The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 147

the heart to be already prepossessed and biassed. Ahaz was,. in fact,, under the influence of his· false prophets and soothsayers. But why should he decline to hear at. least what Itaiah had to say ? He should have recogoized that there were " two sides" in the great question a~ issue, Ahaz then'warne us against listening. to e:x: parte counsels. He who will only attend to the flattering echo08 of his, own wishes, is like him who trusteth in his own heart and who proves a fool. From Isaiah, again, the lesson comes back of fe,ithful perseverance in our word and: work, in spite of indifference, which threatens to ·blunt our edge and paralyze our energy. When a matter. is on the .conscience, let it come. forth 1 "whether men will hear:.or whether they will forbear." \Ve calculate oonsequences too much; and while few have the .courage to risk danger by preaching unwelcome truth, perhaps fewer still have the faith in its worth to insist on pressing it upon reluctant ears. . IV. 'l'HE SIGN. FROM JEHOVAH. 1. It will be of mixed import. Partly it will confirm previous expectation, and partly it will intimate what. had not been expected. It proclaims a happy event which Ahaz had not looked for, but. also a calamity which he might have averted had he possessed greater faith and truth. Mysteriously, our wishes or fears have some creative influence on our future. "Omens follow those who look to them," whether for good or evil. "Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render a perfect and an honest man, Commands all light, all influence, and all fate; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our·angels are; or good or ill, Our fatal shadows, that walk by na still." (Beaumont e.nd Fletcher.) 2. •The Immanuel. In a "dark saying" the prophet opens his mouth. " Lo ! Mal,mdh" (the i:naiden; she who is no longer a girl, nor yet an old woman) "will conceive, and bear a son, and then call his name With-us-God." Time is thus hinted at; it will be soon, perhaps in a year's time. Also the certainty and the joy of deliverance, as the boy's name betokens. It is·the very rallying cry of Israel: "God with us." We must have·a watchword in every noble cause, that shall condense its purport and sonnd the tocsin to every true aspiration and energy. within .. : So the Crusaders shouted" Dien le veut I" at the preaching of Peter the, Hermit; so were English warriors heartened in the olden days by the cry of "England1 a.nd St. George!" Notice how this phrase echoes ·and re-echoes..:.:.."Jmmanuel, God~with-us "-in eh. viii. 8, 10 ( cf. eh. ix. 6). E~·ery great man raised up from time to time -among us in politics, in religion, to deliver, to lead, to counsel, is, in his·way, an'heroic' reflection of Israel's Messiah. To prophetic faith and hope a Messiah, a Deliverer, 'is·ever at the doors. If the Eternal lives and reigns, and fulfils himself by the agency ·of men, we need not fear that when the hour strikes, the hero, with all the cretlentials of his anointing, will appear. 3. Speedy help. "Jehovah shall help thee, and that right early,". is a chronic promise. When the boy is approaching years of m11turity and of. judgment, his food will he curds and honey; that is, be(ore he comes to manhood, Ephraim and Damascus will be discomfited, and a new" golden age" will have set in. No more is known about any particular youth of Isaiah's time to whom the mystic prediction could refer than is known about the illustrious boy of Virgil's prophetic Eclogue, who was to restore good King Saturn's reign (Eel. iv.). It is a misunderstanding of the nature of prophecy when we try to fix its forecasts to place or time. A prophecy is never fulfilled as we expect. It refers to a world not bounded by our horizons, and to a history which does not fall into our tiwe- perspective. This ideal Immanuel was destined yet to float before the pious hope of the nation for many centuries, till it was united with the real in the person of Jesus. '4. ·Tl,,e chastisement that mulft precede prosperity. The great Assyrian conquest and tb:e desolation it brings must come, in punishment of the unfaithfulness of the royal house, and the estrangement of the nation from Jehovah's ways. It is only after long ttja.l in the fire and thorough regeneration that prosperity can come. It is a doubtful picture of the fnture, i1u which rays of glory strike athwart dark masses of gloom. Such is ever our outlook, whether for personal history, as for Isaiah in the precedin:i; chapter, or for a. nation_, us h_ere. Never has the hope of Ch_rist b~en W:\n!ing, _never thu promise of his com1u g died out; and never proclauned without the mt1ruat1on of  136 THE BOOK OF 'l'HE PROPHET ISAIAH. [OH. VU, 1-26,