In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, three prophets had a large share,--Hosea, Ezekiel and the author of "Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of unpleasant aspects of the question,--the unfaithfulness of the wife and her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual undercurrent of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing,--_speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem_; and though his masculine figure for Israel as the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is not Jehovah's Servant, is Jehovah's Bride. In the series of passages on Zion, from ch. xlix. to ch. lii., the City is the Mother of His children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In ch. lxii. she is called Hephzi-Bah, _My-delight-is-in-her_, and Beulah, or _Married,--for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over thee._[250] But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. _Be not afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In an egre of anger_[251] _I hid My face a moment from thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy Redeemer Jehovah._
In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of the Bride to that of the City, which emerges clear through flood and storm in ver. 11. _Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal_ (_antimony_, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set forth their brilliance more) _thy stones_,--that they may shine from this setting like women's eyes,--_and I will found thee in sapphires_: as heaven's own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground-stones be of the New Jerusalem. _And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and thy gates shall be sparkling stones,_[252] _and all thy borders stones of delight,--stones of joy, jewels._ The rest of the chapter paints the _righteousness_ of Zion as her external security and splendour.
II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY (ch. lv.).
The second address upon the Eve of Return is ch. lv. Its pure gospel and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them speak to one's own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot.