The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 315

Hos. ii. 16), 11 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me, Ishi [my Husband], and sbalt call me no more, Baali [my Lord]"). The figure Isaiah uses is that of the Goel, or next of kin, and this very suggestive and beautiful illustration may be taken from the story of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz was a "next of kin," and on him rested the formal duty of recovering Ruth's property, if the nearest kinsman failed to do his duty. But all formal relations were swallowed up in the tender love that knit Boaz and Ruth together as husband and wife. I. THE CLAIMS OF Goo EXPRESSED IN THIS HUSBAND-FIGURE. The points to illus- trate and enforce are two. 1. Claims come out of the l011e which brings us into such a relationship. Love-claims are altogether the most searching and the most sacred. The wife is bound with cords of love. In view of this relation we lose all sternness from the commands and requirements of God; love glorifies them. 2. Claims come out of the honour which such e. relationship brings us. We must" walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we a.re called." II. THE PROVIDillGB OF Goo ASSURED BY THE HUSBAND-FIGURE. The wife is in the care of her husband, and because of his care she is free from care. He provides for the supply of all need. Apply the figure to the anxieties of the Church in exile, when required to set out on the long journey to Palestine, and enter upon unknown scenes, that would surely be full of toil and worry and danger. Infinite comfort came from the assurance that they were not as lone and friendless women, in view of the perplexities and anxieties of life. They had one who would shield them and keep them. "Their Maker was their Husband." The two :figures for God, Father and Husband, still are for us full of gracious assurances. Helpless children have e. Father; lonely women have a Husband-" the Lord of hosts is his Name." III. THE PEBSUADINGS OF Goo MADE THROUGH THE HUSBAND-FIGURE. The relation is e. constant impulse to active duty. In the text it is a persuasion to energy in under- taking the journey, and impulse to the work of rebuilding the ruined city. It was persuasion to e. bright and joyous acceptance of the Divine will, and e. full belief in the largeness of the Divine restore.lions. Ee.stern sentiments concerning the protection and honour of having e. husband put e. keenness and fulness into this figure which we can hardly reach. What is evident to us is that God will put himself into any relation which may call out from us perfect trust in him.-R. T. Ver. 5.-God-worshippers outside Judaism. "The God of the whole earth shall he be called." To our fathers the world seemed but small; to us it is great, and its hounds are ever enle.rging. In olden times the few travellers came back with marvellous stories of griffins and dragons and mermaids, at which ignorant crowds gaped, but ot which we can afford to smile. Now almost every part of the earth is searched age.in and again, and distant lands he.ve become almost as familiar to us as our own. Men still chafe, indeed, because the vast northern seas will not yield the last mysteries which they conceal, though even the secret of the North Pole seems to be e.lrnost reached. How greatly our thoughts about God's world differ from the thoughts of our fathers! How greatly the thoughts of our own manhood e.nd age differ from the thoughts of our youth! We find it difficult to realize to ourselves some of the opinions of our forefathers, and to fit them into the Word of God, as we read it. This especially refers to their opinions e.bout humanity as e. whole, and about the destiny of the race. Engh1nd, "encompassed by the inviolate see.," is in danger of being as exclusive as was Pe.lestine, hemmed in by the mountains, the desert, and the see.; and unless we watch ourselves, and resist the evil tendency, there may grow up in us a pride os unlovely as that which marked the privileged Jew, and me.de him brand all other ne.Uons as heathen, who were wholly excluded from Jehovah's love e.nd care. 'l'he le.ter Jewish prophets plead ee.rnestly against that proud exclusiveness the.t led the people to think themselves the favoured of the Lord, and so to despise others. Prophets taught the people to look e.broe.d, and see that God is working, both by his mercies and by his judgments, in e.11 those nations around' them which they called "heathen." The prophets, in effect, speak thus: "It is quite true that you e.re set in the midst of the world to be e. witness e.nd a blessing to surrounding nations; but it is equally true that those nations are set e.bout you to be example and impulse and we.rning to you. God is dealing with them for their Bakes and for yours, Just aa truly as he is dealing with you for your sake e.nd for theirs."  THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [oa. uv. 1-17.