{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_39767/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_39767","id":"gutenberg_39767","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/39767","summary":null,"tags":["Bible. Isaiah -- Commentaries","Category: History - Religious","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"Produced by Colin Bell, Julia Neufeld and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\nText enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\nSmall capital text has been replaced with all capitals.\n\n[=a] depicts a macron over \"a\" as in \"d[=a]l\"\n\nVariations in spelling and hyphenation have been preserved except in\nobvious cases of typographical error.\n\nAll advertising has been moved to the end of the book.\n\n\n  THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE\n\n  EDITED BY THE REV.\n\n  SIR W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\n  _Editor of \"The Expositor,\" etc._\n\n\n  THE BOOK OF ISAIAH\n\n  BY THE REV.\n\n  GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A.\n\n  _VOLUME 1._\n\n  HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n  LONDON. MCMX\n\n\n\n\n  THE\n\n  BOOK OF ISAIAH\n\n  BY THE REV.\n\n  GEORGE ADAM SMITH, M.A., D.D.\n\n  _Professor of Hebrew in the Free Church College, Glasgow_\n\n  _IN TWO VOLUMES_\n  VOL. I.--ISAIAH I.-XXXIX.\n\n  _TWENTIETH EDITION_\n\n  HODDER AND STOUGHTON\n  LONDON. MCMX\n\n_Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ltd., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n\n  INTRODUCTION                                                        ix\n\n  TABLE OF DATES                                                     xvi\n\n\n  BOOK I.\n\n  _ISAIAH'S PREFACE AND PROPHECIES TO\n  THE DEATH OF AHAZ_, 727 B.C.\n\n  CHAP.\n\n  I. ISAIAH'S PREFACE--THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD.                       3\n\n  ISAIAH i.\n\n  II. THE THREE JERUSALEMS                                            19\n\n  ISAIAH ii.-iv. 740-735 B.C.\n\n  III. THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD                                       35\n\n  ISAIAH v.; ix. 8-x. 4. 735 B.C.\n\n  IV. ISAIAH'S CALL AND CONSECRATION                                  57\n\n  ISAIAH vi. 740. WRITTEN 735 OR 727 B.C. (?).\n\n  V. THE WORLD IN ISAIAH'S DAY AND ISRAEL'S GOD                       91\n\n  WITH A MAP.\n\n  VI. KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH                            103\n\n  ISAIAH vii.-ix. 1-8. 735-732 B.C.\n\n  VII. THE MESSIAH                                                   131\n\n\n  BOOK II.\n\n  _PROPHECIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF HEZEKIAH\n  TO THE DEATH OF SARGON_,\n  727-705 B.C.\n\n  VIII. GOD'S COMMONPLACE                                            151\n\n  ISAIAH xxviii. ABOUT 725 B.C.\n\n  IX. ATHEISM OF FORCE AND ATHEISM OF FEAR                           168\n\n  ISAIAH x. 5-34. ABOUT 721 B.C.\n\n  X. THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN MAN AND THE ANIMALS                        179\n\n  ISAIAH xi.; xii. ABOUT 720 B.C. (?).\n\n  XI. DRIFTING TO EGYPT, 720-705 B.C.                                196\n\n  ISAIAH xx. (711 B.C.); xxi. 1-10 (710 B.C.); xxxviii.; xxxix.\n\n\n  BOOK III.\n\n  _ORATIONS ON INTRIGUES WITH EGYPT_,\n  _AND ORACLES ON FOREIGN NATIONS_,\n  705-702 B.C.\n\n  XII. ARIEL, ARIEL                                                  209\n\n  ISAIAH xxix. ABOUT 703 B.C.\n\n  XIII. POLITICS AND FAITH                                           221\n\n  ISAIAH xxx. ABOUT 702 B.C.\n\n  XIV. THREE TRUTHS ABOUT GOD                                        238\n\n  ISAIAH xxxi. ABOUT 702 B.C.\n\n  XV. A MAN; OR, CHARACTER AND THE CAPACITY TO\n  DISCRIMINATE CHARACTER                                             248\n\n  ISAIAH xxxii. 1-8. ABOUT 702 B.C. (?).\n\n  XVI. ISAIAH TO WOMEN                                               262\n\n  ISAIAH xxxii. 9-20. DATE UNCERTAIN.\n\n  XVII. ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS                                271\n\n  ISAIAH xiv. 24-xxi.; xxiii. VARIOUS DATES.\n\n  XVIII. TYRE; OR, THE MERCENARY SPIRIT                              288\n\n  ISAIAH xxiii. 702 B.C.\n\n\n  BOOK IV.\n\n  _JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB, 701 B.C._\n\n  XIX. AT THE LOWEST EBB                                             306\n\n  ISAIAH i.; xxii. Early in 701 B.C.\n\n  XX. THE TURN OF THE TIDE: MORAL EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS             320\n\n  ISAIAH xxii.; xxxiii. LATER IN 701 B.C.\n\n  XXI. OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE                                      331\n\n  ISAIAH xxxiii.\n\n  XXII. THE RABSHAKEH; OR, LAST TRIALS OF FAITH                      343\n\n  ISAIAH xxxvi. 701 B.C.\n\n  XXIII. THIS IS THE VICTORY ... OUR FAITH                           352\n\n  ISAIAH xxxvii. 701 B.C.\n\n  XXIV. A REVIEW OF ISAIAH'S PREDICTIONS CONCERNING\n  THE DELIVERANCE OF JERUSALEM                                       368\n\n  XXV. AN OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER'S SICK-BED; OR, THE\n  DIFFERENCE CHRIST HAS MADE                                         375\n\n  ISAIAH xxxviii.; xxxix. DATE UNCERTAIN.\n\n  XXVI. HAD ISAIAH A GOSPEL FOR THE INDIVIDUAL?                      389\n\n\n  BOOK V.\n\n  _PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAH'S\n  TIME._\n\n  XXVII. BABYLON AND LUCIFER                                         405\n\n  ISAIAH xii. 12-xiv. 23. DATE UNKNOWN.\n\n  XXVIII. THE EFFECT OF SIN ON OUR MATERIAL SURROUNDINGS             416\n\n  ISAIAH xxiv. DATE UNKNOWN.\n\n  XXIX. GOD'S POOR                                                   428\n\n  ISAIAH xxv.-xxvii.; xxxiv.; xxxv. DATES UNKNOWN.\n\n  XXX. THE RESURRECTION                                              444\n\n  ISAIAH xxvi.; xxvii.\n\n  INDEX OF CHAPTERS                                                  453\n\n  INDEX OF SUBJECTS                                                  455\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nAs the following Exposition of the Book of Isaiah does not observe the\ncanonical arrangement of the chapters, a short introduction is necessary\nupon the plan which has been adopted.\n\nThe size and the many obscurities of the Book of Isaiah have limited the\ncommon use of it in the English tongue to single conspicuous passages,\nthe very brilliance of which has cast their context and original\ncircumstance into deeper shade. The intensity of the gratitude with\nwhich men have seized upon the more evangelical passages of Isaiah, as\nwell as the attention which apologists for Christianity have too\npartially paid to his intimations of the Messiah, has confirmed the\nneglect of the rest of the Book. But we might as well expect to receive\nan adequate conception of a great statesman's policy from the epigrams\nand perorations of his speeches as to appreciate the message, which God\nhas sent to the world through the Book of Isaiah, from a few lectures on\nisolated, and often dislocated, texts. No book of the Bible is less\nsusceptible of treatment apart from the history out of which it sprang\nthan the Book of Isaiah; and it may be added, that in the Old Testament\nat least there is none which, when set in its original circumstance and\nmethodically considered as a whole, appeals with greater power to the\nmodern conscience. Patiently to learn how these great prophecies were\nsuggested by, and first met, the actual occasions of human life, is\nvividly to hear them speaking home to life still.\n\nI have, therefore, designed an arrangement which embraces all the\nprophecies, but treats them in chronological order. I will endeavour to\nrender their contents in terms which appeal to the modern conscience;\nbut, in order to be successful, such an endeavour presupposes the\nexposition of them in relation to the history which gave them birth. In\nthese volumes, therefore, narrative and historical exposition will take\nprecedence of practical application.\n\nEvery one knows that the Book of Isaiah breaks into two parts between\nchaps. xxxix. and xl. Vol. I. of this Exposition covers chaps. i.-xxxix.\nVol. II. will treat of chaps. xl.-lxvi. Again, within chaps. i.-xxxix.\nanother division is apparent. The most of these chapters evidently bear\nupon events within Isaiah's own career, but some imply historical\ncircumstances that did not arise till long after he had passed away. Of\nthe five books into which I have divided Vol. I., the first four contain\nthe prophecies relating to Isaiah's time (740-701 B.C.), and the fifth\nthe prophecies which refer to later events (chaps. xiii.-xiv. 23;\nxxiv.-xxvii.; xxxiv.; xxxv.).\n\nThe prophecies, whose subjects fall within Isaiah's times, I have taken\nin chronological order, with one exception. This exception is chap. i.,\nwhich, although it published near the end of the prophet's life, I treat\nof first, because, from its position as well as its character, it is\nevidently intended as a preface to the whole book. The difficulty of\ngrouping the rest of Isaiah's oracles and orations is great. The plan I\nhave adopted is not perfect, but convenient. Isaiah's prophesying was\ndetermined chiefly by _four_ Assyrian invasions of Palestine: the first,\nin 734-732 B.C., by Tiglath-pileser II., while Ahaz was on the throne;\nthe second by Salmanassar and Sargon in 725-720, during which Samaria\nfell in 721; the third by Sargon, 712-710; the fourth by Sennacherib in\n701, which last three occurred while Hezekiah was king of Judah. But\noutside the Assyrian invasions there were three other cardinal dates in\nIsaiah's life: 740, his call to be a prophet; 727, the death of Ahaz,\nhis enemy, and the accession of his pupil, Hezekiah; and 705, the death\nof Sargon, for Sargon's death led to the rebellion of the Syrian States,\nand it was this rebellion which brought on Sennacherib's invasion.\nTaking all these dates into consideration, I have placed in Book I. all\nthe prophecies of Isaiah from his call in 740 to the death of Ahaz in\n727; they lead up to and illustrate Tiglath-pileser's invasion; they\ncover what I have ventured to call the prophet's apprenticeship, during\nwhich the theatre of his vision was mainly the internal life of his\npeople, but he gained also his first outlook upon the world beyond. Book\nII. deals with the prophecies from the accession of Hezekiah in 727 to\nthe death of Sargon in 705--a long period, but few prophecies, covering\nboth Salmanassar's and Sargon's campaigns. Book III. is filled with the\nprophecies from 705 to 702, a numerous group, called forth from Isaiah\nby the rebellion and political activity in Palestine consequent on\nSargon's death and preliminary to Sennacherib's arrival. Book IV.\ncontains the prophecies which refer to Sennacherib's actual invasion of\nJudah and siege of Jerusalem, in 701.\n\nOf course, any chronological arrangement of Isaiah's prophecies must be\nlargely provisional. Only some of the chapters are fixed to dates past\npossibility of doubt. The Assyriology which has helped us with these\nmust yield further results before the controversies can be settled that\nexist with regard to the rest. I have explained in the course of the\nExposition my reasons for the order which I have followed, and need only\nsay here that I am still more uncertain about the generally received\ndates of chaps x. 5-xi., xvii. 12-14 and xxxii. The religious problems,\nhowever, were so much the same during the whole of Isaiah's career that\nuncertainties of date, _if they are confined to the limits of that\ncareer_, make little difference to the exposition of the book.\n\nIsaiah's doctrines, being so closely connected with the life of his day,\ncome up for statement at many points of the narrative, in which this\nExposition chiefly consists. But here and there I have inserted chapters\ndealing summarily with more important topics, such as The World in\nIsaiah's Day; The Messiah; Isaiah's Power of Prediction, with its\nevidence on the character of Inspiration; and the question, Had Isaiah a\nGospel for the Individual? A short index will guide the student to\nIsaiah's teaching on other important points of theology and life, such\nas holiness, forgiveness, monotheism, immortality, the Holy Spirit, etc.\n\nTreating Isaiah's prophecies chronologically as I have done, I have\nfollowed a method which put me on the look-out for any traces of\ndevelopment that his doctrine might exhibit. I have recorded these as\nthey occur, but it may be useful to collect them here. In chaps. ii.-iv.\nwe have the struggle of the apprentice prophet's thoughts from the easy\nreligious optimism of his generation, through unrelieved convictions of\njudgement for the whole people, to his final vision of the Divine\nsalvation of a remnant. Again, chap. vii. following on chaps. ii.-vi.\nproves that Isaiah's belief in the Divine righteousness preceded, and\nwas the parent of, his belief in the Divine sovereignty. Again, his\nsuccessive pictures of the Messiah grow in contents, and become more\nspiritual. And again, he only gradually arrived at a clear view of the\nsiege and deliverance of Jerusalem. One other fact of the same kind has\nimpressed me since I wrote the exposition of chap. i. I have there\nstated that it is plain that Isaiah's conscience was perfect just\nbecause it consisted of two complementary parts: one of God the\ninfinitely High, exalted in righteousness, far above the thoughts of His\npeople, and the other of God the infinitely Near, concerned and jealous\nfor all the practical details of their life. I ought to have added that\nIsaiah was more under the influence of the former in his earlier years,\nbut that as he grew older and took a larger share in the politics of\nJudah it was the latter view of God, to which he most frequently gave\nexpression. Signs of a development like these may be fairly used to\ncorrect or support the evidence which Assyriology affords for\ndetermining the chronological order of the chapters.\n\nBut these signs of development are more valuable for the proof they give\nthat the Book of Isaiah contains the experience and testimony of a real\nlife: a life that learned and suffered and grew, and at last triumphed.\nThere is not a single word about the prophet's birth or childhood, or\nfortune, or personal appearance, or even of his death. But between\nsilence on his origin and silence on his end--and perhaps all the more\nimpressively because of these clouds by which it is bounded--there\nshines the record of Isaiah's spiritual life and of the unfaltering\ncareer which this sustained,--clear and whole, from his commission by\nGod in the secret experience of his own heart to his vindication in\nGod's supreme tribunal of history. It is not only one of the greatest,\nbut one of the most finished and intelligible, lives in history. My main\npurpose in expounding the book is to enable English readers, not only to\nfollow its course, but to feel, and to be elevated by, its Divine\ninspiration.\n\nI may state that this Exposition is based upon a close study of the\nHebrew text of Isaiah, and that the translations are throughout my own,\nexcept in one or two cases where I have quoted from the revised English\nversion.\n\nWith regard to the Revised Version of Isaiah, which I have had\nopportunities of thoroughly testing, I would like to say that my sense\nof the immense service which it renders to English readers of the Bible\nis only exceeded by my wonder that the Revisers have not gone just a\nvery little farther, and adopted one or two simple contrivances which\nare in the line of their own improvements and would have greatly\nincreased our large debt to them. For instance, why did they not make\nplain by inverted commas such undoubted interruptions of the prophet's\nown speech as that of the drunkards in chap. xxviii. 9, 10? Not to know\nthat these verses are spoken in mockery of Isaiah, a mockery to which he\nreplies in vv. 10-13, is to miss the meaning of the whole passage.\nAgain, when they printed Job and the Psalms in metrical form, as well as\nthe Hymn of Hezekiah, why did they not do the same with other poetical\npassages of Isaiah, particularly the great Ode on the King of Babylon in\nchap. xiv.? This is utterly spoiled in the form in which the Revisers\nhave printed it. What English reader would guess that it was as much a\npiece of metre as any of the Psalms? Again, why have they so\nconsistently rendered by the misleading word \"judgement\" a Hebrew term\nthat no doubt sometimes means an act of doom, but far oftener the\nabstract quality of justice? It is such defects, along with a frequent\nfailure to mark the proper emphasis in a sentence, that have led me to\nsubstitute a more literal version of my own.\n\nI have not thought it necessary to discuss the question of the\nchronology of the period. This has been done so often and so recently.\nSee Robertson Smith's _Prophets of Israel_, pp. 145, 402, 413, Driver's\n_Isaiah_, p. 12, or any good commentary.\n\nI append a chronological table, and an index to the canonical chapters\nwill be found before the index of subjects. The publishers have added a\nmap of Isaiah's world in illustration of chap. v.\n\n\n\n\nTABLE OF DATES.\n\n\n  B.C.\n\n  745. Tiglath-pileser II. ascends the Assyrian Throne.\n\n  740. Uzziah dies. Jotham becomes sole King of Judah. Isaiah's\n  Inaugural Vision (Isa. vi.).\n\n  735. Jotham dies. Ahaz succeeds. League of Syria and Northern\n  Israel against Judah.\n\n  734-732. Syrian Campaign of Tiglath-pileser II. Siege and Capture\n  of Damascus. Invasion of Israel. Captivity of Zebulon,\n  Naphtali and Galilee (Isa. ix. 1). Ahaz visits Damascus.\n\n  727. Salmanassar IV. succeeds Tiglath-pileser II. Hezekiah succeeds\n  Ahaz (or in 725?).\n\n  725. Salmanassar marches on Syria.\n\n  722 or 721. Sargon succeeds Salmanassar. Capture of Samaria.\n  Captivity of all Northern Israel.\n\n  720 or 719. Sargon defeats Egypt at Rafia.\n\n  711. Sargon invades Syria (Isa. xx.). Capture of Ashdod.\n\n  709. Sargon takes Babylon from Merodach-baladan.\n\n  705. Murder of Sargon. Sennacherib succeeds.\n\n  701. Sennacherib invades Syria. Capture of Coast Towns. Siege\n  of Ekron and Battle of Eltekeh. Invasion of Judah. Submission\n  of Hezekiah. Jerusalem spared. Return of\n  Assyrians with the Rabshakeh to Jerusalem, while Sennacherib's\n  Army marches on Egypt. Disaster to Sennacherib's\n  Army near Pelusium. Disappearance of Assyrians from\n  before Jerusalem--all happening in this order.\n\n  697 or 696.   Death of Hezekiah. Manasseh succeeds.\n\n  681. Death of Sennacherib.\n\n  607. Fall of Nineveh and Assyria. Babylon supreme. Jeremiah.\n\n  599. First Deportation of Jews to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.\n\n  588. Jerusalem destroyed. Second Deportation of Jews.\n\n  538. Cyrus captures Babylon. First Return of Jewish Exiles, under\n  Zerubbabel, happens soon after.\n\n  458. Second Return of Jewish Exiles, under Ezra.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK I\n\n_PREFACE AND PROPHECIES TO THE DEATH OF AHAZ_,\n\n727 B.C.\n\n\n\n\n  ISAIAH:  i. THE PREFACE.\n\n     \"     ii.-iv. 740-735 B.C.\n\n     \"     v., ix. 8-x. 4. 735 B.C.\n\n     \"     vi. About 735 B.C.\n\n     \"     vii.-ix. 7. 734-732 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n_THE ARGUMENT OF THE LORD AND ITS CONCLUSION._\n\nISAIAH i.--HIS GENERAL PREFACE.\n\n\nThe first chapter of the Book of Isaiah owes its position not to its\ndate, but to its character. It was published late in the prophet's life.\nThe seventh verse describes the land as overrun by foreign soldiery, and\nsuch a calamity befell Judah only in the last two of the four reigns\nover which the first verse extends Isaiah's prophesying. In the reign of\nAhaz, Judah was invaded by Syria and Northern Israel, and some have\ndated chapter i. from the year of that invasion, 734 B.C. In the reign\nagain of Hezekiah some have imagined, in order to account for the\nchapter, a swarming of neighbouring tribes upon Judah; and Mr. Cheyne,\nto whom regarding the history of Isaiah's time we ought to listen with\nthe greatest deference, has supposed an Assyrian invasion in 711, under\nSargon. But hardly of this, and certainly not of that, have we adequate\nevidence, and the only other invasion of Judah in Isaiah's lifetime took\nplace under Sennacherib, in 701. For many reasons this Assyrian invasion\nis to be preferred to that by Syria and Ephraim in 734 as the occasion\nof this prophecy. But there is really no need to be determined on the\npoint. The prophecy has been lifted out of its original circumstance\nand placed in the front of the book, perhaps by Isaiah himself, as a\ngeneral introduction to his collected pieces. It owes its position, as\nwe have said, to its character. It is a clear, complete statement of the\npoints which were at issue between the Lord and His own all the time\nIsaiah was the Lord's prophet. It is the most representative of Isaiah's\nprophecies, a summary, perhaps better than any other single chapter of\nthe Old Testament, of the substance of prophetic doctrine, and a very\nvivid illustration of the prophetic spirit and method. We propose to\ntreat it here as introductory to the main subjects and lines of Isaiah's\nteaching, leaving its historical references till we arrive in due course\nat the probable year of its origin, 701 B.C.[1]\n\n  [1] See p. 343.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIsaiah's preface is in the form of a Trial or Assize. Ewald calls it\n\"The Great Arraignment.\" There are all the actors in a judicial process.\nIt is a Crown case, and God is at once Plaintiff and Judge. He delivers\nboth the Complaint in the beginning (vv. 2, 3) and the Sentence in the\nend. The Assessors are Heaven and Earth, whom the Lord's herald invokes\nto hear the Lord's plea (ver. 2). The people of Judah are the\nDefendants. The charge against them is one of brutish, ingrate\nstupidity, breaking out into rebellion. The Witness is the prophet\nhimself, whose evidence on the guilt of his people consists in\nrecounting the misery that has overtaken their land (vv. 4-9), along\nwith their civic injustice and social cruelty--sins of the upper and\nruling classes (vv. 10, 17, 21-23). The people's Plea-in-defence,\nlaborious worship and multiplied sacrifice, is repelled and exposed (vv.\n10-17). And the Trial is concluded--_Come now, let us bring our\nreasoning to a close, saith the Lord_--by God's offer of pardon to a\npeople thoroughly convicted (ver. 18). On which follow the Conditions of\nthe Future: happiness is sternly made dependent on repentance and\nrighteousness (vv. 19, 20). And a supplementary oracle is given (vv.\n24-31), announcing a time of affliction, through which the nation shall\npass as through a furnace; rebels and sinners shall be consumed, but God\nwill redeem Zion, and with her a remnant of the people.\n\nThat is the plan of the chapter--a Trial at Law. Though it disappears\nunder the exceeding weight of thought the prophet builds upon it, do not\nlet us pass hurriedly from it, as if it were only a scaffolding.\n\nThat God should argue at all is the magnificent truth on which our\nattention must fasten, before we inquire what the argument is about. God\nreasons with man--that is the first article of religion according to\nIsaiah. Revelation is not magical, but rational and moral. Religion is\nreasonable intercourse between one intelligent Being and another. God\nworks upon man first through conscience.\n\nOver against the prophetic view of religion sprawls and reeks in this\nsame chapter the popular--religion as smoky sacrifice, assiduous\nworship, and ritual. The people to whom the chapter was addressed were\nnot idolaters.[2] Hezekiah's reformation was over. Judah worshipped her\nown God, whom the prophet introduces not as for the first time, but by\nJudah's own familiar names for Him--Jehovah, Jehovah of Hosts, the Holy\nOne of Israel, the Mighty One, or Hero, of Israel. In this hour of\nextreme danger the people are waiting on Jehovah with great pains and\ncost of sacrifice. They pray, they sacrifice, they solemnize to\nperfection. But they do not _know_, they do not _consider_; this is the\nburden of their offence. To use a better word, they do not _think_. They\nare God's grown-up children (ver. 2)--_children_, that is to say, like\nthe son of the parable, with native instincts for their God, and _grown\nup_--that is to say, with reason and conscience developed. But they use\nneither, stupider than very beasts. _Israel doth not know, my people\ndoth not consider._ In all their worship conscience is asleep, and they\nare drenched in wickedness. Isaiah puts their life in an\nepigram--_wickedness and worship: I cannot away_, saith the Lord, _with\nwickedness and worship_ (ver. 13).\n\n  [2] At least those to whom the first twenty-three verses were addressed.\n  There is distinct blame of worshipping in the groves of Asherah in the\n  appended oracle (vv. 24-31), which is proof that this oracle was given\n  at an earlier period than the rest of the chapter--a fair instance of\n  the very great difficulty we have in determining the dates of the\n  various prophecies of Isaiah.\n\nBut the pressure and stimulus of the prophecy lie in this, that although\nthe people have silenced conscience and are steeped in a stupidity worse\nthan ox or ass, God will not leave them alone. He forces Himself upon\nthem; He compels them to think. In the order and calmness of nature\n(ver. 2), apart from catastrophe nor seeking to influence by any\nmiracle, God speaks to men by the reasonable words of His prophet.\nBefore He will publish salvation or intimate disaster He must rouse and\nstartle conscience. His controversy precedes alike His peace and His\njudgements. An awakened conscience is His prophet's first demand. Before\nreligion can be prayer, or sacrifice, or any acceptable worship, it must\nbe a _reasoning together_ with God.\n\nThat is what mean the arrival of the Lord, and the opening of the\nassize, and the call to know and consider. It is the terrible necessity\nwhich comes back upon men, however engrossed or drugged they may be, to\npass their lives in moral judgement before themselves; a debate to which\nthere is never any closure, in which forgotten things will not be\nforgotten, but a man \"is compelled to repeat to himself things he\ndesires to be silent about, and to listen to what he does not wish to\nhear, ... yielding to that mysterious power which says to him, Think.\nOne can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea\nfrom returning to a shore. With the sailor this is called the tide; with\nthe guilty it is called remorse. God upheaves the soul as well as the\nocean.\"[3] Upon that ever-returning and resistless tide Hebrew prophecy,\nwith its Divine freight of truth and comfort, rides into the lives of\nmen. This first chapter of Isaiah is just the parable of the awful\ncompulsion to think which men call conscience. The stupidest of\ngenerations, formal and fat-hearted, are forced to consider and to\nreason. The Lord's court and controversy are opened, and men are whipped\ninto them from His Temple and His altar.\n\n  [3] _Les Mis\u00e9rables_: \"a Tempest in a Brain.\"\n\nFor even religion and religiousness, the common man's commonest refuge\nfrom conscience--not only in Isaiah's time--cannot exempt from this\nwrit. Would we be judged by our moments of worship, by our\n_temple-treading_, which is Hebrew for church-going, by the wealth of\nour sacrifice, by our ecclesiastical position? This chapter drags us out\nbefore the austerity and incorruptibleness of Nature. The assessors of\nthe Lord are not the Temple nor the Law, but Heaven and Earth--not\necclesiastical conventions, but the grand moral fundamentals of the\nuniverse, purity, order and obedience to God. Religiousness, however,\nis not the only refuge from which we shall find Isaiah startling men\nwith the trumpet of the Lord's assize. He is equally intolerant of the\nindulgent silence and compromises of the world, that give men courage to\nsay, We are no worse than others. Men's lives, it is a constant truth of\nhis, have to be argued out not with the world, but with God. If a man\nwill be silent upon shameful and uncomfortable things, he cannot. His\nthoughts are not his own; God will think them for him as God thinks them\nhere for unthinking Israel. Nor are the practical and intellectual\ndistractions of a busy life any refuge from conscience. When the\npoliticians of Judah seek escape from judgement by plunging into deeper\nintrigue and a more bustling policy, Isaiah is fond of pointing out to\nthem that they are only forcing judgement nearer. They do but sharpen on\nother objects the thoughts whose edge must some day turn upon\nthemselves.\n\nWhat is this questioning nothing holds away, nothing stills, and nothing\nwears out? It is the voice of God Himself, and its insistence is\ntherefore as irresistible as its effect is universal. That is not mere\nrhetoric which opens the Lord's controversy: _Hear, O heavens, and give\near, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken_. All the world changes to the\nman in whom conscience lifts up her voice, and to the guilty Nature\nseems attentive and aware. Conscience compels heaven and earth to act as\nher assessors, because she is the voice, and they the creatures, of God.\nThis leads us to emphasize another feature of the prophecy.\n\nWe have called this chapter a trial-at-law; but it is far more a\n_personal_ than a legal controversy; of the formally forensic there is\nvery little about it. Some theologies and many preachers have attempted\nthe conviction of the human conscience by the technicalities of a system\nof law, or by appealing to this or that historical covenant, or by the\nobligations of an intricate and burdensome morality. This is not\nIsaiah's way. His generation is here judged by no system of law or\nancient covenants, but by a living Person and by His treatment of\nthem--a Person who is a Friend and a Father. It is not Judah and the law\nthat are confronted; it is Judah and Jehovah. There is no contrast\nbetween the life of this generation and some glorious estate from which\nthey or their forefathers have fallen; but they are made to hear the\nvoice of a living and present God: _I have nourished and brought up\nchildren, and they have rebelled against Me_. Isaiah begins where Saul\nof Tarsus began, who, though he afterwards elaborated with wealth of\ndetail the awful indictment of the abstract law against man, had never\nbeen able to do so but for that first confronting with the Personal\nDeity, _Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?_ Isaiah's ministry started\nfrom the vision of the Lord; and it was no covenant or theory, but the\nLord Himself, who remained the prophet's conscience to the end.\n\nBut though the living God is Isaiah's one explanation of conscience, it\nis God in two aspects, the moral effects of which are opposite, yet\ncomplementary. In conscience men are defective by forgetting either the\nsublime or the practical, but Isaiah's strength is to do justice to\nboth. With him God is first the infinitely High, and then equally the\ninfinitely Near. _The Lord is exalted in righteousness!_ yes, and\nsublimely above the people's vulgar identifications of His will with\ntheir own safety and success, but likewise concerned with every detail\nof their politics and social behaviour, not to be relegated to the\nTemple, where they were wont to confine Him, but by His prophet\ndescending to their markets and councils, with His own opinion of their\npolicies, interfering in their intrigues, meeting Ahaz at the conduit of\nthe upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field, and fastening _eyes\nof glory_ on every pin and point of the dress of the daughters of Zion.\nHe is no merely transcendent God. Though He be the High and Holy One, He\nwill discuss each habit of the people, and argue upon its merits every\none of their policies. His constant cry to them is _Come and let us\nreason together_, and to hear it is to have a conscience. Indeed, Isaiah\nlays more stress on this intellectual side of the moral sense than on\nthe other, and the frequency with which in this chapter he employs the\nexpressions _know_, and _consider_, and _reason_, is characteristic of\nall his prophesying. Even the most superficial reader must notice how\nmuch this prophet's doctrine of conscience and repentance harmonizes\nwith the _metanoia_ of New Testament preaching.\n\nThis doctrine, that God has an interest in every detail of practical\nlife and will argue it out with men, led Isaiah to a revelation of God\nquite peculiar to himself. For the Psalmist it is enough that his soul\n_come to God, the living God_. It is enough for other prophets to awe\nthe hearts of their generations by revealing _the Holy One_; but Isaiah,\nwith his intensely practical genius, and sorely tried by the stupid\ninconsistency of his people, bends himself to make them understand that\nGod is at least a _reasonable_ Being. Do not, his constant cry is, and\nhe puts it sometimes in almost as many words--do not act as if there\nwere a Fool on the throne of the universe, which you virtually do when\nyou take these meaningless forms of worship as your only intercourse\nwith Him, and beside them practise your rank iniquities, as if He did\nnot see nor care. We need not here do more than mention the passages in\nwhich, sometimes by a word, Isaiah stings and startles self-conscious\npoliticians and sinners beetle-blind in sin, with the sense that God\nHimself takes an interest in their deeds and has His own working-plans\nfor their life. On the land question in Judah (v. 9): _In mine ears,\nsaith the Lord of hosts_. When the people were paralyzed by calamity, as\nif it had no meaning or term (xxviii. 29): _This also cometh forth from\nthe Lord of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel and excellent in\neffectual working_. Again, when they were panic-stricken, and madly\nsought by foolish ways their own salvation (xxx. 18): _For the Lord is a\nGod of judgement--i.e._, of principle, method, law, with His own way and\ntime for doing things--_blessed are all they that wait for Him_. And\nagain, when politicians were carried away by the cleverness and success\nof their own schemes (xxxi. 2): _Yet He also is wise_, or clever. It was\nonly a personal application of this Divine attribute when Isaiah heard\nthe word of the Lord give him the minutest directions for his own\npractice--as, for instance, at what exact point he was to meet Ahaz\n(vii. 3); or that he was to take a board and write upon it in the vulgar\ncharacter (viii. 1); or that he was to strip frock and sandals, and walk\nwithout them for three years (xx). Where common men feel conscience only\nas something vague and inarticulate, a flavour, a sting, a foreboding,\nthe obligation of work, the constraint of affection, Isaiah heard the\nword of the Lord, clear and decisive on matters of policy, and definite\neven to the details of method and style.\n\nIsaiah's conscience, then, was perfect, because it was two-fold: _God is\nholy; God is practical_. If there be the glory, the purity as of fire,\nof His Presence to overawe, there is His unceasing inspection of us,\nthere is His interest in the smallest details of our life, there are His\nfixed laws, from regard for all of which no amount of religious\nsensibility may relieve us. Neither of these halves of conscience can\nendure by itself. If we forget the first we may be prudent and for a\ntime clever, but will also grow self-righteous, and in time\nself-righteousness means stupidity too. If we forget the second we may\nbe very devotional, but cannot escape becoming blindly and\ninconsistently immoral. Hypocrisy is the result either way, whether we\nforget how high God is or whether we forget how near.\n\nTo these two great articles of conscience, however--God is high and God\nis near--the Bible adds a greater third, God is Love. This is the\nuniqueness and glory of the Bible's interpretation of conscience. Other\nwritings may equal it in enforcing the sovereignty and detailing the\nminutely practical bearings of conscience: the Bible alone tells man how\nmuch of conscience is nothing but God's love. It is a doctrine as\nplainly laid down as the doctrine about chastisement, though not half so\nmuch recognised--_Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth_. What is true of\nthe material pains and penalties of life is equally true of the inward\nconvictions, frets, threats and fears, which will not leave stupid man\nalone. To men with their obscure sense of shame, and restlessness, and\nservitude to sin the Bible plainly says, \"You are able to sin because\nyou have turned your back to the love of God; you are unhappy because\nyou do not take that love to your heart; the bitterness of your remorse\nis that it is love against which you are ungrateful.\" Conscience is not\nthe Lord's persecution, but His jealous pleading, and not the fierceness\nof His anger, but the reproach of His love. This is the Bible's doctrine\nthroughout, and it is not absent from the chapter we are considering.\nLove gets the first word even in the indictment of this austere assize:\n_I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled\nagainst Me_. Conscience is already a Father's voice: the recollection,\nas it is in the parable of the prodigal, of a Father's mercy; the\nreproach, as it is with Christ's lamentation over Jerusalem, of outraged\nlove. We shall find not a few passages in Isaiah, which prove that he\nwas in harmony with all revelation upon this point, that conscience is\nthe reproach of the love of God.\n\nBut when that understanding of conscience breaks out in a sinner's heart\nforgiveness cannot be far away. Certainly penitence is at hand. And\ntherefore, because of all books the Bible is the only one which\ninterprets conscience as the love of God, so is it the only one that can\ncombine His pardon with His reproach, and as Isaiah now does in a single\nverse, proclaim His free forgiveness as the conclusion of His bitter\nquarrel. _Come, let us bring our reasoning to a close, saith the_ LORD.\n_Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though\nthey be red like crimson, they shall be as wool._ Our version, _Come,\nand let us reason together_, gives no meaning here. So plain an offer of\npardon is not reasoning together; it is bringing reasoning to an end; it\nis the settlement of a dispute that has been in progress. Therefore we\ntranslate, with Mr. Cheyne, _Let us bring our reasoning to an end_. And\nhow pardon can be the end and logical conclusion of conscience is clear\nto us, who have seen how much of conscience is love, and that the\nLord's controversy is the reproach of His Father's heart, and His\njealousy to make His own consider all His way of mercy towards them.\n\nBut the prophet does not leave conscience alone with its personal and\ninward results. He rouses it to its social applications. The sins with\nwhich the Jews are charged in this charge of the Lord are public sins.\nThe whole people is indicted, but it is the judges, princes and\ncounsellors who are denounced. Judah's disasters, which she seeks to\nmeet by worship, are due to civic faults, bribery, corruption of\njustice, indifference to the rights of the poor and the friendless.\nConscience with Isaiah is not what it is with so much of the religion of\nto-day, a _cul de sac_, into which the Lord chases a man and shuts him\nup to Himself, but it is a thoroughfare by which the Lord drives the man\nout upon the world and its manifold need of him. There is little\ndissection and less study of individual character with Isaiah. He has no\ntime for it. Life is too much about him, and his God too much interested\nin life. What may be called the more personal sins--drunkenness, vanity\nof dress, thoughtlessness, want of faith in God and patience to wait for\nHim--are to Isaiah more social than individual symptoms, and it is for\ntheir public and political effects that he mentions them. Forgiveness is\nno end in itself, but the opportunity of social service; not a sanctuary\nin which Isaiah leaves men to sing its praises or form doctrines of it,\nbut a gateway through which he leads God's people upon the world with\nthe cry that rises from him here: _Seek justice, relieve the oppressed,\njudge the fatherless, plead for the widow_.\n\nBefore we pass from this form in which Isaiah figures religion we must\ndeal with a suggestion it raises. No modern mind can come into this\nancient court of the LORD's controversy without taking advantage of its\nopen forms to put a question regarding the rights of man there. That God\nshould descend to argue with men, what licence does this give to men? If\nreligion be reasonable controversy of this kind, what is the place of\ndoubt in it? Is not doubt man's side of the argument? Has he not also\nquestions to put--the Almighty from his side to arraign? For God has\nHimself here put man on a level with Him, saying, _Come, and let us\nreason together_.\n\nA temper of this kind, though not strange to the Old Testament, lies\nbeyond the horizon of Isaiah. The only challenge of the Almighty which\nin any of his prophecies he reports as rising from his own countrymen is\nthe bravado of certain drunkards (chaps. v. and xxviii.). Here and\nelsewhere it is the very opposite temper from honest doubt which he\nindicts--the temper that _does not know_, that _does not consider_.\nRitualism and sensualism are to Isaiah equally false, because equally\nunthinking. The formalist and the fleshly he classes together, because\nof their stupidity. What does it matter whether a man's conscience and\nintellect be stifled in his own fat or under the clothes with which he\ndresses himself? They are stifled, and that is the main thing. To the\nformalist Isaiah says, _Israel doth not know, my people doth not\nconsider_; to the fleshly (chap. v.), _My people are gone into captivity\nfor want of knowledge._ But _knowing_ and _considering_ are just that of\nwhich doubt, in its modern sense, is the abundance, and not the defect.\nThe mobility of mind, the curiosity, the moral sensitiveness, the hunger\nthat is not satisfied with the chaff of formal and unreal answers, the\nspirit to find out truth for one's self, wrestling with God--this is the\nvery temper Isaiah would have welcomed in a people whose sluggishness\nof reason was as justly blamed by him as the grossness of their moral\nsense. And if revelation be of the form in which Isaiah so prominently\nsets it, and the whole Bible bears him out in this--if revelation be\nthis argumentative and reasonable process, then human doubt has its part\nin revelation. It is, indeed, man's side of the argument, and as history\nshows, has often helped to the elucidation of the points at issue.\n\nMerely intellectual scepticism, however, is not within Isaiah's horizon.\nHe would never have employed (nor would any other prophet) our modern\nhabits of doubt, except as he employs these intellectual terms, _to\nknow_ and _to consider_--viz., as instruments of moral search and\nconviction. Had he lived now he would have been found among those few\ngreat prophets who use the resources of the human intellect to expose\nthe moral state of humanity; who, like Shakespeare and Hugo, turn man's\ndetective and reflective processes upon his own conduct; who make\nhimself stand at the bar of his conscience. And truly to have doubt of\neverything in heaven and earth, and never to doubt one's self, is to be\nguilty of as stiff and stupid a piece of self-righteousness as the\nreligious formalists whom Isaiah exposes. But the moral of the chapter\nis plainly what we have shown it to be, that a man cannot stifle doubt\nand debate about his own heart or treatment of God; whatever else he\nthinks about and judges, he cannot help judging himself.\n\n_Note on the Place of Nature in the Argument of the Lord._--The office\nwhich the Bible assigns to Nature in the controversy of God with man is\nfourfold--Assessor, Witness, Man's Fellow-Convict, and Doomster or\nExecutioner. Taking these backward:--1. Scripture frequently exhibits\nNature as the _doomster of the Lord_. Nature has a terrible power of\nflashing back from her vaster surfaces the guilty impressions of man's\nheart; at the last day her thunders shall peal the doom of the wicked,\nand her fire devour them. In those prophecies of the book of Isaiah\nwhich relate to his own time this use is not made of Nature, unless it\nbe in his very earliest prophecy in chap. ii., and in his references to\nthe earthquake (v. 25). To Isaiah the sentences and scourges of God are\npolitical and historical, the threats and arms of Assyria. He employs\nthe violences of Nature only as metaphors for Assyrian rage and force.\nBut he often promises fertility as the effect of the Lord's pardon, and\nwhen the prophets are writing about Nature, it is difficult to say\nwhether they are to be understood literally or poetically. But, at any\nrate, there is much larger use made of physical catastrophes and\nconvulsions in those other prophecies which do not relate to Isaiah's\nown time, and are now generally thought not to be his. Compare chaps.\nxiii. and xiv. 2. The representation of the earth as the\n_fellow-convict_ of guilty man, sharing his curse, is very vivid in\nIsaiah xxiv.-xxvii. In the prophecies relating to his own time Isaiah,\nof course, identifies the troubles that afflict the land with the sin of\nthe people, of Judah. But these are due to political causes--viz., the\nAssyrian invasion. 3. In the Lord's court of judgement the prophets\nsometimes employ Nature as _a witness_ against man, as, for instance,\nthe prophet Micah (vi. 1, _ff_). Nature is full of associations; the\nenduring mountains have memories from old, they have been constant\nwitnesses of the dealing of God with His people. 4. Or lastly, Nature\nmay be used as the great _assessor_ of the conscience, sitting to\nexpound the principles on which God governs life. This is Isaiah's\nfavourite use of Nature. He employs her to corroborate his statement of\nthe Divine law and illustrate the ways of God to men, as in the end of\nchap. xxviii., and no doubt in the opening verse of this chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n_THE THREE JERUSALEMS._\n\nISAIAH ii.-iv. (740-735 B.C.).\n\n\nAfter the general introduction, in chap. i., to the prophecies of\nIsaiah, there comes another portion of the book, of greater length, but\nnearly as distinct as the first. It covers four chapters, the second to\nthe sixth, all of them dating from the same earliest period of Isaiah's\nministry, before 735 B.C. They deal with exactly the same subjects, but\nthey differ greatly in form. One section (chaps. ii.-iv.) consists of a\nnumber of short utterances--evidently not all spoken at the same time,\nfor they conflict with one another--a series of consecutive prophecies,\nthat probably represent the stages of conviction through which Isaiah\npassed in his prophetic apprenticeship; a second section (chap. v.) is a\ncareful and artistic restatement, in parable and oration, of the truths\nhe has thus attained; while a third section (chap. vi.) is narrative,\nprobably written subsequently to the first two, but describing an\ninspiration and official call, which must have preceded them both. The\nmore one examines chaps. ii.-vi., and finds that they but express the\nsame truths in different forms, the more one is confirmed in some such\nview of them as this, which, it is believed, the following exposition\nwill justify. Chaps. v. and vi. are twin appendices to the long summary\nin ii.-iv.: chap. v. a public vindication and enforcement of the results\nof that summary, chap. vi. a private vindication to the prophet's heart\nof the very same truths, by a return to the secret moment of their\noriginal inspiration. We may assign 735 B.C., just before or just after\nthe accession of Ahaz, as the date of the latest of these prophecies.\nThe following is their historical setting.\n\nFor more than half a century the kingdom of Judah, under two powerful\nand righteous monarchs, had enjoyed the greatest prosperity. Uzziah\nstrengthened the borders, extended the supremacy and vastly increased\nthe resources of his little State, which, it is well to remember, was in\nits own size not larger than three average Scottish counties. He won\nback for Judah the port of Elath on the Red Sea, built a navy, and\nrestored the commerce with the far East, which Solomon began. He\novercame, in battle or by the mere terror of his name, the neighbouring\nnations--the Philistines that dwelt in cities, and the wandering tribes\nof desert Arabs. The Ammonites brought him gifts. With the wealth, which\nthe East by tribute or by commerce poured into his little principality,\nUzziah fortified his borders and his capital, undertook large works of\nhusbandry and irrigation, organized a powerful standing army, and\nsupplied it with a siege artillery capable of slinging arrows and\nstones. _His name spread far abroad, for he was marvellously helped till\nhe was strong._ His son Jotham (740-735 B.C.) continued his father's\npolicy with nearly all his father's success. He built cities and\ncastles, quelled a rebellion among his tributaries, and caused their\nriches to flow faster still into Jerusalem. But while Jotham bequeathed\nto his country a sure defence and great wealth, and to his people a\nstrong spirit and prestige among the nations, he left another bequest,\nwhich robbed these of their value--the son who succeeded him. In 735\nJotham died and Ahaz became king. He was very young, and stepped to the\nthrone from the hareem. He brought to the direction of the government\nthe petulant will of a spoiled child, the mind of an intriguing and\nsuperstitious woman. It was when the national policy felt the paralysis\nconsequent on these that Isaiah published at least the later part of the\nprophecies now marked off as chaps. ii.-iv. of his book. _My people_, he\ncries--_my people! children are their oppressors, and women rule over\nthem. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy\nthe way of thy paths._\n\nIsaiah had been born into the flourishing nation while Uzziah was king.\nThe great events of that monarch's reign were his education, the still\ngrander hopes they prompted the passion of his virgin fancy. He must\nhave absorbed as the very temper of his youth this national\nconsciousness which swelled so proudly in Judah under Uzziah. But the\naccession of such a king as Ahaz, while it was sure to let loose the\npassions and follies fostered by a period of rapid increase in luxury,\ncould not fail to afford to Judah's enemies the long-deferred\nopportunity of attacking her. It was an hour both of the manifestation\nof sin and of the judgement of sin--an hour in which, while the majesty\nof Judah, sustained through two great reigns, was about to disappear in\nthe follies of a third, the majesty of Judah's God should become more\nconspicuous than ever. Of this Isaiah had been privately conscious, as\nwe shall see, for five years. _In the year that king Uzziah died_\n(740), the young Jew _saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and\nlifted up_. Startled into prophetic consciousness by the awful contrast\nbetween an earthly majesty that had so long fascinated men, but now sank\ninto a leper's grave, and the heavenly, which rose sovereign and\neverlasting above it, Isaiah had gone on to receive conviction of his\npeople's sin and certain punishment. With the accession of Ahaz, five\nyears later, his own political experience was so far developed as to\npermit of his expressing in their exact historical effects the awful\nprinciples of which he had received foreboding when Uzziah died. What we\nfind in chaps. ii.-iv. is a record of the struggle of his mind towards\nthis expression; it is the summary, as we have already said, of Isaiah's\napprenticeship.\n\n_The word that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saw concerning Judah and\nJerusalem._ We do not know anything of Isaiah's family or of the details\nof his upbringing. He was a member of some family of Jerusalem, and in\nintimate relations with the Court. It has been believed that he was of\nroyal blood, but it matters little whether this be true or not. A spirit\nso wise and masterful as his did not need social rank to fit it for that\nintimacy with princes which has doubtless suggested the legend of his\nroyal descent. What does matter is Isaiah's citizenship in Jerusalem,\nfor this colours all his prophecy. More than Athens to Demosthenes, Rome\nto Juvenal, Florence to Dante, is Jerusalem to Isaiah. She is his\nimmediate and ultimate regard, the centre and return of all his\nthoughts, the hinge of the history of his time, the one thing worth\npreserving amidst its disasters, the summit of those brilliant hopes\nwith which he fills the future. He has traced for us the main features\nof her position and some of the lines of her construction, many of the\ngreat figures of her streets, the fashions of her women, the arrival of\nembassies, the effect of rumours. He has painted her aspect in triumph,\nin siege, in famine and in earthquake; war filling her valleys with\nchariots, and again nature rolling tides of fruitfulness up to her\ngates; her moods of worship and panic and profligacy--till we see them\nall as clearly as the shadow following the sunshine and the breeze\nacross the cornfields of our own summers.\n\nIf he takes wider observation of mankind, Jerusalem is his watch-tower.\nIt is for her defence he battles through fifty years of statesmanship,\nand all his prophecy may be said to travail in anguish for her new\nbirth. He was never away from her walls, but not even the psalms of the\ncaptives by the rivers of Babylon, with the desire of exile upon them,\nexhibit more beauty and pathos than the lamentations which Isaiah poured\nupon Jerusalem's sufferings or the visions in which he described her\nfuture solemnity and peace.\n\nIt is not with surprise, therefore, that we find the first prophecies of\nIsaiah directed upon his mother city: _The word that Isaiah the son of\nAmoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem._ There is little about Judah in\nthese chapters: the country forms but a fringe to the capital.\n\nBefore we look into the subject of the prophecy, however, a short\ndigression is necessary on the manner in which it is presented to us. It\nis not a reasoned composition or argument we have here; it is a vision,\nit is the word which Isaiah _saw_. The expression is vague, often abused\nand in need of defining. Vision is not employed here to express any\nmagical display before the eyes of the prophet of the very words which\nhe was to speak to the people, or any communication to his thoughts by\ndream or ecstasy. They are higher qualities of \"vision\" which these\nchapters unfold. There is, first of all, the power of forming an ideal,\nof seeing and describing a thing in the fulfilment of all the promise\nthat is in it. But these prophecies are much more remarkable for two\nother powers of inward vision, to which we give the names of insight and\nintuition--insight into human character, intuition of Divine\nprinciples--_clear knowledge of what man is and how God will act_--a\nkeen discrimination of the present state of affairs in Judah, and\nunreasoned conviction of moral truth and the Divine will. The original\nmeaning of the Hebrew word _saw_, which is used in the title to this\nseries, is to cleave, or split; then to see into, to see through, to get\ndown beneath the surface of things and discover their real nature. And\nwhat characterizes the bulk of these visions is _penetrativeness_, the\nkeenness of a man who will not be deceived by an outward show that he\ndelights to hold up to our scorn, but who has a conscience for the inner\nworth of things and for their future consequences. To lay stress on the\nmoral meaning of the prophet's vision is not to grudge, but to emphasize\nits inspiration by God. Of that inspiration Isaiah was himself assured.\nIt was God's Spirit that enabled him to see thus keenly; for he saw\nthings keenly, not only as men count moral keenness, but as God Himself\nsees them, in their value in His sight and in their attractiveness for\nHis love and pity. In this prophecy there occurs a striking\nexpression--_the eyes of the glory of God_. It was the vision of the\nAlmighty Searcher and Judge, burning through man's pretence, with which\nthe prophet felt himself endowed. This then was the second element in\nhis vision--to penetrate men's hearts as God Himself penetrated them,\nand constantly, without squint or blur, to see right from wrong in their\neternal difference. And the third element is the intuition of God's\nwill, the perception of what line of action He will take. This last, of\ncourse, forms the distinct prerogative of Hebrew prophecy, that power of\nvision which is its climax; the moral situation being clear, to see then\nhow God will act upon it.\n\nUnder these three powers of vision Jerusalem, the prophet's city, is\npresented to us--Jerusalem in three lights, really three Jerusalems.\nFirst, there is flashed out (chap. ii. 2-5) a vision of the ideal city,\nJerusalem idealized and glorified. Then comes (ii. 6-iv. 1) a very\nrealistic picture, a picture of the actual Jerusalem. And lastly at the\nclose of the prophecy (iv. 2-6) we have a vision of Jerusalem as she\nshall be after God has taken her in hand--very different indeed from the\nideal with which the prophet began. Here are three successive motives or\nphases of prophecy, which, as we have said, in all probability summarize\nthe early ministry of Isaiah, and present him to us _first_ as the\nidealist or visionary, _second_ as the realist or critic, and _third_ as\nthe prophet proper or revealer of God's actual will.\n\n\nI. THE IDEALIST (ii. 1-5).\n\nAll men who have shown our race how great things are possible have had\ntheir inspiration in dreaming of the impossible. Reformers, who at death\nwere content to have lived for the moving forward but one inch of some\nof their fellow-men, began by believing themselves able to lift the\nwhole world at once. Isaiah was no exception to this human fashion. His\nfirst vision was that of a Utopia, and his first belief that his\ncountrymen would immediately realize it. He lifts up to us a very grand\npicture of a vast commonwealth centred in Jerusalem. Some think he\nborrowed it from an older prophet; Micah has it also; it may have been\nthe ideal of the age. But, at any rate, if we are not to take verse 5 in\nscorn, Isaiah accepted this as his own. _And it shall come to pass in\nthe last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be\nestablished in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills,\nand all nations shall flow unto it._ The prophet's own Jerusalem shall\nbe the light of the world, the school and temple of the earth, the seat\nof the judgement of the Lord, when He shall reign over the nations, and\nall mankind shall dwell in peace beneath Him. It is a glorious destiny,\nand as its light shines from the far-off horizon, _the latter days_, in\nwhich the prophet sees it, what wonder that he is possessed and cries\naloud, _O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the\nLORD!_ It seems to the young prophet's hopeful heart as if at once that\nideal would be realized, as if by his own word he could lift his people\nto its fulfilment.\n\nBut that is impossible, and Isaiah perceives so as soon as he turns from\nthe far-off horizon to the city at his feet, as soon as he leaves\nto-morrow alone and deals with to-day. The next verses of the\nchapter--from verse 6 onwards--stand in strong contrast to those which\nhave described Israel's ideal. There Zion is full of the law and\nJerusalem of the word of the Lord, the one religion flowing over from\nthis centre upon the world. Here into the actual Jerusalem they have\nbrought all sorts of foreign worship and heathen prophets; _they are\nreplenished from the East, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and\nstrike hands with the children of strangers_. There all nations come to\nworship at Jerusalem; here her thought and faith are scattered over the\nidolatries of all nations. The ideal Jerusalem is full of spiritual\nblessings, the actual of the spoils of trade. There the swords are beat\ninto ploughshares and the spears into pruning-hooks; here are vast and\nnovel armaments, horses and chariots. There the Lord alone is\nworshipped; here the city is crowded with idols. The real Jerusalem\ncould not possibly be more different from the ideal, nor its inhabitants\nas they are from what their prophet had confidently called on them to\nbe.\n\n\nII. THE REALIST (ii. 6-iv. 1).\n\nTherefore Isaiah's attitude and tone suddenly change. The visionary\nbecomes a realist, the enthusiast a cynic, the seer of the glorious city\nof God the prophet of God's judgement. The recoil is absolute in style,\ntemper and thought, down to the very figures of speech which he uses.\nBefore, Isaiah had seen, as it were, a lifting process at work,\n_Jerusalem in the top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills_.\nNow he beholds nothing but depression. _For the day of the LORD of hosts\nshall be upon every one that is proud and haughty, upon all that is\nlifted up, and it shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be\nexalted in that day._ Nothing in the great civilization, which he had\nformerly glorified, is worth preserving. The high towers, fenced walls,\nships of Tarshish, treasures and armour must all perish, even the hills\nlifted by his imagination shall be bowed down, and _the LORD alone be\nexalted in that day_. This recoil reaches its extreme in the last verse\nof the chapter. The prophet, who had believed so much in man as to think\npossible an immediate commonwealth of nations, believes in man now so\nlittle that he does not hold him worth preserving: _Cease ye from man,\nwhose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?_\n\nAttached to this general denunciation are some satiric descriptions, in\nthe third chapter, of the anarchy, to which society in Jerusalem is fast\nbeing reduced under its childish and effeminate king. The scorn of these\npassages is scathing; _the eyes of the glory of God_ burn through every\nrank, fashion and ornament in the town. King and court are not spared;\nthe elders and princes are rigorously denounced. But by far the most\nstriking effort of the prophet's boldness is his prediction of the\noverthrow of Jerusalem itself (ver. 8). What it cost Isaiah to utter and\nthe people to hear we can only partly measure. To his own passionate\npatriotism it must have felt like treason, to the blind optimism of the\npopular religion it doubtless appeared the rankest heresy--to aver that\nthe holy city, inviolate and almost unthreatened since the day David\nbrought to her the ark of the Lord, and destined by the voice of her\nprophets, including Isaiah himself, to be established upon the tops of\nthe mountains, was now to fall into ruin. But Isaiah's conscience\novercomes his sense of consistency, and he who has just proclaimed the\neternal glory of Jerusalem is provoked by his knowledge of her citizens'\nsins to recall his words and intimate her destruction. It may have been,\nthat Isaiah was partly emboldened to so novel a threat, by his knowledge\nof the preparations which Syria and Israel were already making for the\ninvasion of Judah. The prospect of Jerusalem, as the centre of a vast\nempire subject to Jehovah, however natural it was under a successful\nruler like Uzziah, became, of course, unreal when every one of Uzziah's\nand Jotham's tributaries had risen in revolt against their successor,\nAhaz. But of these outward movements Isaiah tells us nothing. He is\nwholly engrossed with Judah's sin. It is his growing acquaintance with\nthe corruption of his fellow-countrymen that has turned his back on the\nideal city of his opening ministry, and changed him into a prophet of\nJerusalem's ruin. _Their tongue and their doings are against the Lord,\nto provoke the eyes of His glory._ Judge, prophet and elder, all the\nupper ranks and useful guides of the people, must perish. It is a sign\nof the degradation to which society shall be reduced, when Isaiah with\nkeen sarcasm pictures the despairing people choosing a certain man to be\ntheir ruler because he alone has a coat to his back! (iii. 6).\n\nWith increased scorn Isaiah turns lastly upon the women of Jerusalem\n(iii. 16-iv. 2), and here perhaps the change which has passed over him\nsince his opening prophecy is most striking. One likes to think of how\nthe citizens of Jerusalem took this alteration in their prophet's\ntemper. We know how popular so optimist a prophecy as that of the\nmountain of the Lord's house must have been, and can imagine how men and\nwomen loved the young face, bright with a far-off light, and the dream\nof an ideal that had no quarrel with the present. \"But what a change is\nthis that has come over him, who speaks not of to-morrow, but of to-day,\nwho has brought his gaze from those distant horizons to our streets, who\nstares every man in the face (iii. 9), and makes the women feel that no\npin and trimming, no ring and bracelet, escape his notice! Our loved\nprophet has become an impudent scorner!\" Ah, men and women of Jerusalem,\nbeware of those eyes! _The glory of God_ is burning in them; they see\nyou through and through, and they tell us that all your armour and the\n_show of your countenance_, and your foreign fashions are as nothing,\nfor there are corrupt hearts below. This is your judgement, that\n_instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness, and instead of a\ngirdle a rope, and instead of well-set hair baldness, and instead of a\nstomacher a girding of sackcloth, and branding instead of beauty_. _Thy\nmen shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war. And her gates\nshall lament and mourn, and she shall be desolate and sit upon the\nground!_\n\nThis was the climax of the prophet's judgement. If the salt have lost\nits savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for\nnothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot. If the women are\ncorrupt the state is moribund.\n\n\nIII. _The Prophet of the Lord_ (iv. 2-6).\n\nIs there, then, no hope for Jerusalem? Yes, but not where the prophet\nsought it at first, in herself, and not in the way he offered it--by the\nmere presentation of an ideal. There is hope, there is more--there is\ncertain salvation in the Lord, but it only comes after judgement.\nContrast that opening picture of the new Jerusalem with this closing\none, and we shall find their difference to lie in two things. There the\ncity is more prominent than the Lord, here the Lord is more prominent\nthan the city; there no word of judgement, here judgement sternly\nemphasized as the indispensable way towards the blessed future. A more\nvivid sense of the Person of Jehovah Himself, a deep conviction of the\nnecessity of chastisement: these are what Isaiah has gained during his\nearly ministry, without losing hope or heart for the future. The bliss\nshall come only when the Lord shall _have washed away the filth of the\ndaughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the\nmidst thereof by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning_. It\nis a corollary of all this that the participants of that future shall be\nmany fewer than in the first vision of the prophet. The process of\njudgement must weed men out, and in place of all nations coming to\nJerusalem, to share its peace and glory, the prophet can speak now only\nof Israel--and only of a remnant of Israel. _The escaped of Israel, the\nleft in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem._ This is a great\nchange in Isaiah's ideal, from the supremacy of Israel over all nations\nto the bare survival of a remnant of his people.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIs there not in this threefold vision a parallel and example for our own\ncivilisation and our thoughts about it? All work and wisdom begin in\ndreams. We must see our Utopias before we start to build our stone and\nlime cities.\n\n                  \"It takes a soul\n  To move a body; it takes a high-souled man\n  To move the masses even to a cleaner stye;\n  It takes the ideal to blow an inch inside\n  The dust of the actual.\"\n\nBut the light of our ideals dawns upon us only to show how poor by\nnature are the mortals who are called to accomplish them. The ideal\nrises still as to Isaiah only to exhibit the poverty of the real. When\nwe lift our eyes from the hills of vision, and rest them on our\nfellow-men, hope and enthusiasm die out of us. Isaiah's disappointment\nis that of every one who brings down his gaze from the clouds to the\nstreets. Be our ideal ever so desirable, be we ever so persuaded of its\nfacility, the moment we attempt to apply it we shall be undeceived.\nSociety cannot be regenerated all at once. There is an expression which\nIsaiah emphasizes in his motive of cynicism: _The show of their\ncountenance doth witness against them._ It tells us that when he called\nhis countrymen to turn to the light he lifted upon them he saw nothing\nbut the exhibition of their sin made plain. When we bring light to a\ncavern whose inhabitants have lost their eyes by the darkness, the light\ndoes not make them see; we have to give them eyes again. Even so no\nvision or theory of a perfect state--the mistake which all young\nreformers make--can regenerate society. It will only reveal social\ncorruption, and sicken the heart of the reformer himself. For the\npossession of a great ideal does not mean, as so many fondly imagine,\nwork accomplished; it means work revealed--work revealed so vast, often\nso impossible, that faith and hope die down, and the enthusiast of\nyesterday becomes the cynic of to-morrow. _Cease ye from man, whose\nbreath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted?_ In this\ndespair, through which every worker for God and man must pass, many a\nwarm heart has grown cold, many an intellect become paralyzed. There is\nbut one way of escape, and that is Isaiah's. It is to believe in God\nHimself; it is to believe that He is at work, that His purposes to man\nare saving purposes, and that with Him there is an inexhaustible source\nof mercy and virtue. So from the blackest pessimism shall arise new hope\nand faith, as from beneath Isaiah's darkest verses that glorious passage\nsuddenly bursts like uncontrollable spring from the very feet of winter.\n_For that day shall the spring of the LORD be beautiful and glorious,\nand the fruit of the land shall be excellent and comely for them that\nare escaped of Israel._ This is all it is possible to say. There must be\na future for man, because God loves him, and God reigns. That future can\nbe reached only through judgement, because God is righteous.\n\nTo put it another way: All of us who live to work for our fellow-men or\nwho hope to lift them higher by our word begin with our own visions of a\ngreat future. These visions, though our youth lends to them an original\ngenerosity and enthusiasm, are, like Isaiah's, largely borrowed. The\nprogressive instincts of the age into which we are born and the mellow\nskies of prosperity combine with our own ardour to make our ideal one of\nsplendour. Persuaded of its facility, we turn to real life to apply it.\nA few years pass. We not only find mankind too stubborn to be forced\ninto our moulds, but we gradually become aware of Another Moulder at\nwork upon our subject, and we stand aside in awe to watch His\noperations. Human desires and national ideals are not always fulfilled;\nphilosophic theories are discredited by the evolution of fact. Uzziah\ndoes not reign for ever; the sceptre falls to Ahaz: progress is checked,\nand the summer of prosperity draws to an end. Under duller skies\nungilded judgement comes to view, cruel and inexorable, crushing even\nthe peaks on which we built our future, yet purifying men and giving\nearnest of a better future, too. And so life, that mocked the control of\nour puny fingers, bends groaning to the weight of an Almighty Hand. God\nalso, we perceive as we face facts honestly, has His ideal for men; and\nthough He works so slowly towards His end that our restless eyes are too\nimpatient to follow His order, He yet reveals all that shall be to the\nhumbled heart and the soul emptied of its own visions. Awed and\nchastened, we look back from His Presence to our old ideals. We are\nstill able to recognize their grandeur and generous hope for men. But we\nsee now how utterly unconnected they are with the present--castles in\nthe air, with no ladders to them from the earth. And even if they were\naccessible, still to our eyes, purged by gazing on God's own ways, they\nwould no more appear desirable. Look back on Isaiah's early ideal from\nthe light of his second vision of the future. For all its grandeur, that\npicture of Jerusalem is not wholly attractive. Is there not much\nnational arrogance in it? Is it not just the imperfectly idealized\nreflection of an age of material prosperity such as that of Uzziah's\nwas? Pride is in it, a false optimism, the highest good to be reached\nwithout moral conflict. But here is the language of pity, rescue with\ndifficulty, rest only after sore struggle and stripping, salvation by\nthe bare arm of God. So do our imaginations for our own future or for\nthat of the race always contrast with what He Himself has in store for\nus, promised freely out of His great grace to our unworthy hearts, yet\ngranted in the end only to those who pass towards it through discipline,\ntribulation and fire.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThis, then, was Isaiah's apprenticeship, and its net result was to leave\nhim with the remnant for his ideal: the remnant and Jerusalem secured as\nits rallying-point.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n_THE VINEYARD OF THE LORD, OR TRUE PATRIOTISM THE CONSCIENCE OF OUR\nCOUNTRY'S SINS._\n\nISAIAH v.; ix. 8-x. 4 (735 _B.C._).\n\n\nThe prophecy contained in these chapters belongs, as we have seen, to\nthe same early period of Isaiah's career as chapters ii.-iv., about the\ntime when Ahaz ascended the throne after the long and successful reigns\nof his father and grandfather, when the kingdom of Judah seemed girt\nwith strength and filled with wealth, but the men were corrupt and the\nwomen careless, and the earnest of approaching judgement was already\ngiven in the incapacity of the weak and woman-ridden king. Yet although\nthis new prophecy issues from the same circumstances as its\npredecessors, it implies these circumstances a little more developed.\nThe same social evils are treated, but by a hand with a firmer grasp of\nthem. The same principles are emphasized--the righteousness of Jehovah\nand His activity in judgement--but the form of judgement of which Isaiah\nhad spoken before in general terms looms nearer, and before the end of\nthe prophecy we get a view at close quarters of the Assyrian ranks.\n\nBesides, opposition has arisen to the prophet's teaching. We saw that\nthe obscurities and inconsistencies of chapters ii.-iv. are due to the\nfact that that prophecy represents several stages of experience through\nwhich Isaiah passed before he gained his final convictions. But his\ncountrymen, it appears, have now had time to turn on these convictions\nand call them in question: it is necessary for Isaiah to vindicate them.\nThe difference, then, between these two sets of prophecies, dealing with\nthe same things, is that in the former (chapters ii.-iv.), we have the\nobscure and tortuous path of a conviction struggling to light in the\nprophet's own experience; here, in chapter v., we have its careful array\nin the light and before the people.\n\nThe point of Isaiah's teaching against which opposition was directed was\nof course its main point, that God was about to abandon Judah. This must\nhave appeared to the popular religion of the day as the rankest heresy.\nTo the Jews the honour of Jehovah was bound up with the inviolability of\nJerusalem and the prosperity of Judah. But Isaiah knew Jehovah to be\ninfinitely more concerned for the purity of His people than for their\nprosperity. He had seen the LORD _exalted in righteousness_ above those\nnational and earthly interests, with which vulgar men exclusively\nidentified His will. Did the people appeal to the long time Jehovah had\ngraciously led them for proof that He would not abandon them now? To\nIsaiah that gracious leading was but for righteousness' sake, and that\nGod might make His own a holy people. Their history, so full of the\nfavours of the Almighty, did not teach Isaiah as it did the common\nprophets of his time, the lesson of Israel's political security, but the\nfar different one of their religious responsibility. To him it only\nmeant what Amos had already put in those startling words, _You only have\nI known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon\nyou all your iniquities_. Now Isaiah delivered this doctrine at a time\nwhen it brought him the hostility of men's passions as well as of their\nopinions. Judah was arming for war. Syria and Ephraim were marching upon\nher. To threaten his country with ruin in such an hour was to run the\nrisk of suffering from popular fury as a traitor as well as from\npriestly prejudice as a heretic. The strain of the moment is felt in the\nstrenuousness of the prophecy. Chapter v., with its appendix, exhibits\nmore grasp and method than its predecessors. Its literary form is\nfinished, its feeling clear. There is a tenderness in the beginning of\nit, an inexorableness in the end and an eagerness all through, which\nstamp the chapter as Isaiah's final appeal to his countrymen at this\nperiod of his career.\n\nThe chapter is a noble piece of patriotism--one of the noblest of a race\nwho, although for the greater part of their history without a\nfatherland, have contributed more brilliantly than perhaps any other to\nthe literature of patriotism, and that simply because, as Isaiah here\nillustrates, patriotism was to their prophets identical with religious\nprivilege and responsibility. Isaiah carries this to its bitter end.\nOther patriots have wept to sing their country's woes; Isaiah's burden\nis his people's guilt. To others an invasion of their fatherland by its\nenemies has been the motive to rouse by song or speech their countrymen\nto repel it. Isaiah also hears the tramp of the invader; but to him is\npermitted no ardour of defence, and his message to his countrymen is\nthat they must succumb, for the invasion is irresistible and of the very\njudgement of God. How much it cost the prophet to deliver such a message\nwe may see from those few verses of it in which his heart is not\naltogether silenced by his conscience. The sweet description of Judah\nas a vineyard, and the touching accents that break through the roll of\ndenunciation with such phrases as _My people are gone away into\ncaptivity unawares_, tell us how the prophet's love of country is\nstruggling with his duty to a righteous God. The course of feeling\nthroughout the prophecy is very striking. The tenderness of the opening\nlyric seems ready to flow into gentle pleading with the whole people.\nBut as the prophet turns to particular classes and their sins his mood\nchanges to indignation, the voice settles down to judgement; till when\nit issues upon that clear statement of the coming of the Northern hosts\nevery trace of emotion has left it, and the sentences ring out as\nunfaltering as the tramp of the armies they describe.\n\n\nI. THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD (v. 1-7).\n\nIsaiah adopts the resource of every misunderstood and unpopular teacher,\nand seeks to turn the flank of his people's prejudices by an attack in\nparable on their sympathies. Did they stubbornly believe it impossible\nfor God to abandon a State He had so long and so carefully fostered? Let\nthem judge from an analogous case in which they were all experts. In a\npicture of great beauty Isaiah describes a vineyard upon one of the\nsunny promontories visible from Jerusalem. Every care had been given it\nof which an experienced vine-dresser could think, but it brought forth\nonly wild grapes. The vine-dresser himself is introduced, and appeals to\nthe men of Judah and Jerusalem to judge between him and his vineyard. He\ngets their assent that all had been done which could be done, and\nfortified with that resolves to abandon the vineyard. _I will lay it\nwaste; it shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers\nand thorns._ Then the stratagem comes out, the speaker drops the tones\nof a human cultivator, and in the omnipotence of the Lord of heaven he\nis heard to say, _I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain\nupon it_. This diversion upon their sympathies having succeeded, the\nprophet scarcely needs to charge the people's prejudices in face. His\npoint has been evidently carried. _For the vineyard of Jehovah of hosts\nis the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant; and He\nlooked for judgement, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but\nbehold a cry._\n\nThe lesson enforced by Isaiah is just this, that in a people's\ncivilization there lie the deepest responsibilities, for that is neither\nmore nor less than their cultivation by God; and the question for a\npeople is not how secure does this render them, nor what does it count\nfor glory, but how far is it rising towards the intentions of its\nAuthor? Does it produce those fruits of righteousness for which alone\nGod cares to set apart and cultivate the peoples? On this depends the\nquestion whether the civilization is secure, as well as the right of the\npeople to enjoy and feel proud of it. There cannot be true patriotism\nwithout sensitiveness to this, for however rich be the elements that\ncompose the patriot's temper, as piety towards the past, ardour of\nservice for the present, love of liberty, delight in natural beauty and\ngratitude for Divine favour, so rich a temper will grow rancid without\nthe salt of conscience; and the richer the temper is, the greater must\nbe the proportion of that salt. All prophets and poets of patriotism\nhave been moralists and satirists as well. From Demosthenes to\nTourgenieff, from Dante to Mazzini, from Milton to Russell Lowell, from\nBurns to Heine, one cannot recall any great patriot who has not known\nhow to use the scourge as well as the trumpet. Many opportunities will\npresent themselves to us of illustrating Isaiah's orations by the\nletters and speeches of Cromwell, who of moderns most resembles the\nstatesman-prophet of Judah; but nowhere does the resemblance become so\nclose as when we lay a prophecy like this of Jehovah's vineyard by the\nside of the speeches in which the Lord Protector exhorted the Commons of\nEngland, although it was the hour of his and their triumph, to address\nthemselves to their sins.\n\nSo, then, the patriotism of all great men has carried a conscience for\ntheir country's sins. But while this is always more or less a burden to\nthe true patriot, there are certain periods in which his care for his\ncountry ought to be this predominantly, and need be little else. In a\nperiod like our own, for instance, of political security and fashionable\nreligion, what need is there in patriotic displays of any other kind?\nbut how much for patriotism of this kind--of men who will uncover the\nsecret sins, however loathsome, and declare the hypocrisies, however\npowerful, of the social life of the people! These are the patriots we\nneed in times of peace; and as it is more difficult to rouse a torpid\npeople to their sins than to lead a roused one against their enemies,\nand harder to face a whole people with the support only of conscience\nthan to defy many nations if you but have your own at your back, so\nthese patriots of peace are more to be honoured than those of war. But\nthere is one kind of patriotism more arduous and honourable still. It is\nthat which Isaiah displays here, who cannot add to his conscience hope\nor even pity, who must hail his country's enemies for his country's\ngood, and recite the long roll of God's favours to his nation only to\nemphasize the justice of His abandonment of them.\n\n\nII. THE WILD GRAPES OF JUDAH (v. 8-24).\n\nThe _wild grapes_ which Isaiah saw in the vineyard of the Lord he\ncatalogues in a series of Woes (vv. 8-24), fruits all of them of love of\nmoney and love of wine. They are abuse of the soil (8-10, 17[4]), a\ngiddy luxury which has taken to drink (11-16), a moral blindness and\nheadlong audacity of sin which habitual avarice and drunkenness soon\ndevelop (18-21), and, again, a greed of drink and money--men's\nperversion of their strength to wine, and of their opportunities of\njustice to the taking of bribes (22-24). These are the features of\ncorrupt civilization not only in Judah, and the voice that deplores them\ncannot speak without rousing others very clamant to the modern\nconscience. It is with remarkable persistence that in every civilization\nthe two main passions of the human heart, love of wealth and love of\npleasure, the instinct to gather and the instinct to squander, have\nsought precisely these two forms denounced by Isaiah in which to work\ntheir social havoc--appropriation of the soil and indulgence in strong\ndrink. Every civilized community develops sooner or later its\nland-question and its liquor-question. \"Questions\" they are called by\nthe superficial opinion that all difficulties may be overcome by the\ncleverness of men; yet problems through which there cries for remedy so\nvast a proportion of our poverty, crime and madness, are something worse\nthan \"questions.\" They are huge sins, and require not merely the\nstatesman's wit, but all the penitence and zeal of which a nation's\nconscience is capable. It is in this that the force of Isaiah's\ntreatment lies. We feel he is not facing questions of State, but sins of\nmen. He has nothing to tell us of what he considers the best system of\nland tenure, but he enforces the principle that in the ease with which\nland may be absorbed by one person the natural covetousness of the human\nheart has a terrible opportunity for working ruin upon society. _Woe\nunto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there\nbe no room, and ye be made to dwell alone in the midst of the land._ We\nknow from Micah that the actual process which Isaiah condemns was\ncarried out with the most cruel evictions and disinheritances. Isaiah\ndoes not touch on its methods, but exposes its effects on the\ncountry--depopulation and barrenness,--and emphasizes its religious\nsignificance. _Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and\nfair, without an inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield one\nbath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.... Then shall\nlambs feed as in their pasture, and strangers shall devour the ruins of\nthe fat ones--i.e._, of the luxurious landowners (9, 10, 17. See note\non previous page). And in one of those elliptic statements by which he\noften startles us with the sudden sense that God Himself is acquainted\nwith all our affairs, and takes His own interest in them, Isaiah adds,\n\"All this was whispered to me by Jehovah: _In mine ears--the LORD of\nhosts_\" (ver. 9).\n\n  [4] Ewald happily suggests that verse 17 has dropped out of, and should\n  be restored to, its proper position at the end of the first \"woe,\" where\n  it contributes to the development of the meaning far more than from\n  where it stands in the text.\n\nDuring recent agitations in our own country one has often seen the \"land\nlaws of the Bible\" held forth by some thoughtless demagogue as models\nfor land tenure among ourselves; as if a system which worked well with a\nsmall tribe in a land they had all entered on equal footing, and where\nthere was no opportunity for the industry of the people except in\npasture and tillage, could possibly be applicable to a vastly larger and\nmore complex population, with different traditions and very different\nsocial circumstances. Isaiah says nothing about the peculiar land _laws_\nof his people. He lays down principles, and these are principles valid\nin every civilization. God has made the land, not to feed the pride of\nthe few, but the natural hunger of the many, and it is His will that the\nmost be got out of a country's soil for the people of the country.\nWhatever be the system of land-tenure--and while all are more or less\nliable to abuse, it is the duty of a people to agitate for that which\nwill be least liable--if it is taken advantage of by individuals to\nsatisfy their own cupidity, then God will take account of them. There is\na responsibility which the State cannot enforce, and the neglect of\nwhich cannot be punished by any earthly law, but all the more will God\nsee to it. A nation's treatment of their land is not always prominent as\na question which demands the attention of public reformers; but it\nceaselessly has interest for God, who ever holds individuals to answer\nfor it. The land-question is ultimately a religious question. For the\nmanagement of their land the whole nation is responsible to God, but\nespecially those who own or manage estates. This is a sacred office.\nWhen one not only remembers the nature of land--how it is an element of\nlife, so that if a man abuse the soil it is as if he poisoned the air or\ndarkened the heavens--but appreciates also the multitude of personal\nrelations which the landowner or factor holds in his hand--the peace of\nhomes, the continuity of local traditions, the physical health, the\nsocial fearlessness and frankness, and the thousand delicate\nassociations which their habitations entwine about the hearts of\nmen--one feels that to all who possess or manage land is granted an\nopportunity of patriotism and piety open to few, a ministry less\nhonourable and sacred than none other committed by God to man for his\nfellow-men.\n\nAfter the land-sin Isaiah hurls his second Woe upon the drink-sin, and\nit is a heavier woe than the first. With fatal persistence the luxury of\nevery civilization has taken to drink; and of all the indictments\nbrought by moralists against nations, that which they reserve for\ndrunkenness is, as here, the most heavily weighted. The crusade against\ndrink is not the novel thing that many imagine who observe only its late\nrevival among ourselves. In ancient times there was scarcely a State in\nwhich prohibitive legislation of the most stringent kind was not\nattempted, and generally carried out with a thoroughness more possible\nunder despots than where, as with us, the slow consent of public opinion\nis necessary. A horror of strong drink has in every age possessed those\nwho from their position as magistrates or prophets have been able to\nfollow for any distance the drifts of social life. Isaiah exposes as\npowerfully as ever any of them did in what the peculiar fatality of\ndrinking lies. Wine is a mocker by nothing more than by the moral\nincredulity which it produces, enabling men to hide from themselves the\nspiritual and material effects of over-indulgence in it. No one who has\nhad to do with persons slowly falling from moderate to immoderate\ndrinking can mistake Isaiah's meaning when he says, _They regard not the\nwork of the LORD; neither have they considered the operation of His\nhands_. Nothing kills the conscience like steady drinking to a little\nexcess; and religion, even while the conscience is alive, acts on it\nonly as an opiate. It is not, however, with the symptoms of drink in\nindividuals so much as with its aggregate effects on the nation that\nIsaiah is concerned. So prevalent is excessive drinking, so entwined\nwith the social customs of the country and many powerful interests, that\nit is extremely difficult to rouse public opinion to its effects. And\n_so they go into captivity for lack of knowledge_. Temperance reformers\nare often blamed for the strength of their language, but they may\nshelter themselves behind Isaiah. As he pictures it, the national\ndestruction caused by drink is complete. It is nothing less than the\npeople's _captivity_, and we know what that meant to an Israelite. It\naffects all classes: _Their honourable men are famished, and their\nmultitude parched with thirst.... The mean man is bowed down, and the\ngreat man is humbled._ But the want and ruin of this earth are not\nenough to describe it. The appetite of hell itself has to be enlarged to\nsuffice for the consumption of the spoils of strong drink. _Therefore\nhell hath enlarged her desire and opened her mouth without measure; and\ntheir glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth\namong them, descend into it._ The very appetite of hell has to be\nenlarged! Does it not truly seem as if the wild and wanton waste of\ndrink were preventable, as if it were not, as many are ready to sneer,\nthe inevitable evil of men's hearts choosing this form of issue, but a\nsuperfluous audacity of sin, which the devil himself did not desire or\ntempt men to? It is this feeling of the infernal gratuitousness of most\nof the drink-evil--the conviction that here hell would be quiet if only\nshe were not stirred up by the extraordinarily wanton provocatives that\nsociety and the State offer to excessive drinking--which compels\ntemperance reformers at the present day to isolate drunkenness and make\nit the object of a special crusade. Isaiah's strong figure has lost none\nof its strength to-day. When our judges tell us from the bench that\nnine-tenths of pauperism and crime are caused by drink, and our\nphysicians that if only irregular tippling were abolished half the\ncurrent sickness of the land would cease, and our statesmen that the\nravages of strong drink are equal to those of the historical scourges of\nwar, famine and pestilence combined, surely to swallow such a glut of\nspoil _the appetite of hell must have been_ still more enlarged, _and\nthe mouth of hell made_ yet _wider_.\n\nThe next three Woes are upon different aggravations of that moral\nperversity which the prophet has already traced to strong drink. In the\nfirst of these it is better to read, _draw punishment near with cords of\nvanity_, than _draw iniquity_. Then we have a striking antithesis--the\ndrunkards mocking Isaiah over their cups with the challenge, as if it\nwould not be taken up, _Let Jehovah make speed, and hasten His work of\njudgement, that we may see it_, while all the time they themselves were\ndragging that judgement near, _as with cart-ropes_, by their persistent\ndiligence in evil. This figure of sinners jeering at the approach of a\ncalamity while they actually wear the harness of its carriage is very\nstriking. But the Jews are not only unconscious of judgement, they are\nconfused as to the very principles of morality: _Who call evil good, and\ngood evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put\nbitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!_\n\nIn his fifth Woe the prophet attacks a disposition to which his scorn\ngives no peace throughout his ministry. If these sensualists had only\nconfined themselves to their sensuality they might have been left alone;\nbut with that intellectual bravado which is equally born with \"Dutch\ncourage\" of drink, they interfered in the conduct of the State, and\nprepared arrogant policies of alliance and war that were the distress of\nthe sober-minded prophet all his days. _Woe unto them that are wise in\ntheir own eyes and prudent in their own sight._\n\nIn his last Woe Isaiah returns to the drinking habits of the upper\nclasses, from which it would appear that among the judges even of Judah\nthere were \"six-bottle men.\" They sustained their extravagance by\nsubsidies, which we trust were unknown to the mighty men of wine who\nonce filled the seats of justice in our own country. _They justify the\nwicked for a bribe, and take away the righteousness of the righteous\nfrom him._ All these sinners, dead through their rejection of the law of\nJehovah of hosts and the word of the Holy One of Israel, shall be like\nto the stubble, fit only for burning, and their blossom as the dust of\nthe rotten tree.\n\n\nIII. THE ANGER OF THE LORD (v. 25; ix. 8-x. 4; v. 26-30).\n\nThis indictment of the various sins of the people occupies the whole of\nthe second part of the oration. But a third part is now added, in which\nthe prophet catalogues the judgements of the Lord upon them, each of\nthese closing with the weird refrain, _For all this His anger is not\nturned away, but His hand is stretched out still_. The complete\ncatalogue is usually obtained by inserting between the 25th and 26th\nverses of chapter v. the long passage from chapter ix., ver. 8, to\nchapter x., ver. 4. It is quite true that as far as chapter v. itself is\nconcerned it does not need this insertion; but ix. 8-x. 4 is decidedly\nout of place where it now lies. Its paragraphs end with the same refrain\nas closes v. 25, which forms, besides, a natural introduction to them,\nwhile v. 26-30 form as natural a conclusion. The latter verses describe\nan Assyrian invasion, and it was always in an Assyrian invasion that\nIsaiah foresaw the final calamity of Judah. We may, then, subject to\nfurther light on the exceedingly obscure subject of the arrangement of\nIsaiah's prophecies, follow some of the leading critics, and place ix.