drink of the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's table, and of the table of devils" (1 Cor. 10:21). This is certainly more than a casual glance at v.11 (LXX) "Ye are they that...prepare a table for the devil (demon), and fill up a drink offering to (the god) Good Luck". If in ancient days, says Paul, Israel could welcome such degeneracy, ought not the New Israel to take warning and steer clear? The warning is much need­ed in the present day also!
     
  5. Pharisees needed it also. In the Lord's parable — no caricature, one may be sure — "the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men," whilst the publican "stood far off" (Lk. 18:11,13). This is precisely the spirit of Isaiah's words: "They say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou" (v.5). It is a picture of a man-made religion in which the falsely pious exalts himself to a holiness which is not really his. Such are "a smoke in my nose" — the incense of their prayers is a horror to high heaven.
     
  6. There is a section of the Sermon on the Mount (Lk. 6:21ff) where Isaiah's graphic antithesis (v.13ff) is taken as a model: "Woe unto you...ye shall hunger...shall mourn and weep;" but by contrast he assures his little flock: "Blessed are ye...ye shall be filled...ye shall laugh...leap for joy." And the Lord adds: "Good measure...shall men give into your bosom" (v.38) — contrast Isaiah: "I will measure their work, and recompense it unto their bosom" (v.7).
     
  7. But most impressive is verse 16: "He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless himself in the God of truth," that is, the God who fulfils His Promises*. Abraham was told that all nations would bless themselves in his Seed (Ps. 72:17 RVm). With reference to these superlative truths, Paul declared with warm emphasis that "all the Promises of God in him (Jesus) are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God" (2 Cor. 1:20). To this the Lord Jesus adds his own assurance: "These things saith the Amen...the beginning of the (new) creation of God" (Rev. 3:14). "Behold I am alive for evermore, the Amen; and have the keys of death and of the grave" (as promised to Abraham; Gen. 22:17a).
     
    Kay (Sp. Comm.) has this good comment on v. 15,16; "To the curse pronounced on every one that violates God's law, he (Jesus) said "Amen" upon the cross. To the blessing guaranteed to all nations by God's promises to Abraham and David, He said "Amen," when he rose from the dead to "live for evermore" (Rev. 1:18).
     
    Let those who truly believe these promises bless themselves in the God of Truth, and He will add His blessing.

 

 


* See Concordance under "Truth." Also, B.S. p.404.

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65 (2). New Heavens and Earth (v.17 — 66:2)

 

This fine heart-warming prophecy is really all of one piece with what goes before, as this sequence shows:

 

v.8 : New wine.

v.14 : A new song.

v.15 LXX : A new name.

v.17 : New heavens and earth.

v.18 : A new Jerusalem.

66:1,2 : A new temple.

 

Perhaps the list should be extended to include new people, new houses, new animals.

 

The basis of this glowing picture is, of course, the short era of prosperity which followed in Hezekiah's ravaged kingdom as a result of Assyrian defeat and the phenomenal blessings of a Year of Jubilee. But since the real intent behind the prophecy is to encourage the Lord's faithful remnant in all ages with its alluring promises of a matchless Messianic Age, it is from this point of view especially that it will be studied now.

 

Just as, in other prophecies, the ruin of Israel is spoken of as a return to chaos (tohu, Gen. 1:2; cp. Is. 24:1; Jer. 4:23), so also Israel's restoration is described as a new creation — "new heavens and a new earth."

 

The growth of the New Order

 

This new order does not spring instantaneously from the hand of its Maker. He has "planted the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth" (51:16). The phrases imply growth. Messiah himself was first "a tender plant" (53:2). Every man in Christ is a "new creation," growing into his proper place in Messiah's new world (2 Cor. 5:17) which finds its consummation in the Millennial Age (2 Pet. 3:13). Even when that glad era comes in, there will be no waving of a magic wand. Nations will be educated (2:3,4) and healed (Rev. 22:2); sinners will be weeded out (v.20); and the framework of a new and godly civilisation will be fashioned (v.21-23).

 

Paradise Restored

 

Specially impressive is the way in which this Messianic Age is spoken of as a return to the blessedness of a primeval Paradise:

 

v.17 : New heavens and earth.

v.20 : The sinner cursed.

v.22 LXX : A tree of life.

v.23 LXX : They shall not beget children for the curse.

v.25 : Dust shall be the food of the serpent.

v.20 : The child a hundred years old suggests a gradual progression back to the patriarchal age of Gen. 5.

