The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 158

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. VeJ'II. 1-5.-The o.tfspring of lsi·ael. Judgments are coming upon the world. And the sacred seed shall be scattered abroad through all nations. There shall be deliver- ance of Israel from all those calamities and much more; the heathen nations shall be brcn·gbt into the light of Jehovah. I. ADDRESS OF JEHOVAH TO THE PEOPLE. There are three names for the people- Jacob, Israel, Jesurnn-and each represents a separate phase of moral progress. 1. Ja<!ob, my seri•ant. This itself is a title of honour. 1.'o be the minister of the will of an ea:rthly s~vercign is a pro~d di~tincti?n : how. much more to wear the badge of the Kmg of kmg, ! Moreover, m ancient times servitude often meant confidence and friend- ship of the happiest kind between two souls. The name of Jacob, too, calls up memor- able associations: a life of vicissitude and arlventure, cheered by the constant presence of God; of notorious faults and weaknesses united with victorious faith; of a stru(J'IJ'le to realize the Divine reality of love richly rewarded. The history of Jacob is belo";'ed because it typifies the union of the human with the Divine-in the people, in all believing men. 2. Israel the chosen. One foreknown, selected, predestinated from the first to fulfil the ends of God. From the beginning of their history, the Divine hand bad formed and moulded all Israel's institutions. As the organism lies implicit in the cell of protoplasm, as the oak ma.y be seen in miniature in the acorn, so Israel sprang from a thought of God. 3. Jesurun the upright one. An imputed righteousness, we are told, is meant. Others say it is a word of flattery and endearment-a diminutive form of "Israel." If the two ideas may be combined, then the chosen and beloved of God will be upright in the thought of God. To say that God " imputes" righteousness to those who have it not in themselves, what is it but to ascribe to him the most beautiful effect and operation of love? It is to say that Israel is by him idealized. And to feel this about ourselves means deliv,::-rance from despair in those moments when in the mirror of conscience we behold a hideous self-reflection, or when we perceive how cheaply we are held by the world- " All I can never be, All men ignore in me,- This I am worth to God, Whose wheel the pitcher shaped." There are secrets of the heart unknown to any system of theology. He who can hear God's voice saying to him," Fear not.," may be deaf to all detraction and indifferent to all applause. II. PROMISE OF JJIBOV.A.H. 1. 1'he outpouring of the Spirit. Let us transport our- selves in fancy from these moist atmospheres and dripping skies of Britain to yonder burning Orient clime. Then and there let us bathe ourselves in the generous bounty of tho~e refreshing words, "I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground." l:lut we need not go to the Orient to experience drought of soul. We may find reading "dry," a11d preaching drier, our own minds driest of all; nothing growing within us, nor promising to grow. .And for the future the prospect seems equally cheerless. Nothing is left us but this Word of God; but all is left us in that Word. Thinking of snow will not cool us; the imagination of water will not refresh us in our thirst; but faith in God, the realization of what he is in this relation to us, remains the one resource which Scripture offers to us. 1. The spiritual posterity. Biblical promises respect the "solidarity" of life. That . '..:iich we modems call "indi- vidualism" appears to be unknown. As the curse, so also the blessing, goes on working to the " third and fourth generation," nay, to "a thousand generations," under the dis- pensation of a covenant-keeping God. Nay, it is conceived as abiding through time into eternity-" a seed established for ever, a throne built up to 1111 generations" (Ps. lxxxix. 4). Here the abundance of Israel's spiritual posterity is imaged as grass by the waters, or as the tall and graceful poplars by the artificial water-courses. "A tree planted by the rivers of water;" "Thy years shall be as the years of a tree:" what more beautiful and touching image? The tree is typical of life in its strength, its v_racefulness, its fruitfulness. 'l'hese shall be its characteristics in the Messianic o.go. l'he Church will finally embrace the world. Proselytes will come thronging to her err. n1v. 1-28.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 163