\n8-x. 4 between verses 25-26 of chapter v.; and the more we examine them\nthe more we shall be satisfied with our arrangement, for strung together\nin this order they form one of the most impressive series of scenes\nwhich even an Isaiah has given us.\n\nFrom these scenes Isaiah has spared nothing that is terrible in history\nor nature, and it is not one of the least of the arguments for putting\nthem together that their intensity increases to a climax. Earthquakes,\narmed raids, a great battle and the slaughter of a people; prairie and\nforest fires, civil strife and the famine fever, that feeds upon itself;\nanother battle-field, with its cringing groups of captives and heaps of\nslain; the resistless tide of a great invasion; and then, for final\nprospect, a desolate land by the sound of a hungry sea, and the light is\ndarkened in the clouds thereof. The elements of nature and the elemental\npassions of man have been let loose together; and we follow the violent\nfloods, remembering that it is sin which has burst the gates of the\nuniverse, and given the tides of hell full course through it. Over the\nstorm and battle there comes booming like the storm-bell the awful\nrefrain, _For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is\nstretched out still._ It is poetry of the highest order, but in him who\nreads it with a conscience mere literary sensations are sobered by the\nawe of some of the most profound moral phenomena of life. The\npersistence of Divine wrath, the long-lingering effects of sin in a\nnation's history, man's abuse of sorrow and his defiance of an angry\nProvidence, are the elements of this great drama. Those who are familiar\nwith _King Lear_, will recognize these elements, and observe how\nsimilarly the ways of Providence and the conduct of men are represented\nthere and here.\n\nWhat Isaiah unfolds, then, is a series of calamities that have overtaken\nthe people of Israel. It is impossible for us to identify every one of\nthem with a particular event in Israel's history otherwise known to us.\nSome it is not difficult to recognize; but the prophet passes in a\nperplexing way from Judah to Ephraim and Ephraim to Judah, and in one\ncase, where he represents Samaria as attacked by Syria and the\nPhilistines, he goes back to a period at some distance from his own.\nThere are also passages, as for instance x. 1-4, in which we are unable\nto decide whether he describes a present punishment or threatens a\nfuture one. But his moral purpose, at least, is plain. He will show how\noften Jehovah has already spoken to His people by calamity, and because\nthey have remained hardened under these warnings, how there now remains\npossible only the last, worst blow of an Assyrian invasion. Isaiah is\njustifying his threat of so unprecedented and extreme a punishment for\nGod's people as overthrow by this Northern people, who had just appeared\nupon Judah's political horizon. God, he tells Israel, has tried\neverything short of this, and it has failed; now only this remains, and\nthis shall not fail. The prophet's purpose, therefore, being not an\naccurate historical recital, but moral impressiveness, he gives us a\nmore or less ideal description of former calamities, mentioning only so\nmuch as to allow us to recognize here and there that it is actual facts\nwhich he uses for his purpose of condemning Israel to captivity, and\nvindicating Israel's God in bringing that captivity near. The passage\nthus forms a parallel to that in Amos, with its similar refrain: _Yet ye\nhave not returned unto Me, saith the Lord_ (Amos iv. 6-12), and only\ngoes farther than that earlier prophecy in indicating that the\ninstruments of the Lord's final judgement are to be the Assyrians.\n\nFive great calamities, says Isaiah, have fallen on Israel and left them\nhardened: 1st, earthquake (v. 25); 2nd, loss of territory (ix. 8-12);\n3rd, war and a decisive defeat (ix. 13-17); 4th, internal anarchy (ix.\n18-21); 5th, the near prospect of captivity (x. 1-4).\n\n1. THE EARTHQUAKE (v. 25).--Amos closes his series with an earthquake;\nIsaiah begins with one. It may be the same convulsion they describe, or\nmay not. Although the skirts of Palestine both to the east and west\nfrequently tremble to these disturbances, an earthquake in Palestine\nitself, up on the high central ridge of the land, is very rare. Isaiah\nvividly describes its awful simplicity and suddenness. _The Lord\nstretched forth His hand and smote, and the hills shook, and their\ncarcases were like offal in the midst of the streets._ More words are\nnot needed, because there was nothing more to describe. The Lord lifted\nHis hand; the hills seemed for a moment to topple over, and when the\nliving recovered from the shock there lay the dead, flung like refuse\nabout the streets.\n\n2. THE LOSS OF TERRITORY (ix. 8-21).--So awful a calamity, in which the\ndying did not die out of sight nor fall huddled together on some far off\nbattle-field, but the whole land was strewn with her slain, ought to\nhave left indelible impression on the people. But it did not. The Lord's\nown word had been in it for Jacob and Israel (ix. 8), _that the people\nmight know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria_. But unhumbled\nthey turned in the stoutness of their hearts, saying, when the\nearthquake had passed:[5] _The bricks are fallen, but we will build with\nhewn stones;[6] the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into\ncedars_. Calamity did not make this people thoughtful; they felt God\nonly to endeavour to forget Him. Therefore He visited them the second\ntime. They did not feel the Lord shaking their land, so He sent their\nenemies to steal it from them: _the Syrians before and the Philistines\nbehind; and they devour Israel with open mouth_. What that had been for\nappalling suddenness this was for lingering and harassing--guerilla\nwarfare, armed raids, the land eaten away bit by bit. _Yet the people do\nnot return unto Him that smote them, neither seek they the LORD of\nhosts._\n\n  [5] Read past tenses, as in the margin of Revised Version, for all the\n  future tenses, or better, the historical present, down to the end of the\n  chapter.\n\n  [6] It is part of the argument for connecting ix. 8 with v. 25 that this\n  phrase would be very natural after the earthquake described in v. 25.\n\n3. WAR AND DEFEAT (ix. 13-17).--The next consequent calamity passed from\nthe land to the people themselves. A great battle is described, in which\nthe nation is dismembered in one day. War and its horrors are told, and\nthe apparent want of Divine pity and discrimination which they imply is\nexplained. Israel has been led into these disasters by the folly of\ntheir leaders, whom Isaiah therefore singles out for blame. _For they\nthat lead these people cause them to err, and they that are led of them\nare destroyed._ But the real horror of war is that it falls not upon\nits authors, that its victims are not statesmen, but the beauty of a\ncountry's youth, the helplessness of the widow and orphan. Some question\nseems to have been stirred by this in Isaiah's heart. He asks, Why does\nthe Lord not rejoice in the young men of His people? Why has He no pity\nfor widow and orphan, that He thus sacrifices them to the sin of the\nrulers? It is because the whole nation shares the ruler's guilt; _every\none is an hypocrite and an evil-doer, and every mouth speaketh folly_.\nAs ruler so people, is a truth Isaiah frequently asserts, but never with\nsuch grimness as here. War brings out, as nothing else does, the\nsolidarity of a people in guilt.\n\n4. INTERNAL ANARCHY (ix. 18-21).--Even yet the people did not repent;\ntheir calamities only drove them to further wickedness. The prophet's\neyes are opened to the awful fact that God's wrath is but the blast that\nfans men's hot sins to flame. This is one of those two or three awful\nscenes in history, in the conflagration of which we cannot tell what is\nhuman sin and what Divine judgement. There is a panic wickedness, sin\nspreading like mania, as if men were possessed by supernatural powers.\nThe physical metaphors of the prophet are evident: a forest or prairie\nfire, and the consequent famine, whose fevered victims feed upon\nthemselves. And no less evident are the political facts which the\nprophet employs these metaphors to describe. It is the anarchy which has\nbeset more than one corrupt and unfortunate people, when their\nmisleaders have been overthrown: the anarchy in which each faction seeks\nto slaughter out the rest. Jealousy and distrust awake the lust for\nblood, rage seizes the people as fire the forest, _and no man spareth\nhis brother_. We have had modern instances of all this; these scenes\nform a true description of some days of the French Revolution, and are\neven a truer description of the civil war that broke out in Paris after\nher late siege.\n\n  \"If that the heavens do not their visible spirits\n  Send quickly down to tame these vile offences,\n  'T will come,\n  Humanity must perforce prey on itself\n  Like monsters of the deep.\"[7]\n\n  [7] _King Lear_, act iv., sc. 2.\n\n5. THE THREAT OF CAPTIVITY (x. 1-4).--Turning now from the past, and\nfrom the fate of Samaria, with which it would appear he has been more\nparticularly engaged, the prophet addresses his own countrymen in Judah,\nand paints the future for them. It is not a future in which there is any\nhope. The day of their visitation also will surely come, and the prophet\nsees it close in the darkest night of which a Jewish heart could\nthink--the night of captivity. Where, he asks his unjust\ncountrymen--where _will ye then flee for help? and where will you leave\nyour glory_? Cringing among the captives, lying dead beneath heaps of\ndead--that is to be your fate, who will have turned so often and then so\nfinally from God. When exactly the prophet thus warned his countrymen of\ncaptivity we do not know, but the warning, though so real, produced\nneither penitence in men nor pity in God. _For all this His anger is not\nturned away, but His hand is stretched out still._\n\n6. THE ASSYRIAN INVASION (v. 26-30).--The prophet is, therefore, free to\nexplain that cloud which has appeared far away on the northern horizon.\nGod's hand of judgement is still uplifted over Judah, and it is that\nhand which summons the cloud. The Assyrians are coming in answer to\nGod's signal, and they are coming as a flood, to leave nothing but ruin\nand distress behind them. No description by Isaiah is more majestic than\nthis one, in which Jehovah, who has exhausted every nearer means of\nconverting His people, lifts His undrooping arm with a _flag to the\nnations that are far off, and hisses_ or whistles _for them from the end\nof the earth_. _And, behold, they come with speed, swiftly: there is no\nweary one nor straggler among them; none slumbers nor sleeps; nor loosed\nis the girdle of his loins, nor broken the latchet of his shoes; whose\narrows are sharpened, and all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs are\nlike the flint, and their wheels like the whirlwind; a roar have they\nlike the lion's, and they roar like young lions; yea, they growl and\ngrasp the prey, and carry it off, and there is none to deliver. And they\ngrowl upon him that day like the growling of the sea; and if one looks\nto the land, behold, dark and distress, and the light is darkened in the\ncloudy heaven._\n\nThus Isaiah leaves Judah to await her doom. But the tones of his weird\nrefrain awaken in our hearts some thoughts which will not let his\nmessage go from us just yet.\n\nIt will ever be a question, whether men abuse more their sorrows or\ntheir joys; but no earnest soul can doubt, which of these abuses is the\nmore fatal. To sin in the one case is to yield to a temptation; to sin\nin the other is to resist a Divine grace. Sorrow is God's last message\nto man; it is God speaking in emphasis. He who abuses it shows that he\ncan shut his ears when God speaks loudest. Therefore heartlessness or\nimpenitence after sorrow is more dangerous than intemperance in joy; its\nresults are always more tragic. Now Isaiah points out that men's abuse\nof sorrow is twofold. Men abuse sorrow by mistaking it, and they abuse\nsorrow by defying it.\n\nMen abuse sorrow by mistaking it, when they see in it nothing but a\npenal or expiatory force. To many men sorrow is what his devotions were\nto Louis XI., which having religiously performed, he felt the more brave\nto sin. So with the Samaritans, who said in the stoutness of their\nhearts, _The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones;\nthe sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars._ To\nspeak in this way is happy, but heathenish. It is to call sorrow \"bad\nluck;\" it is to hear no voice of God in it, saying, \"Be pure; be humble;\nlean upon Me.\" This disposition springs from a vulgar conception of God,\nas of a Being of no permanence in character, easily irritated but\nrelieved by a burst of passion, smartly punishing His people and then\nleaving them to themselves. It is a temper which says, \"God is angry,\nlet us wait a little; God is appeased, let us go ahead again.\" Over\nagainst such vulgar views of a Deity with a temper Isaiah unveils the\nawful majesty of God in holy wrath: _For all this His anger is not\nturned away, but His hand is stretched out still_. How grim and savage\ndoes it appear to our eyes till we understand the thoughts of the\nsinners to whom it was revealed! God cannot dispel the cowardly thought,\nthat He is anxious only to punish, except by letting His heavy hand\nabide till it purify also. The permanence of God's wrath is thus an\nennobling, not a stupefying doctrine.\n\nMen also abuse sorrow by defying it, but the end of this is madness. \"It\nforms the greater part of the tragedy of _King Lear_, that the aged\nmonarch, though he has given his throne away, retains his imperiousness\nof heart, and continues to exhibit a senseless, if sometimes\npicturesque, pride and selfishness in face of misfortune. Even when he\nis overthrown he must still command; he fights against the very\nelements; he is determined to be at least the master of his own\nsufferings and destiny. But for this the necessary powers fail him; his\nlife thus disordered terminates in madness. It was only by such an\naffliction that a character like his could be brought to repentance, ...\nto humility, which is the parent of true love, and that love in him\ncould be purified. Hence the melancholy close of that tragedy.\"[8] As\nShakespeare has dealt with the king, so Isaiah with the people; he also\nshows us sorrow when it is defied bringing forth madness. On so impious\na height man's brain grows dizzy, and he falls into that terrible abyss\nwhich is not, as some imagine, hell, but God's last purgatory.\nShakespeare brings shattered Lear out of it, and Isaiah has a remnant of\nthe people to save.\n\n  [8] Ulrici: _Shakespeare's Dramatic Art_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n_ISAIAH'S CALL AND CONSECRATION._\n\nISAIAH vi. (740 B.C.; WRITTEN 735? OR 725?).\n\n\nIt has been already remarked that in chapter vi. we should find no other\ntruths than those which have been unfolded in chapters ii.-v.: the Lord\nexalted in righteousness, the coming of a terrible judgement from Him\nupon Judah, and the survival of a bare remnant of the people. But\nchapter vi. treats the same subjects with a difference. In chapters\nii.-iv. they gradually appear and grow to clearness in connection with\nthe circumstances of Judah's history; in chapter v. they are formally\nand rhetorically vindicated; in chapter vi. we are led back to the\nsecret and solemn moments of their first inspiration in the prophet's\nown soul. It may be asked why chapter vi. comes last and not first in\nthis series, and why in an exposition, attempting to deal, as far as\npossible, chronologically with Isaiah's prophecies, his call should not\nform the subject of the first chapter. The answer is simple, and throws\na flood of light upon the chapter. In all probability chapter vi. was\nwritten after its predecessors, and what Isaiah has put into it is not\nonly what happened in the earliest moments of his prophetic life, but\nthat spelt out and emphasized by his experience since. The ideal\ncharacter of the narrative, and its date some years after the events\nwhich it relates, are now generally admitted. Of course the narrative is\nall fact. No one will believe that he, whose glance penetrated with such\nkeenness the character of men and movements, looked with dimmer eye into\nhis own heart. It is the spiritual process which the prophet actually\npassed through before the opening of his ministry. But it is that,\ndeveloped by subsequent experience, and presented to us in the language\nof outward vision. Isaiah had been some years a prophet, long enough to\nmake clear that prophecy was not to be for him what it had been for his\npredecessors in Israel, a series of detached inspirations and occasional\nmissions, with short responsibilities, but a work for life, a profession\nand a career, with all that this means of postponement, failure, and\nfluctuation of popular feeling. Success had not come so rapidly as the\nprophet in his original enthusiasm had looked for, and his preaching had\neffected little upon the people. Therefore he would go back to the\nbeginning, remind himself of that to which God had really called him,\nand vindicate the results of his ministry, at which people scoffed and\nhis own heart grew sometimes sick. In chapter vi. Isaiah acts as his own\nremembrancer. If we keep in mind, that this chapter, describing Isaiah's\ncall and consecration to the prophetic office, was written by a man who\nfelt that office to be the burden of a lifetime, and who had to explain\nits nature and vindicate its results to his own soul--grown somewhat\nuncertain, it may be, of her original inspiration--we shall find light\nupon features of the chapter that are otherwise most obscure.\n\n\n1. THE VISION (vv. 1-4).\n\nSeveral years, then, Isaiah looks back and says, _In the year King\nUzziah died._ There is more than a date given here; there is a great\ncontrast suggested. Prophecy does not chronicle by time, but by\nexperiences, and we have here, as it seems, the cardinal experience of a\nprophet's life.\n\nAll men knew of that glorious reign with the ghastly end--fifty years of\nroyalty, and then a lazar-house. There had been no king like this one\nsince Solomon; never, since the son of David brought the Queen of Sheba\nto his feet, had the national pride stood so high or the nation's dream\nof sovereignty touched such remote borders. The people's admiration\ninvested Uzziah with all the graces of the ideal monarch. The chronicler\nof Judah tells us _that God helped him and made him to prosper, and his\nname spread far abroad, and he was marvellously helped till he was\nstrong_; he with the double name--Azariah, Jehovah-his-Helper; Uzziah,\nJehovah-his-Strength. How this glory fell upon the fancy of the future\nprophet, and dyed it deep, we may imagine from those marvellous colours,\nwith which in later years he painted the king in his beauty. Think of\nthe boy, the boy that was to be an Isaiah, the boy with the germs of\nthis great prophecy in his heart--think of him and such a hero as this\nto shine upon him, and we may conceive how his whole nature opened out\nbeneath that sun of royalty and absorbed its light.\n\nSuddenly the glory was eclipsed, and Jerusalem learned that she had seen\nher king for the last time: _The Lord smote the king so that he was a\nleper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, and he\nwas cut off from the house of the Lord._ Uzziah had gone into the\ntemple, and attempted with his own hands to burn incense. Under a later\ndispensation of liberty he would have been applauded as a brave\nProtestant, vindicating the right of every worshipper of God to approach\nHim without the intervention of a special priesthood. Under the earlier\ndispensation of law his act could be regarded only as one of\npresumption, the expression of a worldly and irreverent temper, which\nignored the infinite distance between God and man. It was followed, as\nsins of wilfulness in religion were always followed under the old\ncovenant, by swift disaster. Uzziah suffered as Saul, Uzzah, Nadab and\nAbihu did. The wrath, with which he burst out on the opposing priests,\nbrought on, or made evident as it is believed to have done in other\ncases, an attack of leprosy. The white spot stood out unmistakeably from\nthe flushed forehead, and he was thrust from the temple--_yea, himself\nalso hasted to go out_.\n\nWe can imagine how such a judgement, the moral of which must have been\nplain to all, affected the most sensitive heart in Jerusalem. Isaiah's\nimagination was darkened, but he tells us that the crisis was the\nenfranchisement of his faith. _In the year King Uzziah died_--it is as\nif a veil had dropped, and the prophet saw beyond what it had hidden,\n_the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up_. That it is no mere\ndate Isaiah means, but a spiritual contrast which he is anxious to\nimpress upon us, is made clear by his emphasis of the rank and not the\nname of God. It is _the Lord sitting upon a throne--the Lord_\nabsolutely, set over against the human prince. The simple antithesis\nseems to speak of the passing away of the young man's hero-worship and\nthe dawn of his faith; and so interpreted, this first verse of chapter\nvi. is only a concise summary of that development of religious\nexperience which we have traced through chapters ii.-iv. Had Isaiah ever\nbeen subject to the religious temper of his time, the careless optimism\nof a prosperous and proud people, who entered upon their religious\nservices without awe, _trampling the courts of the Lord_, and used them\nlike Uzziah, for their _own honour_, who felt religion to be an easy\nthing, and dismissed from it all thoughts of judgement and feelings of\npenitence--if ever Isaiah had been subject to that temper, then once for\nall he was redeemed by this stroke upon Uzziah. And, as we have seen,\nthere is every reason to believe that Isaiah did at first share the too\neasy public religion of his youth. That early vision of his (ii. 2-5),\nthe establishment of Israel at the head of the nations, to be\nimmediately attained at his own word (v. 5) and without preliminary\npurification, was it not simply a less gross form of the king's own\nreligious presumption? Uzziah's fatal act was the expression of the\nbesetting sin of his people, and in that sin Isaiah himself had been a\npartaker. _I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a\npeople of unclean lips._ In the person of their monarch the temper of\nthe whole Jewish nation had come to judgement. Seeking the ends of\nreligion by his own way, and ignoring the way God had appointed, Uzziah\nat the very moment of his insistence was hurled back and stamped\nunclean. The prophet's eyes were opened. The king sank into a leper's\ngrave, but before Isaiah's vision the Divine majesty arose in all its\nloftiness. _I saw the Lord high and lifted up._ We already know what\nIsaiah means by these terms. He has used them of God's supremacy in\nrighteousness above the low moral standards of men, of God's occupation\nof a far higher throne than that of the national deity of Judah, of\nGod's infinite superiority to Israel's vulgar identification of His\npurposes with her material prosperity or His honour with the\ncompromises of her politics, and especially of God's seat as their\nJudge over a people, who sought in their religion only satisfaction for\ntheir pride and love of ease.\n\nFrom this contrast the whole vision expands as follows.\n\nUnder the mistaken idea that what Isaiah describes is the temple in\nJerusalem, it has been remarked, that the place of his vision is\nwonderful in the case of one who set so little store by ceremonial\nworship. This, however, to which our prophet looks is no house built\nwith hands, but Jehovah's own heavenly _palace_ (ver. 1--not _temple_);\nonly Isaiah describes it in terms of the Jerusalem temple which was its\nsymbol. It was natural that the temple should furnish Isaiah not only\nwith the framework of his vision, but also with the platform from which\nhe saw it. For it was in the temple that Uzziah's sin was sinned and\nGod's holiness vindicated upon him. It was in the temple that, when\nIsaiah beheld the scrupulous religiousness of the people, the contrast\nof that with their evil lives struck him, and he summed it up in the\nepigram _wickedness and worship_ (i. 13). It was in the temple, in\nshort, that the prophet's conscience had been most roused, and just\nwhere the conscience is most roused there is the vision of God to be\nexpected. Very probably it was while brooding over Uzziah's judgement on\nthe scene of its occurrence that Isaiah beheld his vision. Yet for all\nthe vision contained the temple itself was too narrow. The truth which\nwas to be revealed to Isaiah, the holiness of God, demanded a wider\nstage and the breaking down of those partitions, which, while they had\nbeen designed to impress God's presence on the worshipper, had only\nsucceeded in veiling Him. So while the seer keeps his station on the\nthreshold of the earthly building, soon to feel it rock beneath his\nfeet, as heaven's praise bursts like thunder on the earth, and while his\nimmediate neighbourhood remains the same familiar _house_, all beyond is\nglorified. The veil of the temple falls away, and everything behind it.\nNo ark nor mercy-seat is visible, but a throne and a court--the palace\nof God in heaven, as we have it also pictured in the eleventh and\ntwenty-ninth Psalms. The Royal Presence is everywhere. Isaiah describes\nno face, only a Presence and a Session: _the Lord sitting on a throne,\nand His skirts filled the palace_.\n\n  \"No face; only the sight\n  Of a sweepy garment vast and white\n  With a hem that I could recognize.\"[9]\n\n  [9] Browning's \"Christmas Eve.\"\n\n_Around_ (not _above_, as in the English version) were ranged the\nhovering courtiers, of what shape and appearance we know not, except\nthat they veiled their faces and their feet before the awful\nHoliness,--all wings and voice, perfect readinesses of praise and\nservice. The prophet heard them chant in antiphon, like the temple\nchoirs of priests. And the one choir cried out, _Holy, holy, holy is\nJehovah of hosts_; and the other responded, _The whole earth is full of\nHis glory_.\n\nIt is by the familiar name Jehovah of hosts--the proper name of Israel's\nnational God--that the prophet hears the choirs of heaven address the\nDivine Presence. But what they ascribe to the Deity is exactly what\nIsrael will not ascribe, and the revelation they make of His nature is\nthe contradiction of Israel's thoughts concerning Him.\n\nWhat, in the first place, is HOLINESS? We attach this term to a definite\nstandard of morality or an unusually impressive fulness of character.\nTo our minds it is associated with very positive forces, as of comfort\nand conviction--perhaps because we take our ideas of it from the active\noperations of the Holy Ghost. The original force of the term _holiness_,\nhowever, was not positive but negative, and throughout the Old\nTestament, whatever modifications its meaning undergoes, it retains a\nnegative flavour. The Hebrew word for holiness springs from a root which\nmeans _to set apart, make distinct, put at a distance from_. When God is\ndescribed as the Holy One in the Old Testament it is generally with the\npurpose of withdrawing Him from some presumption of men upon His majesty\nor of negativing their unworthy thoughts of Him. The Holy One is the\nIncomparable: _To whom, then, will ye liken Me, that I should be equal\nto him? saith the Holy One_ (xl. 25). He is the Unapproachable: _Who is\nable to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?_ (1 Sam. vi. 20). He is the\nUtter Contrast of man: _I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst\nof thee_ (Hosea xi. 9). He is the Exalted and Sublime: _Thus saith the\nhigh and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell\nin the high and holy place_ (lvii. 15). Generally speaking, then,\nholiness is equivalent to separateness, sublimity--in fact, just to that\nloftiness or exaltation which Isaiah has already so often reiterated as\nthe principal attribute of God. In their thrice-repeated _Holy_ the\nseraphs are only telling more emphatically to the prophet's ears what\nhis eyes have already seen, _the Lord high and lifted up_. Better\nexpression could not be found for the full idea of Godhead. This little\nword _Holy_ radiates heaven's own breadth of meaning. Within its\nfundamental idea--distance or difference from man--what spaces are\nthere not for every attribute of Godhead to flash? If the Holy One be\noriginally He who is distinct from man and man's thoughts, and who\nimpresses man from the beginning with the awful sublimity of the\ncontrast in which He stands to him, how naturally may holiness come to\ncover not only that moral purity and intolerance of sin to which we now\nmore strictly apply the term, but those metaphysical conceptions as\nwell, which we gather up under the name \"supernatural,\" and so finally,\nby lifting the Divine nature away from the change and vanity of this\nworld, and emphasizing God's independence of all beside Himself, become\nthe fittest expression we have for Him as the Infinite and\nSelf-existent. Thus the word _holy_ appeals in turn to each of the three\ngreat faculties of man's nature, by which he can be religiously\nexercised--his conscience, his affections, his reason; it covers the\nimpressions which God makes on man as a sinner, on man as a worshipper,\non man as a thinker. The Holy One is not only the Sinless and\nSin-abhorring, but the Sublime and the Absolute too.\n\nBut while we recognize the exhaustiveness of the series of ideas about\nthe Divine Nature, which develop from the root meaning of holiness, and\nto express which the word _holy_ is variously used throughout the\nScriptures, we must not, if we are to appreciate the use of the word on\nthis occasion, miss the motive of recoil which starts them all. If we\nwould hear what Isaiah heard in the seraphs' song, we must distinguish\nin the three-fold ascription of holiness the intensity of recoil from\nthe confused religious views and low moral temper of the prophet's\ngeneration. It is no scholastic definition of Deity which the seraphim\nare giving. Not for a moment is it to be supposed that to that age,\nwhose representative is listening to them, they are attempting to convey\nan idea of the Trinity. Their thrice-uttered _Holy_ is not theological\naccuracy, but religious emphasis. This angelic revelation of the\nholiness of God was intended for a generation, some of whom were\nidol-worshippers, confounding the Godhead with the work of their own\nhands or with natural objects, and none of whom were free from a\nconfusion in principle of the Divine with the human and worldly, for\nwhich now sheer mental slovenliness, now a dull moral sense, and now\npositive pride was to blame. To worshippers who _trampled_ the courts of\nthe Lord with the careless feet, and looked up the temple with the\nunabashed faces, of routine, the cry of the seraphs, as they veiled\ntheir faces and their feet, travailed to restore that shuddering sense\nof the sublimity of the Divine Presence, which in the impressible youth\nof the race first impelled man, bowing low beneath the awful heavens, to\nname God by the name of the Holy. To men, again, careful of the legal\nforms of worship, but lawless and careless in their lives, the song of\nthe seraphs revealed not the hard truth, against which they had already\nrubbed conscience trite, that God's law was inexorable, but the fiery\nfact that His whole nature burned with wrath towards sin. To men, once\nmore, proud of their prestige and material prosperity, and presuming in\ntheir pride to take their own way with God, and to employ like Uzziah\nthe exercises of religion for their own honour, this vision presented\nthe real sovereignty of God: the Lord Himself seated on a throne\n_there_--just where they felt only a theatre for the display of their\npride, or machinery for the attainment of their private ends. Thus did\nthe three-fold cry of the angels meet the three-fold sinfulness of that\ngeneration of men.\n\nBut the first line of the seraph's song serves more than a temporary\nend. The Trisagion rings, and has need to ring, for ever down the\nChurch. Everywhere and at all times these are the three besetting sins\nof religious people--callousness in worship, carelessness in life, and\nthe temper which employs the forms of religion simply for\nself-indulgence or self-aggrandisement. These sins are induced by the\nsame habit of contentment with mere form; they can be corrected only by\nthe vision of the Personal Presence who is behind all form. Our\norganization, ritual, law and sacrament--we must be able to see them\nfall away, as Isaiah saw the sanctuary itself disappear, before God\nHimself, if we are to remain heartily moral and fervently religious. The\nChurch of God has to learn that no mere multiplication of forms, nor a\nmore \u00e6sthetic arrangement of them, will redeem her worshippers from\ncallousness. Callousness is but the shell which the feelings develop in\nself-defence when left by the sluggish and impenetrative soul to beat\nupon the hard outsides of form. And nothing will fuse this shell of\ncallousness but that ardent flame, which is kindled at the touching of\nthe Divine and human spirits, when forms have fallen away and the soul\nbeholds with open face the Eternal Himself. As with worship, so with\nmorality. Holiness is secured not by ceremonial, but by a reverence for\na holy Being. We shall rub our consciences trite against moral maxims or\nreligious rites. It is the effluence of a Presence, which alone can\ncreate in us, and keep in us, a clean heart. And if any object that we\nthus make light of ritual and religious law, of Church and sacrament,\nthe reply is obvious. Ritual and sacrament are to the living God but as\nthe wick of a candle to the light thereof. They are given to reveal Him,\nand the process is not perfect unless they themselves perish from the\nthoughts to which they convey Him. If God is not felt to be present, as\nIsaiah felt Him to be, to the exclusion of all forms, then these will be\ncertain to be employed, as Uzziah employed them, for the sake of the\nonly other spiritual being of whom the worshipper is conscious--himself.\nUnless we are able to forget our ritual in spiritual communion with the\nvery God, and to become unconscious of our organization in devout\nconsciousness of our personal relation to Him, then ritual will be only\na means of sensuous indulgence, organization only a machinery for\nselfish or sectarian ends. The vision of God--this is the one thing\nneedful for worship and for conduct.\n\nBut while the one verse of the antiphon reiterates what Jehovah of hosts\nis in Himself, the other describes what He is in revelation. _The whole\nearth is full of His glory._ Glory is the correlative of holiness. Glory\nis that in which holiness comes to expression. Glory is the expression\nof holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. If holiness be as\ndeep as we have seen, so varied then will glory be. There is nothing in\nthe earth but it is the glory of God. _The fulness of the whole earth is\nHis glory_, is the proper grammatical rendering of the song. For Jehovah\nof hosts is not the God only of Israel, but the Maker of heaven and\nearth, and not the victory of Israel alone, but the wealth and the\nbeauty of all the world is His glory. So universal an ascription of\nglory is the proper parallel to that of absolute Godhead, which is\nimplied in holiness.\n\n\nII. THE CALL (vv. 4-8).\n\nThus, then, Isaiah, standing on earth, on the place of a great sin, with\nthe conscience of his people's evil in his heart, and himself not\nwithout the feeling of guilt, looked into heaven, and beholding the\nglory of God, heard also with what pure praise and readiness of service\nthe heavenly hosts surround His throne. No wonder the prophet felt the\npolluted threshold rock beneath him, or that as where fire and water\nmingle there should be the rising of a great smoke. For the smoke\ndescribed is not, as some have imagined, that of acceptable incense,\nthick billows swelling through the temple to express the completion and\nsatisfaction of the seraphs' worship; but it is the mist which ever\narises where holiness and sin touch each other. It has been described\nboth as the obscurity that envelops a weak mind in presence of a truth\ntoo great for it, and the darkness that falls upon a diseased eye when\nexposed to the mid-day sun. These are only analogies, and may mislead\nus. What Isaiah actually felt was the dim-eyed shame, the distraction,\nthe embarrassment, the blinding shock of a personal encounter with One\nwhom he was utterly unfit to meet. For this was a personal encounter. We\nhave spelt out the revelation sentence by sentence in gradual argument;\nbut Isaiah did not reach it through argument or brooding. It was not to\nthe prophet what it is to his expositors, a pregnant thought, that his\nintellect might gradually unfold, but a Personal Presence, which\napprehended and overwhelmed him. God and he were there face to face.\n_Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because a man unclean of lips\nam I, and in the midst of a people unclean of lips do I dwell; for the\nKing, Jehovah of hosts, mine eyes have beheld._\n\nThe form of the prophet's confession, _uncleanness of lips_, will not\nsurprise us as far as he makes it for himself. As with the disease of\nthe body, so with the sin of the soul; each often gathers to one point\nof pain. Every man, though wholly sinful by nature, has his own\nparticular consciousness of guilt. Isaiah being a prophet felt his\nmortal weakness most upon his lips. The inclusion of the people,\nhowever, along with himself under this form of guilt, suggests a wider\ninterpretation of it. The lips are, as it were, the blossom of a man.\n_Grace is poured upon thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee for\never. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to\nbridle the whole body also._ It is in the blossom of a plant that the\nplant's defects become conspicuous; it is when all a man's faculties\ncombine for the complex and delicate office of expression that any fault\nwhich is in him will come to the surface. Isaiah had been listening to\nthe perfect praise of sinless beings, and it brought into startling\nrelief the defects of his own people's worship. Unclean of lips these\nwere indeed when brought against that heavenly choir. Their social and\npolitical sin--sin of heart and home and market--came to a head in their\nworship, and what should have been the blossom of their life fell to the\nground like a rotten leaf beneath the stainless beauty of the seraphs'\npraise.\n\nWhile the prophet thus passionately gathered his guilt upon his lips, a\nsacrament was preparing on which God concentrated His mercy to meet it.\nSacrament and lips, applied mercy and presented sin, now come together.\n_Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, and in his hand a glowing\nstone--with tongs had he taken it off the altar--and he touched my mouth\nand said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and so thy iniquity passeth\naway and thy sin is atoned for._\n\nThe idea of this function is very evident, and a scholar who has said\nthat it \"would perhaps be quite intelligible to the contemporaries of\nthe prophet, but is undoubtedly obscure to us,\" appears to have said\njust the reverse of what is right; for so simple a process of atonement\nleaves out the most characteristic details of the Jewish ritual of\nsacrifice, while it anticipates in an unmistakeable manner the essence\nof the Christian sacrament. In a scene of expiation laid under the old\ncovenant, we are struck by the absence of oblation or sacrificial act on\nthe part of the sinner himself. There is here no victim slain, no blood\nsprinkled; an altar is only parenthetically suggested, and even then in\nits simplest form, of a hearth on which the Divine fire is continually\nburning. The _glowing stone_, not _live coal_ as in the English version,\nwas no part of the temple furniture, but the ordinary means of conveying\nheat or applying fire in the various purposes of household life. There\nwas, it is true, a carrying of fire in some of the temple services, as,\nfor example, on the great Day of Atonement, but then it was effected by\na small grate filled with living embers. In the household, on the other\nhand, when cakes had to be baked, or milk boiled, or water warmed, or in\nfifty similar applications of fire, a glowing stone taken from off the\nhearth was the invariable instrument. It is this swift and simple\ndomestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted for the slow and\nintricate ceremonial of the temple--a seraph with a glowing stone in his\nhand, _with tongs had he taken it off the altar_. And yet the prophet\nfeels this only as a more direct expression of the very same idea, with\nwhich the elaborate ritual was inspired--for which the victim was\nslain, and the flesh consumed in fire, and the blood sprinkled. Isaiah\ndesires nothing else, and receives no more, than the ceremonial law was\nintended to assure to the sinner--pardon of his sin and reconciliation\nto God. But our prophet will have conviction of these immediately, and\nwith a force which the ordinary ritual is incapable of expressing. The\nfeelings of this Jew are too intense and spiritual to be satisfied with\nthe slow pageant of the earthly temple, whose performances to a man in\nhis horror could only have appeared so indifferent and far away from\nhimself as not to be really his own nor to effect what he passionately\ndesired. Instead therefore of laying his guilt in the shape of some\nvictim on the altar, Isaiah, with a keener sense of its inseparableness\nfrom himself, presents it to God upon his own lips. Instead of being\nsatisfied with beholding the fire of God consume it on another body than\nhis own, at a distance from himself, he feels that fire visit the very\nthreshold of his nature, where he has gathered the guilt, and consume it\nthere. The whole secret of this startling nonconformity to the law, on\nthe very floor of the temple, is that for a man who has penetrated to\nthe presence of God the legal forms are left far behind, and he stands\nface to face with the truth by which they are inspired. In that Divine\nPresence Isaiah is his own altar; he acts his guilt in his own person,\nand so he feels the expiatory fire come to his very self directly from\nthe heavenly hearth. It is a replica of the fifty-first Psalm: _For Thou\ndelightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; Thou hast no pleasure\nin burnt offering._ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. This is\nmy sacrifice, my sense of guilt gathered here upon my lips: my _broken\nand contrite heart_, who feel myself undone before Thee, _Lord, Thou\nwilt not despise_.\n\nIt has always been remarked as one of the most powerful proofs of the\noriginality and Divine force of Christianity, that from man's worship of\nGod, and especially from those parts in which the forgiveness of sin is\nsought and assured, it did away with the necessity of a physical rite of\nsacrifice; that it broke the universal and immemorial habit by which man\npresented to God a material offering for the guilt of his soul. By\nremembering this fact we may measure the religious significance of the\nscene we now contemplate. Nearly eight centuries before there was\naccomplished upon Calvary that Divine Sacrifice for sin, which abrogated\na rite of expiation, hitherto universally adopted by the conscience of\nhumanity, we find a Jew, in the dispensation where such a rite was most\nreligiously enforced, trembling under the conviction of sin, and upon a\nfloor crowded with suggestions of physical sacrifice; yet the only\nsacrifice he offers is the purely spiritual one of confession. It is\nmost notable. Look at it from a human point of view, and we can estimate\nIsaiah's immense spiritual originality; look at it from a Divine, and we\ncannot help perceiving a distinct foreshadow of what was to take place\nby the blood of Jesus under the new covenant. To this man, as to some\nothers of his dispensation, whose experience our Christian sympathy\nrecognizes so readily in the Psalms, there was granted aforetime\nboldness to enter into the holiest. For this is the explanation of\nIsaiah's marvellous disregard of the temple ritual. It is all behind\nhim. This man has passed within the veil. Forms are all behind him, and\nhe is face to face with God. But between two beings in that position,\nintercourse by the far off and uncertain signals of sacrifice is\ninconceivable. It can only take place by the simple unfolding of the\nheart. It must be rational, intelligent and by speech. When man is at\nsuch close quarters with God what sacrifice is possible but the\nsacrifice of the lips? Form for the Divine reply there must be some, for\neven Christianity has its sacraments, but like them this sacrament is of\nthe very simplest form, and like them it is accompanied by the\nexplanatory word. As Christ under the new covenant took bread and wine,\nand made the homely action of feeding upon them the sign and seal to His\ndisciples of the forgiveness of their sins, so His angel under the old\nand sterner covenant took the more severe, but as simple and domestic\nform of fire to express the same to His prophet. And we do well to\nemphasize that the experimental value of this sacrament of fire is\nbestowed by the word attached to it. It is not a dumb sacrament, with a\nmagical efficacy. But the prophet's mind is persuaded and his conscience\nset at peace by the intelligible words of the minister of the sacrament.\n\nIsaiah's sin being taken away, he is able to discern the voice of God\nHimself. It is in the most beautiful accordance with what has already\nhappened that he hears this not as command, but request, and answers not\nof compulsion, but of freedom. _And I heard the voice of the Lord\nsaying, Whom shall I send? and who will go for us? And I said, Here am\nI; send me._ What spiritual understanding alike of the will of God and\nthe responsibility of man, what evangelic liberty and boldness, are\nhere! Here we touch the spring of that high flight Isaiah takes both in\nprophecy and in active service for the State. Here we have the secret of\nthe filial freedom, the life-long sense of responsibility, the regal\npower of initiative, the sustained and unfaltering career, which\ndistinguish Isaiah among the ministers of the old covenant, and stamp\nhim prophet by the heart and for the life, as many of them are only by\nthe office and for the occasion. Other prophets are the servants of the\nGod of heaven; Isaiah stands next the Son Himself. On others the hand of\nthe Lord is laid in irresistible compulsion; the greatest of them are\noften ignorant, by turns headstrong and craven, deserving correction,\nand generally in need of supplementary calls and inspirations. But of\nsuch scourges and such doles Isaiah's royal career is absolutely without\na trace. His course, begun in freedom, is pursued without hesitation or\nanxiety; begun in utter self-sacrifice, it knows henceforth no moment of\ngrudging or disobedience. _Esaias is very bold_, because he is so free\nand so fully devoted. In the presence of mind with which he meets each\nsudden change of politics during that bewildering half-century of\nJudah's history, we seem to hear his calm voice repeating its first,\n_Here am I_. Presence of mind he always had. The kaleidoscope shifts: it\nis now Egyptian intrigue, now Assyrian force; now a false king requiring\nthreat of displacement by God's own hero, now a true king, but helpless\nand in need of consolation; now a rebellious people to be condemned, and\nnow an oppressed and penitent one to be encouraged:--different dangers,\nwith different sorts of salvation possible, obliging the prophet to\npromise different futures, and to say things inconsistent with what he\nhad already said. Yet Isaiah never hesitates; he can always say, _Here\nam I_. We hear that voice again in the spontaneousness and versatility\nof his style. Isaiah is one of the great kings of literature, with every\nvariety of style under his sway, passing with perfect readiness, as\nsubject or occasion calls, from one to another of the tones of a\nsuperbly endowed nature. Everywhere this man impresses us with his\npersonality, with the wealth of his nature and the perfection of his\ncontrol of it. But the personality is consecrated. The _Here am I_ is\nfollowed by the _send me_. And its health, harmony and boldness, are\nderived, Isaiah being his own witness, from this early sense of pardon\nand purification at the Divine hands. Isaiah is indeed a king and a\npriest unto God--a king with all his powers at his own command, a priest\nwith them all consecrated to the service of Heaven.\n\nOne cannot pass away from these verses without observing the plain\nanswer which they give to the question, What is a call to the ministry\nof God? In these days of dust and distraction, full of party cries, with\nso many side issues of doctrine and duty presenting themselves, and the\nsolid attractions of so many other services insensibly leading men to\nlook for the same sort of attractiveness in the ministry, it may prove a\nrelief to some to ponder the simple elements of Isaiah's call to be a\nprofessional and life-long prophet. Isaiah got no \"call\" in our\nconventional sense of the word, no compulsion that he must go, no\narticulate voice describing him as the sort of man needed for the work,\nnor any of those similar \"calls\" which sluggish and craven spirits so\noften desire to relieve them of the responsibility or the strenuous\neffort needed in deciding for a profession which their conscience will\nnot permit them to refuse. Isaiah got no such call. After passing\nthrough the fundamental religious experiences of forgiveness and\ncleansing, which are in every case the indispensable premises of life\nwith God, Isaiah was left to himself. No direct summons was addressed\nto him, no compulsion was laid on him; but he heard the voice of God\nasking generally for messengers, and he on his own responsibility\nanswered it for himself in particular. He heard from the Divine lips of\nthe Divine need for messengers, and he was immediately full of the mind\nthat he was the man for the mission, and of the heart to give himself to\nit. So great an example cannot be too closely studied by candidates for\nthe ministry in our own day. Sacrifice is not the half-sleepy,\nhalf-reluctant submission to the force of circumstance or opinion, in\nwhich shape it is so often travestied among us, but the resolute\nself-surrender and willing resignation of a free and reasonable soul.\nThere are many in our day who look for an irresistible compulsion into\nthe ministry of the Church; sensitive as they are to the material bias\nby which men roll off into other professions, they pray for something of\na similar kind to prevail with them in this direction also. There are\nmen who pass into the ministry by social pressure or the opinion of the\ncircles they belong to, and there are men who adopt the profession\nsimply because it is on the line of least resistance. From which false\nbeginnings rise the spent force, the premature stoppages, the stagnancy,\nthe aimlessness and heartlessness, which are the scandals of the\nprofessional ministry and the weakness of the Christian Church in our\nday. Men who drift into the ministry, as it is certain so many do,\nbecome mere ecclesiastical flotsam and jetsam, incapable of giving\ncarriage to any soul across the waters of this life, uncertain of their\nown arrival anywhere, and of all the waste of their generation, the most\npatent and disgraceful. God will have no drift-wood for His sacrifices,\nno drift-men for His ministers. Self-consecration is the beginning of\nHis service, and a sense of our own freedom and our own responsibility\nis an indispensable element in the act of self-consecration. _We_--not\nGod--have to make the decision. We are not to be dead, but living,\nsacrifices, and everything which renders us less than fully alive both\nmars at the time the sincerity of our surrender and reacts for evil upon\nthe whole of our subsequent ministry.\n\n\nIII. THE COMMISSION (vv. 9-13).\n\nA heart so resolutely devoted as we have seen Isaiah's to be was surely\nprepared against any degree of discouragement, but probably never did\nman receive so awful a commission as he describes himself to have done.\nNot that we are to suppose that this fell upon Isaiah all at once, in\nthe suddenness and distinctness with which he here records it. Our sense\nof its awfulness will only be increased when we realize that Isaiah\nbecame aware of it, not in the shock of a single discovery, sufficiently\ngreat to have carried its own an\u00e6sthetic along with it, but through a\nprolonged process of disillusion, and at the pain of those repeated\ndisappointments, which are all the more painful that none singly is\ngreat enough to stupefy. It is just at this point of our chapter, that\nwe feel most the need of supposing it to have been written some years\nafter the consecration of Isaiah, when his experience had grown long\nenough to articulate the dim forebodings of that solemn moment. _Go and\nsay to this people, Hearing, hear ye, but understand not; seeing, see\nye, but know not. Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears make\nheavy, and its eyes smear, lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its\nears, and its heart understand, and it turn again and be healed._ No\nprophet, we may be sure, would be asked by God to go and tell his\naudiences that in so many words, at the beginning of his career. It is\nonly by experience that a man understands that kind of a commission,[10]\nand for the required experience Isaiah had not long to wait after\nentering on his ministry. Ahaz himself, in whose death-year it is\nsupposed by many that Isaiah wrote this account of his consecration--the\nconduct of Ahaz himself was sufficient to have brought out the\nconvictions of the prophet's heart in this startling form, in which he\nhas stated his commission. By the word of the Lord and an offer of a\nsign from Him, Isaiah did make fat that monarch's heart and smear his\neyes. And perverse as the rulers of Judah were in the examples and\npolicies they set, the people were as blindly bent on following them to\ndestruction. _Every one_, said Isaiah, when he must have been for some\ntime a prophet--_every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every\nmouth speaketh folly_.\n\n  [10] Even Calvin, though in order to prove that Isaiah had been\n  prophesying for some time before his inaugural vision, says that his\n  commission implies some years' actual experience of the obstinacy of the\n  people.\n\nBut if that clear, bitter way of putting the matter can have come to\nIsaiah only with the experience of some years, why does he place it upon\nthe lips of God, as they give him his commission? Because Isaiah is\nstating not merely his own singular experience, but a truth always true\nof the preaching of the word of God, and of which no prophet at the time\nof his consecration to that ministry can be without at least a\nforeboding. We have not exhausted the meaning of this awful commission\nwhen we say that it is only a forcible anticipation of the prophet's\nactual experience. There is more here than one man's experience. Over\nand over again are these words quoted in the New Testament, till we\nlearn to find them true always and everywhere that the Word of God is\npreached to men,--the description of what would seem to be its necessary\neffect upon many souls. Both Jesus and Paul use Isaiah's commission of\nthemselves. They do so like Isaiah at an advanced stage in their\nministry, when the shock of misunderstanding and rejection has been\nrepeatedly felt, but then not solely as an apt description of their own\nexperience. They quote God's words to Isaiah as a prophecy fulfilled in\ntheir own case--that is to say, as the statement of a great principle or\ntruth of which their own ministry is only another instance. Their own\ndisappointments have roused them to the fact, that this is always an\neffect of the word of God upon numbers of men--to deaden their spiritual\nfaculties. While Matthew and the book of Acts adopt the milder Greek\nversion of Isaiah's commission, John gives a rendering that is even\nstronger than the original. _He hath blinded_, he says of God Himself,\n_their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their\neyes and perceive with their hearts_. In Mark's narrative Christ says\nthat He speaks to them that are outside in parables, _for the purpose\nthat seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear,\nand not understand, lest haply they should turn again and it should be\nforgiven them_. We may suspect, in an utterance so strange to the lips\nof the Lord of salvation, merely the irony of His baffled love. But it\nis rather the statement of what He believed to be the necessary effect\nof a ministry like His own. It marks the direction, not of His desire,\nbut of natural sequence.\n\nWith these instances we can go back to Isaiah and understand why he\nshould have described the bitter fruits of experience as an imperative\nlaid upon him by God. _Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears\nmake heavy, and its eyes do thou smear._ It is the fashion of the\nprophet's grammar, when it would state a principle or necessary effect,\nto put it in the form of a command. What God expresses to Isaiah so\nimperatively as almost to take our breath away; what Christ uttered with\nsuch abruptness that we ask, Does He speak in irony? what Paul laid down\nas the conviction of a long and patient ministry, is the great truth\nthat the Word of God has not only a saving power, but that even in its\ngentlest pleadings and its purest Gospel, even by the mouth of Him who\ncame, not to condemn, but to save the world, it has a power that is\njudicial and condemnatory.\n\nIt is frequently remarked by us as perhaps the most deplorable fact of\nour experience, that there exists in human nature an accursed facility\nfor turning God's gifts to precisely the opposite ends from those for\nwhich He gave them. So common is man's misunderstanding of the plainest\nsigns, and so frequent his abuse of the most evident favours of Heaven,\nthat a spectator of the drama of human history might imagine its Author\nto have been a Cynic or Comedian, portraying for His own amusement the\nloss of the erring at the very moment of what might have been their\nrecovery, the frustration of love at the point of its greatest warmth\nand expectancy. Let him look closer, however, and he will perceive, not\na comedy, but a tragedy, for neither chance nor cruel sport is here at\nwork, but free will and the laws of habit, with retribution and penalty.\nThese actors are not puppets in the hand of a Power that moves them at\nwill; each of them plays his own part, and the abuse and contradiction,\nof which he is guilty, are but the prerogative of his freedom. They are\nfree beings who thus reject the gift of Divine assistance, and so\npiteously misunderstand Divine truth. Look closer still, and you will\nsee that the way they talk, the impression they accept of God's\ngoodness, the effect of His judgements upon them, is determined not at\nthe moment of their choice, and not by a single act of their will, but\nby the whole tenor of their previous life. In the sudden flash of some\ngift or opportunity, men reveal the stuff of which they are made, the\ndisposition they have bred in themselves. Opportunity in human life is\nas often judgement as it is salvation. When we perceive these things, we\nunderstand that life is not a comedy, where chance governs or\nincongruous situations are invented by an Almighty Satirist for his own\nsport, but a tragedy, with all tragedy's pathetic elements of royal\nwills contending in freedom with each other, of men's wills clashing\nwith God's: men the makers of their own destinies, and Nemesis not\ndirecting, but following their actions. We go back to the very\nfundamentals of our nature on this dread question. To understand what\nhas been called \"a great law in human degeneracy,\" that \"the evil heart\ncan assimilate good to itself and convert it to its nature,\" we must\nunderstand what free will means, and take into account the terrible\ninfluence of habit.\n\nNow there is no more conspicuous instance of this law, than that which\nis afforded by the preaching of the Gospel of God. God's Word, as Christ\nreminds us, does not fall on virgin soil; it falls on soil already\nholding other seed. When a preacher stands up with the Word of God in a\ngreat congregation, vast as Scripture warrants us for believing his\npower to be, his is not the only power that is operative. Each man\npresent has a life behind that hour and place, lying away in the\ndarkness, silent and dead as far as the congregation are concerned, but\nin his own heart as vivid and loud as the voice of the preacher, though\nhe be preaching never so forcibly. The prophet is not the only power in\nthe delivery of God's Word, nor is the Holy Spirit the only power. That\nwould make all preaching of the Word a mere display. But the Bible\nrepresents it as a strife. And now it is said of men themselves that\nthey harden their hearts against the Word, and now--because such\nhardening is the result of previous sinning, and has therefore a\njudicial character--that God hardens their hearts. _Simon, Simon_, said\nChrist to a face that spread out to His own all the ardour of worship,\n_Satan is desiring to have you, but I have prayed that your faith fail\nnot_. God sends His Word into our hearts; the Mediator stands by, and\nprays that it make us His own. But there are other factors in the\noperation, and the result depends on our own will; it depends on our own\nwill, and it is dreadfully determined by our habits.\n\nNow this is one of the first facts to which a young reformer or prophet\nawakes. Such an awakening is a necessary element in his education and\napprenticeship. He has seen the Lord high and lifted up. His lips have\nbeen touched by the coal from off the altar. His first feeling is that\nnothing can withstand that power, nothing gainsay this inspiration. Is\nhe a Nehemiah, and the hand of the Lord has been mighty upon him? Then\nhe feels that he has but to tell his fellows of it to make them as\nenthusiastic in the Lord's work as himself. Is he a Mazzini, aflame from\nhis boyhood with aspirations for his country, consecrated from his birth\nto the cause of duty? Then he leaps with joy upon his mission; he has\nbut to show himself, to speak, to lead the way, and his country is free.\nIs he--to descend to a lower degree of prophecy--a Fourier, sensitive\nmore than most to how anarchic society is, and righteously eager to\nsettle it upon stable foundations? Then he draws his plans for\nreconstruction, he projects his phalanges and phalansteres, and believes\nthat he has solved the social problem. Is he--to come back to the\nheights--an Isaiah, with the Word of God in him like fire? Then he sees\nhis vision of the perfect state; he thinks to lift his people to it by a\nword. _O house of Jacob_, he says, _come ye, and let us walk in the\nlight of the Lord_!\n\nFor all of whom the next necessary stage of experience is one of\ndisappointment, with the hard commission, _Make the heart of this people\nfat_. They must learn that, if God has caught themselves young, and when\nit was possible to make them entirely His own, the human race to whom He\nsends them is old, too old for them to effect much upon the mass of it\nbeyond the hardening and perpetuation of evil. Fourier finds that to\nproduce his perfect State he would need to re-create mankind, to cut\ndown the tree to the very roots, and begin again. After the first rush\nof patriotic fervour, which carried so many of his countrymen with him,\nMazzini discovers himself in \"a moral desert,\" confesses that the\nstruggle to liberate his fatherland, which has only quickened him to\nfurther devotion in so great a cause, has been productive of scepticism\nin his followers, and has left them withered and hardened of heart,\nwhom it had found so capable of heroic impulses. He tells us how they\nupbraided and scorned him, left him in exile, and returned to their\nhomes, from which they had set out with vows to die for their country,\ndoubting now whether there was anything at all worth living or dying for\noutside themselves. Mazzini's description of the first passage of his\ncareer is invaluable for the light which it throws upon this commission\nof Isaiah. History does not contain a more dramatic representation of\nthe entirely opposite effects of the same Divine movement upon different\nnatures. While the first efforts for the liberty of Italy materialized\nthe greater number of his countrymen, whom Mazzini had persuaded to\nembark upon it, the failure and their consequent defection only served\nto strip this heroic soul of the last rags of selfishness, and\nconsecrate it more utterly to the will of God and the duty that lay\nbefore it.\n\nA few sentences from the confessions of the Italian patriot may be\nquoted, with benefit to our appreciation of what the Hebrew prophet must\nhave passed through.\n\n     \"It was the tempest of doubt, which I believe all who devote their\n     lives to a great enterprise, yet have not dried and withered up\n     their soul--like Robespierre--beneath some barren intellectual\n     formula, but have retained a loving heart, are doomed, once at\n     least, to battle through. My heart was overflowing with and greedy\n     of affection, as fresh and eager to unfold to joy as in the days\n     when sustained by my mother's smile, as full of fervid hope for\n     others, at least, if not for myself. But during these fatal months\n     there darkened round me such a hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and\n     deception as to bring before my eyes, in all its ghastly nakedness,\n     a foreshadowing of the old age of my soul, solitary in a desert\n     world, wherein no comfort in the struggle was vouchsafed to me. It\n     was not only the overthrow for an indefinite period of every\n     Italian hope, ... it was the falling to pieces of that moral\n     edifice of faith and love from which alone I had derived strength\n     for the combat; the scepticism I saw arising round me on every\n     side; the failure of faith in those who had solemnly bound\n     themselves to pursue unshaken the path we had known at the outset\n     to be choked with sorrows; the distrust I detected in those most\n     dear to me, as to the motives and intentions which sustained and\n     urged me onward in the evidently unequal struggle.... When I felt\n     that I was indeed alone in the world, I drew back in terror at the\n     void before me. There, in that moral desert, doubt came upon me.\n     Perhaps I was wrong, and the world right? Perhaps my idea was\n     indeed a dream?... One morning I awoke to find my mind tranquil and\n     my spirit calmed, as one who has passed through a great danger. The\n     first thought that passed across my spirit was, _Your sufferings\n     are the temptations of egotism, and arise from a misconception of\n     life_.... I perceived that although every instinct of my heart\n     rebelled against that fatal and ignoble definition of life which\n     makes it to be a _search after happiness_, yet I had not completely\n     freed myself from the dominating influence exercised by it upon the\n     age.... I had been unable to realize the true ideal of love--love\n     without earthly hope.... Life is a mission, duty therefore its\n     highest law. From the idea of God I descended to faith in a mission\n     and its logical consequence--duty the supreme rule of life; and\n     having reached that faith, I swore to myself that nothing in this\n     world should again make me doubt or forsake it. It was, as Dante\n     says, passing through martyrdom to peace--'a forced and desperate\n     peace.' I do not deny, for I fraternized with sorrow, and wrapped\n     myself in it as in a mantle; but yet it was peace, for I learned to\n     suffer without rebellion, and to live calmly and in harmony with my\n     own spirit. I reverently bless God the Father for what consolations\n     of affection--I can conceive of no other--He has vouchsafed to me\n     in my later years; and in them I gather strength to struggle with\n     the occasional return of weariness of existence. But even were\n     these consolations denied me, I believe I should still be what I\n     am. Whether the sun shine with the serene splendour of an Italian\n     noon, or the leaden, corpse-like hue of the northern mist be above\n     us, I cannot see that it changes our duty. God dwells above the\n     earthly heaven, and the holy stars of faith and the future still\n     shine within our souls, even though their light consume itself\n     unreflected as the sepulchral lamp.\"\n\nSuch sentences are the best commentary we can offer on our text. The\ncases of the Hebrew and Italian prophets are wonderfully alike. We who\nhave read Isaiah's fifth chapter know how his heart also was\n\"overflowing with and greedy of affection,\" and in the second and third\nchapters we have seen \"the hurricane of sorrow, disillusion and\ndeception darken round him.\" \"The falling to pieces of the moral edifice\nof faith and love,\" \"scepticism rising on every side,\" \"failure of faith\nin those who had solemnly bound themselves,\" \"distrust detected in those\nmost dear to me\"--and all felt by the prophet as the effect of the\nsacred movement God had inspired him to begin:--how exact a counterpart\nit is to the cumulative process of brutalizing which Isaiah heard God\nlay upon him, with the imperative _Make the heart of this people fat!_\nIn such a morally blind, deaf and dead-hearted world Isaiah's faith was\nindeed \"to consume itself unreflected like the sepulchral lamp.\" The\nglimpse into his heart given us by Mazzini enables us to realize with\nwhat terror Isaiah faced such a void. _O Lord, how long?_ This, too,\nbreathes the air of \"a forced and desperate peace,\" the spirit of one\nwho, having realized life as a mission, has made the much more rare\nrecognition that the logical consequence is neither the promise of\nsuccess nor the assurance of sympathy, but simply the acceptance of\nduty, with whatever results and under whatever skies it pleases God to\nbring over him.\n\n  _Until cities fall into ruin without an inhabitant,\n  And houses without a man,\n  And the land be left desolately waste,\n  And Jehovah have removed man far away,\n  And great be the desert in the midst of the land;\n  And still if there be a tenth in it,\n  Even it shall be again for consuming.\n  Like the terebinth, and like the oak,\n  Whose stock when they are felled remaineth in them,\n  The holy seed shall be its stock._\n\nThe meaning of these words is too plain to require exposition, but we\ncan hardly over-emphasize them. This is to be Isaiah's one text\nthroughout his career. \"Judgement shall pass through; a remnant shall\nremain.\" All the politics of his day, the movement of the world's\nforces, the devastation of the holy land, the first captivities of the\nholy people, the reiterated defeats and disappointments of the next\nfifty years--all shall be clear and tolerable to Isaiah as the\nfulfilling of the sentence to which he listened in such \"forced and\ndesperate peace\" on the day of his consecration. He has had the worst\nbranded into him; henceforth no man nor thing may trouble him. He has\nseen the worst, and knows there is a beginning beyond. So when the\nwickedness of Judah and the violence of Assyria alike seem most\nunrestrained--Assyria most bent on destroying Judah, and Judah least\nworthy to live--Isaiah will yet cling to this, that a remnant must\nremain. All his prophecies will be variations of this text; it is the\nkey to his apparent paradoxes. He will proclaim the Assyrians to be\nGod's instrument, yet devote them to destruction. He will hail their\nadvance on Judah, and yet as exultingly mark its limit, because of the\ndetermination in which he asked the question, _O Lord, how long?_ and\nthe clearness with which he understood the _until_, that came in answer\nto it. Every prediction he makes, every turn he seeks to give to the\npractical politics of Judah, are simply due to his grasp of these two\nfacts--a withering and repeated devastation, in the end a bare survival.\nHe has, indeed, prophecies which travel farther; occasionally he is\npermitted to indulge in visions of a new dispensation. Like Moses, he\nclimbs his Pisgah, but he is like Moses also in this, that his lifetime\nis exhausted with the attainment of the margin of a long period of\njudgement and struggle, and then he passes from our sight, and no man\nknoweth his sepulchre unto this day. As abruptly as this vision closes\nwith the announcement of _the remnant_, so abruptly does Isaiah\ndisappear on the fulfilment of the announcement--some forty years\nsubsequent to this vision--in the sudden rescue of the holy seed from\nthe grasp of Sennacherib.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe have now finished the first period of Isaiah's career. Let us\ncatalogue what are his leading doctrines up to this point. High above a\nvery sinful people, and beyond all their conceptions of Him, Jehovah,\nthe national God, rises holy, exalted in righteousness. From such a God\nto such a people it can only be judgement and affliction that pass; and\nthese shall not be averted by the fact that He is the national God, and\nthey His worshippers. Of this affliction the Assyrians gathering far off\nupon the horizon are evidently to be the instruments. The affliction\nshall be very sweeping; again and again shall it come; but the Lord will\nfinally save a remnant of His people. Three elements compose this\npreaching--a very keen and practical conscience of sin; an overpowering\nvision of God, in whose immediate intimacy the prophet believes himself\nto be; and a very sharp perception of the politics of the day.\n\nOne question rises. In this part of Isaiah's ministry there is no trace\nof that Figure whom we chiefly identify with his preaching, the Messiah.\nLet us have patience; it is not time for him; but the following is his\nconnection with the prophet's present doctrines.\n\nIsaiah's great result at present is the certainty of a remnant. That\nremnant will require two things--they will require a rallying-point,\nand they will require a leader. Henceforth Isaiah's prophesying will be\nbent to one or other of these. The two grand purposes of his word and\nwork will be, for the sake of the remnant, the inviolateness of Zion,\nand the coming of the Messiah. The former he has, indeed, already\nintimated (chap. iv.); the latter is now to share with it his hope and\neloquence.\n\n[Illustration: (Map) Isaiah's World]\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n_THE WORLD IN ISAIAH'S DAY AND ISRAEL'S GOD._\n\n735-730 B.C.\n\n\nUp to this point we have been acquainted with Isaiah as a prophet of\ngeneral principles, preaching to his countrymen the elements of\nrighteousness and judgement, and tracing the main lines of fate along\nwhich their evil conduct was rapidly forcing them. We are now to observe\nhim applying these principles to the executive politics of the time, and\nfollowing Judah's conduct to the issues he had predicted for it in the\nworld outside herself. Hitherto he has been concerned with the inner\nmorals of Jewish society; he is now to engage himself with the effect of\nthese on the fortunes of the Jewish State. In his seventh chapter Isaiah\nbegins that career of practical statesmanship, which not only made him\n\"the greatest political power in Israel since David,\" but placed him,\nfar above his importance to his own people, upon a position of influence\nover all ages. To this eminence Isaiah was raised, as we shall see, by\ntwo things. First, there was the occasion of his times, for he lived at\na juncture at which the vision of the _World_, as distinguished from the\n_Nation_, opened to his people's eyes. Second, he had the faith which\nenabled him to realize the government of the World by the One God, whom\nhe has already beheld exalted and sovereign within the Nation. In the\nNation we have seen Isaiah led to emphasize very absolutely the\nrighteousness of God; applying this to the whole World, he is now to\nspeak as the prophet of what we call Providence. He has seen Jehovah\nruling in righteousness in Judah; he is now to take possession of the\nnations of the World in Jehovah's name. But we mistake Isaiah if we\nthink it is any abstract doctrine of providence which he is about to\ninculcate. For him God's providence has in the meantime but one end: the\npreservation of a remnant of the holy people. Afterwards we shall find\nhim expecting besides, the conversion of the whole World to faith in\nIsrael's God.\n\nThe World in Isaiah's day was practically Western Asia. History had not\nlong dawned upon Europe; over Western Asia it was still noon. Draw a\nline from the Caspian to the mouth of the Persian Gulf; between that\nline and another crossing the Levant to the west of Cyprus, and\ncontinuing along the Libyan border of Egypt, lay the highest forms of\nreligion and civilisation which our race had by that period achieved.\nThis was the World on which Isaiah looked out from Jerusalem, the\nfurthest borders of which he has described in his prophecies, and in the\npolitical history of which he illustrated his great principles. How was\nit composed?\n\nThere were, first of all, at either end of it, north-east and\nsouth-west, the two great empires of ASSYRIA and EGYPT, in many respects\nwonderful counterparts of each other. No one will understand the history\nof Palestine, who has not grasped its geographical position relative to\nthese similar empires. Syria, shut up between the Mediterranean sea and\nthe Arabian desert, has its outlets north and south into two great\nriver-plains, each of them ending in a delta. Territories of that kind\nexert a double force on the world with which they are connected, now\ndrawing across their boundaries the hungry races of neighbouring\nhighlands and deserts, and again sending them forth, compact and\nresistless armies. This double action summarises the histories of both\nEgypt and Assyria from the earliest times to the period which we are now\ntreating, and was the cause of the constant circulation, by which, as\nthe Bible bears witness, the life of Syria was stirred from the Tower of\nBabel downwards. Mesopotamia and the Nile valley drew races as beggars\nto their rich pasture grounds, only to send them forth in subsequent\ncenturies as conquerors. The century of Isaiah fell in a period of\nforward movement. Assyria and Egypt were afraid to leave each other in\npeace; and the wealth of Phoenicia, grown large enough to excite their\ncupidity, lay between them. In each of these empires, however, there was\nsomething to hamper this aggressive impulse. Neither Assyria nor Egypt\nwas a homogeneous State. The valleys of the Euphrates and the Nile were,\neach of them the home of two nations. Beside Assyria lay Babylonia, once\nAssyria's mistress, and now of all the Assyrian provinces by far the\nhardest to hold in subjection, although it lay the nearest to home. In\nIsaiah's time, when an Assyrian monarch is unable to come into\nPalestine, Babylon is generally the reason; and it is by intriguing with\nBabylon that a king of Judah attempts to keep Assyria away from his own\nneighbourhood. But Babylon only delayed the Assyrian conquest. In Egypt,\non the other hand, power was more equally balanced between the hardier\npeople up the Nile and the wealthier people down the Nile--between the\nEthiopians and the Egyptians proper. It was the repeated and undecisive\ncontests between these two during the whole of Isaiah's day, which kept\nEgypt from being an effective force in the politics of Western Asia. In\nIsaiah's day no Egyptian army advanced more than a few leagues beyond\nits own frontier.\n\nNext in this world of Western Asia come the PHOENICIANS. We may say\nthat they connected Egypt and Assyria, for although Phoenicia proper\nmeant only the hundred and fifty miles of coast between Carmel and the\nbay of Antioch, the Phoenicians had large colonies on the delta of the\nNile and trading posts upon the Euphrates. They were gathered into\nindependent but more or less confederate cities, the chief of them Tyre\nand Sidon; which, while they attempted the offensive only in trade, were\nby their wealth and maritime advantages capable of offering at once a\nstronger attraction and a more stubborn resistance to the Assyrian arms,\nthan any other power of the time. Between Phoenicia proper and the\nmouths of the Nile, the coast was held by groups of PHILISTINE cities,\nwhose nearness to Egypt rather than their own strength was the source of\na frequent audacity against Assyria, and the reason why they appear in\nthe history of this period oftener than any other State as the object of\nAssyrian campaigns.\n\nBehind Phoenicia and the Philistines lay a number of inland\nterritories: the sister-States of Judah and Northern Israel, with their\ncousins Edom, Moab, and Aram or Syria. Of which JUDAH and ISRAEL were\ntogether about the size of Wales; EDOM a mountain range the size and\nshape of Cornwall; MOAB, on its north, a broken tableland, about a\nDevonshire; and ARAM, or SYRIA, a territory round Damascus, of uncertain\nsize, but considerable enough to have resisted Assyria for a hundred and\ntwenty years. Beyond Aram, again, to the north, lay the smaller State of\nHAMATH, in the mouth of the pass between the Lebanons, with nothing\nfrom it to the Euphrates. And then, hovering upon the east of these\nsettled States, were a variety of more or less NOMADIC TRIBES, whose\nrefuges were the vast deserts of which so large a part of Western Asia\nconsists.\n\nHere was a world, with some of its constituents wedged pretty firmly by\nmutual pressure, but in the main broken and restless--a political\nsurface that was always changing. The whole was subject to the movements\nof the two empires at its extremes. One of them could not move without\nsending a thrill through to the borders of the other. The approximate\ndistances were these:--from Egypt's border to Jerusalem, about one\nhundred miles; from Jerusalem to Samaria, forty-five; from Samaria to\nDamascus, one hundred and fifteen; from Damascus to Hamath, one hundred\nand thirty; and from Hamath to the Euphrates, one hundred; in all from\nthe border of Egypt to the border of Assyria four hundred and ninety\nEnglish statute miles. The main line of war and traffic, coming up from\nEgypt, kept the coast to the plain of Esdraelon, which it crossed\ntowards Damascus, travelling by the north of the sea of Galilee, _the\nway of the sea_. Northern Israel was bound to fall an early prey to\narmies, whose easiest path thus traversed her richest provinces. Judah,\non the other hand, occupied a position so elevated and apart, that it\nwas likely to be the last that either Assyria or Egypt would achieve in\ntheir subjugation of the States between them.\n\nThus, then, Western Asia spread itself out in Isaiah's day. Let us take\none more rapid glance across it. Assyria to the north, powerful and on\nthe offensive, but hampered by Babylon; Egypt on the south, weakened and\nin reserve; all the cities and States between turning their faces\ndesperately northwards, but each with an ear bent back for the promises\nof the laggard southern power, and occasionally supported by its\nsubsidies; Hamath, their advanced guard at the mouth of the pass between\nthe Lebanons, looking out towards the Euphrates; Tyre and Sidon\nattractive to the Assyrian king, whose policy is ultimately commercial,\nby their wealth, both they and the Philistine cities obstructing his\npath by the coast to his great rival of Egypt; Israel bulwarked against\nAssyria by Hamath and Damascus, but in danger, as soon as they fall, of\nseeing her richest provinces overrun; Judah unlikely in the general\nrestlessness to retain her hold upon Edom, but within her own borders\ntolerably secure, neither lying in the Assyrian's path to Egypt, nor\nwealthy enough to attract him out of it; safe, therefore, in the\nneutrality which Isaiah ceaselessly urges her to preserve, and in danger\nof suction into the whirlpool of the approach of the two empires only\nthrough the foolish desire of her rulers to secure an utterly\nunnecessary alliance with the one or the other of them.\n\nFor a hundred and twenty years before the advent of Isaiah, the annals\nof the Assyrian kings record periodical campaigns against the cities of\n\"the land of the west,\" but these isolated incursions were followed by\nno permanent results. In 745, however, five years before King Uzziah\ndied, a soldier ascended the throne of Assyria, under the title of\nTiglath-pileser II.,[11] who was determined to achieve the conquest of\nthe whole world and its organization as his empire. Where his armies\ncame, it was not simply to chastise or demand tribute, but to annex\ncountries, carry away their populations and exploit their resources. It\nwas no longer kings who were threatened; peoples found themselves in\ndanger of extinction. This terrible purpose of the Assyrian was pursued\nwith vast means and the utmost ferocity. He has been called the Roman of\nthe East, and up to a certain degree we may imagine his policy by\nremembering all that is familiar to us of its execution by Rome: its\nrelentlessness, impetus and mysterious action from one centre; the\ndiscipline, the speed, the strange appearance, of his armies. But there\nwas an Oriental savagery about Assyria, from which Rome was free. The\nAssyrian kings moved in the power of their brutish and stormy gods--gods\nthat were in the shape of bulls and had the wings as of the tempest. The\nannals of these kings, in which they describe their campaigns, are full\nof talk about trampling down their enemies; about showering tempests of\nclubs upon them, and raining a deluge of arrows; about overwhelming\nthem, and sweeping them off the face of the land, and strewing them like\nchaff on the sea; about chariots with scythes, and wheels clogged with\nblood; about great baskets stuffed with the salted heads of their foes.\nIt is a mixture of the Roman and Red Indian.\n\n  [11] The Pul of 2 Kings xv. 19 and the Tiglath-pileser of 2 Kings xvi.\n  are the same.\n\nPicture the effect of the onward movement of such a force upon the\nimaginations and policies of those little States that clustered round\nJudah and Israel. Settling their own immemorial feuds, they sought\nalliance with one another against this common foe. Tribes, that for\ncenturies had stained their borders with one another's blood, came\ntogether in unions, the only reason for which was that their common fear\nhad grown stronger than their mutual hate. Now and then a king would be\nfound unwilling to enter such an alliance or eager to withdraw from it,\nin the hope of securing by his exceptional conduct the favour of the\nAssyrian, whom he sought further to ingratiate by voluntary tribute. The\nshifting attitudes of the petty kings towards Assyria bewilder the\nreader of the Assyrian annals. The foes of one year are the tributaries\nof the next; the State, that has called for help this campaign, appears\nas the rebel of that. In 742, Uzziah of Judah is cursed by\nTiglath-pileser as an arch-enemy; Samaria and Damascus are recorded as\nfaithful tributaries. Seven years later Ahaz of Judah offers tribute to\nthe Assyrian king, and Damascus and Samaria are invaded by the Assyrian\narmies. What a world it was, and what politics! A world of petty clans,\nwith no idea of a common humanity, and with no motive for union except\nfear; politics without a noble thought or long purpose in them, the\npolitics of peoples at bay--the last flicker of dying nationalities,--\n_stumps of smoking firebrands_, as Isaiah described two of them.\n\nWhen we turn to the little we know of the religions of these tribes, we\nfind nothing to arrest their restlessness or broaden their thoughts.\nThese nations had their religions, and called on their gods, but their\ngods were made in their own image, their religion was the reflex of\ntheir life. Each of them employed, rather than worshipped, its deity. No\nnation believed in its god except as one among many, with his\nsovereignty limited to its own territory, and his ability to help it\nconditioned by the power of the other gods, against whose peoples he was\nfighting. There was no belief in \"Providence,\" no idea of unity or of\nprogress in history, no place in these religions for the great\nworld-force that was advancing upon their peoples.\n\nFrom this condemnation we cannot except the people of Jehovah. It is\nundeniable that the mass of them occupied at this time pretty much the\nsame low religious level as their neighbours. We have already seen\n(chap. i.) their mean estimate of what God required from themselves;\nwith that corresponded their view of His position towards the world. To\nthe majority of the Israelites their God was but one out of many, with\nHis own battles to fight and have fought for Him, a Patron sometimes to\nbe ashamed of, and by no means a Saviour in whom to place an absolute\ntrust. When Ahaz is beaten by Syria, he says: _Because the gods of the\nkings of Syria helped them, therefore will I sacrifice to them, that\nthey may help me_ (2 Chron. xxviii. 23). Religion to Ahaz was only\nanother kind of diplomacy. He was not a fanatic, but a diplomat, who\nmade his son to pass through the fire to Moloch, and burnt incense in\nthe high places and on the hills, and under every green tree. He was\nmore a political than a religious eclectic, who brought back the pattern\nof the Damascus altar to Jerusalem. The Temple, in which Isaiah saw the\nLord high and lifted up, became under Ahaz, and by the help of the\npriesthood, the shelter of various idols; in every corner of Jerusalem\naltars were erected to other gods. This religious hospitality was the\noutcome neither of imagination nor of liberal thought; it was prompted\nonly by political fear. Ahaz has been mistaken in the same way as\nCharles I. was--for a bigot, and one who subjected the welfare of his\nkingdom to a superstitious regard for religion. But beneath the cloak of\nreligious scrupulousness and false reverence,[12] there was in Ahaz the\nsame selfish fear for the safety of his crown and his dynasty, as those\nwho best knew the English monarch tell us, was the real cause of his\nceaseless intrigue and stupid obstinacy.\n\n  [12] Isa. vii. 12.\n\nNow that we have surveyed this world, its politics and its religion, we\ncan estimate the strength and originality of the Hebrew prophets. Where\nothers saw the conflicts of nations, aided by deities as doubtfully\nmatched as themselves, they perceived all things working together by the\nwill of one supreme God and serving His ends of righteousness. It would\nbe wrong to say, that before the eighth century the Hebrew conception of\nGod had been simply that of a national deity, for this would be to\nignore the remarkable emphasis placed by the Hebrews from very early\ntimes upon Jehovah's righteousness. But till the eighth century the\nhorizon of the Hebrew mind had been the border of their territory; the\nhistorical theatre on which it saw God working was the national life.\nNow, however, the Hebrews were drawn into the world; they felt movements\nof which their own history was but an eddy; they saw the advance of\nforces against which their own armies, though inspired by Jehovah, had\nno chance of material success. The perspective was entirely changed;\ntheir native land took to most of them the aspect of a petty and\nworthless province, their God the rank of a mere provincial deity; they\nrefused the waters of Shiloah, that go softly, and rejoiced in the glory\nof the king of Assyria, the king of the great River and the hosts that\nmoved with the strength of its floods. It was at this moment that the\nprophets of Israel performed their supreme religious service. While Ahaz\nand the mass of the people illustrated the impotence of the popular\nreligion, by admitting to an equal place in the national temple the gods\nof their victorious foes, the prophets boldly took possession of the\nwhole world in the name of Jehovah of hosts, and exalted Him to the\nthrone of the supreme Providence. Now they could do this only by\nemphasizing and developing the element of righteousness in the old\nconception of Him. This attribute of Jehovah took absolute possession of\nthe prophets; and in the strength of its inspiration they were enabled,\nat a time when it would have been the sheerest folly to promise Israel\nvictory against a foe like Assyria, to asseverate that even that supreme\nworld-power was in the hand of Jehovah, and that He must be trusted to\nlead up all the movements of which the Assyrians were the main force to\nthe ends He had so plainly revealed to His chosen Israel. Even before\nIsaiah's time such principles had been proclaimed by Amos and Hosea, but\nit was Isaiah, who both gave to them their loftiest expression, and\napplied them with the utmost detail and persistence to the practical\npolitics of Judah. We have seen him, in the preliminary stages of his\nministry under Uzziah and Jotham, reaching most exalted convictions of\nthe righteousness of Jehovah, as contrasted with the people's view of\ntheir God's \"nationalism.\" But we are now to follow him boldly applying\nthis faith--won within the life of Judah, won, as he tells us, by the\npersonal inspiration of Judah's God--to the problems and movements of\nthe whole world as they bear upon Israel's fate. The God, who is supreme\nin Judah through righteousness, cannot but be supreme everywhere else,\nfor there is nothing in the world higher than righteousness. Isaiah's\nfaith in a Divine Providence is a close corollary to his faith in\nJehovah's righteousness; and of one part of that Providence he had\nalready received conviction--_A remnant shall remain_. Ahaz may crowd\nJerusalem with foreign altars and idols, so as to be able to say: \"We\nhave with us, on our side, Moloch and Chemosh and Rimmon and the gods of\nDamascus and Assyria.\" Isaiah, in the face of this folly, lifts up his\nsimple gospel: \"Immanu-El. We have with us, in our own Jehovah of hosts,\nEl, the one supreme God, Ruler of heaven and earth.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n_KING AND MESSIAH; PEOPLE AND CHURCH._\n\nISAIAH vii., viii., ix. 1-8.\n\n735-732 B.C.\n\n\nThis section of the book of Isaiah (vii.-ix. 7) consists of a number of\nseparate prophecies uttered during a period of at least three years:\n735-732 B.C. By 735 Ahaz had ascended the throne; Tiglath-pileser had\nbeen occupied in the far east for two years. Taking advantage of the\nweakness of the former and the distance of the latter, Rezin, king of\nDamascus, and Pekah, king of Samaria, planned an invasion of Judah. It\nwas a venture they would not have dared had Uzziah been alive. While\nRezin marched down the east of the Jordan and overturned the Jewish\nsupremacy in Edom, Pekah threw himself into Judah, defeated the armies\nof Ahaz in one great battle, and besieged Jerusalem, with the object of\ndeposing Ahaz and setting a Syrian, Ben-Tabeel, in his stead.\nSimultaneously the Philistines attacked Judah from the south-west. The\nmotive of the confederates was in all probability anger with Ahaz for\nrefusing to enter with them into a Pan-Syrian alliance against Assyria.