 

One of the great blessings of this promised time, not appreciated as much as it might be, will be the ability to forget: "The former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind" (v.17). In these words lies the answer to the problem, which besets not a few, of the possible loss of husband or wife or parent or child who does not come to share this redemption. "Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old (the verbs are imperative). Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth (again growth is implied)" (43:18,19).

 

Thus there will be unalloyed gladness — the words for joy and rejoicing come six times in two verses: "for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good, as he re­joiced over thy fathers" (Dt. 30:9). Every sadness will be wiped away: "The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying" (v.19).

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The punishment of the wicked

 

Nevertheless, sin will be punished, and will be seen to be punished. In an age when the removing of the curse brings a blessed lengthening of days, "the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed" (v.20)*. Here is a hint that before the oblivion which Scripture plainly declares to be the ultimate destiny of those who have had no wish to live with God in this life (Ps. 37:34,36,38; 1:4; 52:5), the real punishment of the rebellious will be a mortal life-time of experience of the blessedness of the age to come. ** This, probably, is what Jesus meant by his repeated warning about "weeping and gnashing of teeth." The first of these phrases certainly signifies poignant sorrow. But "gnashing of teeth" expresses not regret but violent anger (Acts 7:54) — anger with self that such wonderful God-given oppor­tunities of redemption and the joy of a heavenly kingdom should have been wilfully thrown away: 'Fool! fool! to have this surpassing heavenly gift held out to you, yet deliberately to turn away from it, for the sake of the tawdry allurements of a life which is now being swept away! Fool! fool!' this will be the real punishment of the unworthy.

 

One of the great blessings of the coming age will be security and the satisfaction of enjoying the work of one's hands: "They shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them" (v.21). This promise is a deliberate contrast with the curse God held over a wayward Israel: "Thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the grapes thereof...The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up...And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee" (Dt. 28:30,33,51).

 

Such evil days will be gone for ever. It is understandable that the people of Israel knowing the bitter havoc of invasion from pitiless Assyrians should repeatedly have the happiness of Messiah's reign described for them in terms of freedom from all such horror (32:18; 52:1; 54:16f; 62:8f).

 

It may be that, like other details in this lovely picture, the language of building and cultivation is also intended figuratively, as Paul used it of his preaching work: "Ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building" (1 Cor. 3:9). In that case, it points to world evangelism in Christ's kingdom, free from all the difficulties and discouragements which now constantly beset the preacher: "mine elect (v.9,15) shall long enjoy the work of their hands" (v.22).

 

Paul evidently read the language in this figurative fashion, for the next phrase: "They shall not labour in vain," was more than once used by him with reference to the work of the gospel: "holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain" (Phil. 2:16; cp. also 1 Th. 3:5; 1 Cor. 15:58) — "their offspring (i.e. their converts) shall be with them" (v.23). "They shall not bring forth for the curse (either of Genesis or of Dt. 28:41), for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord (inheriting the great promise made to Abraham; Gen. 22:18)."

 

In that day these blessed saints in Christ will be closer to their God than ever before: "Before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear"*** (v.24; cp. 58:9). David, Daniel, Hezekiah all knew the thrill of immediate response to their prayers (Ps. 32:5; Dan. 9:21; 2 Kgs. 20:4). The brethren in the early church in Jerusalem knew it also when Peter was freed from prison, but they shrugged it off as incredible (Acts 12:5,14,15). No longer will feeble faith find such experiences stupifying, for then "he shall be with them, walking in the way" (Is. 35:8).

 

At that time an almost unbelievable harmony will bring relaxation and joy to the whole world. Wolf and lamb, lion and bullock will know sweet fellowship (is this language symbolic of Saul and Jesus, Judah and Ephraim?) All creation will be changed except the serpent and it now robbed of all power to destroy: "dust shall be the serpent's meat." Instead, "they (Messiah's enemies; Ps. 72:9) shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord" (v.25)****

 

 


* An alternative reading has been suggested: "He who falls short of a hundred years shall be reckoned accursed."

** Compare what happened to David's enemies. When he returned after the rebellion, they were allowed to live on in his kingdom — and then they died.

*** 30:19 combine this verse and v. 19b.

**** ln this verse the same Hebrew verb does duty for "hurt" (bruise) and "feed" One of Isaiah's characteristic puns.

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What Temple?

