The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 119

them, members of the one human family, intimately connected one with another, and bound to have friendly feelings one towards another. P,•tty quarrels and differences, 'such as crop up between near relations, and still more between neighbouring peoples, should not be allowed to overpower the general sentiment of good will, or to prevent the exhibition of sympathy when occasion arises. National enmities would bij greatly softened if nations generally would show satisfaction in each other's successes and prosperity, even if such an exhibition of satisfaction were limited to cases where the success gained by the one in no way interfered with the interests of the olher. Vers. 18-25.-The blindness of Israel,. The "blindness" of I~rael is a subject of continual remark in Scripture from the time of Moses (Deut. xxviii. 28, 29) to that of St. Paul (Rom. xi. 25). Four things may be noted of it. I. IT rs SELF-CAUSRD. The Israelites "blinded themselves," and so became blind (eh. xxix. 9, with the comment). They "winked with their eyes," closed them against the light which shone on them from on high, and thus gradually by disuse lost the power of spiritual discernment (see the homiletics on eh. xx.i.x.. 9, 10). The process is a natural one. It is a law of nature that every disused pnrt of an organism shall dwindle away and decay. "There are certain burrowing animals-the mole, for . instance-which have taken to spending their lives beneath the surface of the ground. And Nature has taken her revenge upon them in a thoroughly natural way-she has closed up their eyes. If they mean to live in darkness, she argues, eyes are obviously a superfluous function. By neglecting them, these animals made it clear that they did not want them. .And as one of Nature's fixed principles is that nothing shall ex.ist in -rain, the eyes are presently taken a.way, or reduced to a rudimentary state. There are , fishes which have had to pay the same terrible forfeit for having made their abode in dark caverns, where eyes can never be required. And in exactly the same way the spiritual eye must die and lose its power by purely natural law, if the soul choose to walk in darkness rather than light" (see Mr. Henry Drummond's 'Natural Law in the Spiritual World,' pp. 110, 111). II. IT IS ~"EVEBTBELE88 A D1vINE JUDGMENT ON THEIII, Nature's laws are God's decrees. In ma.king it a law of nature that destruction of an organ or a function should follow disuse, God was passing a sentence on those who wilfully scorned any of his gifts. Hence he is constantly said in Scripture to "blind men's eyes" and "harden their hearts" (Ex.ad. iv. 21; ix. 12; Deut. xx.vili. 28; Matt. xii. 16; John xii. 40; Rom. xi. 8, etc.), and Israel's "blindness" is distinctly ascribed to him in eh. vi. 10; xxix. 10. "Because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind" (Rom. i. 28). III. IT IS PARTIAL. "Blindness in part is happened unto Israel" (Rom. x.i. 26). At no time did God leave himself without a witness. A.t no time did the whole of lsFael become blind. .At the worst period of the Phrenician idolatry, there were yet in Samaria seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal (1 Kings xix. 18). In Isaiah's time, God had still left him in Judah a "remnant" (eh. i. 9; x. 20; xlvi. 3). When our Lord came, it was from among the Israelites that he gathered his "little flock" (Luke xii 32). Since then in every age there have been converts-many of them "shining lights "-to Christianity from Judaism. Even now the Christian will ;not lightly let fall the hope of an ultimate great in-gath~~ing of Israel into the one ,fold. "The veil shall be taken away" some day (2 Uor. m. 16), and then shall Israel , "turn to the Lord" and worship his Christ. IV. IT 1s, TO SOME EXTENT, CUBADLE. Isaiah calls upon the blind to "look, that they may see" (ver. 18). There are infinite intermediate conditions between perfectly . healthy sight and absolute blindness. Comparatively few of the Israelites were at any time absolutely blind. The great majority were more or Jess dim-sighted. So long au this is the case, whether physically or morally, there is a possibility or recovery. 'l'he ·organ is not destroyed; it may ·by care and use be rendered capable of once more ,_properly performing its function. Isaiah speaks of a tim? when "the e~es of the blind 1would see out of obscurity and out of darkness" (eh. xx1x. 18). May 1t not be hoped .,that the time is approaching for the Jewish people-the time when "Israel after the J1leah" will once more become an important portion of the "Israel of God"? on. XLll, 1-25.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHE'r ISAIAH. 123