\nIn his distress Ahaz appealed to Tiglath-pileser, and the Assyrian\nswiftly responded. In 734--it must have been less than a year since Ahaz\nwas attacked--the hosts of the north had overrun Samaria and swept as\nfar south as the cities of the Philistines. Then, withdrawing his troops\nagain, Tiglath-pileser left Hoshea as his vassal on Pekah's throne, and\nsending the population of Israel east of the Jordan into distant\ncaptivity, completed a two years' siege of Damascus (734-732) by its\ncapture. At Damascus Ahaz met the conqueror, and having paid him\ntribute, took out a further policy of insurance in the altar-pattern,\nwhich he brought back with him to Jerusalem. Such were the three years,\nwhose rapid changes unfolded themselves in parallel with these\nprophecies of Isaiah. The details are not given by the prophet, but we\nmust keep in touch with them while we listen to him. Especially must we\nremember their central point, _the decision of Ahaz to call in the help\nof Assyria_, a decision which affected the whole course of politics for\nthe next thirty years. Some of the oracles of this section were plainly\ndelivered by Isaiah before that event, and simply seek to inspire Ahaz\nwith a courage which should feel Assyrian help to be needless; others,\nagain, imply that Ahaz has already called in the Assyrian: they taunt\nhim with hankering after foreign strength, and depict the woes which the\nAssyrian will bring upon the land; while others (for example, the\npassage ix. 1-7) mean that the Assyrian has already come, and that the\nGalilean provinces of Israel have been depopulated, and promise a\nDeliverer. If we do not keep in mind the decision of Ahaz, we shall not\nunderstand these seemingly contradictory utterances, which it thoroughly\nexplains. Let us now begin at the beginning of chapter vii. It opens\nwith a bare statement, by way of title, of the invasion of Judah and the\nfutile result; and then proceeds to tell us how Isaiah acted from the\nfirst rumour of the confederacy onward.\n\n\nI. THE KING (chap. vii.).\n\n_And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of\nUzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin, the king of Syria, and Pekah, the son\nof Remaliah, king of Israel, went up to Jerusalem to war against it, but\ncould not prevail against it._ This is a summary of the whole adventure\nand issue of the war, given by way of introduction. The narrative proper\nbegins in verse 2, with the effect of the first news of the league upon\nAhaz and his people. Their hearts were moved, like the trees of the\nforest before the wind. The league was aimed so evidently against the\ntwo things most essential to the national existence and the honour of\nJehovah; the dynasty of David, namely, and the inviolability of\nJerusalem. Judah had frequently before suffered the loss of her\nterritory; never till now were the throne and city of David in actual\nperil. But that, which bent both king and people by its novel terror,\nwas the test Isaiah expected for the prophecies he had already uttered.\nTaking with him, as a summary of them, his boy with the name\nShear-Jashub--_A-remnant-shall-return_--Isaiah faced Ahaz and his court\nin the midst of their preparation for the siege. They were\nexamining--but more in panic than in prudence--the water supply of the\ncity, when Isaiah delivered to them a message from the Lord, which may\nbe paraphrased as follows: _Take heed and be quiet_, keep your eyes open\nand your heart still; _fear not, neither be faint-hearted, for the\nfierce anger of Rezin and Remaliah's son_. They have no power to set you\non fire. They are _but stumps of expiring firebrands_, almost burnt out.\nWhile you wisely look after your water supply, do so in hope. This\npurpose of deposing you is vain. _Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: It shall\nnot stand, neither shall it come to pass._ Of whom are you afraid? Look\nthose foes of yours in the face. _The head of Syria is Damascus, and\nDamascus' head is Rezin_: is he worth fearing? _The head of Ephraim is\nSamaria, and Samaria's head is Remaliah's son_: is he worth fearing?\nWithin a few years they will certainly be destroyed. But whatever\nestimate you make of your foes, whatever their future may be, for\nyourself have faith in God; for you that is the essential thing. _If ye\nwill not believe, surely ye shall not be established._[13]\n\n  [13] There is a play upon words here, which may be reproduced in English\n  by the help of a North-England term: If ye have not _faith_, ye cannot\n  have _staith_.\n\nThis paraphrase seeks to bring out the meaning of a passage confessedly\nobscure. It seems as if we had only bits of Isaiah's speech to Ahaz and\nmust supply the gaps. No one need hesitate, however, to recognize the\nconspicuous personal qualities--the combination of political sagacity\nwith religious fear, of common-sense and courage rooted in faith. In a\nword, this is what Isaiah will say to the king, clever in his alliances,\nreligious and secular, and busy about his material defences: \"Take unto\nyou the shield of faith. You have lost your head among all these things.\nHold it up like a man behind that shield; take a rational view of\naffairs. Rate your enemies at their proper value. But for this you must\nbelieve in God. Faith in Him is the essential condition of a calm mind\nand a rational appreciation of affairs.\"\n\nIt is, no doubt, difficult for us to realize that the truth which Isaiah\nthus enforced on King Ahaz--the government of the world and human\nhistory by one supreme God--was ever a truth of which the race stood in\nignorance. A generation like ours cannot be expected to put its mind in\nthe attitude of those of Isaiah's contemporaries who believed in the\nreal existence of many gods with limited sovereignties. To us, who are\nfull of the instincts of Divine Providence and of the presence in\nhistory of law and progress, it is extremely hard even to admit the\nfact--far less fully to realize what it means--that our race had ever to\nreceive these truths as fresh additions to their stock of intellectual\nideas. Yet, without prejudice to the claims of earlier prophets, this\nmay be confidently affirmed: that Isaiah where we now meet him stood on\none side believing in one supreme God, Lord of heaven and earth, and his\ngeneration stood on the other side, believing that there were many gods.\nIsaiah, however, does not pose as the discoverer of the truth he\npreaches; he does not present it as a new revelation, nor put it in a\nformula. He takes it for granted, and proceeds to bring its moral\ninfluence to bear. He will infect men with his own utter conviction of\nit, in order that he may strengthen their character and guide them by\npaths of safety. His speech to Ahaz is an exhibition of the moral and\nrational effects of believing in Providence. Ahaz is a sample of the\n_character_ polytheism produced; the state of mind and heart to which\nIsaiah exhorts him is that induced by belief in one righteous and\nalmighty God. We can make the contrast clear to ourselves by a very\ndefinite figure.\n\nThe difference, which is made to the character and habits of men if the\ncountry they live in has a powerful government or not, is well known. If\nthere be no such central authority, it is a case of every man's hand\nagainst his neighbour. Men walk armed to the teeth. A constant attitude\nof fear and suspicion warps the whole nature. The passions are excited\nand magnified; the intelligence and judgement are dwarfed. Just the\nsame after its kind is life to the man or tribe, who believe, that the\nworld in which they dwell and the life they share with others have no\ncentral authority. They walk armed with prejudices, superstitions and\nselfishnesses. They create, like Ahaz, their own providences, and still,\nlike him, feel insecure. Everything is exaggerated by them; in each evil\nthere lurks to their imagination unlimited hostility. They are without\nbreadth of view or length of patience. But let men believe that life has\na central authority, that God is supreme, and they will fling their\nprejudices and superstitions to the winds, now no more needed than the\nantiquated fortresses and weapons by which our forefathers, in days when\nthe government was weak, were forced to defend their private interests.\nWhen we know that God reigns, how quiet and free it makes us! When\nthings and men are part of His scheme and working out His ends, when we\nunderstand that they are not monsters but ministers, how reasonably we\ncan look at them! Were we afraid of Syria and Ephraim? Why, the head of\nSyria is this fellow Rezin, the head of Ephraim this son of Remaliah!\nThey cannot last long; God's engine stands behind to smite them. By the\nreasonable government of God, let us be reasonable! Let us take heed and\nbe quiet. Have faith in God, and to faith will come her proper\nconsequent of commonsense.\n\nFor the higher a man looks, the farther he sees: to us that is the\npractical lesson of these first nine verses of the seventh chapter. The\nvery gesture of faith bestows upon the mind a breadth of view. The man,\nwho lifts his face to God in heaven, is he whose eyes sweep\nsimultaneously the farthest prospect of earth, and bring to him a sense\nof the proportion of things. Ahaz, facing his nearest enemies, does not\nsee over their heads, and in his consternation at their appearance\nprepares to embark upon any policy that suggests itself, even though it\nbe so rash as the summoning of the Assyrian. Isaiah, on the other hand,\nwith his vision fixed on God as the Governor of the world, is enabled to\noverlook the dust that darkens Judah's frontier, to see behind it the\ninevitable advance of the Assyrians, and to be assured that, whether\nAhaz calls them to his quarrel or no, they will very soon of their own\nmotion overwhelm both of his enemies. From these _two smoking\nfirebrands_ there is then no real danger. But from the Assyrian, if once\nJudah entangle herself in his toils, there is the most extreme danger.\nIsaiah's advice is therefore not mere religious quietism; it is prudent\npolicy. It is the best political advice that could have been offered at\nthat crisis, as we have already been able to gather from a survey of the\ngeographical and political dispositions of Western Asia,[14] apart\naltogether from religious considerations. But to Isaiah the calmness\nrequisite for this sagacity sprang from his faith. Mr. Bagehot might\nhave appealed to Isaiah's whole policy in illustration of what he has so\nwell described as the military and political benefits of religion.\nMonotheism is of advantage to men not only by reason of \"the high\nconcentration of steady feeling\" which it produces, but also for the\nmental calmness and sagacity, which surely spring from a pure and vivid\nconviction that the Lord reigneth.[15]\n\n  [14] Page 96.\n\n  [15] _Physics and Politics_ (International Scientific Series), pp. 75\n  ff. One of the finest modern illustrations of the connection between\n  faith and common-sense is found in the _Letters of General Gordon to His\n  Sister_. Gordon's coolness in face of the slave trade, the just survey\n  he makes of it, and the sensible advice which he gives about meeting it\n  stand well in contrast to the haste and rash proposals of\n  philanthropists at home, and are evidently due to his conviction that\n  the slave trade, like everything else in the world, is in the hands of\n  God, and so may be calmly studied and wisely checkmated. Gordon's\n  letters make very clear how much of his shrewdness in dealing with men\n  was due to the same source. It is instructive to observe throughout, how\n  his complete resignation to the will of God and his perfect obedience\n  delivered him from prejudices and partialities, from distractions and\n  desires, that make sober judgement impossible in other men.\n\nOne other thing it is well we should emphasize, before we pass from\nIsaiah's speech to Ahaz. Nothing can be plainer than that Isaiah, though\nadvocating so absolutely a quiescent belief in God, _is no fatalist_.\nNow other prophets there have been, insisting just as absolutely as\nIsaiah upon resignation to God the supreme, and the evident practical\neffect of their doctrine of the Divine sovereignty has been to make\ntheir followers, not shrewd political observers, but blind and apathetic\nfatalists. The difference between them and Isaiah has lain in the kind\nof character, which they and he have respectively attributed to the\nDeity, before exalting Him to the throne of absolute power and resigning\nthemselves to His will. Isaiah, though as disciplined a believer in\nGod's sovereignty and man's duty of obedience as any prophet that ever\npreached these doctrines, was preserved from the fatalism to which they\nso often lead by the conviction he had previously received of God's\nrighteousness. Fatalism means resignation to fate, and fate means an\nomnipotence either without character, or (which is the same thing) of\nwhose character we are ignorant. Fate is God _minus_ character, and\nfatalism is the characterless condition to which belief in such a God\nreduces man. History presents it to our view amid the most diverse\nsurroundings. The Greek mind, so free and sunny, was bewildered and\nbenumbed by belief in an inscrutable Nemesis. In the East how frequently\nis a temper of apathy or despair bred in men, to whom God is nothing but\na despot! Even within Christianity we have had fanatics, so inordinately\npossessed with belief in God's sovereignty of election, to the exclusion\nof all other Divine truths, as to profess themselves, with impious\naudacity, willing to be damned for His glory. Such instances are enough\nto prove to us the extreme danger of making the sovereignty of God the\n_first_ article of our creed. It is not safe for men to exalt a deity to\nthe throne of the supreme providence, till they are certified of his\ncharacter. The vision of mere power intoxicates and brutalizes, no less\nwhen it is hallowed by the name of religion, than when, as in modern\nmaterialism, it is blindly interpreted as physical force. Only the\npeople who have first learned to know their Deity intimately in the\nprivate matters of life, where heart touches heart, and the delicate\narguments of conscience are not overborne by the presence of vast\nnatural forces or the intricate movements of the world's history, can be\ntrusted afterwards to enter these larger theatres of religion, without\nrisk of losing their faith, their sensibility or their conscience.\n\nThe whole course of revelation has been bent upon this: to render men\nfamiliarly and experimentally acquainted with the character of God,\nbefore laying upon them the duty of homage to His creative power or\nsubmission to His will. In the Old Testament God is the Friend, the\nGuide, the Redeemer of men, or ever He is their Monarch and Lawgiver.\nThe Divine name which the Hebrew sees _excellent through all the earth_\nis the name that he has learned to know at home as _Jehovah, our Lord_\n(Ps. viii.). Jehovah trains His people to trust His personal troth and\nlovingkindness within their own courts, before He tests their allegiance\nand discipline upon the high places of the world. And when, amid the\nstrange terrors of these and the novel magnitudes with which Israel,\nfacing the world, had to reckon, the people lost their presence of mind,\nHis elegy over them was, _My people are destroyed for lack of\nknowledge._ Even when their temple is full and their sacrifices of\nhomage to His power most frequent, it is still their want of moral\nacquaintance with Himself of which He complains: _Israel doth not know;\nMy people doth not consider._ What else was the tragedy in which Jewish\nhistory closed, than just the failure to perceive this lesson: that to\nhave and to communicate the knowledge of the Almighty's character is of\ninfinitely more value than the attempt to vindicate in any outward\nfashion Jehovah's supremacy over the world? This latter, this forlorn,\nhope was what Israel exhausted the evening of their day in attempting.\nThe former--to communicate to the lives and philosophies of mankind a\nknowledge of the Divine heart and will, gained throughout a history of\nunique grace and miracle--was the destiny which they resigned to the\nfollowers of the crucified Messiah.\n\nFor under the New Testament this also is the method of revelation. What\nour King desires before He ascends the throne of the world is that the\nworld should know Him; and so He comes down among us, to be heard, and\nseen, and handled of us, that our hearts may learn His heart and know\nHis love, unbewildered by His majesty. And for our part, when we\nascribe to our King the glory and the dominion, it is as unto Him that\nloved us and washed us from our sins in His blood. For the chief thing\nfor individuals, as for nations, is not to believe that God reigneth so\nmuch as to know what kind of God He is who reigneth.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut Ahaz would not be persuaded. He had a policy of his own, and was\ndetermined to pursue it. He insisted on appealing to Assyria. Before he\ndid so, Isaiah made one more attempt on his obduracy. With a vehemence,\nwhich reveals how critical he felt the king's decision to be, the\nprophet returned as if this time the very voice of Jehovah. _And Jehovah\nspake to Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of Jehovah thy God; ask it either\nin Sheol below or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask,\nneither will I tempt the Lord._\n\nIsaiah's offer of a sign was one which the prophets of Israel used to\nmake when some crisis demanded the immediate acceptance of their word by\nmen, and men were more than usually hard to convince--a miracle such as\nthe thunder that Samuel called out of a clear sky to impress Israel with\nGod's opinion of their folly in asking for a king;[16] or as the rending\nof the altar which the man of God brought to pass to convict the sullen\nJeroboam;[17] or as the regress of the shadow on the sun-dial, which\nIsaiah himself gave in assurance of recovery to the sick Hezekiah.[18]\nSuch signs are offered only to weak or prejudiced persons. The most\nreal faith, as Isaiah himself tells us, is unforced, the purest natures\nthose which need no signs and wonders. But there are certain crises at\nwhich faith must be immediately forced, and Ahaz stood now at such a\ncrisis; and there are certain characters who, unable to read a writ from\nthe court of conscience and reason, must be served with one from a\ncourt--even though it be inferior--whose language they understand; and\nAhaz was such a character. Isaiah knew his man, and prepared a pretty\ndilemma for him. By offering him whatever sign he chose to ask, Isaiah\nknew that the king would be committed before his own honour and the\npublic conscience to refrain from calling in the Assyrians, and so Judah\nwould be saved; or if the king refused the sign, the refusal would\nunmask him. Ahaz refused, and at once Isaiah denounced him and all his\nhouse. They were mere shufflers, playing fast and loose with God as well\nas men. _Hear ye now, O house of David. Is it a small thing for you to\nweary men, that ye must weary my God also?_ You have evaded God;\ntherefore God Himself will take you in hand: _the Lord Himself shall\ngive you a sign_.\n\n  [16] 1 Sam. xii. 17.\n\n  [17] 1 Kings xiii. 3.\n\n  [18] Chap. xxxviii.\n\nIn order to follow intelligently the rest of Isaiah's address, we must\nclearly understand how the sign which he now promises differs in nature\nfrom the sign he had implored Ahaz to select, of whatever sort he may\nhave expected that selection to be. The king's determination to call in\nAssyria has come between. Therefore, while the sign Isaiah first offered\nupon the spot was intended for an immediate pledge that God would\nestablish Ahaz, if only he did not appeal to the foreigner, the sign\nIsaiah now offers shall come as a future proof of how criminal and\ndisastrous the appeal to the foreigner has been. The first sign would\nhave been an earnest of salvation; the second is to be an exposure of\nthe fatal evil of Ahaz's choice. The first would have given some\nassurance of the swift overthrow of Ephraim and Syria; the second shall\nbe some painful illustration of the fact that not only Syria and\nEphraim, but Judah herself, shall be overwhelmed by the advance of the\nnorthern power. This second sign is one, therefore, which only time can\nbring round. Isaiah identifies it with a life not yet born.\n\nA Child, he says, shall shortly be born to whom his mother shall give\nthe name Immanu-El--_God-with-us_. By the time this Child comes to years\nof discretion, _he shall eat butter and honey_. Isaiah then explains the\nriddle. He does not, however, explain who the mother is, having\ndescribed her vaguely as _a_ or _the young woman of marriageable age_;\nfor that is not necessary to the sign, which is to consist in the\nChild's own experience. To this latter he limits his explanation. Butter\nand honey are the food of privation, the food of a people, whose land,\ndepopulated by the enemy, has been turned into pasture. Before this\nChild shall arrive at years of discretion not only shall Syria and\nEphraim be laid waste, but the Lord Himself will have laid waste Judah.\n_Jehovah shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people and upon thy\nfather's house days, that have not come, from the day that Ephraim\ndeparted from Judah; even the king of Assyria._ Nothing more is said of\nImmanuel, but the rest of the chapter is taken up with the details of\nJudah's devastation.\n\nNow this sign and its explanation would have presented little difficulty\nbut for the name of the Child--Immanuel. Erase that, and the passage\nreads forcibly enough. Before a certain Child, whose birth is vaguely\nbut solemnly intimated in the near future, shall have come to years of\ndiscretion, the results of the choice of Ahaz shall be manifest. Judah\nshall be devastated, and her people have sunk to the most rudimentary\nmeans of living. All this is plain. It is a form which Isaiah used more\nthan once to measure the near future. And in other literatures, too, we\nhave felt the pathos of realizing the future results of crime and the\nlength to which disaster lingers, by their effect upon the lives of\nanother generation:--\n\n  \"The child that is unborn shall rue\n      The hunting of that day!\"\n\nBut why call the Child Immanuel? The name is evidently part of the sign,\nand has to be explained in connection with it. Why call a Child\n_God-with-us_ who is not going to act greatly or to be highly honoured,\nwho is only going to suffer, for whom to come to years of intelligence\nshall only be to come to a sense of his country's disaster and his\npeople's poverty? This Child who is used so pathetically to measure the\nflow of time and the return of its revenges, about whom we are told\nneither how he shall behave himself in the period of privation, nor\nwhether he shall survive it--why is he called Immanuel? or why, being\ncalled Immanuel, has he so sordid a fate to contrast with so splendid a\nname?\n\nIt seems to the present expositor quite impossible to dissociate so\nsolemn an announcement by Jehovah to the house of David of the birth of\na Child, so highly named, from that expectation of the coming of a\nglorious Prince which was current in this royal family since the days of\nits founder. Mysterious and abrupt as the intimation of Immanuel's birth\nmay seem to us at this juncture, we cannot forget that it fell from\nIsaiah's lips on hearts which cherished as their dearest hope the\nappearance of a glorious descendant of David, and were just now the more\nsensitive to this hope that both David's city and David's dynasty were\nin peril. Could Ahaz possibly understand by Immanuel any other child\nthan that Prince whose coming was the inalienable hope of his house? But\nif we are right in supposing that Ahaz made this identification, or had\neven the dimmest presage of it, then we understand the full force of the\nsign. Ahaz by his unbelief had not only disestablished himself (ver. 9):\nhe had mortgaged the hope of Israel. In the flood of disaster, which his\nfatal resolution would bring upon the land, it mattered little what was\nto happen to himself. Isaiah does not trouble now to mention any penalty\nfor Ahaz. But his resolve's exceeding pregnancy of peril is borne home\nto the king by the assurance that it will devastate all the golden\nfuture, and must disinherit the promised King. The Child, who is\nIsrael's hope, is born; he receives the Divine name, and that is all of\nsalvation or glory suggested. He grows up not to a throne or the majesty\nwhich the seventy-second Psalm pictures--the offerings of Sheba's and\nSeba's kings, the corn of his land shaking like the fruit of Lebanon,\nwhile they of the city flourish like the grass of the earth--but to the\nfood of privation, to the sight of his country razed by his enemies into\none vast common fit only for pasture, to loneliness and suffering. Amid\nthe general desolation his figure vanishes from our sight, and only his\nname remains to haunt, with its infinite melancholy of what might have\nbeen, the thorn-choked vineyards and grass-grown courts of Judah.\n\nBut even if it were to prove too fine a point, to identify Immanuel with\nthe promised Messiah of David's house, and we had to fall back on some\nvaguer theory of him, finding him to be a personification,--either a\nrepresentative of the coming generation of God's people, or a type of\nthe promised to-morrow,--the moral effect of the sign would remain the\nsame; and it is with this alone that we have here to do. Be this an\nindividual, or a generation, or an age,--by the Name bestowed upon it,\nit was to have been a glorious, God-inhabited age, generation, or\nindividual, and Ahaz has prematurely spoiled everything about it but the\nName. The future shall be like a boy cursed by his fathers, brought into\nthe world with glorious rights that are stamped in his title, but only\nto find his kingdom and estates no longer in existence, and all the\ncircumstances dissipated, in which he might have realized the glorious\nmeaning of his name. Type of innocent suffering, he is born to an empty\ntitle, his name the vestige of a great opportunity, the ironical\nmonument of an irreparable crime.\n\nIf Ahaz had any conscience left, we can imagine the effect of this upon\nhim. To be punished for sin in one's own body and fortune, this is sore\nenough; but to see heaven itself blackened and all the gracious future\nfrustrate, this is unspeakably terrible.\n\nAhaz is thus the Judas of the Old Testament, if that conception of\nJudas' character be the right one which makes his wilful desire to bring\nabout the kingdom of God in his own violent fashion the motive of his\nbetrayal of Jesus. Of his own obduracy Ahaz has betrayed the Messiah and\nDeliverer of his people. The assurance of this betrayal is the sign of\nhis obduracy, a signal and terrible proof of his irretrievable sin in\ncalling upon the Assyrians. The king has been found wanting.\n\n\nII. THE PEOPLE (chap. viii.).\n\nThe king has been found wanting; but Isaiah will appeal to the people.\nChap. viii. is a collection of addresses to them, as chap. vii. was an\nexpostulation with their sovereign. The two chapters are contemporary.\nIn chap. viii. ver. 1, the narrative goes back upon itself, and returns\nto the situation as it was before Ahaz made his final resolution of\nreliance on Assyria. Vv. 1-4 of chap. viii. imply that the Assyrian has\nnot yet been summoned by Ahaz to his assistance, and therefore run\nparallel to chap. vii. vv. 3-9; but chap. viii. ver. 5 and following\nverses sketch the evils that are to come upon Judah and Israel,\nconsequent upon the arrival of the Assyrians in Palestine, in answer to\nthe appeal of Ahaz. These evils for land and nation are threatened as\nabsolutely to the people, as they had been to the king. And then the\npeople are thrown over (viii. 14), as the king had been; and Isaiah\nlimits himself to his disciples (ver. 16)--the _remnant_ that was\nforetold in chap. vi.\n\nThis appeal from monarch to people is one of the most characteristic\nfeatures of Isaiah's ministry. Whatever be the matter committed to him,\nIsaiah is not allowed to rest till he has brought it home to the popular\nconscience; and however much he may be able to charge national disaster\nupon the folly of politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is the\npeople whom he holds ultimately responsible. The statesman, according to\nIsaiah, cannot rise far above the level of his generation; the people\nset the fashion to their most autocratic rulers. This instinct for the\npopular conscience, this belief in the moral solidarity of a nation and\ntheir governors, was the motive of the most picturesque passages in\nIsaiah's career, and inspired some of the keenest epigrams in which he\nconveyed the Divine truth. We have here a case in illustration. Isaiah\nhad met Ahaz and his court _at the conduit of the upper pool, in the\nhighway of the fuller's field_, preparing for the expected siege of the\ncity, and had delivered to them the Lord's message not to fear, for that\nSyria-Ephraim would certainly be destroyed. But that was not enough. It\nwas now laid upon the prophet to make public and popular advertisement\nof the same truth.\n\nIsaiah was told to take a large, smooth board, and write thereon in the\ncharacter used by the common people--_with the pen of a man_--as if it\nwere the title to a prophecy, the compound word \"Maher-shalal-hash-baz.\"\nThis was not only an intelligibly written, but a significantly sonorous,\nword--one of those popular cries in which the liveliest sensations are\nstruck forth by the crowded, clashing letters, full to the dullest ears\nof rumours of war: _speed-spoil-hurry-prey_. The interpretation of it\nwas postponed, the prophet meantime taking two faithful witnesses to its\npublication. In a little a son was born to Isaiah, and to this child he\ntransferred the noisy name. Then its explanation was given. The double\nword was the alarm of a couple of invasions. _Before the boy shall have\nknowledge to cry, My father, my mother, the riches of Damascus and the\nspoil of Samaria shall be carried away before the king of Assyria._ So\nfar nothing was told the people that had not been told their king; only\nthe time of the overthrow of their two enemies was fixed with greater\nprecision. At the most in a year, Damascus and Samaria would have\nfallen. The ground was already vibrating to the footfall of the northern\nhosts.\n\nThe rapid political changes, which ensued in Palestine, are reflected on\nthe broken surface of this eighth chapter. We shall not understand\nthese abrupt and dislocated oracles, uttered at short intervals during\nthe two years of the Assyrian campaign, unless we realize that northern\nshadow passing and repassing over Judah and Israel, and the quick\nalternations of pride and penitence in the peoples beneath it. We need\nnot try to thread the verses on any line of thought. Logical connection\namong them there is none. Let us at once get down into the currents of\npopular feeling, in which Isaiah, having left Ahaz, is now labouring,\nand casting forth these cries.\n\nIt is a period of powerful currents, a people wholly in drift, and the\nstrongest man of them arrested only by a firm pressure of the Lord's\nhand. _For Jehovah spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed\nme, that I should not walk in the way of this people._ The character of\nthe popular movement, _the way of this people_, which nearly lifted\nIsaiah off his feet, is evident. It is that into which every nation\ndrifts, who have just been loosened from a primitive faith in God, and\nby fear or ambition have been brought under the fascination of the great\nworld. On the one hand, such a generation is apt to seek the security of\nits outward life in things materially large and splendid, to despise as\npaltry its old religious forms, national aspirations and achievements,\nand be very desirous to follow foreign fashion and rival foreign wealth.\nOn the other hand, the religious spirit of such an age, withdrawn from\nits legitimate objects, seeks satisfaction in petty and puerile\npractices, demeaning itself spiritually, in a way that absurdly\ncontrasts with the grandeur of its material ambitions. Such a stage in\nthe life of a people has its analogy in the growth of the individual,\nwhen the boy, new to the world, by affecting the grandest companions\nand models, assumes an ambitious manner, with contempt for his former\ncircumstances, yet inwardly remains credulous, timid and liable to\npanic. Isaiah reveals that it was such a stage, which both the kingdoms\nof Israel had now reached. _This people hath refused the waters of\nShiloah, that go softly, and rejoice in Rezin and Remaliah's son._\n\nIt was natural, that when the people of Judah contrasted their own\nestate with that of Assyria, or even of Damascus, they should despise\nthemselves. For what was Judah? A petty principality, no larger than\nthree of our own counties. And what was Jerusalem? A mere mountain\nvillage, some sixty or seventy acres of barren rock, cut into tongues by\nthree insignificant valleys, down which there sometimes struggled tiny\nthreads of water, though the beds were oftener dry, giving the town a\nwithered and squalid look--no great river to nourish, ennoble or\nprotect. What were such a country and capital to compare with the empire\nof Assyria?--the empire of the two rivers, whose powerful streams washed\nthe ramparts, wharves, and palace stairs of mighty cities! What was\nJerusalem even to the capital of Rezin? Were not Abana and Pharpar,\nrivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, let alone\nthese waterless w\u00e2dys, whose bleached beds made the Jewish capital so\nsqualid? It was the Assyrian's vast water system--canals, embankments,\nsluices, and the wealth of water moving through them--that most\nimpressed the poor Jew, whose streams failed him in summer, and who had\nto treasure up his scanty stores of rainwater in the cisterns, with\nwhich the rocky surface of his territory is still so thickly indented.\nThere had, indeed, been at Jerusalem some attempt to conduct water. It\nwas called _The Shiloah_--_conduit_ or _aqueduct_, literally _emissary_\nin the old sense of the word--a rough, narrow tunnel of some thousand\nfeet in length, hewn through the living rock from the only considerable\nspring on the east side of Jerusalem, to a reservoir within the walls.\nTo this day _The Shiloah_ presents itself as not by any means a\nfirst-class piece of engineering. Ahaz had either just made the tunnel\nor repaired it; but if the water went no faster than it travels now, the\nresults were indeed ridiculous. Well might _this people despise the\nwaters of the Shiloah, that go trickling_, when they thought upon the\nrivers of Damascus or the broad streams of Mesopotamia. Certainly it was\nenough to dry up the patriotism of the Judean, if he was capable of\nappreciating only material value, to look upon this bare, riverless\ncapital, with its bungled aqueduct and trickling water supply. On merely\nmaterial grounds, Judah was about the last country at that time, in\nwhich her inhabitants might be expected to show pride or confidence.\n\nBut woe to the people, whose attachment to their land is based upon its\nmaterial advantages, who have lost their sense for those spiritual\npresences, from an appreciation of which springs all true love of\ncountry, with warrior's courage in her defence and statesman's faith in\nher destiny! The greatest calamity, which can befall any people, is to\nforfeit their enthusiasm for the soil, on which their history has been\nachieved and their hearths and altars lie, by suffering their faith in\nthe presence of God, of which these are but the tokens, to pass away.\nWith this loss Isaiah now reproaches Judah. The people are utterly\nmaterialized; their delights have been in gold and silver, chariots and\nhorses, fenced cities and broad streams, and their faith has now\nfollowed their delights. But these things to which they flee will only\nprove their destruction. The great foreign river, whose waters they\ncovet, will overflow them: _even the king of Assyria and all his glory,\nand he shall come up over all his channels and go over all his banks;\nand he shall sweep onward into Judah; he shall overflow and pass\nthrough; he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his\nwings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel_, thou who art\n_God-with-us_. At the sound of the Name, which floats in upon the floods\nof invasion like the Ark on the waters of old, Isaiah pulls together his\ndistraught faith in his country, and forgetting her faults, flings\ndefiance at her foes. _Associate yourselves, ye peoples, and ye shall be\nbroken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far-off countries, gird\nyourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and\nit shall be brought to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand:\nfor Immanu-El_--\"With us is God.\" The challenge was made good. The\nprophet's faith prevailed over the people's materialism, and Jerusalem\nremained inviolable till Isaiah's death.\n\nMeantime the Assyrian came on. But the infatuated people of Judah\ncontinued to tremble rather before the doomed conspirators, Rezin and\nPekah. It must have been a time of huge excitement. The prophet tells us\nhow he was steadied by the pressure of the Lord's hand, and how, being\nsteadied, the meaning of the word \"Immanuel\" was opened out to him.\n_God-with-us_ is the one great fact of life. Amid all the possible\nalliances and all the possible fears of a complex political situation,\nHe remains the one certain alliance, the one real fear. _Say ye not, A\nconspiracy, concerning all whereof this people say, A conspiracy;\nneither fear ye their fear, nor be in dread thereof. Jehovah of hosts,\nHim shall ye sanctify; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your\ndread._ God is the one great fact of life, but what a double-edged\nfact--_a sanctuary to all who put their trust in Him, but a rock of\noffence to both houses of Israel!_ The figure is very picturesque. An\naltar, a common stone on steps, one of those which covered the land in\nlarge numbers--it is easy to see what a double purpose that might serve.\nWhat a joy the sight would be to the weary wanderer or refugee who\nsought it, what a comfort as he leant his weariness upon it, and knew he\nwas safe! But those who were flying over the land, not seeking Jehovah,\nnot knowing indeed what they sought, blind and panic-stricken--for them\nwhat could that altar do but trip them up like any other common rock in\ntheir way? \"In fact, Divine justice is something which is either\nobserved, desired, or attained, and is then man's weal, or, on the other\nhand, is overlooked, rejected, or sought after in a wild, unintelligent\nspirit, and only in the hour of need, and is then their lasting\nruin.\"[19]\n\n  [19] Ewald.\n\nThe Assyrian came on, and the temper of the Jews grew worse. Samaria was\nindeed doomed from the first, but for some time Isaiah had been\nexcepting Judah from a judgement for which the guilt of Northern Israel\nwas certainly riper. He foresaw, of course, that the impetus of invasion\nmight sweep the Assyrians into Judah, but he had triumphed in this: that\nJudah was Immanuel's land, and that all who arrayed themselves against\nher must certainly come to nought. But now his ideas have changed, as\nJudah has persisted in evil. He knows now that God is for a\nstumbling-block to _both_ houses of Israel; nay, that upon Jerusalem\nherself He will fall as a gin and a snare. Only for a little group of\nindividuals, separate from both States, and gathered round the prophet\nand the word of God given to him, is salvation certain. People, as well\nas king, have been found wanting. There remains only this _remnant_.\n\nIsaiah then at last sees his _remnant_. But the point we have reached is\nsignificant for more than the fulfilment of his expectations. This is\nthe first appearance in history of a religious community, apart from the\nforms of domestic or national life. \"Till then no one had dreamed of a\nfellowship of faith dissociated from all national forms, bound together\nby faith in the Divine word alone. It was the birth of a new era in\nreligion, for it was the birth of the conception of the Church, the\nfirst step in the emancipation of spiritual religion from the forms of\npolitical life.\"[20]\n\n  [20] Robertson Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 275.\n\nThe plan of the seventh and eighth chapters is now fully disclosed. As\nthe king for his unworthiness has to give place to the Messiah, so the\nnation for theirs have to give place to the Church. In the seventh\nchapter the king was found wanting, and the Messiah promised. In the\neighth chapter the people are found wanting; and the prophet, turning\nfrom them, proceeds to form the Church among those who accept the Word,\nwhich king and people have refused. _Bind thou up the testimony, and\nseal the teaching[21] among my disciples. And I will wait on Jehovah,\nwho hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.\nBehold, I and the children Jehovah hath given me are for signs and\nwonders in Israel from Jehovah of hosts, Him that dwelleth in Mount\nZion._\n\n  [21] English Version, \"law,\" but not the law of Moses. Isaiah refers to\n  the word that has come by himself.\n\nThis, then, is the situation: revelation concluded, the Church formed\nupon it, and the nation abandoned. But is that situation final? The\nwords just quoted betray the prophet's hope that it is not. He says: _I\nwill wait._ He says again: The LORD is only _hiding His face from the\nhouse of Jacob_. I will expect again the shining of His countenance. I\nwill hope for Divine grace and the nation being once more conterminous.\nThe rest of the section (to ix. 7) is the development of this hope,\nwhich stirs in the prophet's heart after he has closed the record of\nrevelation.\n\nThe darkness deepened across Israel. The Assyrian had come. The northern\nfloods kept surging among the little States of Palestine, and none knew\nwhat might be left standing. We can well understand Isaiah pausing, as\nhe did, in face of such rapid and incontrollable movements. When\nTiglath-pileser swept over the plain of Esdraelon, casting down the king\nof Samaria and the Philistine cities, and then swept back again,\ncarrying off upon his ebb the populations east of the Jordan, it looked\nvery like as if both the houses of Israel should fall. In their panic,\nthe people betook themselves to morbid forms of religion; and at first\nIsaiah was obliged to quench the hope and pity he had betrayed for them\nin indignation at the utter contrariety of their religious practices to\nthe word of God. There can be no Divine grace for the people as long as\nthey _seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards\nthat chirp and that mutter_. For such a disposition the prophet has\nnothing but scorn, _Should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf\nof the living should they seek unto the dead?_ They must come back to\nthe prophet's own word before hope may dawn. _To the revelation and the\ntestimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no\nmorning for them._\n\nThe night, however, grew too awful for scorn. There had been no part of\nthe land so given to the idolatrous practices, which the prophet\nscathed, as _the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, by the sea\nbeyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles_. But all the horrors of\ncaptivity had now fallen upon it, and it had received at the Lord's hand\ndouble for all its sins. The night had been torn enough by lightning;\nwas there no dawn? The darkness of these provinces fills the prophet's\nsilenced thoughts. He sees a people _hardly bestead and hungry, fretting\nthemselves, cursing their king_, who had betrayed them, _and their God_,\nwho had abandoned them, _turning their faces upwards_ to heaven and\n_downwards_ to the sacred soil from which they were being dragged, _but,\nbehold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick\ndarkness they are driven away_. It is a murky picture, yet through the\nsmoke of it we are able to discern a weird procession of Israelites\ndeparting into captivity. We date it, therefore, about 732 B.C., the\nnight of Israel's first great captivity. The shock and the pity of this\nrouse the prophet's great heart. He cannot continue to say that there is\nno morning for those benighted provinces. He will venture a great hope\nfor their people.\n\nOver how many months the crowded verses, viii. 21-ix. 7, must be spread,\nit is useless now to inquire--whether the revulsion they mark arose all\nat once in the prophet's mind, or hope grew gradually brighter as the\nsmoke of war died away on Israel's northern frontier during 731 B.C. It\nis enough that we can mark the change. The prophet's tones pass from\nsarcasm to pity (viii. 20, 21); from pity to hope (viii. 22-ix. 1); from\nhope to triumph in the vision of salvation actually achieved (ix. 2).\n_The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that\ndwelt in the land of the shadow of death, on them hath the light\nshined._ For a mutilated, we see a multiplied, nation; for the fret of\nhunger and the curses of defeat, we hear the joy of harvest and of spoil\nafter victory. _For the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his\nshoulder, the rod of his oppressor, Thou hast broken as in the day of\nMidian._ War has rolled away for ever over that northern horizon, and\nall the relics of war in the land are swept together into the fire. _For\nall the armour of the armed man in the tumult, and the garments rolled\nin blood, shall even be for burning, and for fuel of fire._ In the\nmidday splendour of this peace, which, after the fashion of Hebrew\nprophecy, is described as already realized, Isaiah hails the Author of\nit all in that gracious and marvellous Child whose birth he had already\nintimated, Heir to the throne of David, but entitled by a fourfold name,\ntoo generous, perhaps, for a mere mortal, _Wonderful-Counsellor_,\n_Hero-God_, _Father-Everlasting_, _Prince-of-peace_, who shall redeem\nthe realms of his great forerunner and maintain _Israel with justice and\nrighteousness from henceforth, even for ever_.\n\nWhen, finally, the prophet inquires what has led his thoughts through\nthis rapid change from satisfaction (chap. viii. 16) with the salvation\nof a small _remnant_ of believers in the word of God--a little kernel of\npatience in the midst of a godless and abandoned people--to the daring\nvision of a whole nation redeemed and established in peace under a\nGodlike King, he says: _The zeal of the Lord of hosts hath performed\nthis._\n\n_The zeal_, translates our English version, but no one English word will\ngive it. It is that mixture of hot honour and affection to which\n\"jealousy\" in its good sense comes near. It is that overflow of the love\nthat cannot keep still, which, when men think God has surely done all He\nwill or can do for an ungrateful race, visits them in their distress,\nand carries them forward into unconceived dispensations of grace and\nglory. It is the Spirit of God, which yearns after the lost, speaks to\nthe self-despairing of hope, and surprises rebel and prophet alike with\nnew revelations of love. We have our systems representing God's work up\nto the limits of our experience, and we settle upon them; but the\nAlmighty is ever greater than His promise or than His revelation of\nHimself.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n_THE MESSIAH._\n\n\nWe have now reached that point of Isaiah's prophesying at which the\nMessiah becomes the most conspicuous figure on his horizon. Let us take\nadvantage of it, to gather into one statement all that the prophet told\nhis generation concerning that exalted and mysterious Person.[22]\n\n  [22] The Messiah, or _Anointed_, is used in the Old Testament of many\n  agents of God: high-priest (Lev. iv. 3); ministers of the Word (Ps. cv.\n  15); Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 1); but mostly of God's king, actual (1 Sam. xxiv.\n  7), or expected (Dan. ix. 25). So it became in Jewish theology the\n  technical term for the coming King and the Captain of salvation.\n\nWhen Isaiah began to prophesy, there was current among the people of\nJudah the expectation of a glorious King. How far the expectation was\ndefined it is impossible to ascertain; but this at least is historically\ncertain. A promise had been made to David (2 Sam. vii. 4-17) by which\nthe permanence of his dynasty was assured. His offspring, it was said,\nshould succeed him, yet eternity was promised not to any individual\ndescendant, but to the dynasty. Prophets earlier than Isaiah emphasized\nthis establishment of the house of David, even in the days of Israel's\ngreatest distress; but they said nothing of a single monarch with whom\nthe fortunes of the house were to be identified. It is clear, however,\neven without the evidence of the Messianic Psalms, that the hope of such\na hero was quick in Israel. Besides the documentary proof of David's own\nlast words (2 Sam. xxiii.), there is the manifest impossibility of\ndreaming of an ideal kingdom apart from the ideal king. Orientals, and\nespecially Orientals of that period, were incapable of realizing the\ntriumph of an idea or an institution without connecting it with a\npersonality. So that we may be perfectly sure, that when Isaiah began to\nprophesy the people not only counted upon the continuance of David's\ndynasty, as they counted upon the presence of Jehovah Himself, but were\nfamiliar with the ideal of a monarch, and lived in hope of its\nrealization.\n\nIn the first stage of his prophecy, it is remarkable, Isaiah makes no\nuse of this tradition, although he gives more than one representation of\nIsrael's future in which it might naturally have appeared. No word is\nspoken of a Messiah even in the awful conversation, in which Isaiah\nreceived from the Eternal the fundamentals of his teaching. The only\nhope there permitted to him is the survival of a bare, leaderless few of\nthe people, or, to use his own word, _a stump_, with no sign of a\nprominent sprout upon it. In connection, however, with the survival of a\nremnant, as we have said on chap. vi. (p. 89), it is plain that there\nwere two indispensable conditions, which the prophet could not help\nhaving to state sooner or later. Indeed, one of them he had mentioned\nalready. It was indispensable that the people should have a leader, and\nthat they should have a rallying-point. They must have their King, and\nthey must have their City. Every reader of Isaiah knows that it is on\nthese two themes the prophet rises to the height of his\neloquence--Jerusalem shall remain inviolable; a glorious King shall be\ngiven unto her. But it has not been so generally remarked, that Isaiah\nis far more concerned and consistent about the secure city than about\nthe ideal monarch. From first to last the establishment and peace of\nJerusalem are never out of his thoughts, but he speaks only now and then\nof the King to come. Through long periods of his ministry, though\nfrequently describing the blessed future, he is silent about the\nMessiah, and even sometimes so groups the inhabitants of that future, as\nto leave no room for Him among them. Indeed, the silences of Isaiah upon\nthis Person are as remarkable as the brilliant passages, in which he\npaints His endowments and His work.\n\nIf we consider the moment, chosen by Isaiah for announcing the Messiah\nand adding his seal to the national belief in the advent of a glorious\nSon of David, we find some significance in the fact that it was a\nmoment, when the throne of David was unworthily filled and David's\ndynasty was for the first time seriously threatened. It is impossible to\ndissociate the birth of a boy called _Immanuel_, and afterwards so\nclosely identified with the fortunes of the whole land (vii. 8), from\nthe public expectation of a King of glory; and critics are almost\nunanimous in recognizing Immanuel again in the Prince-of-the-Four-Names\nin chap. ix. Immanuel, therefore, is the Messiah, the promised King of\nIsrael. But Isaiah makes his own first intimation of Him, not when the\nthrone was worthily filled by an Uzziah or a Jotham, but when a fool and\ntraitor to God abused its power, and the foreign conspiracy to set up a\nSyrian prince in Jerusalem imperilled the whole dynasty. Perhaps we\nought not to overlook the fact, that Isaiah does not here designate\nImmanuel as a descendant of David. The vagueness with which the mother\nis described has given rise to a vast amount of speculation as to what\nparticular person the prophet meant by her. But may not Isaiah's\nvagueness be the only intention he had in mentioning a mother at all?\nThe whole house of David shared at that moment the sin of the king (vii.\n13); and it is not presuming too much upon the freedom of our prophet to\nsuppose, that he shook himself loose from the tradition, which entailed\nthe Messiah upon the royal family of Judah, and at least left it an open\nquestion, whether Immanuel might not, in consequence of their sin,\nspring from some other stock.\n\nIt is, however, far less with the origin, than with the experience, of\nImmanuel that Isaiah is concerned; and those who embark upon curious\ninquiries, as to who exactly the mother might be, are busying themselves\nwith what the prophet had no interest in, while neglecting that in which\nreally lay the significance of the sign that he offered.\n\nAhaz by his wilfulness has made a Substitute necessary. But Isaiah is\nfar more taken up with this: that he has actually mortgaged the\nprospects of that Substitute. The Messiah comes, but the wilfulness of\nAhaz has rendered His reign impossible. He, whose advent has hitherto\nnot been foretold except as the beginning of an era of prosperity, and\nwhose person has not been painted but with honour and power, is\nrepresented as a helpless and innocent Sufferer--His prospects\ndissipated by the sins of others, and Himself born only to share His\npeople's indigence (p. 115). Such a representation of the Hero's fate is\nof the very highest interest. We are accustomed to associate the\nconception of a suffering Messiah only with a much later development of\nprophecy, when Israel went into exile; but the conception meets us\nalready here. It is another proof that _Esaias is very bold_. He calls\nhis Messiah Immanuel, and yet dares to present Him as nothing but a\nSufferer--a Sufferer for the sins of others. Born only to suffer with\nHis people, who should have inherited their throne--that is Isaiah's\nfirst doctrine of the Messiah.\n\nThrough the rest of the prophecies published during the Syro-Ephraitic\ntroubles the Sufferer is slowly transformed into a Deliverer. The stages\nof this transformation are obscure. In chap. viii. Immanuel is no more\ndefined than in chap. vii. He is still only a Name of hope upon an\nunbroken prospect of devastation. _The stretching out of his\nwings_--_i.e._, the floods of the Assyrian--_shall fill the breadth of\nThy land, O Immanuel_. But this time that the prophet utters the Name,\nhe feels inspired by new courage. He grasps at Immanuel as the pledge of\nultimate salvation. Let the enemies of Judah work their worst; it shall\nbe in vain, _for Immanuel, God is with us_. And then, to our\nastonishment, while Isaiah is telling us how he arrived at the\nconvictions embodied in this Name, the personality of Immanuel fades\naway altogether, and Jehovah of hosts Himself is set forth as the sole\nsanctuary of those who fear Him. There is indeed a double displacement\nhere. Immanuel dissolves in two directions. As a Refuge, He is displaced\nby Jehovah; as a Sufferer and a Symbol of the sufferings of the land, by\na little community of disciples, the first embodiment of the Church, who\nnow, with Isaiah, can do nothing except wait for the Lord (pp. 124-126).\n\nThen, when the prophet's yearning thoughts, that will not rest upon so\ndark a closure, struggle once more, and struggling pass from despair to\npity, and from pity to hope, and from hope to triumph in a salvation\nactually achieved, they hail all at once as the Hero of it the Son whose\nbirth was promised. With an emphasis, which vividly reveals the sense of\nexhaustion in the living generation and the conviction that only\nsomething fresh, and sent straight from God Himself, can now avail\nIsrael, the prophet cries: _Unto us a Child is born; unto us a Son is\ngiven_. The Messiah appears in a glory that floods His origin out of\nsight. We cannot see whether He springs from the house of David; but\n_the government is to be upon His shoulder_, and He shall reign _on\nDavid's throne with righteousness for ever_. His title shall be\nfourfold: _Wonderful-Counsellor_, _God-Hero_, _Father-Everlasting_,\n_Prince-of-Peace_.\n\nThese Four Names do certainly not invite us to grudge them meaning, and\nthey have been claimed as incontrovertible proofs, that the prophet had\nan absolutely Divine Person in view. Some distinguished scholars insist\nthat the promised Deliverer is nothing less than a God in the\nmetaphysical sense of the word.[23] There are serious reasons, however,\nwhich make us doubt this conclusion, and, though we firmly hold that\nJesus Christ was God, prevent us from recognizing these names as\nprophecies of His Divinity. Two of the names are capable of being used\nof an earthly monarch: _Wonderful-Counsellor_ and _Prince-of-Peace_,\nwhich are, within the range of human virtue, in evident contrast to\nAhaz, at once foolish in the conception of his policy and warlike in its\nresults. It will be more difficult to get Western minds to see how\n_Father-Everlasting_ may be applied to a mere man, but the ascription of\neternity is not unusual in Oriental titles, and in the Old Testament is\nsometimes rendered to things that perish. When Hebrews speak of any one\nas everlasting, that does not necessarily imply Divinity. The second\nname, which we render _God-Hero_, is, it is true, used of Jehovah\nHimself in the very next chapter to this, but in the plural it is also\nused of men by Ezekiel (xxxii. 21). The part of it translated _God_ is a\nfrequent name of the Divine Being in the Old Testament, but literally\nmeans only _mighty_, and is by Ezekiel (xxxi. 11) applied to\nNebuchadnezzar. We should hesitate, therefore, to understand by these\nnames \"a God in the metaphysical sense of the word.\"\n\n  [23] I regret very much that in previous editions I should have\n  erroneously imputed this opinion to Dr. Hermann Schultz--through a\n  mistranslation of his words on pp. 726, 727 of his _A. T. Theologie_.\n\nWe fall back with greater confidence on other arguments of a more\ngeneral kind, which apply to all Isaiah's prophecies of the Messiah. If\nIsaiah had one revelation rather than another to make, it was the\nrevelation of the unity of God. Against king and people, who crowded\ntheir temple with the shrines of many deities, Isaiah presented Jehovah\nas the one only God. It would simply have nullified the force of his\nmessage, and confused the generation to which he brought it, if either\nhe or they had conceived of the Messiah, with the conceiving of\nChristian theology, as a separate Divine personality.\n\nAgain, as Mr. Robertson Smith has very clearly explained,[24] the\nfunctions assigned by Isaiah to the King of the future are simply the\nordinary duties of the monarchy, for which He is equipped by the\nindwelling of that Spirit of God, that makes all wise men wise and\nvalorous men valorous. \"We believe in a Divine and eternal Saviour,\nbecause the work of salvation as we understand it in the light of the\nNew Testament is essentially different from the work of the wisest and\nbest earthly king.\" But such an earthly king's work is all Isaiah looks\nfor. So that, so far from its being derogatory to Christ to grudge the\nsense of Divinity to these names, it is a fact that the more spiritual\nour notions are of the saving work of Jesus, the less inclined shall we\nbe to claim the prophecies of Isaiah in proof of His Deity.\n\n  [24] _Prophets of Israel_, p. 306.\n\nThere is a third argument in the same direction, the force of which we\nappreciate only when we come to discover how very little from this point\nonwards Isaiah had to say about the promised king. In chaps. i.-xxxix.\nonly three other passages are interpreted as describing the Messiah. The\nfirst of these, xi. 1-5, dating perhaps from about 720, when Hezekiah\nwas king, tells us, for the first and only time by Isaiah's lips, that\nthe Messiah is to be a scion of David's house, and confirms what we have\nsaid: that His duties, however perfectly they were to be discharged,\nwere the usual duties of Judah's monarchy.[25] The second passage,\nxxxii. 1 ff., which dates probably from after 705, when Hezekiah was\nstill king, is, if indeed it refers at all to the Messiah, a still\nfainter, though sweeter, echo of previous descriptions. While the third\npassage, xxxiii. 17: _Thou shalt see thy king in his beauty_, does not\nrefer to the Messiah at all, but to Hezekiah, then prostrate and in\nsackcloth, with Assyria thundering at the gate of Jerusalem (701). The\nmass of Isaiah's predictions of the Messiah thus fall within the reign\nof Ahaz, and just at the point at which Ahaz proved an unworthy\nrepresentative of Jehovah, and Judah and Israel were threatened with\ncomplete devastation. There is a repetition when Hezekiah has come to\nthe throne. But in the remaining seventeen years, except perhaps for one\nallusion, Isaiah is silent on the ideal king, although he continued\nthroughout that time to unfold pictures of the blessed future which\ncontained every other Messianic feature, and the realization of which he\nplaced where he had placed his Prince-of-the-Four-Names--in connection,\nthat is, with the approaching defeat of the Assyrians. Ignoring the\nMessiah, during these years Isaiah lays all the stress of his prophecy\non the inviolability of Jerusalem; and while he promises the recovery of\nthe actually reigning monarch from the distress of the Assyrian\ninvasion,--as if that were what the people chiefly desired to see, and\nnot a brighter, stronger substitute,--he hails Jehovah Himself, in\nsolitary and undeputed sovereignty, as Judge, Lawgiver, Monarch and\nSaviour (xxxiii. 22). Between Hezekiah, thus restored to his beauty, and\nJehovah's own presence, there is surely no room left for another royal\npersonage. But these very facts--that Isaiah felt most compelled to\npredict an ideal king when the actual king was unworthy, and that, on\nthe contrary, when the reigning king proved worthy, approximating to the\nideal, Isaiah felt no need for another, and indeed in his prophecies\nleft no room for another--form surely a powerful proof that the king he\nexpected was not a supernatural being, but a human personality,\nextraordinarily endowed by God, one of the descendants of David by\nordinary succession, but fulfilling the ideal which his forerunners had\nmissed. Even if we allow that the four names contain among them the\npredicate of Divinity, we must not overlook the fact that the Prince is\nonly called by them. It is not that _He is_, but that He shall be\ncalled, _Wonderful-Counsellor_, _God-Hero_, _Father-Everlasting_,\n_Prince-of-Peace_. Nowhere is there a dogmatic statement that He is\nDivine. Besides, it is inconceivable that if Isaiah, the prophet of the\nunity of God, had at any time a second Divine Person in his hope, he\nshould have afterwards remained so silent about Him. To interpret the\nascription of the Four Names as a conscious definition of Divinity, at\nall like the Christian conception of Jesus Christ, is to render the\nsilence of Isaiah's later life and the silence of subsequent prophets\nutterly inexplicable.\n\n  [25] See further on this passage pp. 180-183. As is there pointed out,\n  while these passages on the Messiah are indeed infrequent and\n  unconnected, there is a very evident progress through them of Isaiah's\n  conception of his Hero's character.\n\nOn these grounds, then, we decline to believe that Isaiah saw in the\nking of the future \"a God in the metaphysical sense of the word.\" Just\nbecause we know the proofs of the Divinity of Jesus to be so spiritual,\ndo we feel the uselessness of looking for them to prophecies, that\nmanifestly describe purely earthly and civil functions.\n\nBut such a conclusion by no means shuts us out from tracing a relation\nbetween these prophecies and the appearance of Jesus. The fact, that\nIsaiah allowed them to go down to posterity, proves that he himself did\nnot count them to have been exhausted in Hezekiah. And this fact of\ntheir preservation is ever so much the more significant, that their\nliteral truth was discredited by events. Isaiah had evidently foretold\nthe birth and bitter youth of Immanuel for the _near_ future. Immanuel's\nchildhood was to begin with the devastation of Ephraim and Syria, and to\nbe passed in circumstances consequent on the devastation of Judah, which\nwas to follow close upon that of her two enemies. But although Ephraim\nand Syria were immediately spoiled, as Isaiah foresaw, Judah lay in\npeace all the reign of Ahaz and many years after his death. So that had\nImmanuel been born in the next twenty-five years after the announcement\nof His birth, He would not have found in His own land the circumstances\nwhich Isaiah foretold as the discipline of His boyhood. Isaiah's\nforecast of Judah's fate was, therefore, falsified by events. That the\nprophet or his disciples should have allowed it to remain, is proof that\nthey believed it to have contents, which the history they had lived\nthrough neither exhausted nor discredited. In the prophecies of the\nMessiah there was something ideal, which was as permanent and valid for\nthe future as the prophecy of the Remnant or that of the visible majesty\nof Jehovah. If the attachment, at which the prophet aimed when he\nlaunched these prophecies on the stream of time, was denied them by\ntheir own age, that did not mean their submersion, but only their\nfreedom to float further down the future and seek attachment there.\n\nThis boldness, to entrust to future ages a prophecy discredited by\ncontemporary history, argues a profound belief in its moral meaning and\neternal significance; and it is this boldness, in face of disappointment\ncontinued from generation to generation in Israel, that constitutes the\nuniqueness of the Messianic hope among that people. To sublimate this\npermanent meaning of the prophecies from the contemporary material, with\nwhich it is mixed, is not difficult. Isaiah foretells his Prince on the\nsupposition that certain things are fulfilled. When the people are\nreduced to the last extreme, when there is no more a king to rally or to\nrule them, when the land is in captivity, when revelation is closed,\nwhen, in despair of the darkness of the Lord's face, men have taken to\nthem that have familiar spirits and wizards that peep and mutter, then,\nin that last sinful, hopeless estate of man, a Deliverer shall appear.\n_The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it._ This is the first\narticle of Isaiah's Messianic creed, and stands back behind the Messiah\nand all Messianic blessings, their exhaustless origin. Whatsoever man's\nsin and darkness be, the Almighty lives, and His zeal is infinite.\nTherefore it is a fact eternally true, that whatsoever Deliverer His\npeople need and can receive shall be sent to them, and shall be styled\nby whatsoever names their hearts can best appreciate. Titles shall be\ngiven Him to attract their hope and their homage, and not a definition\nof His nature, of which their theological vocabulary would be incapable.\nThis is the vital kernel of Messianic prophecy in Isaiah. The _zeal of\nthe Lord_, kindling the dark thoughts of the prophet as he broods over\nhis people's need of salvation, suddenly makes a Saviour\nvisible--visible just as He is needed there and then. Isaiah hears Him\nhailed by titles that satisfy the particular wants of the age, and\nexpress men's thoughts as far up the idea of salvation and majesty as\nthey of that age can rise. But the prophet has also perceived that sin\nand disaster will so accumulate before the Messiah comes, that, though\ninnocent, He shall have to bear tribulation and pass to His prime\nthrough suffering. No one with open mind can deny, that in this moderate\nestimate of the prophet's meaning there is a very great deal of the\nessence of the Gospel as it has been fulfilled in the personal\nconsciousness and saving work of Jesus Christ,--as much of that essence,\nindeed, as it was possible to communicate to so early a generation, and\none whose religious needs were so largely what we call temporal. But if\nwe grant this, and if at the same time we appreciate the uniqueness of\nsuch a hope as this of Israel, then surely it must be allowed to have\nthe appearance of a special preparation for Christ's life and work; and\nso, to use very moderate words which have been applied to Messianic\nprophecy in general, it may be taken \"as a proof of its true connection\nwith the Gospel dispensation as part of one grand scheme in the counsels\nof Providence.\"[26]\n\n  [26] Stanton: _The Jewish and Christian Messiah_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMen do not ask when they drink of a streamlet high up on the hills, \"Is\nthis going to be a great river?\" They are satisfied if it is water\nenough to quench their thirst. And so it was enough for Old Testament\nbelievers if they found in Isaiah's prophecy of a Deliverer--as they did\nfind--what satisfied their own religious needs, without convincing them\nto what volumes it should swell. But this does not mean that in using\nthese Old Testament prophecies we Christians should limit our enjoyment\nof them to the measure of the generation to whom they were addressed. To\nhave known Christ must make the predictions of the Messiah different to\na man. You cannot bring so infinite an ocean of blessing into historic\nconnection with these generous, expansive intimations of the Old\nTestament without its passing into them. If we may use a rough figure,\nthe Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament are tidal rivers. They not\nonly run, as we have seen, to their sea, which is Christ; they feel His\nreflex influence. It is not enough for a Christian to have followed the\nhistorical direction of the prophecies, or to have proved their\nconnection with the New Testament as parts of one Divine harmony. Forced\nback by the fulness of meaning to which he has found their courses\nopen, he returns to find the savour of the New Testament upon them, and\nthat where he descended shallow and tortuous channels, with all the\ndifficulties of historical exploration, he is borne back on full tides\nof worship. To use the appropriate words of Isaiah, _the Lord is with\nhim there, a place of broad rivers and streams_.\n\nWith all this, however, we must not forget that, beside these prophecies\nof a great earthly ruler, there runs another stream of desire and\npromise, in which we see a much stronger premonition of the fact that a\nDivine Being shall some day dwell among men. We mean the Scriptures in\nwhich it is foretold that Jehovah Himself shall visibly visit Jerusalem.\nThis line of prophecy, taken along with the powerful anthropomorphic\nrepresentations of God,--astonishing in a people like the Jews, who so\nabhorred the making of an image of the Deity upon the likeness of\nanything in heaven and earth,--we hold to be the proper Old Testament\ninstinct that the Divine should take human form and tabernacle amongst\nmen. But this side of our subject--the relation of the anthropomorphism\nof the Old Testament to the Incarnation--we postpone till we come to the\nsecond part of the book of Isaiah, in which the anthropomorphic figures\nare more frequent and daring than they are here.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II.\n\n_PROPHECIES FROM THE ACCESSION OF HEZEKIAH TO THE DEATH OF SARGON,\n727-705_ B.C.\n\n\n\n\n  ISAIAH:--\n\n  xxviii. 725 B.C.\n\n  x. 5-34. 721 B.C.\n\n  xi., xii. About 720 B.C.?\n\n  xx. 711 B.C.\n\n  xxi. 1-10. 710 B.C.\n\n  xxxviii., xxxix. Between 712 and 705 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK II.\n\n\nThe prophecies with which we have been engaged (chaps. ii.-x. 4) fall\neither before or during the great Assyrian invasion of Syria, undertaken\nin 734-732 by Tiglath-pileser II., at the invitation of King Ahaz.\nNobody has any doubt about that. But when we ask what prophecies of\nIsaiah come next in chronological order, we raise a storm of answers. We\nare no longer on the sure ground we have been enjoying.\n\nUnder the canonical arrangement the next prophecy is \"The Woe upon the\nAssyrian\" (x. 5-34). In the course of this the Assyrian is made to boast\nof having overthrown Samaria (vv. 9-11): _Is not Samaria as Damascus?...\nShall I not, as I have done unto Samaria and her idols, so do to\nJerusalem and her idols?_ If _Samaria_ mean the capital city of Northern\nIsrael--and the name is never used in these parts of Scripture for\nanything else--and if the prophet be quoting a boast which the Assyrian\nwas actually in a position to make, and not merely imagining a boast,\nwhich he would be likely to make some years afterwards (an entirely\nimprobable view, though held by one great scholar[27]), then an event is\nhere described as past and over which did not happen during\nTiglath-pileser's campaign, nor indeed till twelve years after it.\nTiglath-pileser did not require to besiege Samaria in the campaign of\n734-732. The king, Pekah, was slain by a conspiracy of his own subjects;\nand Hoshea, the ringleader, who succeeded, willingly purchased the\nstability of a usurped throne by homage and tribute to the king of\nkings. So Tiglath-pileser went home again, satisfied to have punished\nIsrael by carrying away with him the population of Galilee. During his\nreign there was no further appearance of the Assyrians in Palestine, but\nat his death in 727 Hoshea, after the fashion of Assyrian vassals when\nthe throne at Nineveh changed occupants, attempted to throw off the yoke\nof the new king, Salmanassar IV. Along with the Phoenician and\nPhilistine cities, Hoshea negotiated an alliance with So, or Seve, the\nEthiopian, a usurper who had just succeeded in establishing his\nsupremacy over the land of the Pharaohs. In a year Salmanassar marched\nsouth upon the rebels. He took Hoshea prisoner on the borders of his\nterritory (725), but, not content, as his predecessor had been, with the\nsubmission of the king, _he came up throughout all the land, and went up\nto Samaria, and besieged it three years_.[28] He did not live to see the\nend of the siege, and Samaria was taken in 722 by Sargon, his successor.\nSargon overthrew the kingdom and uprooted the people. The northern\ntribes were carried away into a captivity, from which as tribes they\nnever returned.\n\n  [27] Delitzsch, who fancies that the fall of Samaria is a completed\n  affair only in the vision of the prophet, not in reality.\n\n  [28] 2 Kings xvii. 5.\n\nIt was evidently this complete overthrow of Samaria by Sargon in\n722-721, which Isaiah had behind him when he wrote x. 9-11. We must,\ntherefore, date the prophecy after 721, when nothing was left as a\nbulwark between Judah and the Assyrian. We do so with reluctance. There\nis much in x. 5-34 which suits the circumstances of Tiglath-pileser's\ninvasion. There are phrases and catch-words coinciding with those in\nvii.-ix. 7; and the whole oration is simply a more elaborate expression\nof that defiance of Assyria, which inspires such of the previous\nprophecies as viii. 9, 10. Besides, with the exception of Samaria, all\nthe names in the Assyrian's boastful catalogue--Carchemish, Calno,\nArpad, Hamath and Damascus--might as justly have been vaunted by the\nlips of Tiglath-pileser as by those of Sargon. But in spite of these\nthings, which seem to vindicate the close relation of x. 5-34 to the\nprophecies which precede it in the canon, the mention of Samaria as\nbeing already destroyed justifies us in divorcing it from them. While\nthey remain dated from before 732, we place it subsequent to 722.\n\nWas Isaiah, then, silent these ten years? Is there no prophecy lying\nfarther on in his book that treats of Samaria as still standing? Besides\nan address to the fallen Damascus in xvii. 1-11, which we shall take\nlater with the rest of Isaiah's oracles on foreign states, there is one\nlarge prophecy, chap. xxviii., which opens with a description of the\nmagnates of Samaria lolling in drunken security on their vine-crowned\nhill, but God's storms are ready to break. Samaria has not yet fallen,\nbut is threatened and shall fall soon. The first part of chap. xxviii.\ncan only refer to the year, in which Salmanassar advanced upon\nSamaria--726 or 725. There is nothing in the rest of it to corroborate\nthis date; but the fact, that there are several turns of thought and\nspeech very similar to turns of thought and speech in x. 5-34, makes us\nthe bolder to take away xxviii. from its present connection with\nxxix.-xxxii., and place it just before x. 5-34.\n\nHere then is our next group of prophecies, all dating from the first\nseven years of the reign of Hezekiah: xxviii., a warning addressed to\nthe politicians of Jerusalem from the impending fate of those of Samaria\n(date 725); x. 5-34, a woe upon the Assyrian (date about 720),\ndescribing his boasts and his progress in conquest till his sudden crash\nby the walls of Jerusalem; xi., of date uncertain, for it reflects no\nhistorical circumstance, but standing in such artistic contrast to x.\nthat the two must be treated together; and xii., a hymn of salvation,\nwhich forms a fitting conclusion to xi. With these we shall take the few\nfragments of the book of Isaiah which belong to the fifteen years\n720-705, and are as straws to show how Judah all that time was drifting\ndown to alliance with Egypt--xx., xxi. 1-10, and xxxviii.-xxxix. This\nwill bring us to 705, and the beginning of a new series of prophecies,\nthe richest of Isaiah's life, and the subject of our third book.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n_GOD'S COMMONPLACE._\n\nISAIAH xxviii. (ABOUT 725 B.C.)\n\n\nThe twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Isaiah is one of the greatest\nof his prophecies. It is distinguished by that regal versatility of\nstyle, which places its author at the head of Hebrew writers. Keen\nanalyses of character, realistic contrasts between sin and judgement,\nclever retorts and epigrams, rapids of scorn, and \"a spate\" of\njudgement, but for final issue a placid stream of argument banked by\nsweet parable--such are the literary charms of the chapter, which\nderives its moral grandeur from the force with which its currents set\ntowards faith and reason, as together the salvation of states,\npoliticians and private men. The style mirrors life about ourselves, and\nstill tastes fresh to thirsty men. The truths are relevant to every day\nin which luxury and intemperance abound, in which there are eyes too\nfevered by sin to see beauty in simple purity, and minds so surfeited\nwith knowledge or intoxicated with their own cleverness, that they call\nthe maxims of moral reason commonplace and scorn religious instruction\nas food for babes.\n\nSome time when the big, black cloud was gathering again on the north,\nIsaiah raised his voice to the magnates of Jerusalem: \"Lift your heads\nfrom your wine-bowls; look north. The sunshine is still on Samaria, and\nyour fellow-drinkers there are revelling in security. But the storm\ncreeps up behind. They shall certainty perish soon; even you cannot help\nseeing that. Let it scare you, for their sin is yours, and that storm\nwill not exhaust itself on Samaria. Do not think that your clever\npolicies, alliance with Egypt or the treaty with Assyria herself, shall\nsave you. Men are never saved from death and hell by making covenants\nwith them. Scorners of religion and righteousness, except ye cease being\nsceptical and drunken, and come back from your diplomacy to faith and\nreason, ye shall not be saved! This destruction that looms is going to\ncover the whole earth. So stop your running to and fro across it in\nsearch of alliances. _He that believeth shall not make haste._ Stay at\nhome and trust in the God of Zion, for Zion is the one thing that shall\nsurvive.\" In the parable, which closes the prophecy, Isaiah offers some\nrelief to this dark prospect: \"Do not think of God as a mere\ndisaster-monger, maker of terrors for men. He has a plan, even in\ncatastrophe, and this deluge, which looks like destruction for all of\nus, has its method, term and fruits, just as much as the husbandman's\nharrowing of the earth or threshing of the corn.\"\n\nThe chapter with this argument falls into four divisions.\n\n\nI. THE WARNING FROM SAMARIA (vv. 1-6).\n\nThey had always been hard drinkers in North Israel. Fifty years before,\nAmos flashed judgement on those who trusted in the mount of Samaria,\n_lolling upon their couches and gulping their wine out of basons_, women\nas well as men. Upon these same drunkards of Ephraim, now soaked and\n_stunned with wine_, Isaiah fastens his Woe. Sunny the sky and balmy the\nair in which they lie, stretched upon flowers by the heads of their fat\nvalleys--a land that tempts its inhabitants with the security of\nperpetual summer. But God's swift storm drives up the valley--hail, rain\nand violent streams from every gorge. Flowers, wreaths and pampered\nbodies are trampled in the mire. The glory of sunny Ephraim is as the\nfirst ripe fig a man findeth, and _while it is yet in his hand, he\neateth it up_. But while drunken magnates and the flowers of a rich land\nare swept away, there is a residue who can and do abide even that storm,\nto whom the Lord Himself shall be for a crown, _a spirit of justice to\nhim that sitteth for justice, and for strength to them that turn back\nthe battle at the gate_.\n\nIsaiah's intention is manifest, and his effort a great one. It is to rob\npassion of its magic and change men's temptations to their disgusts, by\nexhibiting how squalid passion shows beneath disaster, and how\ngloriously purity shines surviving it. It is to strip luxury and\nindulgence of their attractiveness by drenching them with the storm of\njudgement, and then not to leave them stunned, but to rouse in them a\nmoral admiration and envy by the presentation of certain grand survivals\nof the storm--unstained justice and victorious valour. Isaiah first\nsweeps the atmosphere, hot from infective passion, with the cold tempest\nfrom the north. Then in the clear shining after rain he points to two\nfigures, which have preserved through temptation and disaster, and now\nlift against a smiling sky, the ideal that those corrupt judges and\ndrunken warriors have dragged into the mire--_him that sitteth for\njustice and him that turneth back the battle at the gate_. The escape\nfrom sensuality, this passage suggests, is two-fold. There is the\nexposure to nature where God's judgements sweep their irresistible way;\nand then from the despair, which the unrelieved spectacle of judgement\nproduces, there is the recovery to moral effort through the admiration\nof those purities and heroisms, that by God's Spirit have survived.\n\nWhen God has put a conscience into the art or literature of any\ngeneration, they have followed this method of Isaiah, but not always to\nthe healthy end which he reaches. To show the slaves of Circe the\nphysical disaster impending--which you must begin by doing if you are to\nimpress their brutalized minds--is not enough. The lesson of Tennyson's\n\"Vision of Sin\" and of Arnold's \"New Sirens,\" that night and frost,\ndecay and death, come down at last on pampered sense, is necessary, but\nnot enough. Who stops there remains a defective and morbid moralist.\nWhen you have made the sensual shiver before the disease that inevitably\nawaits them, you must go on to show that there are men who have the\nsecret of surviving the most terrible judgements of God, and lift their\nfigures calm and victorious against the storm-washed sky. Preach the\ndepravity of men, but never apart from the possibilities that remain in\nthem. It is Isaiah's health as a moralist that he combines the two. No\nprophet ever threatened judgement more inexorable and complete than he.\nYet he never failed to tell the sinner, how possible it was for him to\nbe different. If it were necessary to crush men in the mud, Isaiah would\nnot leave them there with the hearts of swine. But he put conscience in\nthem, and the envy of what was pure, and the admiration of what was\nvictorious. Even as they wallowed, he pointed them to the figures of\nmen like themselves, who had survived and overcome by the Spirit of\nGod. Here we perceive the ethical possibilities, that lay in his\nfundamental doctrine of a remnant. Isaiah never crushed men beneath the\nfear of judgement, without revealing to them the possibility and beauty\nof victorious virtue. Had we lived in those great days, what a help he\nhad been to us--what a help he may be still!--not only firm to declare\nthat the wages of sin is death, but careful to effect that our\nhumiliation shall not be despair, and that even when we feel our shame\nand irretrievableness the most, we shall have the opportunity to behold\nour humanity crowned and seated on the throne from which we had fallen,\nour humanity driving back the battle from the gate against which we had\nbeen hopelessly driven! That seventh verse sounds like a trumpet in the\nears of enervated and despairing men.\n\n\nII. GOD'S COMMONPLACE (vv. 7-13).\n\nBut Isaiah has cast his pearls before swine. The men of Jerusalem, whom\nhe addresses, are too deep in sensuality to be roused by his noble\nwords. _Even priest and prophet stagger through strong drink_; and the\nclass that should have been the conscience of the city, responding\nimmediately to the word of God, _reel in vision and stumble in\njudgement_. They turn upon Isaiah's earnest message with tipsy men's\ninsolence. Verses 9 and 10 should be within inverted commas, for they\nare the mocking reply of drunkards over their cups. _Whom is he going to\nteach knowledge, and upon whom is he trying to force \"the Message,\"_ as\nhe calls it? _Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the\nbreasts?_ Are we school-children, that he treats us with his endless\nplatitudes and repetitions--_precept upon precept and precept upon\nprecept, line upon line and line upon line, here a little and there a\nlittle?_ So did these bibulous prophets, priests and politicians mock\nIsaiah's messages of judgement, wagging their heads in mimicry of his\nsimple, earnest tones. \"We must conceive the abrupt, intentionally\nshort, reiterated and almost childish words of verse 10 as spoken in\nmimicry, with a mocking motion of the head, and in a childish,\nstammering, taunting tone.\"[29]\n\n  [29] Ewald. The original runs thus: \"Ki tsav la-tsav, tsav la-tsav qav\n  la-qav, qav la-qav; z'eir sham z'eir sham.\"\n\nBut Isaiah turns upon them with their own words: \"You call me,\nStammerer! I tell you that God, Who speaks through me, and Whom in me\nyou mock, will one day speak again to you in a tongue that shall indeed\nsound stammering to you. When those far-off barbarians have reached your\nwalls, and over them taunt you in uncouth tones, then shall you hear how\nGod can stammer. For these shall be the very voice of Him, and as He\nthreatens you with captivity it shall be your bitterness to remember how\nby me He once offered you _a rest and refreshing_, which you refused. I\ntell you more. God will not only speak in words, but in deeds, and then\ntruly your nickname for His message shall be fulfilled to you. Then\nshall the word of the Lord be unto you _precept upon precept, precept\nupon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little and there a\nlittle_. For God shall speak with the terrible simplicity and slowness\nof deeds, with the gradual growth of fate, with the monotonous stages of\ndecay, till step by step you _go, and stumble backward, and be broken,\nand snared, and taken_. You have scorned my instruction as monosyllables\nfit for children! By irritating monosyllables of gradual penalty shall\nGod instruct you the second time.\"\n\nThis is not only a very clever and cynical retort, but the statement of\na moral principle. We gather from Isaiah that God speaks twice to men,\nfirst in words and then by deeds, but both times very simply and\nplainly. And if men deride and abuse the simplicity of the former, if\nthey ignore moral and religious truths because they are elementary, and\nrebel against the quiet reiteration of simple voices, with which God\nsees it most healthy to conduct their education, then they shall be\nstunned by the commonplace pertinacity, with which the effects of their\ninsolence work themselves out in life. God's ways with men are mostly\ncommonplace; that is the hardest lesson we have to learn. The tongue of\nconscience speaks like the tongue of time, prevailingly by ticks and\nmoments; not in undue excitement of soul and body, not in the stirring\nup of our passions nor by enlisting our ambitions, not in thunder nor in\nstartling visions, but by everyday precepts of faithfulness, honour and\npurity, to which conscience has to rise unwinged by fancy or ambition,\nand dreadfully weighted with the dreariness of life. If we, carried away\nupon the rushing interests of the world, and with our appetite spoiled\nby the wealth and piquancy of intellectual knowledge, despise the simple\nmonitions of conscience and Scripture, as uninteresting and childish,\nthis is the risk we run,--that God will speak to us in another, and this\ntime unshirkable, kind of commonplace. What that is we shall understand,\nwhen a career of dissipation or unscrupulous ambition has bereft life of\nall interest and joy, when one enthusiasm after another grows dull, and\none pleasure after another tasteless, when all the little things of life\npreach to us of judgement, and _the grasshopper becometh a burden_, and\nwe, slowly descending through the drab and monotony of decay, suffer the\nlast great commonplace, death. There can be no greater irony than for\nthe soul, which has sinned by too greedily seeking for sensation, to\nfind sensation absent even from the judgements she has brought upon\nherself. Poor Heine's _Confessions_ acknowledge, at once with the\nappreciation of an artist and the pain of a victim, the satire, with\nwhich the Almighty inflicts, in the way that Isaiah describes, His\npenalties upon sins of sense.\n\n\nIII. COVENANTS WITH DEATH AND HELL (vv. 14-22).\n\nTo Isaiah's threats of destruction, the politicians of Jerusalem\nreplied, We have bought destruction off! They meant some treaty with a\nforeign power. Diplomacy is always obscure, and at that distance its\ndetails are buried for us in impenetrable darkness. But we may safely\nconclude that it was either the treaty of Ahaz with Assyria, or some\ncounter-treaty executed with Egypt since this power began again to rise\ninto pretentiousness, or more probably still it was a secret agreement\nwith the southern power, while the open treaty with the northern was yet\nin force. Isaiah, from the way in which he speaks, seems to have been in\nignorance of all, except that the politician's boast was an unhallowed,\nunderhand intrigue, accomplished by much swindling and false conceit of\ncleverness. This wretched subterfuge Isaiah exposes in some of the most\npowerful sentences he ever uttered. A faithless diplomacy was never more\nthoroughly laid bare, in its miserable mixture of political pedantry and\nfalsehood.\n\n_Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, ye men of scorn, rulers of this\npeople, which is in Jerusalem!_\n\n_Because ye have said, We have entered into a covenant with Death, and\nwith Hell have we made a bargain; the \"Overflowing Scourge,\"_ a current\nphrase of Isaiah's which they fling back in his teeth, _when it passeth\nalong, shall not come unto us, for we have set lies as our refuge, and\nin falsehood have we hidden ourselves_ [the prophet's penetrating scorn\ndrags up into their boast the secret conscience of their hearts, that\nafter all lies did form the basis of this political arrangement],\n_therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I lay in Zion for\nfoundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner-stone of sure\nfoundation; he that believeth shall not make haste._ No need of swift\ncouriers to Egypt, and fret and fever of poor political brains in\nJerusalem! The word _make haste_ is onomatopoetic, like our _fuss_, and,\nif fuss may be applied to the conduct of high affairs of state, its\nexact equivalent in meaning.\n\n_And I will set justice for a line, and righteousness for a plummet, and\nhail shall sweep away the subterfuge of lies, and the secrecy shall\nwaters overflow. And cancelled shall be your covenant with Death, and\nyour bargain with Hell shall not stand._\n\n\"_The Overflowing Scourge_,\" indeed! _When it passeth over, then ye\nshall be unto it for trampling. As often as it passeth over, it shall\ntake you away, for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by\nnight. Then shall it be sheer terror to realize \"the Message\"!_ Too late\nthen for anything else. Had you realized \"the Message\" now, what rest\nand refreshing! But then only terror.\n\n_For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself upon it, and\nthe covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it._ This proverb\nseems to be struck out of the prophet by the belief of the politicians,\nthat they are creating a stable and restful policy for Judah. It\nflashes an aspect of hopeless uneasiness over the whole political\nsituation. However they make their bed, with Egypt's or Assyria's help,\nthey shall not find it comfortable. No cleverness of theirs can create a\nsatisfactory condition of affairs, no political arrangement, nothing\nshort of faith, of absolute reliance on that bare foundation-stone laid\nin Zion,--God's assurance that Jerusalem is inviolable.\n\n_For Jehovah shall arise as on Mount Peratsim; He shall be stirred as in\nthe valley of Gibeon, to do His deed--strange is this deed of His, and\nto bring to pass His act--strange is His act._\n\n_Now, therefore, play no more the scorner, lest your bands be made\ntight, for a consumption, and that determined, have I heard from the\nLord, Jehovah of hosts, upon the whole earth._ This finishes the matter.\nPossibility of alliance there is for sane men nowhere in this world of\nWestern Asia, so evidently near convulsion. Only the foundation-stone in\nZion shall be left. Cling to that!\n\nWhen the pedantic members of the General Assembly of the Kirk of\nScotland, in the year 1650, were clinging with all the grip of their\nhard logic, but with very little heart, to the \"Divine right of kings,\"\nand attempting an impossible state, whose statute-book was to be the\nWestminster Confession, and its chief executive officer King Charles\nII., Cromwell, then encamped at Musselburgh, sent them that letter in\nwhich the famous sentence occurs: \"I beseech you in the bowels of\nChrist, think it possible you may be mistaken. Precept may be upon\nprecept, line may be upon line,\" he goes on to say, \"and yet the Word of\nthe Lord may be to some a word of Judgement; that they may fall\nbackward, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken! There may be a\nspiritual fulness, which the world may call drunkenness; as in the\nsecond Chapter of the _Acts_. There may be, as well, a carnal confidence\nupon misunderstood and misapplied precepts, which may be called\nspiritual drunkenness. There may be a _Covenant_ made with Death and\nHell! I will not say yours was so. But judge if such things have a\npolitic aim: To avoid the overflowing scourge; or, To accomplish worldly\ninterests? And if therein you have confederated with wicked and carnal\nmen, and have respect for them, or otherwise have drawn them in to\nassociate with us, Whether this be a covenant of God and spiritual?\nBethink yourselves; we hope we do.\n\n\"I pray you read the Twenty-eighth of Isaiah, from the fifth to the\nfifteenth verse. And do not scorn to know that it is the Spirit that\nquickens and giveth life.\"[30]\n\n  [30] _Cromwell's Letters and Speeches_, Letter cxxxvi.\n\nCromwell, as we have said, is the best commentator Isaiah has ever had,\nand that by an instinct born, not only of the same faith, but of\nexperience in tackling similar sorts of character. In this letter he is\ndealing, like Isaiah, with stubborn pedants, who are endeavouring to\nfasten the national fortunes upon a Procrustean policy. The diplomacy of\nJerusalem was very clever; the Covenanting ecclesiasticism of Edinburgh\nwas logical and consistent. But a Jewish alliance with Assyria and the\nattempt of Scotsmen to force their covenant upon the whole United\nKingdom were equally sheer impossibilities. In either case _the bed was\nshorter than that a man could stretch himself on it, and the covering\nnarrower than that he could wrap himself in it_. Both, too, were\ncovenants with Death and Hell; for if the attempt of the Scots to secure\nCharles II. by the Covenant was free from the falsehood of Jewish\ndiplomacy, it was fatally certain if successful to have led to the\nsubversion of their highest religious interests; and history has proved\nthat Cromwell was no more than just in applying to it the strong\nexpressions, which Isaiah uses of Judah's ominous treaties with the\nunscrupulous heathen. Over against so pedantic an idea, as that of\nforcing the life of the three nations into the mould of the one\nCovenant, and so fatal a folly as the attempt to commit the interests of\nreligion to the keeping of the dissolute and perjured king, Cromwell\nstands in his great toleration of everything but unrighteousness and his\nstrong conviction of three truths:--that the religious life of Great\nBritain and Ireland was too rich and varied for the Covenant: that\nnational and religious interests so complicated and precious could be\ndecided only upon the plainest principles of faith and justice: and\nthat, tested by these principles, Charles II. and his crew were as\nutterly without worth to the nation and as pregnant with destruction, as\nIsaiah felt Assyria and Egypt to be to Judah. The battle-cries of the\ntwo parties at Dunbar are significant of the spiritual difference\nbetween them. That of the Scots was \"The Covenant!