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ISAIAH 41 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
INTRODUCTION
WILLIAM KELLY, This chapter, if it be not a second part the
preceding one being the first, is a
most appropriate sequel. For Jehovah, having opened His counsels
as to Jerusalem and its comfort
(after, many vicissitudes and troubles) at His coming in power
and glory, turns now to the Gentiles,
challenging them to meet Him in judgement. He had there been
displayed in His shepherd care over
Israel, in His might and wisdom over all, needing no counsellor,
and the nations counted less than a
cipher and vanity, so that comparison or image was futile, and
Israel's unbelief was the more
deplorable because of His special goodness to all amongst them
who waited on Him. Now He says (v.
1), "Keep silence before me, islands, and let the peoples renew
[their] strength: let them come near,
then let them speak; let us draw near together to
judgement."
Cyrus is meant though not yet named. It is no question of a past
name of renown, but of a future
deliverer, of whom God knew all: man and his idols could say
nothing. Before the prescient eye of the
prophet stands the mighty conqueror of Babylon. None but the
true God, Who made him the
instrument of His designs in providence, had anticipated his
rise. Jehovah here describes him, but
typically (in the manner of the prophetic Spirit) as the shadow
of a greater than Cyrus, Who should for
ever overturn the idols of the nations, judge their pride, and
deliver the people of Israel from all their
dispersions, as well as from the sins which brought them under
wrath in the righteous ways of
Jehovah. "Who raised up from the east him whom righteousness
calleth to its foot? He gave the
nations before him, and made [him] rule over kings; he gave
[them] as dust to his sword, as driven
stubble to his bow. He pursued them, he passed on safely, by a
way he had not come with his feet.
Who hath wrought and done [it], calling the generations from the
beginning? I Jehovah, the first, and
with the last; I [am] He" (vv. 2-4).
It is as vain to drag in the gospel of Christ here as in Isa. 40
to interpret Jacob and Israel of
Christendom. Nor is the plea at all valid that the Jews will
never more meddle with
idols. Mat_12:43; Mat_24:15, not to speak of the Revelation, are
clear evidence confirmatory of Isa.
65-66, and of other passages in the Old Testament, which prove
that the end of the age will see a fatal
revival of idolatry, the return of the unclean spirit
(Mat_12:43-45) with the full antichristian power of
Satan, which will bring down the Assyrian scourge on the Jews
and thereon also the Lord's coming in
vengeance, when the indignation shall be accomplished, and
Jehovah's anger, in the destruction of
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the foe. The last state of that generation which rejected Christ
will then be characterized both by idol
worship and the Antichrist; so that, on this score, there is no
pretence for turning aside the
expostulation, here addressed to the peoples, to the Gentiles
that are now baptized, or for
interpreting Jacob and Israel of Christendom as some have done
who ought to have known better.
Again, it is absurd to say that the gospel could be foreshown by
the first one raised up from the east;
for, among the Jews, the east was always reckoned from
Palestine, never Palestine itself. The
Rabbinical idea (strange to say, espoused by Calvin, Hausschein,
Piscator, Lowth the younger, Bengel,
and stranger still, by the late Mr. Birks) was not so
unreasonable: the allusion, they thought, was to
Abraham, who was a righteous man called out of Mesopotamia. But
this idea fails. For who could
think that the patriarch's exceptional sally against the kings
of the east who were returning after their
successful raid into the valley of the Jordan, or the incidents
of Pharaoh and Abimelech, duly answer
to the discomfiture of nations and subjugation of kings, making
his sword as a column of dust and as
the driven stubble his bow in resistless progress? Still less
does verse 2 suit the testimony of Christ in
the gospel.
The comparison of Isa_45:1; Isa_45:13, ought to convince any
unbiased thoughtful mind that Cyrus is
really in view, but of course ultimately the foreshadowed
triumph when Christ comes in His kingdom,
putting all enemies under His feet instead of gathering souls
out of the world in one body for heaven,
as He is now doing by the Holy Ghost's power through the gospel.
(Compare also Ezr_1:1-3) If the
Babylonish captivity of Judah was the divine chastening of their
idolatry by means of the chief patron
of idols on earth, the fall of Babylon was a tremendous blow on
its own idolatry, predicted as this was
by the Jewish prophet long before either event. These were among
the reasons which made the first
success and the final ruin of Babylon so important in scripture.
They were bound up with God's ways
in His people. And hence the answer to the infidel sneer
touching the silence of prophecy respecting
America. What has the discovery or growth of the New World in
the far west to do with Israel? From
the New Testament again all such matters are excluded, because
the rejected Messiah involves not
only the disappearance of Israel and the kingdoms of the earth
from the foreground, but the calling of
the church for glory in the heavenly places as the body and
bride of Christ, at least until the corruption
of Christendom becomes morally unbearable. For the age ends in
the judgement of apostate Jews and
Gentiles under the Beast and the false prophet, when Christ and
His glorified saints appear from
heaven, and the godly remnant of Jews here below will become a
strong nation, the earthly centre of
His kingdom under the whole heaven.
Hence the suitability here of confronting in this very
connection "Jehovah, the first, and with the last,"
the One Who had wrought and spoken. Why were the gods of the
nations silent and powerless? why
were the boasted oracles dumb? If the fall of Judah, moral
necessity as it was (unless Jehovah must
sanction His own dishonour in the midst of His people, and
sustain them to give His glory to a graven
image), made His power questionable in a Gentile's eyes, let
them learn in the downfall of Babylon,
which the Jews alone knew generations beforehand, even to the
name and race of him who was its
instrument, that His righteousness and wisdom were no less than
His power, and that the chastised
Jews were the people of His choice. "The isles saw [it] and
feared; the ends of the earth were afraid,
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drew near, and came. They helped every one his neighbour, and
[each] said to his brother, Be of good
courage. So the carpenter encouraged the founder, he that
smootheth [with] the hammer him that
smiteth on the anvil, saying of the soldering, [it is] good: and
he fasteneth it with nails, [that] it be not
moved. But thou, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen,
the seed of Abraham my friend,
whom I have grasped from the ends of the earth, and called from
its corners (or, nobles), and said
unto thee, Thou [art] my servant; I have chosen thee, and not
rejected thee. Fear not, for I [am] with
thee; be not dismayed, for I [am] thy God. I will strengthen
thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will
uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" (vv.
5-10).
The honour to which Cyrus was called by the way was no change in
His purposes or affections
respecting Israel. Not Cyrus but Israel was His servant.
"Behold, all they that are incensed against thee
shall be ashamed and confounded: they that strive with thee
shall be as nothing, and shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, - them that
contend with thee. They that war against
thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I
Jehovah thy God will hold thy right hand,
saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou
worm Jacob, ye few men of Israel; I will help
thee, saith Jehovah, and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.
Behold, I have made thee a new sharp
threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh and beat
small the mountains, and shalt make
the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall
carry them away, and the whirlwind shall
scatter them: and thou shalt rejoice in Jehovah, thou shalt
glory in the Holy One of Israel" (vv. 11-16).
These last words, however, render it beyond just doubt that the
prophet carries his eye far beyond
the immediate occasion, and presents, not the condition of the
Jews under their Persian or other
Gentile lords, but days still future when Israel shall take them
captive whose captives they were, and
shall rule over their oppressors. It is impossible to apply to
the same period the prophetic description
here and Nehemiah's language: "Behold, we [are] servants this
day, and [for] the land that thou
gavest unto our fathers to eat the fruit thereof and the good
thereof, behold, we [are] servants in it;
and it yieldeth much increase unto the kings whom thou hast set
over us because of our sins: also
they have dominion over our bodies, and over our cattle, at
their pleasure, and we [are] in great
distress" (Neh_9:36-37). Here the word is in manifest contrast,
and in figurative language, no doubt;
but it prefigures neither servitude, nor the grace of the
gospel, but triumph when the true Sun of
Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings, and Israel
shall flourish and tread down the wicked
in the day that shall burn all the proud and lawless as an
oven.
The Maccabean or the apostolic triumphs of Vitringa and others
are a burlesque on a sound
interpretation. Not only must we leave room for the future, but
for a total change from the character
of God's actual working in and by the church. Now it is grace
building living stones on the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief corner-stone; then it will be the
awful descent of the Stone cut without hands on the statue of
Gentile empire in its last phase, which
leads to, as it corresponds with, the judicial functions of
Israel here described in "that great day" of
the future.
Not that refreshment will fail from Jehovah for Israel. "The
afflicted and the needy seek water, and
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[there is] none; their tongue faileth for thirst: I Jehovah will
hear them, [I] the God of Israel will not
forsake them. I will open rivers on the bare heights, and
fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will
make the wilderness into a pool of water, and the dry lands into
water-springs. I will give in the
wilderness the cedar, acacia, and myrtle, and oleaster; I will
set in the desert the cypress, pine (or,
plane), and box-tree together; that they may see and know and
consider and understand together,
that the hand of Jehovah hath done this, and the Holy One of
Israel hath created it" (vv. 17-20).
