Ah, it is no dusty stretch of ancient history, no long-extinct volcano upon the far waste of Asian politics, to which we are led by the writings of the Exile. But they treat of man's perennial trouble; and conscience, that never dies, speaks through their old-fashioned letters and figures with words we feel like swords. And therefore, still, whether they be psalms or prophecies, they stand like some ancient minster in the modern world,--where, on each new soiled day, till time ends, the heavy heart of man may be helped to read itself, and lift up its guilt for mercy.
They are the confessional of the world, but they are also its gospel, and the altar where forgiveness is sealed. _I_, even _I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of Me. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins; turn unto Me, for I have redeemed thee. Israel shall be saved by Jehovah with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end._[91] Now, when we remember who the God is, who thus speaks,--not merely One who flings the word of pardon from the sublime height of His holiness, but, as we saw, speaks it from the midst of all His own passion and struggle under His people's sins,--then with what assurance does His word come home to the heart. What honour and obligation to righteousness does the pardon of such a God put upon our hearts. One understands why Ambrose sent Augustine, after his conversion, first to these prophecies.
4. The fourth token, which these chapters offer for the religion of Jehovah, is the claim they make for it to interpret and to control history. There are two verbs, which are frequently repeated throughout the chapters, and which are given together in ch. xliii. 12: _I have published and I have saved._ These are the two acts by which Jehovah proves His solitary divinity over against the idols.
The _publishing_, of course, is the same prediction, of which ch. xli. spoke. It is _publishing_ in former times things happening now; it is _publishing_ now things that are still to happen. _And who, like Me, calls out and publishes it, and sets it in order for Me, since I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and that shall come, let them publish. Tremble not, nor fear: did I not long ago cause thee to hear? and I published, and ye are My witnesses. Is there a God beside Me? nay, there is no Rock; I know none_ (xliv. 7, 8).
The two go together, the doing of wonderful and saving acts for His people and the publishing of them before they come to pass. Israel's past is full of such acts. Ch. xliii. instances the delivery from Egypt (vv. 16, 17), but immediately proceeds (vv. 18, 19): _Remember ye not the former things_--here our old friend ri'shonôth occurs again, but this time means simply _previous events_--_neither consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; even now it springs forth. Shall ye not know it? Yea, I will set in the wilderness a way, in the desert rivers._ And of this new event of the Return, and of others which will follow from it, like the building of Jerusalem, the chapters insist over and over again, that they are the work of Jehovah, who is therefore a Saviour God. But what better proof can be given, that these saving facts are indeed His own and part of His counsel, than that He foretold them by His messengers and prophets to Israel,--of which previous _publication_ His people are the witnesses. _Who among the peoples can publish thus, and let us hear predictions?_--again ri'shonôth, _things ahead_--_let them bring their witnesses, that they may be justified, and let them hear and say, Truth. Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah_, to Israel (xliii. 9, 10). _I have published, and I have saved, and I have shewed, and there was no strange god among you; therefore_--because Jehovah was notoriously the only God who had to do with them during all this prediction and fulfilment of prediction--_ye are witnesses for Me, saith Jehovah, that I am God_ (_id._ ver. 12). The meaning of all this is plain. Jehovah is God alone, because He is directly effective in history for the salvation of His people, and because He has published beforehand what He will do. The great instance of this, which the prophecy adduces, is the present movement towards the liberation of the people, of which movement Cyrus is the most conspicuous factor. Of this xlv. 19 ff. says: _Not in secret have I spoken, in a place of the land of darkness. I have not said to the seed of Jacob, In vanity seek ye Me. I Jehovah am a speaker of righteousness,_[92] _a publisher of things that are straight. Be gathered and come in; draw together, ye survivors of the nations: they have no knowledge that carry about the log of their image, and are suppliants to a god that cannot save. Publish, and bring it here; nay, let them advise together; who made this to be heard_,--that is, _who published this_,--_of ancient time?_ Who _published this of old? I Jehovah, and there is none God beside Me: a God righteous_,--that is, consistent, true to His published word,--_and a Saviour, there is none beside Me_. Here we have joined together the same ideas as in xliii. 12. There _I have declared and saved_ is equivalent to _a God righteous and a Saviour_ here. _Only in Jehovah are righteousnesses_, that is, fidelity to His anciently published purposes; _and strength_, that is, capacity to carry these purposes out in history. God is righteous because, according to another verse in the same prophecy (xliv. 26), _He confirmeth the word of His servant, and the advice of His messengers He fulfilleth._