No. 3.
THE forty-ninth chapter shows us Messiah rejected. Though Jehovah’s “servant was to bring Jacob again to Him,” yet He says, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for naught;” and adds, “Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of Jehovah, and my God shall be my strength. And He said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (verses 3-6.) Observe, we have not the Church here, but the circle of blessing extended from Israel to the Gentiles, as it will be in millennial times.
Chapter fifty pronounces Israel to be divorced, put away; the Messiah suffering from the people, giving His back to the smiters, &c.; and the remnant—those who fear the Lord—exhorted to trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon His God. The followers of righteousness are then assured of future blessing, through the mercy and power of Jehovah. (chapter 51)
In chapter fifty-two, though Messiah’s “visage was more marred than any man,” yet “He shall be exalted,” and “kings shall shut their mouths at Him.”
In chapter fifty-three atonement is set before us through Messiah’s death. We have His burial, too, in the grave of the rich, and many justified by His work; but He shall yet see of the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. The elect of Israel will by and by utter the language of this chapter. As a consequence of the atoning work, Israel is richly and abundantly blessed, and called on to rejoice; for the people now desolate will have many more children and richer blessings than Israel before the divorcement, when she was the married wife. (chapter 54:1, &c) They are, therefore, called on to hear Jehovah’s word, and receive His gracious blessing freely, “without money and without price.” (chapter 55) Then Jehovah’s house of prayer will not be restricted to Israel, but be “for all nations,” even for the strangers that join themselves to the Lord, who shall be joyful in His house of prayer. (chapter 56) The righteous, then, who are true-hearted, may perish at this time, but they are taken from the evil to come. But the wicked are dealt with in judgment; for they are like the troubled waters, casting up mire and dirt; and again the divine testimony is, “There is no peace to the wicked.” (chapter 67) The seed of Jacob must be told their sins. The hypocrisy of those who pretended to serve the Lord is set forth, the true character of service enjoined, and the blessings accompanying it. (chapter 58) Notwithstanding, however, all their failure and ruin, and that they had no intercessor, Jehovah’s arm was not shortened; He would interfere and recompense their enemies, so that His name should be feared from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. “The Redeemer, too, shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” (chapter 59)
Then the sixtieth chapter gives the most blessed account of Israel’s glory in that day, when Zion shall be an eternal excellency, the joy of many generations; when “the people shall be all righteous, and they shall inherit the land forever.”
In the next chapter (61) Christ Himself is seen as personally bringing in blessing upon His people. To those who will mourn at the sight of Him, He will give the oil of joy and the garment of praise. The old wastes shall be built, and former desolations repaired; strangers shall feed their flocks; they shall be named the priests of the Lord, and everlasting joy shall be unto them. He will direct their work in truth, make an everlasting covenant with them, and cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Then they shall have a new name, be a crown of glory in Jehovah’s hand, and a royal diadem in the hand of their God. They shall no more be termed forsaken, nor the land desolate; “for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. They shall be called, The holy people, The redeemed of the Lord: Sought out; A city not forsaken. (chapter 62) These are some of the blessings Israel will be brought into when “the Redeemer shall come to Zion.”
In chapter 63:1-6, the Lord is seen returning from Bozrah, as having executed judgment in fury and anger upon His living enemies; for while it is the acceptable year of the Lord as concerns His redeemed, it is the day of vengeance and indignation of the Lord upon His enemies. The gracious sympathy of the Lord with His people is most touchingly alluded to, rebellious as they had been— “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (verse 9.)
From verse 15 to end of chapter sixty-four the earnest pleadings of the remnant with Jehovah for deliverance in their distress, because they were His, are recorded in the most affecting way, as, no doubt, the two last chapters of this book give us Jehovah’s answer. They entreat Jehovah, though even Abraham did not know them, and Israel—their own brethren in the flesh—are so led away as not to acknowledge them, to “look down from heaven,” to “return,” to “rend the heavens and come down,” to “be not wroth very sore,” for we are all thy people. They appeal, too, on the ground of the temple being destroyed— “Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Jehovah? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?”
As we have said, God answers this appeal in the sixty-fifth and sixty-sixth chapters, where the remnant is remarkably distinguished from the wicked in Israel. God begins by informing them that the Gentiles had turned to Him, but that to them he had been spreading out His hands all the day, as to a rebellious people, who provoked Him to anger with their sins. (verse 5.) He declares that He must execute judgment and recompense for such things: “Ye are they that forsake the Lord.... Therefore, will I number you to the sword, and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter: because when I called, ye did not answer; when I spake, ye did not bear; but did evil before mine eyes, and did choose that wherein I delighted not.” (verses 11, 12.) The remnant, however, shall be blessed. “I will bring forth out of Jacob, and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a place for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought me.” The remnant are characterized as poor in spirit and trembling at His word. Upon “this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word ... Hear the word of Jehovah, ye that tremble at His word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let Jehovah be glorified: but HE SHALL APPEAR to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.” (chapters 66:2, 5.)
The faithful are assured that a new order of things shall be established, when the former troubles shall be forgotten, and Jerusalem shall be created a rejoicing, and her people a joy. “The voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her. There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days; but the sinner an hundred years old shall be accursed.” Creation, too, as we saw in the eleventh chapter, shall be delivered from its groanings; and as the serpent was pronounced in Genesis 3:1414And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: (Genesis 3:14) to be “cursed above all cattle,” so at that time we see that “dust shall be the serpent’s meat.” (Chap. 65.) We are afterwards told that “a nation shall be born at once;” and Jehovah declares, “I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall see my glory. And from one new moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come and worship before me, saith Jehovah.” Thu people of Israel shall be gathered out of the nations, and brought on horses, mules, and litters, to Jerusalem, and their blessing shall be as permanent as the new heavens and the new earth. “For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain.” (chapters 66:8, 18, 20, 22.)