No. 2.
IN chapter 28 the final history of Israel is referred to. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, will be trodden under feet; while in that day the Lord of hosts will be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people. (verse 5.) The rulers in Jerusalem, scornful men, make an agreement with death and hell, to escape the overflowing scourge; but their refugee are found to be false. God has laid in the Messiah the only and sure foundation, a tried stone, and safety is alone in believing on Him. (verses 14-18.) The fact is that God is wroth, and He will distress Jerusalem, and they shall be brought down, and visited of the Lord of hosts in judgment; while deep sleep shall be poured upon the people, and their eyes closed. (29:1-10.) Their blindness and unbelief are manifested in chapters 30, in going down into Egypt for help instead of to Jehovah, and in despising the word of the Lord (verses 2-12), which iniquity brings further judgment. The end, however, is always bright for the people and the land. “Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field?... The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.... Those also that erred in spirit shall come to understanding, and they that mourned shall learn doctrine.” (chapters 29:17-26.) “Then shall He give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.... And there shall be, upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold,” &c. There will be judgments, as always, in connection with Israel’s time of blessing, as we have here, for He will show the indignation of His anger, when the Assyrian shall be beaten down; and fire and brimstone, and the deep and large pile, are prepared for the false and willful king. (chapters 30:23-33.)
Chapter 31 again sets forth Jehovah’s displeasure with those who go down to Egypt for help, shows His deep interest in Jerusalem, while He enjoins the people to turn to Him, from whom they have deeply revolted, when they will each cast away their idols, the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, and everything shall be established in Messiah’s hands, the King who shall reign in righteousness. (chapters 32)
In chapter 33 two classes are found—sinners, and the remnant who walk righteously, who will dwell on high, and see the Messiah when He appears in royal beauty, when Jerusalem shall be “a quiet habitation, a tabernacle which shall not be taken down.” “But there the glorious Lord shall be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars.... For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us.” So full of blessing will the people be as not only to have their iniquities forgiven, but delivered from bodily sickness. (chapter 33:14-24.)
Chapter 34 gives the Lord’s judgment of the nations who have oppressed Israel. It is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. This is followed in the next chapter by “the ransomed of the Lord” returning to Zion with songs and everlasting joy—millennial glory—when blessing will flow out from them to the wilderness and the solitary place. (chapter 35)
The next four chapters (36–39) give us the blasphemous king setting himself against the son of David, God’s people, and the holy city; which calls out the faith of the faithful, when, after being sustained by the prophetic word, God appears for their deliverance, and for the overthrow of their enemies by judgment from heaven. No doubt a striking picture of the willful king and the faithful remnant in the time of Jacob’s trouble. It will be encouraging, too, to the remnant to wait on God, and hope in Him, in that time of unparalleled blasphemy and affliction. The marvelous raising up of Hezekiah, the son of David, from being as good as dead, may set forth the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, by whom all Israel’s future blessings will be established.
The fortieth chapter begins the second part of the prophet’s writing. From it to the end of the forty-eighth chapter God expostulates with the people about the folly and wickedness of idolatry. He declares that “all flesh is as grass,” and that it passes away like the flower of the field, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Yet God still owns His people. He says, “Israel is my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.” He declares His readiness to help and uphold them, and that He will not forsake the poor and needy (the remnant), but open rivers in high places. (chapter 41:8-18.) This is very touching. In chapter 42 blessing is promised through Messiah, who will open blind eyes, and bring the prisoners out of the prison. He again charges them in chapter 43 not to fear, because they are His, and declares that He will be with them, and bring them through fire and through water; and though they have been weary of Him, and turned from Him, yet for His own sake He will blot out their transgressions, and will not remember their sins. But being His chosen, how could they fall down to idols of wood and graven images! Yet, notwithstanding all these things, God still declares that Israel is His servant, shall not be forgotten of Him, and that He has blotted out their sins as a thick cloud, and their transgressions as a cloud. (chapter 44) He speaks also of the remnant as “mine elect;” and though the makers of idols will go to confusion, yet “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.” (chapter 45:4, 16, 17.)
In chapter 46 the idolatry of the transgressors is exposed, while “the remnant” (verse 3) are assured of Jehovah’s unchanging faithfulness. Chapter 47 records the judgment of Babylon; and in chapter 48 the inspired prophet expostulates with the house of Israel because of their unfaithfulness, declaring that Jehovah for His own praise defers His anger, and refrains from cutting them off. He bids them to come near unto Him, their Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, while He reminds them of the vast blessings they have lost by not hearkening to His word. The chapter concludes with the declaration that. “There is no peace to the wicked.”