Coincident with this state of sinfulness, in which the peoiile were |)lunged, was the second fact from which Isaiah's prophecies stArted. The power of Assyria rose on the iioliticjil horizon, threatening the destruction of all the principalities of I'uUs- tine. There had lieen .Vsiyrian campaigns in N. Syria since H70. Damiuscus liad fallen before one of them in 803, and her forces bad sullered another
•Th»t JudAh WM tqually «lnful with N. lunusl. In Iloith'a rrjfwrd, kpiK-ara nnl only Irotn eh. 1. from wlmtovcr d»l« Ihii
{)rooccd8, hut in the InautoinU Msion ' |>t-optf of unolcAD lip*' »), aud !>■ " wlyira ia r.» at lM»t Ju<Uh U mout.
defeat in 773. Then came a pause of nearly thirty years. But in 74.5, or at least five years before Isaiah's call to prophesy, Tiglath-pileser III., a soldier of great energy, usurped the Assyrian throne, and set in motion a more vigorous ijolicy towards I'ulcstiiie. The siege of Arji.id and the subjugation of Babj'lon detained him for nine years, but in 734-733 he overthrew Damascus and swept into captivity, besides its people, the Is- raelite populations of Gilead and (iulilee. Isaiah had perhai>8 at first been uncertain whether the required punishment of Israel would proceed from Assyria or from Egj'pt, the only other power at that time wliich was capable of contesting with Syria the lordship of Palestine (cf. 7"). But those proofs of Assyrian power, and the novel A.ssyrian policy of sweeping into distant captivity the bulk of the subjugated peoples, — those proofs wliich came with the years 734, 733, — settled the question once for all. Assyria was the destined roil of J"'s anger, and this should accomplish itself not onlj'in the overthrow of N. Israel, to which Isaiah holds out no hope, but in the thorough invasion of Judah. It 18 an interesting problem, in wliat pro- portion the moral conviction of Israel's guilt need- ing punishment on the one liand, and the political certainty of Assyria's advance on the other, con- tributed to the assurance of Lsaiah's predictions. Of this we maj' be sure, however, that without their native convictions of J"8 righteousness and power of judgment upon Israel, the prophets could only have viewed the Assyrian atlvance as a per- plexing, if not a paralyzing, problem. But instead of so feeling it, Isaiah is ready for Assyria, predicts the certainty of invasion while the bulk of bis people still doubt the latter, and is very clear as to its menning. That which enabled him and other prophevs to see in the advance of -Assyria a moral intention, which was to exhaust itself in the de- struction of all the Syrian States, but stop short of the utter overthrow of Judah, was the character of Judah's Goil, His might above all the gods of the heathen, and His purpose of grace not to let His people be abolished. The advance of Assyria wa.s, therefore, a secondary and subordinate factor in the inspiration of Isaiah. At the same time the appear- ance of the greatest empire of the age, as obviously the instrument of Israel's God, must have lent to the ])rophets' ideas of His government a largeness to which the religious imagination of Israel had not i)reviouslv attained (see Ch. IV. of lik. uf the Tiacive Pm/i/i. in the 'Expositor's Bible'). And 80 we find in Isaiah a conception of the divine providence of the world more wide and majestic than anything that hud yet appeared in Israel, although several of its features h.id already been exjiressed by .-Vnios and are implied in parts of tlie JE documents of the IVntatench. Ail the forces of the world are subject to J'. The great empires unconsciously fullil His will upon Israel: the heathen peoples, however they rage, break upon the limits tie sets to their advance, as the sea breaks upon its shore. These limits are drawn at the utter destruction of His people. An Israel, however shortened and cut down, must survive. To this end Isaiah (though he sometimes appears to abandon the impenitent people to the destruc- tion they court by their foolishness) insists for the most part on the inviolableness of Jerusalfui. Judah iimv bo overrun by the invoiler : Jerusalem caiint>t fafl. Her security ia an essential part uf the providence of God.
The constant emphasis which Isaiah lays ii|H>n the inviolableness of this one sjxit of earth, this obscure highland fortrcjw, notonly lusa settlol fact of the fiitiiro ( 10**"**) but as an essential article ol religious faith (28" etc.), has been criticizeil nt derogating from the spirituality of the rcli;,Moii h«
*90
ISAIAH
ISAIAH
taught. But it nrnst be kept in mind that Jcru- galeiii was the one spot on earth where J" was worshipped. His shrine was there. There lived the only community which preserved for mankind the true knowledge of Him and His purposes — the little band of disciples to whom Isaiah com- mitted His testimony and revelation. The con- tinued existence in the world of this spiritual Israel (it is the first conception in history of the Church ■ivithin the Church) is what Isaiah believes in and proclaims with such unwearied assurance against both the fears of their rulers and the arrogance of the heathen who sought their over- throw. But for their continuance the inviolable- ness of at least Jerusalem was necessary ; other- wise they had been blotted out of history like N. Israel itself. The Assyrian policy, to judge from the case of N. Israel, did not leave room for the surWval of a people of J" among its captives, as the Babylonian did more than a century later. To interpret, therefore, Isaiah's insistence on the in- violableness of Zion as if it were derogatory to the ethical and spiritual character of his teaching, is as unjust as it would be to bring the charge of unspirituality against any of the great leaders of Christianity who have insisted in a time of per- secution that the Church shaU not perish, but in spite of its present tyrants survive in freedom and peace. There was no other way for a spiritual community to exist in Isaiah's day except through the security of Jerusalem. And, as we have seen above, it is also in connexion with the survival of a people of J" that the promise of a victorious and righteous ruler comes so naturally, if not inevit- ably, into Isaiah's predictions.