Jehovah then recurs to a renewal of His challenge to the
Gentiles and their idols, but in terms of justly
increased contempt for their trust in a thing of naught, again
grounding His appeal on their ignorance
of the scourge of idolatry who should come from the north and
east. "Produce your cause, saith
Jehovah; bring forth your strong [reasons] saith the King of
Jacob. Let them bring [them] forth and
show us what shall happen: show the former things, what they
[be], that we may pay heed to them,
and know their issue; or declare us things to come. Show the
things that are to come hereafter, that
we may know that ye [are] gods; yea, do good, or do evil, that
we may be dismayed, and behold [it]
together. Behold, ye [are] of nothing, and your work of naught:
an abomination [is he that] chooseth
you. I have raised up [one] from the north, and he shall come;
from the rising of the sun will he call
upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as [upon] mortar,
and as the potter treadeth clay.
Who hath declared [it] from the beginning, that we may know? and
beforetime, that we may say,
Right? Indeed there is none that declareth, indeed there is none
that showeth, indeed there is none
that heareth your words. The first [I say] to Zion, Behold,
behold them; and to Jerusalem I will give
one that bringeth good tidings. For I look, and there is no man;
even among them, and there is no
counsellor, that, when I ask of them, can answer a word" (vv.
21-28). The oracles are dumb, even
reason abashed - nothing but insensate folly is in men owning as
gods things which could neither
speak nor hear. "Behold, they [are] all vanity: their works
[are] naught: their molten images [are]
wind and confusion" (v. 29). Human helps to devotion are the
death-bed of faith. Man by his devices,
now as of old, only succeeds in shutting himself out from the
living God; and the mercy He reveals in
His word, as well as His judgements, are sealed up in the
darkness of unbelief. Prophecy is the truest
and most permanent witness of the true God, till His power
overwhelm those that dispute it and
dishonour Him. Hence the gravity of the present scepticism in
Christendom which will issue in "the
falling away" or apostasy (2Th_2:3).
The Helper of Israel
41 Be silent before me, you islands!
Let the nations renew their strength!
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Let them come forward and speak;
let us meet together at the place of judgment.
1.BARNES, The design of this chapter is the same as that of the
preceding, and it is to be regarded as the continuation of the
argument commenced there. Its object is to lead those who were
addressed, to put confidence in God. In the introduction to Isa. 40
it was remarked, that this is to be considered as addressed to the
exile Jews in Babylon, near the close of their captivity. Their
country, city, and temple had been laid waste. The prophet
represents himself as bringing consolation to them in this
situation; particularly by the assurance that their long captivity
was about to end; that they were about to be restored to their own
land, and thai their trials were to be succeeded by brighter and
happier times. In the previous chapter there were general reasons
given why they should put their confidence in God - arising from
the firmness of his promises, the fact that he had created all
things; that he had all power, etc. In this chapter there is a more
definite view given, and a clearer light thrown on the mode in
which deliverance would be brought to them. The prophet specifies
that God would raise up a deliverer, and that that deliverer would
be able to subdue all their enemies. The chapter may be
conveniently divided into the following parts:
I. God calls the distant nations to a public investigation of
his ability to aid his people; to an argument whether he was able
to deliver them; and to the statement of the reasons why they
should confide in him Isa_41:1.
II. He specifies that he will raise up a man from the east - who
should be able to overcome the enemies of the Jews, and to effect
their deliverance Isa_41:2-4.
III. The consternation of the nations at the approach of Cyrus,
and their excited and agitated fleeing to their idols is described
Isa_41:5-7.
IV. God gives to his people the assurance of his protection, and
friendship Isa_41:8-14. This is shown:
1. Because they were the children of Abraham, his friend, and be
was bound in covenant faithfulness to protect them Isa_41:8-9.
2. By direct assurance that he would aid and protect them; that
though they were feeble, yet he was strong enough to deliver them
Isa_41:10-14.
V. He says that he will enable them to overcome and scatter
their foes, as the chaff is driven away on the mountains by the
whirlwind Isa_41:15-16.
VI. He gives to his people the special promise of assistance and
comfort. He will meet them in their desolate condition, and will
give them consolation as if fountains were opened in deserts, and
trees producing grateful shade and fruit were planted in the
wilderness Isa_41:17-20.
VII. He appeals directly to the enemies of the Jews, to the
worshippers of idols. He challenges them to give any evidence of
the power or the divinity of their idols; and appeals to the fact
that he had foretold future events; that he had raised up a
deliverer for his people in proof of his divinity, and his power to
save Isa_41:21-29. The argument of the whole is, that the idol-gods
were unable to defend the nations which trusted in them; that God
would raise up a mighty prince who should be able to deliver the
Jews from their long and painful calamity, and that they,
therefore, should put their trust in Yahweh.
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Keep silence before me - (Compare Zec_2:13) The idea is, that
the pagan nations were to be silent while God should speak, or with
a view of entering into an argument with him respecting the
comparative power of himself and of idols to defend their
respective worshippers. The argument is stated in following verses,
and preparatory to the statement of that argument, the people are
exhorted to be silent. This is probably to evince a proper awe and
reverence for Yahweh, before whom the argument was to be conducted,
and a proper sense of the magnitude and sacredness of the inquiry
(compare Isa_41:21). And it may be remarked here, that the same
reasons will apply to all approaches which are made to God. When we
are about to come before him in prayer or praise; to confess our
sins and to plead for pardon; when we engage an argument respecting
his being, plans, or perfections; or when we draw near to him in
the closet, the family, or the sanctuary, the mind should be filled
with awe and reverence. It is well, it is proper, to pause and
think of what our emotions should be, and of what we should say,
before God (compare Gen_28:16-17).
O islands - ( 'iyiym). This word properly means islands, and is
so translated here by the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Chaldee, the
Syriac, and the Arabic. But the word also is used to denote
maritime countries; Countries that were situated on seacoasts, or
the regions beyond sea (see the note at Isa_20:6). The word is
applied, therefore, to the islands of the Mediterranean; to the
maritime coasts; and then, also, it comes to be used in the sense
of any lands or coasts far remote, or beyond sea (see Psa_72:10;
Isa_24:15; the notes at Isa_40:15; Isa_41:5; Isa_42:4, Isa_42:10,
Isa_42:12; Isa_49:1; Jer_25:22; Dan_11:18). Here it is evidently
used in the sense of distant nations or lands; the people who were
remote from Palestine, and who were the worshippers of idols. The
argument is represented as being with them, and they are invited to
prepare their minds by suitable reverence for God for the argument
which was to be presented.
And let the people renew their strength - On the word renew, see
the note at Isa_40:31. Here it means, Let them make themselves
strong; let them prepare the argument; let them be ready to urge as
strong reasons as possible; let them fit themselves to enter into
the controversy about the power and glory of Yahweh (see
Isa_41:21).
Let us come near together to judgment - The word judgment here
means evidently controversy, argumentation, debate. Thus it is used
in Job_9:32. The language is that which is used of two parties who
come together to try a cause, or to engage in debate; and the sense
is, that God proposes to enter into an argumentation with the
entire pagan world, in regard to his ability to save his people;
that is, he proposes to show the reasons why they should trust in
him, rather than dread those under whose power they then were, and
by whom they had been oppressed. Lowth renders it, correctly
expressing the sense, Let us enter into solemn debate together.
2. CLARKE, Keep silence before me, O islands Let the distant
nations repair to
me with new force of mind - , Septuagint. For hacharishu, be
silent, they
certainly read in their copy hachadishu, be renewed; which is
parallel and synonymous
with ! yechalephu!coach, recover their strength; that is, their
strength of mind, their powers of reason; that they may overcome
those prejudices by which they have been so long
held enslaved to idolatry. A MS. has har, upon a rasure. The
same mistake seems to have
been made in this word, Zep_3:17. For ! yacharish!beahabatho,
silebit in directions sua, as the Vulgate renders it; which seems
not consistent with what immediately follows,
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exultabit super te in laude; the Septuagint and Syriac read !
yachadish!beahabatho, he
shall be renewed in his love. elai, to me, is wanting in one of
De Rossis MSS. and in the Syriac.
3. GILL, Keep silence before me, O islands,.... The great
controversy in the world after the coming of Christ, which is
expressly spoken of in the preceding chapter, was, as Cocceius
observes, whether he was a divine Person; this was first objected
to by the Jews, and afterwards by many that bore the Christian
name; some, in the times of the apostles, especially the Apostle
John; and others in later ages; some affirmed that he was a mere
man, as Ebion and Cerinthus; others that he was a created God, as
Arius; and others a God by office, as Socinus and his followers;
now these are called upon, wherever they were, whether on the
continent, or in the isles of the sea; and especially all such
places which were separated from Judea by the sea, or which they
went to by sea, were called islands, perhaps the European nations
and isles are more particularly intended; and now, as when the
judge is on the bench, and the court is set, and a cause just going
to be tried, silence is proclaimed; so here, Jehovah himself being
on the throne, and a cause depending between him and men being
about to be tried, they are commanded silence; see Zec_2:13, and
let the people renew their strength; muster up all their force,
collect the most powerful arguments they had, and produce their
strong reasons in favour of their sentiments: let them come near,
then let them speak; let them come into open court, and at the bar
plead their cause, and speak out freely and fully all they have to
say; and let them not pretend that they were deterred from
speaking, and not suffered to make their defence, or were condemned
without hearing: let us come near together in judgment: and fairly
try the cause; the issue of which is put upon this single point
that follows.