\" Cromwell's was\nIsaiah's own, \"The Lord of hosts!\" However logical, religious and\nsincere theirs might be, it was at the best a scheme of men too narrow\nfor events, and fatally compromised by its association with Charles II.\nBut Cromwell's battle-cry required only a moderately sincere faith from\nthose who adopted it, to ensure their victory. For to them it meant just\nwhat it had meant to Isaiah, loyalty to a Divine providence, supreme in\nrighteousness, the willingness to be guided by events, interpreting them\nby no tradition or scheme, but only by conscience. He who understands\nthis will be able to see which side was right in that strange civil war,\nwhere both so sincerely claimed to be Scriptural.\n\nIt may be wondered why we spend so much argument on comparing the\nattempt to force Charles II. into the Solemn League and Covenant with\nthe impious treaty of Judah with the heathen. But the argument has not\nbeen wasted, if it have shown how even sincere and religious men may\nmake covenants with death, and even Church creeds and constitutions\nbecome beds too short that a man may lie upon them, coverings narrower\nthan that he can wrap himself in them. Not once or twice has it happened\nthat an old and hallowed constitution has become, in the providence of\nGod, unfit for the larger life of a people or of a Church, and yet is\nclung to by parties in that Church or people from motives of theological\npedantry or ecclesiastical cowardice. Sooner or later a crisis is sure\nto arrive, in which the defective creed has to match itself against some\ninterest of justice; and then endless compromises have to be\nentertained, that discover themselves perilously like _bargains with\nhell_. If we of this generation have to make a public application of the\ntwenty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, it lies in this direction. There are\nfew things, to which his famous proverb of the short bed can be applied\nmore aptly, than to the attempt to fasten down the religious life and\nthought of the present age too rigorously upon a creed of the fashion of\ntwo or three hundred years ago.\n\nBut Isaiah's words have wider application. Short of faith as he\nexemplified it, there is no possibility for the spirit of man to be free\nfrom uneasiness. It is so all along the scale of human endeavour. No\npower of patience or of hope is his, who cannot imagine possibilities\nof truth outside his own opinions, nor trust a justice larger than his\nprivate rights. It is here very often that the real test of our faith\nmeets us. If we seek to fit life solely to the conception of our\nprivileges, if in the preaching of our opinions no mystery of higher\ntruth awe us at least into reverence and caution; then, whatever\nreligious creeds we profess, we are not men of faith, but shall surely\ninherit the bitterness and turmoil that are the portion of unbelievers.\nIf we make it the chief aim of our politics to drive cheap bargains for\nour trade or to be consistent to party or class interests; if we trim\nour conscience to popular opinion; if we sell our honesty in business or\nour love in marriage, that we may be comfortable in the world; then,\nhowever firmly we be established in reputation or in welfare, we have\ngiven our spiritual nature a support utterly inadequate to its needs,\nand we shall never find rest. Sooner or later, a man must feel the pinch\nof having cut his life short of the demands of conscience. Only a\ngenerous loyalty to her decrees will leave him freedom of heart and room\nfor his arm to swing. Nor will any philosophy, however comprehensive,\nnor poetic fancy, however elastic, be able without the complement of\nfaith to arrange, to account for, or to console us for, the actual facts\nof experience. It is only belief in the God of Isaiah, a true and loving\nGod, omnipotent Ruler of our life, that can bring us peace. There was\nnever a sorrow, that did not find explanation in that, never a tired\nthought, that would not cling to it. There are no interests so scattered\nnor energies so far-reaching that there is not return and rest for them\nunder the shadow of His wings. _He that believeth shall not make haste._\n_Be still_, says a psalm of the same date as Isaiah--_Be still, and know\nthat I am God_.\n\n\nIV. THE ALMIGHTY THE ALL-METHODICAL (vv. 23-29).\n\nThe patience of faith, which Isaiah has so nobly preached, he now\nproceeds to vindicate by reason. But the vindication implies that his\naudience are already in another mood. From confidence in their clever\ndiplomacy, heedless of the fact that God has His own purposes concerning\nthem, they have swung round to despair before His judgements. Their\ndespair, however, is due to the same fault as their careless\nconfidence--the forgetfulness that God works by counsel and method. Even\na calamity, so universal and extreme as that, of whose certainty the\nprophet has now convinced them, has its measure and its term. To\npersuade the crushed and superstitious Jews of this, Isaiah employs a\nparable. \"You know,\" he says, \"the husbandman. Have you ever seen him\nkeep on _harrowing and breaking the clods of his land_ for mere sport,\nand without farther intention? Does not the harrowing time lead to the\nsowing time? Or again, when he threshes his crops, does he thresh for\never? Is threshing the end he has in view? Look, how he varies the\nrigour of his instrument by the kind of plant he threshes. For delicate\nplants, like fitches and cummin, he does not use the _threshing sledge_\nwith the sharp teeth, or the lumbering _roller, but the fitches are\nbeaten out with a staff and the cummin with a rod_. And in the case of\n_bread corn_, which needs _his roller and horses_, he does not use these\nupon it till it is all _crushed to dust_.\" The application of this\nparable is very evident. If the husbandman be so methodical and careful,\nshall the God who taught him not also be so? If the violent treatment of\nland and fruits be so measured and adapted for their greater\nfruitfulness and purity, ought we not to trust God to have the same\nintentions in His violent treatment of His people? Isaiah here returns\nto his fundamental gospel: that the Almighty is the All-methodical, too.\nMen forget this. In their times of activity they think God indifferent;\nthey are too occupied with their own schemes for shaping life, to\nimagine that He has any. In days of suffering, again, when disaster\nbursts, they conceive of God only as force and vengeance. Yet, says\nIsaiah, _Jehovah of hosts is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in that\nsort of wisdom which causes things to succeed_. This last word of the\nchapter is very expressive. It literally means _furtherance, help,\nsalvation_, and then _the true wisdom or insight which ensures these:\nthe wisdom which carries things through_. It splendidly sums up Isaiah's\ngospel to the Jews, cowering like dogs before the coming calamity: God\nis not mere force or vengeance. His judgements are not chaos. But _He is\nwonderful in counsel_, and all His ways have _furtherance_ or\n_salvation_ for their end.\n\nWe have said this is one of the finest prophecies of Isaiah. His\npolitical foresight was admirable, when he alone of his countrymen\npredicted the visitation of Assyria upon Judah. But now, when all are\nconvinced of it, how still more wonderful does he seem facing that novel\ndisaster, with the whole world's force behind it, and declaring its\nlimit. He has not the temptation, so strong in prophets of judgement, to\nbe a mere disaster-monger, and leave judgement on the horizon\nunrelieved. Nor is he afraid, as other predicters of evil have been, of\nthe monster he has summoned to the land. The secret of this is that from\nthe first he predicted the Assyrian invasion, not out of any private\nmalice nor merely by superior political foresight, but because he\nknew--and knew, as he tells us, by the inspiration of God's own\nSpirit--that God required such an instrument to punish the\nunrighteousness of Judah. If the enemy was summoned by God at the first,\nsurely till the last the enemy shall be in God's hand.\n\nTo this enemy we are now to see Isaiah turn with the same message he has\ndelivered to the men of Jerusalem.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n_ATHEISM OF FORCE AND ATHEISM OF FEAR._\n\nISAIAH x. 5-34 (ABOUT 721 B.C.).\n\n\nIn chap. xxviii. Isaiah, speaking in the year 725 when Salmanassar IV.\nwas marching on Samaria, had explained to the politicians of Jerusalem\nhow entirely the Assyrian host was in the hand of Jehovah for the\npunishment of Samaria and the punishment and purification of Judah. The\ninvasion which in that year loomed so awful was not unbridled force of\ndestruction, implying the utter annihilation of God's people, as\nDamascus, Arpad and Hamath had been annihilated. It was Jehovah's\ninstrument for purifying His people, with its appointed term and its\nglorious intentions of fruitfulness and peace.\n\nIn the tenth chapter Isaiah turns with this truth to defy the Assyrian\nhimself. It is four years later. Samaria has fallen. The judgement,\nwhich the prophet spoke upon the luxurious capital, has been fulfilled.\nAll Ephraim is an Assyrian province. Judah stands for the first time\nface to face with Assyria. From Samaria to the borders of Judah is not\nquite two days' march, to the walls of Jerusalem a little over two. Now\nshall the Jews be able to put to the test their prophet's promise! What\ncan possibly prevent Sargon from making Zion as Samaria, and carrying\nher people away in the track of the northern tribes to captivity?\n\nThere was a very fallacious human reason, and there was a very sound\nDivine one.\n\nThe fallacious human reason was the alliance which Ahaz had made with\nAssyria. In what state that alliance now was, does not clearly appear,\nbut the most optimist of the Assyrian party at Jerusalem could not,\nafter all that had happened, be feeling quite comfortable about it. The\nAssyrian was as unscrupulous as themselves. There was too much impetus\nin the rush of his northern floods to respect a tiny province like\nJudah, treaty or no treaty. Besides, Sargon had as good reason to\nsuspect Jerusalem of intriguing with Egypt, as he had against Samaria or\nthe Philistine cities; and the Assyrian kings had already shown their\nmeaning of the covenant with Ahaz by stripping Judah of enormous\ntribute.\n\nSo Isaiah discounts in this prophecy Judah's treaty with Assyria. He\nspeaks as if nothing was likely to prevent the Assyrian's immediate\nmarch upon Jerusalem. He puts into Sargon's mouth the intention of this,\nand makes him boast of the ease with which it can be accomplished (vv.\n7-11). In the end of the prophecy he even describes the probable\nitinerary of the invader from the borders of Judah to his arrival on the\nheights, over against the Holy City (vv. 27 last clause to 32).[31]\n\n  [31] It will be noticed that in the above version a different reading is\n  adopted from the meaningless clause at the end of verse 27 in the\n  English version, out of which a proper heading for the subsequent\n  itinerary has been obtained by Robertson Smith (_Journal of Philology_,\n  1884, p. 62).\n\n_Cometh up from the North the Destroyer._\n\n_He is come upon Ai; marcheth through Migron; at Michmash musters his\nbaggage._\n\n_They have passed through the Pass; \"Let Geba be our bivouac.\"_\n\n_Terror-struck is Ramah; Gibeah of Saul hath fled._\n\n_Make shrill thy voice, O daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! Answer\nher, Anathoth!_\n\n_In mad flight is Madmenah; the dwellers in Gebim gather their stuff to\nflee._\n\n_This very day he halteth at Nob; he waveth his hand at the Mount of the\nDaughter of Zion, the Hill of Jerusalem._\n\nThis is not actual fact; but it is vision of what may take place to-day\nor to-morrow. For there is nothing--not even that miserable treaty--to\nprevent such a violation of Jewish territory, within which, it ought to\nbe kept in mind, lie all the places named by the prophet.\n\nBut the invasion of Judah and the arrival of the Assyrian on the heights\nover against Jerusalem does not mean that the Holy City and the shrine\nof Jehovah of hosts are to be destroyed; does not mean that all the\nprophecies of Isaiah about the security of this rallying-place for the\nremnant of God's people are to be annulled, and Israel annihilated. For\njust at the moment of the Assyrian's triumph, when he brandishes his\nhand over Jerusalem, as if he would harry it like a bird's nest, Isaiah\nbeholds him struck down, and crash like the fall of a whole Lebanon of\ncedars (vv. 33, 34).\n\n_Behold the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, lopping the topmost boughs with a\nsudden crash,_\n\n_And the high ones of stature hewn down, and the lofty are brought low!_\n\n_Yea, He moweth down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon\nby a Mighty One falleth._\n\nAll this is poetry. We are not to suppose that the prophet actually\nexpected the Assyrian to take the route, which he has laid down for him\nwith so much detail. As a matter of fact, Sargon did not advance across\nthe Jewish frontier, but turned away by the coast-land of Philistia to\nmeet his enemy of Egypt, whom he defeated at Rafia, and then went home\nto Nineveh, leaving Judah alone. And, although some twenty years later\nthe Assyrian did appear before Jerusalem, as threatening as Isaiah\ndescribes, and was cut down in as sudden and miraculous a manner, yet it\nwas not by the itinerary Isaiah here marked for him that he came, but in\nquite another direction: from the south-west. What Isaiah merely insists\nupon is that there is nothing in that wretched treaty of Ahaz--that\nfallacious _human_ reason--to keep Sargon from overrunning Judah to the\nvery walls of Jerusalem, but that, even though he does so, there is a\nmost sure _Divine_ reason for the Holy City remaining inviolate.\n\nThe Assyrian expected to take Jerusalem. But he is not his own master.\nThough he knows it not, and his only instinct is that of destruction\n(ver. 7), he is the rod in God's hand. And when God shall have used him\nfor the needed punishment of Judah, then will God visit upon him his\narrogance and brutality. This man, who says he will exploit the whole\nearth as he harries a bird's nest (ver. 14), who believes in nothing but\nhimself, saying, _By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my\nwisdom, for I am prudent_, is but the instrument of God, and all his\nboasting is that of _the axe against him that heweth therewith and of\nthe saw against him that wieldeth it_. _As if_, says the prophet, with a\nscorn still fresh for those who make material force the ultimate power\nin the universe--_As if a rod should shake them that lift it up, or as\nif a staff should lift up him that is not wood_. By the way, Isaiah has\na word for his countrymen. What folly is theirs, who now put all their\ntrust in this world-force, and at another time cower in abject fear\nbefore it! Must he again bid them look higher, and see that Assyria is\nonly the agent in God's work of first punishing the whole land, but\nafterwards redeeming His people! In the midst of denunciation the\nprophet's stern voice breaks into the promise of this later hope (vv.\n24-27_a_); and at last the crash of the fallen Assyrian is scarcely\nstill, before Isaiah has begun to declare a most glorious future of\ngrace for Israel. But this carries us over into the eleventh chapter,\nand we had better first of all gather up the lessons of the tenth.\n\nThis prophecy of Isaiah contains a great Gospel and two great Protests,\nwhich the prophet was enabled to make in the strength of it: one against\nthe Atheism of Force, and one against the Atheism of Fear.\n\nThe Gospel of the chapter is just that which we have already emphasized\nas the gospel _par excellence_ of Isaiah: the Lord exalted in\nrighteousness, God supreme over the supremest men and forces of the\nworld. But we now see it carried to a height of daring not reached\nbefore. This was the first time that any man faced the sovereign force\nof the world in the full sweep of victory, and told himself and his\nfellow-men: \"This is not travelling in the greatness of its own\nstrength, but is simply a dead, unconscious instrument in the hand of\nGod.\" Let us, at the cost of a little repetition, get at the heart of\nthis. We shall find it wonderfully modern.\n\nBelief in God had hitherto been local and circumscribed. Each nation, as\nIsaiah tells us, had walked in the name of its god, and limited his\npower and prevision to its own life and territory. We do not blame the\npeoples for this. Their conception of God was narrow, because their life\nwas narrow, and they confined the power of their deity to their own\nborders because, in fact, their thoughts seldom strayed beyond. But now\nthe barriers, that had so long enclosed mankind in narrow circles, were\nbeing broken down. Men's thoughts travelled through the breaches, and\nlearned that outside their fatherland there lay the world. Their lives\nthereupon widened immensely, but their theologies stood still. They felt\nthe great forces which shook the world, but their gods remained the same\npetty, provincial deities. Then came this great Assyrian power, hurtling\nthrough the nations, laughing at their gods as idols, boasting that it\nwas by his own strength he overcame them, and to simple eyes making good\nhis boast as he harried the whole earth like a bird's nest. No wonder\nthat men's hearts were drawn from the unseen spiritualities to this very\nvisible brutality! No wonder all real faith in the gods seemed to be\ndying out, and that men made it the business of their lives to seek\npeace with this world-force, that was carrying everything, including the\ngods themselves, before it! Mankind was in danger of practical atheism:\nof placing, as Isaiah tells us, the ultimate faith which belongs to a\nrighteous God in this brute force: of substituting embassies for\nprayers, tribute for sacrifice, and the tricks and compromises of\ndiplomacy for the endeavour to live a holy and righteous life. Behold,\nwhat questions were at issue: questions that have come up again and\nagain in the history of human thought, and that are tugging at us to-day\nharder than ever!--whether the visible, sensible forces of the\nuniverse, that break so rudely in upon our primitive theologies, are\nwhat we men have to make our peace with, or whether there is behind them\na Being, who wields them for purposes, far transcending them, of justice\nand of love; whether, in short, we are to be materialists or believers\nin God. It is the same old, ever-new debate. The factors of it have only\nchanged a little as we have become more learned. Where Isaiah felt the\nAssyrians, we are confronted by the evolution of nature and history, and\nthe material forces into which it sometimes looks ominously like as if\nthese could be analysed. Everything that has come forcibly and\ngloriously to the front of things, every drift that appears to dominate\nhistory, all that asserts its claim on our wonder, and offers its own\nsimple and strong solution of our life--is our Assyria. It is precisely\nnow, as then, a rush of new powers across the horizon of our knowledge,\nwhich makes the God, who was sufficient for the narrower knowledge of\nyesterday, seem petty and old-fashioned to-day. This problem no\ngeneration can escape, whose vision of the world has become wider than\nthat of its predecessors. But Isaiah's greatness lay in this: that it\nwas given to him to attack the problem the first time it presented\nitself to humanity with any serious force, and that he applied to it the\nonly sure solution--a more lofty and spiritual view of God than the one\nwhich it had found wanting. We may thus paraphrase his argument: \"Give\nme a God who is more than a national patron, give me a God who cares\nonly for righteousness, and I say that every material force the world\nexhibits is nothing but subordinate to Him. Brute force cannot be\nanything but an instrument, _an axe_, _a saw_, something essentially\nmechanical and in need of an arm to lift it. Postulate a supreme and\nrighteous Ruler of the world, and you not only have all its movements\nexplained, but may rest assured, that it shall only be permitted to\nexecute justice and purify men. The world cannot prevent their\nsalvation, if God have willed this.\"\n\nIsaiah's problem was thus the fundamental one between faith and atheism;\nbut we must notice that it did not arise theoretically, nor did he meet\nit by an abstract proposition. This fundamental religious\nquestion--whether men are to trust in the visible forces of the world or\nin the invisible God--came up as a bit of practical politics. It was not\nto Isaiah a philosophical or theological question. It was an affair in\nthe foreign policy of Judah.\n\nExcept to a few thinkers, the question between materialism and faith\nnever does present itself as one of abstract argument. To the mass of\nmen it is always a question of practical life. Statesmen meet it in\ntheir policies, private persons in the conduct of their fortunes. Few of\nus trouble our heads about an intellectual atheism, but the temptations\nto practical atheism abound unto us all day by day. Materialism never\npresents itself as a mere _ism_; it always takes some concrete form. Our\nAssyria may be the world in Christ's sense, that flood of successful,\nheartless, unscrupulous, scornful forces which burst on our innocence,\nwith their challenge to make terms and pay tribute, or go down\nstraightway in the struggle for existence. Beside their frank and\nforceful demands, how commonplace and irrelevant do the simple precepts\nof religion often seem; and how the great brazen laugh of the world\nseems to bleach the beauty out of purity and honour! According to our\ntemper, we either cower before its insolence, whining that character and\nenergy of struggle and religious peace are impossible against it; and\nthat is the Atheism of Fear, with which Isaiah charged the men of\nJerusalem, when they were paralysed before Assyria. Or we seek to ensure\nourselves against disaster by alliance with the world. We make ourselves\none with it, its subjects and imitators. We absorb the world's temper,\nget to believe in nothing but success, regard men only as they can be\nuseful to us, and think so exclusively of ourselves as to lose the\nfaculty of imagining about us any other right or need or pity. And all\nthat is the Atheism of Force, with which Isaiah charged the Assyrian. It\nis useless to think, that we common men cannot possibly sin after the\ngrand manner of this imperial monster. In our measure we fatally can. In\nthis commercial age private persons very easily rise to a position of\ninfluence, which gives almost as vast a stage for egotism to display\nitself as the Assyrian boasted. But after all the human Ego needs very\nlittle room to develop the possibilities of atheism that are in it. An\nidol is an idol, whether you put it on a small or a large pedestal. A\nlittle man with a little work may as easily stand between himself and\nGod, as an emperor with the world at his feet. Forgetfulness that he is\na servant, a trader on graciously entrusted capital--and then at the\nbest an unprofitable one--is not less sinful in a small egoist than in a\ngreat one; it is only very much more ridiculous, than Isaiah, with his\nscorn, has made it to appear in the Assyrian.\n\nOr our Assyria may be the forces of nature, which have swept upon the\nknowledge of this generation with the novelty and impetus, with which\nthe northern hosts burst across the horizon of Israel. Men to-day, in\nthe course of their education, become acquainted with laws and forces,\nwhich dwarf the simpler theologies of their boyhood, pretty much as the\nprimitive beliefs of Israel dwindled before the arrogant face of\nAssyria. The alternative confronts them either to retain, with a\nnarrowed and fearful heart, their old conceptions of God, or to find\ntheir enthusiasm in studying, and their duty in relating themselves to,\nthe forces of nature alone. If this be the only alternative, there can\nbe no doubt but that most men will take the latter course. We ought as\nlittle to wonder at men of to-day abandoning certain theologies and\nforms of religion for a downright naturalism--for the study of powers\nthat appeal so much to the curiosity and reverence of man--as we wonder\nat the poor Jews of the eighth century before Christ forsaking their\nprovincial conceptions of God as a tribal Deity for homage to this great\nAssyrian, who handled the nations and their gods as his playthings. But\nis such the only alternative? Is there no higher and sovereign\nconception of God, in which even these natural forces may find their\nexplanation and term? Isaiah found such a conception for his problem,\nand his problem was very similar to ours. Beneath his idea of God,\nexalted and spiritual, even the imperial Assyrian, in all his arrogance,\nfell subordinate and serviceable. The prophet's faith never wavered, and\nin the end was vindicated by history. Shall we not at least attempt his\nmethod of solution? We could not do better than by taking his factors.\nIsaiah got a God more powerful than Assyria, by simply _exalting_ the\nold God of his nation _in righteousness_. This Hebrew was saved from the\nterrible conclusion, that the selfish, cruel force which in his day\ncarried all before it was the highest power in life, simply by believing\nrighteousness to be more exalted still. But have twenty-five centuries\nmade any change upon this power, by which Isaiah interpreted history\nand overcame the world? Is righteousness less sovereign now than then,\nor was conscience more imperative when it spoke in Hebrew than when it\nspeaks in English? Among the decrees of nature, at last interpreted for\nus in all their scope and reiterated upon our imaginations by the ablest\nmen of the age, truth, purity and civic justice as confidently assert\ntheir ultimate victory, as when they were threatened merely by the\narrogance of a human despot. The discipline of science and the glories\nof the worship of nature are indeed justly vaunted over the childish and\nnarrow-minded ideas of God, that prevail in much of our average\nChristianity. But more glorious than anything in earth or heaven is\ncharacter, and the adoration of a holy and loving will makes more for\n\"victory and law\" than the discipline or the enthusiasm of science.\nTherefore, if our conceptions of God are overwhelmed by what we know of\nnature, let us seek to enlarge and spiritualize them. Let us insist, as\nIsaiah did, upon His righteousness, until our God once more appear\nindubitably supreme.\n\nOtherwise we are left with the intolerable paradox, that truth and\nhonesty, patience and the love of man to man, are after all but the\nplaythings and victims of force; that, to adapt the words of Isaiah, the\nrod really shakes him who lifts it up, and the staff is wielding that\nwhich is not wood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n_THE SPIRIT OF GOD IN MAN AND THE ANIMALS._\n\nISAIAH xi., xii. (ABOUT 720 B.C.?)\n\n\nBeneath the crash of the Assyrian with which the tenth chapter closes,\nwe pass out into the eleventh upon a glorious prospect of Israel's\nfuture. The Assyrian when he falls shall fall for ever like the cedars\nof Lebanon, that send no fresh sprout forth from their broken stumps.\nBut out of the trunk of the Jud\u00e6an oak, also brought down by these\nterrible storms, Isaiah sees springing a fair and powerful Branch.\nAssyria, he would tell us, has no future. Judah has a future, and at\nfirst the prophet sees it in a scion of her royal house. The nation\nshall be almost exterminated, the dynasty of David hewn to a stump; _yet\nthere shall spring a shoot from the stock of Jesse, and a branch from\nhis roots shall bear fruit_.\n\nThe picture of this future, which fills the eleventh chapter, is one of\nthe most extensive that Isaiah has drawn. Three great prospects are\nunfolded in it: a prospect of mind, a prospect of nature and a prospect\nof history. To begin with, there is (vv. 2-5) the geography of a royal\nmind in its stretches of character, knowledge and achievement. We have\nnext (vv. 5-9) a vision of the restitution of nature, Paradise regained.\nAnd, thirdly (vv. 9-16), there is the geography of Israel's redemption,\nthe coasts and highways along which the hosts of the dispersion sweep up\nfrom captivity to a station of supremacy over the world. To this third\nprospect chapter xii. forms a fitting conclusion, a hymn of praise in\nthe mouth of returning exiles.[32] The human mind, nature and history\nare the three dimensions of life, and across them all the prophet tells\nus that the Spirit of the Lord will fill the future with His marvels of\nrighteousness, wisdom and peace. He presents to us three great ideals:\nthe perfect indwelling of our humanity by the Spirit of God; the peace\nand communion of all nature, covered with the knowledge of God; the\ntraversing of all history by the Divine purposes of redemption.\n\n  [32] The authenticity of this hymn has been called in question.\n\n\nI. THE MESSIAH AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD (xi. 1-5).\n\nThe first form, in which Isaiah sees Israel's longed-for future\nrealised, is that which he so often exalts and makes glistering upon the\nthreshold of the future--the form of a king. It is a peculiarity, which\nwe cannot fail to remark about Isaiah's scattered representations of\nthis brilliant figure, that they have no connecting link. They do not\nallude to one another, nor employ a common terminology, even the word\n_king_ dropping out of some of them. The earliest of the series bestows\na name on the Messiah, which none of the others repeat, nor does Isaiah\nsay in any of them, This is He of whom I have spoken before. Perhaps the\ndisconnectedness of these oracles is as strong a proof as is necessary\nof the view we have formed that throughout his ministry our prophet had\nbefore him no distinct, identical individual, but rather an ideal of\nvirtue and kinghood, whose features varied according to the conditions\nof the time. In this chapter Isaiah recalls nothing of Immanuel, or of\nthe Prince-of-the-Four-Names. Nevertheless (besides for the first time\nderiving the Messiah from the house of David), he carries his\ndescription forward to a stage which lies beyond and to some extent\nimplies his two previous portraits. Immanuel was only a Sufferer with\nHis people in the day of their oppression. The Prince-of-the-Four-Names\nwas the Redeemer of his people from their captivity, and stepped to his\nthrone not only after victory, but with the promise of a long and just\ngovernment shining from the titles by which He was proclaimed. But now\nIsaiah not only speaks at length of this peaceful reign--a chronological\nadvance--but describes his hero so inwardly that we also feel a certain\nspiritual advance. The Messiah is no more a mere experience, as Immanuel\nwas, nor only outward deed and promise, like the Prince-of-the-Four-Names,\nbut at last, and very strongly, _a character_. The second verse is the\ndefinition of this character; the third describes the atmosphere in\nwhich it lives. _And there shall rest upon him the Spirit of Jehovah,\nthe spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,\nthe spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah; and he shall draw breath\nin the fear of Jehovah_--in other words, ripeness but also sharpness of\nmind; moral decision and heroic energy; piety in its two forms of\nknowing the will of God and feeling the constraint to perform it. We\ncould not have a more concise summary of the strong elements of a ruling\nmind. But it is only as Judge and Ruler that Isaiah cares here to think\nof his hero. Nothing is said of the tender virtues, and we feel that the\nprophet still stands in the days of the need of inflexible government\nand purgation in Judah.\n\nDean Plumptre has plausibly suggested, that these verses may represent\nthe programme which Isaiah set before his pupil Hezekiah on his\naccession to the charge of a nation, whom his weak predecessor had\nsuffered to lapse into such abuse of justice and laxity of morals.[33]\nThe acts of government described are all of a punitive and repressive\ncharacter. The hero speaks only to make the land tremble: _And He shall\nsmite the land[34] with the rod of His mouth_ [what need, after the\nwhispering, indecisive Ahaz!], _and with the breath of His lips shall He\nslay the wicked_.\n\n  [33] Dean Plumptre notes the identity of the ethical terminology of this\n  passage with that of the book of Proverbs, and conjectures that the\n  additions to the original nucleus, chaps. x.-xxiv., and therefore the\n  whole form, of the book of Proverbs, may be due to the editorship of\n  Isaiah, and perhaps was the manual of ethics, on which he sought to\n  mould the character of Hezekiah (_Expositor_, series ii., v., p. 213).\n\n  [34] Perhaps for _land--'arets_--we ought, with Lagarde, to read\n  _tyrant--'arits_.\n\nThis, though a fuller and more ethical picture of the Messiah than even\nthe ninth chapter, is evidently wanting in many of the traits of a\nperfect man. Isaiah has to grow in his conception of his Hero, and will\ngrow as the years go on, in tenderness. His thirty-second chapter is a\nmuch richer, a more gracious and humane picture of the Messiah. There\nthe Victor of the ninth and righteous Judge of the eleventh chapters is\nrepresented as _a Man_, who shall not only punish but protect, and not\nonly reign but inspire, who shall be life as well as victory and justice\nto His people--_an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the\ntempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great\nrock in a weary land_.\n\nA conception so limited to the qualifications of an earthly monarch, as\nthis of chap. xi., gives us no ground for departing from our previous\nconclusion, that Isaiah had not a \"supernatural\" personality in his\nview. The Christian Church, however, has not confined the application of\nthe passage to earthly kings and magistrates, but has seen its perfect\nfulfilment in the indwelling of Christ's human nature by the Holy Ghost.\nBut it is remarkable, that for this exegesis she has not made use of the\nmost \"supernatural\" of the details of character here portrayed. If the\nOld Testament has a phrase for sinlessness, that phrase occurs here, in\nthe beginning of the third verse. In the authorized English version it\nis translated, _and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of\nthe Lord_, and in the Revised Version, _His delight shall be in the fear\nof the Lord_, and on the margin the literal meaning of _delight_ is\ngiven as _scent_. But the phrase may as well mean, _He shall draw his\nbreath in the fear of the Lord_; and it is a great pity, that our\nrevisers have not even on the margin given to English readers any\nsuggestion of so picturesque, and probably so correct, a rendering. It\nis a most expressive definition of sinlessness--sinlessness which was\nthe attribute of Christ alone. We, however purely intentioned we be, are\ncompassed about by an atmosphere of sin. We cannot help breathing what\nnow inflames our passions, now chills our warmest feelings, and makes\nour throats incapable of honest testimony or glorious praise. As oxygen\nto a dying fire, so the worldliness we breathe is to the sin within us.\nWe cannot help it; it is the atmosphere into which we are born. But from\nthis Christ alone of men was free. He was His own atmosphere, _drawing\nbreath in the fear of the Lord_. Of Him alone is it recorded, that,\nthough living in the world, He was never infected with the world's sin.\nThe blast of no man's cruelty ever kindled unholy wrath within His\nbreast; nor did men's unbelief carry to His soul its deadly chill. Not\neven when He was led of the devil into the atmosphere of temptation, did\nHis heart throb with one rebellious ambition. Christ _drew breath in the\nfear of the Lord_.\n\nBut draughts of this atmosphere are possible to us also, to whom the\nHoly Spirit is granted. We too, who sicken with the tainted breath of\nsociety, and see the characters of children about us fall away and the\nhidden evil within leap to swift flame before the blasts of the\nworld--we too may, by Christ's grace, _draw breath_, like Him, _in the\nfear of the Lord_. Recall some day when, leaving your close room and the\nsmoky city, you breasted the hills of God, and into opened lungs drew\ndeep draughts of the fresh air of heaven. What strength it gave your\nbody, and with what a glow of happiness your mind was filled! What that\nis physically, Christ has made possible for us men morally. He has\nrevealed stretches and eminences of life, where, following in His\nfootsteps, we also shall draw for our breath the fear of God. This air\nis inspired up every steep hill of effort, and upon all summits of\nworship. In the most passion-haunted air, prayer will immediately bring\nthis atmosphere about a man, and on the wings of praise the poorest soul\nmay rise from the miasma of temptation, and sing forth her song into the\nazure with as clear a throat as the lark's.\n\nAnd what else is heaven to be, if not this? God, we are told, shall be\nits Sun; but its atmosphere shall be His fear, _which is clean and\nendureth for ever_. Heaven seems most real as a moral open-air, where\nevery breath is an inspiration, and every pulse a healthy joy, where no\nthoughts from within us find breath but those of obedience and praise,\nand all our passions and aspirations are of the will of God. He that\nlives near to Christ, and by Christ often seeks God in prayer, may\ncreate for himself even on earth such a heaven, _perfecting holiness in\nthe fear of God_.\n\n\nII. THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD (xi. 2, 3).\n\nThis passage, which suggests so much of Christ, is also for Christian\nTheology and Art a classical passage on the Third Person of the Trinity.\nIf the texts in the book of Revelation (chaps. i. 4; iii. 1; iv. 5; v.\n6) upon the Seven Spirits of God were not themselves founded on this\ntext of Isaiah, it is certain that the Church immediately began to\ninterpret them by its details. While there are only six spirits of God\nnamed here--three pairs--yet, in order to complete the perfect number,\nthe exegesis of early Christianity sometimes added _the Spirit of the\nLord_ at the beginning of verse 2 as the central branch of a\nseven-branched candlestick; or sometimes _the quick understanding in the\nfear of the Lord_ in the beginning of verse 3 was attached as the\nseventh branch. (Compare Zech. iv. 6.)\n\nIt is remarkable that there is almost no single text of Scripture, which\nhas more impressed itself upon Christian doctrine and symbol than this\nsecond verse of the eleventh chapter, interpreted as a definition of the\nSeven Spirits of God. In the theology, art and worship of the Middle\nAges it dominated the expression of the work of the Holy Ghost. First,\nand most native to its origin, arose the employment of this text at the\ncoronation of kings and the fencing of tribunals of justice. What Isaiah\nwrote for Hezekiah of Judah became the official prayer, song or ensample\nof the earliest Christian kings in Europe. It is evidently the model of\nthat royal hymn--not by Charlemagne, as usually supposed, but by his\ngrandson Charles the Bald--the _Veni Creator Spiritus_. In a Greek\nminiature of the tenth century, the Holy Spirit, as a dove, is seen\nhovering over King David, who displays the prayer: _Give the king Thy\njudgements, O God, and Thy righteousness to the king's son_, while there\nstand on either side of him the figures of Wisdom and Prophecy.[35]\nHenry III.'s order of knighthood, \"Du Saint Esprit,\" was restricted to\npolitical men, and particularly to magistrates. But perhaps the most\ninteresting identification of the Holy Spirit with the rigorous virtues\nof our passage occurs in a story of St. Dunstan, who, just before mass\non the day of Pentecost, discovered that three coiners, who had been\nsentenced to death, were being respited till the Festival of the Holy\nGhost should be over. \"It shall not be thus,\" cried the indignant saint,\nand gave orders for their immediate execution. There was remonstrance,\nbut he, no doubt with the eleventh of Isaiah in mind, insisted, and was\nobeyed. \"I now hope,\" he said, resuming the mass, \"that God will be\npleased to accept the sacrifice I am about to offer.\" \"Whereupon,\" says\nthe veracious _Acts of the Saints_, \"a snow-white dove did, in the\nvision of many, descend from heaven, and until the sacrifice was\ncompleted remain above his head in silence, with wings extended and\nmotionless.\" Which may be as much legend as we have the heart to make\nit, but nevertheless remains a sure proof of the association, by\ndiscerning medi\u00e6vals who could read their Scriptures, of the Holy Spirit\nwith the decisiveness and rigorous justice of Isaiah's \"mirror for\nmagistrates.\"[36]\n\n  [35] Didron, _Christian Iconography_, Engl. trans., i., 432.\n\n  [36] Didron, _Christian Iconography_, Engl. trans., i., 426.\n\nBut the influence of our passage may be followed to that wider\ndefinition of the Spirit's work, which made Him the Fountain of all\nintelligence. The Spirits of the Lord mentioned by Isaiah are\nprevailingly intellectual; and the medi\u00e6val Church, using the details of\nthis passage to interpret Christ's own intimation of the Paraclete as\nthe Spirit of truth,--remembering also the story of Pentecost, when the\nSpirit bestowed the gifts of tongues, and the case of Stephen, who, in\nthe triumph of his eloquence and learning, was said to be full of the\nHoly Ghost,--did regard, as Gregory of Tours expressly declared, the\nHoly Spirit as the \"God of the intellect more than of the heart.\" All\nCouncils were opened by a mass to the Holy Ghost, and few, who have\nexamined with care the windows of medi\u00e6val churches, will have failed to\nbe struck with the frequency with which the Dove is seen descending upon\nthe heads of miraculously learned persons, or presiding at discussions,\nor hovering over groups of figures representing the sciences.[37] To the\nmedi\u00e6val Church, then, the Holy Spirit was the Author of the intellect,\nmore especially of the governing and political intellect; and there can\nbe little doubt, after a study of the variations of this doctrine, that\nthe first five verses of the eleventh of Isaiah formed upon it the\nclassical text of appeal. To Christians, who have been accustomed by the\nuse of the word _Comforter_ to associate the Spirit only with the\ngentle and consoling influences of heaven, it may seem strange to find\nHis energy identified with the stern rigour of the magistrate. But in\nits practical, intelligent and reasonable uses the medi\u00e6val doctrine is\ngreatly to be preferred, on grounds both of Scripture and common-sense,\nto those two comparatively modern corruptions of it, one of which\nemphasizes the Spirit's influence in the exclusive operation of the\ngrace of orders, and the other, driving to an opposite extreme,\ndissipates it into the vaguest religiosity. It is one of the curiosities\nof Christian theology, that a Divine influence, asserted by Scripture\nand believed by the early Church to manifest itself in the successful\nconduct of civil offices and the fulness of intellectual learning,\nshould in these latter days be so often set up in a sort of\n\"supernatural\" opposition to practical wisdom and the results of\nscience. But we may go back to Isaiah for the same kind of correction on\nthis doctrine, as he has given us on the doctrine of faith; and while we\ndo not forget the richer meaning the New Testament bestows on the\noperation of the Divine Spirit, we may learn from the Hebrew prophet to\nseek the inspiration of the Holy Ghost in all the endeavours of science,\nand not to forget that it is His guidance alone which enables us to\nsucceed in the conduct of our offices and fortunes.\n\n  [37] See Didron for numerous interesting instances of this.\n\n\nIII. THE REDEMPTION OF NATURE (xi. 6-9).\n\nBut Isaiah will not be satisfied with the establishment of a strong\ngovernment in the land and the redemption of human society from chaos.\nHe prophesies the redemption of all nature as well. It is one of those\nerrors, which distort both the poetry and truth of the Bible, to suppose\nthat by the bears, lions and reptiles which the prophet now sees tamed\nin the time of the regeneration, he intends the violent human characters\nwhich he so often attacks. When Isaiah here talks of the beasts, he\nmeans the beasts. The passage is not allegorical, but direct, and forms\na parallel to the well-known passage in the eighth of Romans. Isaiah and\nPaul, chief apostles of the two covenants, both interrupt their\nmagnificent odes upon the outpouring of the Spirit, to remind us that\nthe benefits of this will be shared by the brute and unintelligent\ncreation. And, perhaps, there is no finer contrast in the Scriptures\nthan here, where beside so majestic a description of the intellectual\nfaculties of humanity Isaiah places so charming a picture of the\ndocility and sportfulness of wild animals,--_And a little child shall\nlead them_.\n\nWe, who live in countries, from which wild beasts have been\nexterminated, cannot understand the insecurity and terror, that they\ncause in regions where they abound. A modern seer of the times of\nregeneration would leave the wild animals out of his vision. They do not\nimpress any more the human conscience or imagination. But they once did\nso most terribly. The hostility between man and the beasts not only\nformed once upon a time the chief material obstacle in the progress of\nthe race, but remains still to the religious thinker the most pathetic\nportion of that groaning and travailing of all creation, which is so\nheavy a burden on his heart. Isaiah, from his ancient point of view, is\nin thorough accord with the order of civilisation, when he represents\nthe subjugation of wild animals as the first problem of man, after he\nhas established a strong government in the land. So far from rhetorizing\nor allegorizing--above which literary forms it would appear to be\nimpossible for the appreciation of some of his commentators to follow\nhim--Isaiah is earnestly celebrating a very real moment in the laborious\nprogress of mankind. Isaiah stands where Hercules stood, and Theseus,\nand Arthur when\n\n    \"There grew great tracts of wilderness,\n  Wherein the beast was ever more and more,\n  But man was less and less till Arthur came.\n                                And he drave\n  The heathen, and he slew the beast, and felled\n  The forest, and let in the sun, and made\n  Broad pathways for the hunter and the knight,\n  And so returned.\"\n\nBut Isaiah would solve the grim problem of the warfare between man and\nhis lower fellow-creatures in a very different way from that, of which\nthese heroes have set the example to humanity. Isaiah would not have the\nwild beasts exterminated, but tamed. There our Western and modern\nimagination may fail to follow him, especially when he includes reptiles\nin the regeneration, and prophesies of adders and lizards as the\nplaythings of children. But surely there is no genial man, who has\nwatched the varied forms of life that sport in the Southern sunshine,\nwho will not sympathize with the prophet in his joyous vision. Upon a\nwarm spring day in Palestine, to sit upon the grass, beside some old\ndyke or ruin with its face to the south, is indeed to obtain a rapturous\nview of the wealth of life, with which the bountiful God has blessed and\nmade merry man's dwelling-place. How the lizards come and go among the\ngrey stones, and flash like jewels in the dust! And the timid snake\nrippling quickly past through the grass, and the leisurely tortoise,\nwith his shiny back, and the chameleon, shivering into new colour as he\npasses from twig to stone and stone to straw,--all the air the while\nalive with the music of the cricket and the bee! You feel that the ideal\nis not to destroy these pretty things as vermin. What a loss of colour\nthe lizards alone would imply! But, as Isaiah declares,--whom we may\nimagine walking with his children up the steep vineyard paths, to watch\nthe creatures come and go upon the dry dykes on either hand,--the ideal\nis to bring them into sympathy with ourselves, make pets of them and\nplaythings for children, who indeed stretch out their hands in joy to\nthe pretty toys. Why should we need to fight with, or destroy, any of\nthe happy life the Lord has created? Why have we this loathing to it,\nand need to defend ourselves from it, when there is so much suffering we\ncould cure, and so much childlikeness we could amuse and be amused by,\nand yet it will not let us near? To these questions there is not another\nanswer but the answer of the Bible: that this curse of conflict and\ndistrust between man and his fellow-creatures is due to man's sin, and\nshall only be done away by man's redemption.\n\nNor is this Bible answer,--of which the book of Genesis gives us the one\nend, and this text of Isaiah the other,--a mere pious opinion, which the\ntrue history of man's dealing with wild beasts by extermination proves\nto be impracticable. We may take on scientific authority a few facts as\nhints from nature, that after all man is to blame for the wildness of\nthe beasts, and that through his sanctification they may be restored to\nsympathy with himself. Charles Darwin says: \"It deserves notice, that at\nan extremely ancient period, when man first entered any country the\nanimals living there would have felt no instinctive or inherited fear of\nhim, and would consequently have been tamed far more easily than at\npresent.\" And he gives some very instructive facts in proof of this with\nregard to dogs, antelopes, manatees and hawks. \"Quadrupeds and birds\nwhich have seldom been disturbed by man dread him no more than do our\nEnglish birds the cows or horses grazing in the fields.\"[38] Darwin's\ndetails are peculiarly pathetic in their revelation of the brutes' utter\ntrustfulness in man, before they get to know him. Persons, who have had\nto do with individual animals of a species that has never been\nthoroughly tamed, are aware that the difficulty of training them lies in\nconvincing them of our sincerity and good-heartedness, and that when\nthis is got over they will learn almost any trick or habit. The\nwell-known lines of Burns to the field-mouse gather up the cause of all\nthis in a fashion very similar to the Bible's.\n\n  [38] Darwin, _Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication_, pp.\n  20, 21.\n\n  \"I'm truly sorry man's dominion\n  Has broken nature's social union,\n  And justifies that ill opinion,\n      Which makes thee startle\n  At me, thy poor earth-born companion\n      And fellow-mortal.\"\n\nHow much the appeal of suffering animals to man--the look of a wounded\nhorse or dog with a meaning which speech would only spoil, the tales of\nbeasts of prey that in pain have turned to man as their physician, the\napproach of the wildest birds in winter to our feet as their\nProvidence--how much all these prove Paul's saying that the _earnest\nexpectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of\nGod_. And we have other signals, than those afforded by the pain and\npressure of the beasts themselves, of the time when they and man shall\nsympathize. The natural history of many of our breeds of domesticated\nanimals teaches us the lesson that their growth in skill and\ncharacter--no one who has enjoyed the friendship of several dogs will\ndispute the possibility of character in the lower animals--has been\nproportionate to man's own. Though savages are fond of keeping and\ntaming animals, they fail to advance them to the stages of cunning and\ndiscipline, which animals reach under the influence of civilised\nman.[39] \"No instance is on record,\" says Darwin, \"of such dogs as\nbloodhounds, spaniels or true greyhounds having been kept by savages;\nthey are the products of long-continued civilisation.\"\n\n  [39] Galton, quoted by Darwin.\n\nThese facts, if few, certainly bear in the direction of Isaiah's\nprophecy, that not by extermination of the beasts, but by the influence\nupon them of man's greater force of character, may that warfare be\nbrought to an end, of which man's sin, according to the Bible, is the\noriginal cause.\n\nThe practical \"uses\" of such a passage of Scripture as this are plain.\nSome of them are the awful responsibility of man's position as the\nkeystone of creation, the material effects of sin, and especially the\nreligiousness of our relation to the lower animals. More than once do\nthe Hebrew prophets liken the Almighty's dealings with man to merciful\nman's dealings with his beasts.[40] Both Isaiah and Paul virtually\ndeclare that man discharges to the lower creatures a mediatorial office.\nTo say so will of course seem an exaggeration to some people, but not to\nthose who, besides being grateful to remember what help in labour and\ncheer in dreariness we owe our humble fellow-creatures, have been\nfortunate enough to enjoy the affection and trust of a dumb friend. Men\nwho abuse the lower animals sin very grievously against God; men who\nneglect them lose some of the religious possibilities of life. If it is\nour business in life to have the charge of animals, we should magnify\nour calling. Every coachman and carter ought to feel something of the\npriest about him; he should think no amount of skill and patience too\nheavy if it enables him to gain insight into the nature of creatures of\nGod, all of whose hope, by Scripture and his own experience, is towards\nhimself.\n\n  [40] Isa. lxiii. 13, 14; Hos. xi. 4.\n\nOur relation to the lower animals is one of the three great relations of\nour nature. For God our worship; for man our service; for the beasts our\nprovidence, and according both to Isaiah and Paul, the mediation of our\nholiness.\n\n\nIV. THE RETURN AND SOVEREIGNTY OF ISRAEL (xi. 10-16).\n\nIn passing from the second to the third part of this prophecy, we cannot\nbut feel that we descend to a lower point of view and a less pure\natmosphere of spiritual ambition. Isaiah, who has just declared peace\nbetween man and beast, finds that Judah must clear off certain scores\nagainst her neighbours before there can be peace between man and man. It\nis an interesting psychological study. The prophet, who has been able to\nshake off man's primeval distrust and loathing of wild animals, cannot\ndivest himself of the political tempers of his age. He admits, indeed,\nthe reconciliation of Ephraim and Judah; but the first act of the\nreconciled brethren, he prophesies with exultation, will be to _swoop\ndown upon_ their cousins Edom, Moab and Ammon, and their neighbours the\nPhilistines. We need not longer dwell on this remarkable limitation of\nthe prophet's spirit, except to point out that while Isaiah clearly saw\nthat Israel's own purity would not be perfected except by her political\ndebasement, he could not as yet perceive any way for the conversion of\nthe rest of the world except through Israel's political supremacy.\n\nThe prophet, however, is more occupied with an event preliminary to\nIsrael's sovereignty, namely the return from exile. His large and\nemphatic assertions remind the not yet captive Judah through how much\ncaptivity she has to pass before she can see the margin of the blessed\nfuture which he has been describing to her. Isaiah's words imply a much\nmore general captivity than had taken place by the time he spoke them,\nand we see that he is still keeping steadily in view that thorough\nreduction of his people, to the prospect of which he was forced in his\ninaugural vision. Judah has to be dispersed, even as Ephraim has been,\nbefore the glories of this chapter shall be realized.\n\nWe postpone further treatment of this prophecy, along with the hymn\n(chap. xii.), which is attached to it, to a separate chapter, dealing\nwith all the representations, which the first half of the book of Isaiah\ncontains, of the return from exile.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n_DRIFTING TO EGYPT._\n\nISAIAH xx.; xxi. 1-10; xxxviii.; xxxix.\n\n(720-705 B.C.).\n\n\nFrom 720, when chap. xi. may have been published, to 705--or, by rough\nreckoning, from the fortieth to the fifty-fifth year of Isaiah's\nlife--we cannot be sure that we have more than one prophecy from him;\nbut two narratives have found a place in his book which relate events\nthat must have taken place between 712 and 705. These narratives are\nchap. xx.: How Isaiah Walked Stripped and Barefoot for a Sign against\nEgypt, and chaps. xxxviii. and xxxix.: The Sickness of Hezekiah, with\nthe Hymn he wrote, and his Behaviour before the Envoys from Babylon. The\nsingle prophecy belonging to this period is chap. xxi. 1-10, _Oracle of\nthe Wilderness of the Sea_, which announces the fall of Babylon. There\nhas been considerable debate about the authorship of this oracle, but\nCheyne, mainly following Dr. Kleinert, gives substantial reasons for\nleaving it with Isaiah. We postpone the full exposition of chaps.\nxxxviii., xxxix., to a later stage, as here it would only interrupt the\nhistory. But we will make use of chaps. xx. and xxi. 1-10 in the course\nof the following historical sketch, which is intended to connect the\nfirst great period of Isaiah's prophesying, 740-720, with the second,\n705-701.\n\nAll these fifteen years, 720-705, Jerusalem was drifting to the refuge\ninto which she plunged at the end of them--drifting to Egypt. Ahaz had\nfirmly bound his people to Assyria, and in his reign there was no talk\nof an Egyptian alliance. But in 725, when the _overflowing scourge_ of\nAssyrian invasion threatened to sweep into Judah as well as Samaria,\nIsaiah's words give us some hint of a recoil in the politics of\nJerusalem towards the southern power. The _covenants with death and\nhell_, which the men of scorn flaunted in his face as he harped on the\ndanger from Assyria, may only have been the old treaties with Assyria\nherself, but the _falsehood and lies_ that went with them were most\nprobably intrigues with Egypt. Any Egyptian policy, however, that may\nhave formed in Jerusalem before 719, was entirely discredited by the\ncrushing defeat, which in that year Sargon inflicted upon the empire of\nthe Nile, almost on her own borders, at Rafia.\n\nYears of quietness for Palestine followed this decisive battle. Sargon,\nwhose annals engraved on the great halls of Khorsabad enable us to read\nthe history of the period year by year, tells us that his next campaigns\nwere to the north of his empire, and till 711 he alludes to Palestine\nonly to say that tribute was coming in regularly, or to mention the\ndeportation to Hamath or Samaria of some tribe he had conquered far\naway. Egypt, however, was everywhere busy among his feudatories.\nIntrigue was Egypt's _forte_. She is always represented in Isaiah's\npages as the talkative power of many promises. Her fair speech was very\nsweet to men groaning beneath the military pressure of Assyria. Her\nsplendid past, in conjunction with the largeness of her promise,\nexcited the popular imagination. Centres of her influence gathered in\nevery state. An Egyptian party formed in Jerusalem. Their intrigue\npushed mines in all directions, and before the century was out the\nAssyrian peace in Western Asia was broken by two great Explosions. The\nfirst of these, in 711, was local and abortive; the second, in 705, was\nuniversal, and for a time entirely destroyed the Assyrian supremacy.\n\nThe centre of the Explosion of 711 was Ashdod, a city of the\nPhilistines. The king had suddenly refused to continue the Assyrian\ntribute, and Sargon had put another king in his place. But the\npeople--in Ashdod, as everywhere else, it was the people who were\nfascinated by Egypt--pulled down the Assyrian puppet and elevated Iaman,\na friend to Pharaoh. The other cities of the Philistines, with Moab,\nEdom and Judah, were prepared by Egyptian promise to throw in their lot\nwith the rebels. Sargon gave them no time. \"In the wrath of my heart, I\ndid not divide my army, and I did not diminish the ranks, but I marched\nagainst Asdod with my warriors, who did not separate themselves from the\ntraces of my sandals. I besieged, I took, Asdod and Gunt-Asdodim.... I\nthen made again these towns. I placed the people whom my arm had\nconquered. I put over them my lieutenant as governor. I considered them\nlike Assyrians, and they practised obedience.\"[41] It is upon this\ncampaign of Sargon that Mr. Cheyne argues for the invasion of Judah, to\nwhich he assigns so many of Isaiah's prophecies, as, _e.g._, chaps. i.\nand x. 5-34. Some day Assyriology may give us proof of this supposition.\nWe are without it just now. Sargon speaks no word of invading Judah,\nand the only part of the book of Isaiah that unmistakably refers to this\ntime is the picturesque narrative of chap. xx.\n\n  [41] _Records of the Past_, vii., 40.\n\nIn this we are told that _in the year_ the _Tartan_, the Assyrian\ncommander-in-chief, _came to Ashdod when Sargon king of Assyria sent\nhim_ [that is to be supposed the year of the first revolt in Ashdod, to\nwhich Sargon himself did not come], _and he fought against Ashdod and\ntook it:--in that time Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Isaiah the son\nof Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth_, the prophet's robe, _from\noff thy loins, and thy sandal strip from off thy foot; and he did so,\nwalking naked_, that is unfrocked, _and barefoot_. For Egyptian intrigue\nwas already busy; the temporary success of the Tartan at Ashdod did not\ndiscourage it, and it needed a protest. _And Jehovah said, As My servant\nIsaiah hath walked unfrocked and barefoot three years for a sign and a\nportent against Egypt and against Ethiopia_ [note the double name, for\nthe country was now divided between two rulers, the secret of her\nimpotence to interfere forcibly in Palestine] _so shall the king of\nAssyria lead away the captives of Egypt and exiles of Ethiopia, young\nand old, stripped and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the\nshame of Egypt. And they shall be dismayed and ashamed, because of\nEthiopia their expectation and because of Egypt their boast. And the\ninhabitant of this coastland_ [that is, all Palestine, and a name for it\nremarkably similar to the phrase used by Sargon, \"the people of\nPhilistia, Judah, Edom and Moab, dwelling by the sea\"[42]] _shall say in\nthat day, Behold, such is our expectation, whither we had fled for help\nto deliver ourselves from the king of Assyria, and how shall we\nescape--we?_\n\n  [42] Cheyne.\n\nThis parade of Isaiah for three years, unfrocked and barefoot, is\nanother instance of that habit on which we remarked in connection with\nchap. viii. 1: the habit of finally carrying everything committed to him\nbefore the bar of the whole nation. It was to the mass of the people God\nsaid, _Come and let us reason together._ Let us not despise Isaiah in\nhis shirt any more than we do Diogenes in his tub, or with a lantern in\nhis hand, seeking for a man by its rays at noonday. He was bent on\nstartling the popular conscience, because he held it true that a\npeople's own morals have greater influence on their destinies than the\npolicies of their statesmen. But especially anxious was Isaiah, as we\nshall again see from chap. xxxi., to bring this Egyptian policy home to\nthe popular conscience. Egypt was a big-mouthed, blustering power,\nbelieved in by the mob: to expose her required public, picturesque and\npersistent advertisement. So Isaiah continued his walk for three years.\nThe fall of Ashdod, left by Egypt to itself, did not disillusion the\nJews, and the rapid disappearance of Sargon to another part of his\nempire where there was trouble, gave the Egyptians audacity to continue\ntheir intrigues against him.[43]\n\n  [43] W. R. Smith, _Prophets of Israel_, p. 282.\n\nSargon's new trouble had broken out in Babylon, and was much more\nserious than any revolt in Syria. Merodach Baladan, king of Chaldea, was\nno ordinary vassal, but as dangerous a rival as Egypt. When he rose, it\nmeant a contest between Babylon and Nineveh for the sovereignty of the\nworld. He had long been preparing for war. He had an alliance with Elam,\nand the tribes of Mesopotamia were prepared for his signal of revolt.\nAmong the charges brought against him by Sargon is that, \"against the\nwill of the gods of Babylon, he had sent during twelve years\nambassadors.\" One of these embassies may have been that which came to\nHezekiah after his great sickness (chap. xxxix.). _And Hezekiah was glad\nof them, and showed them the house of his spicery, the silver, and the\ngold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the house of his\narmour and all that was found in his treasures; there was nothing in his\nhouse nor in all his dominion that Hezekiah showed them not._ Isaiah was\nindignant. He had hitherto kept the king from formally closing with\nEgypt; now he found him eager for an alliance with another of the powers\nof man. But instead of predicting the captivity of Babylon, as he\npredicted the captivity of Egypt, by the hand of Assyria, Isaiah\ndeclared, according to chap. xxxix., that Babylon would some day take\nIsrael captive; and Hezekiah had to content himself with the prospect\nthat this calamity was not to happen in his time.\n\nIsaiah's prediction of the exile of Israel to Babylon is a matter of\ndifficulty. The difficulty, however, is not that of conceiving how he\ncould have foreseen an event which took place more than a century later.\nEven in 711 Babylon was not an unlikely competitor for the supremacy of\nthe nations. Sargon himself felt that it was a crisis to meet her. Very\nlittle might have transferred the seat of power from the Tigris to the\nEuphrates. What, therefore, more probable than that when Hezekiah\ndisclosed to these envoys the whole state of his resources, and excused\nhimself by saying _that they were come from a far country, even\nBabylon_, Isaiah, seized by a strong sense of how near Babylon stood to\nthe throne of the nations, should laugh to scorn the excuse of\ndistance, and tell the king that his anxiety to secure an alliance had\nonly led him to place the temptation to rob him in the face of a power\nthat was certainly on the way to be able to do it? No, the difficulty is\nnot that the prophet foretold a captivity of the Jews in Babylon, but\nthat we cannot reconcile what he says of that captivity with his\nintimation of the immediate destruction of Babylon, which has come down\nto us in chap. xxi. 1-10.\n\nIn this prophecy Isaiah regards Babylon as he has been regarding\nEgypt--certain to go down before Assyria, and therefore wholly\nunprofitable to Judah. If the Jews still thought of returning to Egypt\nwhen Sargon hurried back from completing her discomfiture in order to\nbeset Babylon, Isaiah would tell them it was no use. Assyria has brought\nher full power to bear on the Babylonians; Elam and Media are with her.\nHe travails with pain for the result. Babylon is not expecting a siege;\nbut _preparing the table, eating and drinking_, when suddenly the cry\nrings through her, \"_Arise, ye princes; anoint the shield._ The enemy is\nupon us.\" So terrible and so sudden a warrior is this Sargon! At his\nwords nations move; when he saith, _Go up, O Elam! Besiege, O Media!_ it\nis done. And he falls upon his foes before their weapons are ready. Then\nthe prophet shrinks back from the result of his imagination of how it\nhappened--for that is too painful--upon the simple certainty, which God\nrevealed to him, that it must happen. As surely as Sargon's columns went\nagainst Babylon, so surely must the message return that Babylon has\nfallen. Isaiah puts it this way. The Lord bade him get on his\nwatchtower--that is his phrase for observing the signs of the times--and\nspeak whatever he saw. And he saw a military column on the march: _a\ntroop of horsemen by pairs, a troop of asses, a troop of camels_. It\npassed him out of sight, _and he hearkened very diligently_ for news.\nBut none came. It was a long campaign. _And he cried like a lion_ for\nimpatience, _O my Lord, I stand continually upon the watchtower by day,\nand am set in my ward every night_. Till at last, _behold, there came a\ntroop of men, horsemen in pairs, and_ now _one answered and said,\nFallen, fallen is Babylon, and all the images of her gods he hath broken\nto the ground_. The meaning of this very elliptical passage is just\nthis: as surely as the prophet saw Sargon's columns go out against\nBabylon, so sure was he of her fall. Turning to his Jerusalem, he says,\n_My own threshed one, son of my floor, that which I have heard from\nJehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you_. How\ngladly would I have told you otherwise! But this is His message and His\nwill. Everything must go down before this Assyrian.\n\nSargon entered Babylon before the year was out, and with her conquest\nestablished his fear once more down to the borders of Egypt. In his\nlifetime neither Judah nor her neighbours attempted again to revolt. But\nEgypt's intrigue did not cease. Her mines were once more laid, and the\nfeudatories of Assyria only waited for their favourite opportunity, a\nchange of tyrants on the throne at Nineveh. This came very soon. In the\nfifteenth year of his reign, having finally established his empire,\nSargon inscribed on the palace at Khorsabad the following prayer to\nAssur: \"May it be that I, Sargon, who inhabit this palace, may be\npreserved by destiny during long years for a long life, for the\nhappiness of my body, for the satisfaction of my heart, and may I arrive\nto my end! May I accumulate in this palace immense treasures, the\nbooties of all countries, the products of mountains and valleys!\" The\ngod did not hear. A few months later, in 705, Sargon was murdered; and\nbefore Sennacherib, his successor, sat down on the throne, the whole of\nAssyrian supremacy in the south-west of Asia went up in the air. It was\nthe second of the great Explosions we spoke of, and the rest of Isaiah's\nprophecies are concerned with its results.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK III.\n\nORATIONS ON THE EGYPTIAN INTRIGUES AND ORACLES ON FOREIGN NATIONS,\n705-702 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nISAIAH:--\n\n\n  xxix. About 703.\n\n  xxx. A little later.\n\n  xxxi.    \"     \"\n\n  xxxii. 1-8.    \"\n\n  xxxii. 9-20. Date uncertain.\n\n             _______\n\n  xiv. 28-xxi. 736-702.\n\n  xxiii. About 703.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK III.\n\n\nWe now enter the prophecies of Isaiah's old age, those which he\npublished after 705, when his ministry had lasted for at least\nthirty-five years. They cover the years between 705, the date of\nSennacherib's accession to the Assyrian throne, and 701, when his army\nsuddenly disappeared from before Jerusalem.\n\nThey fall into three groups:--\n\n1. Chaps. xxix.-xxxii., dealing with Jewish politics while Sennacherib\nis still far from Palestine, 704-702, and having Egypt for their chief\ninterest, Assyria lowering in the background.\n\n2. Chaps. xiv. 28-xxi. and xxiii., a group of oracles on foreign\nnations, threatened, like Judah, by Assyria.\n\n3. Chaps. i., xxii., and xxxiii., and the historical narrative in\nxxxvi., and xxxvii., dealing with Sennacherib's invasion of Judah and\nsiege of Jerusalem in 701; Egypt and every foreign nation now fallen out\nof sight, and the storm about the Holy City too thick for the prophet to\nsee beyond his immediate neighbourhood.\n\nThe _first and second_ of these groups--orations on the intrigues with\nEgypt and oracles on the foreign nations--delivered while Sennacherib\nwas still far from Syria, form the subject of this Third Book of our\nexposition.\n\nThe prophecies on the siege of Jerusalem are sufficiently numerous and\ndistinctive to be put by themselves, along with their appendix\n(xxxviii., xxxix.), in our Fourth Book.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n_ARIEL, ARIEL._\n\nISAIAH xxix. (about 703 B.C.).\n\n\nIn 705 Sargon, King of Assyria, was murdered, and Sennacherib, his\nsecond son, succeeded him. Before the new ruler mounted the throne, the\nvast empire, which his father had consolidated, broke into rebellion,\nand down to the borders of Egypt cities and tribes declared themselves\nagain independent. Sennacherib attacked his problem with Assyrian\npromptitude. There were two forces, to subdue which at the beginning\nmade the reduction of the rest certain: Assyria's vassal kingdom and\nfuture rival for the supremacy of the world, Babylon; and her present\nrival, Egypt. Sennacherib marched on Babylon first.\n\nWhile he did so the smaller States prepared to resist him. Too small to\nrely on their own resources, they looked to Egypt, and among others who\nsought help in that quarter was Judah. There had always been, as we have\nseen, an Egyptian party among the politicians of Jerusalem; and\nAssyria's difficulties now naturally increased its influence. Most of\nthe prophecies in chaps. xxix.-xxxii. are forward to condemn the\nalliance with Egypt and the irreligious politics of which it was the\nfruit.\n\nAt the beginning, however, other facts claim Isaiah's attention. After\nthe first excitement, consequent on the threats of Sennacherib, the\npoliticians do not seem to have been specially active. Sennacherib found\nthe reduction of Babylon a harder task than he expected, and in the end\nit turned out to be three years before he was free to march upon Syria.\nAs one winter after another left the work of the Assyrian army in\nMesopotamia still unfinished, the political tension in Judah must have\nrelaxed. The Government--for King Hezekiah seems at last to have been\nbrought round to believe in Egypt--pursued their negotiations no longer\nwith that decision and real patriotism, which the sense of near danger\nrouses in even the most selfish and mistaken of politicians, but rather\nwith the heedlessness of principle, the desire to show their own\ncleverness and the passion for intrigue which run riot among statesmen,\nwhen danger is near enough to give an excuse for doing something, but\ntoo far away to oblige anything to be done in earnest. Into this false\nease, and the meaningless, faithless politics, which swarmed in it,\nIsaiah hurled his strong prophecy of chap. xxix. Before he exposes in\nchaps. xxx., xxxi., the folly of trusting to Egypt in the hour of\ndanger, he has here the prior task of proving that hour to be near and\nvery terrible. It is but one instance of the ignorance and fickleness of\nthe people, that their prophet has first to rouse them to a sense of\ntheir peril, and then to restrain their excitement under it from rushing\nheadlong for help to Egypt.\n\nChap. xxix. is an obscure oracle, but its obscurity is designed. Isaiah\nwas dealing with a people, in whom political security and religious\nformalism had stifled both reason and conscience. He sought to rouse\nthem by a startling message in a mysterious form. He addressed the city\nby an enigma:--\n\n_Ho! Ari-El, Ari-El! City David beleaguered! Add a year to a year, let\nthe feasts run their round, then will I bring straitness upon Ari-El,\nand there shall be moaning and bemoaning,[44] and yet she shall be unto\nMe as an Ari-El._\n\n  [44] Cheyne.\n\nThe general bearing of this enigma became plain enough after the sore\nsiege and sudden deliverance of Jerusalem in 701. But we are unable to\nmake out one or two of its points. _Ari-El_ may mean either _The Lion of\nGod_ (2 Sam. xxiii. 20), or _The Hearth of God_ (Ezek. xliii. 15, 16).\nIf the same sense is to be given to the four utterances of the name,\nthen _God's-Lion_ suits better the description of ver. 4; but\n_God's-Hearth_ seems suggested by the feminine pronoun in ver. 1, and is\na conception to which Isaiah returns in this same group of prophecies\n(xxxi. 9). It is possible that this ambiguity was part of the prophet's\ndesign; but if he uses the name in both senses, some of the force of his\nenigma is lost to us. In any case, however, we get a picturesque form\nfor a plain meaning. In a year after the present year is out, says\nIsaiah, God Himself will straiten the city, whose inhabitants are now so\ncareless, and she shall be full of mourning and lamentation.\nNevertheless in the end she shall be a true Ari-El: be it a true\n_God's-Lion_, victor and hero; or a true _God's-Hearth_, His own\ninviolate shrine and sanctuary.\n\nThe next few verses (3-8) expand this warning. In plain words, Jerusalem\nis to undergo a siege. God Himself shall _encamp against thee--round\nabout_ reads our English version, but more probably, as with the change\nof a letter, the Septuagint reads it--_like David_. If we take this\nsecond reading, the reference to David in the enigma itself (ver. 1)\nbecomes clear. The prophet has a very startling message to deliver: that\nGod will besiege His own city, the city of David! Before God can make\nher in truth His own, make her verify her name, He will have to\nbeleaguer and reduce her. For so novel and startling an intimation the\nprophet pleads a precedent: \"_City which David_ himself _beleaguered_!\nOnce before in thy history, ere the first time thou wast made God's own\nhearth, thou hadst to be besieged. As then, so now. Before thou canst\nagain be a true Ari-El I must _beleaguer thee like David_.\" This reading\nand interpretation gives to the enigma a reason and a force which it\ndoes not otherwise possess.\n\nJerusalem, then, shall be reduced to the very dust, and whine and\nwhimper in it (like a sick _lion_, if this be the figure the prophet is\npursuing), when suddenly it is _the surge of_ her foes--literally _thy\nstrangers_--whom the prophet sees as _small dust, and as passing chaff\nshall the surge of tyrants be; yea, it shall be in the twinkling of an\neye, suddenly_. _From Jehovah of hosts shall she be visited with thunder\nand with earthquake and a great noise,--storm-wind, and tempest and the\nflame of fire devouring. And it shall be as a dream, a vision of the\nnight, the surge of all the nations that war against Ariel, yea all that\nwar against her and her stronghold, and they that press in upon her. And\nit shall be as if the hungry had been dreaming, and lo! he was eating;\nbut he hath awaked, and his soul is empty: and as if the thirsty had\nbeen dreaming, and lo! he was drinking; but he hath awaked, and lo! he\nis faint, and his soul is ravenous: thus shall be the surge of all the\nnations that war against Mount Zion._ Now that is a very definite\nprediction, and in its essentials was fulfilled. In the end Jerusalem\nwas invested by Sennacherib, and reduced to sore straits, when very\nsuddenly--it would appear from other records, in a single night--the\nbeleaguering force disappeared. This actually happened; and although the\nmain business of a prophet, as we now clearly understand, was not to\npredict definite events, yet, since the result here predicted was one on\nwhich Isaiah staked his prophetic reputation and pledged the honour of\nJehovah and the continuance of the true religion among men, it will be\nprofitable for us to look at it for a little.\n\nIsaiah foretells a great event and some details. The event is a double\none: the reduction of Jerusalem to the direst straits by siege and her\ndeliverance by the sudden disappearance of the besieging army. The\ndetails are that the siege will take place after a year (though the\nprophet's statement of time is perhaps too vague to be treated as a\nprediction), and that the deliverance will come as a great natural\nconvulsion--thunder, earthquake and fire--which it certainly did not do.\nThe double event, however, stripped of these details, did essentially\nhappen.\n\nNow it is plain that any one with a considerable knowledge of the world\nat that day must easily have been able to assert the probability of a\nsiege of Jerusalem by the mixed nations who composed Sennacherib's\narmies. Isaiah's orations are full of proofs of his close acquaintance\nwith the peoples of the world, and Assyria, who was above them.\nMoreover, his political advice, given at certain crises of Judah's\nhistory, was conspicuous not only for its religiousness, but for what we\nshould call its \"worldly-wisdom:\" it was vindicated by events. Isaiah,\nhowever, would not have understood the distinction we have just made.\nTo him political prudence was part of religion. _The LORD of hosts is\nfor a spirit of judgement to him that sitteth in judgement, and for\nstrength to them that turn back the battle to the gate._ Knowledge of\nmen, experience of nations, the mental strength which never forgets\nhistory, and is quick to mark new movements as they rise, Isaiah would\nhave called the direct inspiration of God. And it was certainly these\nqualities in this Hebrew, which provided him with the materials for his\nprediction of the siege of Jerusalem.\n\nBut it has not been found that such talents by themselves enable\nstatesmen calmly to face the future, or clearly to predict it. Such\nknowledge of the past, such vigilance for the present, by themselves\nonly embarrass, and often deceive. They are the materials for\nprediction, but a ruling principle is required to arrange them. A\ngeneral may have a strong and well-drilled force under him, and a\nmiserably weak foe in front; but if the sun is not going to rise\nto-morrow, if the laws of nature are not going to hold, his familiarity\nwith his soldiers and expertness in handling them will not give him\nconfidence to offer battle. He takes certain principles for granted, and\non these his soldiers become of use to him, and he makes his venture.\nEven so Isaiah handled his mass of information by the grasp which he had\nof certain principles, and his facts fell clear into order before his\nconfident eyes. He believed in the real government of God. _I also saw\nthe Lord sitting, high and lifted up._ He felt that God had even this\nAssyria in His hands. He knew that all God's ends were righteousness,\nand he was still of the conviction that Judah for her wickedness\nrequired punishment at the Lord's hands. Grant these convictions to him\nin the superhuman strength in which he tells us he was conscious of\nreceiving them from God, and it is easy to see how Isaiah could not help\npredicting a speedy siege of Jerusalem, how he already beheld the\nvalleys around her bristling with barbarian spears.\n\nThe prediction of the sudden raising of this siege was the equally\nnatural corollary to another religious conviction, which held the\nprophet with as much intensity, as that which possessed him with the\nneed of Judah's punishment. Isaiah never slacked his hold on the truth\nthat in the end God would save Zion, and keep her for Himself. Through\nwhatever destruction, a root and remnant of the Jewish people must\nsurvive. Zion is impregnable because God is in her, and because her\ninviolateness is necessary for the continuance of true religion in the\nworld. Therefore as confident as his prediction of the siege of\nJerusalem is Isaiah's prediction of her delivery. And while the prophet\nwraps the fact in vague circumstance, while he masks, as it were, his\nignorance of how in detail it will actually take place by calling up a\ngreat natural convulsion, yet he makes it abundantly clear--as, with his\nreligious convictions and his knowledge of the Assyrian power, he cannot\nhelp doing--that the deliverance will be unexpected and unexplainable by\nthe natural circumstances of the Jews themselves, that it will be\nevident as the immediate deed of God.\n\nIt is well for us to understand this. We shall get rid of the mechanical\nidea of prophecy, according to which prophets made exact predictions of\nfact by some particular and purely official endowment. We shall feel\nthat prediction of this kind was due to the most unmistakeable\ninspiration, the influence upon the prophet's knowledge of affairs of\ntwo powerful religious convictions, for which he himself was strongly\nsure that he had the warrant of the Spirit of God.\n\nInto the easy, selfish politics of Jerusalem, then, Isaiah sent this\nthunderbolt, this definite prediction: that in a year or more Jerusalem\nwould be besieged and reduced to the direst straits. He tells us that it\nsimply dazed the people. They were like men suddenly startled from\nsleep, who are too stupid to read a message pushed into their hands (vv.\n9-12).\n\nThen Isaiah gives God's own explanation of this stupidity. The cause of\nit is simply religious formalism. _This people draw nigh unto Me with\ntheir mouth, and with their lips do they honour Me, but their heart is\nfar from Me, and their fear of Me is a mere commandment of men, a thing\nlearned by rote._ This was what Israel called religion--bare ritual and\ndoctrine, a round of sacrifices and prayers in adherence to the\ntradition of the fathers. But in life they never thought of God. It did\nnot occur to these citizens of Jerusalem that He cared about their\npolitics, their conduct of justice, or their discussions and bargains\nwith one another. Of these they said, taking their own way, _Who seeth\nus, and who knoweth us?_ Only in the Temple did they feel God's fear,\nand there merely in imitation of one another. None had an original\nvision of God in real life; they learned other men's thoughts about Him,\nand took other men's words upon their lips, while their heart was far\naway. In fact, speaking words and listening to words had wearied the\nspirit and stifled the conscience of them.\n\nFor such a disposition Isaiah says there is only one cure. It is a new\nedition of his old gospel, that God speaks to us in facts, not forms.\nWorship and a lifeless doctrine have demoralized this people. God shall\nmake Himself so felt in real life that even their dull senses shall not\nbe able to mistake Him. _Therefore, behold, I am proceeding to work\nmarvellously upon this people, a marvellous work and a wonder! and the\nwisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the cleverness of their\nclever ones shall be obscured._ This is not the promise of what we call\na miracle. It is a historical event on the same theatre as the\npoliticians are showing their cleverness, but it shall put them all to\nshame, and by its force make the dullest feel that God's own hand is in\nit. What the people had ceased to attribute to Jehovah was ordinary\nintelligence; they had virtually said, _He hath no understanding_. The\n_marvellous work_, therefore, which He threatens shall be a work of\nwisdom, not some convulsion of nature to cow their spirits, but a\nwonderful political result, that shall shame their conceit of\ncleverness, and teach them reverence for the will and skill of God. Are\nthe politicians trying to change the surface of the world, thinking that\nthey _are turning things upside down_, and supposing that they can keep\nGod out of account: _Who seeth us, and who knoweth us?_ God Himself is\nthe real Arranger and Politician. He will turn things upside down!\nCompared with their attempt, how vast His results shall be! As if the\nwhole surface of the earth were altered, _Lebanon changed into\ngarden-land, and garden-land counted as forest_! But this, of course, is\nmetaphor. The intent of the miracle is to show that God hath\nunderstanding; therefore it must be a work, the prudence and\nintellectual force of which politicians can appreciate, and it shall\ntake place in their politics. But not for mere astonishment's sake is\n_the wonder_ to be done. For blessing and morality shall it be: to cure\nthe deaf and blind; to give to the meek and the poor a new joy; to\nconfound the tyrant and the scorner; to make Israel worthy of God and\nher own great fathers. _Therefore thus saith Jehovah to the house of\nJacob, He that redeemed Abraham: Not now ashamed shall Jacob be, and not\nnow shall his countenance blanch._ So unworthy hitherto have this stupid\npeople been of so great ancestors! _But now when his_ (Jacob's)\n_children behold the work of My hand in the midst of him, they shall\nhallow My name, yea, they shall hallow the Holy One of Jacob, and the\nGod of Israel shall they make their fear. They also that err in spirit\nshall know understanding, and they that are unsettled shall learn to\naccept doctrine_.\n\nSuch is the meaning of this strong chapter. It is instructive in two\nways.\n\n_First_, it very clearly declares Isaiah's view of the method of God's\nrevelation. Isaiah says nothing of the Temple, the Shechinah, the Altar,\nor the Scripture; but he points out how much the exclusive confinement\nof religion to forms and texts has deadened the hearts of his countrymen\ntowards God. In your real life, he says to them, you are to seek, and\nyou shall find, Him. There He is evident in miracles,--not physical\ninterruptions and convulsions, but social mercies and moral providences.\nThe quickening of conscience, the dispersion of ignorance, poor men\nawakening to the fact that God is with them, the overthrow of the social\ntyrant, history's plain refutation of the atheist, the growth of civic\njustice and charity--In these, said the Hebrew prophet to the Old\nTestament believer, Behold your God!\n\nWherefore, _secondly_, we also are to look for God in events and deeds.\nWe are to know that nothing can compensate us for the loss of the open\nvision of God's working in history and in life about us,--not ecstasy\nof worship nor orthodoxy of doctrine. To confine our religion to these\nlatter things is to become dull towards God even in them, and to forget\nHim everywhere else. And this is a fault of our day, just as it was of\nIsaiah's. So much of our fear of God is conventional, orthodox and not\noriginal, a trick caught from men's words or fashions, not a part of\nourselves, nor won, like all that is real in us, from contact with real\nlife. In our politics, in our conduct with men, in the struggle of our\nown hearts for knowledge and for temperance, and in service--there we\nare to learn to fear God. But there, and wherever else we are busy, self\ncomes too much in the way; we are fascinated with our own cleverness; we\nignore God, saying, _Who seeth us? who knoweth us?_ We get to expect Him\nonly in the Temple and on the Sabbath, and then only to influence our\nemotions. But it is in deeds, and where we feel life most real, that we\nare to look for Him. He makes Himself evident to us by wonderful works.\n\nFor these He has given us three theatres--the Bible, our country's\nhistory, and for each man his own life.\n\nWe have to take the Bible, and especially the life of Christ, and to\ntell ourselves that these wonderful events did really take place. In\nChrist God did dwell; by Christ He spoke to man; man was converted,\nredeemed, sanctified, beyond all doubt. These were real events. To be\nconvinced of their reality were worth a hundred prayers.\n\nThen let us follow the example of the Hebrew prophets, and search the\nhistory of our own people for the realities of God. Carlyle says in a\nnote to Cromwell's fourth speech to Parliament, that \"the Bible of every\nnation is its own history.\" This note is drawn from Carlyle by\nCromwell's frequent insistence, that we must ever be turning from forms\nand rituals to study God's will and ways in history. And that speech of\nCromwell is perhaps the best sermon ever delivered on the subject of\nthis chapter. For he said: \"What are all our histories but God\nmanifesting Himself, that He hath shaken, and tumbled down and trampled\nupon everything that He hath not planted!\" And again, speaking of our\nown history, he said to the House of Commons: \"We are a people with the\nstamp of God upon us, ... whose appearances and providences among us\nwere not to be outmatched by any story.\" Truly this is national\nreligion:--the reverential acknowledgment of God's hand in history; the\nadmiration and effort of moral progress; the stirring of conscience when\nwe see wrong; the expectation, when evil abounds, that God will bring\njustice and purity to us if we labour with Him for them.\n\nBut for each man there is the final duty of turning to himself.\n\n                    \"My soul repairs its fault\n  When, sharpening sense's hebetude,\n  She turns on my own life! So viewed,\n  No mere mote's breadth but teems immense\n  With witnessings of providence:\n  And woe to me if when I look\n  Upon that record, the sole book\n  Unsealed to me, I take no heed\n  Of any warning that I read!\"[45]\n\n  [45] Browning's _Christmas Eve_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n_POLITICS AND FAITH._\n\nISAIAH xxx. (ABOUT 702 B.C.).\n\n\nThis prophecy of Isaiah rises out of circumstances a little more\ndeveloped than those in which chap. xxix. was composed. Sennacherib is\nstill engaged with Babylon, and it seems that it will yet be long before\nhe marches his armies upon Syria. But Isaiah's warning has at last\nroused the politicians of Judah from their carelessness. We need not\nsuppose that they believed all that Isaiah predicted about the dire\nsiege which Jerusalem should shortly undergo and her sudden deliverance\nat the hand of the Lord. Without the two strong religious convictions,\nin the strength of which, as we have seen, he made the prediction, it\nwas impossible to believe that this siege and deliverance must certainly\nhappen. But the politicians were at least startled into doing something.\nThey did not betake themselves to God, to whom it had been the purpose\nof Isaiah's last oration to shut them up. They only flung themselves\nwith more haste into their intrigues with Egypt. But in truth haste and\nbusiness were all that was in their politics: these were devoid both of\nintelligence and faith. Where the sole motive of conduct is fear,\nwhether uneasiness or panic, force may be displayed, but neither\nsagacity nor any moral quality. This was the case with Judah's Egyptian\npolicy, and Isaiah now spends two chapters in denouncing it. His\ncondemnation is twofold. The negotiations with Egypt, he says, are bad\npolitics and bad religion; but the bad religion is the root and source\nof the other. Yet while he vents all his scorn on the politics, he uses\npity and sweet persuasiveness when he comes to speak of the eternal\nsignificance of the religion. The two chapters are also instructive,\nbeyond most others of the Old Testament, in the light they cast on\nrevelation--its scope and methods.\n\nIsaiah begins with the bad politics. In order to understand how bad they\nwere, we must turn for a little to this Egypt, with whom Judah was now\nseeking an alliance.\n\nIn our late campaign on the Upper Nile we heard a great deal of the\nMudir of Dongola. His province covers part of the ancient kingdom of\nEthiopia; and in Meirawi, the village whose name appeared in so many\ntelegrams, we can still discover Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia. Now in\nIsaiah's day the king of Ethiopia was, what the Mudir of Dongola was at\nthe time of our war, an ambitious person of no small energy; and the\nruler of Egypt proper was, what the Khedive was, a person of little\ninfluence or resource. Consequently there happened what might have\nhappened a few years ago but for the presence of the British army in\nEgypt. The Ethiopian came down the Nile, defeated Pharaoh and burned him\nalive. But he died, and his son died after him; and before their\nsuccessor could also come down the Nile, the legitimate heir to Pharaoh\nhad regained part of his power. Some years ensued of uncertainty as to\nwho was the real ruler of Egypt.\n\nIt was in this time of unsettlement that Judah sought Egypt's help. The\nignorance of the policy was manifest to all who were not blinded by fear\nof Assyria or party feeling. To Isaiah the Egyptian alliance is a folly\nand fatality that deserve all his scorn (vv. 1-8).\n\n_Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, executing a policy, but\nit is not from Me; and weaving a web, but not of My spirit, that they\nmay heap sin upon sin; who set themselves on the way to go down to\nEgypt, and at My mouth they have not inquired, to flee to the refuge of\nPharaoh, and to hide themselves in the shadow of Egypt. But the refuge\nof Pharaoh shall be unto you for shame, and the hiding in the shadow of\nEgypt for confusion!_ How can a broken Egypt help you? _When his princes\nare at Zoan, and his ambassadors are come to Hanes, they shall all be\nashamed of a people that cannot profit them, that are not for help nor\nfor profit, but for shame, and also for reproach._\n\nThen Isaiah pictures the useless caravan which Judah has sent with\ntribute to Egypt, strings of asses and camels struggling through the\ndesert, _land of trouble and anguish_, amid lions and serpents, and all\nfor _a people that shall not profit them_ (ver. 6).