), the writer pours upon these, the delight he h.as in exposing their futility, and the weary trouble for no end which their religions levy upon the heathen, brilliantly exhibit the intellectual a-ssurance of this most perfect apostle of Israel's monotheism.
But though God is thus sublime He is near to men in sympathy, and full of grace and zeal for 1 1 is own (40'- "• ■'"'■ 432 49'*"- 5P- "). Israel's maker U Israel's husband (54°). No prophet is more daring in his ascription of passion to the Deity. With all this writer's overpowering sense of the tran- scendence of J", he does not hesitate to picture Him as an excited and furious warrior, and as a travailing woman (42'^'-)
But as J" is unique, so is Israel uninue. Israel is His special creation, His elect, ana His own. The nations are given for Israel's ransom, and the world - powers are employed as contributory to Israel's career (41* 43^''* 45'* etc.). Cyrus him- self, in whom the power of the world is gathered up, is J"'s servant for Israel's redemption (41-*- 44'-* 45'- * etc.). Yet the creation and election of Israel are not for their own sake. ' Tliis people I have formed for myself ; they shall show forth my praise ' (43-'). They are to be God's revealers and wit- nesses to the ends of the earth (41**-). They are to carry His mishpat and torah to the farthest coasts (42''- '). Their election is an election to service — the service of mankind in the highest matters of religion and morality. In a far higher sense than Cyrus they are the servant of J'. The picture of J'"s servant fills a large part of the prophecy. Sometimes this servant is equiva- lent to all Israel, the seed of Abraham (41* etc.). But as a whole the nation is unworthy of the high office — deaf, blind, and spoiled (42'**-)— in need of forgiveness (43-') and illumination. And so the conversion of Israel becomes part of the servant's work {49'''). He appears to be the personification of the pious remnant of the people : the true, eflective Israel ; and he is therefore obviously distinct from the nation, who are not conscious of the destiny God has for His people, or ready to carry it out. Though Israel as a whole be un- ready, this loyal Israel is glorious in J"'s eyes, and God is their strength (41)'). Speaking in the first person, this Servant describes his experience as the prophet of J", and carries it to its con- sequence in martyrdom (SO*"'). Many have thought that in this passage the ideal is stiU more narrowly concentrated, and that we ought to see in the speaker an individual servant of J". Many more agree that we have an individual presented to us at last in the classical passage 52"-53. The latter opinion the present writer feels to be correct. The nation's functions of service for God are
ISAIAH
ISAIAH
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fret^uently concentrated by other prophets upon an individual. The experience of the individual Jeremiah, who had, in opposition to his whole people, remained faithful to J", and in hia solitary experience sullered for the people's sins, and re- presented them before J", surely afforded prece- dent enougli for the \'ision of a personal suflerer and sin-bearer. Yet, whether we take this view, or with many eminent critics continue to see in 52"-53 as in 49 the personification of the righteous remnant of Israel, the religious results remain the same. The spiritual salvation of Israel is accom- plished by the vicarious conscience and sufferings of the Servant. He is not merely the prophet of 492"- and 50*- °, nor only the martyr of SO'"-, wlio shall be ultimately vindicated by J". His sufferings, so misunderstood by the world, have a very practi- cal end (52"""). Disregarded or misunderstood by his own people, he naturally, as they come to see, bears their transgressions and inicjuity ; by his stripes they are healed (oS'"-). He is sinless, and therefore unjustly treated by liis tyrants ; but he sul/mits in order to offer his life as a guilt- offering ; and so wins righteousness for his jieople, and exerts immense influence on men (53'"'^). Whether this figure be of the jiious portion of Israel or of one holy sufferer, the Cliristi;in Church lias been riglit in finding its fulUliiieiit in Jesus Christ ; in His sinless suffering, in His conscious- ness of His solitary distinction from His peo])le ; in His knowledge that His suffering was of God's will, and would effect the forgiveness of His people's sin, their redemption from guilt, and so His own exaltation from misunderstanding and abuse to manifest power and glory.
The equipment of Israel, then, for the religious service of mankind is the end towards which the argument and vision of chs. 40-55 are directed. But indispensable to this is the nation's redemp- tion from Babylonian servitude, their return to the Holy Land, and the rclmikiing of Jeru.salem and tlie temple. The deliverance is to be ell'ected by Cyrus, through his conquest of Babylonia and the humiliation of her gods (46 f.). This being certain, J" calls upon His people to come forth from Babylon (48*" 52'"), a call that was neces- sary in face of the fact that numbers of Jews were unwillinjj to leave a home into whose life they liad deeply settled, for the hard begin- nings of life again upon the desolate and com- paratively barren soil of Palestine. J" promises to make easy their way across the desert (iVi"'- 41i8t. 431M. 4jj2i)_ Cyrus himself shall expedite their progress and arrange for the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the temide (44=« 45"). The pros- trate and desolate city .^iliall rise from her ruins (40- 61""- 52"- ") witu a full population (44'^ 4917-19 541!) . the cities of Judali shall again bo inhabited (40° 44^). But even beyond these limits shall Israel break, and inherit the Gentiles (54'). A glory shall rest upon city and land, conscious of the presence of their God in His wonderful deeds (40»'- 49'" 52' 54""'-). The lientiles, too, shall acknowledge this, coming to Israel witli the words : Surely God is in thee (45" 4<J'-"').