4. HENRY, That particular instance of God's care for his people
Israel in raising up Cyrus to be their deliverer is here insisted
upon as a great proof both of his sovereignty above all idols and
of his power to protect his people. Here is,
I. A general challenge to the worshippers and admirers of idols
to make good their pretensions,
in competition with God and opposition to him, Isa_41:1. Is is
renewed (Isa_41:21): Produce your cause. The court is set,
summonses are sent to the islands that lay most remote, but not out
of God's jurisdiction, for he is the Creator and possessor of the
ends of the earth, to make their appearance and give their
attendance. Silence (as usual) is proclaimed while the cause is
in
trying: Keep silence before me, and judge nothing before the
time; while the cause is in trying between the kingdom of God and
the kingdom of Satan it becomes all people silently to expect
the issue, not to object against God's proceedings, but to be
confident that he will carry the day.
The defenders of idolatry are called to say what they can in
defence of it: Let them renew their strength, in opposition to God,
and see whether it be equal to the strength which those renew that
wait upon him (Isa_40:31); let them try their utmost efforts,
whether by force of arms or
force of argument. Let them come near; they shall not complain
that God's dread makes them
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afraid (Job_13:21), so that they cannot say what they have to
say, in vindication and honour of their idols; no, let them speak
freely: Let us come near together to judgment. Note. 1. The cause
of God and his kingdom is not afraid of a fair trial; if the case
be but fairly stated, it will be surely
carried in favour of religion. 2. The enemies of God's church
and his holy religion may safely be
challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their
unrighteous cause. He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and the
daughter of Zion despises them; for great is the truth and will
prevail.
5. JAMISON, Isa_41:1-29. Additional reasons why the Jews should
place confidence in Gods promises of delivering them; He will raise
up a Prince as their deliverer, whereas the idols could not deliver
the heathen nations from that Prince.
(Zec_2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the
nations listen in reverential silence. Compare Gen_28:16,
Gen_28:17, as to the spirit in which we ought to behave before
God.
before me rather (turning), towards me [Maurer].
islands including all regions beyond sea (Jer_25:22), maritime
regions, not merely isles in the strict sense.
renew ... strength Let them gather their strength for the
argument; let them adduce their strongest arguments (compare
Isa_1:18; Job_9:32). Judgment means here, to decide the point at
issue between us.
6. K&D, Summons to the contest: Be silent to me, ye islands;
and let the nations procure fresh strength: let them come near,
then speak; we will enter into contest together. The words are
addressed to the whole of the heathen world, and first of all to
the inhabitants of the western islands and coasts. This was the
expression commonly employed in the Old Testament to designate the
continent of Europe, the solid ground of which is so deeply cut,
and so broken up, by seas and lakes, that it looks as if it were
about to resolve itself into nothing but islands and
peninsulas. is a pregnant expression for turning in silence
towards a person; just as in Job_13:13 it is used with min, in the
sense of forsaking a person in silence. That they may have no
excuse if they are defeated, they are to put on fresh strength;
just as in Isa_40:31 believers are spoken of as drawing fresh
strength out of Jehovah's fulness. They are to draw near, then
speak, i.e., to reply after hearing the evidence, for Jehovah
desires to go through all the forms of
a legal process with them in pro et contra. The mishpa0t is
thought of here in a local sense, as a forum or tribunal. But if
Jehovah is one party to the cause, who is the judge to pronounce
the decision? The answer to this question is the same as at
Isa_5:3. The nations, says Rosenmller, are called to judgment, not
to the tribunal of God, but to that of reason. The deciding
authority is reason, which cannot fail to recognise the facts, and
the consequences to be deduced from them.
7. CALVIN, 1.Be silent to me, (133) O islands. Though the
Prophet discourse appears to be different
from the former, yet he pursues the same subject; for, in order
to put the Jews to shame, he says that he
would have been successful, if he had been called to plead with
unbelievers and blind persons. Thus he
reproves not only the sluggishness, but the stupidity of that
nation, whom God had been so nigh and so
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intimately known by his Law. (Deu_4:7.) Yet we need not wonder
that the people, overtaken by many
terrors, trembled so that they scarcely received solid
consolation; for we have abundant experience how
much we are alarmed by adversity, because amidst; this depravity
and corruption of our nature, every
man labors under two diseases. In prosperity, he exalts himself
extravagantly, and shakes off the
restraint; of humility and moderation; but, in adversity, he
either rages, or lies in a lifeless condition, and
scarcely has the smallest perception of the goodness of God. We
need not wonder, therefore, that the
Prophet dwells so largely on this subject, and that he pursues
it in many ways.
He gives the name of islands to the countries beyond the sea;
for the Jews, having no intercourse with
them, gave to all that lay beyond the sea the name of and
therefore he addresses not only the nations
which were at hand, but likewise those which were more distant,
and requires them keep silence before
him. But of what nature is this silence? Isaiah describes a kind
of judicial pleading which the Lord is not
unwilling to enter into with all nations. He demands only that
he shall be heard in his own cause, and that
there shall be no confusion or disorder in the proceedings,
which would be altogether at variance with a
court of justice. On this account he commands the Gentiles to
keep silence, that, when this has been
done, he may openly plead his cause; for the order of a court of
justice demands that every person shall
speak in his turn; for, if all should cry aloud together, there
must be strange confusion. (134)
This reminds us, that the reason why we do not think with so
much reverence as we ought concerning the
power and goodness and wisdom and other attributes of God, is,
that we do not listen to him when he
speaks. Men roar and murmur against God; some, swelling with
their pride, openly despise his word;
while others, through some kind of slothfulness, disregard him,
and, in consequence of being buried in
earthly delights, take no concern about aspiring to the heavenly
kingdom. Even now we perceive with
what insolence and rebellion many persons speak against God. How
comes it that Papists are so
obstinate and headstrong in their errors, but because they
refuse to listen to God? for if they would listen
to him in silence, the truth would speedily convince them. In a
word, the Lord shews by these words that
he will be victorious, if men listen to him attentively. He does
not wish that they shall listen to him in a
careless manner, as unjust and corrupt judges, having already
determined what sentence they shall
pronounce, are wont to do; but that they shall examine and weigh
his arguments, in which they will find
nothing but what is perfectly just.
It may be asked, the Prophet now exhort the Gentiles to hear? I
reply, these things relate chiefly to the
Jews; for it would be long before this prophecy would reach the
Gentiles. But this discourse would be
fitted more powerfully to remove the obstinacy of the Jews, when
he shows that the Gentiles, though they
were estranged from him, would speedily acknowledge his power,
provided only that they chose to listen
to him in silence. There is greater weight and force in these
words addressed directly to the themselves
than if he had spoken of them in the third person.
And let the people collect their strength. The Lord defies all
the Gentiles to the contest, and in a
contemptuous manner, as is commonly done by those who are more
powerful, or who, relying on the
goodness of their cause, have no doubt about the result. them
collect their strength and league against
me; they will gain nothing, but I shall at length be victorious.
As we commonly say, disdain them, (Je les
despite.) Even though they bend all their strength both of mind
and of body, still they shall be conquered;
all I ask is, that they give me a hearing. By these words he
declares that truth possesses such power that
it easily puts down all falsehoods, provided that men give
attention to it; and, therefore, although all men
rise up to overwhelm the truth, still it will prevail.
Consequently, if we are led astray from God, we must
not throw the blame on others, but ought rather to accuse
ourselves of not having been sufficiently
attentive and diligent when he spoke to us; for falsehoods would
not have power over us, nor would we
be carried away by any cunning attempt of Satan to deceive us,
or by the force of any attack, if we were
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well disposed to listen to God.
As to his assuming the character of a guilty person, in order
that he may appear and plead his cause
before a court of justice, it may be asked, among men will be
competent. to judge in so hard and difficult
a cause? I reply, there is nothing said here about choosing
judges; the Lord means only, that he would
be successful, if impartial judges were allowed to try this
cause. He cannot submit either to men or to
angels, so as to render an account to them; but, for the purpose
of taking away every excuse, he declares
that victory is in his power, even though he were constrained to
plead his cause; and, consequently, that
it is highly unreasonable to dispute among ourselves, and not to
yield to him absolute obedience; that we
are ungrateful and rebellious, in not listening to him, and in
not considering how just are his demands.
And, indeed, though nothing can be more unreasonable than for
mortals to judge of God, yet it is still
more shocking and monstrous, when, by our blind murmuring, we
condemn him before he has been
heard in his own defense.
(133) Devant moy me.
(134) alludes to the method observed in courts of judicature,
where silence is always commanded to
prevent interruption; he calls upon the idolatrous nations to
appear at the bar with him, and see if they
could give so convincing proofs of the divinity of their gods as
he could of his own. White.
8. BI, The convocation of the nations
(whole chapter):The conception of this passage is superb.
Jehovah is represented as summoning the earth, as far as the remote
isles of the west, to determine once and for ever who is the true
God: whether He, or the idols and oracles of which there were
myriads worshipped and believed in by every nation under heaven.