\n\nWhat tempted Judah to this profitless expenditure of time and money?\nEgypt had a great reputation, and was a mighty promiser. Her brilliant\nantiquity had given her a habit of generous promise, and dazzled other\nnations into trusting her. Indeed, so full were Egyptian politics of\nbluster and big language, that the Hebrews had a nickname for Egypt.\nThey called her Rahab--_Stormy-speech_, _Blusterer_, _Braggart_. It was\nthe term also for the crocodile, as being a _monster_, so that there was\na picturesqueness as well as moral aptness in the name. Ay, says Isaiah,\ncatching at the old name and putting to it another which describes\nEgyptian helplessness and inactivity, I call her _Rahab Sit-still_,\n_Braggart-that-sitteth-still_, _Stormy-speech Stay-at-home_. _Blustering\nand inactivity, blustering and sitting still_, that is her character;\n_for Egypt helpeth in vain and to no purpose_.\n\nKnowing how sometimes the fate of a Government is affected by a happy\nspeech or epigram, we can understand the effect of this cry upon the\npoliticians of Jerusalem. But that he might impress it on the popular\nimagination and memory as well, Isaiah wrote his epigram on a tablet,\nand put it in a book. We must remind ourselves here of chap. xx., and\nremember how it tells us that Isaiah had already some years before this\nendeavoured to impress the popular imagination with the folly of an\nEgyptian alliance, _walking unfrocked and barefoot three years for a\nsign and a portent upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia_ (see p. 199).\n\nSo that already Isaiah had appealed from politicians to people on this\nEgyptian question, just as he appealed thirty years ago from court to\nmarket-place on the question of Ephraim and Damascus.[46] It is another\ninstance of that prophetic habit of his, on which we remarked in\nexpounding chap. viii.; and we must again emphasize the habit, for chap.\nxxx. here swings round upon it. Whatever be the matter committed to him,\nIsaiah is not allowed to rest till he brings it home to the popular\nconscience; and however much he may be able to charge national disaster\nupon the folly of politicians or the obduracy of a king, it is the\npeople whom he holds ultimately responsible. To Isaiah a nation's\npolitics are not arbitrary; they are not dependent on the will of kings\nor the management of parties. They are the natural outcome of the\nnation's character. What the people are, that will their politics be. If\nyou wish to reform the politics, you must first regenerate the people;\nand it is no use to inveigh against a senseless policy, like this\nEgyptian one, unless you go farther and expose the national temper which\nhas made it possible. A people's own morals have greater influence on\ntheir destinies than their despots or legislators. Statesmen are what\nthe State makes them. No Government will attempt a policy for which the\nnation behind it has not a conscience; and for the greater number of\nerrors committed by their rulers, the blame must be laid on the people's\nown want of character or intelligence.\n\n  [46] Chap. viii. 1 (p. 119).\n\nThis is what Isaiah now drives home (xxx. 9 ff.). He tracks the bad\npolitics to their source in bad religion, the Egyptian policy to its\nroots in the prevailing tempers of the people. The Egyptian policy was\ndoubly stamped. It was disobedience to the word of God; it was\nsatisfaction with falsehood. The statesmen of Judah shut their ears to\nGod's spoken word; they allowed themselves to be duped by the Egyptian\nPretence. But these, says Isaiah, are precisely the characteristics of\nthe whole Jewish people. _For it is a rebellious people, lying children,\nchildren that will not hear the revelation of the LORD_. It was these\nnational failings--the want of virtues which are the very substance of a\nnation: truth and reverence or obedience--that had culminated in the\nsenseless and suicidal alliance with Egypt. Isaiah fastens on their\nfalsehood first: _Which say to the seers, Ye shall not see, and to the\nprophets, Ye shall not prophesy unto us right things; speak to us smooth\nthings: prophesy deceits_. No wonder such a character had been\nfascinated by \"Rahab\"! It was a natural Nemesis, that a people who\ndesired from their teachers fair speech rather than true vision should\nbe betrayed by the confidence their statesmen placed in the Blusterer,\n_that blustered and sat still_. Truth is what this people first require,\nand therefore the _revelation of the LORD_ will in the first instance be\nthe revealing of the truth. Men who will strip pretence off the reality\nof things; men who will call things by their right names, as Isaiah had\nset himself to do; honest satirists and epigrammatists--these are the\nbearers of God's revelation. For it is one of the means of Divine\nsalvation to call things by their right names, and here in God's\nrevelation also epigrams have their place. So much for truth.\n\nBut reverence is truth's other self, for reverence is simply loyalty to\nthe supremest truth. And it is against the truth that the Jews have\nchiefly sinned. They had shut their eyes to Egypt's real character, but\nthat was a small sin beside this: that they turned their backs on the\ngreatest reality of all--God Himself. _Get you out of the way_, they\nsaid to the prophets, _turn out of the path; keep quiet in our presence\nabout the Holy One of Israel_. Isaiah's effort rises to its culmination\nwhen he seeks to restore the sense of this Reality to his people. His\nspirit is kindled at the words _the Holy One of Israel_, and to the end\nof chap. xxxi. leaps up in a series of brilliant and sometimes scorching\ndescriptions of the name, the majesty and the love of God. Isaiah is not\ncontent to have used his power of revelation to unveil the political\ntruth about Egypt. He will make God Himself visible to this people.\nPassionately does he proceed to enforce upon the Jews what God thinks\nabout their own condition (vv. 12-14), then to persuade them to rely\nupon Him alone, and wait for the working of His reasonable laws (vv.\n15-18). Rising higher, he purges with pity their eyes to see God's very\npresence, their ears to hear His voice, their wounds to feel His touch\n(vv. 19-26). Then he remembers the cloud of invasion on the horizon, and\nbids them spell, in its uncouth masses, the articulate name of the Lord\n(vv. 27-33). And he closes with another series of figures by which God's\nwisdom, and His jealousy and His tenderness are made very bright to them\n(chap. xxxi.).\n\nThese brilliant prophecies may not have been given all at the same time:\neach is complete in itself. They do not all mention the negotiations\nwith Egypt, but they are all dark with the shadow of Assyria. Chap. xxx.\nvv. 19-26 almost seem to have been written in a time of actual siege;\nbut vv. 27-33 represent Assyria still upon the horizon. In this,\nhowever, these passages are fitly strung together: that they equally\nstrain to impress a blind and hardened people with the will, the majesty\nand the love of God their Saviour.\n\n\nI. THE BULGING WALL (vv. 12-14).\n\nStarting from their unwillingness to listen to the voice of the Lord in\ntheir Egyptian policy, Isaiah tells the people that if they refused to\nhear His word for guidance, they must now listen to it for judgement.\n_Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel: Because ye look down on\nthis word, and trust in perverseness and crookedness, and lean thereon,\ntherefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall,\nbulging out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an\ninstant._ _This iniquity_, of course, is the embassy to Egypt. But that,\nas we have seen, is only the people's own evil character coming to a\nhead; and by the breaking of the wall, we are therefore to suppose that\nthe prophet means the collapse not only of this Egyptian policy, but of\nthe whole estate and substance of the Jewish people. It will not be your\nenemy that will cause a breach in the nation, but your teeming iniquity\nshall cause the breach--to wit, this Egyptian folly. Judah will burst\nher bulwarks from the inside. You may build the strongest form of\ngovernment round a people, you may buttress it with foreign alliances,\nbut these shall simply prove occasions for the internal wickedness to\nbreak forth. Your supposed buttresses will prove real breaches; and of\nall your social structure there will not be left as much as will make\nthe fragments of a single home, not _a sherd_ big enough _to carry fire\nfrom the hearth, or to hold water from the cistern_.\n\n\nII. NOT ALLIANCES, BUT RELIANCE (vv. 15-18).\n\nAt this point, either Isaiah was stung by the demands of the politicians\nfor an alternative to their restless Egyptian policy which he condemned,\nor more likely he rose, unaided by external influence, on the prophet's\nnative instinct to find some purely religious ground on which to base\nhis political advice. The result is one of the grandest of all his\noracles. _For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel: In\nreturning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence\nshall be your strength; and ye would not. But ye said, No, for upon\nhorses will we flee; wherefore ye shall flee: and upon the swift will we\nride; wherefore swift shall be they that pursue you! One thousand at the\nrebuke of one--at the rebuke of five shall ye flee: till ye be left as a\nbare pole on the top of a mountain, and as a standard on an hill. And\ntherefore will the LORD wait that He may be gracious unto you, and\ntherefore will He hold aloof that He may have mercy upon you, for a God\nof judgement is the LORD; blessed are all they that wait for Him._ The\nwords of this passage are their own interpretation and enforcement, all\nbut one; and as this one is obscure in its English guise, and the\npassage really swings from it, we may devote a paragraph to its meaning.\n\n_A God of judgement is the LORD_ is an unfortunately ambiguous\ntranslation. We must not take _judgement_ here in our familiar sense of\nthe word. It is not a sudden deed of doom, but a long process of law. It\nmeans _manner_, _method_, _design_, _order_, _system_, the ideas, in\nshort, which we sum up under the word \"law.\" Just as we say of a man,\n_He is a man of judgement_, and mean thereby not that by office he is a\ndoomster, but that by character he is a man of discernment and prudence,\nso simply does Isaiah say here that _Jehovah is a God of judgement_, and\nmean thereby not that He is One, whose habit is sudden and awful deeds\nof penalty or salvation, but, on the contrary, that, having laid down\nHis lines according to righteousness and established His laws in wisdom,\nHe remains in His dealings with men consistent with these.\n\nNow it is a great truth that the All-mighty and All-merciful is the\nAll-methodical too; and no religion is complete in its creed or healthy\nin its influence, which does not insist equally on all these. It was\njust the want of this third article of faith which perverted the souls\nof the Jews in Isaiah's day, which (as we have seen under Chapter I.)\nallowed them to make their worship so mechanical and material--for how\ncould they have been satisfied with mere forms if they had but once\nconceived of God as having even ordinary intelligence?--and which\nturned their political life into such a mass of intrigue, conceit and\nfalsehood, for how could they have dared to suppose that they would get\ntheir own way, or have been so sure of their own cleverness, if only\nthey had had a glimpse of the perception, that God, the Ruler of the\nworld, had also His policy regarding them? They believed He was the\nMighty, they believed He was the Merciful, but because they forgot that\nHe was the Wise and the Worker by law, their faith in His might too\noften turned into superstitious terror, their faith in His mercy\noscillated between the sleepy satisfaction that He was an indulgent God\nand the fretful impatience that He was an indifferent one. Therefore\nIsaiah persisted from first to last in this: that God worked by law;\nthat He had His plan for Judah, as well as these politicians; and, as we\nshall shortly find him reminding them when intoxicated with their own\ncleverness, _that He also is wise_ (xxxi. 2). Here by the same thought\nhe bids them be at peace, and upon the rushing tides of politics,\ndrawing them to that or the other mad venture, to swing by this anchor:\nthat God has His own law and time for everything. No man could bring the\ncharge of fatalism against such a policy of quietness. For it thrilled\nwith intelligent appreciation of the Divine method. When Isaiah said,\n_In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence\nshall be your strength_, he did not ask his restless countrymen to yield\nsullenly to an infinite force or to bow in stupidity beneath the\ninscrutable will of an arbitrary despot, but to bring their conduct into\nharmony with a reasonable and gracious plan, which might be read in the\nhistorical events of the time, and was vindicated by the loftiest\nreligious convictions. Isaiah preached no submission to fate, but\nreverence for an all-wise Ruler, whose method was plain to every\nclear-sighted observer of the fortunes of the nations of the world, and\nwhose purpose could only be love and peace to His own people (cf. p.\n110).\n\n\nIII. GOD'S TABLE IN THE MIDST OF THE ENEMIES (vv. 19-26).\n\nThis patient purpose of God Isaiah now proceeds to describe in its\ndetails. Every line of his description has its loveliness, and is to be\nseparately appreciated. There is perhaps no fairer prospect from our\nprophet's many windows. It is not argument nor a programme, but a series\nof rapid glimpses, struck out by language, which often wants logical\nconnection, but never fails to make us see.\n\nTo begin with, one thing is sure: the continuance of the national\nexistence. Isaiah is true to his original vision--the survival of a\nremnant. _For a people in Zion--there shall be abiding in Jerusalem._ So\nthe brief essential is flashed forth. _Thou shalt surely weep no more;\nsurely He will be gracious unto thee at the voice of thy crying; with\nHis hearing of thee He will answer thee._ Thus much of general promise\nhad been already given. Now upon the vagueness of the Lord's delay\nIsaiah paints realistic details, only, however, that he may make more\nvivid the real presence of the Lord. The siege shall surely come, with\nits sorely concrete privations, but the _Lord_ will be there, equally\ndistinct. _And though the Lord give you the bread of penury and the\nwater of tribulation_--perhaps the technical name for siege\nrations--_yet shall not thy Teacher hide Himself any more, but thine\neyes shall ever be seeing thy Teacher; and thine ears shall hear a word\nbehind thee, saying, This is the way: walk ye in it, when ye turn to the\nright hand or when ye turn to the left._ Real, concrete sorrows, these\nare they that make the heavenly Teacher real! It is linguistically\npossible, and more in harmony with the rest of the passage, to turn\n_teachers_, as the English version has it, into the singular, and to\nrender it by _Revealer_. The word is an active participle, \"Moreh,\" from\nthe same verb as the noun \"Torah,\" which is constantly translated \"Law\"\nin our version, but is, in the Prophets at least, more nearly equivalent\nto \"instruction,\" or to our modern term \"revelation\" (cf. ver. 9).\nLooking thus to the One Revealer, and hearkening to the One Voice, _the\nlying and rebellious children_ shall at last be restored to that\ncapacity for truth and obedience the loss of which has been their ruin.\nDevoted to the Holy One of Israel, they shall scatter their idols as\nloathsome (ver. 22). But thereupon a wonder is to happen. As the\nbesieged people, conscious of the One Great Presence in the midst of\ntheir encompassed city, cast their idols through the gates and over the\nwalls, a marvellous vision of space and light and fulness of fresh food\nbursts upon their starved and straitened souls (ver. 23). Promise more\nsympathetic was never uttered to a besieged and famished city. Mark that\nall down the passage there is no mention of the noise or instruments of\nbattle. The prophet has not spoken of the besiegers, who they may be,\nhow they may come, nor of the fashion of their war, but only of the\neffects of the siege on those within: confinement, scant and bitter\nrations. And now he is almost wholly silent about the breaking up of the\ninvesting army and the trail of their slaughter. No battle breaks this\nsiege, but a vision of openness and plenty dawns noiselessly over its\nfamine and closeness. It is not vengeance or blood that an exhausted and\npenitent people thirst after. But as they have been caged in a\nfortress, narrow, dark and stony, so they thirst for the sight of the\nsower, and the drop of the rain on the broken, brown earth, and the\njuicy corn, and the meadow for their cribbed cattle, and the noise of\nbrooks and waterfalls, and above and about it all fulness of light. _And\nHe shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground\nwithal, and bread, even the increase of the ground, and it shall be\njuicy and fat; thy cattle shall feed that day in a broad meadow. And the\noxen and the young asses that till the ground shall eat savoury\nprovender, winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. And there shall be\nupon every lofty mountain and upon every lifted hill rivers, streams of\nwater, in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall. And the\nlight of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the\nsun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the\nLORD bindeth up the hurt of His people and healeth the stroke of their\nwound._ It is one of Isaiah's fairest visions, and he is very much to be\nblamed who forces its beauty of nature into an allegory of spiritual\nthings. Here literally God spreads His people a table in the midst of\ntheir enemies.\n\n\nIV. THE NAME OF THE LORD (vv. 27-33).\n\nBut Isaiah lays down \"the oaten pipe\" and lifts again a brazen trumpet\nto his lips. Between him and that sunny landscape of the future, of\nwhose pastoral details he has so sweetly sung, roll up now the uncouth\nmasses of the Assyrian invasion, not yet fully gathered, far less\nbroken. We are back in the present again, and the whole horizon is\nclouded.\n\nThe passage does not look like one from which comfort or edification can\nbe derived, but it is of extreme interest. The first two verses, for\ninstance, only require a little analysis to open a most instructive\nglimpse into the prophet's inner thoughts about the Assyrian progress,\nand show us how they work towards the expression of its full meaning.\n_Behold, the Name of Jehovah cometh from afar--burning His anger and\nawful the uplifting smoke; His lips are full of wrath, and His tongue as\nfire that devoureth; and His breath is as an overflowing torrent--even\nunto the neck it reacheth--to shake the nations in a sieve of\ndestruction, and a bridle that leadeth astray on the jaws of the\npeoples._\n\n_The Name of Jehovah_ is the phrase the prophets use when they wish to\ntell us of the personal presence of God. When we hear a name cried out,\nwe understand immediately that a person is there. So when the prophet\ncalls, _Behold, the Name of Jehovah_, in face of the prodigious advance\nof Assyria, we understand that he has caught some intuition of God's\npresence in that uplifting of the nations of the north at the word of\nthe great King and their resistless sweep southward upon Palestine. In\nthat movement God is personally present. The Divine presence Isaiah then\ndescribes in curiously mingled metaphor, which proves how gradually it\nwas that he struggled to a knowledge of its purpose there. First of all\nhe describes the advance of Assyria as a thunderstorm, heavy clouds and\ndarting, devouring fire. His imagination pictures a great face of wrath.\nThe thick curtains of cloud as they roll over one another suggest the\nheavy lips, and the lightnings the fiery tongue. Then the figure passes\nfrom heaven to earth. The thunderstorm has burst, and becomes the\n_mountain torrent_, which speedily _reaches the necks_ of those who are\ncaught in its bed. But then the prophet's conscience suggests something\nmore than sudden and sheer force in this invasion, and the _tossing_ of\nthe torrent naturally leads him to express this new element in the\nfigure of _a sieve_. His thought about the Assyrian flood thus passes\nfrom one of simple force and rush to one of judgement and being well\nkept in hand. He sees its ultimate check at Jerusalem, and so his last\nfigure of it is the figure of _a bridle_, or _lasso_, such as is thrown\nupon the jaws of a wild animal when you wish to catch and tame him.\n\nThis gradual progress from the sense of sheer wild force, through that\nof personal wrath, to discipline and sparing is very interesting. Vague\nand chaotic that disaster rolled up the horizon upon Judah. _It cometh\nfrom afar._ The politicians fled from it to their refuge behind the\nEgyptian Pretence. But Isaiah bids them face it. The longer they look,\nthe more will conscience tell them that the unavoidable wrath of God is\nin it; no blustering Rahab will be able to hide them from the anger of\nthe Face that lowers there. But let them look longer still, and the\nunrelieved features of destruction will change to a hand that sifts and\nchecks, the torrent will become a sieve, and the disaster show itself\nwell held in by the power of their own God.\n\nSo wildly and impersonally still do the storms of sorrow and disaster\nroll up the horizon on men's eyes, and we fly in vague terror from them\nto our Egyptian refuges. So still does conscience tell us it is futile\nto flee from the anger of God, and we crouch hopeless beneath the rush\nof imaginations of unchecked wrath, blackening the heavens and turning\nevery path of life to a tossing torrent. May it then be granted us to\nhave some prophet at our side to bid us face our disaster once more, and\nsee the discipline and judgement of the Lord, the tossing only of His\ncareful sieve, in the wild and cruel waves! We may not be poets like\nIsaiah nor able to put the processes of our faith into such splendid\nmetaphors as he, but faith is given us to follow the same course as his\nthoughts did, and to struggle till she arrives at the consciousness of\nGod in the most uncouth judgements that darken her horizon--the\nconsciousness of God present not only to smite, but to sift, and in the\nend to spare.\n\nOf the angel who led Israel to the land of promise, God said, _My Name\nis in him_. Our faith is not perfect till we can, like Isaiah, feel the\nsame of the blackest angel, the heaviest disaster, God can send us, and\nbe able to spell it out articulately: _The LORD, the LORD, a God\nmerciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and\ntruth_.\n\nFor delivery, says Isaiah, shall come to the people of God in the\ncrisis, as sudden and as startling into song as the delivery from Egypt\nwas. _Ye shall have a song as in the night when a holy feast is kept,\nand gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe to come into the\nmountain of the LORD, to the Rock of Israel._\n\nAfter this interval of solemn gladness, the storm and fire break out\nafresh, and rage again through the passage. But their direction is\nreversed, and whereas they had been shown rolling up the horizon as\ntowards Judah, they are now shown rolling down the horizon in pursuit of\nthe baffled Assyrian. The music of the verses is crashing. _And the LORD\nshall cause the peal[47] of His voice to be heard, and the lighting down\nof His arm to be seen in the fury of anger, yea flame of devouring\nfire--bursting and torrent and hailstones. For from the voice of the\nLORD shall the Assyrian be scattered when He shall smite with the rod.\nAnd every passage of the rod of fate which the LORD bringeth down upon\nhim shall be with tabrets and harps, and in battles of waving shall he\nbe fought against._ The meaning is obscure, but palpable. Probably the\nverse describes the ritual of the sacrifice to Moloch, to which there is\nno doubt the next verse alludes. To sympathize with the prophet's\nfigure, we need of course an amount of information about the details of\nthat ritual which we are very far from possessing. But Isaiah's meaning\nis evidently this. The destruction of the Assyrian host will be liker a\nholocaust than a battle, like one of those fatal sacrifices to Moloch\nwhich are directed by the solemn waving of a staff, and accompanied by\nthe music, not of war, but of festival. _Battles of waving_ is a very\nobscure phrase, but the word translated _waving_ is the technical term\nfor the waving of the victim before the sacrifice to signify its\ndedication to the deity; \"and these _battles of waving_ may perhaps have\ntaken place in the fashion in which single victims were thrown from one\nspear to another till death ensued.\"[48] At all events, it is evident\nthat Isaiah means to suggest that the Assyrian dispersion is a religious\nact, a solemn holocaust rather than one of this earth's ordinary\nbattles, and directed by Jehovah Himself from heaven. This becomes clear\nenough in the next verse: _For a Topheth hath been set in order\nbeforehand; yea, for Moloch is it arranged; He hath made it deep and\nbroad; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD,\nlike a torrent of brimstone, shall kindle it_. So the Assyrian power was\nin the end to go up in flame.\n\n  [47] So Dr. B. Davis, quoted by Cheyne.\n\n  [48] So Bredenkamp in his recent commentary on Isaiah.\n\nWe postpone remarks on Isaiah's sense of the fierceness of the Divine\nrighteousness till we reach his even finer expression of it in chap.\nxxxiii.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n_THREE TRUTHS ABOUT GOD._\n\nISAIAH xxxi. (ABOUT 702 B.C.).\n\n\nChap. xxxi., which forms an appendage to chaps. xxix. and xxx., can\nscarcely be reckoned among the more important prophecies of Isaiah. It\nis a repetition of the principles which the prophet has already\nproclaimed in connection with the faithless intrigues of Judah for an\nalliance with Egypt, and it was published at a time when the statesmen\nof Judah were further involved in these intrigues, when events were\nmoving faster, and the prophet had to speak with more hurried words.\nTruths now familiar to us are expressed in less powerful language. But\nthe chapter has its own value; it is remarkable for three very unusual\ndescriptions of God, which govern the following exposition of it. They\nrise in climax, enforcing three truths:--that in the government of life\nwe must take into account God's wisdom; we must be prepared to find many\nof His providences grim and savage-looking; but we must also believe\nthat He is most tender and jealous for His people.\n\n\nI. YET HE ALSO IS WISE (vv. 1-3).\n\nWe must suppose the negotiations with Egypt to have taken for the moment\na favourable turn, and the statesmen who advocated them to be\ncongratulating themselves upon some consequent addition to the fighting\nstrength of Judah. They could point to many chariots and a strong body\nof cavalry in proof of their own wisdom and refutation of the prophet's\nmaxim, _In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength; in\nreturning and rest shall ye be saved_.\n\nIsaiah simply answers their self-congratulation with the utterance of a\nnew Woe, and it is in this that the first of the three extraordinary\ndescriptions of God is placed. _Woe unto them that go down to Egypt for\nhelp; upon horses do they stay, and trust in chariots because they are\nmany, and in horsemen because they are very strong: but they look not\nunto the Holy One of Israel, and Jehovah they do not seek. Yet He also\nis wise._ You have been clever and successful, but have you forgotten\nthat _God also is wise_, that He too has His policy, and acts reasonably\nand consistently? You think you have been making history; but God also\nworks in history, and surely, to put it on the lowest ground, with as\nmuch cleverness and persistence as you do. _Yet He also is wise, and\nwill bring evil, and will not call back His words, but will arise\nagainst the house of the evil-doers, and against the help of them that\nwork iniquity._\n\nThis satire was the shaft best fitted to pierce the folly of the rulers\nof Judah. Wisdom, a reasonable plan for their aims and prudence in\ncarrying it out, was the last thing they thought of associating with\nGod, whom they relegated to what they called their religion--their\ntemples, worship and poetry. When their emotions were stirred by solemn\nservices, or under great disaster, or in the hour of death, they\nremembered God and it seemed natural to them that in these great\nexceptions of life He should interfere; but in their politics and their\ntrade, in the common course and conduct of life, they ignored Him and\nput their trust in their own wisdom. They limited God to the ceremonies\nand exceptional occasions of life, when they looked for His glory or\nmiraculous assistance, but they never thought that in their ordinary\nways He had any interest or design.\n\nThe forgetfulness, against which Isaiah directs this shaft of satire, is\nthe besetting sin of very religious people, of very successful people,\nand of very clever people.\n\nIt is the temptation of an ordinary Christian, church-going people, like\nourselves, with a religion so full of marvellous mercies, and so blessed\nwith regular opportunities of worship, to think of God only in\nconnection with these, and practically to ignore that along the far\ngreater stretches of life He has any interest or purpose regarding us.\nFormally-religious people treat God as if He were simply a\nconstitutional sovereign, to step in at emergencies, and for the rest to\nplay a nominal and ceremonial part in the conduct of their lives.\nIgnoring the Divine wisdom and ceaseless providence of God, and couching\ntheir hearts upon easy views of His benevolence, they have no other\nthought of Him, than as a philanthropic magician, whose power is\nreserved to extricate men when they have got past helping themselves.\nFrom the earliest times that way of regarding God has been prevalent,\nand religious teachers have never failed to stigmatize it with the\nhardest name for folly. _Fools_, says the Psalmist, _are afflicted when\nthey draw near unto the gates of death; then_, only then, _do they cry\nunto the Lord in their trouble_. _Thou fool!_ says Christ of the man\nwho kept God out of the account of his life. God is not mocked, although\nwe ignore half His being and confine our religion to such facile views\nof His nature. With this sarcasm, Isaiah reminds us that it is not a\nFool who is on the throne of the universe; yet is the Being whom the\nimaginations of some men place there any better? O wise men, _God also\nis wise_. Not by fits and starts of a benevolence similar to that of our\nown foolish and inconsistent hearts does He work. Consistency, reason\nand law are the methods of His action; and they apply closely,\nirretrievably, to all of our life. Hath He promised evil? Then evil will\nproceed. Let us believe that God keeps His word; that He is thoroughly\nattentive to all we do; that His will concerns the whole of our life.\n\nBut the temptation to refuse to God even ordinary wisdom is also the\ntemptation of very successful and very clever people, such as these\nJewish politicians fancied themselves to be, or such as the Rich Fool in\nthe parable. They have overcome all they have matched themselves\nagainst, and feel as if they were to be masters of their own future. Now\nthe Bible and the testimony of men invariably declare that God has one\nway of meeting such fools--the way Isaiah suggests here. God meets them\nwith their own weapons; He outmatches them in their own fashion. In the\neighteenth Psalm it is written, _With the pure Thou wilt show Thyself\npure, and with the perverse Thou wilt show Thyself froward_. The Rich\nFool congratulates himself that his soul is his own; says God, _This\nnight thy soul shall be required of thee_. The Jewish politicians pride\nthemselves on their wisdom; _Yet God also is wise_, says Isaiah\nsignificantly. After Moscow Napoleon is reported to have exclaimed,\n\"The Almighty is too strong for me.\" But perhaps the most striking\nanalogy to this satire of Isaiah is to be found in the \"Confessions\" of\nthat Jew, from whose living sepulchre we are so often startled with\nweird echoes of the laughter of the ancient prophets of his race. When\nHeine, Germany's greatest satirist, lay upon a bed to which his evil\nliving had brought him before his time, and the pride of art, which had\nbeen, as he says, his god, was at last crushed, he tells us what it was\nthat crushed him. They were singing his songs in every street of his\nnative land, and his fame had gone out through the world, while he lay\nan exile and paralysed upon his \"mattress-grave.\" \"Alas!\" he cries, \"the\nirony of Heaven weighs heavily upon me. The great Author of the\nuniverse, the celestial Aristophanes, wished to show me, the petty,\nearthly, German Aristophanes, how my most trenchant satires are only\nclumsy patchwork compared with His, and how immeasurably He excels me in\nhumour and colossal wit.\" That is just a soul writing in its own heart's\nblood this terrible warning of Isaiah: _Yet God also is wise_.\n\n_Yea, the Egyptians are men, and not God, and their horses flesh, and\nnot spirit; and when Jehovah shall stretch out His hand, both he that\nhelpeth shall stumble, and he that is holpen shall fall, and they all\nshall perish together._\n\n\nII. THE LION AND HIS PREY (ver. 4).\n\nBut notwithstanding what he has said about God destroying men who trust\nin their own cleverness, Isaiah goes on to assert that God is always\nready to save what is worth saving. The people, the city, His own\ncity--God will save that. To express God's persistent grace towards\nJerusalem, Isaiah uses two figures borrowed from the beasts. Both of\nthem are truly Homeric, and fire the imagination at once; but the first\nis not one we should have expected to find as a figure of the saving\ngrace of God. Yet Isaiah knows it is not enough for men to remember how\nwise God always is. They need also to be reminded how grim and cruel He\nmust sometimes appear, even in His saving providences. _For thus saith\nJehovah unto me: Like as when the lion growleth, and the young lion over\nhis prey, if a mob of shepherds be called forth against him, from their\nvoice he will not shrink in dismay, nor for their noise abase himself;\nso shall Jehovah of hosts come down to fight for Mount Zion and the hill\nthereof._ A lion with a lamb in his claws, growling over it, while a\ncrowd of shepherds come up against him; afraid to go near enough to kill\nhim, they try to frighten him away by shouting at him. But he holds his\nprey unshrinking.\n\nIt is a figure that startles at first. To liken God with a saving hold\nupon His own to a wild lion with his claws in the prey! But horror plays\nthe part of a good emphasis; while if we look into the figure, we shall\nfeel our horror change to appreciation. There is something majestic in\nthat picture of the lion with the shouting shepherds, too afraid to\nstrike him. _He will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase himself\nfor the noise of them._ Is it, after all, an unworthy figure of the\nDivine Claimant for this city, who kept unceasing hold upon her after\nHis own manner, mysterious and lionlike to men, undisturbed by the\nscreams, formulas, and prayers of her mob of politicians and\ntreaty-mongers? For these are the _shepherds_ Isaiah means--sham\nshepherds, the shrieking crew of politicians, with their treaties and\nmilitary display. God will save and carry Jerusalem His own way, paying\nno heed to such. _He will not be dismayed at their voice, nor abase\nHimself for the noise of them._\n\nThere is more than the unyielding persistency of Divine grace taught\nhere. There is that to begin with. God will never let go what He has\nmade His own: the souls He has redeemed from sin, the societies He has\nredeemed from barbarism, the characters He has hold of, the lives He has\nlaid His hand upon. Persistency of saving grace--let us learn that\nconfidently in the parable. But that is only half of what it is meant to\nteach. Look at the shepherds: shepherds shouting round a lion; why does\nIsaiah put it that way, and not as David did--lions growling round a\nbrave shepherd, with the lamb in his arms? Because it so appeared then\nin the life Isaiah was picturing, because it often looks the same in\nreal life still. These politicians--they seemed, they played the part\nof, shepherds; and Jehovah, who persistently frustrated their plans for\nthe salvation of the State--He looked the lion, delivering Jerusalem to\ndestruction. And very often to men does this arrangement of the parts\nrepeat itself; and while human friends are anxious and energetic about\nthem, God Himself appears in providences more lionlike than shepherdly.\nHe grasps with the savage paw of death some one as dear to us as that\ncity was to Isaiah. He rends our body or soul or estate. And friends and\nour own thoughts gather round the cruel bereavement or disaster with\nremonstrance and complaint. Our hearts cry out, doing, like shepherds,\ntheir best to scare by prayer and cries the foe they are too weak to\nkill. We all know the scene, and how shabby and mean that mob of human\nremonstrances looks in face of the great Foe, majestic though\ninarticulate, that with sullen persistence carries off its prey. All we\ncan say in such times is that if it is God who is the lion, then it is\nfor the best. For _though He slay me, yet will I trust Him_; and, after\nall, it is safer to rely on the mercies of God, lionlike though they be,\nthan on the weak benevolences and officious pities of the best of human\nadvisers. \"Thy will be done\"--let perfect reverence teach us to feel\nthat, even when providence seems as savage as men that day thought God's\nwill towards Jerusalem.\n\nIn addition then to remembering, when men seem by their cleverness and\nsuccess to rule life, that God is wiser and His plans more powerful than\ntheirs, we are not to forget, when men seem more anxious and merciful\nthan His dark providence, that for all their argument and action His\nwill shall not alter. But now we are to hear that this will, so hard and\nmysterious, is as merciful and tender as a mother's.\n\n\nIII. THE MOTHER-BIRD AND HER NEST (ver. 5).\n\n_As birds hovering, so will Jehovah of hosts cover Jerusalem, He will\ncover and deliver it: He will pass over and preserve it._ At last we are\nthrough dark providence, to the very heart of the Almighty. The meaning\nis familiar from its natural simplicity and frequent use in Scripture.\nTwo features of it our version has not reproduced. The word _birds_\nmeans the smaller kind of feathered creatures, and the word _hovering_\nis feminine in the original: _As little mother-birds hovering, so will\nJehovah of hosts protect Jerusalem_. We have been watching in spring the\nhedge where we know is a nest. Suddenly the mother-bird, who has been\nsitting on a branch close by, flutters off her perch, passes backwards\nand forwards, with flapping wings that droop nervously towards the nest\nover her young. A hawk is in the sky, and till he disappears she will\nhover--the incarnation of motherly anxiety. This is Isaiah's figure. His\nnative city, on which he poured so much of his heart in lyrics and\nparables, was again in danger. Sennacherib was descending upon her; and\nthe pity of Isaiah's own heart for her, evil though she was, suggested\nto him a motherhood of pity in the breast of God. The suggestion God\nHimself approved. Centuries after, when He assumed our flesh and spoke\nour language, when He put His love into parables lowly and familiar to\nour affections, there were none of them more beautiful than that which\nHe uttered of this same city, weeping as He spake: _O Jerusalem,\nJerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a\nhen gathereth her brood under her wings, and ye would not!_\n\nWith such fountains in Scripture, we need not, as some have done, exalt\nthe Virgin, or virtually make a fourth person in the Godhead, and that a\nwoman, in order to satisfy those natural longings of the heart which the\nwidespread worship of the mother of Jesus tells us are so peremptory.\nFor all fulness dwelleth in God Himself. Not only may we rejoice in that\npity and wise provision for our wants, in that pardon and generosity,\nwhich we associate with the name of father, but also in the wakefulness,\nthe patience, the love, lovelier with fear, which make a mother's heart\nso dear and indispensable. We cannot tell along what wakened nerve the\ngrace of God may reach our hearts; but Scripture has a medicine for\nevery pain. And if any feel their weakness as little children feel it,\nlet them know that the Spirit of God broods over them, as a mother over\nher babe; and if any are in pain or anxiety, and there is no human\nheart to suffer with them, let them know that as closely as a mother may\ncome to suffer with her child, and as sensitive as she is to its danger,\nso sensitive is God Almighty to theirs, and that He gives them proof of\ntheir preciousness to Him by suffering with them.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHow these three descriptions meet the three failings of our faith! We\nforget that God is ceaselessly at work in wisdom in our lives. We forget\nthat God must sometimes, even when He is saving us, seem lionlike and\ncruel. We forget that \"the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully\nkind.\"\n\nHaving thus made vivid the presence of their Lord to the purged eyes of\nHis people, patient, powerful in order, wise in counsel, persistent in\ngrace, and, last of all, very tender, Isaiah concludes with a cry to the\npeople to turn to this Lord, from whom they have so deeply revolted. Let\nthem cast away their idols, and there shall be no fear of the result of\nthe Assyrian invasion. The Assyrian shall fall, not by the sword of man,\nbut the immediate stroke of God. _And his rock shall pass away by reason\nof terror, and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, saith the\nLord, whose fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem._ And so\nIsaiah closes this series of prophecies on the keynote with which it\nopened in the first verse of chap. xxix.: that Jerusalem is Ariel--_the\nhearth and altar, the dwelling-place and sanctuary, of God_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n_A MAN: CHARACTER AND THE CAPACITY TO DISCRIMINATE CHARACTER._\n\nISAIAH xxxii. 1-8 (ABOUT 702 B.C.?).\n\n\nThe Assyrians being thus disposed of, Isaiah turns to a prospect, on\nwhich we have scarcely heard him speak these twenty years, since Assyria\nappeared on the frontier of Judah--the religious future and social\nprogress of his own people. This he paints in a small prophecy of eight\nverses, the first eight of chap. xxxii.--verses 9-20 of that chapter\napparently springing from somewhat different conditions.\n\nThe first eight verses of chap. xxxii. belong to a class of prophecies\nwhich we may call Isaiah's \"escapes.\" Like St. Paul, Isaiah, when he has\nfinished some exposition of God's dealings with His people or argument\nwith the sinners among them, bursts upon an unencumbered vision of the\nfuture, and with roused conscience, and voice resonant from long debate,\ntakes his loftiest flights of eloquence. In Isaiah's book we have\nseveral of these visions, and each bears a character of its own\naccording to the sort of sinners from whom the prophet shook himself\nloose to describe it and the kind of indignation that filled his heart\nat the time. We have already seen, how in some of Isaiah's visions the\nMessiah has the chief place, while from others He is altogether absent.\nBut here we come upon another inconsistency. Sometimes, as in chap. xi.,\nIsaiah is content with nothing but a new dispensation--the entire\ntransformation of nature, when there shall be no more desert or storm,\nbut to the wild animals docility shall come, and among men an end to\nsorrow, fraud and war. But again he limits his prophetic soul and\npromises less. As if, overcome by the spectacle of the more clamant\nneeds and horrible vices of society, he had said, we must first get rid\nof these, we must supply those, before we can begin to dream of heaven.\nSuch is Isaiah's feeling here. This prophecy is not a vision of society\nglorified, but of society established and reformed, with its foundation\nfirmly settled (ver. 1), with its fountain forces in full operation\n(ver. 2), and with an absolute check laid upon its worst habits, as, for\ninstance, the moral grossness, lying and pretence which the prophet has\nbeen denouncing for several chapters (vv. 3-8). This moderation of the\nprophecy brings it within the range of practical morals; while the\nhumanity of it, its freedom from Jewish or Oriental peculiarities,\nrenders it thoroughly modern. If every unfulfilled prophecy ought to be\nan accusing conscience in the breast of the Christian Church, there will\nbe none more clamant and practical than this one. Its demands are\nessential to the social interests of to-day.\n\nIn ver. 1 we have the presupposition of the whole prophecy: _Behold, in\nrighteousness shall a king reign, and princes--according to justice\nshall they rule_. A just government is always the basis of Isaiah's\nvision of the future. Here he defines it with greater abstractness than\nhe has been wont to do. It is remarkable, that a writer, whose pen has\nalready described the figure of the coming King so concretely and with\nso much detail, should here content himself with a general promise of a\nrighteous government, regarding, as he seems to do, rather the office of\nkinghood, than any single eminent occupier of it. That the prophet of\nImmanuel, and still more the prophet of the Prince-of-the-Four-Names\n(chap. ix. 7), and of the Son of Jesse (chap. xi. 1), should be able to\npaint the ideal future, and speak of the just government that was to\nprevail in it, without at the same time referring to his previous very\nexplicit promises of a royal Individual, is a fact which we cannot\noverlook in support of the opinion we have expressed on pp. 180 and 181\nconcerning the object of Isaiah's Messianic hopes.\n\nNor is the vagueness of the first verse corrected by the terms of the\nsecond: _And a man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind_, etc. We\nhave already spoken of this verse as an ethical advance upon Isaiah's\nprevious picture of the Messiah (see p. 182). But while, of course, the\nMessiah was to Isaiah the ideal of human character, and therefore shared\nwhatsoever features he might foresee in its perfect development, it is\nevident that in this verse Isaiah is not thinking of the Messiah alone\nor particularly. When he says with such simplicity _a_ man, he means any\nman, he means the ideal for every man. Having in ver. 1 laid down the\nfoundation for social life, he tells us in ver. 2 what the shelter and\nfountain force of society are to be: not science nor material wealth,\nbut personal influence, the strength and freshness of the human\npersonality. _A man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a\ncovert from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the\nshadow of a great rock in a weary land._ After just government (ver. 1)\ngreat characters are the prophet's first demand (ver. 2), and then (vv.\n3-8) he will ask for the capacity to discriminate character. \"Character\nand the capacity to discriminate character\" indeed summarizes this\nprophecy.\n\n\nI. A MAN (ver. 2).\n\nIsaiah has described personal influence on so grand a scale that it is\nnot surprising that the Church has leapt to his words as a direct\nprophecy of Jesus Christ. They are indeed a description of Him, out of\nwhose shadow advancing time has not been able to carry the children of\nmen, who has been the shelter and fertility of every generation since He\nwas lifted up, and to whom the affections of individual hearts never\nrise higher than when they sing--\n\n  \"Rock of ages, cleft for me,\n  Let me hide myself in Thee.\"\n\nSuch a rock was Christ indeed; but, in accordance with what we have said\nabove, the prophet here has no individual specially in his view, but is\nrather laying down a general description of the influence of individual\ncharacter, of which Christ Jesus was the highest instance. Taken in this\nsense, his famous words present us, _first_, with a philosophy of\nhistory, at the heart of which there is, _secondly_, a great gospel, and\nin the application of which there is, _thirdly_, a great ideal and duty\nfor ourselves.\n\n1. Isaiah gives us in this verse a PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. Great men are\nnot the whole of life, but they are the condition of all the rest; if it\nwere not for the big men, the little ones could scarcely live. The first\nrequisites of religion and civilisation are outstanding characters.\n\nIn the East the following phenomenon is often observed. Where the desert\ntouches a river-valley or oasis, the sand is in a continual state of\ndrift from the wind, and it is this drift which is the real cause of the\nbarrenness of such portions of the desert at least as abut upon the\nfertile land. For under the rain, or by infiltration of the river,\nplants often spring up through the sand, and there is sometimes promise\nof considerable fertility. It never lasts. Down comes the periodic\ndrift, and life is stunted or choked out. But set down a rock on the\nsand, and see the difference its presence makes. After a few showers, to\nthe leeward side of this some blades will spring up; if you have\npatience, you will see in time a garden. How has the boulder produced\nthis? Simply by arresting the drift.\n\nNow that is exactly how great men benefit human life. A great man serves\nhis generation, serves the whole race, by arresting the drift. Deadly\nforces, blind and fatal as the desert wind, sweep down human history. In\nthe beginning it was the dread of Nature, the cold blast which blows\nfrom every quarter on the barbarian, and might have stunted men to\nanimals. But into some soul God breathed a great breath of freedom, and\nthe man defied Nature. Nature has had her revenge by burying the rebel\nin oblivion. On the distant horizon of history we can see, merely in\nsome old legend, the evidence of his audacity. But the drift was\narrested; behind the event men took shelter, in the shelter grew free,\nand learned to think out what the first great resister felt.\n\nWhen history had left this rock behind, and the drift had again space to\ngrow, the same thing happened; and the hero this time was Abraham. He\nlaid his back to the practice of his forefathers, and lifting his brow\nto heaven, was the first to worship the One Unseen God. Abraham\nbelieved; and in the shadow of his faith, and sheltered by his example,\nhis descendants learned to believe too. To-day from within the three\ngreat spiritual religions men look back to him as the father of the\nfaithful.\n\nWhen Isaiah, while all his countrymen were rushing down the mad, steep\nways of politics, carried off by the only powers that were as yet known\nin these ways, fear of death and greed to be on the side of the\nstrongest--when Isaiah stood still amid that panic rush, and uttered the\nmemorable words, _In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength;\nin returning and rest shall ye be saved_, he stopped one of the most\ndangerous drifts in history, and created in its despite a shelter for\nthose spiritual graces, which have always been the beauty of the State,\nand are now coming to be recognized as its strength.\n\nWhen, in the early critical days of the Church, that dark drift of\nJewish custom, which had overflown the barriers set to the old\ndispensation, threatened to spread its barrenness upon the fields of the\nGentile world, already white to the harvest of Christ, and Peter and\nBarnabas and all the Apostles were carried away by it, what was it that\nsaved Christianity? Under God, it was this: that Paul got up and, as he\ntells us, withstood Peter to the face.\n\nAnd, again, when the powers of the Roman Church and the Roman Empire,\nchecked for a little by the efforts which began the Reformation,\ngathered themselves together and rose in one awful front of emperor,\ncardinals, and princes at the Diet of Worms, what was it that stood fast\nagainst that drift of centuries, and proved the rock, under whose\nshelter men dared to read God's pure word again, and preach His Gospel?\nIt was the word of a lonely monk: \"Here stand I. I cannot otherwise. So\nhelp me, God.\"\n\nSo that Isaiah is right. A single man has been as _an hiding-place from\nthe wind and a covert from the tempest_. History is swept by drifts:\nsuperstition, error, poisonous custom, dust-laden controversy. What has\nsaved humanity has been the upraising of some great man to resist those\ndrifts, to set his will, strong through faith, against the prevailing\ntendency, and be the shelter of the weaker, but not less desirous, souls\nof his brethren. \"The history of what man has accomplished in the world\nis at bottom the history of the great men who have worked there.\" Under\nGod, personal human power is the highest force, and God has ever used it\nas His chief instrument.\n\n2. But in this philosophy of history there is a GOSPEL. Isaiah's words\nare not only man's ideal; they are God's promise, and that promise has\nbeen fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the most conspicuous\nexample--none others are near Him--of this personal influence in which\nIsaiah places all the shelter and revival of society. God has set His\nseal to the truth, that the greatest power in shaping human destiny is\nman himself, by becoming one with man, by using a human soul to be the\nSaviour of the race. _A man_, says Isaiah, _shall be as an hiding-place\nfrom the wind, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land_; and the\nRock of ages was a Man. The world indeed knew that personal character\ncould go higher than all else in the world, but they never knew how high\ntill they saw Jesus Christ, or how often till they numbered His\nfollowers.\n\nThis figure of a rock, a rock resisting drift, gives us some idea, not\nonly of the commanding influence of Christ's person, but of that special\noffice from which all the glory of His person and of His name arises:\nthat _He saves His people from their sins_.\n\nFor what is sin? Sin is simply the longest, heaviest drift in human\nhistory. It arose in the beginning, and has carried everything before it\nsince. \"The oldest custom of the race,\" it is the most powerful habit of\nthe individual. Men have reared against it government, education,\nphilosophy, system after system of religion. But sin overwhelmed them\nall.\n\nOnly Christ resisted, and His resistance saves the world. Alone among\nhuman lives presented to our view, that of Christ is sinless. What is so\nprevalent in human nature that we cannot think of a human individual\nwithout it never stained Christ's life. Sin was about Him; it was not\nthat He belonged to another sphere of things which lay above it. Sin was\nabout Him. He rose from its midst with the same frailty as other men,\nencompassed by the same temptations; but where they rose to fall, He\nrose to stand, and standing, became the world's Saviour. The great\ntradition was broken; the drift was arrested. Sin never could be the\nsame again after the sinless manhood of Christ. The old world's sins and\ncruel customs were shut out from the world that came after. Some of them\nceased so absolutely as scarcely to be afterwards named; and the rest\nwere so curbed that no civilised society suffered them to pass from its\nconstraint, and no public conscience tolerated them as natural or\nnecessary evils.\n\nWhat the surface of the world's life bears so deeply, that does every\nindividual, who puts his trust in Jesus, feel to the core. Of Jesus the\nbeliever can truly say that life on _this_ side of Him is very different\nfrom life on _that_. Temptations keep far away from the heart that keeps\nnear to Christ. Under the shadow of our Rock, for us the evil of the\npresent loses all its suggestiveness, the evil of the past its awful\nsurge of habit and guilty fear.\n\n3. But there is not only a philosophy of history and a gospel in this\npromise of _a man_. There is a great DUTY and IDEAL for every one. If\nthis prophecy distinctly reaches forward to Jesus Christ as its only\nperfect fulfilment, the vagueness of its expression permits of its\napplication to all, and through Him its fulfilment by all becomes a\npossibility. Now each of us may be a rock, a shelter and a source of\nfertility to the life around him in three modes of constant influence.\nWe can be like Christ, the Rock, in shutting out from our neighbours the\nknowledge and infection of sin, in keeping our conversation so\nunsuggestive and unprovocative of evil, that, though sin drift upon us,\nit shall never drift through us. And we may be like Christ, the Rock, in\nshutting out blame from other men; in sheltering them from the east wind\nof pitiless prejudice, quarrel or controversy; in stopping the unclean\nand bitter drifts of scandal and gossip. How many lives have lost their\nfertility for the want of a little silence and a little shadow! Some\nrighteous people have a terribly north-eastern exposure; children do not\nplay about their doors, nor the prodigal stop there. And again, as there\nare a number of men and women who fall in struggling for virtue simply\nbecause they never see it successful in others, and the spectacle of one\npure, heroic character would be their salvation, here is another way in\nwhich each servant of God may be a rock. Of the late Clerk Maxwell it\nwas said, \"He made faith in goodness easy to other men.\" _A man shall be\nas streams of water in a desert place._\n\n\nII. CAPACITY TO DISTINGUISH CHARACTER (vv. 3-8).\n\nBut after the coming of this ideal, it is not paradise that is regained.\nParadise is farther off. We must have truth to begin with: truth and the\ncapacity to discriminate character. The sternness with which Isaiah thus\npostpones his earlier vision shows us how sore his heart was about the\n_lying_ temper of his people. We have heard him deploring the\nfascination of their false minds by the Egyptian Pretence. Their\nfalseness, however, had not only shown itself in their foreign politics,\nbut in their treatment of one another, in their social fashions,\njudgements and worships. In society there prevailed a want of moral\ninsight and of moral courage. At home also the Jews had failed to call\nthings by their right names (cf. p. 226). Therefore next in their future\nIsaiah desires the cure of moral blindness, haste and cowardice (vv. 3,\n4), with the explosion of all social lies (ver. 5). Men shall stand out\nfor what they are, whether they be bad--for the bad shall not be wanting\n(vv. 6, 7)--or good (ver. 8). On righteous government (ver. 1) and\ninfluence of strong men (ver. 2) must follow social truthfulness (vv.\n3-8). Such is the line of the prophet's demands. The details of vv. 3-8\nare exceedingly interesting.\n\n_And not closed shall be the eyes of them that see, and the ears of them\nthat hear shall be pricked up._ The context makes it clear that this is\nspoken, not of intellectual, but of moral, insight and alertness. _And\nthe heart of the hasty shall learn how to know, and the tongue of the\nstammerer be quick_ (the verb is the same as the _hasty_ of the\nprevious clause) _to speak plain things_. _Startlingly plain\nthings_--for the word literally means _blinding-white_, and is so used\nof the sun--_startlingly plain_, like that scorching epigram upon Egypt.\nThe morally rash and the morally timid are equal fathers of lies.\n\nIn illustration Isaiah takes the conventional abuse of certain moral\nterms, exposes it and declares it shall cease: _The vile person shall no\nmore be called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful_. _Liberal_\nand _bountiful_ were conventional names. The Hebrew word for _liberal_\noriginally meant exactly that--_open-hearted_, _generous_,\n_magnanimous_. In the East it is the character which above all they call\nprincely. So like our words \"noble\" and \"nobility,\" it became a term of\nrank, _lord_ or _prince_, and was often applied to men who were not at\nall great-hearted, but the very opposite--even to the _vile person_.\n_Vile person_ is literally the _faded_ or the _exhausted_, whether\nmentally or morally--the last kind of character that could be princely.\nThe other conventional term used by Isaiah refers to wealth rather than\nrank. The Hebrew for _bountiful_ literally means _abundant_, a man\nblessed with plenty, and is used in the Old Testament both for the rich\nand the fortunate. Its nearest English equivalent is perhaps _the\nsuccessful man_. To this Isaiah fitly opposes a name, wrongly rendered\nin our version _churl_, but corrected in the margin to _crafty_--_the\nfraudulent_, _the knave_. When moral discrimination comes, says Isaiah,\nmen will not apply the term _princely_ to _worn-out_ characters, nor\ngrant them the social respect implied by the term. They will not call\nthe _fraudulent_ the _fortunate_, nor canonise him as successful, who\nhas gotten his wealth by underhand means. _The worthless character shall\nno more be called princely, nor the knave hailed as the successful._ But\nmen's characters shall stand out true in their actions, and by their\nfruits ye shall know them. In those magic days the heart shall come to\nthe lips, and its effects be unmistakeable. _For the worthless person,\nworthlessness shall he speak_--what else can he?--_and his heart shall\ndo iniquity, to practise profaneness and to utter against the LORD rank\nerror, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink\nof the thirsty to fail_. _The tools, too, of the knave_ (a play upon\nwords here--\"Keli Kelav,\" _the knave his knives_) _are evil; he! low\ntricks he deviseth to destroy the poor with words of falsehood, even\nwhen the poor speaks justice_ (that is, has justice as well as poverty\nto plead for him). _But the princely things deviseth, and he upon\nprincely things shall stand_--not upon conventional titles or rank, or\nthe respect of insincere hearts, but upon actual deeds of generosity and\nsacrifice.\n\nAfter great characters, then, what society needs is capacity to discern\ncharacter, and the chief obstacle in the way of this discernment is the\nsubstitution of a conventional morality for a true morality, and of some\ndistinctions of man's making for the eternal difference which God has\nset between right and wrong.\n\nHuman progress consists, according to Isaiah, of getting rid of these\nconventions; and in this history bears him out. The abolition of\nslavery, the recognition of the essential nobility of labour, the\nabolition of infanticide, the emancipation of woman--all these are due\nto the release of men's minds from purely conventional notions, and the\ncourageous application in their place of the fundamental laws of\nrighteousness and love. If progress is still to continue, it must be by\nthe same method. In many directions it is still a false\nconventionalism,--sometimes the relic of barbarism, sometimes the fruit\nof civilisation,--that blocks the way. The savage notions which\nobstruct the enforcement of masculine purity have to be exposed. Nor\nshall we ever get true commercial prosperity, or the sense of security\nwhich is indispensable to that, till men begin to cease calling\ntransactions all right merely because they are the custom of the trade\nand the means to which its members look for profits.\n\nBut, above all, as Isaiah tells us, we need to look to our use of\nlanguage. It is one of the standing necessities of pure science to\nrevise the terminology, to reserve for each object a special name, and\nsee that all men understand the same object by the same name. Otherwise\nconfusion comes in, and science is impossible. The necessity, though not\nso faithfully recognized, is as imperative in morals. If we consider the\ndisgraceful mistakes in popular morals which have been produced by the\ntransference and degradation of names, we shall feel it to be a\nreligious duty to preserve for these their proper meaning. In the\ninterests of morality, we must not be careless in our use of moral\nterms. As Socrates says in the _Ph\u00e6do_: \"To use words wrongly and\nindefinitely is not merely an error in itself; it also creates evil in\nthe soul.\"[49] What noxious misconceptions, what mistaken ideals of\nlife, are due to the abuse of these four words alone: \"noble,\"\n\"gentleman,\" \"honour\" and \"Christian\"! By applying these, in flattery or\ndeceit, to persons unworthy of them, men have not only deprived them of\nthe virtue which originally the mere utterance of them was enough to\ninstil into the heart, but have sent forth to the world under their\nattractiveness second-rate types of character and ideals. The word\n\"gentleman\"! How the heart sickens as it thinks what a number of people\nhave been satisfied to aim at a shoddy and superficial life because it\nwas labelled with this gracious name. Conventionalism has deprived the\nEnglish language of some of its most powerful sermons by devoting terms\nof singular moral expressiveness to do duty as mere labels upon\ncharacters that are dead, or on ranks and offices, for the designation\nof which mere cyphers might have sufficed.\n\n  [49] Cf. further with this passage F. J. Church, _Trial and Death of\n  Socrates_, Introd. xli. ff.\n\nWe must not forget, however, Isaiah's chief means for the abolition of\nthis conventionalism and the substitution of a true moral vision and\nterminology. These results are to follow from the presence of the great\ncharacter, _A Man_, whom he has already lifted up. Conventionalism is\nanother of the drifts which that _Rock_ has to arrest. Setting ourselves\nto revise our dictionaries or to restore to our words their original\nmeanings out of our memories is never enough. The rising of a\nconspicuous character alone can dissipate the moral haze; the sense of\nhis influence will alone fill emptied forms with meaning. So Christ\nJesus judged and judges the world by His simple presence; men fall to\nHis right hand and to His left. He calls things by their right names,\nand restores to each term of religion and morals its original ideal,\nwhich the vulgar use of the world had worn away.[50]\n\n  [50] Cf. with the fifth and sixth verses of chap. xxxii. the forcible\n  passage in the introduction to Carlyle's _Cromwell's Letters_,\n  beginning, \"Sure enough, in the Heroic Century, as in the Unheroic,\n  knaves and cowards ... were not wanting. But the question always\n  remains, Did they lie chained?\" etc.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n_ISAIAH TO WOMEN._\n\nISAIAH xxxii. 9-20 (DATE UNCERTAIN).\n\n\nThe date of this prophecy, which has been appended to those spoken by\nIsaiah during the Egyptian intrigues (704-702), is not certain. It is\naddressed to women, and there is no reason why the prophet, when he was\nupbraiding the men of Judah for their false optimism, should not also\nhave sought to awaken the conscience of their wives and daughters on\nwhat is the besetting sin rather of women than of men. The chief\nevidence for dissociating the prophecy from its immediate predecessors\nis that it predicts, or apparently predicts (vv. 13-14), the ruin of\nJerusalem, whereas in these years Isaiah was careful to exempt the Holy\nCity from the fate which he saw falling on the rest of the land. But\notherwise the argument of the prophecy is almost exactly that of chaps.\nxxix.-xxx. By using the same words when he blames the women for _ease_\nand _carelessness_ in vv. 9-11, as he does when he promises _confidence_\nand _quiet resting-places_ in vv. 17, 18, Isaiah makes clear that his\npurpose is to contrast the false optimism of society during the\npostponement of the Assyrian invasion with that confidence and stability\nupon righteousness which the Spirit of God can alone create. The\nprophecy, too, has the usual three stages: sin in the present,\njudgement in the immediate future, and a state of blessedness in the\nlatter days. The near date at which judgement is threatened--_days\nbeyond a year_--ought to be compared with chap. xxix. 1: _Add ye a year\nto a year; let the feasts come round_.\n\nThe new points are--that it is the women who are threatened, that\nJerusalem itself is pictured in ruin, and that the pouring out of the\nSpirit is promised as the cause of the blessed future.\n\n\nI. THE CHARGE TO THE WOMEN (vv. 9-12)\n\nis especially interesting, not merely for its own terms, but because it\nis only part of a treatment of women which runs through the whole of\nScripture.\n\nIsaiah had already delivered against the women of Jerusalem a severe\ndiatribe (chap. iii.), the burden of which was their vanity and\nhaughtiness. With the satiric temper, which distinguishes his earlier\nprophecies, he had mimicked their ogling and mincing gait, and described\npin by pin their fashions and ornaments, promising them instead of these\nthings _rottenness_ and _baldness_, and _a girdle of sackcloth and\nbranding for beauty_. But he has grown older, and penetrating below\ntheir outward fashion and gait, he charges them with thoughtlessness as\nthe besetting sin of their sex. _Ye women that are at ease, rise up, and\nhear my voice; ye careless daughters, give ear to my speech. For days\nbeyond a year shall ye be troubled, O careless women, for the vintage\nshall fail; the ingathering shall not come. Tremble, ye women that are\nat ease; be troubled, ye careless ones._ By a pair of epithets he\ndescribes their fault; and almost thrice does he repeat the pair, as if\nhe would emphasize it past all doubt. The besetting sin of women, as he\ndins into them, is ease; an ignorant and unthinking contentment with\nthings as they are; thoughtlessness with regard to the deeper mysteries\nof life; disbelief in the possibility of change.\n\nBut Isaiah more than hints that these besetting sins of women are but\nthe defects of their virtues. The literal meaning of the two adjectives\nhe uses, _at ease_ and _careless_, is _restful_ and _trustful_.\nScripture throughout employs these words both in a good and a bad sense.\nIsaiah does so himself in this very chapter (compare these verses with\nvv. 17, 18). In the next chapter he describes the state of Jerusalem\nafter redemption as a state of _ease_ or _restfulness_, and we know that\nhe never ceased urging the people to _trustfulness_. For such truly\nreligious conditions he uses exactly the same names as for the shallow\noptimism with which he now charges his countrywomen. And so doing, he\nreminds us of an important law of character. The besetting sins of\neither sex are its virtues prostituted. A man's greatest temptations\nproceed from his strength; but the glory of the feminine nature is\nrepose, and trust is the strength of the feminine character, in which\nvery things, however, lies all the possibility of woman's degradation.\nWoman's faith amounts at times to real intuition; but what risks are\nattached to this prophetic power--of impatience, of contentment with the\nfirst glance at things, \"the inclination,\" as a great moralist has put\nit, \"to take too easily the knowledge of the problems of life, and to\nrest content with what lies nearest her, instead of penetrating to a\ndeeper foundation.\" Women are full of indulgence and hope; but what\npossibilities lie there of deception, false optimism, and want of that\nanxiety which alone makes progress possible. Women are more inclined\nthan men to believe all things; but how certain is such a temper to\nsacrifice the claims of truth and honour. Women are full of tact, the\njust favourites of success, with infinite power to plead and please; but\nif they are aware of this, how certain is such a self-consciousness to\nproduce negligence and the fatal sleep of the foolish virgins.\n\nScripture insists repeatedly on this truth of Isaiah's about the\nbesetting sin of women. The prophet Amos has engraved it in one of his\nsharpest epigrams, declaring that thoughtlessness is capable of turning\nwomen into very brutes, and their homes into desolate ruins: _Hear this\nword, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which\noppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say unto their lords,\nBring and let us drink. The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by His holiness\nthat, lo, the days shall come upon you that they shall take you away\nwith hooks, and your residue with fish-hooks, and ye shall go out at the\nbreaches, every one straight before her, and ye shall cast yourselves\ninto Harmon, saith Jehovah._ It is a cowherd's picture of women: a troop\nof cows, heavy, heedless animals, trampling in their anxiety for food\nupon every frail and lowly object in the way. There is a cowherd's\ncoarseness in it, but a prophet's insight into character. Not of\nJezebels, or Messalinas, or Lady-Macbeths is it spoken, but of the\nordinary matrons of Samaria. Thoughtlessness is able to make brutes out\nof women of gentle nurture, with homes and a religion. For\nthoughtlessness when joined to luxury or beauty plays with cruel\nweapons. It means greed, arrogance, indifference to suffering,\nwantonness, pride of conquest, dissimulation in love, and revenge for\nlittle slights; and there is no waste, unkind sport, insolence,\nbrutality, or hysterical violence to which it will not lead. Such women\nare known, as Amos pictured them, through many degrees of this\nthoughtlessness: interrupters of conversation, an offence to the wise;\ndevourers of many of the little ones of God's creation for the sake of\ntheir own ornament; tormentors of servants and subordinates for the sake\nof their own ease; out of the enjoyment of power or for admiration's\nsake breakers of hearts. And are not all such victims of thoughtlessness\nbest compared, with Amos, to a cow--an animal that rushes at its grass\ncareless of the many daisies and ferns it tramples, that will destroy\nthe beauty of a whole country lane for a few mouthfuls of herbage?\nThoughtlessness, says Amos--_and the Lord GOD hath sworn it by His\nholiness_--is the very negation of womanhood, the ruin of homes.\n\nBut when we turn from the degradation of woman as thus exposed by the\nprophets to her glory as lifted up in the New Testament, we find that\nthe same note is struck. Woman in the New Testament is gracious\naccording as she is thoughtful; she offends even when otherwise\nbeautiful by her feeling overpowering her thought. Martha spoils a most\nestimable character by one moment of unthinking passion, in which she\naccuses the Master of carelessness. Mary chooses the better part in\nclose attention to her Master's words. The Ten Virgins are divided into\nfive wise and five foolish. Paul seems to have been struck, as Isaiah\nwas, with the natural tendency of the female character, for the first\nduty he lays upon the old women is to _teach the young women to think\ndiscreetly_, and he repeats the injunction, putting it before chastity\nand industry--_Teach them_, he says, _teach them discretion_ (Titus ii.\n4, 5). In Mary herself, the mother of our Lord, we see two graces of\ncharacter, to the honour of which Scripture gives equal place--faith and\nthoughtfulness. The few sentences, which are all that he devotes to\nMary's character, the Evangelist divides equally between these two. She\nwas called _blessed_ because she believed the word of the Lord. But\ntrustfulness did not mean in her, as in other women, neglect to think.\nTwice, at an interval of twelve years, we are shown thoughtfulness and\ncarefulness of memory as the habitual grace of this first among women.\n_Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. His mother\nkept all these sayings in her heart._[51] What was Mary's glory was\nother women's salvation. By her own logic the sufferer of Capernaum,\nwhom many physicians failed to benefit, found her cure; by her\npersistent argument the Syrophenician woman received her daughter to\nhealth again. And when our Lord met that flippant descendant of the\n_kine of Bashan, that are in the mount of Samaria_, how did He treat her\nthat He might save her but by giving her matter to think about, by\nspeaking to her in riddles, by exploding her superficial knowledge, and\nscattering her easy optimism?\n\n  [51] Cf. Newman, _Oxford University Sermons_, xv.\n\nSo does all Scripture declare, in harmony with the oracle of Isaiah,\nthat thoughtlessness and easy contentment with things as they be, are\nthe besetting sins of woman. But her glory is discretion.\n\nII. The next new point in this prophecy is the\n\n\nDESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (vv. 13-15).\n\n_Upon the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon\nall the houses of joy in the joyous city: for the palace shall be\nforsaken; the populous city shall be deserted; Ophel and the Watch-tower\nshall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks._\nThe attempt has been made to confine this reference to the outskirts of\nthe sacred city, but it is hardly a just one. The prophet, though he\ndoes not name the city, evidently means Jerusalem, and means the whole\nof it. Some therefore deny the authenticity of the prophecy. Certainly\nit is almost impossible to suppose, that so definite a sentence of ruin\ncan have been published at the same time as the assurances of\nJerusalem's inviolability in the preceding orations. But that does not\nprevent the hypothesis that it was uttered by Isaiah at an earlier\nperiod, when, as in chaps. ii. and iii., he did say extreme things about\nthe destruction of his city. It must be noticed, however, that Isaiah\nspeaks with some vagueness; that at the present moment he is not\nconcerned with any religious truth or will of the Almighty, but simply\ndesires to contrast the careless gaiety of the women of Jerusalem with\nthe fate hanging over them. How could he do this more forcibly than by\nturning the streets and gardens of their delights into ruins and the\nhaunts of the wild ass, even though it should seem inconsistent with his\ndeclaration that Zion was inviolable? Licence for a certain amount of\ninconsistency is absolutely necessary in the case of a prophet who had\nso many divers truths to utter to so many opposite interests and\ntempers. Besides, at this time he had already reduced Jerusalem very low\n(xxix. 4).\n\n\nIII. THE SPIRIT OUTPOURED (vv. 15-20).\n\nThe rest of the prophecy is luminous rather than lucid, full of suffused\nrather than distinct meanings. The date of the future regeneration is\nindefinite--another feature more in harmony with Isaiah's earlier\nprophecies than his later. The cause of the blessing is the outpouring\nof the Spirit of God (ver. 15). Righteousness and peace are to come to\nearth by a distinct creative act of God. Isaiah adds his voice to the\ninvariable testimony of prophets and apostles, who, whether they speak\nof society or the heart of individual man, place their hope in new life\nfrom above by the Spirit of the living God. Victor Hugo says, \"There are\nno weeds in society, only bad cultivators;\" and places all hope of\nprogress towards perfection in proper methods of social culture. These\nare needed, as much as the corn, which will not spring from the sunshine\nalone, requires the hand of the sower, and the harrow. And Isaiah, too,\nspeaks here of human conduct and effort as required to fill up the\nblessedness of the future: righteousness and labour. But first, and\nindispensably, he, with all the prophets, places the Spirit of God.\n\nIt appears that Isaiah looked for the fruits of the Spirit both as\nmaterial and moral. He bases the quiet resting-places and regular\nlabours of the future not on righteousness only, but on fertility and\nrighteousness. _The wilderness shall become a fruitful field_, and _what\nis_ to-day _a fruitful field shall be counted as a forest_. That this\nproverb, used by Isaiah more than once, is not merely a metaphor for the\nmoral revolution he describes in the next verse, is proved by his having\nalready declared the unfruitfulness of their soil as part of his\npeople's punishment. Fertility is promised for itself, and as the\naccompaniment of moral bountifulness. _And there shall dwell in the\nwilderness justice, and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field.\nAnd the work of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect, or\nservice, of righteousness, quietness and confidence for ever. And my\npeople shall abide in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and\nin quiet resting-places.... Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters,\nthat send forth the feet of the ox and the ass!_\n\nThere is not a prophecy more characteristic of Isaiah. It unfolds what\nfor him were the two essential and equal contents of the will of God: a\nsecure land and a righteous people, the fertility of nature and the\npurity of society. But in those years (705-702) he did not forget that\nsomething must come between him and that paradise. Across the very\nmiddle of his vision of felicity there dashes a cruel storm. In the gap\nindicated above Isaiah wrote, _But it shall hail in the downfall of the\nforest, and the city shall be utterly laid low._ A hailstorm between the\npromise and fulfilment of summer! Isaiah could only mean the Assyrian\ninvasion, which was now lowering so dark. Before it bursts we must\nfollow him to the survey which he made, during these years before the\nsiege of Jerusalem, of the foreign nations on whom, equally with\nJerusalem, that storm was to sweep.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n_ISAIAH TO THE FOREIGN NATIONS._\n\nISAIAH xiv. 24-32, xv.-xxi., and xxiii. (736-702 B.C.).\n\n\nThe centre of the Book of Isaiah (chaps. xiii. to xxiii.) is occupied by\na number of long and short prophecies which are a fertile source of\nperplexity to the conscientious reader of the Bible. With the\nexhilaration of one who traverses plain roads and beholds vast\nprospects, he has passed through the opening chapters of the book as far\nas the end of the twelfth; and he may look forward to enjoying a similar\nexperience when he reaches those other clear stretches of vision from\nthe twenty-fourth to the twenty-seventh and from the thirtieth to the\nthirty-second. But here he loses himself among a series of prophecies\nobscure in themselves and without obvious relation to one another. The\nsubjects of them are the nations, tribes and cities with which in\nIsaiah's day, by war or treaty or common fear in face of the Assyrian\nconquest, Judah was being brought into contact. There are none of the\nfamiliar names of the land and tribes of Israel which meet the reader in\nother obscure prophecies and lighten their darkness with the face of a\nfriend. The names and allusions are foreign, some of them the names of\ntribes long since extinct, and of places which it is no more possible to\nidentify. It is a very jungle of prophecy, in which, without much\nGospel or geographical light, we have to grope our way, thankful for an\noccasional gleam of the picturesque--a sandstorm in the desert, the\nforsaken ruins of Babylon haunted by wild beasts, a view of Egypt's\ncanals or Phoenicia's harbours, a glimpse of an Arab raid or of a\ngrave Ethiopian embassy.\n\nBut in order to understand the Book of Isaiah, in order to understand\nIsaiah himself in some of the largest of his activities and hopes, we\nmust traverse this thicket. It would be tedious and unprofitable to\nsearch every corner of it. We propose, therefore, to give a list of the\nvarious oracles, with their dates and titles, for the guidance of\nBible-readers, then to take three representative texts and gather the\nmeaning of all the oracles round them.\n\nFirst, however, two of the prophecies must be put aside. The\ntwenty-second chapter does not refer to a foreign State, but to\nJerusalem itself; and the large prophecy which opens the series (chaps.\nxiii.-xiv. 23) deals with the overthrow of Babylon in circumstances that\ndid not arise till long after Isaiah's time, and so falls to be\nconsidered by us along with similar prophecies at the close of this\nvolume. (See Book V.)\n\nAll the rest of these chapters--xiv.-xxi. and xxiii.--refer to Isaiah's\nown day. They were delivered by the prophet at various times throughout\nhis career; but the most of them evidently date from immediately after\nthe year 705, when, on the death of Sargon, there was a general\nrebellion of the Assyrian vassals.\n\n1. xiv. 24-27. OATH OF JEHOVAH that the Assyrian shall be broken.\nProbable date, towards 701.\n\n2. xiv. 28-32. ORACLE FOR PHILISTIA. Warning to Philistia not to rejoice\nbecause one Assyrian king is dead, for a worse one shall arise: _Out of\nthe serpent's root shall come forth a basilisk_. Philistia shall be\nmelted away, but Zion shall stand. The inscription to this oracle (ver.\n28) is not genuine. The oracle plainly speaks of the death and accession\nof Assyrian, not Jud\u00e6an, kings. It may be ascribed to 705, the date of\nthe death of Sargon and accession of Sennacherib. But some hold that it\nrefers to the previous change on the Assyrian throne--the death of\nSalmanassar and the accession of Sargon.\n\n3. xv.-xvi. 12. ORACLE FOR MOAB. A long prophecy against Moab. This\noracle, whether originally by himself at an earlier period of his life,\nor more probably by an older prophet, Isaiah adopts and ratifies, and\nintimates its immediate fulfilment, in xvi. 13, 14. _This is the word\nwhich Jehovah spake concerning Moab long ago. But now Jehovah hath\nspoken, saying, Within three years, as the years of an hireling, and the\nglory of Moab shall be brought into contempt with all the great\nmultitude, and the remnant shall be very small and of no account._ The\ndates both of the original publication of this prophecy and of its\nreissue with the appendix are quite uncertain. The latter may fall about\n711, when Moab was threatened by Sargon for complicity in the Ashdod\nconspiracy (p. 198), or in 704, when, with other States, Moab came under\nthe cloud of Sennacherib's invasion. The main prophecy is remarkable for\nits vivid picture of the disaster that has overtaken Moab and for the\nsympathy with her which the Jewish prophet expresses; for the mention of\na _remnant_ of Moab; for the exhortation to her to send tribute in her\nadversity _to the mount of the daughter of Zion_ (xvi. 1); for an appeal\nto Zion to shelter the outcasts of Moab and to take up her cause: _Bring\ncounsel, make a decision, make thy shadow as the night in the midst of\nthe noonday; hide the outcasts, bewray not the wanderer_; for a\nstatement of the Messiah similar to those in chaps. ix. and xi.; and for\nthe offer to the oppressed Moabites of the security of Judah in\nMessianic times (vv. 4, 5). But there is one great obstacle to this\nprospect of Moab lying down in the shadow of Judah--Moab's arrogance.\n_We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud_ (ver. 6, cf.\nJer. xlviii. 29, 42; Zeph. ii. 10), which pride shall not only keep this\ncountry in ruin, but prevent the Moabites prevailing in prayer at their\nown sanctuary (ver. 12)--a very remarkable admission about the worship\nof another god than Jehovah.\n\n4. xvii. 1-11. ORACLE FOR DAMASCUS. One of the earliest and most crisp\nof Isaiah's prophecies. Of the time of Syria's and Ephraim's league\nagainst Judah, somewhere between 736 and 732.\n\n5. xvii. 12-14. UNTITLED. The crash of the peoples upon Jerusalem and\ntheir dispersion. This magnificent piece of sound, which we analyse\nbelow, is usually understood of Sennacherib's rush upon Jerusalem. Verse\n14 is an accurate summary of the sudden break-up and \"retreat from\nMoscow\" of his army. The Assyrian hosts are described as _nations_, as\nthey are elsewhere more than once by Isaiah (xxii. 6, xxix. 7). But in\nall this there is no final reason for referring the oracle to\nSennacherib's invasion, and it may just as well be interpreted of\nIsaiah's confidence of the defeat of Syria and Ephraim (734-723). Its\nproximity to the oracle against Damascus would then be very natural, and\nit would stand as a parallel prophecy to viii. 9: _Make an uproar, O ye\npeoples, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of the\ndistances of the earth: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in\npieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces_--a prophecy\nwhich we know belongs to the period of the Syro-Ephraimitic league.\n\n6. xviii. _Untitled._ An address to Ethiopia, _land of a rustling of\nwings, land of many sails, whose messengers dart to and fro upon the\nrivers in their skiffs of reed_. The prophet tells Ethiopia, cast into\nexcitement by the news of the Assyrian advance, how Jehovah is resting\nquietly till the Assyrian be ripe for destruction. When the Ethiopians\nshall see His sudden miracle, they shall send their tribute to Jehovah,\n_to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, Mount Zion_. It is\ndifficult to know to which southward march of Assyria to ascribe this\nprophecy--Sargon's or Sennacherib's? For at the time of both of these an\nEthiopian ruled Egypt.\n\n7. xix. _Oracle for Egypt._ The first fifteen verses describe judgement\nas ready to fall on the land of the Pharaohs. The last ten speak of the\nreligious results to Egypt of that judgement, and they form the most\nuniversal and \"missionary\" of all Isaiah's prophecies. Although doubts\nhave been expressed of the Isaian authorship of the second half of this\nchapter on the score of its universalism, as well as of its literary\nstyle, which is judged to be \"a pale reflection\" of Isaiah's own, there\nis no final reason for declining the credit of it to Isaiah, while there\nare insuperable difficulties against relegating it to the late date\nwhich is sometimes demanded for it. On the date and authenticity of this\nprophecy, which are of great importance for the question of Isaiah's\n\"missionary\" opinions, see Cheyne's introduction to the chapter and\nRobertson Smith's notes in _The Prophets of Israel_ (p. 433). The latter\nputs it in 703, during Sennacherib's advance upon the south. The former\nsuggests that the second half may have been written by the prophet much\nlater than the first, and justly says, \"We can hardly imagine a more\n'swan-like end' for the dying prophet.\"\n\n8. xx. UNTITLED. Also upon Egypt, but in narrative and of an earlier\ndate than at least the latter half of xix. Tells how Isaiah walked naked\nand barefoot in the streets of Jerusalem for a sign against Egypt and\nagainst the help Judah hoped to get from her in the years 711-709, when\nthe Tartan, or Assyrian commander-in-chief, came south to subdue Ashdod.\nSee pp. 198-200.\n\n9. xxi. 1-10. ORACLE FOR THE WILDERNESS OF THE SEA, announcing but\nlamenting the fall of Babylon. Probably 709. See pp. 202, 203.\n\n10. xxi. 11, 12. ORACLE FOR DUMAH. Dumah, or _Silence_--in Ps. xciv. 17,\ncxv. 17, _the land of the silence of death_, the grave--is probably used\nas an anagram for Edom and an enigmatic sign to the wise Edomites, in\ntheir own fashion, of the kind of silence their land is lying under--the\nsilence of rapid decay. The prophet hears this silence at last broken by\na cry. Edom cannot bear the darkness any more. _Unto me one is calling\nfrom Seir, Watchman, how much off the night? how much off the night?[52]\nSaid the watchman, Cometh the morning, and also the night: if ye will\ninquire, inquire, come back again._ What other answer is possible for a\nland on which the silence of decay seems to have settled down? He may,\nhowever, give them an answer later on, if they will come back. Date\nuncertain, perhaps between 704 and 701.\n\n  [52] Our translation, though picturesque, is misleading. The voice does\n  not inquire, \"What of the night?\" _i.e._, whether it be fair or foul\n  weather, but \"How much of the night is passed?\" literally \"What from off\n  the night?\" This brings out a pathos that our English version has\n  disguised. Edom feels that her night is lasting terribly long.\n\n11. xxi. 13-17. ORACLE FOR ARABIA. From Edom the prophet passes to their\nneighbours the Dedanites, travelling merchants. And as he saw night upon\nEdom, so, by a play upon words, he speaks of evening upon Arabia: _in\nthe forest, in Arabia_, or with the same consonants, _in the evening_.\nIn the time of the insecurity of the Assyrian invasion the travelling\nmerchants have to go aside from their great trading roads _in the\nevening to lodge in the thickets_. There they entertain fugitives, or\n(for the sense is not quite clear) are themselves as fugitives\nentertained. It is a picture of the _grievousness of war_, which was now\nupon the world, flowing down even those distant, desert roads. But\nthings have not yet reached the worst. The fugitives are but the heralds\nof armies, that _within a year_ shall waste the _children of Kedar_, for\nJehovah, the God of Israel, hath spoken it. So did the prophet of little\nJerusalem take possession of even the far deserts in the name of his\nnation's God.\n\n12. xxiii. ORACLE FOR TYRE. Elegy over its fall, probably as Sennacherib\ncame south upon it in 703 or 702. To be further considered by us (pp.\n288 ff.).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThese then are Isaiah's oracles for the Nations, who tremble, intrigue\nand go down before the might of Assyria.\n\nWe have promised to gather the circumstances and meaning of these\nprophecies round three representative texts. These are--\n\n1. _Ah! the booming of the peoples, the multitudes, like the booming of\nthe seas they boom; and the rushing of the nations, like the rushing of\nmighty waters they rush; nations, like the rushing of many waters they\nrush. But He rebuketh it, and it fleeth afar off, and is chased like the\nchaff on the mountains before the wind and like whirling dust before the\nwhirlwind_ (xvii. 12, 13).\n\n2. _What then shall one answer the messengers of a nation? That Jehovah\nhath founded Zion, and in her shall find refuge the afflicted of His\npeople_ (xiv. 32).\n\n3. _In that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a\nblessing in the midst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath\nblessed them, saying, Blessed be My people Egypt, and the work of My\nhands Assyria, and Mine inheritance Israel_ (xix. 24, 25).\n\n1. The first of these texts shows all the prophet's prospect filled with\nstorm, the second of them the solitary rock and lighthouse in the midst\nof the storm: Zion, his own watchtower and his people's refuge; while\nthe third of them, looking far into the future, tells us, as it were, of\nthe firm continent which shall rise out of the waters--Israel no longer\na solitary lighthouse, _but in that day shall Israel be a third to Egypt\nand to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth_. These three texts\ngive us a summary of the meaning of all Isaiah's obscure prophecies to\nthe foreign nations--a stormy ocean, a solitary rock in the midst of it,\nand the new continent that shall rise out of the waters about the rock.\n\nThe restlessness of Western Asia beneath the Assyrian rule (from 719,\nwhen Sargon's victory at Rafia extended that rule to the borders of\nEgypt) found vent, as we saw (p. 198), in two great Explosions, for both\nof which the mine was laid by Egyptian intrigue. The first Explosion\nhappened in 711, and was confined to Ashdod. The second took place on\nSargon's death in 705, and was universal. Till Sennacherib marched\nsouth on Palestine in 701, there were all over Western Asia hurryings to\nand fro, consultations and intrigues, embassies and engineerings from\nBabylon to Meroe in far Ethiopia, and from the tents of Kedar to the\ncities of the Philistines. For these Jerusalem the one inviolate capital\nfrom the Euphrates to the river of Egypt, was the natural centre. And\nthe one far-seeing, steady-hearted man in Jerusalem was Isaiah. We have\nalready seen that there was enough within the city to occupy Isaiah's\nattention, especially from 705 onward; but for Isaiah the walls of\nJerusalem, dear as they were and thronged with duty, neither limited his\nsympathies nor marked the scope of the gospel he had to preach.\nJerusalem is simply his watchtower. His field--and this is the peculiar\nglory of the prophet's later life--his field is the world.