ISAIAH
ISAI^m
491
record, of hia belief about God. J" is the Lord or Kill},', immeasurably exalted above everything human. His sublimity is the ruling impression on the prophet's mind, and throughout the dis- courses it appears again and again, in contrast both to the puny jiride and ambition, ' everything high,' in Israel tlieuiselves (2), and to the overweening arrogance of the Assyrian (10, etc.). This inhnite, awful sublimity is in the main what Isaiah ex- J)re8ses by J'"b holiness — a term whose root-mean- ing is probably that of sej)arateness. But by the prophet himself this holiness is personally felt most keenly in its contrast to his own and his people's sin. The lirst conscience excited in Isaiah by the vision of the thriee-holy God is that he is a man of unclean lips, and dwells among a people of unclean lips (6°). Before he can be of use to such a Deity, his uncleanness must he purged away (&"■). And so, before a people can be the people of God, their iniquity must be punished and driven out of them. The awful severity of this judgment (6'''- and in many other passages) is a consequence of J"'s holiness. Isaiah lived through terrible times ; he predicted a fearfully rigorous judgment of God s own people by God Himself. Everywhere In; betrays a burning sense of the awful earnest- ness of life, and the pitilessness of the divine providence in dealing with sin, with folly, and with pride. All these are consequences of the holiness of God, and another consequence is the inesistibleness of the power by which His judg- nionts are carried through.
But though the majestic transcendence of God, and His sovereign indepemlence of everything human and earthly, his exaltation above every entanglement and compromise of the world's li/e is thus the ruling article of Isaiah's creed ; the prophet almost equally emphasizes the divine immanence in the world and the history of man. The correlative of J "s holiness is His glory, of which the earth is full (C). J" is not only the inlinitely High, but the infinitely Near. His moral interest in man's conduct extends to the minutest details. He sees and is touched by every mood and change of His people's character. He marks each fault thej' have, loathes each sin, feels each wound, and is swift to respond to each turn of their hearts in penitence. His passion for them. Mis 'zeal' or 'jealousy,' is quiclc and powerful. Nor is J'"s interest confined to Israel. The oracles of Isaiah on the foreign nations, and especially those on Egypt and Tyre, not only reveal that J'"s standards of righteousness are for them also, and that their -sins are punished by Him as trans- gressions against Himself, but that He has pity or their teeming multitudes, and rejoices in their particular civilizations and destinies.
Parallel to this doctrine of the immanence and practical interest of J" in men's life runs Isaiah's constant teaching as to His reasonableness. He is no arbitrary Drity whom Isai.ih reveals, but the father and ttNu her of His i>eoi)le, who reasons and argues with them, who commends His ways to them, in opposition to their own measures, by pointing out the greater wisdom and ellectiveness of the former. ■)" is won<lerful in counsel, and excellent in that kind of wisdom which carries things through (2S^). He asks their trust in His guidance, because of its reiusonableness, and not simply because it is His will (iU"). In the most harrowing and apparently destructive pro- cesses of history He proceeds by method (28^^). The politicians think themselves clever : Ho also is wise, and has His own righteous purposes, which He will ellVct in time : the destruction iif evil-doers, ami in the end tlie rescue of His people, however much He needs lirst to beat and break theai down (31) In 'hort, He ia • God who works
f.
in history as in nature bj* law — El mUhpat is Hia name (oU'*) ; the simplest of His moral principles ell'ect, if violated, their own revenge (2S) ; leave the tendencies of history, too, to Him, and they will issue right. With all this insistence on law moral and natur.al, is to be noted the absence of miracle and ' sui)ernatural signs'; only once does Isaiah even seem to appeal to the latter ("'""'■). The divine government of the world is manifested in natural and historical processes. The unity of these processes, which all over the visible world was ccmspicuously illustrated by the Assyrian em- pire, is for Isaiah himself a corollary from his oelief in the transcendent sovereignty of J'. Sinend says truly [AT llcligionsrteschu-hle, 206) that ' the idea of'^ the Wdtqeschichte dates from Isaiah : its oldest meaning is the glorification of the One God.'
Isaiah has received from the Christian Church the title of the Kvangelical Prophet. This was given mainly in the belief that chs. 40-Gfi were also by him. But, even in the prophecies which criticism has left to him, we find the elements of the doctrines of Grace. God forgives sin, the most heinous and defiling (1"). Though He has passed sentence of death upon His people (22"), their penitence procures for them His jiardon and deliverance (36. 37). Necessarily severe as His judgment is, cruelly as His providence bears upon sin and folly, His love and pity towards His own never fail (14"-). He is their well-beloved, and has constantly cared for them (o'"-)- It is His passion for them that works their deliverance (!*'). He longs to be gracious, and to have mercy even when His people are most given to their own destructive courses ; and He waits eagerly for their prayers to Him (30'«'-).