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Babylon is left behind, and the way of the Lord is prepared in the desert. Israel have once more the title-deeds to their own land, and Zion looms in sight. Yet with their face to home, and their heart upon freedom, the voice of this people, or at least of the better half of this people, rises first upon the conscience of their duty to the rest of mankind.
_Hearken, O Isles, unto Me;_ _And listen, O Peoples, from far!_ _From the womb Jehovah hath called me,_ _From my mother's midst mentioned my name._[188] _And He set my mouth like a sharp sword,_ _In the shadow of His hand did He hide me;_ _Yea, He made me a pointed arrow,_ _In His quiver He laid me in store,_ _And said to me, My Servant art thou,_ _Israel, in whom I shall break into glory. And I--I said, In vain have I laboured,_ _For waste and for wind my strength have I spent!_ _Surely my right's with Jehovah,_ _And the meed of my work with my God!_
_But now, saith Jehovah--_ _Moulding me from the womb to be His own Servant,_ _To turn again Jacob towards Him,_ _And that Israel be not destroyed._[189] _And I am of honour in the eyes of Jehovah,_ _And my God is my strength!_ _And He saith,_ _'Tis too light for thy being My Servant,_ _To raise up the tribes of Jacob,_ _Or gather the survivors of Israel._ _So I will set thee a light of the Nations,_ _To be My salvation to the end of the earth._
_Thus saith Jehovah,_ _Israel's Redeemer, his Holy,_ _To_ this _mockery of a life, abhorrence of a nation, servant of tyrants,_[190] _Kings shall behold and shall stand up,_ _Princes shall also do homage,_ _For the sake of Jehovah, who shows Himself faithful,_ _Holy of Israel, and thou art His chosen. Thus saith Jehovah,_ _In a favourable time I have given thee answer,_ _In the day of salvation have helped thee,_ _To keep thee, to give thee for covenant of the people,_ _To raise up the land,_ _To give back the heirs to the desolate heirdoms,_ _Saying to the bounden, Go forth!_ _To them that are in darkness, Appear!_
"Who is so blind as not to perceive that the consciousness of the Servant here is only a mirror in which the history of Israel is reflected--first, in its original call and design that Jehovah should be glorified in it; second, in the long delay and apparent failure of the design; and, thirdly, as the design is now in the present juncture of circumstances and concurrence of events about to be realized?"[191] Yes: but it is Israel's calling, native insufficiency, and present duty, as owned by only a part of the people, which, though named by the national name (ver. 3), feels itself standing over against the bulk of the nation, whose redemption it is called to work out (vv. 8 and 9) before it takes up its world-wide service. We have already sufficiently discussed this distinction of the Servant from the whole nation, as well as the distinction of the moral work he has to effect in Israel's redemption from Babylon, from the political enfranchisement of the nation, which is the work of Cyrus. Let us, then, at once address ourselves to the main features of his consciousness of his mission to mankind. We shall find these features to be three. The Servant owns for his chief end the glory of God; and he feels that he has to glorify God in two ways--by Speech, and by Suffering.