\n\nHow well fitted Jerusalem then was to be the world's watchtower, the\ntraveller may see to this day. The city lies upon the great central\nridge of Palestine, at an elevation of two thousand five hundred feet\nabove the level of the sea. If you ascend the hill behind the city, you\nstand upon one of the great view-points of the earth. It is a forepost\nof Asia. To the east rise the red hills of Moab and the uplands of\nGilead and Bashan, on to which wandering tribes of the Arabian deserts\nbeyond still push their foremost camps. Just beyond the horizon lie the\nimmemorial paths from Northern Syria into Arabia. Within a few hours'\nwalk along the same central ridge, and still within the territory of\nJudah, you may see to the north, over a wilderness of blue hills,\nHermon's snowy crest; you know that Damascus is lying just beyond, and\nthat through it and round the base of Hermon swings one of the longest\nof the old world's highways--the main caravan road from the Euphrates\nto the Nile. Stand at gaze for a little, while down that road there\nsweep into your mind thoughts of the great empire, whose troops and\ncommerce it used to carry. Then, bearing these thoughts with you, follow\nthe line of the road across the hills to the western coastland, and so\nout upon the great Egyptian desert, where you may wait till it has\nbrought you imagination of the southern empire to which it travels.\nThen, lifting your eyes a little further, let them sweep back again from\nsouth to north, and you have the whole of the west, the new world, open\nto you, across the fringe of yellow haze that marks the sands of the\nMediterranean. It is even now one of the most comprehensive prospects in\nthe world. But in Isaiah's day, when the world was smaller, the high\nplaces of Judah either revealed or suggested the whole of it.\n\nBut Isaiah was more than a spectator of this vast theatre. He was an\nactor upon it. The court of Judah, of which during Hezekiah's reign he\nwas the most prominent member, stood in more or less close connection\nwith the courts of all the kingdoms of Western Asia; and in those days\nwhen the nations were busy with intrigue against their common enemy this\nlittle highland town and fortress became a gathering place of peoples.\nFrom Babylon, from far-off Ethiopia, from Edom, from Philistia, and no\ndoubt from many other places also, embassies came to King Hezekiah, or\nto inquire of his prophet. The appearance of some of them lives for us\nstill in Isaiah's descriptions: _tall and shiny_ figures of Ethiopians\n(xviii. 2), with whom we are able to identify the lithe, silky-skinned,\nshining-black bodies of the present tribes of the Upper Nile. Now the\nprophet must have talked much with these strangers, for he displays a\nknowledge of their several countries and ways of life that is full and\naccurate. The agricultural conditions of Egypt; her social ranks and her\nindustries (xix.); the harbours and markets of Tyre (xxiii.); the\ncaravans of the Arab nomads as in times of war they shun the open desert\nand seek the thickets (xxi. 14)--Isaiah paints these for us with a vivid\nrealism. We see how this statesman of the least of States, this prophet\nof a religion which was confessed over only a few square miles, was\naware of the wide world, and how he loved the life that filled it. They\nare no mere geographical terms with which Isaiah thickly studs these\nprophecies. He looks out upon, and paints for us, lands and cities\nsurging with men--their trades, their castes, their religions, their\nbesetting tempers and sins, their social structures and national\npolicies, all quick and bending to the breeze and the shadow of the\ncoming storm from the north.\n\nWe have said that in nothing is the regal power of our prophet's style\nso manifest as in the vast horizons, which, by the use of a few words,\nhe calls up before us. Some of the finest of these revelations are made\nin this part of his book, so obscure and unknown to most. Who can ever\nforget those descriptions of Ethiopia in the eighteenth chapter?--\"_Ah!\nthe land of the rustling of wings, which borders on the rivers of Cush,\nwhich sendeth heralds on the sea, and in vessels of reed on the face of\nthe waters! Travel, fleet messengers, to a people lithe and shining, to\na nation feared from ever it began to be, a people strong, strong and\ntrampling, whose land the rivers divide_; or of Tyre in chapter\nxxiii.?--\"_And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the\nNile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations._ What expanses\nof sea! what fleets of ships! what floating loads of grain! what\nconcourse of merchants moving on stately wharves beneath high\nwarehouses!\n\nYet these are only segments of horizons, and perhaps the prophet reaches\nthe height of his power of expression in the first of the three texts,\nwhich we have given as representative of his prophecies on foreign\nnations (p. 278). Here three or four lines of marvellous sound repeat\nthe effect of the rage of the restless world as it rises, storms and\nbreaks upon the steadfast will of God. The phonetics of the passage are\nwonderful. The general impression is that of a stormy ocean booming in\nto the shore and then crashing itself out into one long hiss of spray\nand foam upon its barriers. The details are noteworthy. In ver. 12 we\nhave thirteen heavy M-sounds, besides two heavy B's, to five N's, five\nH's, and four sibilants. But in ver. 13 the sibilants predominate; and\nbefore the sharp rebuke of the Lord the great, booming sound of ver. 12\nscatters out into a long _yish-sh[=a] 'oon_. The occasional use of a\nprolonged vowel amid so many hurrying consonants produces exactly the\neffect now of the lift of a storm swell out at sea and now of the pause\nof a great wave before it crashes on the shore. \"_Ah, the booming of the\npeoples, the multitudes, like the booming of the seas they boom; and the\nrushing of the nations, like the rushing of the mighty waters they rush:\nnations, like the rushing of many waters they rush. But He checketh\nit_--a short, sharp word with a choke and a snort in it--_and it fleeth\nfar away, and is chased like chaff on mountains before wind, and like\nswirling dust before a whirlwind_.\"\n\nSo did the rage of the world sound to Isaiah as it crashed into pieces\nupon the steadfast providence of God. To those who can feel the force of\nsuch language nothing need be added upon the prophet's view of the\npolitics of the outside world these twenty years, whether portions of it\nthreatened Judah in their own strength, or the whole power of storm that\nwas in it rose with the Assyrian, as in all his flood he rushed upon\nZion in the year 701.\n\n2. But amid this storm Zion stands immovable. It is upon Zion that the\nstorm crashes itself into impotence. This becomes explicit in the second\nof our representative texts: _What then shall one answer the messengers\nof a nation? That Jehovah hath founded Zion, and in her shall find a\nrefuge the afflicted of His people_ (xiv. 32). This oracle was drawn\nfrom Isaiah by an embassy of the Philistines. Stricken with panic at the\nAssyrian advance, they had sent messengers to Jerusalem, as other tribes\ndid, with questions and proposals of defences, escapes and alliances.\nThey got their answer. Alliances are useless. Everything human is going\ndown. Here, here alone, is safety, because the LORD hath decreed it.\n\nWith what light and peace do Isaiah's words break out across that\nunquiet, hungry sea! How they tell the world for the first time, and\nhave been telling it ever since, that, apart from all the struggle and\nstrife of history, there is a refuge and security of men, which God\nHimself has assured. The troubled surface of life, nations heaving\nuneasily, kings of Assyria and their armies carrying the world before\nthem--these are not all. The world and her powers are not all. Religion,\nin the very teeth of life, builds her refuge for the afflicted.\n\nThe world seems wholly divided between force and fear. Isaiah says, It\nis not true. Faith has her abiding citadel in the midst, a house of God,\nwhich neither force can harm nor fear enter.\n\nThis then was Isaiah's Interim-Answer to the Nations--Zion at least is\nsecure for the people of Jehovah.\n\n3. Isaiah could not remain content, however, with so narrow an\ninterim-answer: Zion at least is secure, whatever happens to the rest of\nyou. The world was there, and had to be dealt with and accounted\nfor--had even to be saved. As we have already seen, this was the problem\nof Isaiah's generation; and to have shirked it would have meant the\nfailure of his faith to rank as universal.\n\nIsaiah did not shirk it. He said boldly to his people, and to the\nnations: \"The faith we have covers this vaster life. Jehovah is not only\nGod of Israel. He rules the world.\" These prophecies to the foreign\nnations are full of revelations of the sovereignty and providence of\nGod. The Assyrian may seem to be growing in glory; but Jehovah is\nwatching from the heavens, till he be ripe for cutting down (xviii. 4).\nEgypt's statesmen may be perverse and wilful; but Jehovah of hosts\nswingeth His hand against the land: _they shall tremble and shudder_\n(xix. 16). Egypt shall obey His purposes (17). Confusion may reign for a\ntime, but a signal and a centre shall be lifted up, and the world gather\nitself in order round the revealed will of God. The audacity of such a\nclaim for his God becomes more striking when we remember that Isaiah's\nfaith was not the faith of a majestic or a conquering people. When he\nmade his claim, Judah was still tributary to Assyria, a petty highland\nprincipality, that could not hope to stand by material means against the\nforces which had thrown down her more powerful neighbours. It was no\nexperience of success, no mere instinct of being on the side of fate,\nwhich led Isaiah so resolutely to pronounce that not only should his\npeople be secure, but that his God would vindicate His purposes upon\nempires like Egypt and Assyria. It was simply his sense that Jehovah was\nexalted in righteousness. Therefore, while inside Judah only the remnant\nthat took the side of righteousness would be saved, outside Judah\nwherever there was unrighteousness, it would be rebuked, and wherever\nrighteousness, it would be vindicated. This is the supremacy which\nIsaiah proclaimed for Jehovah over the whole world.\n\nHow spiritual this faith of Isaiah was, is seen from the next step the\nprophet took. Looking out on the troubled world, he did not merely\nassert that his God ruled it, but he emphatically said, what was a far\nmore difficult thing to say, that it would all be consciously and\nwillingly God's. God rules this, not to restrain it only, but to make it\nHis own. The knowledge of Him, which is to-day our privilege, shall be\nto-morrow the blessing of the whole world.\n\nWhen we point to the Jewish desire, so often expressed in the Old\nTestament, of making the whole world subject to Jehovah, we are told\nthat it is simply a proof of religious ambition and jealousy. We are\ntold that this wish to convert the world no more stamps the Jewish\nreligion as being a universal, and therefore presumably a Divine,\nreligion than the Mohammedans' zeal to force their tenets on men at the\npoint of the sword is a proof of the truth of Islam.\n\nNow we need not be concerned to defend the Jewish religion in its every\nparticular, even as propounded by an Isaiah. It is an article of the\nChristian creed that Judaism was a minor and imperfect dispensation,\nwhere truth was only half revealed and virtue half developed. But at\nleast let us do the Jewish religion justice; and we shall never do it\njustice till we pay attention to what its greatest prophets thought of\nthe outside world, how they sympathized with this, and _in what way_\nthey proposed to make it subject to their own faith.\n\n_Firstly_ then, there is something in the very manner of Isaiah's\ntreatment of foreign nations, which causes the old charges of religious\nexclusiveness to sink in our throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at\nleast as men. Take his prophecies on Egypt or on Tyre or on\nBabylon--nations which were the hereditary enemies of his nation--and\nyou find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their social decays,\ntheir national follies and disasters, with the same pity and with the\nsame purely moral considerations, with which he has treated his own\nland. When news of those far-away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves\nthis large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to\ndistant lands elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He\nshows as intelligent an interest in their social evolutions as he does\nin those of the Jewish State. He gives a picture of the industry and\npolitics of Egypt as careful as his pictures of the fashions and\nstatecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his prophecies upon foreign\nnations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man humanity, broken\nand scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole, every part\nof which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved\nfrom the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he\nsays decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he\ndoes not address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt,\nthe great commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect\nand admiration; but that does not prevent him from putting the plain\nissue to them which he put to his own countrymen: If you are\nunrighteous, intemperate, impure--lying diplomats and dishonest rulers,\nyou shall certainly perish before Assyria. If you are righteous,\ntemperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing can move you.\n\nBut, _secondly_, he, who thus treated all nations with the same strict\nmeasures of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated\nhis own, was surely not far from extending to the world the religious\nprivileges, which he has so frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his\nold age, at least Isaiah looked forward to the time when the particular\nreligious opportunities of the Jew should be the inheritance of\nhumanity. For their old oppressor Egypt, for their new enemy Assyria, he\nanticipates the same experience and education, which has made Israel the\nfirstborn of God. Speaking to Egypt, Isaiah concludes a missionary\nsermon, fit to take its place beside that which Paul uttered on the\nAreopagus to the younger Greek civilisation, with the words, _In that\nday shall Israel be a third to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the\nmidst of the earth, for that Jehovah of hosts hath blessed them, saying,\nBlessed be Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands and Israel\nMine inheritance_.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n_TYRE; OR, THE MERCENARY SPIRIT._\n\nISAIAH xxiii. (702 B.C.).\n\n\nThe task, which was laid upon the religion of Israel while Isaiah was\nits prophet, was the task, as we have often told ourselves, of facing\nthe world's forces, and of explaining how they were to be led captive\nand contributory to the religion of the true God. And we have already\nseen Isaiah accounting for the largest of these forces: the Assyrian.\nBut besides Assyria, that military empire, there was another power in\nthe world, also novel to Israel's experience and also in Isaiah's day\ngrown large enough to demand from Israel's faith explanation and\ncriticism. This was Commerce, represented by the Phoenicians, with\ntheir chief seats at Tyre and Sidon, and their colonies across the seas.\nNot even Egypt exercised such influence on Isaiah's generation as\nPhoenicia did; and Phoenician influence, though less visible and\npainful than Assyrian, was just as much more subtle and penetrating as\nin these respects the influence of trade exceeds that of war. Assyria\nherself was fascinated by the glories of Phoenician commerce. The\nambition of her kings, who had in that century pushed south to the\nMediterranean, was to found a commercial empire. The mercenary spirit,\nas we learn from prophets earlier than Isaiah, had begun also to leaven\nthe life of the agricultural and shepherd tribes of Western Asia. For\ngood or for evil commerce had established itself as a moral force in the\nworld. Isaiah's chapter on Tyre is, therefore, of the greatest interest.\nIt contains the prophet's vision of commerce the first time commerce had\ngrown vast enough to impress his people's imagination, as well as a\ncriticism of the temper of commerce from the standpoint of the religion\nof the God of righteousness. Whether as a historical study or a message\naddressed to the mercantile tempers of our own day, the chapter is\nworthy of close attention.\n\nBut we must first impress ourselves with the utter contrast between\nPhoenicia and Judah in the matter of commercial experience, or we\nshall not feel the full force of this excursion which the prophet of a\nhigh, inland tribe of shepherds makes among the wharves and warehouses\nof the great merchant city on the sea.\n\nThe Phoenician empire, it has often been remarked, presents a very\nclose analogy to that of Great Britain; but even more entirely than in\nthe case of Great Britain the glory of that empire was the wealth of its\ntrade, and the character of the people was the result of their\nmercantile habits. A little strip of land, one hundred and forty miles\nlong, and never more than fifteen broad, with the sea upon one side and\nthe mountains upon the other, compelled its inhabitants to become miners\nand seamen. The hills shut off the narrow coast from the continent to\nwhich it belongs, and drove the increasing populations to seek their\ndestiny by way of the sea. These took to it kindly, for they had the\nSemite's born instinct for trading. Planting their colonies all round\nthe Mediterranean, exploiting every mine within reach of the coastland,\nestablishing great trading dep\u00f4ts both on the Nile and the Euphrates,\nwith fleets that passed the Straits of Gibraltar into the Atlantic and\nthe Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb into the Indian Ocean, the Phoenicians\nconstructed a system of trade, which was not exceeded in range or\ninfluence till, more than two thousand years later, Portugal made the\ndiscovery of America and accomplished the passage of the Cape of Good\nHope. From the coasts of Britain to those of Northwest India, and\nprobably to Madagascar, was the extent of Phoenician credit and\ncurrency. Their trade tapped river basins so far apart as those of the\nIndus, the Euphrates, probably the Zambesi, the Nile, the Rhone, the\nGuadalquivir. They built ships and harbours for the Pharaohs and for\nSolomon. They carried Egyptian art and Babylonian knowledge to the\nGrecian archipelago, and brought back the metals of Spain and Britain.\nNo wonder the prophet breaks into enthusiasm as he surveys Phoenician\nenterprise! _And on great waters the seed of Shihor, the harvest of the\nNile, was her revenue; and she was the mart of nations._\n\nBut upon trade the Phoenicians had built an empire. At home their\npolitical life enjoyed the freedom, energy and resources which are\nsupplied by long habits of an extended commerce with other peoples. The\nconstitution of the different Phoenician cities was not, as is\nsometimes supposed, republican, but monarchical; and the land belonged\nto the king. Yet the large number of wealthy families at once limited\nthe power of the throne, and saved the commonwealth from being dependent\nupon the fortunes of a single dynasty. The colonies in close relation\nwith the mother country assured an empire with its life in better\ncirculation and with more reserve of power than either Egypt or\nAssyria. Tyre and Sidon were frequently overthrown, but they rose again\noftener than the other great cities of antiquity, and were still places\nof importance when Babylon and Nineveh lay in irreparable ruin. Besides\ntheir native families of royal wealth and influence and their\nflourishing colonies, each with its prince, these commercial States kept\nforeign monarchs in their pay, and sometimes determined the fate of a\ndynasty. Isaiah entitles Tyre _the giver of crowns, the maker of kings,\nwhose merchants are princes, and her traffickers are the honourable of\nthe earth_.\n\nBut trade with political results so splendid had an evil effect upon the\ncharacter and spiritual temper of the people. By the indiscriminating\nancients the Phoenicians were praised as inventors; the rudiments of\nmost of the arts and sciences, of the alphabet and of money have been\nascribed to them. But modern research has proved that of none of the\nmany elements of civilisation which they introduced to the West were\nthey the actual authors. The Phoenicians were simply carriers and\nmiddlemen. In all time there is no instance of a nation so wholly given\nover to buying and selling, who frequented even the battlefields of the\nworld that they might strip the dead and purchase the captive.\nPhoenician history--though we must always do the people the justice to\nremember that we have their history only in fragments--affords few signs\nof the consciousness that there are things which a nation may strive\nafter for their own sake, and not for the money they bring in. The\nworld, which other peoples, still in the reverence of the religious\nyouth of the race, regarded as a house of prayer, the Phoenicians had\nalready turned into a den of thieves. They trafficked even with the\nmysteries and intelligences; and their own religion is largely a\nmixture of the religions of the other peoples, with whom they came into\ncontact. The national spirit was venal and mercenary--the heart of an\nhireling, or, as Isaiah by a baser name describes it, the heart of _an\nharlot_. There is not throughout history a more perfect incarnation of\nthe mercenary spirit than the Phoenician nation.\n\nNow let us turn to the experience of the Jews, whose faith had to face\nand account for this world-force.\n\nThe history of the Jews in Europe has so identified them with trade that\nit is difficult for us to imagine a Jew free from its spirit or ignorant\nof its methods. But the fact is that in the time of Isaiah Israel was as\nlittle acquainted with commerce as it is possible for a civilised nation\nto be. Israel's was an inland territory. Till Solomon's reign the people\nhad neither navy nor harbour. Their land was not abundant in materials\nfor trade--it contained almost no minerals, and did not produce a\ngreater supply of food than was necessary for the consumption of its\ninhabitants. It is true that the ambition of Solomon had brought the\npeople within the temptations of commerce. He established trading\ncities, annexed harbours and hired a navy. But even then, and again in\nthe reign of Uzziah, which reflects much of Solomon's commercial glory,\nIsrael traded by deputies, and the mass of the people remained innocent\nof mercantile habits. Perhaps to moderns the most impressive proof of\nhow little Israel had to do with trade is to be found in their laws of\nmoney-lending and of interest. The absolute prohibition which Moses\nplaced upon the charging of interest could only have been possible among\na people with the most insignificant commerce. To Isaiah himself\ncommerce must have appeared alien. Human life, as he pictures it, is\ncomposed of war, politics and agriculture; his ideals for society are\nthose of the shepherd and the farmer. We moderns cannot dissociate the\nfuture welfare of humanity from the triumphs of trade.\n\n  \"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,\n  Saw the vision of the world and all the wonder that would be;\n  Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,\n  Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales.\"\n\nBut all Isaiah's future is full of gardens and busy fields, of\nirrigating rivers and canals:--\n\n_Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness\nbecome a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a\nforest.... Blessed are ye, that sow beside all waters, that send forth\nthe feet of the ox and the ass._\n\n_And He shall give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground\nwithal, and bread-corn, the increase of the ground; and it shall be\njuicy and fat: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures._\n\nConceive how trade looked to eyes which dwelt with enthusiasm upon\nscenes like these! It must have seemed to blast the future, to disturb\nthe regularity of life with such violence as to shake religion herself!\nWith all our convictions of the benefits of trade, even we feel no\ngreater regret or alarm than when we observe the invasion by the rude\nforces of trade of some scene of rural felicity: blackening of sky and\nearth and stream; increasing complexity and entanglement of life;\nenormous growth of new problems and temptations; strange knowledge,\nambitions and passions, that throb through life and strain the tissue of\nits simple constitution, like novel engines, which shake the ground and\nthe strong walls, accustomed once to re-echo only the simple music of\nthe mill-wheel and the weaver's shuttle. Isaiah did not fear an invasion\nof Judah by the habits and the machines of trade. There is no\nforeboding in this chapter of the day when his own people were to take\nthe place of the Phoenicians as the commercial _harlots_ of the world,\nand a Jew was to be synonymous with usurer and _publican_. Yet we may\nemploy our feelings to imagine his, and understand what this\nprophet--seated in the sanctuary of a pastoral and agricultural tribe,\nwith its simple offerings of doves, and lambs and sheaves of corn,\ntelling how their homes, and fields and whole rustic manner of life were\nsubject to God--thought, and feared, and hoped of the vast commerce of\nPhoenicia, wondering how it also should be sanctified to Jehovah.\n\nFirst of all, Isaiah, as we might have expected from his large faith and\nbroad sympathies, accepts and acknowledges this great world-force. His\nnoble spirit shows neither timidity nor jealousy before it. Before his\nview what an unblemished prospect of it spreads! His descriptions tell\nmore of his appreciation than long laudations would have done. He grows\nenthusiastic upon the grandeur of Tyre; and even when he prophesies that\nAssyria shall destroy it, it is with the feeling that such a destruction\nis really a desecration, and as if there lived essential glory in great\ncommercial enterprise. Certainly from such a spirit we have much to\nlearn. How often has religion, when brought face to face with the new\nforces of a generation--commerce, democracy or science--shown either a\nbase timidity or baser jealousy, and met the innovations with cries of\ndetraction or despair! Isaiah reads a lesson to the modern Church in the\npreliminary spirit with which she should meet the novel experiences of\nProvidence. Whatever judgement may afterwards have to be passed, there\nis the immediate duty of frankly recognising greatness wherever it may\noccur. This is an essential principle, from the forgetfulness of which\nmodern religion has suffered much. Nothing is gained by attempting to\nminimise new departures in the world's history; but everything is lost\nif we sit down in fear of them. It is a duty we owe to ourselves, and a\nworship which Providence demands from us, that we ungrudgingly\nappreciate every magnitude of which history brings us the knowledge.\n\nIt is almost an unnecessary task to apply Isaiah's meaning to the\ncommerce of our own day. But let us not miss his example in this: that\nthe right to criticise the habits of trade and the ability to criticise\nthem healthily are alone won by a just appreciation of trade's\nworld-wide glory and serviceableness. There is no use preaching against\nthe venal spirit and manifold temptations and degradations of trade,\nuntil we have realised the indispensableness of trade and its capacity\nfor disciplining and exalting its ministers. The only way to correct the\nabuses of \"the commercial spirit,\" against which many in our day are\nloud with indiscriminate rebuke, is to impress its victims, having first\nimpressed yourself, with the opportunities and the ideals of commerce. A\nthing is great partly by its traditions and partly by its\nopportunities--partly by what it has accomplished and partly by the\ndoors of serviceableness of which it holds the key. By either of these\nstandards the magnitude of commerce is simply overwhelming. Having\ndiscovered the world-forces, commerce has built thereon the most\npowerful of our modern empires. Its exigencies compel peace; its\nresources are the sinews of war. If it has not always preceded religion\nand science in the conquest of the globe, it has shared with them their\ntriumphs. Commerce has recast the modern world, so that we hardly think\nof the old national divisions in the greater social classes which have\nbeen its direct creation. Commerce determines national policies; its\nmarkets are among the schools of statesmen; its merchants _are_ still\n_princes, and its traffickers the honourable of the earth_.\n\nTherefore let all merchants and their apprentices believe, \"Here is\nsomething worth putting our manhood into, worth living for, not with our\nbrains only or our appetites, but with our conscience, with our\nimagination, with every curiosity and sympathy of our nature. Here is a\ncalling with a healthy discipline, with a free spirit, with unrivalled\nopportunities of service, with an ancient and essential dignity.\" The\nreproach which is so largely imagined upon trade is the relic of a\nbarbarous age. Do not tolerate it, for under its shadow, as under other\nartificial and unhealthy contempts of society, there are apt to grow up\nthose sordid and slavish tempers, which soon make men deserve the\nreproach that was at first unjustly cast upon them. Dissipate the base\ninfluence of this reproach by lifting the imagination upon the antiquity\nand world-wide opportunities of trade--trade, _whose origin_, as Isaiah\nso finely puts it, _is of ancient days; and her feet carry her afar off\nto sojourn_.\n\nSo generous an appreciation of the grandeur of commerce does not prevent\nIsaiah from exposing its besetting sin and degradation.\n\nThe vocation of a merchant differs from others in this, that there is no\ninherent nor instinctive obligation in it to ends higher than those of\nfinancial profit--emphasized in our days into the more dangerous\nconstraint of _immediate_ financial profit. No profession is of course\nabsolutely free from the risk of this servitude; but other professions\noffer escapes, or at least mitigations, which are not possible to\nnearly the same extent in trade. Artist, artisan, preacher and statesman\nhave ideals which generally act contrary to the compulsion of profit and\ntend to create a nobility of mind strong enough to defy it. They have\ngiven, so to speak, hostages to heaven--ideals of beauty, of accurate\nscholarship or of moral influence, which they dare not risk by\nabandoning themselves to the hunt for gain. But the calling of a\nmerchant is not thus safeguarded. It does not afford those visions,\nthose occasions of being caught away to the heavens, which are the\ninherent glories of other lives. The habits of trade make this the first\nthought--not what things of beauty are in themselves, not what men are\nas brothers, not what life is as God's discipline, but what things of\nbeauty, and men and opportunities are worth to us--and in these times\nwhat they are _immediately_ worth--as measured by money. In such an\nabsorption art, humanity, morals and religion become matters of growing\nindifference.\n\nTo this spirit, which treats all things and men, high or low, as matters\nsimply of profit, Isaiah gives a very ugly name. We call it the\nmercenary or venal spirit. Isaiah says it is the spirit of _the harlot_.\n\nThe history of Phoenicia justified his words. To-day we remember her\nby nothing that is great, by nothing that is original. She left no art\nnor literature, and her once brave and skilful populations degenerated\ntill we know them only as the slave-dealers, panders and prostitutes of\nthe Roman empire. If we desire to find Phoenicia's influence on the\nreligion of the world, we have to seek for it among the most sensual of\nGreek myths and the abominable practices of Corinthian worship. With\nsuch terrible literalness was Isaiah's harlot-curse fulfilled.\n\nWhat is true of Phoenicia may become true of Britain, and what has\nbeen seen on the large scale of a nation is exemplified every day in\nindividual lives. The man who is entirely eaten up with the zeal of gain\nis no better than what Isaiah called Tyre. He has prostituted himself to\ncovetousness. If day and night our thoughts are of profit, and the\nhabit, so easily engendered in these times, of asking only, \"What can I\nmake of this?\" is allowed to grow upon us, it shall surely come to pass\nthat we are found sacrificing, like the poor unfortunate, the most\nsacred of our endowments and affections for gain, demeaning our natures\nat the feet of the world for the sake of the world's gold. A woman\nsacrifices her purity for coin, and the world casts her out. But some\nwho would not touch her have sacrificed honour and love and pity for the\nsame base wage, and in God's sight are no better than she. Ah, how much\nneed is there for these bold, brutal standards of the Hebrew prophet to\ncorrect our own social misappreciations!\n\nNow for a very vain delusion upon this subject! It is often imagined in\nour day that if a man seek atonement for the venal spirit through the\nstudy of art, through the practice of philanthropy or through the\ncultivation of religion, he shall surely find it. This is\nfalse--plausible and often practised but utterly false. Unless a man see\nand reverence beauty in the very workshop and office of his business,\nunless he feel those whom he meets there, his employ\u00e9s and customers, as\nhis brethren, unless he keep his business methods free from fraud, and\nhonestly recognise his gains as a trust from the Lord, then no amount of\ndevotion elsewhere to the fine arts, nor perseverance in philanthropy,\nnor fondness for the Church evinced by ever so large subscriptions, will\ndeliver him from the devil of mercenariness. That is a plea of _alibi_\nthat shall not prevail on the judgement day. He is only living a double\nlife, whereof his art, philanthropy or religion is the occasional and\ndilettante portion, with not nearly so much influence on his character\nas the other, his calling and business, in which he still sacrifices\nlove to gain. His real world--the world in which God set him, to buy and\nsell indeed, but also to serve and glorify his God--he is treating only\nas a big warehouse and exchange. And so much is this the case at the\npresent day, in spite of all the worship of art and religion which is\nfashionable in mercantile circles, that we do not go too far when we say\nthat if Jesus were now to visit our large markets and manufactories, in\nwhich the close intercourse of numbers of human persons renders the\nopportunities of service and testimony to God so frequent, He would\nscourge men from them, as He scourged the traffickers of the Temple, for\nthat they had forgotten that _here_ was their Father's house, where\ntheir brethren had to be owned and helped, and their Father's glory\nrevealed to the world.\n\nA nation with such a spirit was of course foredoomed to destruction.\nIsaiah predicts the absolute disappearance of Tyre from the attention of\nthe world. _Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years._ _Then_, like some\npoor unfortunate whose day of beauty is past, she shall in vain practise\nher old advertisements on men. _After the end of seventy years it shall\nbe unto Tyre as in the song of the harlot: Take an harp, go about the\ncity, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many\nsongs, that thou mayest be remembered._\n\nBut Commerce is essential to the world. Tyre must revive; and the\nprophet sees her revive as the minister of Religion, the purveyor of the\nfood of the servants of the Lord, and of the accessories of their\nworship. It must be confessed, that we are not a little shocked when we\nfind Isaiah continuing to apply to Commerce his metaphor of a harlot,\neven after Commerce has entered the service of the true religion. He\nspeaks of her wages being devoted to Jehovah, just in the same manner as\nthose of certain notorious women of heathen temples were devoted to the\nidol of the temple. This is even against the directions of the Mosaic\nlaw. Isaiah, however, was a poet; and in his flights we must not expect\nhim to carry the whole Law on his back. He was a poet, and probably no\nanalogy would have more vividly appealed to his Oriental audience. It\nwill be foolish to allow our natural prejudice against what we may feel\nto be the unhealthiness of the metaphor to blind us to the magnificence\nof the thought which he clothes in it.\n\nAll this is another proof of the sanity and far sight of our prophet.\nAgain we find that his conviction that judgement is coming does not\nrender his spirit morbid, nor disturb his eye for things of beauty and\nprofit in the world. Commerce, with all her faults, is essential, and\nmust endure, nay shall prove in the days to come Religion's most\nprofitable minister. The generosity and wisdom of this passage are the\nmore striking when we remember the extremity of unrelieved denunciation\nto which other great teachers of religion have allowed themselves to be\nhurled by their rage against the sins of trade. But Isaiah, in the\nlargest sense of the expression, is a man of the world--a man of the\nworld because God made the world and rules it. Yet even from his far\nsight was hidden the length to which in the last days Commerce would\ncarry her services to man and God, proving as she has done, under the\nflag of another Phoenicia, to all the extent of Isaiah's longing, one\nof Religion's most sincere and profitable handmaids.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK IV.\n\n_JERUSALEM AND SENNACHERIB_, 701 B.C.\n\n\n\n\nISAIAH:--\n\n  xxxvi. 1.     Early in 701.\n\n  i.               \"       \"\n\n  xxii.            \"       \"\n\n  xxxiii.        A little later.\n\n  xxxvi. 2-xxxvii. \"       \"\n\n             _______\n\n  xxxviii.-xxxix. Date uncertain.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK IV.\n\n\nInto this fourth book we put all the rest of the prophecies of the Book\nof Isaiah, that have to do with the prophet's own time: chaps. i., xxii.\nand xxxiii., with the narrative in xxxvi., xxxvii. All these refer to\nthe only Assyrian invasion of Judah and siege of Jerusalem: that\nundertaken by Sennacherib in 701.\n\nIt is, however, right to remember once more, that many authorities\nmaintain that there were two Assyrian invasions of Judah--one by Sargon\nin 711, the other by Sennacherib in 701--and that chaps. i. and xxii.\n(as well as x. 5-34) belong to the former of these. The theory is\ningenious and tempting; but, in the silence of the Assyrian annals about\nany invasion of Judah by Sargon, it is impossible to adopt it. And\nalthough chaps. i. and xxii. differ very greatly in tone from chap.\nxxxiii., yet to account for the difference it is not necessary to\nsuppose two different invasions, with a considerable period between\nthem. Virtually, as will appear in the course of our exposition,\nSennacherib's invasion of Judah was a double one.\n\n1. The first time Sennacherib's army invaded Judah they took all the\nfenced cities, and probably invested Jerusalem, but withdrew on payment\nof tribute and the surrender of the _casus belli_, the Assyrian vassal\nPadi, whom the Ekronites had deposed and given over to the keeping of\nHezekiah. To this invasion refer Isa. i., xxii. and the first verse of\nxxxvi.: _Now it came to pass in the fourteenth[53] year of King Hezekiah\nthat Sennacherib, King of Assyria, came up against all the fenced cities\nof Judah and took them._ This verse is the same as 2 Kings xviii. 13, to\nwhich, however, there is added in vv. 14-16 an account of the tribute\nsent by Hezekiah to Sennacherib at Lachish, that is not included in the\nnarrative in Isaiah. Compare 2 Chron. xxxii. 1.\n\n  [53] It is confusing to find this date attached to Sennacherib's\n  invasion of 701, unless, with one or two critics, we place Hezekiah's\n  accession in 715. But Hezekiah acceded in 728 or 727, and 701 would\n  therefore be his twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year. Mr. Cheyne, who\n  takes 727 as the year of Hezekiah's accession, gets out of the\n  difficulty by reading \"Sargon\" for \"Sennacherib\" in this verse and in 2\n  Kings xiii., and thus secures another reference to that invasion of\n  Judah, which he supposes to have taken place under Sargon between 712\n  and 710. By the change of a letter some would read _twenty-fourth_ for\n  _fourteenth_. But in any case this date is confusing.\n\n2. But scarcely had the tribute been paid when Sennacherib, himself\nadvancing to meet Egypt, sent back upon Jerusalem a second army of\ninvestment, with which was the Rabshakeh; and this was the army that so\nmysteriously disappeared from the eyes of the besieged. To the\ntreacherous return of the Assyrians and the sudden deliverance of\nJerusalem from their grasp refer Isa. xxxiii., xxxvi. 2-xxxvii., with\nthe fuller and evidently original narrative in 2 Kings xviii. 17-xix.\nCompare 2 Chron. xxxii. 9-23.\n\nTo the history of this double attempt upon Jerusalem in 701--xxxvi. and\nxxxvii.--there has been appended in xxxviii. and xxxix. an account of\nHezekiah's illness and of an embassy to him from Babylon. These events\nprobably happened some years before Sennacherib's invasion. But it will\nbe most convenient for us to take them in the order in which they stand\nin the canon. They will naturally lead us up to a question that it is\nnecessary we should discuss before taking leave of Isaiah--whether this\ngreat prophet of the endurance of the kingdom of God upon earth had any\ngospel for the individual who dropped away from it into death.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n_AT THE LOWEST EBB._\n\nISAIAH i. and xxii. (701 B.C.).\n\n\nIn the drama of Isaiah's life we have now arrived at the final act--a\nshort and sharp one of a few months. The time is 701 B.C., the fortieth\nyear of Isaiah's ministry, and about the twenty-sixth of Hezekiah's\nreign. The background is the invasion of Palestine by Sennacherib. The\nstage itself is the city of Jerusalem. In the clear atmosphere before\nthe bursting of the storm Isaiah has looked round the whole world--his\nworld--uttering oracles on the nations from Tyre to Egypt and from\nEthiopia to Babylon. But now the Assyrian storm has burst, and all\nexcept the immediate neighbourhood of the prophet is obscured. From\nJerusalem Isaiah will not again lift his eyes.\n\nThe stage is thus narrow and the time short, but the action one of the\nmost critical in the history of Israel, taking rank with the Exodus from\nEgypt and the Return from Babylon. To Isaiah himself it marks the summit\nof his career. For half a century Zion has been preparing for,\nforgetting and again preparing for, her first and final struggle with\nthe Assyrian. Now she is to meet her foe, face to face across her own\nwalls. For forty years Isaiah has predicted for the Assyrian an\nuninterrupted path of conquest to the very gates of Jerusalem, but\ncertain check and confusion there. Sennacherib has overrun the world,\nand leaps upon Zion. The Jewish nation await their fate, Isaiah his\nvindication, and the credit of Israel's religion, one of the most\nextraordinary tests to which a spiritual faith was ever subjected.\n\nIn the end, by the mysterious disappearance of the Assyrian, Jerusalem\nwas saved, the prophet was left with his remnant and the future still\nopen for Israel. But at the beginning of the end such an issue was by no\nmeans probable. Jewish panic and profligacy almost prevented the Divine\npurpose, and Isaiah went near to breaking his heart over the city, for\nwhose redemption he had travailed for a lifetime. He was as sure as ever\nthat this redemption must come, but a collapse of the people's faith and\npatriotism at the eleventh hour made its coming seem worthless.\nJerusalem appeared bent on forestalling her deliverance by moral\nsuicide. Despair, not of God but of the city, settled on Isaiah's heart;\nand in such a mood he wrote chap. xxii. We may entitle it therefore,\nthough written at a time when the tide should have been running to the\nfull, \"At the Lowest Ebb.\"\n\nWe have thus stated at the outset the motive of this chapter, because it\nis one of the most unexpected and startling of all Isaiah's prophecies.\nIn it \"we can discern precipices.\" Beneath our eyes, long lifted by the\nprophet to behold a future _stretching very far forth_, this chapter\nsuddenly yawns, a pit of blackness. For utterness of despair and the\nabsolute sentence which it passes on the citizens of Zion we have had\nnothing like it from Isaiah since the evil days of Ahaz. The historical\nportions of the Bible which cover this period are not cleft by such a\ncrevasse, and of course the official Assyrian annals, full as they are\nof the details of Sennacherib's campaign in Palestine, know nothing of\nthe moral condition of Jerusalem.[54] Yet if we put the Hebrew and\nAssyrian narratives together, and compare them with chaps. i. and xxii.\nof Isaiah, we may be sure that the following was something like the\ncourse of events which led down to this woeful depth in Judah's\nexperience.\n\n  [54] _Records of the Past_, i. 33 ff. vii.; Schrader's _Cuneiform\n  Inscriptions and the Old Testament_ (Whitehouse's translation).\n\nIn a Syrian campaign Sennacherib's path was plain--to begin with the\nPhoenician cities, march quickly south by the level coastland,\nsubduing the petty chieftains upon it, meet Egypt at its southern end,\nand then, when he had rid himself of his only formidable foe, turn to\nthe more delicate task of warfare among the hills of Judah--a campaign\nwhich he could scarcely undertake with a hostile force like Egypt on his\nflank. This course, he tells us, he followed. \"In my third campaign, to\nthe land of Syria I went. Luliah (Elul\u00e6us), King of Sidon--for the\nfearful splendour of my majesty overwhelmed him--fled to a distant spot\nin the midst of the sea. His land I entered.\" City after city fell to\nthe invader. The princes of Aradus, Byblus and Ashdod, by the coast, and\neven Moab and Edom, far inland, sent him their submission. He attacked\nAscalon, and captured its king. He went on, and took the Philistine\ncities of Beth-dagon, Joppa, Barka and Azor, all of them within forty\nmiles of Jerusalem, and some even visible from her neighbourhood. South\nof this group, and a little over twenty-five miles from Jerusalem, lay\nEkron; and here Sennacherib had so good a reason for anger, that the\ninhabitants, expecting no mercy at his hands, prepared a stubborn\ndefence.\n\nTen years before this Sargon had set Padi, a vassal of his own, as king\nover Ekron; but the Ekronites had risen against Padi, put him in chains,\nand sent him to their ally Hezekiah, who now held him in Jerusalem.\n\"These men,\" says Sennacherib, \"were now terrified in their hearts; the\nshadows of death overwhelmed them.\"[55] Before Ekron was reduced,\nhowever, the Egyptian army arrived in Philistia, and Sennacherib had to\nabandon the siege for these arch-enemies. He defeated them in the\nneighbourhood, at Eltekeh, returned to Ekron, and completed its siege.\nThen, while he himself advanced southwards in pursuit of the Egyptians,\nhe detached a corps, which, marching eastwards through the mountain\npasses, overran all Judah and threatened Jerusalem. \"And Hezekiah, King\nof Judah, who had not bowed down at my feet, forty-six of his strong\ncities, his castles and the smaller towns in their neighbourhood beyond\nnumber, by casting down ramparts and by open attack, by battle--_zuk_,\nof the feet; _nisi_, hewing to pieces and casting down (?)--I besieged,\nI captured.... He himself, like a bird in a cage, inside Jerusalem, his\nroyal city, I shut him up; siege-towers against him I constructed, for\nhe had given command to renew the bulwarks of the great gate of his\ncity.\"[56] But Sennacherib does not say that he took Jerusalem, and\nsimply closes the narrative of his campaign with the account of large\ntribute which Hezekiah sent after him to Nineveh.\n\n  [55] _Records of the Past_, i. 38; vii. 62.\n\n  [56] _Ibid._, i., 40; Schrader, i., 286.\n\nHere, then, we have material for a graphic picture of Jerusalem and her\npopulace, when chaps. i. and xxii. were uttered by Isaiah.\n\nAt Jerusalem we are within a day's journey of any part of the territory\nof Judah. We feel the kingdom throb to its centre at Assyria's first\nfootfall on the border. The nation's life is shuddering in upon its\ncapital, couriers dashing up with the first news; fugitives hard upon\nthem; palace, arsenal, market and temple thrown into commotion; the\npoliticians busy; the engineers hard at work completing the\nfortifications, leading the suburban wells to a reservoir within the\nwalls, levelling every house and tree outside which could give shelter\nto the besiegers, and heaping up the material on the ramparts, till\nthere lies nothing but a great, bare, waterless circle round a\nhigh-banked fortress. Across this bareness the lines of fugitives\nstreaming to the gates; provincial officials and their retinues;\nsoldiers whom Hezekiah had sent out to meet the foe, returning without\neven the dignity of defeat upon them; husbandmen, with cattle and\nremnants of grain in disorder; women and children; the knaves, cowards\nand helpless of the whole kingdom pouring their fear, dissoluteness and\ndisease into the already-unsettled populace of Jerusalem. Inside the\nwalls opposing political factions and a weak king; idle crowds, swaying\nto every rumour and intrigue; the ordinary restraints and regularities\nof life suspended, even patriotism gone with counsel and courage, but in\ntheir place fear and shame and greed of life. Such was the state in\nwhich Jerusalem faced the hour of her visitation.\n\nGradually the Visitant came near over the thirty miles which lay between\nthe capital and the border. Signs of the Assyrian advance were given in\nthe sky, and night after night the watchers on Mount Zion, seeing the\nglare in the west, must have speculated which of the cities of Judah was\nbeing burned. Clouds of smoke across the heavens from prairie and forest\nfires told how war, even if it passed, would leave a trail of famine;\nand men thought with breaking hearts of the villages and fields,\nheritage of the tribes of old, that were now bare to the foot and the\nfire of the foreigner. _Your country is desolate; your cities are burned\nwith fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is\ndesolate as the overthrow of strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left\nas a booth in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers. Except\nJehovah of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have\nbeen as Sodom, we should have been like unto Gomorrah._[57] Then came\ntouch of the enemy, the appearance of armed bands, vistas down\nJerusalem's favourite valleys of chariots, squadrons of horsemen\nemerging upon the plateaus to north and west of the city, heavy\nsiege-towers and swarms of men innumerable. _And Elam bare the quiver,\nwith troops of men and horsemen; and Kir uncovered the shield._ At last\nthey saw their fears of fifty years face to face! Far-away names were\nstanding by their gates, actual bowmen and flashing shields! As\nJerusalem gazed upon the terrible Assyrian armaments, how many of her\ninhabitants remembered Isaiah's words delivered a generation\nbefore!--_Behold, they shall come with speed swiftly; none shall be\nweary or stumble among them; neither shall the string of their loins be\nlax nor the latchet of their shoes be broken; whose arrows are sharp,\nand all their bows bent; their horses' hoofs shall be counted like\nflint, and their wheels like a whirlwind; their roaring shall be like a\nlion: they shall roar like young lions. For all this His anger is not\nturned away, but His hand is stretched out still._\n\n  [57] Chap. i. 7-9.\n\nThere were, however, two supports, on which that distracted populace\nwithin the walls still steadied themselves. The one was the\nTemple-worship, the other the Egyptian alliance.\n\nHistory has many remarkable instances of peoples betaking themselves in\nthe hour of calamity to the energetic discharge of the public rites of\nreligion. But such a resort is seldom, if ever, a real moral conversion.\nIt is merely physical nervousness, apprehension for life, clutching at\nthe one thing within reach that feels solid, which it abandons as soon\nas panic has passed. When the crowds in Jerusalem betook themselves to\nthe Temple, with unwonted wealth of sacrifice, Isaiah denounced this as\nhypocrisy and futility. _To what purpose is the multitude of your\nsacrifices unto Me? saith Jehovah.... I am weary to bear them. And when\nye spread forth your hands, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye\nmake many prayers, I will not hear_ (i. 11-15).\n\nIsaiah might have spared his scornful orders to the people to desist\nfrom worship. Soon afterwards they abandoned it of their own will, but\nfrom motives very different from those urged by him. The second support\nto which Jerusalem clung was the Egyptian alliance--the pet project of\nthe party then in power. They had carried it to a successful issue,\ntaunting Isaiah with their success.[58] He had continued to denounce\nit, and now the hour was approaching when their cleverness and\nconfidence were to be put to the test. It was known in Jerusalem that an\nEgyptian army was advancing to Sennacherib, and politicians and people\nawaited the encounter with anxiety.\n\n  [58] See p. 238.\n\nWe are aware what happened. Egypt was beaten at Eltekeh; the alliance\nwas stamped a failure; Jerusalem's last worldly hope was taken from her.\nWhen the news reached the city, something took place, of which our moral\njudgement tells us more than any actual record of facts. The Government\nof Hezekiah gave way; the rulers, whose courage and patriotism had been\nidentified with the Egyptian alliance, lost all hope for their country,\nand fled, as Isaiah puts it, _en masse_ (xxii. 3). There was no battle,\nno defeat at arms (_id._ 2, 3); but the Jewish State collapsed.\n\nThen, when the last material hope of Judah fell, fell her religion too.\nThe Egyptian disappointment, while it drove the rulers out of their\nfalse policies, drove the people out of their unreal worship. What had\nbeen a city of devotees became in a moment a city of revellers. Formerly\nall had been sacrifices and worship, but now feasting and blasphemy.\n_Behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh\nand drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die_ (_id._\n13. The reference of ver. 12 is probably to chap. i.).\n\nNow all Isaiah's ministry had been directed just against these two\nthings: the Egyptian alliance and the purely formal observance of\nreligion--trust in the world and trust in religiousness. And together\nboth of these had given way, and the Assyrian was at the gates. Truly it\nwas the hour of Isaiah's vindication. Yet--and this is the tragedy--it\nhad come too late. The prophet could not use it. The two things he said\nwould collapse had collapsed, but for the people there seemed now no\nhelp to be justified from the thing which he said would remain. What was\nthe use of the city's deliverance, when the people themselves had\nfailed! The feelings of triumph, which the prophet might have expressed,\nwere swallowed up in unselfish grief over the fate of his wayward and\nabandoned Jerusalem.\n\n_What aileth thee now_--and in these words we can hear the old man\naddressing his fickle child, whose changefulness by this time he knew so\nwell--_what aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up to the\nhousetops_--we see him standing at his door watching this ghastly\nholiday--_O thou that art full of shoutings, a tumultuous city, a joyous\ntown?_ What are you rejoicing at in such an hour as this, when you have\nnot even the bravery of your soldiers to celebrate, when you are without\nthat pride which has brought songs from the lips of a defeated people as\nthey learned that their sons had fallen with their faces to the foe, and\nhas made even the wounds of the dead borne through the gate lips of\ntriumph, calling to festival! _For thy slain are not slain with the\nsword, neither are they dead in battle._\n\n  _All thy chiefs fled in heaps;\n    Without bow they were taken:\n  All thine that were found were taken in heaps;\n    From far had they run.\n  Wherefore I say, Look away from me;\n    Let me make bitterness bitterer by weeping.\n  Press not to comfort me\n    For the ruin of the daughter of my people._\n\nUrge not your mad holiday upon me! _For a day of discomfiture and of\nbreaking and of perplexity hath the Lord, Jehovah of hosts, in the\nvalley of vision, a breaking down of the wall and a crying to the\nmountain._ These few words of prose, which follow the pathetic elegy,\nhave a finer pathos still. The cumulative force of the successive\nclauses is very impressive: _disappointment_ at the eleventh hour; the\nsense of a being _trampled_ and overborne by sheer brute force; the\ncounsels, courage, hope and faith of fifty years crushed to blank\n_perplexity_, and all this from Himself--_the Lord, Jehovah of\nhosts_--in the very _valley of vision_, the home of prophecy; as if He\nhad meant of purpose to destroy these long confidences of the past on\nthe floor where they had been wrestled for and asserted, and not by the\nforce of the foe, but by the folly of His own people, to make them\nashamed. The last clause crashes out the effect of it all; every\nspiritual rampart and refuge torn down, there is nothing left but an\nappeal to the hills to fall and cover us--_a breaking down of the wall\nand a crying to the mountain_.\n\nOn the brink of the precipice, Isaiah draws back for a moment, to\ndescribe with some of his old fire the appearance of the besiegers (vv.\n6-8_a_). And this suggests what kind of preparation Jerusalem had made\nfor her foe--every kind, says Isaiah, but the supreme one. The arsenal,\nSolomon's _forest-house_, with its cedar pillars, had been looked to\n(ver. 8), the fortifications inspected and increased, and the suburban\nwaters brought within them (vv. 9-11_a_). _But ye looked not unto Him\nthat had done this_, who had brought this providence upon you; _neither\nhad ye respect unto Him that fashioned it long ago_, whose own plan it\nhad been. To your alliances and fortifications you fled in the hour of\ncalamity, but not to Him in whose guidance the course of calamity lay.\nAnd therefore, when your engineering and diplomacy failed you, your\nreligion vanished with them. _In that day did the Lord, Jehovah of\nhosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding\nwith sackcloth; but, behold, joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing\nsheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: Let us eat and drink, for\nto-morrow we shall die._ It was the dropping of the mask. For half a\ncentury this people had worshipped God, but they had never trusted Him\nbeyond the limits of their treaties and their bulwarks. And so when\ntheir allies were defeated, and their walls began to tremble, their\nreligion, bound up with these things, collapsed also; they ceased even\nto be men, crying like beasts, _Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we\ndie_. For such a state of mind Isaiah will hold out no promise; it is\nthe sin against the Holy Ghost, and for it there is no forgiveness. _And\nJehovah of hosts revealed Himself in mine ears. Surely this iniquity\nshall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord, Jehovah of\nhosts._\n\nBack forty years the word had been, _Go and tell this people, Hear ye\nindeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make\nthe heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their\neyes, lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and\nunderstand with their heart, and turn again and be healed._ What\nhappened now was only what was foretold then: _And if there be yet a\ntenth in it, it shall again be for consumption._ That radical revision\nof judgement was now being literally fulfilled, when Isaiah, sure at\nlast of his remnant within the walls of Jerusalem, was forced for their\nsin to condemn even them to death.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNevertheless, Isaiah had still respect to the ultimate survival of a\nremnant. How firmly he believed in it could not be more clearly\nillustrated than by the fact that when he had so absolutely devoted his\nfellow-citizens to destruction he also took the most practical means for\nsecuring a better political future. If there is any reason, it can only\nbe this, for putting the second section of chap. xxii., which advocates\na change of ministry in the city (vv. 15-22), so close to the first,\nwhich sees ahead nothing but destruction for the State (vv. 1-14).\n\nThe _mayor of the palace_ at this time was one Shebna, also called\n_minister_ or _deputy_ (lit. _friend_ of the king). That his father is\nnot named implies perhaps that Shebna was a foreigner; his own name\nbetrays a Syrian origin; and he has been justly supposed to be the\nleader of the party then in power, whose policy was the Egyptian\nalliance, and whom in these latter years Isaiah had so frequently\ndenounced as the root of Judah's bitterness. To this unfamilied\nintruder, who had sought to establish himself in Jerusalem, after the\nmanner of those days, by hewing himself a great sepulchre, Isaiah\nbrought sentence of violent banishment: _Behold, Jehovah will be\nhurling, hurling thee away, thou big man, and crumpling, crumpling thee\ntogether. He will roll, roll thee on, thou rolling-stone, like a ball_\nthrown out _on broad level ground; there shall thou die, and there shall\nbe the chariots of thy glory, thou shame of the house of thy lord. And I\nthrust thee from thy post, and from thy station do they pull thee down_.\nThis vagabond was not to die in his bed, nor to be gathered in his big\ntomb to the people on whom he had foisted himself. He should continue a\n_rolling-stone_. For him, like Cain, there was a land of Nod; and upon\nit he was to find a vagabond's death.\n\nTo fill this upstart's place, Isaiah solemnly designated a man with a\nfather: Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah. The formulas he uses are perhaps\nthe official ones customary upon induction to an office. But it may be\nalso, that Isaiah has woven into these some expressions of even greater\npromise than usual. For this change of office-bearers was critical, and\nthe overthrow of the \"party of action\" meant to Isaiah the beginning of\nthe blessed future. _And it shall come to pass that in that day I will\ncall My servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah; and I will clothe him with\nthy robe, and with thy girdle will I strengthen him, and thine\nadministration will I give into his hand, and he shall be for a father\nto the inhabitant of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. And I will set\nthe key of the house of David upon his shoulder; and he shall open, and\nnone shut: and he shall shut, and none open. And I will hammer him in, a\nnail in a firm place, and he shall be for a throne of glory to his\nfather's house._ Thus to the last Isaiah will not allow Shebna to forget\nthat he is without root among the people of God, that he has neither\nfather nor family.\n\nBut a family is a temptation, and the weight of it may drag even the man\nof the Lord's own hammering out of his place. This very year we find\nEliakim in Shebna's post,[59] and Shebna reduced to be secretary; but\nEliakim's family seem to have taken advantage of their relative's\nposition, and either at the time he was designated, or more probably\nlater, Isaiah wrote two sentences of warning upon the dangers of\nnepotism. Catching at the figure, with which his designation of Eliakim\nclosed, that Eliakim would be a peg in a solid wall, a throne on which\nthe glory of his father's house might settle, Isaiah reminds the\nmuch-encumbered statesman that the firmest peg will give way if you hang\ntoo much on it, the strongest man be pulled down by his dependent and\nindolent family. _They shall hang upon him all the weight of his\nfather's house, the scions and the offspring_ (terms contrasted as\ndegrees of worth), _all the little vessels, from the vessels of cups to\nall the vessels of flagons_. _In that day, saith Jehovah of hosts, shall\nthe peg that was knocked into a firm place give way, and it shall be\nknocked out and fall, and down shall be cut the burden that was upon it,\nfor Jehovah hath spoken._\n\n  [59] Isa. xxxvi. 3.\n\nSo we have not one, but a couple of tragedies. Eliakim, the son of\nHilkiah, follows Shebna, the son of Nobody. The fate of the overburdened\nnail is as grievous as that of the rolling stone. It is easy to pass\nthis prophecy over as a trivial incident; but when we have carefully\nanalysed each verse, restored to the words their exact shade of\nsignification, and set them in their proper contrasts, we perceive the\noutlines of two social dramas, which it requires very little imagination\nto invest with engrossing moral interest.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\n_THE TURN OF THE TIDE: MORAL EFFECTS OF FORGIVENESS._\n\nISAIAH xxii., contrasted with xxxiii. (701 B.C.).\n\n\nThe collapse of Jewish faith and patriotism in the face of the enemy was\ncomplete. Final and absolute did Isaiah's sentence ring out: _Surely\nthis iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith Jehovah of\nhosts._ So we learn from chap. xxii., written, as we conceive, in 701,\nwhen the Assyrian armies had at last invested Jerusalem. But in chap.\nxxxiii., which critics unite in placing a few months later in the same\nyear, Isaiah's tone is entirely changed. He hurls the woe of the Lord\nupon the Assyrians; confidently announces their immediate destruction;\nturns, while the whole city's faith hangs upon him, in supplication to\nthe Lord; and announces the stability of Jerusalem, her peace, her glory\nand the forgiveness of all her sins. It is this great moral difference\nbetween chaps. xxii. and xxxiii.--prophecies that must have been\ndelivered within a few months of each other--which this chapter seeks to\nexpound.\n\nIn spite of her collapse, as pictured in chap. xxii., Jerusalem was not\ntaken. Her rulers fled; her people, as if death were certain, betook\nthemselves to dissipation; and yet the city did not fall into the hands\nof the Assyrian. Sennacherib himself does not pretend to have taken\nJerusalem. He tells us how closely he invested Jerusalem, but he does\nnot add that he took it, a silence which is the more significant that he\nrecords the capture of every other town which his armies attempted. He\nsays that Hezekiah offered him tribute, and details the amount he\nreceived. He adds that the tribute was not paid at Jerusalem (as it\nwould have been had Jerusalem been conquered), but that for \"the payment\nof the tribute and the performance of homage\" Hezekiah \"despatched his\nenvoy\"[60] to him when he was at some distance from Jerusalem. All this\nagrees with the Bible narrative. In the book of Kings we are told how\nHezekiah sent to the King of Assyria at Lachish, saying, _I have\noffended; return from me; that which thou puttest upon me I will bear_.\n_And the King of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah, King of Judah, three\nhundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave\nhim all the silver that was found in the house of Jehovah and in the\ntreasures of the king's house. At the same time did Hezekiah cut off the\ngold from the doors of the temple of Jehovah, and from the pillars which\nHezekiah, King of Judah, had overlaid, and gave it to the King of\nAssyria._[61] It was indeed a sore submission, when even the Temple of\nthe Lord had to be stripped of its gold. But it purchased the relief of\nthe city; and no price was too high to pay for that at such a moment as\nthe present, when the populace was demoralised. We may even see\nIsaiah's hand in the submission. The integrity of Jerusalem was the one\nfact on which the word of the Lord had been pledged, on which the\npromised remnant could be rallied. The Assyrian must not be able to say\nthat he has made Zion's God like the gods of the heathen, and her people\nmust see that even when they have given her up Jehovah can hold her for\nHimself, though in holding He tear and wound (xxxi. 4). The Temple is\ngreater than the gold of the Temple; let even the latter be stripped off\nand sold to the heathen if it can purchase the integrity of the former.\nSo Jerusalem remained inviolate; she was still _the virgin, the daughter\nof Zion_.\n\n  [60] Schrader, _Cuneiform Inscriptions_, _O.T._, i., p. 286.\n\n  [61] 2 Kings xviii. 13-16. Here closes a paragraph. Ver. 17 begins to\n  describe what Sennacherib did, in spite of Hezekiah's submission. He had\n  withdrawn the army that had invested Jerusalem, for Hezekiah purchased\n  its withdrawal by the tribute he sent. But Sennacherib, in spite of\n  this, sent another corps of war against Jerusalem, which second attack\n  is described in ver. 17 and onwards.\n\nAnd now upon the redeemed city Isaiah could proceed to rebuild the\nshattered faith and morals of her people. He could say to them,\n\"Everything has turned out as, by the word of the Lord, I said it\nshould. The Assyrian has come down; Egypt has failed you. Your\npoliticians, with their scorn of religion and their confidence in their\ncleverness, have deserted you. I told you that your numberless\nsacrifices and pomp of unreal religion would avail you nothing in your\nday of disaster, and lo! when this came, your religion collapsed. Your\nabounding wickedness, I said, could only close in your ruin and\ndesertion by God. But one promise I kept steadfast: that Jerusalem would\nnot fall; and to your penitence, whenever it should be real, I assured\nforgiveness. Jerusalem stands to-day, according to my word; and I repeat\nmy gospel. History has vindicated my word, but _Come now, let us bring\nour reasoning to a close, saith the Lord; though your sins be as\nscarlet, they shall be white as snow: though they be red like crimson,\nthey shall be as wool_. I call upon you to build again on your redeemed\ncity, and by the grace of this pardon, the fallen ruins of your life.\"\n\nSome such sermon--if indeed not actually part of chap. i.--we must\nconceive Isaiah to have delivered to the people when Hezekiah had bought\noff Sennacherib, for we find the state of Jerusalem suddenly altered.\nInstead of the panic, which imagined the daily capture of the city, and\nrushed in hectic holiday to the housetops, crying, _Let us eat and\ndrink, for to-morrow we die_, we see the citizens back upon the walls,\ntrembling yet trusting. Instead of sweeping past Isaiah in their revelry\nand leaving him to feel that after forty years of travail he had lost\nall his influence with them, we see them gathering round about him as\ntheir single hope and confidence (xxxvii.). King and people look to\nIsaiah as their counsellor, and cannot answer the enemy without\nconsulting him. What a change from the days of the Egyptian alliance,\nembassies sent off against his remonstrance, and intrigues developed\nwithout his knowledge; when Ahaz insulted him, and the drunken magnates\nmimicked him, and, in order to rouse an indolent people, he had to walk\nabout the streets of Jerusalem for three years, stripped like a captive!\nTruly this was the day of Isaiah's triumph, when God by events\nvindicated his prophecy, and all the people acknowledged his leadership.\n\nIt was the hour of the prophet's triumph, but the nation had as yet only\ntrials before it. God has not done with nations or men when He has\nforgiven them. This people, whom of His grace, and in spite of\nthemselves, God had saved from destruction, stood on the brink of\nanother trial. God had given them a new lease of life, but it was\nimmediately to pass through the furnace. They had bought off\nSennacherib, but Sennacherib came back.\n\nWhen Sennacherib got the tribute, he repented of the treaty he had made\nwith Hezekiah. He may have felt that it was a mistake to leave in his\nrear so powerful a fortress, while he had still to complete the\noverthrow of the Egyptians. So, in spite of the tribute, he sent a force\nback to Jerusalem to demand her surrender. We can imagine the moral\neffect upon King Hezekiah and his people. It was enough to sting the\nmost demoralised into courage. Sennacherib had doubtless expected so\npliant a king and so crushed a people to yield at once. But we may\nconfidently picture the joy of Isaiah, as he felt the return of the\nAssyrians to be the very thing required to restore spirit to his\ndemoralised countrymen. Here was a foe, whom they could face with a\nsense of justice, and not, as they had met him before, in carnal\nconfidence and the pride of their own cleverness. Now was to be a war\nnot, like former wars, undertaken merely for party glory, but with the\npurest feelings of patriotism and the firmest sanctions of religion, a\ncampaign to be entered upon, not with Pharaoh's support and the strength\nof Egyptian chariots, but with God Himself as an ally--of which it could\nbe said to Judah, _Thy righteousness shall go before thee, and the glory\nof the Lord shall be thy rereward_.\n\nOn what free, exultant wings the spirit of Isaiah must have risen to the\nsublime occasion! We know him as by nature an ardent patriot and\npassionate lover of his city, but through circumstance her pitiless\ncritic and unsparing judge. In all the literature of patriotism there\nare no finer odes and orations than those which it owes to him; from no\nlips came stronger songs of war, and no heart rejoiced more in the\nvalour that turns the battle from the gate. But till now Isaiah's\npatriotism had been chiefly a conscience of his country's sins, his\npassionate love for Jerusalem repressed by as stern a loyalty to\nrighteousness, and all his eloquence and courage spent in holding his\npeople from war and persuading them _to returning and rest_. At last\nthis conflict is at an end. The stubbornness of Judah, which has divided\nlike some rock the current of her prophet's energies, and forced it back\nwrithing and eddying upon itself, is removed. Isaiah's faith and his\npatriotism run free with the force of twin-tides in one channel, and we\nhear the fulness of their roar as they leap together upon the enemies of\nGod and the fatherland. _Woe to thee, thou spoiler, and thou wast not\nspoiled, thou treacherous dealer, and they did not deal treacherously\nwith thee! Whenever thou ceasest to spoil, thou shall be spoiled; and\nwhenever thou hast made an end to deal treacherously, they shall deal\ntreacherously with thee. O Jehovah, be gracious unto us; for Thee have\nwe waited: be Thou their arm every morning, our salvation also in the\ntime of trouble. From the noise of a surging the peoples have fled; from\nthe lifting up of Thyself the nations are scattered. And gathered is\nyour spoil, the gathering of the caterpillar; like the leaping of\nlocusts, they are leaping upon it. Exalted is Jehovah; yea, He dwelleth\non high: He hath filled Zion with justice and righteousness. And there\nshall be stability of thy times, wealth of salvation, wisdom and\nknowledge; the fear of Jehovah, it shall be his treasure_ (xxxiii. 1-6).\n\nThus, then, do we propose to bridge the gulf which lies between chaps.\ni. and xxii. on the one hand and chap. xxxiii. on the other. If they are\nall to be dated from the year 701, some such bridge is necessary. And\nthe one we have traced is both morally sufficient and in harmony with\nwhat we know to have been the course of events.\n\nWhat do we learn from it all? We learn a great deal upon that truth\nwhich chap. xxxiii. closes by announcing--the truth of Divine\nforgiveness.\n\nThe forgiveness of God is the foundation of every bridge from a hopeless\npast to a courageous present. That God can make the past be for guilt as\nthough it had not been is always to Isaiah the assurance of the future.\nAn old Greek miniature[62] represents him with Night behind him, veiled\nand sullen and holding a reversed torch. But before him stands Dawn and\nInnocence, a little child, with bright face and forward step and torch\nerect and burning. From above a hand pours light upon the face of the\nprophet, turned upwards. It is the message of a Divine pardon. Never did\nprophet more wearily feel the moral continuity of the generations, the\nlingering and ineradicable effects of crime. Only faith in a pardoning\nGod could have enabled him, with such conviction of the inseparableness\nof yesterday and to-morrow, to make divorce between them, and turning\nhis back on the past, as this miniature represents, hail the future as\nImmanuel, a child of infinite promise. From exposing and scourging the\npast, from proving it corrupt and pregnant with poison for all the\nfuture, Isaiah will turn on a single verse, and give us a future without\nwar, sorrow or fraud. His pivot is ever the pardon of God. But nowhere\nis his faith in this so powerful, his turning upon it so swift, as at\nthis period of Jerusalem's collapse, when, having sentenced the people\nto death for their iniquity--_It was revealed in mine ears by Jehovah of\nhosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye die,\nsaith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts_ (xxii. 14)--he swings round on his\npromise of a little before--_Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall\nbe white as snow_--and to the people's penitence pronounces in the last\nverse of chap. xxxiii. a final absolution: _The inhabitant shall not\nsay, I am sick; the people that dwell therein are forgiven their\niniquity_. If chap. xxxiii. be, as many think, Isaiah's latest oracle,\nthen we have the literal crown of all his prophesying in these two\nwords: _forgiven iniquity_. It is as he put it early that same year:\n_Come now and let us bring our reasoning to a close; though your sins be\nas scarlet, they shall be as white as snow: though they be red like\ncrimson, they shall be as wool_. If man is to have a future, this must\nbe the conclusion of all his past.\n\n  [62] Didron _Christian Iconography_, fig. 52.\n\nBut the absoluteness of God's pardon, making the past as though it had\nnot been, is not the only lesson which the spiritual experience of\nJerusalem in that awful year of 701 has for us. Isaiah's gospel of\nforgiveness is nothing less than this: that when God gives pardon He\ngives Himself. The name of the blessed future, which is entered through\npardon--as in that miniature, a child--is Immanuel: _God-with-us_. And\nif it be correct that we owe the forty-sixth Psalm to these months when\nthe Assyrian came back upon Jerusalem, then we see how the city, that\nhad abandoned God, is yet able to sing when she is pardoned, _God is our\nrefuge and our strength, a very present help in the midst of troubles_.\nAnd this gospel of forgiveness is not only Isaiah's. According to the\nwhole Bible, there is but one thing which separates man from God--that\nis sin, and when sin is done away with, God cannot be kept from man. In\ngiving pardon to man, God gives back to man Himself. How gloriously\nevident this truth becomes in the New Testament! Christ, who is set\nbefore us as the Lamb of God, who beareth the sins of the world, is also\nImmanuel--God-with-us. The Sacrament, which most plainly seals to the\nbeliever the value of the One Sacrifice for sin, is the Sacrament in\nwhich the believer feeds upon Christ and appropriates Him. The sinner,\nwho comes to Christ, not only receives pardon for Christ's sake, but\nreceives Christ. Forgiveness means nothing less than this: that in\ngiving pardon God gives Himself.\n\nBut if forgiveness mean all this, then the objections frequently brought\nagainst a conveyance of it so unconditioned as that of Isaiah fall to\nthe ground. Forgiveness of such a kind cannot be either unjust or\ndemoralising. On the contrary, we see Jerusalem permoralised by it. At\nfirst, it is true, the sense of weakness and fear abounds, as we learn\nfrom the narrative in chaps. xxxvi. and xxxvii. But where there was\nvanity, recklessness and despair, giving way to dissipation, there is\nnow humility, discipline and a leaning upon God, that are led up to\nconfidence and exultation. Jerusalem's experience is just another proof\nthat any moral results are possible to so great a process as the return\nof God to the soul. Awful is the responsibility of them who receive such\na Gift and such a Guest; but the sense of that awfulness is the\natmosphere, in which obedience and holiness and the courage that is born\nof both love best to grow. One can understand men scoffing at messages\nof pardon so unconditioned as Isaiah's, who think they \"mean no more\nthan a clean slate.\" Taken in this sense, the gospel of forgiveness must\nprove a savour of death unto death. But just as Jerusalem interpreted\nthe message of her pardon to mean that _God is in the midst of her; she\nshall not be moved_, and straightway obedience was in all her hearts,\nand courage upon all her walls, so neither to us can be futile the New\nTestament form of the same gospel, which makes our pardoned soul the\nfriend of God, accepted in the Beloved, and our body His holy temple.\n\nUpon one other point connected with the forgiveness of sins we get\ninstruction from the experience of Jerusalem. A man has difficulty in\nsquaring his sense of forgiveness with the return on the back of it of\nhis old temptations and trials, with the hostility of fortune and with\nthe inexorableness of nature. Grace has spoken to his heart, but\nProvidence bears more hard upon him than ever. Pardon does not change\nthe outside of life; it does not immediately modify the movements of\nhistory, or suspend the laws of nature. Although God has forgiven\nJerusalem, Assyria comes back to besiege her. Although the penitent be\ntruly reconciled to God, the constitutional results of his fall remain:\nthe frequency of temptation, the power of habit, the bias and facility\ndownwards, the physical and social consequences. Pardon changes none of\nthese things. It does not keep off the Assyrians.\n\nBut if pardon means the return of God to the soul, then in this we have\nthe secret of the return of the foe. Men could not try nor develop a\nsense of the former except by their experience of the latter. We have\nseen why Isaiah must have welcomed the perfidious reappearance of the\nAssyrians after he had helped to buy them off. Nothing could better test\nthe sincerity of Jerusalem's repentance, or rally her dissipated forces.\nHad the Assyrians not returned, the Jews would have had no experimental\nproof of God's restored presence, and the great miracle would never\nhave happened that rang through human history for evermore--a\ntrumpet-call to faith in the God of Israel. And so still _the Lord\nscourgeth every son whom He receiveth_, because He would put our\npenitence to the test; because He would discipline our disorganised\naffections, and give conscience and will a chance of wiping out defeat\nby victory; because He would baptize us with the most powerful baptism\npossible--the sense of being trusted once more to face the enemy upon\nthe fields of our disgrace.\n\nThat is why the Assyrians came back to Jerusalem, and that is why\ntemptations and penalties still pursue the penitent and forgiven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\n_OUR GOD A CONSUMING FIRE._\n\nISAIAH xxxiii. (701 B.C.).\n\n\nWe have seen how the sense of forgiveness and the exultant confidence,\nwhich fill chap. xxxiii., were brought about within a few months after\nthe sentence of death, that cast so deep a gloom on chap. xxii. We have\nexpounded some of the contents of chap. xxxiii., but have not exhausted\nthe chapter; and in particular we have not touched one of Isaiah's\nprinciples, which there finds perhaps its finest expression: the\nconsuming righteousness of God.\n\nThere is no doubt that chap. xxxiii. refers to the sudden disappearance\nof the Assyrian from the walls of Jerusalem. It was written, part\nperhaps on the eve of that deliverance, part immediately after morning\nbroke upon the vanished host. Before those verses which picture the\ndisappearance of the investing army, we ought in strict chronological\norder to take the narrative in chaps. xxxvi. and xxxvii.--the return of\nthe besiegers, the insolence of the Rabshakeh, the prostration of\nHezekiah, Isaiah's solitary faith, and the sudden disappearance of the\nAssyrian. It will be more convenient, however, since we have already\nentered chap. xxxiii., to finish it, and then to take the narrative of\nthe events which led up to it.\n\nThe opening verses of chap. xxxiii. fit the very moment of the crisis,\nas if Isaiah had flung them across the walls in the teeth of the\nRabshakeh and the second embassy from Sennacherib, who had returned to\ndemand the surrender of the city in spite of Hezekiah's tribute for her\nintegrity: _Woe to thee, thou spoiler, and thou wast not spoiled, thou\ntreacherous dealer, and they did not deal treacherously with thee_!\n_When thou ceasest to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled; and when thou makest\nan end to deal treacherously, they shall deal treacherously with thee._\nThen follows the prayer, as already quoted, and the confidence in the\nsecurity of Jerusalem (ver. 2). A new paragraph (vv. 7-12) describes\nRabshakeh and his company demanding the surrender of the city; the\ndisappointment of the ambassadors who had been sent to treat with\nSennacherib (ver. 7); the perfidy of the great king, who had broken the\ncovenant they had made with him and swept his armies back upon Judah\n(ver. 8); the disheartening of the land under this new shock (ver. 9);\nand the resolution of the Lord now to rise and scatter the invaders:\n_Now will I arise, saith Jehovah; now will I lift up Myself; now will I\nbe exalted_. _Ye shall conceive chaff; ye shall bring forth stubble;\nyour breath is a fire, that shall devour you. And the peoples shall be\nas the burnings of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire_\n(vv. 10-12).\n\nAfter an application of this same fire of God's righteousness to the\nsinners _within_ Jerusalem, to which we shall presently return, the rest\nof the chapter pictures the stunned populace awaking to the fact that\nthey are free. Is the Assyrian really gone, or do the Jews dream as they\ncrowd the walls, and see no trace of him? Have they all vanished--the\nRabshakeh, _by the conduit of the upper pool, with his loud voice_ and\ninsults; the scribes to whom they handed the tribute, and who prolonged\nthe agony by counting it under their eyes; the scouts and engineers\ninsolently walking about Zion and mapping out her walls for the assault;\nthe close investment of barbarian hordes, with their awesome speech and\nuncouth looks! _Where is he that counted? where is he that weighed the\ntribute? where is he that counted the towers? Thou shall not see the\nfierce people, a people of a deep speech that thou canst not perceive,\nof a strange tongue that thou canst not understand._ They have vanished.\nHezekiah may lift his head again. O people--sore at heart to see thy\nking in sackcloth and ashes[63] as the enemy devoured province after\nprovince of thy land and cooped thee up within the narrow walls, thou\nscarcely didst dare to peep across--take courage, the terror is gone! _A\nking in his beauty thine eyes shall see; they shall behold the land\nspreading very far forth_ (ver. 17). We had thought to die in the\nrestlessness and horror of war, never again to know what stable life and\nregular worship were, our Temple services interrupted, our home a\nbattlefield. But _look upon Zion_; behold again _she is the city of our\nsolemn diets; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tent\nthat shall not be removed, the stakes whereof shall never be plucked up,\nneither shall the cords thereof be broken. But there Jehovah_, whom we\nhave known only for affliction, _shall be in majesty for us_. Other\npeoples have their natural defences, Assyria and Egypt their Euphrates\nand Nile; but God Himself shall be for us _a place of rivers, streams,\nbroad on both hands, on which never a galley shall go, nor gallant ship\nshall pass upon it_. Without sign of battle, God shall be our refuge and\nour strength. It was that marvellous deliverance of Jerusalem by the\nhand of God, with no effort of human war, which caused Isaiah to invest\nwith such majesty the meagre rock, its squalid surroundings and paltry\ndefences. The insignificant and waterless city was glorious to the\nprophet because God was in her. One of the richest imaginations which\npatriot ever poured upon his fatherland was inspired by the simplest\nfaith saint ever breathed. Isaiah strikes again the old keynote (chap.\nviii.) about the waterlessness of Jerusalem. We have to keep in mind the\nJews' complaints of this, in order to understand what the forty-sixth\nPsalm means when it says, _There is a river the streams whereof make\nglad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most\nHigh_--or what Isaiah means when he says, _Glorious shall Jehovah be\nunto us, a place of broad rivers and streams_. Yea, he adds, Jehovah is\neverything to us: Jehovah is our Judge; Jehovah is our Lawgiver; Jehovah\nis our King: He will save us.\n\n  [63] Chap. xxxvii.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSuch were the feelings aroused in Jerusalem by the sudden relief of the\ncity. Some of the verses, which we have scarcely touched, we will now\nconsider more fully as the expression of a doctrine which runs\nthroughout Isaiah, and indeed is one of his two or three fundamental\ntruths--that the righteousness of God is an all-pervading atmosphere, an\natmosphere that wears and burns.\n\nFor forty years the prophet had been preaching to the Jews his gospel,\n_God-with-us_; but they never awakened to the reality of the Divine\npresence till they saw it in the dispersion of the Assyrian army. Then\nGod became real to them (ver. 14). The justice of God, preached so long\nby Isaiah, had always seemed something abstract. Now they saw how\nconcrete it was. It was not only a doctrine: it was a fact. It was a\nfact that was a fire. Isaiah had often called it a fire; they thought\nthis was rhetoric. But now they saw the actual burning--_the peoples as\nthe burning of lime, as thorns cut down that are burned in the fire_.\nAnd when they felt the fire so near, each sinner of them awoke to the\nfact that he had something burnable in himself, something which could as\nlittle stand the fire as the Assyrians could. There was no difference in\nthis fire outside and inside the walls. What it burned there it would\nburn here. Nay, was not Jerusalem the dwelling-place of God, and Ariel\nthe very hearth and furnace of the fire which they saw consume the\nAssyrians? _Who_, they cried in their terror--_Who among us shall dwell\nwith the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting\nburnings?_\n\nWe are familiar with Isaiah's fundamental God-with-us, and how it was\nspoken not for mercy only, but for judgement (chap. viii.). If\n_God-with-us_ meant love with us, salvation with us, it meant also\nholiness with us, judgement with us, the jealousy of God breathing upon\nwhat is impure, false and proud. Isaiah felt this so hotly, that his\nsense of it has broken out into some of the fieriest words in all\nprophecy. In his younger days he told the citizens not _to provoke the\neyes of God's glory_, as if Heaven had fastened on their life two\ngleaming orbs, not only to pierce them with its vision, but to consume\nthem with its wrath. Again, in the lowering cloud of calamity he had\nseen _lips of indignation, a tongue as a devouring fire_, and in the\noverflowing stream which finally issued from it the hot _breath of the\nAlmighty_. These are unforgettable descriptions of the ceaseless\nactivity of Divine righteousness in the life of man. They set our\nimaginations on fire with the prophet's burning belief in this. But they\nare excelled by another, more frequently used by Isaiah, wherein he\nlikens the holiness of God to an universal and constant fire. To Isaiah\nlife was so penetrated by the active justice of God, that he described\nit as bathed in fire, as blown through with fire. Righteousness was no\nmere doctrine to this prophet: it was the most real thing in history; it\nwas the presence which pervaded and explained all phenomena. We shall\nunderstand the difference between Isaiah and his people if we have ever\nfor our eyes' sake looked at a great conflagration through a coloured\nglass which allowed us to see the solid materials--stone, wood and\niron--but prevented us from perceiving the flames and shimmering heat.\nTo look thus is to see pillars, lintels and cross-beams twist and fall,\ncrumble and fade; but how inexplicable the process seems! Take away the\nglass, and everything is clear. The fiery element is filling all the\ninterstices, that were blank to us before, and beating upon the solid\nmaterial. The heat becomes visible, shimmering even where there is no\nflame. Just so had it been with the sinners in Judah these forty years.\nTheir society and politics, individual fortunes and careers, personal\nand national habits--the home, the Church, the State--common outlines\nand shapes of life--were patent to every eye, but no man could explain\nthe constant decay and diminution, because all were looking at life\nthrough a glass darkly. Isaiah alone faced life with open vision, which\nfilled up for him the interstices of experience and gave terrible\nexplanation to fate. It was a vision that nearly scorched the eyes out\nof him. Life as he saw it was steeped in flame--the glowing\nrighteousness of God. Jerusalem was full _of the spirit of justice, the\nspirit of burning. The light of Israel is for a fire, and his Holy One\nfor a flame._ The Assyrian empire, that vast erection which the strong\nhands of kings had reared, was simply their pyre, made ready for the\nburning. _For a Topheth is prepared of old; yea, for the king it is made\nready; He hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much\nwood; the breath of Jehovah, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle\nit._[64] So Isaiah saw life, and flashed it on his countrymen. At last\nthe glass fell from their eyes also, and they cried aloud, _Who among us\nshall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with\neverlasting burnings?_ Isaiah replied that there is one thing which can\nsurvive the universal flame, and that is character: _He that walketh\nrighteously and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of fraud,\nthat shaketh his hands from the holding of bribes, that stoppeth his\nears from the hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking on\nevil, he shall dwell on high: his place of defence shall be the\nmunitions of rocks: his bread shall be given him: his water shall be\nsure._\n\n  [64] Chaps. iv. 4; xxx. 33.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIsaiah's Vision of Fire suggests two thoughts to us.\n\n1. Have we done well to confine our horror of the consuming fires of\nrighteousness to the next life? If we would but use the eyes which\nScripture lends us, the rifts of prophetic vision and awakened\nconscience by which the fogs of this world and of our own hearts are\nrent, we should see fires as fierce, a consumption as pitiless, about us\nhere as ever the conscience of a startled sinner fearfully looked for\nacross the grave. Nay, have not the fires, with which the darkness of\neternity has been made lurid, themselves been kindled at the burnings of\nthis life? Is it not because men have felt how hot this world was being\nmade for sin that they have had a _certain fearful expectation of\njudgement and the fierceness of fire_? We shudder at the horrible\npictures of hell which some older theologians and poets have painted for\nus; but it was not morbid fancy, nor the barbarism of their age nor\ntheir own heart's cruelty that inspired these men. It was their hot\nhonour for the Divine holiness; it was their experience of how pitiless\nto sin Providence is already in this life; it was their own scorched\nsenses and affections--brands, as many honest men among them felt\nthemselves, plucked from the burning. Our God _is_ a consuming\nfire--here as well as yonder. Hell has borrowed her glare from the\nimagination of men aflame with the real fieriness of life, and may\nbe--more truly than of old--pictured as the dead and hollow cinder left\nby those fires, of which, as every true man's conscience is aware, this\nlife is full. It was not hell that created conscience; it was conscience\nthat created hell, and conscience was fired by the vision which fired\nIsaiah--of all life aglow with the righteousness of God--_God with us_,\nas He was with Jerusalem, _a spirit of burning and a spirit of justice_.\nThis is the pantheism of conscience, and it stands to reason. God is the\none power of life. What can exist beside Him except what is like Him?