The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 191

thy help found." 2. Because this one thing, redemption, is wholly beyond man's attainment. We are amazed at what man can do, in overcoming mate1ial obstacles and yoking to his service the giant forces of nature. But at redemption from sin man is arrested; there his power ceases. "No man can redeem his brother, or give to God a. ransom for him." God is represented as saying, " I looked, and there was no man . . . therefore mine own arm brought salva.tion." 3. Because man had no reason to expect redemption, and could make no claim to Divine intervention. Redemption is a sovereign device, a display of infinite mercy, a work of unbought love. Its root is, " God is love." JI, WHAT KIND 01!' JOY THEIRS SHOULD BE WHO HAVE PROVED HOW HE CAN REDEEM. There are two figures blended in the text. Joy of harvest. Joy of victors on dividing the spoil of battle-fields. They suggest: 1. The joy of possession-a harvest of supply for coming needs, spoil from the tentt1 of the foe. 2. The joy of triumph. To possess the enemy's camp is proof that the foe is wholly vanquished. Jesus, as our Redeemer, has "led captivity captive, and received gifts for men."-R. T, Ver. 6.-The fatherhood of God revealed in Messiah. The word "Everlasting Father," or "Father of Eternity," is applied to Messiah as the Revealer of God to men. That the passage can only refer to Messiah is agreecl by all devout students. God designed to reveal himself at last and fully to his creatures thrO'!l,fJh a man's earthly life. God can only reveal himself to a creature in the lines of that nature which he has given to the creature. When God was dealing with man, he set forth the manhood of his Messiah most prominently; but when man comes to know his gift, he finds he has received hie God, and learned the name by which he may be called. Arguing may not always convince of the Deity of Christ. It is rather like trying to prove to a man that it is the spring-time of the year. Spring is in the atmosphere-in the balmy breathing of the air, in the quickening power of the sunshine, in the lengthening days, and in the bursting life of leaf and flower everywhere around us. So the very atmosphere of Christ is the atmosphere of God. Everywhere, and in everything, we feel that he is God. Our text is striking in the contrasts it presents-contrasts which were realized in the human .life of the Messiah. Everywhere in his story we find the blended God and man. He was the outcast bl\be for whom there was no room in the inn, and yet angels heralded his birth, and Magi offered to him the worship due to a king. He was a. simple child of twelve years old, and yet the temple doctors were astonished at his understanding and answers. He submits to John's baptism of water, and yet the Holy Ghost descends upon him, and the voice of "most exceeding peace" gives testimony to him as the Divine Son. He weeps the tears of human friendship at the grave of Lazarus, and yet he speaks the words which call the dead to life. He dies in agony ancl shame, as only a man could die; he rises in triumph and glory, as only a God could rise. So in this prophecy of Isaiah. The "coming One" is a child, but the " key of government is upon his shoulder." He is a child, and yet he is" Wonder-Counsellor, God-Mighty-One, Prince of l'eace." He is the Son, and yet it can be said of him that he is the" Everlasting Father." This last assertion seems to be the most astonishing of them all. "The Son is the Father." Christ sustained this view: " He that hath seeu me hath seen the Father." Every man's work is to find the Father in Christ. No mau has truly seen Christ who has not found in bim the Father, and learned from him thi> fatherhood of God. I. MAY WE THINK OP Goo AB FATHER? To show himself to man, God must come into man's sphere, not as a cherub or as an angel, but as a man. "Verily, he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham." He must also show himself in some particular form of man. Men are kings, or prophets, or judges, or husbands, or fathers, or sons, or brothers, and God must make choice of the form that may most worthily represent him. Some say we must think of God chiefly as a King. But few of us are stirred at heart by the relations of a king. He is a person to be feared, obeyed, and served. If he is to be loved it is only with a patriotic, it is not with a personal, affection. In the pages of history we can scarcely find a king: whose character and career help us to a worthy idea of God. Think of the kings of Eastern nations. Think of so-called Christian kings. There rise before the mind scenes of barbarity, blood-guiltiness, tyranny, debauchery, and cruelty which n1ake us ashamed to_,_  182 THE BOOK OF 'l'H:ffi • PR0PBE'l' lSA.IAil, [dH. lX, 1-21,