The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 176

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-8.-C'yrus the anointed of Jehovah. I. THE REASON OF THE DIVINE FAVOUR TO Cvaus. Cyrus is the only king out of Israel who bears the title of Jeh~vah's ~no\ntcd. He is solemnly set apart as an instrument to perform an important public scrnce m the cause of Jehovah. It does not necessarily imply the piety of Cyrus. For the p11rposes of Jehovah he is upheld," grasped by the right hand," that he may subdue nations before him-from the Eux,ne to Egypt, from the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean. The girdles of mighty kings will be unloosed before him. See this said of Belshazzar (Dan. v. 6); then were the "two-leavl'd gates" of Babylon left open amidst the revelry, and the co11queror broke in unopposed (Herod., i. 191). The trea~ sures of the city are laid open befure him. 1. The object was that he might acknow- ledge Jeho,ah. "He bath given me all the kingdoms of the earth" (Ezra i. 2). "Son of Cam byses, Heaven fa,·011rs you manifestly, or you could not thus have risen superior to fortune" (Herod., i. 124; cf. 205). None but the Omniscient conld have known the person and the name of him who was to conquer Babylon and deliver his people. 2. The next object was the deliverance of the chosen people, "The fates of the empirPs and kingdoms of the world are di vin<"ly disposed of with a view to the Church." But all the proS!:ress and prosperity of true religion are summed up in the lcnowledge of Jehovah: that he is the sole God; that he is the Creator and the providential Ruler of the world. The alternatinn of day and night is Jehovah's ordinance. So also is that of peace and war, success anJ misfortnne, good and evil. This is pure monotheism, opposed a.like to pantheism and to dualism. That the world may be converted to true religion is the final and all-comprehensive object. ll. SoNG OF PRAISE. "The appearance of the shepherd of Jehovah, and the thought or the blessings of which he is to be the medium, inspires the prophet with a joyous strain of p,almody." The form of the expression is borrowed from the Eastern religions, the fertility of the earth being due to the impregnating influence of Heaven (Ps. lxxxv.11; Hos. ii. 21, 22). Righteousness, in the sense of salvation (eh. li. 5, 6, 8; lvi. 1; lix. 17; lxi. 10, 11; lxii. 1), descends upon the souls of men. And they will break forth into" fruits of righteousness" to the glory of God. Prepared for repentance and the reception of the trnth from the Holy Spirit, they will be, even as the earth is, made mellow and adapted fur the reception of seed by rain and dew. "A Church smiles under the inBuence of a revival of religidn, and society puts on the aspect of loveliness like the ~arth after abundant showers.r.-J. Vers. 9-13.-The sovereignty of God. I. THE MURMURER AGAINST PROVIDENOE, He is compared to a "potsherd among potsherds on tl,e gronnd." "Woe unto him who, though made uf earth, a11d with no intrinsic authority over others of his race, presumes to find fanlt with the Maker!" (cf. eh. xxix. 16; !xiv. 8; Jer. xviii. 1-6; xix.1, 10, 11; Rom. ix. 20-24). In the account of the Creation, the Almighty is conceived as making man out of the dU6t of the earth (Gen. ii. 7). Shall tbe clay, then, qnarrel with the plastic band of tl)';l Potter? How can the distance between man and God be better expressed than by the tautology, "God is God,and man is man"? or that he is Maker, man the made? •• Since matters stand thus between God and us, let us consider what bands we are in, and what an irresi~tible grip has hold of us; and let that teach us, even for our sakes, to be quiet under it. There is, indeed, but one way of encountering an infinite power; and that is by an extraordinary (if it were possible), an infinite patience" (Sonth). Is it natural, again, for the child to complain of it~ parents that it bas been brought deformed or weakly into the world? Nor is it becoming of men to OH, nv. 1-26.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 181