The test proposed is a very simple one. The gods of the nations
were to predict events in the near future, or to show that they had
had a clear understanding of the events of former days. On the
other hand, the servant of Jehovah was prepared to show how
fast-sealed prophecies, committed to the custody of his race, had
been precisely verified in the event, and to utter minute
predictions about Cyrus, the one from the East, which should be
fulfilled before that generation had passed away. Not, as in
Elijahs case, would the appeal be made to the descending flame; but
to the fitting of prophecy and historical fact. Immediately there
is a great commotion, the isles see and fear, the ends of the earth
tremble, they draw near and come to the judgment-seat. On their way
thither each bids the other take courage. There is an industrious
furbishing up of the dilapidated idols, and manufacturing of new
ones. The carpenter encourages the goldsmith; and he that smooths
with the hammer him that smites the anvil. They examine the
soldering to see if it will stand, and drive great nails to render
the idols steadfast. The universal desire is to make a strong set
of gods who will be able to meet the Divine challengemuch as if a
Roman Catholic priest were to regild and repaint the images of the
saints on the time-worn altar of a fishing hamlet, in the hope of
securing from them greater help in quelling the winter storms.
Amidst the excitement of this vast convocation the idols are dumb.
We can almost see them borne into the arena by their attendant
priests, resplendent in gold and tinsel, flashing with jewels,
bedizened in gorgeous apparel. They are set in a row, their
acolytes swing high the censer, the monotonous drawl of their
votaries arises in supplication. Silence is proclaimed that they
may have an opportunity of pronouncing on the subject submitted to
them; but they are speechless. Jehovah pronounces the verdict
against which there can be no appeal, Behold, ye are of nothing,
and your work of nought; an abomination is he that chooseth you
(Isa_41:24). As Jehovah looks, there is no one. When He asks of
them, there is no counsellor that can answer a word. Behold they
are all
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vanity; their works are nought; their molten images are wind and
confusion. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Heathen oracles and Scripture prophecy
History furnishes some interesting confirmations of this
contrast between the predictions of heathen oracles and the clear
prophecies of Old Testament Scripture, which were so literally and
minutely realised. For instance, Herodotus tells us that when
Croesus heard of the growing power of Cyrus, he was so alarmed for
his kingdom, that he sent rich presents to the oracles at Delphi,
Dodona, and elsewhere, asking what would be the outcome of his
victorious march. That at Delphi gave this ambiguous reply, That he
would destroy a great empire, but whether the empire would be that
of Cyrus or of Croesus was left unexplained: thus, whichever way
the event turned, the oracle could claim to have predicted it. This
is a fair illustration of the manner in which the oracles answered
the appeals made to them by men or nations when in the agony of
fear. How striking a contrast the precise prediction of these pages
which give us the name of the conqueror; the quarter from which he
would fall upon Babylon; the marvellous series of successes that
gave kings as dust to his sword, and as the driven stubble to his
bow; his reverence towards God, his simplicity and integrity of
purpose (Isa_41:2; Isa_14:3; Isa_14:25; Isa_45:1). (F. B. Meyer, B.
A.)
A drama
In form the chapter is dramatic. Two great debates are imagined:
the first (Isa_41:1-7) between Jehovah and the nations; the second
(Isa_41:21-29) between Jehovah and the idols, the subject of both
being the appearance of Cyrus. In the intervening passage
(Isa_41:8-20) Jehovah encourages His servant Israel in view of this
great crisis of history. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
A trial at law
Chapter 41. is loosely cast in the same form of a trial at law
which we found in chapter 1. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Gods response to Israels complaint
In reply to Israels complaint Isa_40:27) that his cause against
the heathen oppressors is neglectedor dismissed by the Great Judge,
God now summons the nations to His court of justice; and as Israel
had just been assured that, if they would wait upon Jehovah, they
would renew their strength and discern His wisdom, an interval is
granted to the heathen and their gods, in which they too may renew
their strength and have time to produce evidence of the powers of
design and action possessed by their gods, and in virtue of which
they claim the right to keep Israel in subjection. The solemn pause
thus allowedKeep silence . . . then let them speakis filled (how
bitter the irony!)by the nations employing their carpenters and
goldsmiths m make a particularly good and strong set of gods,
because there is a general alarm that the emergency is great. For
it is already seen that the judgment goes against them by default:
that these gods can show no plans, can do nothing good or bad; and
that they and their worshippers have neither right nor power to
break up the designs of Almighty wisdom. They have been trying to
do this by those oppressions of Israel which were only permitted
for a time, because they fell into and formed a part of Gods own
plan. But Israel had from the first an appointed and chief
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place in that plan: He who is at once King of Israel and God of
all the earth, has been maintaining His chosen people in their
place, generation after generation, when He made Abraham His
friend, and gave the blessing to his seed, and then He made the
well yield springs of water under the rod of Moses; and now, though
they are reduced to extremity of weakness and dismay, the Holy One
of Israel bids them fear not, for He has taken upon Himself to be
their Redeemer. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
A lawsuit
If Jehovah is a party, who then is the presiding judge? This
question is to be answered as in Isa_5:3. The decisive authority is
reason, which must acknowledge the state of the case and the
conclusions following therefrom. (P. Delitzsch, D. D.)
A fair trial
1. The cause of God and His kingdom is not afraid of s fair
trial. If the case be but fairly stated it will be surely carried
in favour of religion.
2. The enemies of Gods Church and His holy religion may safely
be challenged to say and do their worst for the support of their
unrighteous cause. (M. Henry.)
Islands
A characteristic word of the second half of Isaiah occurring
twelve times. In the general usage of the Old Testament it denotes
the islands and coastlands of the Mediterranean (comp the use of
the singular by Isaiah in Isa_20:6). Etymologically, it probably
means simply habitable lands; and this prophet uses it with great
laxity, hardly distinguishing it from lands (Isa_42:15). (Prof. J.
Skinner, D. D.)
Solemn pleadings for revival
We also who worship the Lord God have a controversy with Him. We
have not seen His Church and His cause prospering in the world as
we could desire; as yet heathenism is not put to the rout by
Christianity, neither does the truth everywhere trample down error.
We desire to reason with God about this, and He Himself instructs
us how to prepare for this sacred debate. He bids us be silent; He
bids us consider, and then draw near to Him with holy boldness and
plead with Him, produce our cause and bring forth our strong
reasons.
I. FIRST, THEN, LET US BE SILENT.
1. Before the controversy opens let us be silent with solemn
awe, for we have to speak with the Lord God Almighty! Let us not
open our mouths to impugn His wisdom, nor allow our hearts to
question His love. We are going to make bold to speak with Him, but
still He is the eternal God, and we are dust and ashes. It is the
glory of God to conceal a thing, and if He chooses to conceal it,
let it be concealed. Truly, God is good to Israel, and His mercy
endureth for ever.
2. Our silence of awe should deepen into that of shame; for,
though it is true that the cause of God has not prospered, whoso
fault is this?
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3. Go further than this, and keep the silence of consideration.
This is a noisy age, and the Church of Christ herself is too noisy.
We have very little silent worship, I fear. Let us be silent, now,
for a minute, and consider what it is that we desire of the Lord.
The conversion of thousands, the overthrow of error, the spread of
the Redeemers kingdom. Think in your minds what the blessings are
which your soul pants after. Suppose they were to be now bestowed,
are you ready? If thousands of converts were to be born unto this
one Church, are you prepared to teach them and comfort them? You
pray for graceare you using the grace you have? You want to see
more powerhow about the power you have? Are you employing it? If a
mighty wave of revival sweeps over London, are your hearts ready?
Are your hands ready? Are your purses ready? If you reflect, you
will see that God is able to give His Church the largest blessing,
and to give it at any time. Keep silence and consider, and you will
see that He can give the blessing by you or by me. Ask yourselves
in the quiet of your spirits, what can we do to get the blessing?
Are we doing that?
4. Then we shall pass on to the silence of attention. Keep
silence that God may speak to you. We cannot expect Him to hear us
if We will not hear Him.
5. If you have learned attention, be silent with submission.
II. In that silence LET US RENEW OUR STRENGTH. Noise wears us;
silence feeds us, To run upon the Masters errands is always well,
but to sit at the Masters feet is quite as necessary; or, like the
angels which excel in strength, our power to do His commandments
arises out of our hearkening to the voice of His Word. But how
happens it that such silence renews our strength?
1. It does so by giving space for the strengthening word to come
into the soul, and the energy of the Holy Spirit to be really
felt.
2. We must be silent to renew our strength, by using silence for
consideration as to who it is that we are dealing with. We are
going to speak with God about the weakness of His Church, and the
slowness of its progress. We are coming to plead now with One whose
arm is not shortened, and whose ear is not heavy. Renew your
strength as you think of Him. Hath not the Lord said concerning His
beloved Son that He shall divide the spoil with the strong, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands? Shall it not be
so? Think, too, that you are about to appeal to the Holy Spirit.
What cannot the Spirit of God do?
3. In silence, too, let us renew our strength by remembering His
promises. There are a thousand promises. Let us think of that, and
however difficult the enterprise may be, and however dark our
present prospects, we shall not dare to doubt when Jehovah has
spoken and pledged His Word.
4. Our strength will be renewed next, if in silence we yield up
to God all our own wisdom and strength.