\nNothing--sooner or later nothing but what is like Him. The will that is\nas His will, the heart that is pure, the character that is\ntransparent--only these dwell with the everlasting fire, and burning\nwith God, as the bush which Moses saw, are nevertheless not consumed.\nLet us lay it to heart--Isaiah has nothing to tell us about hell-fire,\nbut a great deal about the pitiless justice of God in this life.\n\n2. The second thought suggested by Isaiah's Vision of Life is a\ncomparison of it with the theory of life which is fashionable to-day.\nIsaiah's figure for life was a burning. Ours is a battle, and at first\nsight ours looks the truer. Seen through a formula which has become\neverywhere fashionable, life is a fierce and fascinating warfare.\nCivilised thought, when asked to describe any form of life or to account\nfor a death or survival, most monotonously replies, \"The struggle for\nexistence.\" The sociologist has borrowed the phrase from the biologist,\nand it is on everybody's lips to describe their idea of human life. It\nis uttered by the historian when he would explain the disappearance of\nthis national type, the prevalence of that one. The economist traces\ndepression and failures, the fatal fevers of speculation, the cruelties\nand bad humours of commercial life, to the same source. A merchant with\nprofits lessening and failure before him relieves his despair and\napologizes to his pride with the words, \"It is all due to competition.\"\nEven character and the spiritual graces are sometimes set down as\nresults of the same material process. Some have sought to deduce from it\nall intelligence, others more audaciously all ethics; and it is certain\nthat in the silence of men's hearts after a moral defeat there is no\nexcuse more frequently offered to conscience by will than that the\nbattle was too hot.\n\nBut fascinating as life is when seen through this formula, does not the\nformula act on our vision precisely as the glass we supposed, which when\nwe look through it on a conflagration shows us the solid matter and the\nchanges through which this passes, but hides from us the real agent? One\nneed not deny the reality of the struggle for existence, or that its\nresults are enormous. We struggle with each other, and affect each other\nfor good and for evil, sometimes past all calculation. But we do not\nfight in a vacuum. Let Isaiah's vision be the complement of our own\nfeeling. We fight in an atmosphere that affects every one of us far more\npowerfully than the opposing wits or wills of our fellow-men. Around us\nand through us, within and without as we fight, is the all-pervading\nrighteousness of God; and it is far oftener the effects of this which we\nsee in the falls and the changes of life than the effects of our\nstruggle with each other, enormous though these may be. On this point\nthere is an exact parallel between our days and the days of Isaiah. Then\nthe politicians of Judah, looking through their darkened glass at life,\nsaid, Life is simply a war in which the strongest prevail, a game which\nthe most cunning win. So they made fast their alliances, and were ready\nto meet the Assyrian, or they fled in panic before him, according as\nEgypt or he seemed the stronger. Isaiah saw that with Assyrian and Jew\nanother Power was present--the real reason of every change in politics,\ncollapse or crash in either of the empires--the active righteousness of\nGod. Assyrian and Jew had not only to contend with each other. They were\nat strife with Him. We now see plainly that Isaiah was right. Far more\noperative than the intrigues of politicians or the pride of Assyria,\nbecause it used these simply as its mines and its fuel, was the law of\nrighteousness, the spiritual force which is as impalpable as the\natmosphere, yet strong to burn and try as a furnace seven times heated.\nAnd Isaiah is equally right for to-day. As we look at life through our\nfashionable formula it does seem a mass of struggle, in which we catch\nonly now and then a glimpse of the decisions of righteousness, but the\nprevailing lawlessness of which we do not hesitate to make the reason of\nall that happens, and in particular the excuse of our own defeats. We\nare wrong. Righteousness is not an occasional spark; righteousness is\nthe atmosphere. Though our dull eyes see it only now and then strike\ninto flame in the battle of life, and take for granted that it is but\nthe flash of meeting wits or of steel on steel, God's justice is\neverywhere, pervasive and pitiless, affecting the combatants far more\nthan they have power to affect one another.\n\nWe shall best learn the truth of this in the way the sinners in\nJerusalem learned it--each man first looking into himself. _Who among us\nshall dwell with the everlasting burnings?_ Can we attribute all our\ndefeats to the opposition that was upon us at the moment they occurred?\nWhen our temper failed, when our charity relaxed, when our resoluteness\ngave way, was it the hotness of debate, was it the pressure of the\ncrowd, was it the sneer of the scorner, that was to blame? We all know\nthat these were only the occasions of our defeats. Conscience tells us\nthat the cause lay in a slothful or self-indulgent heart, which the\ncorrosive atmosphere of Divine righteousness had been consuming, and\nwhich, sapped and hollow by its effect, gave way at every material\nshock.\n\nWith the knowledge that conscience gives us, let us now look at a kind\nof figure which must be within the horizon of all of us. Once it was the\nmost commanding stature among its fellows, the straight back and broad\nbrow of a king of men. But now what is the last sight of him that will\nremain with us, flung out there against the evening skies of his life? A\nbent back (we speak of character), a stooping face, the shrinking\noutlines of a man ready to collapse. It was not the struggle for\nexistence that killed him, for he was born to prevail in it. It was the\natmosphere that told on him. He carried in him that on which the\natmosphere could not but tell. A low selfishness or passion inhabited\nhim, and became the predominant part of him, so that his outward life\nwas only its shell; and when the fire of God at last pierced this, he\nwas as thorns cut down, that are burned in the fire.\n\nWe can explain much with the outward eye, but the most of the\nexplanation lies beyond. Where our knowledge of a man's life ends, the\ngreat meaning of it often only begins. All the vacancy beyond the\noutline we see is full of that meaning. God is there, and _God is a\nconsuming fire_. Let us not seek to explain lives only by what we see of\nthem, the visible strife of man with man and nature. It is the invisible\nthat contains the secret of what is seen. We see the shoulders stoop,\nbut not the burden upon them; the face darken, but look in vain for what\ncasts the shadow; the light sparkle in the eye, but cannot tell what\nstar of hope its glance has caught. And even so when we behold fortune\nand character go down in the warfare of this world, we ought to remember\nthat it is not always the things we see that are to blame for the fall,\nbut that awful flame which, unseen by common man, has been revealed to\nthe prophets of God.\n\nRighteousness and retribution, then, are an atmosphere--not lines or\nlaws that we may happen to stumble upon, not explosives, that, being\ntouched, burst out on us, but the atmosphere--always about us and always\nat work, invisible and yet more mighty than aught we see. _God, in whom\nwe live and move and have our being, is a consuming fire._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\n_THE RABSHAKEH; OR, LAST TEMPTATIONS OF FAITH._\n\nISAIAH xxxvi. (701 B.C.).\n\n\nIt remains for us now to follow in chaps. xxxvi., xxxvii., the\nhistorical narrative of the events, the moral results of which we have\nseen so vivid in chap. xxxiii.--the perfidious return of the Assyrians\nto Jerusalem after Hezekiah had bought them off and their final\ndisappearance from the Holy Land.\n\nThis historical narrative has also its moral. It is not annals, but\ndrama. The whole moral of Isaiah's prophesying is here flung into a duel\nbetween champions of the two tempers, which we have seen in perpetual\nconflict throughout his book. The two tempers are--on Isaiah's side an\nabsolute and unselfish faith in God, Sovereign of the world and Saviour\nof His people; on the side of the Assyrians a bare, brutal confidence in\nthemselves, in human cleverness and success, a vaunting contempt of\nrighteousness and of pity. The main interest of Isaiah's book has\nconsisted in the way these tempers oppose each other, and alternately\ninfluence the feeling of the Jewish community. That interest is now to\nculminate in the scene which brings near such thorough representatives\nof the two tempers as Isaiah and the Rabshakeh, with the crowd of\nwavering Jews between. Most strikingly, Assyria's last assault is not of\nforce, but of speech, delivering upon faith the subtle arguments of the\nworldly temper; and as strikingly, while all official religion and\npower of State stand helpless against them, these arguments are met by\nthe bare word of God. In this mere statement of the situation, however,\nwe perceive that much more than the quarrel of a single generation is\nbeing decided. This scene is a parable of the everlasting struggle\nbetween faith and force, with doubt and despair between them. In the\nclever, self-confident, persuasive personage with two languages on his\ntongue and an army at his back; in the fluttered representatives of\nofficial religion who meet him and are afraid of the effect of his\nspeech on the common people; in the ranks of dispirited men who hear the\ndialogue from the wall; in the sensitive king so aware of faith, and yet\nso helpless to bring faith forth to peace and triumph; and, in the\nbackground of the whole situation, the serene prophet of God, grasping\nonly God's word, and by his own steadfastness carrying the city over the\ncrisis and proving that faith indeed can be _the substance of things\nhoped for_--we have a phase of the struggle ordained unto every\ngeneration of men, and which is as fresh to-day as when Rabshakeh played\nthe cynic and the scribes and elders filled the part of nervous\ndefenders of the faith, under the walls of faith's fortress, two\nthousand five hundred years ago.\n\n\nTHE RABSHAKEH.\n\nThis word is a Hebrew transliteration of the Assyrian Rab-sak, _chief of\nthe officers_. Though there is some doubt on the point, we may naturally\npresume from the duties he here discharges that the Rabshakeh was a\ncivilian--probably the civil commissioner or political officer attached\nto the Assyrian army, which was commanded, according to 2 Kings xviii.\n16, by the Tartan or commander-in-chief himself.\n\nIn all the Bible there is not a personage more clever than this\nRabshakeh, nor more typical. He was an able deputy of the king who sent\nhim, but he represented still more thoroughly the temper of the\ncivilisation to which he belonged. There is no word of this man which is\nnot characteristic. A clever, fluent diplomatist, with the traveller's\nknowledge of men and the conqueror's contempt for them, the Rabshakeh is\nthe product of a victorious empire like the Assyrian, or, say, like the\nBritish. Our services sometimes turn out the like of him--a creature\nable to speak to natives in their own language, full and ready of\ninformation, mastering the surface of affairs at a glance, but always\nbaffled by the deeper tides which sway nations; a deft player upon party\ninterests and the superficial human passions, but unfit to touch the\ndeep springs of men's religion and patriotism. Let us speak, however,\nwith respect of the Rabshakeh. From his rank (Sayce calls him the\nVizier), as well as from the cleverness with which he explains what we\nknow to have been the policy of Sennacherib towards the populations of\nSyria, he may well have been the inspiring mind at this time of the\ngreat Assyrian empire--Sennacherib's Bismarck.\n\nThe Rabshakeh had strutted down from the great centre of civilisation,\nwith its temper upon him, and all its great resources at his back,\nconfident to twist these poor provincial tribes round his little finger.\nHow petty he conceived them we infer from his never styling Hezekiah\n_the king_. This was to be an occasion for the Rabshakeh's own\nglorification. Jerusalem was to fall to his clever speeches. He had\nindeed the army behind him, but the work to be done was not the rough\nwork of soldiers. All was to be managed by him, the civilian and orator.\nThis fellow, with his two languages and clever address, was to step out\nin front of the army and finish the whole business.\n\nThe Rabshakeh spoke extremely well. With his first words he touched the\nsore point of Judah's policy: her trust in Egypt. On this he spoke like\na very Isaiah. But he showed a deeper knowledge of Judah's internal\naffairs, and a subtler deftness in using it, when he referred to the\nmatter of the altars. Hezekiah had abolished the high places in all\nparts of the land, and gathered the people to the central sanctuary in\nJerusalem. The Assyrian knew that a number of Jews must look upon this\ndisestablishment of religion in the provinces as likely to incur\nJehovah's displeasure and turn Him against them. Therefore he said, _But\nif thou say unto me, We trust in Jehovah our God, is not that He whose\nhigh places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to\nJudah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?_ And then,\nhaving shaken their religious confidence, he made sport of their\nmilitary strength. And finally he boldly asserted, _Jehovah said unto\nme, Go up against this land and destroy it_. All this shows a master in\ndiplomacy, a most clever demagogue. The scribes and elders felt the\nedge, and begged him to sheathe it in a language unknown to the common\npeople. But he, conscious of his power, spoke the more boldly,\naddressing himself directly to the poorer sort of the garrison, on whom\nthe siege would press most heavily. His second speech to them is a good\nillustration of the policy pursued by Assyria at this time towards the\ncities of Palestine. We know from the annals of Sennacherib that his\ncustomary policy, to seduce the populations of a hostile State from\nallegiance to their rulers, had succeeded in other cases; and it was so\nplausibly uttered in this case, that it seemed likely to succeed again.\nTo the common soldiers on the walls, with the prospect of being reduced\nto the foul rations of a prolonged siege (ver. 12), Sennacherib's\nambassador offers rich and equal property and enjoyment. _Make a treaty\nwith me, and come out to me, and eat every one of his vine and every one\nof his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the water of his cistern,\nuntil I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of\ncorn and grapes, a land of bread-corn and orchards. Every one_!--it is a\nmost subtle assault upon the discipline, comradeship and patriotism of\nthe common soldiers by the promises of a selfish, sensuous equality and\nindividualism. But then the speaker's native cynicism gets the better of\nhim--it is not possible for an Assyrian long to play the part of\nclemency--and, with a flash of scorn, he asks the sad men upon the walls\nwhether they really believe that Jehovah can save them: _Hath any of the\ngods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the King of\nAssyria, ... that Jehovah should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?_ All\nthe range of their feelings does he thus run through, seeking with sharp\nwords to snap each cord of faith in God, of honour to the king and love\nof country. Had the Jews heart to answer him, they might point out the\ninconsistency between his claim to have been sent by Jehovah and the\ncontempt he now pours upon their God. But the inconsistency is\ncharacteristic. The Assyrian has some acquaintance with the Jewish\nfaith; he makes use of its articles when they serve his purpose, but his\nultimatum is to tear them to shreds in their believers' faces. He treats\nthe Jews as men of culture still sometimes treat barbarians, first\nscornfully humouring their faith and then savagely trampling it under\nfoot.\n\nSo clever were the speeches of the Rabshakeh. We see why he was\nappointed to this mission. He was an expert both in the language and\nreligion of this tribe, perched on its rock in the remote Jud\u00e6an\nhighlands. For a foreigner he showed marvellous familiarity with the\ntemper and internal jealousies of the Jewish religion. He turned these\non each other almost as adroitly as Paul himself did in the disputes\nbetween Sadducees and Pharisees. How the fellow knew his cleverness,\nstrutting there betwixt army and town! He would show his soldier friends\nthe proper way of dealing with stubborn barbarians. He would astonish\nthose faith-proud highlanders by exhibiting how much he was aware of the\nlife behind their thick walls and silent faces, _for the king's\ncommandment was, Answer him not_.\n\nAnd yet did the Rabshakeh, with all his raking, know the heart of Judah?\nNo, truly. The whole interest of this man is the incongruity of the\nexpertness and surface-knowledge, which he spattered on Jerusalem's\nwalls, with the deep secret of God, that, as some inexhaustible well,\nthe fortress of the faith carried within her. Ah, Assyrian, there is\nmore in starved Jerusalem than thou canst put in thy speeches! Suppose\nHeaven were to give those sharp eyes of thine power to look through the\nnext thousand years, and see this race and this religion thou puffest\nat, the highest-honoured, hottest-hated of the world, centre of\nmankind's regard and debate, but thou, and thy king and all the glory of\nyour empire wrapped deep in oblivion. To this little fortress of\nhighland men shall the heart of great peoples turn: kings for its\nnursing-fathers and queens for its nursing-mothers, the forces of the\nGentiles shall come to it, and from it new civilisations take their\nlaws; while thou and all thy paraphernalia disappear into blackness,\nhaunted only by the antiquary, the world taking an interest in thee just\nin so far as thou didst once hopelessly attempt to understand Jerusalem\nand capture her faith by thine own interpretation of it. Curious pigmy,\nvery grand thou thinkest thyself, and surely with some right as delegate\nof the king of kings, parading thy cleverness and thy bribes before\nthese poor barbarians; but the world, called to look upon you both from\nthis eminence of history, grants thee to be a very good head of an\nintelligence department, with a couple of languages on thy glib tongue's\nend, but adjudges that with the starved and speechless men before thee\nlies the secret of all that is worth living and dying for in this world.\n\nThe Rabshakeh's plausible futility and Jerusalem's faith, greatly\ndistressed before him, are typical. Still as men hang moodily over the\nbulwarks of Zion, doubtful whether life is worth living within the\nnarrow limits which religion prescribes, or righteousness worth fighting\nfor with such privations and hope deferred, comes upon them some elegant\nand plausible temptation, loudly calling to give the whole thing up.\nDisregarding the official arguments and evidences that push forward to\nparley, it speaks home in practical tones to men's real selves--their\nappetites and selfishnesses. \"You are foolish fellows,\" it says, \"to\nconfine yourselves to such narrowness of life and self-denial! The fall\nof your faith is only a matter of time: other creeds have gone; yours\nmust follow. And why fight the world for the sake of an idea, or from\nthe habits of a discipline? Such things only starve the human spirit;\nand the world is so generous, so free to every one, so tolerant of each\nenjoying his own, unhampered by authority or religion.\"\n\nIn our day what has the greatest effect on the faith of many men is just\nthis mixture, that pervades the Rabshakeh's address,--of a superior\nculture pretending to expose religion, with the easy generosity, which\noffers to the individual a selfish life, unchecked by any discipline or\nreligious fear. That modern Rabshakeh, Ernest R\u00e9nan, with the forces of\nhistorical criticism at his back, but confident rather in his own skill\nof address, speaking to us believers as poor picturesque provincials,\npatronising our Deity, and telling us that he knows His intentions\nbetter than we do ourselves, is a very good representative of the\nenemies of the Faith, who owe their impressiveness upon common men to\nthe familiarity they display with the contents of the Faith, and the\nindependent, easy life they offer to the man who throws his strict faith\noff. Superior knowledge, with the offer on its lips of a life on good\nterms with the rich and tolerant world--pretence of science promising\nselfishness--that is to-day, as then under the walls of Jerusalem, the\ntypical enemy of the Faith. But if faith be held simply as the silent\ngarrison of Jerusalem held it, faith in a Lord God of righteousness, who\nhas given us a conscience to serve Him, and has spoken to us in plain\nexplanation of this by those whom we can see, understand and trust--not\nonly by an Isaiah, but by a Jesus--then neither mere cleverness nor the\nability to promise comfort can avail against our faith. A simple\nconscience of God and of duty may not be able to answer subtle arguments\nword for word, but she can feel the incongruity of their cleverness with\nher own precious secret; she can at least expose the fallacy of their\nsensuous promises of an untroubled life. No man, who tempts us from a\ngood conscience with God in the discipline of our religion and the\ncomradeship of His people, can ensure that there will be no starvation\nin the pride of life, no captivity in the easy tolerance of the world.\nTo the heart of man there will always be captivity in selfishness; there\nwill always be exile in unbelief. Even where the romance and sentiment\nof faith are retained, after the manner of R\u00e9nan, it is only to mock us\nwith mirage. _As in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, our heart\nand flesh shall cry out for the living God, as we have aforetime seen\nHim in the sanctuary._ The land, in which the tempter promises a life\nundisturbed by religious restraints, is not our home, neither is it\nfreedom. By the conscience that is in us, God has set us on the walls of\nfaith, with His law to observe, with His people to stand by; and against\nus are the world and its tempters, with all their wiles to be defied. If\nwe go down from the charge and shelter of so simple a religion, then,\nwhatever enjoyment we have, we shall enjoy it only with the fears of the\ndeserter and the greed of the slave.\n\nIn spite of scorn and sensuous promise from Rabshakeh to R\u00e9nan, let us\nlift the hymn which these silent Jews at last lifted from the walls of\ntheir delivered city: _Walk about Zion and go round about her; tell ye\nthe towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, and consider her palaces,\nthat ye may tell it to the generation to come. For this God is our God\nfor ever and ever. He will be our Guide even unto death._\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\n_THIS IS THE VICTORY.... OUR FAITH._\n\nISAIAH xxxvii. (701 B.C.).\n\n\nWithin the fortress of the faith there is only silence and\nembarrassment. We pass from the Rabshakeh, posing outside the walls of\nZion, to Hezekiah, prostrate within them. We pass with the distracted\ncouncillors, by the walls crowded with moody and silent soldiers, many\nof them--if this be the meaning of the king's command that they should\nnot parley--only too ready to yield to the plausible infidel. We are\nastonished. Has faith nothing to say for herself? Have this people of so\nlong Divine inspiration no habit of self-possession, no argument in\nanswer to the irrelevant attacks of their enemy? Where are the\ntraditions of Moses and Joshua, the songs of Deborah and David? Can men\nwalk about Zion, and their very footsteps on her walls ring out no\ndefiance?\n\nHezekiah's complaint reminds us that in this silence and distress we\nhave no occasional perplexity of faith, but her perpetual burden. Faith\nis inarticulate because of her greatness. Faith is courageous and\nimaginative; but can she convert her confidence and visions into fact?\nSaid Hezekiah, _This is a day of trouble, and rebuke and contumely, for\nthe children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring\nthem forth_. These words are not a mere metaphor for anguish. They are\nthe definition of a real miscarriage. In Isaiah's contemporaries faith\nhas at last engendered courage, zeal for God's house and strong\nassurance of victory; but she, that has proved fertile to conceive and\ncarry these confidences, is powerless to bring them forth into real\nlife, to transform them to actual fact. Faith, complains Hezekiah, is\nnot the substance of things hoped for. At the moment when her subjective\nassurances ought to be realized as facts, she is powerless to bring them\nto the birth.\n\nIt is a miscarriage we are always deploring. Wordsworth has said,\n\"Through love, through hope, through faith's transcendent dower, we feel\nthat we are greater than we know.\" Yes, greater than we can articulate,\ngreater than we can tell to men like the Rabshakeh, even though he talk\nthe language of the Jews; and therefore, on the whole, it is best to be\nsilent in face of his argument. But greater also, we sometimes fear,\nthan we can realise to ourselves in actual character and victory. All\nlife thrills with the pangs of inability to bring the children of faith\nto the birth of experience. The man, who has lost his faith or who takes\nhis faith easily, never knows, of course, this anguish of Hezekiah. But\nthe more we have fed on the promises of the Bible, the more that the\nSpirit of God has engendered in our pure hearts assurances of justice\nand of peace, the more we shall sometimes tremble with the fear that in\noutward fact there is no life for these beautiful conceptions of the\nsoul. Do we really believe in the Fatherhood of God--believe in it till\nit has changed us inwardly, and we carry a new sense of destiny, a new\nconscience of justice, a new disgust of sin, a new pity for pain? Then\nhow full of the anguish of impotence must our souls feel when they\nconsciously survey one day of common life about us, or when we honestly\nlook back on a year of our own conduct! Does it not seem as if upon one\nor two hideous streets in some centre of our civilisation all\nChristianity, with its eighteen hundred years of promise and impetus,\nhad gone to wreck? Is God only for the imagination of man? Is there no\nGod outwardly to control and grant victory? Is He only a Voice, and not\nthe Creator? Is Christ only a Prophet, and not the King?\n\nAnd then over these disappointments there faces us all the great\nmiscarriage itself--black, inevitable death. Hezekiah cried from despair\nthat the Divine assurance of the permanence of God's people in the world\nwas about to be wrecked on fact. But often by a deathbed we utter the\nsame lament about the individual's immortality. There is everything to\nprove a future life except the fact of it within human experience. This\nlife is big with hopes, instincts, convictions of immortality; and yet\nwhere within our sight have these ever passed to the birth of fact?[65]\nDeath is a great miscarriage. _The children have come to the birth, and\nthere is not strength to bring them forth._\n\n  [65] Cf. Browning's _La Saisiaz_.\n\nAnd yet within the horizon of this life at least--the latter part of the\ndifficulty we postpone to another chapter--_faith is the substance of\nthings hoped for_, as Isaiah did now most brilliantly prove. For the\nmiracle of Jerusalem's deliverance, to which the narrative proceeds, was\nnot that by faith the prophet foretold it, but that by faith he did\nactually himself succeed in bringing it to pass. The miracle, we say,\nwas not that Isaiah made accurate prediction of the city's speedy\nrelief from the Assyrian, but far more that upon his solitary\nsteadfastness, without aid of battle, he did carry her disheartened\ncitizens through this crisis of temptation, and kept them, though\nsilent, to their walls till the futile Assyrian drifted away. The\nprediction, indeed, was not, although its terms appear exact, so very\nmarvellous for a prophet to make, who had Isaiah's religious conviction\nthat Jerusalem must survive and Isaiah's practical acquaintance with the\npolitics of the day. _Behold, I am setting in him a spirit; and he shall\nhear a rumour, and shall return into his own land._ We may recall the\nparallel case of Charlemagne in his campaign against the Moors in Spain,\nfrom which he was suddenly and unseasonably hastened north on a\ndisastrous retreat by news of the revolt of the Saxons.[66] In the vast\nAssyrian territories rebellions were constantly occurring, that demanded\nthe swift appearance of the king himself; and God's Spirit, to whose\ninspiration Isaiah traced all political perception, suggested to him the\npossibility of one of these. In the end, the Bible story implies that it\nwas not a rumour from some far-away quarter so much as a disaster here\nin Syria, which compelled Sennacherib's \"retreat from Moscow.\" But it\nis possible that both causes were at work, and that as Napoleon offered\nthe receipt of news from Paris as his reason for hurriedly abandoning\nthe unfortunate Spanish campaign of 1808, so Sennacherib made the rumour\nof some news from his capital or the north the occasion for turning his\ntroops from a theatre of war, where they had not met with unequivocal\nsuccess, and had at last been half destroyed by the plague. Isaiah's\nfurther prediction of Sennacherib's death must also be taken in a\ngeneral sense, for it was not till twenty years later that the Assyrian\ntyrant met this violent end: _I will cause him to fall by the sword in\nhis own land_. But do not let us waste our attention on the altogether\nminor point of the prediction of Jerusalem's deliverance, when the great\nwonder, of which the prediction is but an episode, lies lengthened and\nmanifest before us--that Isaiah, when all the defenders of Jerusalem\nwere distracted and her king prostrate, did by the single steadfastness\nof his spirit sustain her inviolate, and procure for her people a safe\nand glorious future.\n\n  [66] A still more striking analogy may be found in the case of Napoleon\n  I. when in the East in 1799. He had just achieved a small victory which\n  partly masked the previous failure of his campaign, when \"Sir Sydney\n  Smith now contrived that he should receive a packet of journals, by\n  which he was informed of all that had passed recently in Europe and the\n  disasters that France had suffered. His resolution was immediately\n  taken. On August 22nd he wrote to Kleber announcing that he transferred\n  to him the command of the expedition, and that he himself would return\n  to Europe.... After carefully spreading false accounts of his\n  intentions, he set sail on the night of the same day\" (Professor Seeley,\n  article \"Napoleon\" in the _Ency. Brit._).\n\nThe baffled Rabshakeh returned to his master, whom he found at Libnah,\n_for he had heard that he had broken up from Lachish_. Sennacherib, the\nnarrative would seem to imply, did not trouble himself further about\nJerusalem till he learned that Tirhakah, the Ethiopian ruler of Egypt,\nwas marching to meet him with probably a stronger force than that which\nSennacherib had defeated at Eltekeh. Then, feeling the danger of leaving\nso strong a fortress as Jerusalem in his rear, Sennacherib sent to\nHezekiah one more demand for surrender. Hezekiah spread his enemy's\nletter before the Lord. His prayer that follows is remarkable for two\nfeatures, which enable us to see how pure and elevated a monotheism\nGod's Spirit had at last developed from the national faith of Israel.\nThe Being whom the king now seeks he addresses by the familiar name\n_Jehovah of hosts, God of Israel_, and describes by the physical\nfigure--_who art enthroned upon the cherubim_. But he conceives of this\nGod with the utmost loftiness and purity, ascribing to Him not only\nsovereignty and creatorship, but absolute singularity of Godhead. We\nhave but to compare Hezekiah's prayer with the utterances of his\npredecessor Ahaz, to whom many gods were real, and none absolutely\nsovereign, or with the utterances of Israelites far purer than Ahaz, to\nwhom the gods of the nations, though inferior to Jehovah, were yet real\nexistences, in order to mark the spiritual advance made by Israel under\nIsaiah. It is a tribute to the prophet's force, which speaks volumes,\nwhen the deputation from Hezekiah talk to him of _thy God_ (ver. 4). For\nIsaiah by his ministry had made Israel's God to be new in Israel's eyes.\n\nHezekiah's lofty prayer drew forth through the prophet an answer from\nJehovah (vv. 21-32). This is one of the most brilliant of Isaiah's\noracles. It is full of much, with which we are now familiar: the triumph\nof the inviolable fortress, _the virgin daughter of Zion_, and her scorn\nof the arrogant foe; the prophet's appreciation of Asshur's power and\nimpetus, which only heightens his conviction that Asshur is but an\ninstrument in the hand of God; the old figure of the enemy's sudden\ncheck as of a wild animal by hook and bridle; his inevitable retreat to\nthe north. But these familiar ideas are flung off with a terseness and\nvivacity, which bear out the opinion that here we have a prophecy of\nIsaiah, not revised and elaborated for subsequent publication, like the\nrest of his book, but in its original form, struck quickly forth to meet\nthe city's sudden and urgent prayer.\n\nThe new feature of this prophecy is the sign added to it (ver. 30). This\nsign reminds us of that which in opposite terms described to Ahaz the\ndevastation of Judah by the approaching Assyrians (chap. vii.). The wave\nof Assyrian war is about to roll away again, and Judah to resume her\nneglected agriculture, but not quite immediately. During this year of\n701 it has been impossible, with the Assyrians in the land, to sow the\nseed, and the Jews have been dependent on the precarious crop of what\nhad fallen from the harvest of the previous year and sown\nitself--_saph\u00eeah_, or _aftergrowth_. Next year, it being now too late to\nsow for next year's harvest, they must be content with the _shah\u00ees--wild\ncorn, that which springs of itself. But the third year sow ye, and reap,\nand plant vineyards and eat the fruit thereof._ Perhaps we ought not to\ninterpret these numbers literally. The use of three gives the statement\na formal and general aspect, as if the prophet only meant, It may be not\nquite at once that we get rid of the Assyrians; but when they do go,\nthen they go for good, and you may till your land again without fear of\ntheir return. Then rings out the old promise, so soon now to be\naccomplished, about _the escaped_ and _the remnant_; and the great\npledge of the promise is once more repeated: _The zeal of Jehovah of\nhosts will perform this_. With this exclamation, as in ix. 7, the\nprophecy reaches a natural conclusion; and vv. 33-35 may have been\nuttered by Isaiah a little later, when he was quite sure that the\nAssyrian would not even attempt to repeat his abandoned blockade of\nJerusalem.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAt last in a single night the deliverance miraculously came. It is\nimplied by the scattered accounts of those days of salvation, that an\nAssyrian corps continued to sit before Jerusalem even after the\nRabshakeh had returned to the headquarters of Sennacherib. The\nthirty-third of Isaiah, as well as those Psalms which celebrate the\nAssyrian's disappearance from Judah, describe it as having taken place\nfrom under the walls of Jerusalem and the astonished eyes of her\nguardians. It was not, however, upon this force--perhaps little more\nthan a brigade of observation (xxxiii. 18)--that the calamity fell which\ndrove Sennacherib so suddenly from Syria. _And there went forth_ (_that\nnight_, adds the book of Kings) _the angel of Jehovah; and he smote in\nthe camp of Assyria one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when the\ncamp arose in the morning, behold all of them were corpses, dead men.\nAnd Sennacherib, King of Assyria, broke up, and returned and dwelt in\nNineveh._ Had this pestilence dispersed the camp that lay before\nJerusalem, and left beneath the walls so considerable a number of\ncorpses, the exclamations of surprise at the sudden disappearance of\nAssyria, which occur in Isa. xxxiii. and in Psalms xlviii. and lxxvi.,\ncould hardly have failed to betray the fact. But these simply speak of\nvague _trouble_ coming _upon them that were assembled about Zion_, and\nof their swift decampment. The trouble was the news of the calamity,\nwhose victims were the main body of the Assyrian army, who had been\nmaking for the borders of Egypt, but were now scattered northwards like\nchaff.\n\nFor details of this disaster we look in vain, of course, to the Assyrian\nannals, which only record Sennacherib's abrupt return to Nineveh. But it\nis remarkable that the histories of both of his chief rivals in this\ncampaign, Judah and Egypt, should contain independent reminiscences of\nso sudden and miraculous a disaster to his host. From Egyptian sources\nthere has come down through Herodotus (ii. 14), a story that a king of\nEgypt, being deserted by the military caste, when \"Sennacherib King of\nthe Arabs and Assyrians\" invaded his country, entered his sanctuary and\nappealed with weeping to his god; that the god appeared and cheered him,\nthat he raised an army of artisans and marched to meet Sennacherib in\nPelusium; that by night a multitude of field-mice ate up the quivers,\nbow-strings and shield-straps of the Assyrians; and that, as these fled\non the morrow, very many of them fell. A stone statue of the king, adds\nHerodotus, stood in the temple of Heph\u00e6stus, having a mouse in the hand.\nNow, since the mouse was a symbol of sudden destruction, and even of the\nplague, this story of Herodotus seems to be merely a picturesque form of\na tradition that pestilence broke out in the Assyrian camp. The parallel\nwith the Bible narrative is close. In both accounts it is a prayer of\nthe king that prevails. In both the Deity sends His agent--in the\ngrotesque Egyptian an army of mice, in the sublime Jewish His angel. In\nboth the effects are sudden, happening in a single night. From the\nAssyrian side we have this corroboration: that Sennacherib did abruptly\nreturn to Nineveh without taking Jerusalem or meeting with Tirhakah, and\nthat, though he reigned for twenty years more, he never again made a\nSyrian campaign. Sennacherib's convenient story of his return may be\ncompared to the ambiguous account which C\u00e6sar gives of his first\nwithdrawal from Britain, laying emphasis on the submission of the tribes\nas his reason for a swift return to France--a return which was rather\ndue to the destruction of his fleet by storm and the consequent\nuneasiness of his army. Or, as we have already said, Sennacherib's\naccount may be compared to Napoleon's professed reason for his sudden\nabandonment of his Spanish campaign and his quick return to Paris in\n1808.\n\nThe neighbourhood in which the Assyrian army suffered this great\ndisaster[67] was notorious in antiquity for its power of pestilence.\nMaking every allowance for the untutored imagination of the ancients, we\nmust admit the Serbonian bog, between Syria and Egypt, to have been a\nplace terrible for filth and miasma. The noxious vapours travelled far;\nbut the plagues, with which this swamp several times desolated the\nworld, were first engendered among the diseased and demoralised\npopulations, whose villages festered upon its margin. A Persian army was\ndecimated here in the middle of the fourth century before Christ. \"The\nfatal disease which depopulated the earth in the time of Justinian and\nhis successors first appeared in the neighbourhood of Pelusium, between\nthe Serbonian bog and the eastern channel of the Nile.\"[68] To the north\nof the bog the Crusaders also suffered from the infection. It is,\ntherefore, very probable that the moral terror of this notorious\nneighbourhood, as well as its malaria, acting upon an exhausted and\ndisappointed army in a devastated land, was the secondary cause in the\ngreat disaster, by which the Almighty humbled the arrogance of Asshur.\nThe swiftness, with which Sennacherib's retreat is said to have begun,\nhas been equalled by the turning-points of other historical campaigns.\nAlexander the Great's decision to withdraw from India was, after\nvictories as many as Sennacherib's, made in three days. Attila vanished\nout of Italy as suddenly as Sennacherib, and from a motive less evident.\nIn the famous War of the Fosse the Meccan army broke off from their\nsiege of Mohammed in a single stormy night. Napoleon's career went back\nupon itself with just as sharp a bend no less than thrice--in 1799, on\nSennacherib's own ground in Syria; in 1808, in Spain; and in 1812, when\nhe turned from Moscow upon \"one memorable night of frost, in which\ntwenty thousand horses perished, and the strength of the French army was\nutterly broken.\"[69]\n\n  [67] The statement of the Egyptian legend, that it was from a point in\n  the neighbourhood of Pelusium that Sennacherib's army commenced its\n  retreat, is not contradicted by anything in the Jewish records, which\n  leave the locality of the disaster very vague, but, on the contrary,\n  receives some support from what Isaiah expresses as at least the\n  intention of Sennacherib (chap. xxxvii. 25).\n\n  [68] Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, xliii.\n\n  [69] Arnold, _Lectures on Modern History_, 177, quoted by Stanley.\n\nThe amount of the Assyrian loss is enormous, and implies of course a\nmuch higher figure for the army which was vast enough to suffer it; but\nhere are some instances for comparison. In the early German invasions of\nItaly whole armies and camps were swept away by the pestilential\nclimate. The losses of the First Crusade were over three hundred\nthousand. The soldiers of the Third Crusade, upon the scene of\nSennacherib's war, were reckoned at more than half a million, and their\nlosses by disease alone at over one hundred thousand.[70] The Grand Army\nof Napoleon entered Russia two hundred and fifty thousand, but came out,\nhaving suffered no decisive defeat, only twelve thousand; on the retreat\nfrom Moscow alone ninety thousand perished.\n\n  [70] Gibbon, xlii.; lix.\n\nWhat we are concerned with, however, is neither the immediate occasion\nnor the exact amount of Sennacherib's loss, but the bare fact, so\ncertainly established, that, having devastated Judah to the very walls\nof Jerusalem, the Assyrian was compelled by some calamity apart from\nhuman war to withdraw before the sacred city itself was taken. For this\nwas the essential part of Isaiah's prediction; upon this he had staked\nthe credit of the pure monotheism, whose prophet he was to the world. If\nwe keep before us these two simple certainties about the great\nDeliverance: _first_, that it had been foretold by Jehovah's word, and\n_second_, that it had been now achieved, despite all human probability,\nby Jehovah's own arm, we shall understand the enormous spiritual\nimpression which it left upon Israel. The religion of the one supreme\nGod, supreme in might because supreme in righteousness, received a most\nemphatic historical vindication, a signal and glorious triumph. Well\nmight Isaiah exclaim, on the morning of the night during which that\nAssyrian host had drifted away from Jerusalem, _Jehovah is our Judge_;\n_Jehovah is our Lawgiver_; _Jehovah is our King_: _He saveth us_. No\nother god for the present had any chance in Judah. Idolatry was\ndiscredited, not by the political victory of a puritan faction, not even\nby the distinctive genius or valour of a nation, but by an evident act\nof Providence, to which no human aid had been contributory. It was\nnothing less than the baptism of Israel in spiritual religion, the grace\nof which was never wholly undone.\n\nNevertheless, the story of Jehovah's triumph cannot be justly recounted\nwithout including the reaction which followed upon it within the same\ngeneration. Before twenty years had passed from the day, on which\nJerusalem, with the forty-sixth Psalm on her lips, sought with all her\nheart the God of Isaiah, she relapsed into an idolatry, that wore only\nthis sign of the uncompromising puritanism it had displaced: that it\nwas gloomy, and filled with a sense of sin unknown to Israel's\nidolatries previous to the age of Isaiah. The change would be almost\nincomprehensible to us, who have realized the spiritual effects of\nSennacherib's disappearance, if we had not within our own history a\nsomewhat analogous experience. Puritanism was as gloriously accredited\nby event and seemed to be as generally accepted by England under\nCromwell as faith in the spiritual religion of Isaiah was vindicated by\nthe deliverance of Jerusalem and the peace of Judah under Hezekiah. But\nswiftly as the ruling temper in England changed after Cromwell's death,\nand Puritanism was laid under the ban, and persecution and\nlicentiousness broke out, so quickly when Hezekiah died did Manasseh his\nson--no change of dynasty here--_do evil in the sight of Jehovah, and\nmake Judah to sin, building again the high places and rearing up altars\nfor Baal and altars in the house of Jehovah, whereof Jehovah had said,\nIn Jerusalem will I put My name_. Idolatry was never so rampant in\nJudah. _Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood till he filled Jerusalem\nfrom one end to another._ It is in this carnage that tradition has\nplaced the death of Isaiah. He, who had been Judah's best counsellor\nthrough five reigns, on whom the whole nation had gathered in the day of\nher distress, and by whose faith her long-hoped-for salvation had at\nlast become substantive, was violently put to death by the son of\nHezekiah. It is said that he was _sawn asunder_.[71]\n\n  [71] Heb. xi.\n\nThe parallel, which we are pursuing, does not, however, close here. \"As\nsoon,\" says an English historian, \"as the wild orgy of the Restoration\nwas over, men began to see that nothing that was really worthy in the\nwork of Puritanism had been undone. The whole history of English\nprogress since the Restoration, on its moral and spiritual sides, has\nbeen the history of Puritanism.\"\n\nFor the principles of Isaiah and their victory we may make a claim as\nmuch larger than this claim, as Israel's influence on the world has been\ngreater than England's. Israel never wholly lost the grace of the\nbaptism wherewith she was baptized in 701. Even in her history there was\nno event in which the unaided interposition of God was more conspicuous.\nIt is from an appreciation of the meaning of such a Providence that\nIsrael derives her character--that character which marks her off so\ndistinctively from her great rival in the education of the human race,\nand endows her ministry with its peculiar value to the world. If we are\nasked for the characteristics of the Hellenic genius, we point to the\naugust temples and images of beauty in which the wealth and art of man\nhave evolved in human features most glorious suggestions of divinity, or\nwe point to Thermopyl\u00e6, where human valour and devotion seem grander\neven in unavailing sacrifice than the almighty Fate, that renders them\nthe prey of the barbarian. In Greece the human is greater than the\ndivine. But if we are asked to define the spirit of Israel, we remember\nthe worship which Isaiah has enjoined in his opening chapter, a worship\nthat dispenses even with temple and with sacrifice, but, from the first\nstrivings of conscience to the most certain enjoyment of peace, ascribes\nall man's experience to the word of God. In contrast with Thermopyl\u00e6, we\nrecall Jerusalem's Deliverance, effected apart from human war by the\ndirect stroke of Heaven. In Judah man is great simply as he rests on\nGod. The rocks of Thermopyl\u00e6, how imperishably beautiful do they shine\nto latest ages with the comradeship, the valour, the sacrificial blood\nof human heroes! It is another beauty which Isaiah saw upon the bare,\ndry rocks of Zion, and which has drawn to them the admiration of the\nworld. _There_, he said, _Jehovah is glory for us, a place of broad\nrivers and streams_.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence\nis your strength._ How divine Isaiah's message is, may be proved by the\nlength of time mankind is taking to learn it. The remarkable thing is,\nthat he staked so lofty a principle, and the pure religion of which it\nwas the temper, upon a political result, that he staked them upon, and\nvindicated them by, a purely local and material success--the relief of\nJerusalem from the infidel. Centuries passed, and Christ came. He did\nnot--for even He could not--preach a more spiritual religion than that\nwhich He had committed to His greatest forerunner, but He released this\nreligion, and the temper of faith which Isaiah had so divinely\nexpressed, from the local associations and merely national victories,\nwith which even Isaiah had been forced to identify them. The destruction\nof Jerusalem by the heathen formed a large part of Christ's prediction\nof the immediate future; and He comforted the remnant of faith with\nthese words, to some of which Isaiah's lips had first given their\nmeaning: _Ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet in Jerusalem worship\nthe Father. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him\nin spirit and in truth._\n\nAgain centuries passed--no less than eighteen from Isaiah--and we find\nChristendom, though Christ had come between, returning to Isaiah's\nsuperseded problem, and, while reviving its material conditions, unable\nto apply to them the prophet's spiritual temper. The Christianity of\nthe Crusades fell back upon Isaiah's position without his spirit. Like\nhim, it staked the credit of religion upon the relief of the holy city\nfrom the grasp of the infidel; but, in ghastly contrast to that pure\nfaith and serene confidence with which a single Jew maintained the\ninviolateness of Mount Zion in the face of Assyria, with what pride and\nfraud, with what blood and cruelty, with what impious invention of\nmiracle and parody of Divine testimony, did countless armies of\nChristendom, excited by their most fervent prophets and blessed by their\nhigh-priest, attempt in vain the recovery of Jerusalem from the Saracen!\nThe Crusades are a gigantic proof of how easy it is to adopt the\nexternal forms of heroic ages, how difficult to repeat their inward\ntemper. We could not have more impressive witness borne to the fact that\nhumanity--though obedient to the orthodox Church, though led by the\nstrongest spirits of the age, though hallowed by the presence of its\ngreatest saints, though enduring all trials, though exhibiting an\nunrivalled power of self-sacrifice and enthusiasm, though beautified by\ncourtesy and chivalry, and though doing and suffering all for Christ's\nsake--may yet fail to understand the old precept that _in returning and\nrest men are saved, in quietness and in confidence is their strength_.\nNothing could more emphatically prove the loftiness of Isaiah's teaching\nthan this failure of Christendom even to come within sight of it.\n\nHave we learned this lesson yet? O God of Israel, God of Isaiah, in\nreturning to whom and resting upon whom alone we are saved, purge us of\nself and of the pride of life, of the fever and the falsehood they\nbreed. Teach us that in quietness and in confidence is our strength.\nHelp us to be still and know that Thou art God.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\n_A REVIEW OF ISAIAH'S PREDICTIONS CONCERNING THE DELIVERANCE OF\nJERUSALEM._\n\n\nAs we have gathered together all that Isaiah prophesied concerning the\nMessiah, so it may be useful for closer students of his book if we now\nsummarise (even at the risk of a little repetition) the facts of his\nmarvellous prediction of the siege and delivery of Jerusalem. Such a\nreview, besides being historically interesting, ought to prove of\nedification in so far as it instructs us in the kind of faith by which\nthe Holy Ghost inspired a prophet to foretell the future.\n\n1. The primary conviction with which Isaiah felt himself inspired by the\nSpirit of Jehovah was a purely moral one--that a devastation of Judah\nwas necessary for her people's sin, to which he shortly added a\nreligious one: that a remnant would be saved. He had this double\nconviction as early as 740 B.C. (vi. 11-13).\n\n2. Looking round the horizon for some phenomenon with which to identify\nthis promised judgement, Isaiah described the latter at first without\nnaming any single people as the invaders of Judah (v. 26 ff.). It may\nhave been that for a moment he hesitated between Assyria and Egypt. Once\nhe named them together as equally the Lord's instruments upon Judah\n(vii. 18), but only once. When Ahaz resolved to call Assyria into the\nSyrian quarrels, Isaiah exclusively designated the northern power as the\nscourge he had predicted; and when in 732 the Assyrian armies had\noverrun Samaria, he graphically described their necessary overflow into\nJudah also (viii.). This invasion did not spread to Judah, but Isaiah's\ncombined moral and political conviction, for both elements of which he\nclaimed the inspiration of God's Spirit, seized him with renewed\nstrength in 725, when Salmanassar marched south upon Israel (xxviii.);\nand in 721, when Sargon captured Samaria, Isaiah uttered a vivid\ndescription of his speedy arrival before Jerusalem (x. 28 ff.). This\nprediction was again disappointed. But Sargon's departure without\ninvading Judah, and her second escape from him on his return to Syria in\n711, did not in the least induce Isaiah to relax either of his two\nconvictions. Judah he proclaimed to be as much in need of punishment as\never (xxix.-xxxii.); and, though on Sargon's death all Palestine\nrevolted from Assyria to Egypt, he persisted that this would not save\nher from Sennacherib (xiv. 29 ff.; xxix.-xxx.). The \"dourness\" with\nwhich his countrymen believed in Egypt naturally caused the prophet to\nfill his orations at this time with the _political_ side of his\nconviction that Assyria was stronger than Egypt; but because Jerusalem's\nEgyptian policy springs from a deceitful temper (xxx. 1, 9, 10) he is as\nearnest as ever with his _moral_ conviction that judgement is coming.\nAfter 705 his pictures of a siege of Jerusalem grow more definite\n(xxix.; xxx.). He seems scorched by the nearness of the Assyrian\nconflagration (xxx. 27 ff.). At last in 701, when Sennacherib comes to\nPalestine, the siege is pictured as immediate--chaps. i. and xx., which\nalso show at its height the prophet's moral conviction of the necessity\nof the siege for punishing his people.\n\n3. But over against this _moral_ conviction, that Judah must be\ndevastated for her sin, and this _political_, that Assyria is to be the\ninstrument, even to the extreme of a siege of Jerusalem, the prophet\nstill holds strongly to the _religious_ assurance that God cannot allow\nHis shrine to be violated or His people to be exterminated. At first it\nis only of the people that Isaiah speaks--_the remnant_ (vi.; viii. 18).\nJerusalem is not mentioned in the verses that describe the overflowing\nof all Judah by Assyria (viii. 7). It is only when at last, in 721, the\nprophet realizes how near a siege of Jerusalem may be (x. 11, 28-32),\nthat he also pictures the sudden destruction of the Assyrian on his\narrival within sight of her walls (x. 33). In 705, when the siege of the\nsacred city once more becomes imminent, the prophet again reiterates to\nthe heathen that Zion alone shall stand among the cities of Syria (xiv.\n32). To herself he says that, though she shall be besieged and brought\nvery low, she shall finally be delivered (xxix. 1-8; xxx. 19-26; xxxi.\n1, 4, 5). It is true, this conviction seems to be broken--once by a\nprophecy of uncertain date (xxxii. 14), which indicates a desolation of\nthe buildings of Jerusalem, and once by the prophet's sentence of death\nupon the inhabitants in the hour of their profligacy (xxii.)--but when\nthe city has repented, and the enemy have perfidiously come back to\ndemand her surrender, Isaiah again asseverates, though all are hopeless,\nthat she shall not fall (xxxvii.).\n\n4. Now, with regard to the method of Jerusalem's deliverance, Isaiah has\nuniformly described this as happening not by human battle. From the\nbeginning he said that Israel should be delivered in the last extremity\nof their weakness (vi. 13). On the Assyrian's arrival over against the\ncity, Jehovah is to lop him off (x. 33). When her enemies have invested\nJerusalem, Jehovah is to come down in thunder and a hurricane and sweep\nthem away (after 705, xxix. 5-8). They are to be suddenly disappointed,\nlike a hungry man waking from a dream of food. A beautiful promise is\ngiven of the raising of the siege without mention of struggle or any\nweapon (xxx. 20-26). The Assyrian is to be checked as a wild bull is\nchecked _with a lasso_, is to be slain _by the lighting down of the\nLord's arm, by the voice of the Lord_, through a judgement that shall be\nlike a solemn holocaust to God than a human battle (xxx. 30-33). When\nthe Assyrian comes back, and Hezekiah is crushed by the new demand for\nsurrender, Isaiah says that, by a Divinely inspired impulse,\nSennacherib, hearing bad news, shall suddenly return to his own land\n(xxxviii. 7).\n\nIt is only in very little details that these predictions differ. The\nthunderstorm and torrents of fire are, of course, but poetic variations.\nIn 721, however, the prophet hardly anticipates the very close siege,\nwhich he pictures after 705; and while from 705 to 702 he identifies the\nrelief of Jerusalem with a great calamity to the Assyrian army about to\ninvade Judah, yet in 701, when the Assyrians are actually on the spot,\nhe suggests that nothing but a rumour shall cause their retreat and so\nleave Jerusalem free of them.\n\n5. In all this we see a certain FIXITY and a certain FREEDOM. The\nfreedom, the changes and inconsistencies in the prediction, are entirely\nlimited to those of Isaiah's convictions which we have called political,\nand which the prophet evidently gathered from his observation of\npolitical circumstances as these developed before his eyes from year to\nyear. But what was fixed and unalterable to Isaiah, he drew from the\nmoral and religious convictions to which his political observation was\nsubservient; viz., Judah's very sore punishment for sin, the survival of\na people of God in the world, and their deliverance by His own act.\n\n6. This \"Bible-reading\" in Isaiah's predictive prophecies reveals very\nclearly the nature of inspiration under the old covenant. To Isaiah\ninspiration was nothing more nor less than the possession of certain\nstrong moral and religious convictions, which he felt he owed to the\ncommunication of the Spirit of God, and according to which he\ninterpreted, and even dared to foretell, the history of his people and\nthe world. Our study completely dispels, on the evidence of the Bible\nitself, that view of inspiration and prediction, so long held in the\nChurch, which it is difficult to define, but which means something like\nthis: that the prophet beheld a vision of the future in its actual\ndetail and read this off as a man may read the history of the past out\nof a book or a clear memory. This is a very simple view, but too simple\neither to meet the facts of the Bible, or to afford to men any of that\nintellectual and spiritual satisfaction which the discovery of the\nDivine methods is sure to afford. The literal view of inspiration is too\nsimple to be true, and too simple to be edifying. On the other hand, how\nprofitable, how edifying, is the Bible's own account of its inspiration!\nTo know that men interpreted, predicted and controlled history in the\npower of the purest moral and religious convictions--in the knowledge\nof, and the loyalty to, certain fundamental laws of God--is to receive\nan account of inspiration, which is not only as satisfying to the reason\nas it is true to the facts of the Bible, but is spiritually very\nhelpful by the lofty example and reward it sets before our own faith. By\nfaith differing in degree, but not in kind, from ours, _faith which is\nthe substance of things hoped for_, these men became prophets of God,\nand received the testimony of history that they spoke from Him. Isaiah\nprophesied and predicted all he did from loyalty to two simple truths,\nwhich he tells us he received from God Himself: that sin must be\npunished, and that the people of God must be saved. This simple faith,\nacting along with a wonderful knowledge of human nature and ceaseless\nvigilance of affairs, constituted inspiration for Isaiah.\n\nThere is thus, with great modifications, an analogy between the prophet\nand the scientific observer of the present day. Men of science are able\nto affirm the certainty of natural phenomena by their knowledge of the\nlaws and principles of nature. Certain forces being present, certain\nresults must come to pass. The Old Testament prophets, working in\nhistory, a sphere where the problems were infinitely more complicated by\nthe presence and powerful operation of man's free-will, seized hold of\nprinciples as conspicuous and certain to them as the laws of nature are\nto the scientist; and out of their conviction of these they proclaimed\nthe necessity of certain events. God is inflexibly righteous, He cannot\nutterly destroy His people or the witness of Himself among men: these\nwere the laws. Judah shall be punished, Israel shall continue to exist:\nthese were the certainties deduced from the laws. But for the exact\nconditions and forms both of the punishment and its relief the prophets\ndepended upon their knowledge of the world, of which, as these pages\ntestify, they were the keenest and largest-hearted observers that ever\nappeared.\n\nThis account of prophecy may be offered with advantage to those who are\nprejudiced against prophecy as full of materials, which are inexplicable\nto minds accustomed to find a law and reason for everything. Grant the\ntruths of the spiritual doctrines, which the prophets made their\npremises, and you must admit that their predictions are neither\narbitrary nor bewildering. Or begin at the other end: verify that these\nfacts took place, and that the prophets actually predicted them; and if\nyou are true to your own scientific methods, you will not be able to\nresist the conclusion that the spiritual laws and principles, by which\nthe predictions were made, are as real as those by which in the realm of\nnature you proclaim the necessity of certain physical phenomena--and all\nthis in spite of there being at work in the prophets' sphere a force,\nthe free-will of man, which cannot interfere with the laws you work by,\nas it can with those on which they depend.\n\nBut, to turn from the apologetic value of this account of prophecy to\nthe experimental, we maintain that it brings out a new sacredness upon\ncommon life. If it be true that Isaiah had no magical means for\nforetelling the future, but simply his own spiritual convictions and his\nobservation of history, that may, of course, deprive some eyes of a\nlight which they fancied they saw bursting from heaven. But, on the\nother hand, does it not cast a greater glory upon daily life and\nhistory, to have seen in Isaiah this close connection between spiritual\nconviction and political event? Does it not teach us that life is\ngoverned by faith; that the truths we profess are the things that make\nhistory; that we carry the future in our hearts; that not an event\nhappens but is to be used by us as meaning the effect of some law of\nGod, and not a fact appears but is the symbol and sacrament of His\ntruth?\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\n_AN OLD TESTAMENT BELIEVER'S SICK-BED; OR, THE DIFFERENCE CHRIST HAS\nMADE._\n\nISAIAH xxxviii.; xxxix. (DATE UNCERTAIN).\n\n\nTo the great national drama of Jerusalem's deliverance, there have been\nadded two scenes of a personal kind, relating to her king. Chaps.\nxxxviii. and xxxix. are the narrative of the sore sickness and recovery\nof King Hezekiah, and of the embassy which Merodach-baladan sent him,\nand how he received the embassy. The date of these events is difficult\nto determine. If, with Canon Cheyne, we believe in an invasion of Judah\nby Sargon in 711, we shall be tempted to refer them, as he does, to that\ndate--the more so that the promise of fifteen additional years made to\nHezekiah in 711, the fifteenth year of his reign, would bring it up to\nthe twenty-nine, at which it is set in 2 Kings xviii. 2. That, however,\nwould flatly contradict the statement both of Isaiah xxxviii. 1 and 2\nKings xx. 1 that Hezekiah's sickness fell in the days of the invasion of\nJudah by Sennacherib; that is, after 705. But to place the promise of\nfifteen additional years to Hezekiah after 705, when we know he had been\nreigning for at least twenty years, would be to contradict the verse,\njust cited, which sums up the years of his reign as twenty-nine. This\nis, in fact, one of the instances, in which we must admit our present\ninability to elucidate the chronology of this portion of the book of\nIsaiah. Mr. Cheyne thinks the editor mistook the siege by Sennacherib\nfor the siege by Sargon. But as the fact of a siege by Sargon has never\nbeen satisfactorily established, it seems safer to trust the statement\nthat Hezekiah's sickness occurred in the reign of Sennacherib, and to\nallow that there has been an error somewhere in the numbering of the\nyears. It is remarkable that the name of Merodach-baladan does not help\nus to decide between the two dates. There was a Merodach-baladan in\nrebellion against Sargon in 710, and there was one in rebellion against\nSennacherib in 705. It has not yet been put past doubt as to whether\nthese two are the same. The essential is that there was a\nMerodach-baladan alive, real or only claimant king of Babylon, about\n705, and that he was likely at that date to treat with Hezekiah, being\nhimself in revolt against Assyria. Unable to come to any decision about\nthe conflicting numbers, we leave uncertain the date of the events\nrecounted in chaps. xxxviii., xxxix. The original form of the narrative,\nbut wanting Hezekiah's hymn, is given in 2 Kings xx.[72]\n\n  [72] Isa. xxxviii., xxxix., has evidently been abridged from 2 Kings xx.\n  and in some points has to be corrected by the latter. Chap. xxxviii. 21,\n  22, of course, must be brought forward before ver. 7.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe have given to this chapter the title \"An Old Testament Believer's\nDeathbed; or, The Difference Christ has made,\" not because this is the\nonly spiritual suggestion of the story, but because it seems to the\npresent expositor as if this were the predominant feeling left in\nChristian minds after reading for us the story. In Hezekiah's conduct\nthere is much of courage for us to admire, as there are other elements\nto warn us; but when we have read the whole story, we find ourselves\nsaying, What a difference Christ has made to me! Take Hezekiah from two\npoints of view, and then let the narrative itself bring out this\ndifference.\n\nHere is a man, who, although he lived more than twenty-five centuries\nago is brought quite close to our side. Death, who herds all men into\nhis narrow fold, has crushed this Hebrew king so close to us that we can\nfeel his very heart beat. Hezekiah's hymn gives us entrance into the\nfellowship of his sufferings. By the figures he so skilfully uses he\nmakes us feel that pain, the shortness of life, the suddenness of death\nand the utter blackness beyond were to him just what they are to us. And\nyet this kinship in pain, and fear and ignorance only makes us the more\naware of something else which we have and he has not.\n\nAgain, here is a man to whom religion gave all it could give without the\nhelp of Christ; a believer in the religion out of which Christianity\nsprang, perhaps the most representative Old Testament believer we could\nfind, for Hezekiah was at once the collector of what was best in its\nliterature and the reformer of what was worst in its worship; a man\npermeated by the past piety of his Church, and enjoying as his guide and\nphilosopher the boldest prophet who ever preached the future\ndevelopments of its spirit. Yet when we put Hezekiah and all that Isaiah\ncan give him on one side, we shall again feel for ourselves on the other\nwhat a difference Christ has made.\n\nThis difference a simple study of the narrative will make clear.\n\n\nI.\n\n_In those days Hezekiah became sick unto death._ They were critical days\nfor Judah--no son born to the king (2 Kings xxi. 1), the work of\nreformation in Judah not yet consolidated, the big world tossing in\nrevolution all around. Under God, everything depended on an experienced\nruler; and this one, without a son to succeed him, was drawing near to\ndeath. We will therefore judge Hezekiah's strong passion for life to\nhave been patriotic as well as selfish. He stood in the midtime of his\ndays, with a faithfully executed work behind him and so good an example\nof kinghood that for years Isaiah had not expressed his old longing for\nthe Messiah. The Lord had counted Hezekiah righteous; that twin-sign had\nbeen given him which more than any other assured an Israelite of\nJehovah's favour--a good conscience and success in his work. Well,\ntherefore, might he cry when Isaiah brought him the sentence of death,\n_Ah, now, Jehovah, remember, I beseech Thee, how I have walked before\nThee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good\nin Thine eyes. And Hezekiah wept with a great weeping._\n\nThere is difficulty in the strange story which follows. The dial was\nprobably a pyramid of steps on the top of which stood a short pillar or\nobelisk. When the sun rose in the morning, the shadow cast by the pillar\nwould fall right down the western side of the pyramid to the bottom of\nthe lowest step. As the sun ascended the shadow would shorten, and creep\nup inch by inch to the foot of the pillar. After noon, as the sun began\nto descend to the west, the shadow would creep down the eastern steps;\nand the steps were so measured that each one marked a certain degree of\ntime. It was probably afternoon when Isaiah visited the king. The shadow\nwas _going down_ according to the regular law; the sign consisted in\ncausing the shadow to shrink up the steps again. Such a reversal of the\nordinary progress of the shadow may have been caused in either of two\nways: by the whole earth being thrown back on its axis, which we may\ndismiss as impossible, or by the occurrence of the phenomenon known as\nrefraction. Refraction is a disturbance in the atmosphere by which the\nrays of the sun are bent or deflected from their natural course into an\nangular one. In this case, instead of shooting straight over the top of\nthe obelisk, the rays of the sun had been bent down and inward, so that\nthe shadow fled up to the foot of the obelisk. There are many things in\nthe air which might cause this; it is a phenomenon often observed; and\nthe Scriptural narratives imply that on this occasion it was purely\nlocal (2 Chron. xxxii. 31). Had we only the narrative in the book of\nIsaiah, the explanation would have been easy. Isaiah, having given the\nsentence of death, passed the dial in the palace courtyard, and saw the\nshadow lying ten degrees farther up than it should have done, the sight\nof which coincided with the inspiration that the king would not die; and\nIsaiah went back to announce to Hezekiah his reprieve, and naturally\ncall his attention to this as a sign, to which a weak and desponding man\nwould be glad to cling. But the original narrative in the book of Kings\ntells us that Isaiah offered Hezekiah a choice of signs: that the shadow\nshould either advance or retreat, and that the king chose the latter.\nThe sign came in answer to Isaiah's prayer, and is narrated to us as a\nspecial Divine interposition. But a medicine accompanied it, and\nHezekiah recovered through a poultice of figs laid on the boil from\nwhich he suffered.\n\nWhile recognising for our own faith the uselessness of a discussion on\nthis sign offered to a sick man, let us not miss the moral lessons of so\ntouching a narrative, nor the sympathy with the sick king which it is\nfitted to produce, and which is our best introduction to the study of\nhis hymn.\n\nIsaiah had performed that most awful duty of doctor or minister the\ntelling of a friend that he must die. Few men have not in their personal\nexperience a key to the prophet's feelings on this occasion. The leaving\nof a dear friend for the last time; the coming out into the sunlight\nwhich he will nevermore share with us; the passing by the dial; the\nobservation of the creeping shadow; the feeling that it is only a\nquestion of time, the passion of prayer into which that feeling throws\nus that God may be pleased to put off the hour and spare our friend; the\ninvention, that is born, like prayer, of necessity: a cure we suddenly\nremember; the confidence which prayer and invention bring between them;\nthe return with the joyful news; the giving of the order about the\nremedy--cannot many in their degree rejoice with Isaiah in such an\nexperience? But he has, too, a conscience of God and God's work to which\nnone of us may pretend: he knows how indispensable to that work his\nroyal pupil is, and out of this inspiration he prophesies the will of\nthe Lord that Hezekiah shall recover.\n\nThen the king, with a sick man's sacramental longing, asks a sign. Out\nthrough the window the courtyard is visible; there stands the same\nstep-dial of Ahaz, the long pillar on the top of the steps, the shadow\ncreeping down them through the warm afternoon sunshine. To the sick man\nit must have been like the finger of death coming nearer. _Shall the\nshadow_, asks the prophet, _go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?\nIt is easy_, says the king, alarmed, _for the shadow to go down ten\nsteps_. Easy for it to go down! Has he not been feeling that all the\nafternoon? \"Do not,\" we can fancy him saying, with the gasp of a man who\nhas been watching its irresistible descent--\"do not let that black thing\ncome farther; but _let the shadow go backward ten steps_.\"\n\nThe shadow returned, and Hezekiah got his sign. But when he was well, he\nused it for more than a sign. He read a great spiritual lesson in it.\nThe time, which upon the dial had been apparently thrown back, had in\nhis life been really thrown back; and God had given him his years to\nlive over again. The past was to be as if it had never been, its guilt\nand weakness wiped out. _Thou hast cast behind Thy back all my sins._ As\na newborn child Hezekiah felt himself uncommitted by the past, not a\nsin's-doubt nor a sin's-cowardice in him, with the heart of a little\nchild, but yet with the strength and dignity of a grown man, for it is\nthe magic of tribulation to bring innocence with experience. _I shall go\nsoftly_, or literally, _with dignity or caution, as in a procession, all\nmy years because of the bitterness of my soul. O Lord, upon such things\ndo men live; and altogether in them is the life of my spirit.... Behold,\nfor perfection was it bitter to me,_ so _bitter_. And through it all\nthere breaks a new impression of God. _What shall I say? He hath both\nspoken with me, and Himself hath done it._ As if afraid to impute his\nprofits to the mere experience itself, _In them is the life of my\nspirit_, he breaks in with _Yea, Thou hast recovered me; yea, Thou hast\nmade me to live_. And then, by a very pregnant construction, he adds,\n_Thou hast loved my soul out of the pit of destruction; that is, of\ncourse, loved, and by Thy love lifted_, but he uses the one word loved,\nand gives it the active force of _drawing_ or _lifting_. In this lay the\nhead and glory of Hezekiah's experience. He was a religious man, an\nenthusiast for the Temple services, and had all his days as his friend\nthe prophet whose heart was with the heart of God; but it was not\nthrough any of these means God came near him, not till he lay sick and\nhad turned his face to the wall. Then indeed he cried, _What shall I\nsay? He hath both spoken with me, and Himself hath done it!_\n\nForgiveness, a new peace, a new dignity and a visit from the living God!\nWell might Hezekiah exclaim that it was only through a near sense of\ndeath that men rightly learned to live. _Ah, Lord, it is upon these\nthings that men live; and wholly therein is the life of my spirit._ It\nis by these things men live, and therein I have learned for the first\ntime what life is!\n\nIn all this at least we cannot go beyond Hezekiah, and he stands an\nexample to the best Christian among us. Never did a man bring richer\nharvest from the fields of death. Everything that renders life really\nlife--peace, dignity, a new sense of God and of His forgiveness--these\nwere the spoils which Hezekiah won in his struggle with the grim enemy.\nHe had snatched from death a new meaning for life; he had robbed death\nof its awful pomp, and bestowed this on careless life. Hereafter he\nshould walk with the step and the mien of a conqueror--_I shall go in\nsolemn procession all my years because of the bitterness of my soul_--or\nwith the carefulness of a worshipper, who sees at the end of his course\nthe throne of the Most High God, and makes all his life an ascent\nthither.\n\nThis is the effect which every great sorrow and struggle has upon a\nnoble soul. Come to the streets of the living. Who are these, whom we\ncan so easily distinguish from the crowd by their firmness of step and\nlook of peace, walking softly where some spurt and some halt, holding,\nwithout rest or haste, the tenor of their way, as if they marched to\nmusic heard by their ears alone? These are they which have come out of\ngreat tribulation. They have brought back into time the sense of\neternity. They know how near the invisible worlds lie to this one, and\nthe sense of the vast silences stills all idle laughter in their hearts.\nThe life that is to other men chance or sport, strife or hurried flight,\nhas for them its allotted distance; is for them a measured march, a\nconstant worship. _For the bitterness of their soul they go in\nprocession all their years._ Sorrow's subjects, they are our kings;\nwrestlers with death, our veterans: and to the rabble armies of society\nthey set the step of a nobler life.\n\nCount especially the young man blessed, who has looked into the grave\nbefore he has faced the great temptations of the world, and has not\nentered the race of life till he has learned his stride in the race with\ndeath. They tell us that on the outside of civilisation, where men carry\ntheir lives in their hands, a most thorough politeness and dignity are\nbred, in spite of the want of settled habits, by the sense of danger\nalone; and we know how battle and a deadly climate, pestilence or the\nperils of the sea have sent back to us the most careless of our youth\nwith a self-possession and regularity of mind, that it would have been\nhopeless to expect them to develop amid the trivial trials of village\nlife.\n\nBut the greatest duty of us men is not to seek nor to pray for such\ncombats with death. It is when God has found these for us to remain\ntrue to our memories of them. The hardest duty of life is to remain true\nto our psalms of deliverance, as it is certainly life's greatest\ntemptation to fall away from the sanctity of sorrow, and suffer the\nstately style of one who knows how near death hovers to his line of\nmarch to degenerate into the broken step of a wanton life. This was\nHezekiah's temptation, and this is why the story of his fall in the\nthirty-ninth chapter is placed beside his vows in the thirty-eighth--to\nwarn us how easy it is for those who have come conquerors out of a\nstruggle with death to fall a prey to common life. He had said, _I will\nwalk softly all my years_; but how arrogantly and rashly he carried\nhimself when Merodach-baladan sent the embassy to congratulate him on\nhis recovery. It was not with the dignity of the veteran, but with a\nchildish love of display, perhaps also with the too restless desire to\nsecure an alliance, that he showed the envoys _his storehouse, the\nsilver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and all the\nhouse of his armour and all that was found in his treasures. There was\nnothing which Hezekiah did not show them in his house nor in all his\ndominion._ In this behaviour there was neither caution nor sobriety, and\nwe cannot doubt but that Hezekiah felt the shame of it when Isaiah\nsternly rebuked him and threw upon all his house the dark shadow of\ncaptivity.\n\nIt is easier to win spoils from death than to keep them untarnished by\nlife. Shame burns warm in a soldier's heart when he sees the arms he\nrisked life to win rusting for want of a little care. Ours will not burn\nless if we discover that the strength of character we brought with us\nout of some great tribulation has been slowly weakened by subsequent\nself-indulgence of vanity. How awful to have fought for character with\ndeath only to squander it upon life! It is well to keep praying, \"My\nGod, suffer me not to forget my bonds and my bitterness. In my hours of\nwealth and ease, and health and peace, by the memory of Thy judgements\ndeliver me, good Lord.\"\n\n\nII.\n\nSo far then Hezekiah is an example and warning to us all. With all our\nfaith in Christ, none of us, in the things mentioned, may hope to excel\nthis Old Testament believer. But notice very particularly that\nHezekiah's faith and fortitude are profitable only for this life. It is\nwhen we begin to think, What of the life to come? that we perceive the\ninfinite difference Christ has made.\n\nWe know what Hezekiah felt when his back was turned on death, and he\ncame up to life again. But what did he feel when he faced the other way,\nand his back was to life? With his back to life and facing deathwards,\nHezekiah saw nothing, that was worth hoping for. To him to die was to\nleave God behind him, to leave the face of God as surely as he was\nleaving the face of man. _I said, I shall not see Jah, Jah in the land\nof the living; I shall gaze upon man no more with the inhabitants of the\nworld._ The beyond was not to Hezekiah absolute nothingness, for he had\nhis conceptions, the popular conceptions of his time, of a sort of\nexistence that was passed by those who had been men upon earth. The\nimagination of his people figured the gloomy portals of a nether\nworld--_Sheol_, the _Hollow_ (Dante's \"hollow realm\"), or perhaps the\n_Craving_--into which death herds the shades of men, bloodless,\nvoiceless, without love or hope or aught that makes life worth living.\nWith such an existence beyond, to die to life here was to Hezekiah like\nas when a weaver rolls up the finished web. My life may be a pattern for\nothers to copy, a banner for others to fight under, but for me it is\nfinished. Death has cut it from the loom. Or it was like going into\ncaptivity. _Mine age is removed and is carried away from me into exile,\nlike a shepherd's tent_--exile which to a Jew was the extreme of\ndespair, implying as it did absence from God, and salvation and the\npossibility of worship. _Sheol cannot praise Thee; death cannot\ncelebrate Thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy\nfaithfulness._\n\nOf this then at the best Hezekiah was sure: a respite of fifteen\nyears--nothing beyond. Then the shadow would not return upon the dial;\nand as the king's eyes closed upon the dear faces of his friends, his\nsense of the countenance of God would die too, and his soul slip into\nthe abyss, hopeless of God's faithfulness.\n\nIt is this awful anticlimax, which makes us feel the difference Christ\nhas made. This saint stood in almost the clearest light that revelation\ncast before Jesus. He was able to perceive in suffering a meaning and\nderive from it a strength not to be exceeded by any Christian. Yet his\nfaith is profitable for this life alone. For him character may wrestle\nwith death over and over again, and grow the stronger for every grapple,\nbut death wins the last throw.\n\nIt may be said that Hezekiah's despair of the future is simply the\nmorbid thoughts of a sick man or the exaggerated fancies of a poet. \"We\nmust not,\" it is urged, \"define a poet's language with the strictness of\na theology.\" True, and we must also make some allowance for a man dying\nprematurely in the midst of his days. But if this hymn is only poetry,\nit would have been as easy to poetise on the opposite possibilities\nacross the grave. So quick an imagination as Hezekiah's could not have\nfailed to take advantage of the slightest scintilla of glory that\npierced the cloud. It must be that his eye saw none, for all his poetry\ndroops the other way. We seek in heaven for praise in its fulness; there\nwe know God's servants shall see Him face to face. But of this Hezekiah\nhad not the slightest imagination; he anxiously prayed that he might\nrecover _to strike the stringed instruments all the days of his life in\nthe house of Jehovah. The living, the living, he praiseth thee, as I do\nthis day; the father to the children shall make known Thy truth._ But\n_they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy faithfulness_.\n\nNow compare all this with the Psalms of Christian hope; with the faith\nthat fills Paul; with his ardour who says, _To me to depart is far\nbetter_; with the glory which John beholds with open face: the hosts of\nthe redeemed praising God and walking in the light of His face, all the\ngeography of that country laid down, and the plan of the new Jerusalem\ndeclared to the very fashion of her stones; with the audacity since of\nChristian art and song: the rapture of Watts' hymns and the exhilaration\nof Wesley's praise as they contemplate death; and with the joyful and\nexact anticipations of so many millions of common men as they turn their\nfaces to the wall. In all these, in even the Book of the Revelation,\nthere is of course a great deal of pure fancy. But imagination never\nbursts in anywhither till fact has preceded. And it is just because\nthere is a great fact standing between us and Hezekiah that the pureness\nof our faith and the richness of our imagination of immortality differ\nso much from his. That fact is Jesus Christ, His resurrection and\nascension. It is He who has made all the difference and brought life and\nimmortality to light.\n\nAnd we shall know the difference if we lose our faith in that fact. For\n_except Christ be risen from the dead_ and gone before to a country\nwhich derives all its reality and light for our imagination from that\nPresence, which once walked with us in the flesh, there remains for us\nonly Hezekiah's courage to make the best of a short reprieve, only\nHezekiah's outlook into Hades when at last we turn our faces to the\nwall. But to be stronger and purer for having met with death, as he was,\nonly that we must afterwards succumb, with our purity and our strength,\nto death--this is surely to be, as Paul said, _of all men the most\nmiserable_.\n\nBetter far to own the power of an endless life, which Christ has sealed\nto us, and translate Hezekiah's experience into the new calculus of\nimmortality. If to have faced death as he did was to inherit dignity and\npeace and sense of power, what glory of kingship and queenship must sit\nupon those faces in the other world who have been at closer quarters\nstill with the King of terrors, and through Christ their strength have\nspoiled him of his sting and victory! To have felt the worst of death\nand to have triumphed--this is the secret of the peaceful hearts,\nunfaltering looks and faces of glory, _which pass in solemn procession\nof worship_ through all eternity before the throne of God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe shall consider the Old Testament views of a future life and\nresurrection more fully in chaps. xxvii. and xxx. of this volume.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nHAD ISAIAH A GOSPEL FOR THE INDIVIDUAL?\n\n\nThe two narratives, in which Isaiah's career culminates--that of the\nDeliverance of Jerusalem (xxxvi.; xxxvii.) and that of the Recovery of\nHezekiah (xxxviii.; xxxix.)--cannot fail, coming together as they do, to\nsuggest to thoughtful readers a striking contrast between Isaiah's\ntreatment of the community and his treatment of the individual, between\nhis treatment of the Church and his treatment of single members. For in\nthe first of these narratives we are told how an illimitable future,\nelsewhere so gloriously described by the prophet, was secured for the\nChurch upon earth; but the whole result of the second is the gain for a\nrepresentative member of the Church of a respite of fifteen years.\nNothing, as we have seen, is promised to the dying Hezekiah of a future\nlife; no scintilla of the light of eternity sparkles either in Isaiah's\npromise or in Hezekiah's prayer. The net result of the incident is a\nreprieve of fifteen years: fifteen years of a character strengthened,\nindeed, by having met with death, but, it would sadly seem, only in\norder to become again the prey of the vanities of this world (chap.\nxxxix.). So meagre a result for the individual stands strangely out\nagainst the perpetual glory and peace assured to the community. And it\nsuggests this question: Had Isaiah any real gospel for the individual?\nIf so, what was it?\n\nFirst of all, we must remember that God in His providence seldom gives\nto one prophet or generation more than a single main problem for\nsolution. In Isaiah's day undoubtedly the most urgent problem--and\nDivine problems are ever practical, not philosophical--was the\ncontinuance of the Church upon earth. It had really got to be a matter\nof doubt whether a body of people possessing the knowledge of the true\nGod, and able to transfuse and transmit it, could possibly survive among\nthe political convulsions of the world, and in consequence of its own\nsin. Isaiah's problem was the reformation and survival of the Church. In\naccordance with this, we notice how many of his terms are collective,\nand how he almost never addresses the individual. It is the _people_,\nupon whom he calls--_the nation, Israel, the house of Jacob My vineyard,\nthe men of Judah His pleasant plantation_. To these we may add the\napostrophes to the city of Jerusalem, under many personifications:\n_Ariel, Ariel, inhabitress of Zion, daughter of Zion_. When Isaiah\ndenounces sin, the sinner is either the whole community or a class in\nthe community, very seldom an individual, though there are some\ninstances of the latter, as Ahaz and Shebna. It is _This people hath\nrejected_, or _The people would not_. When Jerusalem collapsed, although\nthere must have been many righteous men still within her, Isaiah said,\n_What aileth thee that all belonging to thee have gone up to the\nhousetops?_ (xxii. 1). His language is wholesale. When he is not\nattacking society, he attacks classes or groups: _the rulers_, the\nland-grabbers, the drunkards, _the sinners_, _the judges_, _the house of\nDavid_, _the priests and the prophets_, _the women_. And the sins of\nthese he describes in their social effects, or in their results upon\nthe fate of the whole people; but he never, except in two cases, gives\nus their individual results. He does not make evident, like Jesus or\nPaul, the eternal damage a man's sin inflicts on his own soul.\n\nSimilarly when Isaiah speaks of God's grace and salvation the objects of\nthese are again collective--_the remnant; the escaped_ (also a\ncollective noun); a _holy seed_; a _stock_ or _stump_. It is a _restored\nnation_ whom he sees under the Messiah, the perpetuity and glory of a\n_city_ and _a State_. What we consider to be a most personal and\nparticularly individual matter--the forgiveness of sin--he promises,\nwith two exceptions, only to the community: _This people that dwelleth\ntherein hath its iniquity forgiven_. We can understand all this social,\ncollective and wholesale character of his language only if we keep in\nmind his Divinely appointed work--the substance and perpetuity of a\npurified and secure Church of God.\n\nHad Isaiah then no gospel for the individual? This will indeed seem\nimpossible to us if we keep in view the following considerations:--\n\n1. ISAIAH HIMSELF had passed through a powerfully individual experience.\nHe had not only felt the solidarity of the people's sin--_I dwell among\na people of unclean lips_--he had first felt his own particular guilt:\n_I am a man of unclean lips_. One who suffered the private experiences\nwhich are recounted in chap. vi.; whose _own eyes_ had _seen_ the _King,\nJehovah of hosts_; who had gathered on his own lips his guilt and felt\nthe fire come from heaven's altar by an angelic messenger specially to\npurify him; who had further devoted himself to God's service with so\nthrilling a sense of his own responsibility, and had so thereby felt his\nsolitary and individual mission--he surely was not behind the very\ngreatest of Christian saints in the experience of guilt, of personal\nobligation to grace and of personal responsibility. Though the record of\nIsaiah's ministry contains no narratives, such as fill the ministries of\nJesus and Paul, of anxious care for individuals, could he who wrote of\nhimself that sixth chapter have failed to deal with men as Jesus dealt\nwith Nicodemus, or Paul with the Philippian gaoler? It is not\npicturesque fancy, nor merely a reflection of the New Testament temper,\nif we realize Isaiah's intervals of relief from political labour and\nreligious reform occupied with an attention to individual interests,\nwhich necessarily would not obtain the permanent record of his public\nministry. But whether this be so or not, the sixth chapter teaches that\nfor Isaiah all public conscience and public labour found its necessary\npreparation in personal religion.\n\n2. But, again, Isaiah had an INDIVIDUAL FOR HIS IDEAL. To him the future\nwas not only an established State; it was equally, it was first, a\nglorious king. Isaiah was an Oriental. We moderns of the West place our\nreliance upon institutions; we go forward upon ideas. In the East it is\npersonal influence that tells, persons who are expected, followed and\nfought for. The history of the West is the history of the advance of\nthought, of the rise and decay of institutions, to which the greatest\nindividuals are more or less subordinate. The history of the East is the\nannals of personalities; justice and energy in a ruler, not political\nprinciples, are what impress the Oriental imagination. Isaiah has\ncarried this Oriental hope to a distinct and lofty pitch. The Hero whom\nhe exalts on the margin of the future, as its Author, is not only a\nperson of great majesty, but a character of considerable decision. At\nfirst only the rigorous virtues of the ruler are attributed to Him\n(chap. xi. 1 ff.), but afterwards the graces and influence of a much\nbroader and sweeter humanity (xxxii. 2). Indeed, in this latter oracle\nwe saw that Isaiah spoke not so much of his great Hero, as of what any\nindividual might become. _A man_, he says, _shall be as an hiding-place\nfrom the wind_. Personal influence is the spring of social progress, the\nshelter and fountain force of the community. In the following verses the\neffect of so pure and inspiring a presence is traced in the\ndiscrimination of individual character--each man standing out for what\nhe is--which Isaiah defines as his second requisite for social progress.\nIn all this there is much for the individual to ponder, much to inspire\nhim with a sense of the value and responsibility of his own character,\nand with the certainty that by himself he shall be judged and by himself\nstand or fall. _The worthless person shall be no more called princely,\nnor the knave said to be bountiful._\n\n3. If any details of character are wanting in the picture of Isaiah's\nHero, they are supplied by HEZEKIAH'S SELF-ANALYSIS (chap. xxxviii.). We\nneed not repeat what we have said in the previous chapter of the king's\nappreciation of what is the strength of a man's character, and\nparticularly of how character grows by grappling with death. In this\nmatter the most experienced of Christian saints may learn from Isaiah's\npupil.\n\nIsaiah had then, without doubt, a gospel for the individual; and to this\nday the individual may plainly read it in his book, may truly, strongly,\njoyfully live by it--so deeply does it begin, so much does it help to\nself-knowledge and self-analysis, so lofty are the ideals and\nresponsibilities which it presents. But is it true that Isaiah's gospel\nis for this life only?\n\nWas Isaiah's silence on the immortality of the individual due wholly to\nthe cause we have suggested in the beginning of this chapter--that God\ngives to each prophet his single problem, and that the problem of Isaiah\nwas the endurance of the Church upon earth? There is no doubt that this\nis only partly the explanation.