 

The climax of this detailed description of Messiah's kingdom comes in God's appeal that men fashion for Him in the midst of all this wonderful transformation a temple befitting His Glory. Can there be such a resting place for the splendour of His Presence? "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?" (66:1). Even when blessed with all the good gifts that Messiah can bestow, is there anything good enough for men to devote as a gift to grace the sanctuary of God (as Israel did in the wilderness; Ex. 35:21-35)? No, not possibly! for all that men have, and will have, comes to them only by God's gift: "All these things hath mine hand made, and all these things were (at my behest)." That last phrase is another allusion to the Genesis Creation, like the list already given on page 543f: "And God said, Let...be; and it was so."

 

David, when dedicating the vast assemblage of materials for the temple he was not to be allowed to build, recognized with rare insight this humiliating truth: "But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee" (1 Chr 29:14).

 

By those words he supplied man's only possible answer to the Lord's apostrophe. God's own answer is the same: "To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word."

 

Here is the veto to every humanist philosophy that ever was. Let all human skill and cleverness and insight cease to take pride in its own achievement — "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and that maketh flesh his arm" (Jer. 1 7:5). Instead let human wisdom recognize its own smallness, and submit humbly to the authority of God's revelation of Himself in Holy Scripture — more than this, let a man tremble before him who is the Word of God (cp. Acts 9:6). The humble heart will be the only thing in God's New World which His hands have not made. So this, and this only, can be dedicated to God as His dwelling place.

 

Stephen taught his hide-bound contemporaries that since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands (Acts 7:48). Now "the true worshippers worship the Father in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:23). Yet to this day attempts are made to sully this truth with expectations of a temple equipped with an enormous altar for animal sacrifices and with "boiling houses" of fantastic proportions. This after a sacrifice has been offered "once for all" (Heb 7:27; 9:26,28; 10:10).

 

This issue of a literal or spiritual temple with which to honour the God of heaven and earth has to be faced. It decided the deaths of Jesus and of Stephen. It brought persecution to both Peter and Paul. "Where is the house that ye build unto me?...To this man will I look."

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66 (1). The Holocaust — and after (v.3-24)

 

Few chapters in this second half of Isaiah have their roots so evidently in the prophet's own day as this concluding section does. And the process of pinning prophecy on to history also serves to demonstrate very clearly that the obsession of many commentators with chronological sequence (requiring that these later chapters be forced into the reign of Manasseh) is sadly mistaken.* All through, certainly from chapter 14 onwards, the entire prophecy of Isaiah belongs strictly to the reign of Hezekiah.

 

Mockery by unbelievers

 

At the outset (v.5) the faithful are comforted with the assurance that their faith in God is to be vindicated by events. The sarcasm of unbelieving fellow-Israelites will be exposed as cynical folly: "Ye that tremble at the word of the Lord, Your brethren that hate you, that cast you out for my name's sake, have said (in sarcasm), Let the Lord be glorified (and then we will believe!)."

 

This was precisely the attitude of many, especially in the northern kingdom, when Hezekiah's messengers brought the royal exhortation to them to renew their loyalty to Jehovah: "Show us the Glory of the Lord right now. Prove to us that he really is active for Jerusalem and the worshippers there, and then we will take Hezekiah seriously." (2 Chr. 30:10).

 

The sardonic comment of the prophet was: "He shall appear — to your joy (the faithful), and to their shame(the mockers)." And so it came to pass.

 

That northern mockery doubtless took its stand on the futility of events in the reign of Ahaz: 'What good was the temple in Jerusalem then? Ahaz made a treaty with Tiglath-pileser, but it simply meant paying an annual tribute and suffering the humilia­tion of an Assyrian garrison in the temple area! Then why should we set our hopes on Passover-keeping in that temple reduced to a shambles by his soldiers?'

 

In response to this faithless feet-on-the-ground attitude Jehovah took charge of the situation. He did "appear" to their shame — they had to endure yet another Assyrian invasion, the third*, another beating by "the rod of God's anger". But the Lord also appeared to bring joy to His faithful remnant, when the might of divine power blasted the might of Assyrian power outside the walls of Jerusalem. It came with "a voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the Lord rendering recompence to his enemies" (v.6; cp. 30:30).

 

 


* lt is not even true that there is chronological sequence in the chapters which undisputably belong to Hezekiah's reign. Each has to be treated on its merits.