5. Keep silence, then, ye saints, till ye have felt your folly
and your weakness, and then renew your strength most gloriously by
casting yourselves upon the strength of God.
III. Our text proceeds to add, Then let them draw near. You that
know the Lord DRAW NEAR. You are silent, you have renewed your
strength, now enjoy access with boldness. The condition in which to
intercede for others is not that of distance from God, but that of
great nearness to Him. Even thus did Abraham draw nigh when he
pleaded for Sodom and Gomorrah.
1. Let us remember how near we really are. We are one with
Christ, and members of His body. How could we be nearer?
2. You are coming to a Father.
3. The desire in our heart for Gods glory and the extension of
His Church, is a desire written there by the Holy Spirit.
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4. What we ask, if we are about to plead with God concerning His
kingdom, is according to His own mind.
5. Moreover, there is this further consideration; the Lord loves
to be pleaded with. He might have given all the covenant blessings
without prayer; wherefore does He compel us to use entreaties,
unless it be that He loves to hear the voices of His children?
IV. I now come to the last point, which is, LET US SPEAK. Be
silent, renew your strength, draw near, and then speak. What have
we to say upon the matter which concerns us?
1. Let us first speak in the spirit of adoring gratitude. How
sweet to think that there should be a Saviour at all. To think that
there should be a heavenly kingdom set up, as it is set up; that it
should have made such advances as it has made, and should still
grow mightily!
2. Next, let us speak in humble expostulation.
3. Then turn to pleading.
4. Let us speak in the way of dedication.
5. Let us speak still in the way of confidence. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Silence and speech before God
God addresses men here by two designations, the one having
reference to their remoteness and isolation, and the other to their
unity. The series of injunctions begins with silence and ends with
speech. Right silence before God, passing on through stirring up of
energy and earnest confiding approach, issues m speech. We shall
consider the beginning and the end of this seriessilence before God
and speech to God.
I. SILENCE BEFORE GOD. Shall we not be silent in the endeavour
to realise that God is, and what He is? Would not this do more for
us than any urging of ourselves or any kind of activity and noise
whatever? And can anything have its proper effect on our soul
without this? If we but realise with ourselves that we have to do
with an Infinite One, that there is One Being of spotless
perfection, almighty power, unchangeableness, boundless love,
complete and earnest opposition to evil, what an effect this will
produce on us! Unless we can bear to be silent and brood, the
thought of God will not rise before us in fulness and splendour.
But God speaks, and we must listen in silence. With what glad
silence should we listen to the Divine voice. A single word of God
must be worth more to us than all other words. When we read the
Word of God we should say to ourselves, Hush! God is speaking. We
should listen to it as a message conveying what we are to believe
and embrace and ponder and do. We may spoil everything by letting
the murmur of our own thoughts arise. Our silence in the presence
of God will often take the form of thinking of ourselves. Thinking
of self becomes sincere and profitable when it goes on consciously
in Gods presence. The felt presence of God revives memory, prevents
besetting self-deception, and turns the survey of the future from
chaotic dreams into earnest outlook. Can any man make such a
survey, however imperfectly, without shame? Shame makes him silent.
He who knows the bitterness of being put to silence in the presence
of God, will scarcely be without experience of the sweetness of
silent satisfaction and rest. He will be led to see such a
graciousness in God, such a benign healing aspect of His mercy,
such a fulness in Christ, such a might of forgiveness, such a
sublime oblivion, that he will feel for a while as if he had
nothing more to ask. This satisfaction passes into expectation.
II. SPEECH TO GOD FOLLOWING UPON THE SILENCE. Silence before God
in which such thoughts as these go on leads to a stirring of the
soul, a forth-putting of endeavour, and a drawing near to God.
Silence before God heaps a load on the heart which can only be
thrown off
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by speaking to God. One thing after another brings fresh
penitence, new discovery of sin, new sense of the greatness of God;
new fears spring up, new resolutions gather, and all these weigh
very heavily. And much more than freedom from pressure will be
experienced. The convictions that gather in silence will be
strengthened by speech. If they did not find expression they would
begin to decay. In short, speaking to God of the things that have
lain on the soul in its silence is a necessity at once for relief,
for understanding, for intensity, for permanence, and for growth,
It would be a wrong inference to draw from this passage that one
ought not to speak to God without consciously going through these
stages of the text. There may be true speaking to God which seems
to break forth at once and immediately from the soul. It is not
always a bad sign when we feel that we cannot speak, but must be
silent before God. This state is not, indeed, to be prolonged. Nor
must it be a dull, dead, distant silence, but one that has its own
peculiar activities. Hasting to cut short the period of silence may
enervate and chill. The silence may be more acceptable to God for
the time than any words could be. We should expect times of silence
before Godtimes in which speaking to God is not indeed absent, but
in which silence is the dominating element. If it is a silence
before God, it is a leaving of space for God to speak, and surely
this is implied in communion. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
The silence of reverence
The silence of reverence is the soil in which earnestness and
energy grow. By this reverent silence resolution takes shape and
gathers force. Men gird up their energies afresh when in solemn
silence they have gone over the actualities and the possibilities
of life. Then with purpose and intensity they come near to God. (J.
Leckie, D. D.)
The relief of speech after silence
You may have seen a reservoir of water which, by continuous
rain, had become so full that it threatened to overflow all its
banks or burst themthe rain through days and nights had been
pouring on its broad bosom, and the brooks and rills from miles
around had been hurrying their foaming tributes into it, till the
ordinary small outlet is wholly unable to relieve the immense
pressure, and the very edge of ruin is reached, when, lo! the great
sluice is raised, and away rushes the pent-up flood in immense
volume. There is relief and safety at once. So is it with the
burdened soul on which silence before God has been laying load
after load, pressing and crushing it with memories, convictions,
fears, resolutions. Relief and freedom are gained by pouring out
the soul in words before God. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
Conviction aided by both silence and speech
In silence there is the rooting of conviction, but in speaking
to God its expansion and growth. When you have hyacinths in water
glasses, you put them first in darkness for some weeks till the
roots strike down into the water. You find that the roots have
spread and filled the glass, but there is scarcely a sign of growth
upward, the stalk remains undeveloped. Light is needed for that. So
speech to God is needed to raise and expand the feelings that have
been rooted in silence. (J. Leckie, D. D.)
9. EBC, GOD: AN ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY
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HAVING revealed Himself to His own people in chapter 40, Jehovah
now turns in chapter 41 to the heathen, but, naturally, with a very
different kind of address. Displaying His power to His people in
certain sacraments, both of nature and history, He had urged them
to "wait upon Him" alone for the salvation, of which there were as
yet no signs in the times. But with the heathen it is evidently to
these signs of the times, that He can best appeal. Contemporary
history, facts open to every mans memory and reason, is the common
ground on which Jehovah and the other gods can meet. Chapter 41 is,
therefore, the natural complement to chapter 40. In chapter 40 we
have the element in revelation that precedes history: in chapter 12
we have history itself explained as a part of revelation.
Chapter 41 is loosely cast in the same form of a Trial-at-Law
which we found in chapter 1 To use a Scotticism, which exactly
translates the Hebrew of Isa_41:1, Jehovah goes "to the law" with
the idols. His summons to the Trial is given in Isa_41:1; the
ground of the Trial is advanced in Isa_41:2-7. Then comes a
digression, Isa_41:8-20, in which the Lord turns from controversy
with the heathen to comfort His people. In Isa_41:21-29 Jehovahs
plea is resumed, and in the silence of the defendants-a silence,
which, as we shall presently see by calling in the witness of a
Greek historian, was actual fact-the argument is summed up and the
verdict given for the sole divinity of Israels God.
The main interest of the Trial lies, of course, in its appeal to
contemporary history, and to the central figure Cyrus, although it
is to be noted that the prophet as yet refrains from mentioning the
hero by name. This appeal to contemporary history lays upon us the
duty of briefly indicating, how the course of that history was
tending outside Babylon, -outside Babylon, as yet, but fraught with
fate both to Babylon and to her captives.
Nebuchadrezzar, although he had virtually succeeded to the
throne of the Assyrian, had not been able to repeat from Babylon
that almost universal empire, which his predecessors had swayed
from Nineveh. Egypt, it is true, was again as thoroughly driven
from Asia as in the time of Sargon: to the south the Babylonian
supremacy was as unquestioned as ever the Assyrian had been. But to
the north Nebuchadrezzar met with an almost equal rival, who had
helped him in the overthrow of Nineveh, and had fallen heir to the
Assyrian supremacy in that quarter. This was Kastarit or Kyaxares,
an Aryan, one of the pioneers of that Aryan invasion from the East,
which, though still tardy and sparse, was to be the leading force
in Western Asia for the next century. This Kyaxares had united
under his control a number of Median tribes, a people of Turanian
stock. With these, when Nineveh fell, he established to the north
of Nebuchadrezzars power the empire of Media, with its western
boundary at the river Halys, in Asia Minor, and its capital at
Ecbatana under Mount Elwand. It is said that the river Indus formed
his frontier to the east. West of the Halys, the Medes progress was
stopped by the Lydian Empire, under King Alyattis, whose capital
was Sardis, and whose other border was practically the coast of the
AEgean. In 585, or two years after the destruction of Jerusalem,
Alyattis and Kyaxares met in battle on the Halys. But the terrors
of an eclipse took the heart to fight out of both their armies,
and, Nebuchadrezzar intervening, the three monarchs struck a treaty
among themselves, and strengthened it by intermarriage. Western
Asia now virtually consisted of the confederate powers, Babylonia,
Media, and Lydia.
