of Jerusalem : for the Lord hath comforted his people ; he hath redeemed Jerusalem : the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations : and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God"."]
If the purpose itself fill us with wonder, we shall be no less amazed when we are informed of, II. The instruments by whom he will effect it —
It was by the ministry of Jews that God was pleased to bring in the first fruits of the Gentiles ; and by the ministry of the Jews will he gather in the whole harvest. In this passage the prophet distinctly states who are,
1. The persons ordained to this work —
[They are here designated as " those who have escaped unto the nations : " and who these are there can be no doubt. They are the remnant of the Jewish nation dispersed through- out the world0. What the particular places are amongst which they are scattered, it is not necessary to determine : it is sufficient to know, that they are countries widely distant from each other, and countries " which have not heard of the Re- deemer's fame, or seen his glory." Amongst these nations shall " an ensign be raised" by the Jews, whom " God has sent to them" for this express purpose : and it is by their ministry that God will diffuse the knowledge of salvation amongst them. The language here used is clear and decisive : " I will send those that escape of them," that is, the Jews ; " / will send them unto the nations; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles." How little has the Christian world adverted to this prophecy ! How little have any of us, when perhaps we have been pouring contempt upon the Jews, recollected for what glorious purposes they are reserved, and what a blessing they are ordained to be to the whole world ! Be it known unto you, Brethren, that the jews are the persons ordained of God to " declare his glory among the Gentiles." They themselves are at present as unconscious of the end for which they are so dispersed, as the Gentiles are amongst whom they are scattered : but they shall nevertheless infallibly execute the office for which they are designed. The prophet Micah says of them, " The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waitcth for the sons of menp." Now the clouds know not the end
n Isai. Hi. 9, 10. with lx. 4, 8. ° See Isai. iv. 2.
p Mie. v. 7.
652 ISAIAH, LXVI. 18— go. [1025.
for which God sends them over the face of the earth ; nor is the dew aware of the purpose which God has designed it to effect : but both the one and the other infallibly and effectually execute the purposes of heaven, and cause the parched ground to send forth its fruits. So shall the Jews do, when once the light has burst in upon their minds ; and " the receiving of them into the Christian Church shall be as life from the dead" to the whole world q.]
2. The success that shall attend their labours —
[As the effects of rain are rapid on the whole vegetable creation, so shall the fruits of their ministry among the Gen- tiles be rapid and abundant; " They shall bring all their Gentile brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, saith the Lord ; as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord." The meat-offering consisted of fine flour unleavened, and mingled with oil : oil also was poured upon it, and frankincense put thereon r. Of how many myriads of particles an handful of flour consisted, we know not : but it very fitly represents the congregated masses of believers that shall then be presented to the Lord, all of them pure and unleavened, and all of them sanctified by the Holy Ghost. This is the very construction which St. Paul himself puts upon the text, which he repre- sents as in part fulfilled in himself, who was, in a more peculiar manner than any other of the Apostles, " the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost*" Nor let it be thought that this is a fanciful interpretation : for the prophet himself, in a foregoing chapter, represents the converts as " a cloud1," which, whether it be understood of dust, or of rain, conveys precisely the same idea as we have just suggested from the meat-offering : and the Psalmist also places the matter in ex- actly the same view, when he says, that " the handful of corn cast by them upon the tops of the mountains shall grow up as the woods of Lebanon, and as the piles of grass upon the earth u." Indeed the prophet himself uses in another place a still stronger figure : for he represents the Gentile world at that period as "flowing (contrary to nature), like a mighty river, up to the Lord's House, when established upon the top of the highest mountainsx;" so powerful, so harmonious, so universal shall be the concourse of the Gentiles to Mount Zion, in consequence of God's blessing on the labours of their Jewish instructors.]