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Birth and travail

 

Before Zion's travail came to its climax, she was (in a figure) delivered of a man-child*: Probably the reference is to the fact that Hezekiah, "sick unto death" at the time of the Assyrian invasion, became like a man new-born before the enemy was destroyed. It is certain that Hezekiah's sickness and the over-running of the Land happened at about the same time (Passover, 701 BC; see 38:5,6; 2 Kgs. 18:13,2). It is also certain that Hezekiah, healed of his leprosy, was able to go into the temple and pray for God's help against the Assyrians (37:1).

 

The good king's lament was that "the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth" (37:3) — a figurative way of alluding to the recent refor­mation which had apparently wrought no deliverance from the violence of the enemy.

 

God's answer through His prophet was: "Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord" (v.9).

 

Returning refugees

 

So he did deliver. The "children" of Zion's travail were the hundreds of thousands of captives dragged away to other parts of Sennacherib's empire, especially Babylon, and of refugees who had fled in terror to surrounding countries to escape the unmatched cruelties of the vulpine invader.

 

With Sennacherib cowed and his army gone, the way was clear for the happy return home of this pathetic multitude. The captives were sent urgently back by superstitious horrified Assyrians. And the Gentile nations which had dubiously received swarms of refugees now realised that a people with such a God as Jehovah was a neighbour to keep on the best of terms with. So returning Israelites were given every possible help — "horses, chariots, litters, mules, swift beasts". It was a form of homage to the God who was worshipped in "my holy mountain of Jerusalem" (v.20).

 

From among these, now returning, "I will also take of them for priests and for Levites" (v.21). For, so great was the fresh surge of enthusiasm for the renewed service of the temple, and so few the number of holy ministers available, that every man qualified to serve there was promptly brought into service***.

 

Here, then, is the ready explanation of the puzzling words: "As soon as Zion travailed (i.e. after the travail), she brought forth her children (note the plural this time)" (v.8). It is the return of happy folk who had suffered such wretchedness during the year just past.

 

A golden age

 

Now, all at once, instead of struggle, hardship, and misery, there was abundant comfort (note the triple emphasis in v.13) and a degree of prosperity such as none had thought possible, this latter thanks to a massive plunder from the Assyrians (33:3,4) and also the lavish generosity of neighbouring Gentiles anxious to "make friends" — "the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream" (v.12). Assuredly "the hand of the Lord was made known towards his servants, and his indignation towards his enemies" (v.14).

 

The picture given here of the titanic destruction of a proud brutal invader marches perfectly with those given in earlier prophecies (17:13,14; 29:5,6; 30:27,30-33; 31:9): "Behold, the Lord will come with fire, and his (cherubim) chariots like a whirl­wind, to render his anger with fury...For by fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh (LXX: in all the Land): and the slain of the Lord shall be many" (v.15,16).

 

From now on, for the rest of Hezekiah's reign, the regular feasts of the Lord were in full swing: "from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord" (v.23).

 

And apparently parts of the wreck of the Assyrian camp in the valley of Gehenna (Tophet; 30:33) were preserved as a contemporary Belsen or Auschwitz — an awe-inspiring memorial to the indignation of the Lord when challenged by the puny power of a human dictator: "And they shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me" (v.24). It became a lasting assurance to the inhabitants of Jerusalem that they need fear no renewal of the horrors of war during this reign: "so shall your seed and your name remain" (v.22).

 

 


* 1. Tiglath-pileser III.

2. Shalmaneser V and Sargon II.

3. Sennacherib.

** Jewish Targum here says "the king"!

*** This shortage had existed earlier: 2 Chr. 29:34; 30:15,17.

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66 (2). Theophany (v. 3-24)

 

Whatever it may have meant to Isaiah's contemporaries, there can be no doubt that this last vivid prophecy, swinging between extremes of comfort and judgment, has as its intention the final great Day of the Lord. The imagery is doubtless that of Hezekiah's reign, but the real fulness of meaning is Messianic.

 

It begins with a ringing call to the Lord's faithful remnant — "ye that tremble at his word." They are "hated" and "cast out for my name" (v.5). Jesus told his disciples that it would be so: "Ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake" (Mt. 10:22).

 

But this malevolence, which ordinary people would reckon a bitter evil, is to be taken as a signal token of blessedness: "Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you...and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake" (Lk. 6:22).

 

It should surely be a matter of serious concern to those who call themselves "the household of faith," trembling at God's Word, that in all the wide world there is no sign at all of this hatred for Christ's sake. To be sure, there is no approval either, only a contented anonymity on the one hand, and an unconcerned indifference or ig­norance on the other. Then what sort of questions need to be asked — and answered?

