How strong the contrast of His word by Isaiah in his great continuous discourse! All flesh is grass. The word of our God stands forever. And He it is who is coming, who is a tender Shepherd to His people, though the Maker and the Master of all the universe. Who will teach Him? What are the nations or the idols they have made? To Israel He speaks, who knows the end from the beginning, and He it is who acts above the powers He employs to chasten or deliver. “Produce your cause, saith Jehovah; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth and declare unto us what shall happen; let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them; or declare unto 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” (Isa. 41:21-2421Produce your cause, saith the Lord; bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob. 22Let them bring them forth, and show us what shall happen: let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or declare us things for to come. 23Show 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. 24Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you. (Isaiah 41:21‑24)). “Behold, the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them” (chap. 42:9). True prophecy is His claim and it is an abiding one.
“Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee from the womb, I am Jehovah that maketh all things; that alone stretcheth forth the heavens; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself (or who is with me?); that frustrateth the tokens of the liars (or boasters), and maketh diviners mad; that turneth wise men backwards and maketh their knowledge foolish; that comfirmeth the word of his servant and performeth the counsel of his messengers; that saith to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited; and to the cities of Judah, Ye shall be built and I will raise up the decayed places thereof; that saith to the deep, Be dry and I will dry up thy rivers; that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid” (chap. 44: 24-28).
“Declare ye and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath showed this from ancient time? Who hath declared it of old? Have not I, Jehovah? And there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me” (45:21). “Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is none else; I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure; calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed, I will also do it” (chap. 46:9-11). “I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my-mouth and I showed them; I did them suddenly and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou art obstinate and thy neck as an iron sinew and thy brow brass, I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass, I showed it thee; lest thou shouldst say, Mine idol hath done them and my graven image and my molten image hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see all this and will ye not declare it? I have showed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning, and before this day thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say, Behold, I knew them” (chap. 48:3-7).
These citations from a single prophet suffice to prove what stress God lays on that communication of the future which modern criticism seeks to belittle or deny; and Christians beguiled by its assurance are willing, yea, anxious to throw it into the background so as to render prophecy indistinct and powerless. No believer need shrink from the demand of a notable skeptic in his Creed of Christendom: to mark (r) What the event was to which the alleged prediction was intended to refer; (2) That the prediction was uttered in specific, not vague, language before the event; (3) That the event took place specifically, not loosely, as predicted; (4) That it could not have been foreseen by human sagacity. Take the following predictions of Christ as they are given in the Revised Version: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (chap. 7:14). “Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait for the LORD that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath throughout given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts which dwelleth in Mount Zion” (chap. 8:16-18). “In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time hath he made it glorious by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (chap. 9:1, 2). “And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock of Jesse and a branch out of his roots shall bear fruit; and the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD,” etc. (11:1-3). “Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone of sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste” (chap. 28:16).
Let us turn now to the later testimonies briefly.
“Behold my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment in truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law” (chap. 42:1-4). “And he said unto me, Thou art my servant, Israel; in whom I will be glorified. But I said, I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught and vanity: yet surely my judgment is with the LORD and my recompense with my God. And now, saith the LORD, that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob to him, and that Israel be gathered with him (for I am honorable in the eyes of the LORD and my God is become my strength). Yea, He saith, It is too light a 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 ends of the earth. Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, [and] his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, whom the nation abhorreth,” etc. (49:3-7).
“The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of them that are taught, that I should know how to sustain with words him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as they that are taught. The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away backward. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord GOD will help me therefore have I not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? Let us stand up together; who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD will help me: who is he that shall condemn me?” (chap. 1:4-9).
“Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high. Like as many were astonied at thee (his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men), so shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him; for that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not heard shall they consider” (chap. 52:13-15).
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the LORD been revealed? For he grew up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their face he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet he humbled himself and opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea, he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who among them considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living? for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And they made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief; when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied; by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out his soul unto death: and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (chap. 53:1-12).
“Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee” (chap. 55:3-5).
“The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,” etc. (chap. 61: 1, 2). “I am inquired of by them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people,” etc. (chap. 65:1,2).
Comment is almost needless. The passages speak for themselves, and can apply to none but the Lord Jesus: His birth as unique as His ministry, in the least likely sphere; His followers associated with Him during Israel's non-recognition by Jehovah; the lineage of which He was born no less than the power of the Holy Spirit that rested on Him beyond any of the sons of men; His person, peculiarly put to the proof, and a foundation for the believer as none other was or could be; the delight of Jehovah, the meekest in Israel, yet righteously blessing the Gentiles in the face of all opposition; nor this only, but when owning His apparent failure through Jewish unbelief and rejection, having the promise from Jehovah to be a light of the nations. And what can incredulity do, but gnash its teeth at Isa. 50; 52:13- chap. 53? The suffering Messiah alone answers to the prophetic picture. Here there can be no possible pretense for imagining, as in the case of Cyrus, a sign on the horizon. For, as the prophet wrote indisputably many centuries before His advent, so the events intended are unmistakably, specially and exclusively verified in the Lord Jesus; and this from His birth to the grave, yea, beyond it, to His resurrection, and the work that occupies Him now in heaven, His intercession, as well as that which He carries on by His servants on earth, even to the call of the Gentiles and the rebellion of the Jews. Hence the notion of human sagacity foreseeing all, or most, or any from first to last, is unreasonable in the highest degree. Even the blindness of Israel that withstood the light in Him who has blessed, who is blessing, once besotted heathen, is a distinct trait of the prophecy; as it has its counterpart now in Christendom where men receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved. Nay, more, part remains to be fulfilled in His earthly exaltation, which is incompatible with His present work, both in executing judgment, and in establishing His glory in power over all the earth.
It is allowed that there is One who is the true object of prophecy, being man in His sufferings and temptations, God in His holiness no less than His strength and power. We see, says one, how His resurrection and ascension into heaven are its entire fulfillment. All the promises of God in Him are yea, and through Him, Amen. But as to all others the language could not be literally accomplished: firstly, because it was not properly applicable, to any earthly nation from the imperfection of all human things; and secondly, because even that character of imperfect good or evil which made certain nations the representatives of the principles of good and evil themselves, was not and could not be perpetual. As every people changes for better or worse in time, the prophecy could not be fulfilled at all, as in the case of Jonah's prophecy of Nineveh's destruction. In all cases the fulfillment will fall short of the full strength of the language, because in its proper scope and force it was aimed at a more unmixed good and evil than have ever been exhibited in the character of any earthly people. Hence is deduced, as the general principle of interpretation, a uniform historical or lower sense, and also a spiritual or higher, almost involved necessarily in the very idea of prophecy.
(To be continued)