Let us realise how far this has brought us. When we stood with
Isaiah in Jerusalem, our western horizon lay across the middle of
Asia Minor in the longitude of Cyprus. It now rests upon the
Aegean; we are almost within sight of Europe. Straight from Babylon
to Sardis runs a road, with a regular service of couriers. The
court of Sardis holds domestic and political intercourse with the
courts of Babylon and Ecbatana; but the court of Sardis also lords
it over the Asiatic Greeks, worships at Greek shrines, will shortly
be visited by Solon and strike an alliance with Sparta. In the time
of the Jewish exile there were without doubt many Greeks in
Babylon; men may have spoken there with Daniel, who had spoken at
Sardis with Solon.
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This extended horizon makes clear to us what our prophet has in
his view, when in this forty-first chapter he summons "Isles" to
the bar of Jehovah: "Be silent before me, O Isles, and let Peoples
renew their strength,"-a vision and appeal which frequently recur
in our prophecy. "Listen, O Isles, and hearken, O Peoples from
afar"; (Isa_49:1) "Isles shall wait for His law"; (Isa_42:4) "Let
them give glory to Jehovah, and publish His praise in the Isles";
(Isa_42:12) "Unto me Isles shall hope"; (Isa_51:5) "Surely Isles
shall wait for me, ships of Tarshish first." The name is generally
taken by scholars-according to the derivation in the note below-to
have originally meant "habitable land," and so "land" as opposed to
water. In some passages of the Old Testament it is undoubtedly used
to describe a land either washed, or surrounded, by the sea.
But by our prophets use of the word it is not necessarily
"maritime provinces" that are meant. He makes isles parallel to the
well-known terms "nations, peoples, Gentiles," and in one passage
he opposes it, as dry soil, to water. Hence many translators take
it in its original sense of "countries or lands." This bare
rendering, however, does not do justice to the sense of
"remoteness," which the prophet generally attaches to the word, nor
to his occasional association of it with visions of the sea.
Indeed, as one reads most of his uses of it, one is quite sure that
the island-meaning of the word lingers on in his imagination; and
that the feeling possesses him, which has haunted the poetry of all
ages, to describe as "coasts" or "isles" any land or lighting-place
of thought which is far and dim and vague; which floats across the
horizon, or emerges from the distance, as strips and promontories
of land rise from the sea to him who has reached some new point of
view. I have therefore decided to keep the rendering familiar to
the English reader, "isles," though, perhaps, "coasts" would be
better. If, as is probable, our prophets thoughts are always
towards the new lands of the west as he uses the word, it is doubly
suitable; those countries were both maritime and remote; they rose
both from the distance and from the sea.
"The sprinkled isles, Lily on lily, that oerlace the sea
And laugh their pride, where the light wave lisps, Greece."
But if Babylonia lay thus open to Lydia, and through Lydia to
the "isles" and "coasts" of Greece, it was different with her
northern frontier. What strikes us here is the immense series of
fortifications, which Nebuchadrezzar, in spite of his alliance with
Astyages, cast up between his country and Media. Where the Tigris
and Euphrates most nearly approach one another, about seventy miles
to the north of Babylon, Nebuchadrezzar connected their waters by
four canals above which he built a strong bulwark, called by the
Greeks the Median wall. This may have been over sixty miles long;
Xenophon tells us it was twenty feet broad by one hundred high. At
Sippara this line of defence was completed by the creation of a
great bason of water to flood the rivers and canals on the approach
of an enemy, and of a large fortress to protect the bason. Alas for
the vanity of human purposes! It is said to have been this very
bason which caused the easy fall of Babylon. By turning the
Euphrates into it, the enemy entered the capital through the
emptied river-bed.
The triple alliance-Lydia, Media, Babylonia-stood firm after its
founders passed away. In 555, Croesus and Astyages, who had
succeeded their fathers at Sardis and Ecbatana respectively, and
Nabunahid, who had usurped the throne at Babylon, were still at
peace, and contented with the partition of 585. But outside them
and to the east, in a narrow nook of land at the head of the
Persian Gulf, the man was already crowned, who was destined to
bring Western Asia again under one sceptre. This was Kurush or
Cyrus II of Anzan, but known to history as Cyrus the Great or Cyrus
the Persian. Cyrus was a prince of the Akhaemenian house of Persia,
and therefore, like the Mede, an Aryan. but independent of his
Persian cousins, and ruling in his own right the little kingdom of
Anzan or Anshan, which, with its capital of Susan, lay on the
rivers Choaspes and Eulaeus, between the head of the Persian Gulf
and the Zagros Mountains.
-
Cyrus the Great is one of those mortals whom the muse of
history, as if despairing to do justice to him by herself, has
called in her sisters to aid her in describing to posterity. Early
legend and later and more elaborate romance; the schoolmaster, the
historian, the tragedian, and the prophet, all vie in presenting to
us this hero "le plus sympathique de lantiquite"-this king on whom
we see so deeply stamped the double signature of God, character and
success. We shall afterwards have a better opportunity to speak of
his character. Here we are only concerned to trace his rapid path
of conquest.
He sprang, then, from Anshan, the immediate neighbour of
Babylonia to the east. This is the direction indicated in the
second verse of this forty-first chapter (Isa_41:2): "Who hath
raised up one from the east?" But the twenty-fifth verse veers
round with him to the north (Isa_41:25): "I have raised up one from
the north, and he is come." This was actually the curve, from east
to north, which his career almost immediately took.
For in 549 Astyages, king of Media, attacked Cyrus, king of
Anshan; which means that Cyrus was already a considerable and an
aggressive prince. Probably he had united by this time the two
domains of his house, Persia and Anshan, under his own sceptre, and
secured as his lieutenant Hystaspes, his cousin, the lineal king of
Persia. The Mede, looking south and east from Ecbatana, saw a solid
front opposed to him, and resolved to crush it before it grew more
formidable. But the Aryans among the Medes, dissatisfied with so
indolent a leader as Astyages, revolted to Cyrus, and so the
latter, with characteristic good fortune, easily became lord of
Media. A lenient lord he made. He spared Astyages, and ranked the
Aryan Medes second only to the Persians. But it took him till 546
to complete his conquest. When he had done so he stood master of
Asia from the Halys to perhaps as far east as the Indus. He
replaced the Medes in the threefold power of Western Asia, and thus
looked down on Babylon, as verse 25 says, "from the north".
(Isa_41:25)
In 545, Cyrus advanced upon Babylonia, and struck at the
northern line of fortifications at Sippara. He was opposed by an
army under Belshazzar, Bel-sharuzzur, the son of Nabunahid, and
probably by his mothers side grandson of Nebuchadrezzar. Army or
fortifications seem to have been too much for Cyrus, and there is
no further mention of his name in the Babylonian annals till the
year 538. It has been suggested that Cyrus was aware of the
discontent of the people with their ruler Nabunahid, and, with that
genius which distinguished his whole career for availing himself of
the internal politics of his foes, he may have been content to wait
till the Babylonian dissatisfaction had grown riper, perhaps in the
meantime fostering it by his own emissaries.
In any case, the attention of Cyrus was now urgently demanded on
the western boundary of his empire, where Lydia was preparing to
invade him. Croesus, king of Lydia, fresh from the subjection of
the Ionian Greeks, and possessing an army and a treasure second to
none in the world, had lately asked of Solon, whether he was not
the most fortunate of men; and Solon had answered, to count no man
happy till his death, The applicability of this advice to himself
Croesus must have felt with a start, when, almost immediately after
it, the news came that his brother-in-law Astyages had fallen
before an unknown power, which was moving up rapidly from the east,
and already touched the Lydian frontier at the Halys. Croesus was
thrown into alarm. He eagerly desired to know Heavens will about
this Persian and himself, who now stood face to face. But, in that
heathen world, with its thousand shrines to different gods, who
knew the will of Heaven? In a fashion only possible to the richest
man in the world, Croesus resolved to discover, by sending a
test-question, on a matter of fact within his own knowledge, to
every oracle of repute: to the oracles of the Greeks at Miletus,
Delphi, Able; to that of Trophonius; to the sanctuary of Amphiaraus
at Thebes; to Dodona; and even to the far-off temple of Ammon in
Libya. The oracles of Delphi and Amphiaraus alone sent an answer
which in the least suggested the truth. "To the gods of Delphi and
Amphiaraus, Croesus, therefore, offered great sacrifices, -
-
three thousand victims of every kind; and on a great pile of
wood he burned couches plated with gold and silver, golden goblets,
purple robes and garments, in the hope that he would thereby gain
the favour of the god yet more And as the sacrifice left behind an
enormous mass of molten gold, Croesus caused bricks to be made, six
palms in length, three in breadth and one in depth; in all there
were 117 bricks. In addition there was a golden lion which weighed
ten talents. When these were finished, Croesus sent them to Delphi;
and he added two very large mixing bowls, one of gold, weighing
eight talents and a half and twelve minae, and one of silver (the
work of Theodorus of Samos, as the Delphians say, and I believe it,
for it is the work of no ordinary artificer), four silver jars, and
two vessels for holy water, one of gold, the other of silver,
circular casts of silver, a golden statue of a woman three cubits
high, and the necklace and girdles of his queen." We can
understand, that for all this Croesus got the best advice
consistent with the ignorance and caution of the priests whom he
consulted. The oracles told him that if he went against Cyrus he
would destroy a great empire; but he forgot to ask, whether it was
his own or his rivals. When he inquired a second time, if his reign
should be long, they replied: "When a mule became king of the
Medes," then he might fly from his throne; but again he forgot to
consider that there might be mules among men as among beasts. At
the same time, the oracles tempered their ambiguous prophecies with
some advice of undoubted sense, for when he asked them who were the
most powerful among the Greeks, they replied the Spartans, and to
Sparta he sent messengers with presents to conclude an alliance.