 

"Where is the Promise of His Coming?"

 

Yet another mark of identification of the "remnant" is a caustic jibe against ex­pectations of a coming Messianic kingdom. "Let the Lord be glorified," will be the characteristic sarcasm against the true faith. This is an experience common to true believers in every generation. Men jeer: "You say it will come, but it doesn't. They have said this in every generation, and it hasn't. Therefore (note the sublime logic here!) it never will!"

 

Isaiah's earlier version is this: "They say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it" (5:19). But when it happens, that will not be simply in order to tidy up the errors of small-minded unbelief, though, of course, that will be one of the inevitable side-effects: "He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed" (v.5).

 

They said the same thing about Moses when he was gone away into the divine presence: "As for this Moses, we wot not what is become of him" (Ex. 32:1). But all at once they saw him in their midst, reflecting the glory of God and blazing with anger at their faithlessness and crude apostasy.

 

"Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants...wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed" (Ps. 89:51). On this the Targum comments: "They revile the tardiness of the footsteps of Thy Messiah."

 

Malachi has the same sorry theme: "Ye have wearied the Lord with your words...In that ye say...Where is the God of judgment?" (2:17).

 

Peter's familiar words foretell a climax of unbelief in the last days. Scoffers will say: "Where is the promise of his coming?" — but they say this "walking after their own lusts" and being "willingly ignorant" of what the Word of God says (2 Pet. 3:3-5).

 

Incredibly this evil scepticism will invade the ecclesia. "My Lord delayeth his coming" (Lk: 12:45) is a sentiment which will hardly dare express itself audibly, but its very demeanour is eloquent and its converts are already many.

 

That theophany will one day be a fact which will in itself discriminate between the true and the false: "he shall appear — to your joy, and they shall be ashamed."

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The Man-Child and children*

 

But before ever Zion endures her great travail a man-child shall be born (v. 7). In the first century this was the resurrection of Messiah: "This day have I begotten thee" (Ps. 2:7, interpreted in Heb. 1:4,5; 5:5). The Lord himself used this figure when warning his disciples of the testing time which his crucifixion would mean for them: "Ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice...A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world" (Jn. 16:20,21). It was after this that the real travail came on Jerusalem.

 

But in AD 70, according to nature, "as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children" (v.8). With the temple destroyed, and Judaism brought to nought, there was little to hinder the warm reception given to the gospel by spiritually hungry Gentiles.

 

The Kingdom

 

With the coming in of the Messianic Age, there is now only comfort and joy un­quenchable for those who are Zion's true children: "Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all ye that love her" (v.10) — these words for gladness come six times in v.10-14, and comfort four times. The lovely figure of mother and children (very common in Isaiah: 8:3,4; 11:8; 26:17,18; 28:9; 45:10,11; 46:3,4; 49:15,20-23; 54:1; 60:16) is developed to the full, with a personal satisfaction in the prophet himself (herself?) not to be quenched. The suckling (8:3) of these new babies, naught but pleasure to both mother and children, the carrying and fondling and cuddling of them (v.11-13), all now takes on an exquisite charm which, more than anything Isaiah wrote, conveys the sense of fulfilment which Messiah's coming will mean: "Your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass" (v.14).

 

There follows another satisfying picture of the gathering home of those who belong to Zion. Gone is the contempt and condescending scorn with which the people of God have been regarded. Now all the resources of Gentiledom are at their command (v.19,20). Now, to offer aid and comfort to any of Messiah's men is to offer sacrifice to Messiah's God "as the children of Israel bring an offering...unto the house of the Lord."

 

And those who are now the Lord's chosen, and are seen to be such, will be taken "for priests and for Levites" (v.21). It is easy to overlook that in earlier ages these ministers of God had a more important function than the offering of sacrifice at God's altar — that of being teachers of God's law: "a priest's lips shall keep knowledge." In the age to come, this essential work will have priority. There will be a whole world needing to be educated. Through that instruction also the merits of the sacrifice of Jesus will be mediated, and nations who in this age choose to ignore the God of Israel will then be glad to join in happy pilgrimage to Zion: "all flesh shall come to worship before me" (v.23).

 

 


* Revelation 12 uses the very language of Isaiah 66, and — properly interpreted — teaches the same essential truths. But the wealth of other Biblical allusions there makes interpretation a more complex business. There are, however, those who maintain that the close similarities of these three Scriptures — Isaiah 66, John 16 and Revelation 12 — signify nothing at all. Very odd.

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