These lines, in which the Holy Servant, the Martyr of the Word, defies the world and asserts that God shall vindicate his innocence, are taken by Paul and used to assert the justification, which every believer enjoys through faith in the sufferings of Him, who was indeed the Holy Servant of God.[200]
The last two verses of ch. l. are somewhat difficult. The first of them still speaks of the Servant,[201] and distinguishes him--a distinction we must note and emphasize--from the God-fearing in Israel.
_Who is among you that feareth Jehovah,_ _That hearkens the voice of His Servant,_ _That walks in dark places,_ _And light he has none?_ _Let him trust in the name of Jehovah,_ _And lean on his God._
That is, every pious believer in Israel is to take the Servant for an example; for the Servant in distress _leans upon his God_. And so Paul's application of the Servant's words to the individual believer is a correct one. But if our prophet is able to think of the Servant as an example to the individual Israelite, that surely is a thought not very far from the conception of the Servant himself as an individual.
If ver. 10 is addressed to the pious in Israel, ver. 11 would seem to turn with a last word--as the last words of the discourses in Second Isaiah so often turn--to the wicked in Israel.
_Lo! all you, players with fire,_[202] _That gird you with firebrands!_ _Walk in the light of your fire,_ _In the firebrands ye kindled._ _This from my hand shall be yours;_ _Ye shall lie down in sorrow._
It is very difficult to know, who are meant by this warning. An old and almost forgotten interpretation is, that the prophet meant those exiles who played with the fires of political revolution, instead of abiding the deliverance of the Lord. But there is now current among exegetes the more general interpretation that these incendiaries are the revilers and abusers of the Servant within Israel: for so the Psalms speak of the slingers of burning words at the righteous. We must notice, however, that the metaphor stands over against those in Israel who _walk in dark places and have no light_. In contrast to that kind of life, this may be the kind that coruscates with vanity, flashes with pride, or burns and scorches with its evil passions. We have a similar name for such a life. We call it a display of fireworks. The prophet tells them, who depend on nothing but their own false fires, how transient these are, how quickly quenched.
But is it not weird, that on our prophet's stage, however brilliantly its centre shines with figures of heroes and deeds of salvation, there should always be this dark, lurid background of evil and accursed men?