"The Lacedaemonians were filled with joy; they knew the oracle
which had been given Croesus, and made him a friend and ally, as
they had previously received many kindnesses at his hands."
This glimpse into the preparations of Croesus, whose embassies
compassed the whole civilised world, and whose wealth got him all
that politics or religion could, enables us to realise the
political and religious excitement into which Cyprus advent threw
that generation. The oracles in doubt and ambiguous; the priests,
the idol-manufacturers, and the crowd of artisans, who worked in
every city at the furniture of the temple, in a state of unexampled
activity, with bustle perhaps most like the bustle of our
government dockyards on the eve of war: hammering new idols
together, preparing costly oblations, overhauling the whole
religious "ordnance," that the gods might be propitiated and the
stars secured to fight in their courses against the Persian; rival
politicians practising conciliation, and bolstering up one another
with costly presents to stand against this strange and fatal force,
which indifferently threatened them all. What a commentary
Herodotus story furnishes upon the verses of this chapter, in which
Jehovah contrasts the idols with Himself. It may actually have been
Croesus and the Greeks whom the prophet had in his mind when he
wrote Isa_41:5-7 : "The isles have seen, and they fear; the ends of
the earth tremble: they draw near and they come. They help every
man his neighbour, and to his brother each sayeth, Be strong. So
carver encourageth smelter, smoother with hammer, smiter on anvil;
one saith of soldering, It is good: and he fasteneth it with nails
lest it totter. "The irony is severe, but true to the facts as
Herodotus relates them. The statesmen hoped to keep back Cyrus by
sending sobbing messages to one another, Be of good courage; the
priests "by making a particularly good and strong set of gods."
While the imbecility of the idolatries was thus manifest, and
the great religious centres of heathendom were reduced to utter
doubt that veiled itself in ambiguity and waited to see how things
would issue, there was one religion in the world, whose oracles
gave no uncertain sound, whose God stepped boldly forth to claim
Cyrus for His own. In the dust of Babylonia lay the scattered
members of a nation captive and exiled, a people civilly dead and
religiously degraded; yet it was the faith of this worm of a people
which welcomed and understood Cyrus, it was the God of this people
who claimed to be his author. The forty-first chapter looks dreary
and ancient to the uninstructed eye, but let our imagination
realise all these things: the ambiguous priests, oracles that would
not speak out, religions that had no articulate counsel nor comfort
in face of the conqueror who was crushing up the world before him,
but only sobs, solder, and nails; and
-
our heart will leap as we hear how God forces them all into
judgment before Him, and makes His plea as loud and clear as mortal
ear may hear. Clatter of idols, and murmur of muffled oracles,
filling all the world; and then, hark how the voice of Jehovah
crashes His oracle across it all!
"Keep silence towards Me, O Isles, and let the peoples renew
their strength: let them approach; then let them speak: to the Law
let us come."
"Who hath stirred up from the sunrise Righteousness, calleth it
to his foot? He giveth to his face peoples, and kings He makes him
to trample; giveth them as dust to his sword, as driven stubble to
his bow. He pursues them, and passes to peace a road that he comes
not with his feet. Who has wrought it and done it? Summoner of
generations from the source, I Jehovah the First, and with the
Last; I am He."
Croesus would have got a clear answer here, but it is probable
that he had never heard of the Hebrews or of their God.
After this follows the satiric picture of the heathen world,
which has already been quoted. And then, after an interval during
which Jehovah turns to His own people (Isa_41:8-20), -for whatever
be His business or His controversy, the Lord is mindful of His own,
-He directs His speech specially against the third class of the
leaders of heathendom. He has laughed the foolish statesmen and
image-makers out of court (Isa_41:5-7); He now challenges, in
Isa_41:21, the oracles and their priests.
We have seen what these were, which this vast heathen
world-heathen but human, convinced as we are that at the back of
the worlds life there are a secret, a counsel, and a governor, and
anxious as we are to find them - had to resort to. Timid waiters
upon time, whom not even the lavish wealth of a Croesus could tempt
from their ambiguity; prophets speechless in face of history;
oracles of meaning as dark and shifty as their steamy caves at
Delphi, of tune as variable as the whispering oak of Dodona;
wily-tongued Greeks, masters of ambiguous phrase, at Miletus, Able,
and Thebes; Egyptian mystics in the far-off temple of "Lybic
Hammon,"-these are what the prophet sees standing at the bar of
history, where God is Challenger.
"Bring here your case, saith Jehovah; apply your strong grounds,
saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring out and declare unto us
what things are going to happen; the first things announce what
they are, that we may set our heart on them, and know the issue of
them; or the things that are coming, let us hear them. Announce the
things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are
gods. Yea, do good or do evil, that we may stare and see it
together. Lo! ye are nothing, and your work is of nought; an
abomination is he who chooseth you."
Which great challenge just means, Come and be tested by facts.
Here is history needing an explanation, and running no one knows
whither. Prove your divinity by interpreting or guiding it. Cease
your ambiguities, and give us something we can set our minds to
work upon. Or do something, effect something in history, be it good
or be it evil, -only let it be patent to our senses. For the test
of godhead is not ingenuity or mysteriousness, but plain deeds,
which the senses can perceive, and plain words, which the reason
and conscience can judge. The insistence upon the senses and mental
faculties of man is remarkable: "Make us hear them, that we may
know, stare, see all together, set our mind to them."
But as we have learned from Herodotus, there was nobody in the
world to answer such a challenge. Therefore Jehovah Himself answers
it. He gives His explanation of history, and claims its events for
His doing.
-
"I have stirred up from the north, and he. hath come; from the
rising of the sun one who calleth upon My Name: and he shall
trample satraps like mortar, and as the potter treadeth out
clay."
"Who hath announced on-ahead that we may know, and beforehand
that we may say, Right! Yea, there is none that announced, yea,
there is none that published, yea, there is none that heareth your
words. But a prediction" (or predicter, literally a thing or man
on-ahead-rishon corresponding to the me-rosh of Isa_41:26) "a
prediction to Zion, Behold, behold them, and to Jerusalem a herald
of good news-I am giving." The language here comes forth in jerks,
and is very difficult to render. "But I look and there is no man
even among these, and no counsellor, that I might ask them and they
return word. Lo, all of them vanity! and nothingness their works;
wind and waste their molten images."
Let us look a little more closely at the power of Prediction, on
which Jehovah maintains His unique and sovereign Deity against the
idols.
Jehovah challenges the idols to face present events, and to give
a clear, unambiguous forecast of their issue. It is a debatable
question, whether He does not also ask them to produce previous
predictions of events happening at the time at which He speaks.
This latter demand is one that He makes in subsequent chapters; it
is part of His prophets argument in chapters 45-46, that Jehovah
intimated the advent of Cyrus by His servants in Israel long before
the present time. Whether He makes this same demand for previous
predictions in chapter 41 depends on how we render a clause of
Isa_41:22, "declare ye the former things." Some scholars take
former things in the sense, in which it is used later on in this
prophecy, of previous predictions. This is very doubtful. I have
explained in a note, why I think them wrong; but even if they are
right, and Jehovah be really asking the idols to produce former
predictions of Cyrus career, the demand is so cursory, it proves so
small an item in His plea, and we shall afterwards find so many
clearer statements of it, that we do better to ignore it now and
confine ourselves to emphasising the other challenge, about which
there is no doubt, -the challenge to take present events and
predict their issue. Croesus had asked the oracles for a forecast
of the future. This is exactly what Jehovah demands in Isa_41:22,
"declare unto us what things are going to happen"; in Isa_41:23,
"declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know
that ye are gods"; in Isa_41:26 (spoken from the standpoint of the
subsequent fulfilment of the prediction), who declared it on-ahead
that we may know, and beforehand that we may now say, "Right! Yea,
there is none that declared, yea, there is none that published,
yea, there is none that heareth your words. But a prediction unto
Zion, Behold, behold them, and to Jerusalem a herald of good news-I
give." I give is emphatically placed at the end, -"I Jehovah alone,
through My prophets in Israel, give such a prediction and publisher
of good news."
We scarcely require to remind ourselves, that this great
challenge and plea are not mere rhetoric or idle boasting. Every
word in them we have seen to be true to fact. The heathen religions
were, as they are here represented, helpless before Cyrus, and dumb
about the issue of the great movements which the Persian had
started. On the other hand, Jehovah had uttered to His people all
the meaning of the new stir and turmoil in history. We have heard
Him do so in chapter 40. There He "gives a herald of good news to
Jerusalem,"-tells them of their approaching deliverance, explains
His redemptive purposes, proclaims a gospel. In addition, He has in
this chapter accepted Cyrus for His own creation and as part of His
purpose, and has promised him victory.
The God of Israel, then, is God, because He alone by His
prophets claims facts as they stand for His own deeds, and
announces what shall become of them.
Do not let us, however, fall into the easy but vulgar error of
supposing, that Jehovah claims to be God simply because He can
predict. It is indeed prediction, which He demands from the
-
heathen: for prediction is a minimum of godhead, and in asking
it He condescends to the heathens own ideas of what a god should be
able to do. When Croesus, the heathen who of all that time spent
most upon religion, sought to decide which of the gods was
worthiest to be consulted about the future and propitiated in face
of Cyrus, what test did be apply to them? As we have seen, he
tested them by their ability to predict a matter of fact: the god
who told him what he, Croesus, should be doing on a certain day was
to be his god. It is evident, that, to Croesus, divinity meant to
be able to divine. But the God, who reveals Himself to Israel, is
infinitely greater than this. He is not merely a Being with a far
sight into the future; He is not only Omniscience. In the chapter
preceding this one His power of prediction is not once expressed;
it is lost in the two glories by which alone the prophet seeks to
commend His Godhead to Israel, -the glory of His power and the
glory of His faithfulness. Jehovah is Omnipotence, Creator of
heaven and earth; He leads forth the stars by "the greatness of His
might"; Supreme Director of history, it is He "who bringeth princes
to nothing." But Jehovah is also unfailing character: "the word of
the Lord standeth for ever"; it is foolishness to say of Him that
He has forgotten His people, or that "their right has passed" from
Him; He disappoints none who wait upon Him. Such is the God, who
steps down from chapter 40 into the controversy with the heathen in
chapter 41. If in the latter He chiefly makes His claim to godhead
to rest upon specimens of prediction, it is simply, as we have
said, that He may meet the gods of the heathen before a bar and
upon a principle, which their worshippers recognise as practical
and decisive. What were single predictions, here and there, upon
the infinite volume of His working, who by His power could gather
all things to serve His own purpose, and in His faithfulness
remained true to that purpose from everlasting to everlasting! The
unity of history under One Will-this is a far more adequate idea of
godhead than the mere power to foretell single events in history.
And it is even to this truth that Jehovah seeks to raise the
unaccustomed thoughts of the heathen. Past the rude wonder, which
is all that fulfilled predictions of fact can excite, He lifts
their religious sense to Himself and His purpose, as the one secret
and motive of all history. He not only claims Cyrus and Cyrus
career as His own work, but He speaks of Himself as "summoner of
the generations from aforehand; I Jehovah, the First, and with the
Last; I am He," It is a consummate expression of godhead, which
lifts us far above the thought of Him as a mere divining power.
Now, it is well for us-were it only for the great historic
interest of the thing, though it will also further our argument-to
take record here that, although this conception of the unity of
life under One Purpose and Will was still utterly foreign, and
perhaps even unintelligible, to the heathen world, which the
prophecy has in view, the first serious attempt in that world to
reach such a conception was contemporary with the forty-first
chapter of Isaiah. It is as miners feel, when tunnelling from
opposite sides of a mountain, they begin to hear the noise of each
others picks through the dwindling rock. We, who have come down the
history of Israel towards the great consummation of religion in
Christianity, may here cease for a moment our labours, to listen to
the faint sound from the other side of the wall, still separating
Israel from Greece, of a witness to God and an argument against
idolatry similar to those with which we have been working. Who is
not moved by learning, that, in the very years when Jewish prophecy
reached its most perfect statement of monotheism, pouring its scorn
upon the idols and their worshippers, and in the very Isles on
which its hopes and influence were set, the first Greek should be
already singing, who used his song to satirise the mythologies of
his people, and to celebrate the unity of God? Among the Ionians,
whom Cyrus invasion of Lydia and of the Aegean coast in 544 drove
across the seas, was Xenophanes of Colophon. After some wanderings
he settled at Elea in South Italy, and became the founder of the
Eleatic school, the first philosophic attempt of the Greek mind to
grasp the unity of Being. How far Xenophanes himself succeeded in
this attempt is a matter of controversy. The few fragments of his
poetry which are extant do not reveal him as a philosophical
monotheist, so much as a prophet of "One greatest God." His
language (like that of
-
the earlier Hebrew prophets in praising Jehovah) apparently
implies the real existence of lesser divinities:-
"One God, mongst both gods and men He is greatest
Neither in shape is He like unto mortals nor thought."
Xenophanes scorns the anthropomorphism of his countrymen, and
the lawless deeds which their poets had attributed to the
gods:-
"Mortals think the gods can be born, have their feelings, voice,
and form; but, could horses or oxen draw like men, they too would
make their gods after their own image."
"All things did Homer and Hesiod lay on the gods,
Such as with mortals are full of blame and disgrace,
To steal and debauch and outwit one another."
Our prophet, to whose eyes Gentile religiousness was wholly of
the gross Croesus kind, little suspected that he had an ally, with
such kindred tempers of faith and scorn, among the very peoples to
whom he yearns to convey his truth. But ages after, when Israel and
Greece had both issued into Christianity, the service of Xenophanes
to the common truth was recounted by two Church writers-by Clement
of Alexandria in his "Stromata," and by Eusebius the historian in
his "Praeparatio Evangelica."
We find, then, that monotheism had reached its most absolute
expression in Israel in the same decade in which the first efforts
towards the conception of the unity of Being were just starting in
Greece. But there is something more to be stated. In spite of the
splendid progress, which it pursued from such beginnings, Greek
philosophy never reached the height on which, with Second Isaiah,
Hebrew prophecy already rests; and the reason has to do with two
points on which we are now engaged, -the omnipotence and the
righteousness of God.
Professor Pfleiderer remarks: "Even in the idealistic philosophy
of the Greeks matter remains, however sublimated, an irrational
something, with which the Divine power can never come to terms. It
was only in the consciousness, which the prophets of Israel had of
God, that the thought of the Divine omnipotence fully prevailed."
We cannot overvalue such high and impartial testimony to the
uniqueness of the Hebrew doctrine of God, but it needs to be
supplemented. To the prophets sense of the Divine onmipotence, we
must add their unrivalled consciousness of the Divine character. To
them Jehovah is not only the Holy, the incomparable God, almighty
and sublime. He is also the true, consistent God. He has a great
purpose, which He has revealed of old to His people, and to which
he remains forever faithful. To express this the Hebrews had one
word, -the word we translate righteous. We should often miss our
prophets meaning, if by righteousness we understood some of the
qualities to which the term is often applied by us: if, for
instance, we used it in the general sense of morality, or if we
gave it the technical meaning, which it bears in Christian
theology, of justification from guilt. We shall afterwards devote a
chapter to the exposition of its meaning in Second Isaiah, but let
us here look at its use in chapter 41. In Isa_41:26, it is applied
to the person whose prediction turns out to be correct: men are to
say of him "right" or "righteous." Here it is evident that the
Hebrew-ssaddiq-is used in its simplest meaning, like the Latin
rectus, and our "right" of what has been shown to be in accordance
with truth or fact. In Isa_41:2, again, though the syntax is
obscure, it seems to have the general sense of "good faith with the
ability to ensure success." Righteousness is here associated with
Cyrus, because he has not been called for nothing but in good faith
for a purpose which will be carried through. Jehovahs
righteousness, then, will be His trueness, His good faith, His
consistency; and indeed this is the sense which it must evidently
bear in Isa_41:10. Take it with the context: "But thou, Israel, My
servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, seed of Abraham who loved Me,
whom I took hold of from the ends of the earth and its corners,
-
I called thee and said unto thee, Thou art My servant. I have
chosen thee, and will not cast thee away. Fear not, for I am with
thee. Look not round in despair, for I am thy God. I will
strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee
with the right hand of My righteousness." Here righteousness
evidently means that Jehovah will act in good faith to the people
He has called, that He will act consistently with His anciently
revealed purpose towards them. Hitherto Israel has had nothing but
the memory that God called them, and the conscience that He chose
them. Now Jehovah will vindicate this conscience in outward fact.
He will carry through His calling of His people, and perform His
promise. How He will do this, He proceeds to relate. Israels
enemies shall become as nothing (Isa_41:11-12). Israel himself,
though a poor worm of a people, shall be changed to the utmost
conceivable opposite of a worm-even "a sharp threshing instrument
having teeth"-a people who shall leave their mark on the world.
They shall overcome all difficulties and "rejoice in Jehovah."
Their redemption shall be accomplished in a series of evident
facts. "The poor and the needy are seeking water, and there is
none, their tongue faileth for thirst; I, Jehovah, will answer
them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them." And this shall be
done on such a scale, that all the wor