\n\nThe Hebrew belonged to a branch of humanity--the Semitic--which, as its\nhistory proves, was unable to develop any strong imagination of, or\npractical interest in, a future life apart from foreign influence or\nDivine revelation. The pagan Arabs laughed at Mahommed when he preached\nto them of the Resurrection; and even to-day, after twelve centuries of\nMoslem influence, their descendants in the centre of Arabia, according\nto the most recent authority,[73] fail to form a clear conception of, or\nindeed to take almost any practical interest in, another world. The\nnorthern branch of the race, to which the Hebrews belonged, derived from\nan older civilisation a prospect of Hades, that their own fancy\ndeveloped with great elaboration. This prospect, however, which we shall\ndescribe fully in connection with chaps. xiv. and xxvi., was one\nabsolutely hostile to the interests of character in this life. It\nbrought all men, whatever their life had been on earth, at last to a\ndead level of unsubstantial and hopeless existence. Good and evil,\nstrong and weak, pious and infidel, alike became shades, joyless and\nhopeless, without even the power to praise God. We have seen in\nHezekiah's case how such a prospect unnerved the most pious souls, and\nthat revelation, even though represented at his bedside by an Isaiah,\noffered him no hope of an issue from it. The strength of character,\nhowever, which Hezekiah professes to have won in grappling with death,\nadded to the closeness of communion with God which he enjoyed in this\nlife, only brings out the absurdity of such a conclusion to life as the\nprospect of Sheol offered to the individual. If he was a pious man, if\nhe was a man who had never felt himself deserted by God in this life, he\nwas bound to revolt from so God-forsaken an existence after death. This\nwas actually the line along which the Hebrew spirit went out to victory\nover those gloomy conceptions of death, that were yet unbroken by a\nrisen Christ. _Thou wilt not_, the saint triumphantly cried, _leave my\nsoul in Sheol, nor wilt Thou suffer Thine holy one to see corruption_.\nIt was faith in the almightiness and reasonableness of God's ways, it\nwas conviction of personal righteousness, it was the sense that the Lord\nwould not desert His own in death, which sustained the believer in face\nof that awful shadow through which no light of revelation had yet\nbroken.\n\n  [73] Doughty's _Arabia Deserta: Travels in Northern Arabia_, 1876-1878.\n\nIf these, then, were the wings by which a believing soul under the Old\nTestament soared over the grave, Isaiah may be said to have contributed\nto the hope of personal immortality just in so far as he strengthened\nthem. By enhancing as he did the value and beauty of individual\ncharacter, by emphasizing the indwelling of God's Spirit, he was\nbringing life and immortality to light, even though he spoke no word to\nthe dying about the fact of a glorious life beyond the grave. By\nassisting to create in the individual that character and sense of God,\nwhich alone could assure him he would never die, but pass from the\npraise of the Lord in this life to a nearer enjoyment of His presence\nbeyond, Isaiah was working along the only line by which the Spirit of\nGod seems to have assisted the Hebrew mind to an assurance of heaven.\n\nBut further in his favourite gospel of the REASONABLENESS OF GOD--that\nGod does not work fruitlessly, nor create and cultivate with a view to\njudgement and destruction--Isaiah was furnishing an argument for\npersonal immortality, the force of which has not been exhausted. In a\nrecent work on _The Destiny of Man_[74] the philosophic author maintains\nthe reasonableness of the Divine methods as a ground of belief both in\nthe continued progress of the race upon earth and in the immortality of\nthe individual. \"From the first dawning of life we see all things\nworking together towards one mighty goal--the evolution of the most\nexalted and spiritual faculties which characterize humanity. Has all\nthis work been done for nothing? Is it all ephemeral, all a bubble that\nbursts, a vision that fades? On such a view the riddle of the universe\nbecomes a riddle without a meaning. The more thoroughly we comprehend\nthe process of evolution by which things have come to be what they are,\nthe more we are likely to feel that to deny the everlasting persistence\nof the spiritual element in man is to rob the whole process of its\nmeaning. It goes far towards putting us to permanent intellectual\nconfusion. For my own part, I believe in the immortality of the soul,\nnot in the sense in which I accept demonstrable truths of science, but\nas a supreme act of faith in the reasonableness of God's work.\"\n\n  [74] By Professor Fiske.\n\nFrom the same argument Isaiah drew only the former of these two\nconclusions. To him the certainty that God's people would survive the\nimpending deluge of Assyria's brute force was based on his faith that\nthe Lord is _a God of judgement_, of reasonable law and method, and\ncould not have created or fostered so spiritual a people only to destroy\nthem. The progress of religion upon earth was certain. But does not\nIsaiah's method equally make for the immortality of the individual? He\ndid not draw this conclusion, but he laid down its premises with a\nconfidence and richness of illustration that have never been excelled.\n\nWe, therefore, answer the question we put at the beginning of the\nchapter thus:--Isaiah had a gospel for the individual for this life, and\nall the necessary premises of a gospel for the individual for the life\nto come.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK V.\n\n_PROPHECIES NOT RELATING TO ISAIAH'S TIME._\n\nISAIAH:--\n\nxiii.-xiv. 23\n\nxxiv.-xxvii.\n\nxxxiv.\n\nxxxv.\n\n\n\n\nBOOK V.\n\n\nIn the first thirty-nine chapters of the Book of Isaiah--the half which\nrefers to the prophet's own career and the politics contemporary with\nthat--we find four or five prophecies containing no reference to Isaiah\nhimself nor to any Jewish king under whom he laboured, and painting both\nIsrael and the foreign world in quite a different state from that in\nwhich they lay during his lifetime. These prophecies are chap. xiii., an\nOracle announcing the Fall of Babylon, with its appendix, chap. xiv.\n1-23, the Promise of Israel's Deliverance and an Ode upon the Fall of\nthe Babylonian Tyrant; chaps. xxiv.-xxvii., a series of Visions of the\nbreaking up of the universe, of restoration from exile, and even of\nresurrection from the dead; chap. xxxiv., the Vengeance of the Lord upon\nEdom; and chap. xxxv., a Song of Return from Exile.\n\nIn these prophecies Assyria is no longer the dominant world-force, nor\nJerusalem the inviolate fortress of God and His people. If Assyria or\nEgypt is mentioned, it is but as one of the three classical enemies of\nIsrael; and Babylon is represented as the head and front of the hostile\nworld. The Jews are no longer in political freedom and possession of\ntheir own land; they are either in exile or just returned from it to a\ndepopulated country. With these altered circumstances come another\ntemper and new doctrine. The horizon is different, and the hopes that\nflush in dawn upon it are not quite the same as those which we have\ncontemplated with Isaiah in his immediate future. It is no longer the\nrepulse of the heathen invader; the inviolateness of the sacred city;\nthe recovery of the people from the shock of attack, and of the land\nfrom the trampling of armies. But it is the people in exile, the\noverthrow of the tyrant in his own home, the opening of prison doors,\nthe laying down of a highway through the wilderness, the triumph of\nreturn and the resumption of worship. There is, besides, a promise of\nthe resurrection, which we have not found in the prophecies we have\nconsidered.\n\nWith such differences, it is not wonderful that many have denied the\nauthorship of these few prophecies to Isaiah. This is a question that\ncan be looked at calmly. It touches no dogma of the Christian faith.\nEspecially it does not involve the other question, so often--and, we\nventure to say, so unjustly--started on this point, Could not the Spirit\nof God have inspired Isaiah to foresee all that the prophecies in\nquestion foretell, even though he lived more than a century before the\npeople were in circumstances to understand them? Certainly, God is\nalmighty. The question is not, Could He have done this? but one somewhat\ndifferent: Did He do it? and to this an answer can be had only from the\nprophecies themselves. If these mark the Babylonian hostility or\ncaptivity as already upon Israel, this is a testimony of Scripture\nitself, which we cannot overlook, and beside which even unquestionable\ntraces of similarity to Isaiah's style or the fact that these oracles\nare bound up with Isaiah's own undoubted prophecies have little weight.\n\"Facts\" of style will be regarded with suspicion by any one who knows\nhow they are employed by both sides in such a question as this; while\nthe certainty that the Book of Isaiah was put into its present form\nsubsequently to his life will permit of,--and the evident purpose of\nScripture to secure moral impressiveness rather than historical\nconsecutiveness will account for,--later oracles being bound up with\nunquestioned utterances of Isaiah.\n\nOnly one of the prophecies in question confirms the tradition that it is\nby Isaiah, viz., chap. xiii., which bears the title _Oracle of Babylon\nwhich Isaiah, son of Amoz, did see_; but titles are themselves so much\nthe report of tradition, being of a later date than the rest of the\ntext, that it is best to argue the question apart from them.\n\nOn the other hand, Isaiah's authorship of these prophecies, or at least\nthe possibility of his having written them, is usually defended by\nappealing to his promise of the return from exile in chap. xi. and his\nthreat of a Babylonish captivity in chap. xxxix. This is an argument\nthat has not been fairly met by those who deny the Isaianic authorship\nof chaps. xiii.-xiv. 23, xxiv.-xxvii., and xxxv. It is a strong\nargument, for while, as we have seen (p. 201), there are good grounds\nfor believing Isaiah to have been likely to make such a prediction of a\nBabylonish captivity as is attributed to him in chap. xxxix. 6, almost\nall the critics agree in leaving chap. xi. to him. But if chap. xi. is\nIsaiah's, then he undoubtedly spoke of an exile much more extensive than\nhad taken place by his own day. Nevertheless, even this ability in xi.\nto foretell an exile so vast does not account for passages in xiii.-xiv.\n23, xxiv.-xxvii., which represent the Exile either as present or as\nactually over. No one who reads these chapters without prejudice can\nfail to feel the force of such passages in leading him to decide for an\nexilic or post-exilic authorship (see pp. 429 ff.).\n\nAnother argument against attributing these prophecies to Isaiah is that\ntheir visions of the last things, representing as they do a judgement on\nthe whole world, and even the destruction of the whole material\nuniverse, are incompatible with Isaiah's loftiest and final hope of an\ninviolate Zion at last relieved and secure, of a land freed from\ninvasion and wondrously fertile, with all the converted world, Assyria\nand Egypt, gathered round it as a centre. This question, however, is\nseriously complicated by the fact that in his youth Isaiah did\nundoubtedly prophesy a shaking of the whole world and the destruction of\nits inhabitants, and by the probability that his old age survived into a\nperiod, whose abounding sin would again make natural such wholesale\npredictions of judgement as we find in chap. xxiv.\n\nStill, let the question of the eschatology be as obscure as we have\nshown, there remains this clear issue. In some chapters of the Book of\nIsaiah, which, from our knowledge of the circumstances of his times, we\nknow must have been published while he was alive, we learn that the\nJewish people has never left its land, nor lost its independence under\nJehovah's anointed, and that the inviolateness of Zion and the retreat\nof the Assyrian invaders of Judah, without effecting the captivity of\nthe Jews, are absolutely essential to the endurance of God's kingdom on\nearth. In other chapters we find that the Jews have left their land,\nhave been long in exile (or from other passages have just returned), and\nthat the religious essential is no more the independence of the Jewish\nState under a theocratic king, but only the resumption of the Temple\nworship. Is it possible for one man to have written both these sets of\nchapters? Is it possible for one age to have produced them? That is the\nwhole question.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\nBABYLON AND LUCIFER.\n\nISAIAH xiii. 2-xiv. 23 (DATE UNCERTAIN).\n\n\nThis double oracle is against the City (xiii. 2-xiv. 2) and the Tyrant\n(xiv. 3-23) of Babylon.\n\n\nI. THE WICKED CITY (xiii. 2-xiv. 23).\n\nThe first part is a series of hurried and vanishing scenes--glimpses of\nruin and deliverance caught through the smoke and turmoil of a Divine\nwar. The drama opens with the erection of a gathering _standard upon a\nbare mountain_ (ver. 2). He who gives the order explains it (ver. 3),\nbut is immediately interrupted by _Hark! a tumult on the mountains, like\na great people. Hark! the surge of the kingdoms of nations gathering\ntogether. Jehovah of hosts is mustering the host of war._ It is the _day\nof Jehovah_ that is _near_, the day of His war and of His judgement upon\nthe world.\n\nThis Old Testament expression, _the day of the LORD_, starts so many\nideas that it is difficult to seize any one of them and say this is just\nwhat is meant. For _day_ with a possessive pronoun suggests what has\nbeen appointed aforehand, or what must come round in its turn; means\nalso opportunity and triumph, and also swift performance after long\ndelay. All these thoughts are excited when we couple _a day_ with any\nperson's name. And therefore as with every dawn some one awakes saying,\nThis is my day; as with every dawn comes some one's chance, some soul\ngets its wish, some will shows what it can do, some passion or principle\nissues into fact: so God also shall have His day, on which His justice\nand power shall find their full scope and triumph. Suddenly and simply,\nlike any dawn that takes its turn on the round of time, the great\ndecision and victory of Divine justice shall at last break out of the\nlong delay of ages. _Howl ye, for the day of Jehovah is near; as\ndestruction from the Destructive does it come._ Very savage and quite\nuniversal is its punishment. _Every human heart melteth._ Countless\nfaces, white with terror, light up its darkness like flames. Sinners are\n_to be exterminated out of the earth; the world is to be punished for\nits iniquity_. Heaven, the stars, sun and moon aid the horror and the\ndarkness, heaven shivering above, the earth quaking beneath; and\nbetween, the peoples like shepherdless sheep drive to and fro through\nawful carnage.\n\nFrom ver. 17 the mist lifts a little. The vague turmoil clears up into a\nsiege of Babylon by the Medians, and then settles down into Babylon's\nruin and abandonment to wild beasts. Finally (xiv. 1) comes the\nreligious reason of so much convulsion: _For Jehovah will have\ncompassion upon Jacob, and choose again Israel, and settle them upon\ntheir own ground; and the foreign sojourner shall join himself to them,\nand they shall associate themselves to the house of Jacob_.\n\nThis prophecy evidently came to a people already in captivity--a very\ndifferent circumstance of the Church of God from that in which we have\nseen her under Isaiah. But upon this new stage it is still the same old\nconquest. Assyria has fallen, but Babylon has taken her place. The old\nspirit of cruelty and covetousness has entered a new body; the only\nchange is that it has become wealth and luxury instead of brute force\nand military glory. It is still selfishness and pride and atheism. At\nthis, our first introduction to Babylon, it might have been proper to\nexplain why throughout the Bible from Genesis to Revelation this one\ncity should remain in fact or symbol the enemy of God and the stronghold\nof darkness. But we postpone what may be said of her singular\nreputation, till we come to the second part of the Book of Isaiah where\nBabylon plays a larger and more distinct role. Here her destruction is\nsimply the most striking episode of the Divine judgement upon the whole\nearth. Babylon represents civilisation; she is the brow of the world's\npride and enmity to God. One distinctively Babylonian characteristic,\nhowever, must not be passed over. With a ring of irony in his voice, the\nprophet declares, _Behold, I stir up the Medes against thee, who regard\nnot silver and take no pleasure in gold_. The worst terror that can\nassail us is the terror of forces, whose character we cannot fathom, who\nwill not stop to parley, who do not understand our language nor our\nbribes. It was such a power, with which the resourceful and luxurious\nBabylon was threatened. With money the Babylonians did all they wished\nto do, and believed everything else to be possible. They had subsidised\nkings, bought over enemies, seduced the peoples of the earth. The foe\nwhom God now sent them was impervious to this influence. From their pure\nhighlands came down upon corrupt civilisation a simple people, whose\nbanner was a leathern apron, whose goal was not booty nor ease but power\nand mastery, who came not to rob but to displace.\n\nThe lessons of the passage are two: that the people of God are\nsomething distinct from civilisation, though this be universal and\nabsorbent as a very Babylon; and that the resources of civilisation are\nnot even in material strength the highest in the universe, but God has\nin His armoury weapons heedless of men's cunning, and in His armies\nagents impervious to men's bribes. Every civilisation needs to be told,\naccording to its temper, one of these two things. Is it hypocritical?\nThen it needs to be told that civilisation is not one with the people of\nGod. Is it arrogant? Then it needs to be told that the resources of\ncivilisation are not the strongest forces in God's universe. Man talks\nof the triumph of mind over matter, of the power of culture, of the\nelasticity of civilisation; but God has natural forces, to which all\nthese are as the worm beneath the hoof of the horse: and if moral need\narise, He will call His brute forces into requisition. _Howl ye, for the\nday of Jehovah is near; as destruction from the Destructive does it\ncome._ There may be periods in man's history when, in opposition to\nman's unholy art and godless civilisation, God can reveal Himself only\nas destruction.\n\n\nII. THE TYRANT (xiv. 3-23).\n\nTo the prophecy of the overthrow of Babylon there is annexed, in order\nto be sung by Israel in the hour of her deliverance, a _satiric ode_ or\n_taunt-song_ (Heb. _mashal_, Eng. ver. _parable_) upon the King of\nBabylon. A translation of this spirited poem in the form of its verse\n(in which, it is to be regretted, it has not been rendered by the\nEnglish revisers) will be more instructive than a full commentary. But\nthe following remarks of introduction are necessary. The word _mashal_,\nby which this ode is entitled, means comparison, _similitude_ or\n_parable_, and was applicable to every sentence composed of at least two\nmembers that compared or contrasted their subjects. As the great bulk of\nHebrew poetry is sententious, and largely depends for rhythm upon its\nparallelism, _mashal_ received a general application; and while another\nterm--_sh\u00eer_--more properly denotes lyric poetry, _mashal_ is applied to\nrhythmical passages in the Old Testament of almost all tempers: to mere\npredictions, proverbs, orations, satires or taunt-songs, as here, and to\ndidactic pieces. The parallelism of the verses in our ode is too evident\nto need an index. But the parallel verses are next grouped into\nstrophes. In Hebrew poetry this division is frequently effected by the\nuse of a refrain. In our ode there is no refrain, but the strophes are\neasily distinguished by difference of subject-matter. Hebrew poetry does\nnot employ rhyme, but makes use of assonance, and to a much less extent\nof alliteration--a form which is more frequent in Hebrew prose. In our\node there is not much either of assonance or alliteration. But, on the\nother hand, the ode has but to be read to break into a certain rough and\nswinging rhythm. This is produced by long verses rising alternate with\nshort ones falling. Hebrew verse at no time relied for a metrical effect\nupon the modern device of an equal or proportionate number of syllables.\nThe longer verses of this ode are sometimes too short, the shorter too\nlong, variations to which a rude chant could readily adapt itself. But\nthe alternation of long and short is sustained throughout, except for a\nbreak at ver. 10 by the introduction of the formula _And they answered\nand said_, which evidently ought to stand for a long and a short verse\nif the number of double verses in the second strophe is to be the same\nas it is--seven--in the first and in the third.\n\nThe scene of the poem, the Underworld and abode of the shades of the\ndead, is one on which some of the most splendid imagination and music of\nhumanity has been expended. But we must not be disappointed if we do not\nhere find the rich detail and glowing fancy of Virgil's or of Dante's\nvision. This simple and even rude piece of metre, liker ballad than\nepic, ought to excite our wonder not so much for what it has failed to\nimagine as for what, being at its disposal, it has resolutely stinted\nitself in employing. For it is evident that the author of these lines\nhad within his reach the rich, fantastic materials of Semitic mythology,\nwhich are familiar to us in the Babylonian remains. With an austerity,\nthat must strike every one who is acquainted with these, he uses only so\nmuch of them as to enable him to render with dramatic force his simple\ntheme--the vanity of human arrogance.[75]\n\n  [75] \"Those principles of natural philosophy which smothered the\n  religions of the East with their rank and injurious growth are almost\n  entirely absent from the religion of the Hebrews. Here the motive-power\n  of development is to be found in ethical ideas, which, though not indeed\n  alien to the life of other nations, were not the source from which their\n  religious notions were derived.\"--(Lotze's _Microcosmos_, Eng. Transl.,\n  il., 466.)\n\nFor this purpose he employs the idea of the Underworld which was\nprevalent among the northern Semitic peoples. Sheol--the _gaping_ or\n_craving_ place--which we shall have occasion to describe in detail when\nwe come to speak of belief in the resurrection,[76] is the state after\ndeath that craves and swallows all living. There dwell the shades of men\namid some unsubstantial reflection of their earthly state (ver. 9), and\nwith consciousness and passion only sufficient to greet the arrival of\nthe new-comer and express satiric wonder at his fall (ver. 9). With the\narrogance of the Babylonian kings, this tyrant thought to scale the\nheavens to set his throne in the _mount of assembly_ of the immortals,\n_to match the Most High_.[77] But his fate is the fate of all\nmortals--to go down to the weakness and emptiness of Sheol. Here, let us\ncarefully observe, there is no trace of a judgement for reward or\npunishment. The new victim of death simply passes to his place among his\nequals. There was enough of contrast between the arrogance of a tyrant\nclaiming Divinity and his fall into the common receptacle of mortality\nto point the prophet's moral without the addition of infernal torment.\nDo we wish to know the actual punishment of his pride and cruelty? It is\nvisible above ground (strophe 4); not with his spirit, but with his\ncorpse; not with himself, but with his wretched family. His corpse is\nunburied, his family exterminated; his name disappears from the\nearth.[78]\n\n  [76] P. 447 ff.\n\n  [77] It is, however, only just to add that, as Mr. Sayce has pointed out\n  in the Hibbert Lectures for 1887 (p. 365), the claims of Babylonian\n  kings and heroes for a seat on the mountain of the gods were not always\n  mere arrogance, but the first efforts of the Babylonian mind to\n  emancipate itself from the gloomy conceptions of Hades and provide a\n  worthy immortality for virtue. Still most of the kings who pray for an\n  entrance among the gods do so on the plea that they have been successful\n  tyrants--a considerable difference from such an assurance as that of the\n  sixteenth Psalm.\n\n  [78] The popular Semitic conception of Hades contained within it neither\n  grades of condition, according to the merits of men, nor any trace of an\n  infernal torment in aggravation of the unsubstantial state to which all\n  are equally reduced. This statement is true of the Old Testament till at\n  least the Book of Daniel. Sheol is lit by no lurid fires, such as made\n  the later Christian hell intolerable to the lost. That life is\n  unsubstantial; that darkness and dust abound; above all, that God is not\n  there, and that it is impossible to praise Him, is all the punishment\n  which is given in Sheol. Extraordinary vice is punished above ground, in\n  the name and family of the sinner. Sheol, with its monotony, is for\n  average men; but extraordinary piety can break away from it (Ps. xvi.).\n\nThus, by the help of only a few fragments from the popular mythology,\nthe sacred satirist achieves his purpose. His severe monotheism is\nremarkable in its contrast to Babylonian poems upon similar subjects. He\nwill know none of the gods of the underworld. In place of the great\ngoddess, whom a Babylonian would certainly have seen presiding, with her\nminions, over the shades, he personifies--it is a frequent figure of\nHebrew poetry--the abyss itself. _Sheol shuddereth at thee._ It is the\nsame when he speaks (ver. 13) of the deep's great opposite, that _mount\nof assembly_ of the gods, which the northern Semites believed to soar to\na silver sky _in the recesses of the north_ (ver. 14), upon the great\nrange which in that direction bounded the Babylonian plain. This Hebrew\nknows of no gods there but One, whose are the stars, who is the Most\nHigh. Man's arrogance and cruelty are attempts upon His majesty. He\ninevitably overwhelms them. Death is their penalty: blood and squalor on\nearth, the concourse of shuddering ghosts below.\n\n  _The kings of the earth set themselves,\n  And the rulers take counsel together,\n  Against the Lord and against His Anointed.\n  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh;\n  The Lord shall have them in derision._\n\nHe who has heard that laughter sees no comedy in aught else. This is the\none unfailing subject of Hebrew satire, and it forms the irony and the\nrigour of the following ode.[79]\n\n  [79] Readers will remember a parallel to this ode in Carlyle's famous\n  chapter on Louis the Unforgotten. No modern has rivalled Carlyle in his\n  inheritance of this satire, except it be he whom Carlyle called \"that\n  Jew blackguard Heine.\"\n\nThe only other remarks necessary are these. In ver. 9 the Authorized\nVersion has not attempted to reproduce the humour of the original\nsatire, which styles them that were chief men on earth _chief-goats_ of\nthe herd, bell-wethers. The phrase _they that go down to the stones of\nthe pit_ should be transferred from ver. 19 to ver. 20.\n\n_And thou shalt lift up this proverb upon the King of Babylon, and shalt\nsay,_--\n\nI.\n\n  Ah! stilled is the tyrant,\n    And stilled is the fury!\n  Broke hath Jehovah the rod of the wicked,\n    Sceptre of despots:\n  Stroke of (the) peoples with passion,\n    Stroke unremitting,\n  Treading in wrath (the) nations,\n    Trampling unceasing.\n  Quiet, at rest, is the whole earth,\n    They break into singing;\n  Even the pines are jubilant for thee,\n    Lebanon's cedars!\n  \"Since thou liest low, cometh not up\n    Feller against us.\"\n\nII.\n\n  Sheol from under shuddereth at thee\n    To meet thine arrival,\n  Stirring up for thee the shades,\n    All great-goats of earth!\n  Lifteth erect from their thrones\n    All kings of peoples.\n\n10. _All of them answer and say to thee,_--\n\n  \"Thou, too, made flaccid like us,\n    To us hast been levelled!\n  Hurled to Sheol is the pride of thee,\n    Clang of the harps of thee;\n  Under thee strewn are (the) maggots\n    Thy coverlet worms.\"\n\nIII.\n\n  How art thou fallen from heaven\n    Daystar, son of the dawn\n  (How) art thou hewn down to earth,\n    Hurtler at nations.\n  And thou, thou didst say in thine heart,\n    \"The heavens will I scale,\n  Far up to the stars of God\n    Lift high my throne,\n  And sit on the mount of assembly,\n    Far back of the north,\n  I will climb on the heights of (the) cloud,\n    I will match the Most High!\"\n  Ah! to Sheol thou art hurled,\n    Far back of the pit!\n\nIV.\n\n  Who see thee at thee are gazing;\n    Upon thee they muse:\n  Is this the man that staggered the earth,\n    Shaker of kingdoms?\n  Setting the world like the desert,\n    Its cities he tore down;\n  Its prisoners he loosed not\n    (Each of them) homeward.\n  All kings of peoples, yes all,\n    Are lying in their state;\n  But thou! thou art flung from thy grave,\n    Like a stick that is loathsome.\n  Beshrouded with slain, the pierced of the sword,\n    Like a corpse that is trampled.\n  They that go down to the stones of a crypt,\n    Shalt not be with them in burial.\n  For thy land thou hast ruined,\n    Thy people hast slaughtered.\n  Shall not be mentioned for aye\n    Seed of the wicked!\n  Set for his children a shambles,\n    For guilt of their fathers!\n  They shall not rise, nor inherit (the) earth,\n    Nor fill the face of the world with cities.\n\nV.\n\n  But I will arise upon them,\n    Sayeth Jehovah of hosts;\n  And I will cut off from Babel\n    Record and remnant,\n  And scion and seed,\n    Saith Jehovah:\n  Yea, I will make it the bittern's heritage,\n    Marshes of water!\n  And I will sweep it with sweeps of destruction,\n    Sayeth Jehovah of hosts.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n_THE EFFECT OF SIN ON OUR MATERIAL CIRCUMSTANCE._\n\nISAIAH xxiv. (DATE UNCERTAIN).\n\n\nThe twenty-fourth of Isaiah is one of those chapters, which almost\nconvince the most persevering reader of Scripture that a consecutive\nreading of the Authorized Version is an impossibility. For what does he\nget from it but a weary and unintelligent impression of destruction,\nfrom which he gladly escapes to the nearest clear utterance of gospel or\njudgement? Criticism affords little help. It cannot clearly identify the\nchapter with any historical situation. For a moment there is a gleam of\na company standing outside the convulsion, and to the west of the\nprophet, while the prophet himself suffers captivity.[80] But even this\nfades before we make it out; and all the rest of the chapter has too\nuniversal an application--the language is too imaginative, enigmatic and\neven paradoxical--to be applied to an actual historical situation, or to\nits development in the immediate future. This is an ideal description,\nthe apocalyptic vision of a last, great day of judgement upon the whole\nworld; and perhaps the moral truths are all the more impressive that the\nreader is not distracted by temporary or local references.\n\n  [80] vv. 14-16, which are very perplexing. In 14 a company is introduced\n  to us very vaguely as _those_ or _yonder ones_, who are represented as\n  seeing the bright side of the convulsion which is the subject of the\n  chapter. _They cry aloud from the sea_; that is, _from the west_ of the\n  prophet. He is therefore in the east, and in captivity, in the centre of\n  the convulsion. The problem is to find any actual historical situation,\n  in which part of Israel was in the east in captivity, and part in the\n  west free and full of reasons for praising God for the calamity, out of\n  which their brethren saw no escape for themselves.\n\nWith the very first verse the prophecy leaps far beyond all particular\nor national conditions: _Behold, Jehovah shall be emptying the earth and\nrifling it; and He shall turn it upside down and scatter its\ninhabitants_. This is expressive and thorough; the words are those which\nwere used for cleaning a dirty dish. To the completeness of this opening\nverse there is really nothing in the chapter to add. All the rest of the\nverses only illustrate this upturning and scouring of the material\nuniverse. For it is with the material universe that the chapter is\nconcerned. Nothing is said of the spiritual nature of man--little,\nindeed, about man at all. He is simply called _the inhabitant of the\nearth_, and the structure of society (ver. 2) is introduced only to make\nmore complete the effect of the convulsion of the earth itself. Man\ncannot escape those judgements which shatter his material habitation. It\nis like one of Dante's visions. _Terror, and Pit and Snare upon thee, O\ninhabitant of the earth! And it shall come to pass that he who fleeth\nfrom the noise of the Terror shall fall into the Pit, and he who cometh\nup out of the midst of the Pit shall be taken in the Snare. For the\nwindows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth do shake.\nBroken, utterly broken, is the earth; shattered, utterly shattered, the\nearth; staggering, very staggering, the earth; reeling, the earth\nreeleth like a drunken man: she swingeth to and fro like a hammock._ And\nso through the rest of the chapter it is the material life of man that\nis cursed: _the new wine_, _the vine_, _the tabrets_, _the harp_, _the\nsong_, and the merriness in men's hearts which these call forth. Nor\ndoes the chapter confine itself to the earth. The closing verses carry\nthe effect of judgement to the heavens and far limits of the material\nuniverse. _The host of the high ones on high_ (ver. 21) are not\nspiritual beings, the angels. They are material bodies, the stars.\n_Then, too, shall the moon be confounded, and the stars ashamed_, when\nthe Lord's kingdom is established and His righteousness made gloriously\nclear.\n\nWhat awful truth is this for illustration of which we see not man, but\nhis habitation, the world and all its surroundings, lifted up by the\nhand of the Lord, broken open, wiped out and shaken, while man himself,\nas if only to heighten the effect, staggers hopelessly like some broken\ninsect on the quaking ruins? What judgement is this, in which not only\none city or one kingdom is concerned, as in the last prophecy of which\nwe treated, but the whole earth is convulsed, and moon and sun\nconfounded?\n\nThe judgement is the visitation of man's sins on his material\nsurroundings--_The earth's transgression shall be heavy upon it; and it\nshall rise, and not fall_. The truth on which this judgement rests is\nthat between man and his material circumstance--the earth he inhabits,\nthe seasons which bear him company through time and the stars to which\nhe looks high up in heaven--there is a moral sympathy. _The earth also\nis profaned under the inhabitants thereof, because they have\ntransgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting\ncovenant._\n\nThe Bible gives no support to the theory that matter itself is evil. God\ncreated all things; _and God saw everything that He had made; and,\nbehold, it was very good_. When, therefore, we read in the Bible that\nthe earth is cursed, we read that it is cursed for man's sake; when we\nread of its desolation, it is as the effect of man's crime. The Flood,\nthe destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the plagues of Egypt and other\ngreat physical catastrophes happened because men were stubborn or men\nwere foul. We cannot help noticing, however, that matter was thus\nconvulsed or destroyed, not only for the purpose of punishing the moral\nagent, but because of some poison which had passed from him into the\nunconscious instruments, stage and circumstance of his crime. According\nto the Bible, there would appear to be some mysterious sympathy between\nman and Nature. Man not only governs Nature; he infects and informs her.\nAs the moral life of the soul expresses itself in the physical life of\nthe body for the latter's health or corruption, so the conduct of the\nhuman race affects the physical life of the universe to its farthest\nlimits in space. When man is reconciled to God, the wilderness blossoms\nlike a rose; but the guilt of man sullies, infects and corrupts the\nplace he inhabits and the articles he employs; and their destruction\nbecomes necessary, not for his punishment so much as because of the\ninfection and pollution that is in them.\n\nThe Old Testament is not contented with a general statement of this\ngreat principle, but pursues it to all sorts of particular and private\napplications. The curses of the Lord fell, not only on the sinner, but\non his dwelling, on his property and even on the bit of ground these\noccupied. This was especially the case with regard to idolatry. When\nIsrael put a pagan population to the sword, they were commanded to raze\nthe city, gather its wealth together, burn all that was burnable and put\nthe rest into the temple of the Lord as a thing _devoted_ or\n_accursed_, which it would harm themselves to share (Deut. vii. 25, 26;\nxiii. 7). The very site of Jericho was cursed, and men were forbidden to\nbuild upon its horrid waste. The story of Achan illustrates the same\nprinciple.\n\nIt is just this principle which chap. xxiv. extends to the whole\nuniverse. What happened in Jericho because of its inhabitants' idolatry\nis now to happen to the whole earth because of man's sin. _The earth\nalso is profane under her inhabitants, because they have transgressed\nthe laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant._ In\nthese words the prophet takes us away back to the covenant with Noah,\nwhich he properly emphasizes as a covenant with all mankind. With a\nnoble universalism, for which his race and their literature get too\nlittle credit, this Hebrew recognises that once all mankind were holy\nunto God, who had included them under His grace, that promised the\nfixedness and fertility of nature. But that covenant, though of grace,\nhad its conditions for man. These had been broken. The race had grown\nwicked, as it was before the Flood; and therefore, in terms which\nvividly recall that former judgement of God--_the windows on high are\nopened_--the prophet foretells a new and more awful catastrophe. One\nword which he employs betrays how close he feels the moral sympathy to\nbe between man and his world. _The earth_, he says, _is profane_. This\nis a word, whose root meaning is _that which has fallen away_ or\n_separated itself_, which is _delinquent_. Sometimes, perhaps, it has a\npurely moral significance, like our word \"abandoned\" in the common\nacceptance: he who has fallen far and utterly into sin, _the reckless\nsinner_. But mostly it has rather the religious meaning of one who has\nfallen out of the covenant relation with God and the relevant benefits\nand privileges. Into this covenant not only Israel and their land, but\nhumanity and the whole world, have been brought. Is man under covenant\ngrace? The world is also. Does man fall? So does the world, becoming\nwith him _profane_. The consequence of breaking the covenant oath was\nexpressed in Hebrew by a technical word; and it is this word which,\ntranslated _curse_, is applied in ver. 6 to the earth.\n\nThe whole earth is to be broken up and dissolved. What then is to become\nof the people of God--the indestructible remnant? Where are they to\nsettle? In this new deluge is there a new ark? For answer the prophet\npresents us with an old paradise (ver. 23). He has wrecked the universe;\nbut he says now, _Jehovah of hosts shall dwell in Mount Zion and in\nJerusalem_. It would be impossible to find a better instance of the\nlimitations of Old Testament prophecy than this return to the old\ndispensation after the old dispensation has been committed to the\nflames. At such a crisis as the conflagration of the universe for the\nsin of man, the hope of the New Testament looks for the creation of a\nnew heaven and a new earth, but there is no scintilla of such a hope in\nthis prediction. The imagination of the Hebrew seer is beaten back upon\nthe theatre his conscience has abandoned. He knows \"the old is out of\ndate,\" but for him \"the new is not yet born;\" and, therefore, convinced\nas he is that the old must pass away, he is forced to borrow from its\nruins a provisional abode for God's people, a figure for the truth which\ngrips him so firmly, that, in spite of the death of all the universe for\nman's sin, there must be a visibleness and locality of the Divine\nmajesty, a place where the people of God may gather to bless His holy\nname.\n\nIn this contrast of the power of spiritual imagination possessed\nrespectively by the Old and New Testaments we must not, however, lose\nthe ethical interest which the main lesson of this chapter has for the\nindividual conscience. A breaking universe, the great day of judgement,\nmay be too large and too far off to impress our conscience. But each of\nus has his own world--body, property and environment--which is as much\nand as evidently affected by his own sins as our chapter represents the\nuniverse to be by the sins of the race.\n\nTo grant that the moral and physical universes are from the same hand is\nto affirm a sympathy and mutual reaction between them. This affirmation\nis confirmed by experience, and this experience is of two kinds. To the\nguilty man Nature seems aware, and flashes back from her larger surfaces\nthe magnified reflection of his own self-contempt and terror. But,\nbesides, men are also unable to escape attributing to the material\ninstruments or surroundings of their sin a certain infection, a certain\npower of recommunicating to their imaginations and memories the desire\nfor sin, as well as of inflicting upon them the pain and penalty of the\ndisorder it has produced among themselves. Sin, though born, as Christ\nsaid, in the heart, has immediately a material expression; and we may\nfollow this outwards through man's mind, body and estate, not only to\nfind it \"hindering, disturbing, complicating all,\" but reinfecting with\nthe lust and odour of sin the will which gave it birth. As sin is put\nforth by the will, or is cherished in the heart, so we find error cloud\nthe mind, impurity the imagination, misery the feelings, and pain and\nweariness infect the flesh and bone. God, who modelled it, alone knows\nhow far man's physical form has been degraded by the sinful thoughts\nand habits of which for ages it has been the tool and expression; but\neven our eyes may sometimes trace the despoiler, and that not only in\nthe case of what are preferably named sins of the flesh, but even with\nlusts that do not require for their gratification the abuse of the body.\nPride, as one might think the least fleshly of all the vices, leaves yet\nin time her damning signature, and will mark the strongest faces with\nthe sad symptoms of that mental break-down, for which unrestrained pride\nis so often to blame. If sin thus disfigures the body, we know that sin\nalso infects the body. The habituated flesh becomes the suggester of\ncrime to the will which first constrained it to sin, and now wearily,\nbut in vain, rebels against the habits of its instrument. But we recall\nall this about the body only to say that what is true of the body is\ntrue of the soul's greater material surroundings. With the sentence\n_Thou shalt surely die_, God connects this other: _Cursed is the ground\nfor thy sake_.\n\nWhen we pass from a man's body, the wrapping we find next nearest to his\nsoul is his property. It has always been an instinct of the race, that\nthere is nothing a man may so infect with the sin of his heart as his\nhandiwork and the gains of his toil. And that is a true instinct, for,\nin the first place, the making of property perpetuates a man's own\nhabits. If he is successful in business, then every bit of wealth he\ngathers is a confirmation of the motives and tempers in which he\nconducted his business. A man deceives himself as to this, saying, Wait\ntill I have made enough; then I will put away the meanness, the\nharshness and the dishonesty with which I made it. He shall not be able.\nJust because he has been successful, he will continue in his habit\nwithout thinking; just because there has been no break-down to convict\nof folly and suggest penitence, so he becomes hardened. Property is a\nbridge on which our passions cross from one part of our life to another.\nThe Germans have an ironical proverb: \"The man who has stolen a hundred\nthousand dollars _can afford_ to live honestly.\" The emphasis of the\nirony falls on the words in italics: he can afford, but never does. His\nproperty hardens his heart, and keeps him from repentance.\n\nBut the instinct of humanity has also been quick to this: that the curse\nof ill-gotten wealth passes like bad blood from father to child. What is\nthe truth in this matter? A glance at history will tell us. The\naccumulation of property is the result of certain customs, habits and\nlaws. In its own powerful interest property perpetuates these down the\nages, and infects the fresh air of each new generation with their\ntemper. How often in the history of mankind has it been property gained\nunder unjust laws or cruel monopolies which has prevented the abolition\nof these, and carried into gentler, freer times the pride and\nexclusiveness of the age, by whose rude habits it was gathered. This\nmoral transference, which we see on so large a scale in public history,\nis repeated to some extent in every private bequest. A curse does not\nnecessarily follow an estate from the sinful producer of it to his heir;\nbut the latter is, _by the bequest itself_ generally brought into so\nclose a contact with his predecessor as to share his conscience and be\nin sympathy with his temper. And the case is common where an heir,\nthough absolutely up to the date of his succession separate from him who\nmade and has left the property, nevertheless finds himself unable to\nalter the methods, or to escape the temper, in which the property has\nbeen managed. In nine cases out of ten property carries conscience and\ntransfers habit; if the guilt does not descend, the infection does.\n\nWhen we pass from the effect of sin upon property to its effect upon\ncircumstance, we pass to what we can affirm with even greater\nconscience. Man has the power of permanently soaking and staining his\nsurroundings with the effect of sins in themselves momentary and\ntransient. Sin increases terribly by the mental law of association. It\nis not the gin-shop and the face of wanton beauty that alone tempt men\nto sin. Far more subtle seductions are about every one of us. That we\nhave the power of inflicting our character upon the scenes of our\nconduct is proved by some of the dreariest experiences of life. A\nfailure in duty renders the place of it distasteful and enervating. Are\nwe irritable and selfish at home? Then home is certain to be depressing,\nand little helpful to our spiritual growth. Are we selfish and niggardly\nin the interest we take in others? Then the congregation we go to, the\nsuburb we dwell in, will appear insipid and unprofitable; we shall be\npast the possibility of gaining character or happiness from the ground\nwhere God planted us and meant us to grow. Students have been idle in\ntheir studies till every time they enter them a reflex languor comes\ndown like stale smoke, and the room they desecrated takes its revenge on\nthem. We have it in our power to make our workshops, our laboratories\nand our studies places of magnificent inspiration, to enter which is to\nreceive a baptism of industry and hope; and we have power to make it\nimpossible ever to work in them again at full pitch. The pulpit, the\npew, the very communion-table, come under this law. If a minister of God\nhave made up his mind to say nothing from his accustomed place, which\nhas not cost him toil, to feel nothing but a dependence on God and a\ndesire for souls, then he will never set foot there but the power of the\nLord shall be upon him. But there are men who would rather set foot\nanywhere than in their pulpit--men who out of it are full of fellowship,\ninformation, and infective health, but there they are paralysed with the\ncurse of their idle past. How history shows us that the most sacred\nshelters and institutions of man become tainted with sin, and are\ndestroyed in revolution or abandoned to decay by the intolerant\nconscience of younger generations! How the hidden life of each man feels\nhis past sins possessing his home and hearth, his pew, and even his\nplace at the Sacrament, till it is sometimes better for his soul's\nhealth to avoid these!\n\nSuch considerations give a great moral force to the doctrine of the Old\nTestament that man's sin has rendered necessary the destruction of his\nmaterial circumstances, and that the Divine judgement includes a broken\nand a rifled universe.\n\nThe New Testament has borrowed this vision from the Old, but added, as\nwe have seen, with greater distinctness, the hope of new heavens and a\nnew earth. We have not concluded the subject, however, when we have\npointed this out, for the New Testament has another gospel. The grace of\nGod affects even the material results of sin; the Divine pardon that\nconverts the sinner converts his circumstance also; Christ Jesus\nsanctifies even the flesh, and is the Physician of the body as well as\nthe Saviour of the soul. To Him physical evil abounds only that He may\nshow forth His glory in curing it. _Neither did this man sin nor his\nparents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him._ To\nPaul the _whole creation groaneth and travaileth with_ the sinner _till\nnow_, the hour of the sinner's redemption. The Gospel bestows an\nevangelic liberty which permits the strong Christian to partake of meats\noffered to idols. And, finally, _all things work together for good to\nthem that love God_, for although to the converted and forgiven sinner\nthe material pains which his sins have brought on him may continue into\nhis new life, they are experienced by him no more as the just penalties\nof an angry God, but as the loving, sanctifying chastisements of his\nFather in heaven.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\n_GOD'S POOR._\n\nISAIAH xxv.-xxvii. (DATE UNCERTAIN).\n\n\nWe have seen that no more than the faintest gleam of historical\nreflection brightens the obscurity of chap. xxiv., and that the disaster\nwhich lowers there is upon too world-wide a scale to be forced within\nthe conditions of any single period in the fortunes of Israel. In chaps.\nxxv.-xxvii., which may naturally be held to be a continuation of chap.\nxxiv., the historical allusions are more numerous. Indeed, it might be\nsaid they are too numerous, for they contradict one another to the\nperplexity of the most acute critics. They imply historical\ncircumstances for the prophecy both before and after the exile. On the\none hand, the blame of idolatry in Judah (xxvii. 9), the mention of\nAssyria and Egypt (xxvii. 12, 13), and the absence of the name of\nBabylon are indicative of a pre-exilic date.[81] Arguments from style\nare always precarious; but it is striking that some critics, who deny\nthat chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. can have come as a whole from Isaiah's time,\nprofess to see his hand in certain passages.[82] Then, secondly, through\nthese verses which point to a pre-exilic date there are woven, almost\ninextricably, phrases of actual exile: expressions of the sense of\nliving on a level and in contact with the heathen (xxvi. 9, 10); a\nrequest to God's people to withdraw from the midst of a heathen public\nto the privacy of their chambers (20, 21); prayers and promises of\ndeliverance from the oppressor (_passim_); hopes of the establishment of\nZion, and of the repopulation of the Holy Land. And, thirdly, some\nverses imply that the speaker has already returned to Zion itself: he\nsays more than once, _in this mountain_; there are hymns celebrating a\ndeliverance actually achieved, as--God _has done a marvel. For Thou hast\nmade a citadel into a heap, a fortified city into a ruin, a castle of\nstrangers to be no city, not to be built again._ Such phrases do not\nread as if the prophet were creating for the lips of his people a psalm\nof triumph against a far future deliverance; they have in them the ring\nof what has already happened.\n\n  [81] The mention of Moab (xxv. 10, 11) is also consistent with a\n  pre-exilic date, but does not necessarily imply it.\n\n  [82] _E.g._, xxv. 6-8, 10, 11; xxvii. 10, 11, 9, 12, 13.\n\nThis bare statement of the allusions of the prophecy will give the\nordinary reader some idea of the difficulties of Biblical criticism.\nWhat is to be made of a prophecy uttering the catch-words and breathing\nthe experience of three distinct periods? One solution of the difficulty\nmay be that we have here the composition of a Jew already returned from\nexile to a desecrated sanctuary and depopulated land, who has woven\nthrough his original utterances of complaint and hope the experience of\nearlier oppressions and deliverances, using even the names of earlier\ntyrants. In his immediate past a great city that oppressed the Jews has\nfallen, though, if this is Babylon, it is strange that he nowhere names\nit. But his intention is rather religious than historical; he seeks to\ngive a general representation of the attitude of the world to the\npeople of God, and of the judgement which God brings on the world. This\nview of the composition is supported by either of two possible\ninterpretations of that difficult verse xxvii. 1: _In that day Jehovah\nwith His sword, the hard and the great and the strong, shall perform\nvisitation upon Leviathan, Serpent Elusive, and upon Leviathan, Serpent\nTortuous; and He shall slay the Dragon that is in the sea._ Cheyne\ntreats these monsters as mythic personifications of the clouds, the\ndarkness and the powers of the air, so that the verse means that, just\nas Jehovah is supreme in the physical world, He shall be in the moral.\nBut it is more probable that the two Leviathans mean Assyria and\nBabylon--the _Elusive_ one, Assyria on the swift-shooting Tigris; the\n_Tortuous_ one, Babylon on the winding Euphrates--while _the Dragon that\nis in the sea_ or _the west_ is Egypt. But if the prophet speaks of a\nvictory over Israel's three great enemies all at once, that means that\nhe is talking universally or ideally; and this impression is further\nheightened by the mythic names he gives them. Such arguments, along with\nthe undoubted post-exilic fragments in the prophecy, point to a late\ndate, so that even a very conservative critic, who is satisfied that\nIsaiah is the author, admits that \"the _possibility_ of exilic\nauthorship does not allow itself to be denied.\"\n\nIf this character which we attribute to the prophecy be correct--viz.,\nthat it is a summary or ideal account of the attitude of the alien world\nto Israel, and of the judgement God has ready for the world--then,\nthough itself be exilic, its place in the Book of Isaiah is\nintelligible. Chaps. xxiv.-xxvii. fitly crown the long list of Isaiah's\noracles upon the foreign nations; they finally formulate the purposes\nof God towards the nations and towards Israel, whom the nations have\noppressed. Our opinions must not be final or dogmatic about this matter\nof authorship; the obscurities are not nearly cleared up. But if it be\nultimately found certain that this prophecy, which lies in the heart of\nthe Book of Isaiah, is not by Isaiah himself, that need neither startle\nnor unsettle us. No doctrinal question is stirred by such a discovery,\nnot even that of the accuracy of the Scriptures. For that a book is\nentitled by Isaiah's name does not necessarily mean that it is all by\nIsaiah; and we shall feel still less compelled to believe that these\nchapters are his when we find other chapters called by his name while\nthese are not said to be by him. In truth there is a difficulty here,\nonly because it is supposed that a book entitled by Isaiah's name must\nnecessarily contain nothing but what is Isaiah's own. Tradition may have\ncome to say so; but the Scripture itself, bearing as it does\nunmistakable marks of another age than Isaiah's, tells us that tradition\nis wrong: and the testimony of Scripture is surely to be preferred,\nespecially when it betrays, as we have seen, sufficient reasons why a\nprophecy, though not Isaiah's, was attached to his genuine and undoubted\noracles. In any case, however, as even the conservative critic whom we\nhave quoted admits, \"for the religious value\" of the prophecy \"the\nquestion\" of the authorship \"is thoroughly irrelevant.\"\n\nWe shall perceive this at once as we now turn to see what is the\nreligious value of our prophecy. Chaps. xxv.-xxvii. stand in the front\nrank of evangelical prophecy. In their experience of religion, their\ncharacterisations of God's people, their expressions of faith, their\nmissionary hopes and hopes of immortality, they are very rich and\nedifying. Perhaps their most signal feature is their designation of the\npeople of God. In this collection of prayers and hymns the people of God\nare not regarded as a political body. They are only once called the\n_nation_ and spoken of in connection with a territory (xxvi. 15). Only\ntwice are they named with the national names of Israel and Jacob (xxvii.\n6, 9, 12). We miss Isaiah's promised king, his pictures of righteous\ngovernment, his emphasis upon social justice and purity, his interest in\nthe foreign politics of his State, his hopes of national grandeur and\nagricultural felicity. In these chapters God's people are described by\nadjectives signifying spiritual qualities. Their nationality is no more\npleaded, only their suffering estate and their hunger and thirst after\nGod. The ideals that are presented for the future are neither political\nnor social, but ecclesiastical. We saw how closely Isaiah's prophesying\nwas connected with the history of his time. The people of this prophecy\nseem to have done with history, and to be interested only in worship.\nAnd along with the assurance of the continued establishment of Zion as\nthe centre for a secure and holy people, filling a secure and fertile\nland,--with which, as we have seen, the undoubted visions of Isaiah\ncontent themselves, while silent as to the fate of the individuals who\ndrop from this future through death,--we have the most abrupt and\nthrilling hopes expressed for the resurrection of these latter to share\nin the glory of the redeemed and restored community.\n\nAmong the names applied to God's people there are three which were\ndestined to play an enormous part in the history of religion. In the\nEnglish version these appear as two: _poor and needy_; but in the\noriginal they are three. In chap. xxv. 4: _Thou hast been a stronghold\nto the poor and a stronghold to the needy, poor_ renders a Hebrew word,\n\"d[=a]l,\" literally _wavering_, _tottering_, _infirm_, then _slender_ or\n_lean_, then _poor_ in fortune and estate; _needy_ literally renders the\nHebrew \"'ebhy\u00f4n,\" Latin _egenus_. In chap. xxvi. 6: _the foot of the\npoor and the steps of the needy, needy_ renders \"d[=a]l,\" while _poor_\nrenders \"'[=a]n\u00ee,\" a passive form--_forced_, _afflicted_, _oppressed_,\nthen _wretched_, whether under persecution, poverty, loneliness or\nexile, and so _tamed_, _mild_, _meek_. These three words, in their root\nideas of _infirmity_, _need_ and positive _affliction_, cover among them\nevery aspect of physical poverty and distress. Let us see how they came\nalso to be the expression of the highest moral and evangelical virtues.\n\nIf there is one thing which distinguishes the people of the revelation\nfrom other historical nations, it is the evidence afforded by their\ndictionaries of the power to transmute the most afflicting experiences\nof life into virtuous disposition and effectual desire for God. We see\nthis most clearly if we contrast the Hebrews' use of their words for\n_poor_ with that of the first language which was employed to translate\nthese words--the Greek in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament.\nIn the Greek temper there was a noble pity for the unfortunate; the\nearliest Greeks regarded beggars as the peculiar proteg\u00e9s of Heaven.\nGreek philosophy developed a capacity for enriching the soul in\nmisfortune; Stoicism gave imperishable proof of how bravely a man could\nhold poverty and pain to be things indifferent, and how much gain from\nsuch indifference he could bring to his soul. But in the vulgar opinion\nof Greece penury and sickness were always disgraceful; and Greek\ndictionaries mark the degradation of terms, which at first merely noted\nphysical disadvantage, into epithets of contempt or hopelessness. It is\nvery striking that it was not till they were employed to translate the\nOld Testament ideas of poverty that the Greek words for \"poor\" and\n\"lowly\" came to bear an honourable significance. And in the case of the\nStoic, who endured poverty or pain with such indifference, was it not\njust this indifference that prevented him from discovering in his\ntribulations the rich evangelical experience which, as we shall see,\nfell to the quick conscience and sensitive nerves of the Hebrew?\n\nLet us see how this conscience was developed. In the East poverty\nscarcely ever means physical disadvantage alone: in its train there\nfollow higher disabilities. A poor Eastern cannot be certain of fair\nplay in the courts of the land. He is very often a wronged man, with a\nfire of righteous anger burning in his breast. Again, and more\nimportant, misfortune is to the quick religious instinct of the Oriental\na sign of God's estrangement. With us misfortune is so often only the\ncruelty, sometimes real sometimes imagined, of the rich; the unemployed\nvents his wrath at the capitalist, the tramp shakes his fist after the\ncarriage on the highway. In the East they do not forget to curse the\nrich, but they remember as well to humble themselves beneath the hand of\nGod. With an unfortunate Oriental the conviction is supreme, God is\nangry with me; I have lost His favour. His soul eagerly longs for God.\n\nA poor man in the East has, therefore, not only a hunger for food: he\nhas the hotter hunger for justice, the deeper hunger for God. Poverty in\nitself, without extraneous teaching, develops nobler appetites. The\nphysical, becomes the moral, pauper; poor in substance, he grows poor in\nspirit. It was by developing, with the aid of God's Spirit, this quick\nconscience and this deep desire for God, which in the East are the very\nsoul of physical poverty, that the Jews advanced to that sense of\nevangelical poverty of heart, blessed by Jesus in the first of His\nBeatitudes as the possession of the kingdom of heaven.\n\nTill the Exile, however, the poor were only a portion of the people. In\nthe Exile the whole nation became poor, and henceforth \"God's poor\"\nmight become synonymous with \"God's people.\" This was the time when the\nwords received their spiritual baptism. Israel felt the physical curse\nof poverty to its extreme of famine. The pains, privations and terrors,\nwhich the glib tongues of our comfortable middle classes, as they sing\nthe psalms of Israel, roll off so easily for symbols of their own\nspiritual experience, were felt by the captive Hebrews in all their\nconcrete physical effects. The noble and the saintly, the gentle and the\ncultured, priest, soldier and citizen, woman, youth and child, were torn\nfrom home and estate, were deprived of civil standing, were imprisoned,\nfettered, flogged and starved to death. We learn something of what it\nmust have been from the words which Jeremiah addressed to Baruch, a\nyouth of good family and fine culture: _Seekest thou great things for\nthyself? Seek them not, for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh,\nsaith the LORD; only thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all\nplaces whither thou goest._ Imagine a whole nation plunged into poverty\nof this degree--not born into it having known no better things, nor\nstunted into it with sensibility and the power of expression sapped out\nof them, but plunged into it, with the unimpaired culture, conscience\nand memories of the flower of the people. When God's own hand sent\nfresh from Himself a poet's soul into \"the clay biggin'\" of an Ayrshire\nploughman, what a revelation we received of the distress, the discipline\nand the graces of poverty! But in the Jewish nation as it passed into\nexile there were a score of hearts with as unimpaired an appetite for\nlife as Robert Burns; and, worse than he, they went to feel its pangs\naway from home. Genius, conscience and pride drank to the dregs in a\nforeign land the bitter cup of the poor. The Psalms and Lamentations\nshow us how they bore their poison. A Greek Stoic might sneer at the\ncomplaint and sobbing, the self-abasement so strangely mixed with fierce\ncries for vengeance. But the Jew had within him the conscience that will\nnot allow a man to be a Stoic. He never forgot that it was for his sin\nhe suffered, and therefore to him suffering could not be a thing\nindifferent. With this, his native hunger for justice reached in\ncaptivity a famine pitch; his sense of guilt was equalled by as sincere\nan indignation at the tyrant who held him in his brutal grasp. The\nfeeling of estrangement from God increased to a degree that only the\nexile of a Jew could excite: the longing for God's house and the worship\nlawful only there; the longing for the relief which only the sacrifices\nof the Temple could bestow; the longing for God's own presence and the\nlight of His face. _My soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth after\nThee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is, as I have looked\nupon Thee in the sanctuary, to see Thy power and Thy glory. For Thy\nlovingkindness is better than life!_\n\n_Thy lovingkindness is better than life!_--is the secret of it all.\nThere is that which excites a deeper hunger in the soul than the hunger\nfor life, and for the food and money that give life. This spiritual\npoverty is most richly bred in physical penury, it is strong enough to\ndisplace what feeds it. The physical poverty of Israel which had\nawakened these other hungers of the soul--hunger for forgiveness, hunger\nfor justice, hunger for God--was absorbed by them; and when Israel came\nout of exile, _to be poor_ meant, not so much to be indigent in this\nworld's substance as to feel the need of pardon, the absence of\nrighteousness, the want of God.\n\nIt is at this time, as we have seen, that Isa. xxiv.-xxvii. was written;\nand it is in the temper of this time that the three Hebrew words for\n\"poor\" and \"needy\" are used in chaps. xxv. and xxvi. The returned exiles\nwere still politically dependent and abjectly poor. Their discipline\ntherefore continued, and did not allow them to forget their new lessons.\nIn fact, they developed the results of these further, till in this\nprophecy we find no fewer than five different aspects of spiritual\npoverty.\n\n1. We have already seen how strong the sense of sin is in chap. xxiv.\nThis POVERTY of PEACE is not so fully expressed in the following\nchapters, and indeed seems crowded out by the sense of the _iniquity of\nthe inhabitants of the earth_ and the desire for their judgement (xxvi.\n21).\n\n2. The feeling of the POVERTY of JUSTICE is very strong in this\nprophecy. But it is to be satisfied; in part it has been satisfied (xxv.\n1-4). _A strong city_, probably Babylon, has fallen. _Moab shall be\ntrodden down in his place, even as straw is trodden down in the water of\nthe dunghill._ The complete judgement is to come when the Lord shall\ndestroy the two _Leviathans_ and the great _Dragon of the west_ (xxvii.\n1). It is followed by the restoration of Israel to the state in which\nIsaiah (chap. v. 1) sang so sweetly of her. _A pleasant vineyard, sing\nye of her. I, Jehovah, her Keeper, moment by moment do I water her;\nlest any make a raid upon her, night and day will I keep her._ The\nHebrew text then reads, _Fury is not in Me_; but probably the Septuagint\nversion has preserved the original meaning: _I have no walls_. If this\nbe correct, then Jehovah is describing the present state of Jerusalem,\nthe fulfilment of Isaiah's threat, chap. v. 6: _Walls I have not; let\nthere but be briers and thorns before me! With war will I stride against\nthem; I will burn them together._ But then there breaks the softer\nalternative of the reconciliation of Judah's enemies: _Or else let him\nseize hold of My strength; let him make peace with Me--peace let him\nmake with Me_. In such a peace Israel shall spread, and his fulness\nbecome the riches of the Gentiles. _In that by-and-bye Jacob shall take\nroot, Israel blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with\nfruit._\n\nPerhaps the wildest cries that rose from Israel's famine of justice were\nthose which found expression in chap. xxxiv. This chapter is so largely\na repetition of feelings we have already met with elsewhere in the Book\nof Isaiah, that it is necessary now only to mention its original\nfeatures. The subject is, as in chap. xiii., the Lord's judgement upon\nall the nations; and as chap. xiii. singled out Babylon for special\ndoom, so chap. xxxiv. singles out Edom. The reason of this distinction\nwill be very plain to the reader of the Old Testament. From the day the\ntwins struggled in their mother Rebekah's womb, Israel and Edom were\neither at open war or burned towards each other with a hate, which was\nthe more intense for wanting opportunities of gratification. It is an\nEastern edition of the worst chapters in the history of England and\nIreland. No bloodier massacres stained Jewish hands than those which\nattended their invasions of Edom, and Jewish psalms of vengeance are\nnever more flagrant than when they touch the name of the children of\nEsau. The only gentle utterance of the Old Testament upon Israel's\nhereditary foe is a comfortless enigma. Isaiah's _Oracle for Dumah_\n(xxii. 11 f.), shows that even that large-hearted prophet, in face of\nhis people's age-long resentment at Edom's total want of appreciation of\nIsrael's spiritual superiority, could offer Edom, though for the moment\nsubmissive and inquiring, nothing but a sad, ambiguous answer. Edom and\nIsrael, each after his fashion, exulted in the other's misfortunes:\nIsrael by bitter satire when Edom's impregnable mountain-range was\ntreacherously seized and overrun by his allies (Obadiah 4-9); Edom, with\nthe harassing, pillaging habits of a highland tribe, hanging on to the\nskirts of Judah's great enemies, and cutting off Jewish fugitives, or\nselling them into slavery, or malignantly completing the ruin of\nJerusalem's walls after her overthrow by the Chaldeans (Obadiah 10-14;\nEzek. xxxv. 10-15; Ps. cxxxi. 7). In _the quarrel of Zion_ with the\nnations of the world Edom had taken the wrong side,--his profane, earthy\nnature incapable of understanding his brother's spiritual claims, and\ntherefore envious of him, with the brutal malice of ignorance, and\nspitefully glad to assist in disappointing such claims. This is what we\nmust remember when we read the indignant verses of chap. xxxiv. Israel,\nconscious of his spiritual calling in the world, felt bitter resentment\nthat his own brother should be so vulgarly hostile to his attempts to\ncarry it out. It is not our wish to defend the temper of Israel towards\nEdom. The silence of Christ before the Edomite Herod and his men of war\nhas taught the spiritual servants of God what is their proper attitude\ntowards the malignant and obscene treatment of their claims by vulgar\nmen. But at least let us remember that chap. xxxiv., for all its\nfierceness, is inspired by Israel's conviction of a spiritual destiny\nand service for God, and by the natural resentment that his own kith and\nkin should be doing their best to render these futile. That a famine of\nbread makes its victims delirious does not tempt us to doubt the\ngenuineness of their need and suffering. As little ought we to doubt or\nto ignore the reality or the purity of those spiritual convictions, the\nprolonged starvation of which bred in Israel such feverish hate against\nhis twin-brother Esau. Chap. xxxiv., with all its proud prophecy of\njudgement, is, therefore, also a symptom of that aspect of Israel's\npoverty of heart, which we have called a hunger for the Divine justice.\n\n3. POVERTY OF THE EXILE. But as fair flowers bloom upon rough stalks, so\nfrom Israel's stern challenges of justice there break sweet prayers for\nhome. Chap. xxxiv., the effusion of vengeance on Edom, is followed by\nchap. xxxv., the going forth of hope to the return from exile and the\nestablishment of the ransomed of the Lord in Zion.[83] Chap. xxxv. opens\nwith a prospect beyond the return, but after the first two verses\naddresses itself to the people still in a foreign captivity, speaking of\ntheir salvation (vv. 3, 4), of the miracles that will take place in\nthemselves (vv. 5, 6) and in the desert between them and their home (vv.\n6, 7), of the highway which God shall build, evident and secure (vv. 8,\n9), and of the final arrival in Zion (ver. 10). In that march the usual\ndisappointments and illusions of desert life shall disappear. _The\nmirage shall become a pool_; and the clump of vegetation which afar off\nthe hasty traveller hails for a sign of water, but which on his approach\nhe discovers to be the withered grass of a _jackal's lair_, shall indeed\nbe _reeds and rushes_, standing green in fresh water. Out of this\nexuberant fertility there emerges in the prophet's thoughts a great\nhighway, on which the poetry of the chapter gathers and reaches its\nclimax. Have we of this nineteenth century, with our more rapid means of\npassage, not forgotten the poetry of the road? Are we able to appreciate\neither the intrinsic usefulness or the gracious symbolism of the king's\nhighway? How can we know it as the Bible-writers or our forefathers knew\nit when they made the road the main line of their allegories and\nparables of life? Let us listen to these verses as they strike the three\ngreat notes in the music of the road: _And an highway shall be there,\nand a way; yea, The Way of Holiness shall it be called, for the unclean\nshall not pass over it_--that is what is to distinguish this road from\nall other roads. But here is what it is as being a road. First, it shall\nbe unmistakably plain: _The wayfaring man, yea fools, shall not err\ntherein_. Second, it shall be perfectly secure: _No lion shall be there,\nnor shall any ravenous beast go up thereon; they shall not be met with\nthere_. Third, it shall bring to a safe arrival and ensure a complete\novertaking: _And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come with\nsinging unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they\nshall overtake gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee\naway_.\n\n  [83] Even at the risk of incurring Canon Cheyne's charge of\n  \"ineradicable error,\" I feel I must keep to the older view of chap.\n  xxxv. which makes it refer to the return from exile. No doubt the\n  chapter covers more than the mere return, and includes \"the glorious\n  condition of Israel after the return;\" but vv. 4 and 10 are undoubtedly\n  addressed to Jews still in exile and undelivered.\n\n4. So Israel was to come home. But to Israel home meant the Temple, and\nthe Temple meant God. The poverty of the Exile was, in the essence of\nit, POVERTY OF GOD, POVERTY OF LOVE. The prayers which express this are\nvery beautiful,--that trail like wounded animals to the feet of their\nmaster, and look up in His face with large eyes of pain. _And they shall\nsay in that day, Lo, this is our God: we have waited for Him, that He\nshould save us; this is the LORD: we have waited for Him; we will\nrejoice and be glad in His salvation.... Yea, in the way of Thy\nordinances, O LORD, have we waited for Thee; to Thy name and to Thy\nMemorial was the desire of our soul. With my soul have I desired Thee in\nthe night; yea, by my spirit within me do I seek Thee with dawn_ (chaps.\nxxv. 9; xxvi. 8).\n\nAn Arctic explorer was once asked, whether during eight months of slow\nstarvation which he and his comrades endured they suffered much from the\npangs of hunger. No, he answered, we lost them in the sense of\nabandonment, in the feeling that our countrymen had forgotten us and\nwere not coming to the rescue. It was not till we were rescued and\nlooked in human faces that we felt how hungry we were. So is it ever\nwith God's poor. They forget all other need, as Israel did, in their\nneed of God. Their outward poverty is only the weeds of their heart's\nwidowhood. _But Jehovah of hosts shall make to all the peoples in this\nmountain a banquet of fat things, a banquet of wines on the lees, fat\nthings bemarrowed, wines on the lees refined._\n\nWe need only note here--for it will come up for detailed treatment in\nconnection with the second half of Isaiah--that the centre of Israel's\nrestored life is to be the Temple, not, as in Isaiah's day, the king;\nthat her dispersed are to gather from all parts of the world at the\nsound of the Temple _trumpet_; and that her national life is to consist\nin worship (cf. xxvii. 13).\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThese then were four aspects of Israel's poverty of heart: a hunger for\npardon, a hunger for justice, a hunger for home, and a hunger for God.\nFor the returning Jews these wants were satisfied only to reveal a\ndeeper poverty still, the complaint and comfort of which we must reserve\nto another chapter.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\n_THE RESURRECTION._\n\nISAIAH xxvi. 14-19; xxv. 6-9.\n\n\nGranted the pardon, the justice, the Temple and the God, which the\nreturning exiles now enjoyed, the possession of these only makes more\npainful the shortness of life itself. This life is too shallow and too\nfrail a vessel to hold peace and righteousness and worship and the love\nof God. St. Paul has said, _If in this life only we have hope in Christ,\nwe are of all men most miserable_. What avails it to have been pardoned,\nto have regained the Holy Land and the face of God, if the dear dead are\nleft behind in graves of exile, and all the living must soon pass into\nthat captivity,[84] from which there is no return?\n\n  [84] Hezekiah's expression for death, xxxviii. 12.\n\nIt must have been thoughts like these, which led to the expression of\none of the most abrupt and powerful of the few hopes of the resurrection\nwhich the Old Testament contains. This hope, which lightens chap. xxv.\n7, 8, bursts through again--without logical connection with the\ncontext--in vv. 14-19 of chap. xxvi.\n\nThe English version makes ver. 14 to continue the reference to the\nlords, whom in ver. 13 Israel confesses to have served instead of\nJehovah. \"They are _dead; they shall not live_: they are _deceased; they\nshall not rise_.\" Our translators have thus intruded into their version\nthe verb \"they are,\" of which the original is without a trace. In the\noriginal, _dead_ and _deceased_ (literally _shades_) are themselves the\nsubject of the sentence--a new subject and without logical connection\nwith what has gone before. The literal translation of ver. 14 therefore\nruns: _Dead men do not live; shades do not rise: wherefore Thou visitest\nthem and destroyest them, and perisheth all memory of them_. The prophet\nstates a fact, and draws an inference. The fact is, that no one has ever\nreturned from the dead; the inference, that it is God's own _visitation_\nor _sentence_ which has gone forth upon them, and they have really\nceased to exist. But how intolerable a thought is this in presence of\nthe other fact that God has here on earth above gloriously enlarged and\nestablished His people (ver. 15). _Thou hast increased the nation,\nJehovah; Thou hast increased the nation. Thou hast covered Thyself with\nglory; Thou hast expanded all the boundaries of the land._ To this\nfollows a verse (16), the sense of which is obscure, but palpable. It\n\"feels\" to mean that the contrast which the prophet has just painted\nbetween the absolute perishing of the dead and the glory of the Church\nabove ground is the cause of great despair and groaning: _O Jehovah, in\nThe Trouble they supplicate Thee; they pour out incantations when Thy\ndiscipline is upon them_.[85] In face of _The_ Trouble and _The_\nDiscipline _par excellence_ of God, what else can man do but betake\nhimself to God? God sent death; in death He is the only resource.\nIsrael's feelings in presence of The Trouble are now expressed in ver.\n17: _Like as a woman with child that draweth near the time of her\ndelivery writheth and crieth out in her pangs, so have we been before\nThee, O Jehovah_. Thy Church on earth is pregnant with a life, which\ndeath does not allow to come to the birth. _We have been with child; we\nhave been in the pangs, as it were; we have brought forth wind; we make\nnot the earth_, in spite of all we have really accomplished upon it in\nour return, our restoration and our enjoyment of Thy presence--_we make\nnot the earth salvation, neither are the inhabitants of the world\nborn_.[86]\n\n  [85] I think this must be the meaning of ver. 16, if we are to allow\n  that it has any sympathy with vv. 14 and 15. Bredenkamp suggests that\n  the persons meant are themselves the dead. Jehovah has glorified the\n  Church on earth; but the dead below are still in trouble, and _pour out\n  prayers_ (Virgil's \"preces fundunt,\" _\u00c6neid_, vi., 55), beneath this\n  punishment which God causes to pass on all men (ver. 14). Bredenkamp\n  bases this exegesis chiefly on the word for \"prayer,\" which means\n  _chirping_ or _whispering_, a kind of voice imputed to the shades by the\n  Hebrews and other ancient peoples. But while this word does originally\n  mean _whispering_, it is never in Scripture applied to the dead, but, on\n  the other hand, is a frequent name for _divining_ or _incantation_. I\n  therefore have felt compelled to understand it as used in this passage\n  of the living, whose only resource in face of death--_Goa's discipline\n  par excellence_--is to pour out incantations. If it be objected that the\n  prophet would scarcely parallel the ordinary incantations on behalf of\n  the dead with supplications to Jehovah, the answer is that he is talking\n  poetically or popularly.\n\n  [86] English version, _fallen; i.e._, like our expression for the birth\n  of animals, _dropped_.\n\nThe figures are bold. Israel achieves, through God's grace, everything\nbut the recovery of her dead; this, which alone is worth calling\n_salvation_, remains wanting to her great record of deliverances. The\nliving Israel is restored, but how meagre a proportion of the people it\nis! The graves of home and of exile do not give up their dead. These are\nnot born again to be inhabitants of the upper world.\n\nThe figures are bold, but bolder is the hope that breaks from them. Like\nas when the Trumpet shall sound, ver. 19 peals forth the promise of the\nresurrection--peals the promise forth, in spite of all experience,\nunsupported by any argument, and upon the strength of its own inherent\nmusic. _Thy dead shall live! my dead bodies shall arise!_ The change of\nthe personal pronoun is singularly dramatic. Returned Israel is the\nspeaker, first speaking to herself: _thy dead_, as if upon the\ndepopulated land, in face of all its homes in ruin, and only the\nsepulchres of ages standing grim and steadfast, she addressed some\ndespairing double of herself; and secondly speaking _of_ herself: _my\ndead bodies_, as if all the inhabitants of these tombs, though dead,\nwere still her own, still part of her, the living Israel, and able to\narise and bless with their numbers their bereaved mother. These she now\naddresses: _Awake and sing, ye dwellers in the dust, for a dew of lights\nis Thy dew, and the land bringeth forth the dead_.[87]\n\n  [87] Technical Hebrew word for the inhabitants of the underworld--_the\n  shades_.\n\nIf one has seen a place of graves in the East, he will appreciate the\nelements of this figure, which takes _dust_ for death and _dew_ for\nlife. With our damp graveyards mould has become the traditional\ntrappings of death; but where under the hot Eastern sun things do not\nrot into lower forms of life, but crumble into sapless powder, that will\nnot keep a worm in life, _dust_ is the natural symbol of death. When\nthey die, men go not to feed fat the mould, but _down into the dust_;\nand there the foot of the living falls silent, and his voice is choked,\nand the light is thickened and in retreat, as if it were creeping away\nto die. The only creatures the visitor starts are timid, unclean bats,\nthat flutter and whisper about him like the ghosts of the dead. There\nare no flowers in an Eastern cemetery; and the withered branches and\nother ornaments are thickly powdered with the same dust that chokes, and\nsilences and darkens all.\n\nHence the Semitic conception of the underworld was dominated by dust. It\nwas not water nor fire nor frost nor altogether darkness, which made the\ninfernal prison horrible, but that upon its floor and rafters, hewn from\nthe roots and ribs of the primeval mountains, dust lay deep and choking.\nAmid all the horrors he imagined for the dead, Dante did not include one\nmore awful than the horror of dust. The picture which the northern\nSemites had before them when they turned their faces to the wall was of\nthis kind.[88]\n\n  [88] Extracted from the Assyrian _Descent of Istar to Hades_ (Dr.\n  Jeremias' German translation, p. 11, and _Records of the Past_, i.,\n  145).\n\n  The house of darkness....\n  The house men enter, but cannot depart from.\n  The road men go, but cannot return.\n  The house from whose dwellers the light is withdrawn.\n  The place where dust is their food, their nourishment clay.\n  The light they behold not; in darkness they dwell.\n  They are clothed like birds, all fluttering wings.\n  On the door and the gateposts, the dust lieth deep.\n\nEither, then, an Eastern sepulchre, or this its infernal double, was\ngaping before the prophet's eyes. What more final and hopeless than the\ndust and the dark of it?\n\nBut for dust there is dew, and even to graveyards the morning comes that\nbrings dew and light together. The wonder of dew is that it is given\nfrom a clear heaven, and that it comes to sight with the dawn. If the\nOriental looks up when dew is falling, he sees nothing to thank for it\nbetween him and the stars. If he sees dew in the morning, it is equal\nliquid and lustre; it seems to distil from the beams of the sun--_the\nsun, which riseth with healing under his wings_. The dew is thus doubly\n\"dew of light.\" But our prophet ascribes the dew of God, that is to\nraise the dead, neither to stars nor dawn, but, because of its Divine\npower, to that higher supernal glory which the Hebrews conceived to have\nexisted before the sun, and which they styled, as they styled their God,\nby the plural of majesty: _A dew of lights is Thy dew_.[89] As, when the\ndawn comes, the drooping flowers of yesterday are seen erect and\nlustrous with the dew, every spike a crown of glory, so also shall be\nthe resurrection of the dead. There is no shadow of a reason for\nlimiting this promise to that to which some other passages of\nresurrection in the Old Testament have to be limited: a corporate\nrestoration of the holy State or Church. This is the resurrection of its\nindividual members to a community which is already restored, the\nrecovery by Israel of her dead men and women from their separate graves,\neach with his own freshness and beauty, in that glorious morning when\nthe Sun of righteousness shall arise, with healing under His wings--_Thy\ndew_, O Jehovah!\n\n  [89] Cf. James i. 17.\n\nAttempts are so often made to trace the hopes of resurrection, which\nbreak the prevailing silence of the Old Testament on a future life, to\nforeign influences experienced in the Exile, that it is well to\nemphasize the origin and occasion of the hopes that utter themselves so\nabruptly in this passage. Surely nothing could be more inextricably\nwoven with the national fortunes of Israel, as nothing could be more\nnative and original to Israel's temper, than the verses just expounded.\nWe need not deny that their residence among a people, accustomed as the\nBabylonians were to belief in the resurrection, may have thawed in the\nJews that reserve which the Old Testament clearly shows that they\nexhibited towards a future life. The Babylonians themselves had received\nmost of their suggestions of the next world from a non-Semitic race; and\ntherefore it would not be to imagine anything alien to the ascertained\nmethods of Providence if we were to suppose that the Hebrews, who showed\nwhat we have already called the Semitic want of interest in a future\nlife, were intellectually tempered by their foreign associations to a\nreadiness to receive any suggestions of immortality, which the Spirit of\nGod might offer them through their own religious experience. That it was\nthis last, which was the effective cause of Israel's hopes for the\nresurrection of her dead, our passage puts beyond doubt. Chap. xxvi.\nshows us that the occasion of these hopes was what is not often noticed:\nthe returned exiles' disappointment with the meagre repopulation of the\nholy territory. A restoration of the State or community was not enough:\nthe heart of Israel wanted back in their numbers her dead sons and\ndaughters.\n\nIf the occasion of these hopes was thus an event in Israel's own\nnational history, and if the impulse to them was given by so natural an\ninstinct of her own heart, Israel was equally indebted to herself for\nthe convictions that the instinct was not in vain. Nothing is more clear\nin our passage than that Israel's first ground of hope in a future life\nwas her simple, untaught reflection upon the power of her God. Death was\n_His chastening_. Death came from Him, and remained in His power. Surely\nHe would deliver from it. This was a very old belief in Israel. _The\nLord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to Sheol and bringeth\nup._ Such words, of course, might be only an extreme figure for recovery\nfrom disease, and the silence of so great a saint as Hezekiah about any\nother issue into life than by convalescence from mortal sickness\nstaggers us into doubt whether an Israelite ever did think of a\nresurrection. But still there was Jehovah's almightiness; a man could\nrest his future on that, even if he had not light to think out what sort\nof a future it would be. So mark in our passage, how confidence is\nchiefly derived from the simple utterance of the name of Jehovah, and\nhow He is hailed as _our God_. It seems enough to the prophet to connect\nlife with Him and to say merely, _Thy dew_. As death is God's own\ndiscipline, so life, _Thy dew_, is with Him also.\n\nThus in its foundation the Old Testament doctrine of the resurrection is\nbut the conviction of the sufficiency of God Himself, a conviction which\nChrist turned upon Himself when He said, _I am the Resurrection and the\nLife. Because I live, ye shall live also._\n\nIf any object that in this picture of a resurrection we have no real\npersuasion of immortality, but simply the natural, though impossible,\nwish of a bereaved people that their dead should to-day rise from their\ngraves to share to-day's return and glory--a revival as special and\nextraordinary as that appearing of the dead in the streets of Jerusalem\nwhen the Atonement was accomplished, but by no means that general\nresurrection at the last day which is an article of the Christian\nfaith--if any one should bring this objection, then let him be referred\nto the previous promise of immortality in chap. xxv. The universal and\nfinal character of the promise made there is as evident as of that for\nwhich Paul borrowed its terms in order to utter the absolute\nconsequences of the resurrection of the Son of God: _Death is swallowed\nup in victory_. For the prophet, having in ver. 6 described the\nrestoration of the people, whom exile had starved with a famine of\nordinances, to _a feast in Zion of fat things and wines on the lees well\nrefined_, intimates that as certainly as exile has been abolished, with\nits dearth of spiritual intercourse, so certainly shall God Himself\ndestroy death: _And He shall swallow up in this mountain_--perhaps it is\nimagined, as the sun devours the morning mist on the hills--_the mask of\nthe veil, the veil that is upon all the peoples, and the film spun upon\nall the nations. He hath swallowed up death for ever, and the Lord\nJehovah shall wipe away tears from off all faces, and the reproach of\nHis people shall He remove from off all the earth, for Jehovah hath\nspoken it. And they shall say in that day, Behold, this is our God: we\nhave waited for Him, and He shall save us; this is Jehovah: we have\nwaited for Him; we will rejoice and be glad in His salvation._ Thus over\nall doubts, and in spite of universal human experience, the prophet\ndepends for immortality on God Himself. In chap. xxvi. 3 our version\nbeautifully renders, _Thou wilt keep_ him _in perfect peace_ whose\n_mind_ is _stayed_ on Thee, _because he trusteth in Thee_. This is a\nconfidence valid for the next life as well as for this. _Therefore trust\nye in the LORD_ for ever. Amen.\n\nAlmighty God, we praise Thee that, in the weakness of all our love and\nthe darkness of all our knowledge before death, Thou hast placed\nassurance of eternal life in simple faith upon Thyself. Let this faith\nbe richly ours. By Thine omnipotence, by Thy righteousness, by the love\nThou hast vouchsafed, we lift ourselves and rest upon Thy word. _Because\nI live, ye shall live also._ Oh keep us steadfast in union with Thyself,\nthrough Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX TO CHAPS. I.-XXXIX.\n\n\n  CHAPTERS OF      DATE B.C.                CHAPTERS OF THE\n    ISAIAH.                                    EXPOSITION.\n\n  i.                701                  I., XIX., p. 311 ff.\n  ii.-iv.           740-735              II.\n  v.                735                  III.\n  vi.               740;                 IV., XXVI., 391 f.\n                    written 735 or 727\n  vii.-ix. 7        734-732              VI.\n  vii. 14 ff.       734                  VII. 133\n  viii.             734-733              VII. 135\n  ix. 1-7           732                  VII. 136\n  ix. 8-x. 4        735                  III. 47 ff.\n  x. 5-34           About 721            IX. 147\n  xi. [xii.]        About 720?           X.\n  xi. 1-6                                VII. 138\n  xiii.-xiv. 23     ?                    XXVII.\n  xiv. 24-27        Towards 701          XVII. 272\n  xiv. 28-32        705                  XVII. 272\n  xv.-xvi. 12       ?                    XVII. 273\n  xvi. 13, 14       711 or 704?          XVII. 273\n  xvii. 1-11        Between 736 and 732  XVII. 274\n  xvii. 12-14       ?                    XVII. 274, 277, 281 f.\n  xviii.            711 or towards 701?  XVII. 275\n  xix.              703 or after 700?    XVII. 275, 278, 284 ff.\n  xx.               711-709              XI. 198-200, XVII. 276\n  xxi. 1-10         Probably 709         XI. 201, XVII. 276\n  xxi. 11, 12       Between 704 and 701  XVII. 276\n  xxi. 13, 17                            XVII. 277\n  xxii.             701                  XIX., XX.\n  xxiii.            703 or 702           XVII. 277, XVIII.\n  xxiv.             ?                    XXVIII.\n  xxv.-xxvii.       ?                    XXIX.-XXX.\n  xxviii.           About 725            VIII. 149\n  xxix.-xxxii.                           p. 207\n  xxix.             About 703            XII.\n  xxx.              About 702            XIII.\n  xxxi.             About 702            XIV.\n  xxxii. 1-8        About 702?           XV.\n  xxxii. 9-20       Date uncertain       XVI.\n  xxxiii.           701                  XX., XXI., 207, 304\n  xxxiv.            ?                    XXIX. 438 ff.\n  xxxv.             ?                    XXIX. 440 f.\n  xxxvi. 1          701                  303 f.\n  xxxvi. 2-xxxvii.  701                  303 f.\n  xxxvi. 2-22       701                  XXII. 303 f.\n  xxxvii.           701                  XXIII.\n  xxxviii.-xxxix.   Date uncertain       XXV. 304\n  xxxviii.                               XXVI. 393\n  xxxix.                                 XI. 201\n\n\n\n\nSHORT INDEX OF SUBJECTS.\n\n\n  Ahaz, 98;\n    compared with Charles I., 99, 103 ff., 113;\n    Judas of Old Testament, 118.\n\n  Animals, the lower, 190 ff.;\n    our mediatorship to, 193.\n\n  Anthropomorphism, 144.\n\n  Arabia, 277.\n\n  Aram, 94, 103 ff.\n\n  Ashdod, 198.\n\n  Assyria and Assyrians, 53, 92 f., 95, 97, 103 f., 122, and _passim_.\n\n  Atheism, two kinds of, 172 ff.\n\n\n  Babylon, 93, 201, 405.\n\n  Babylonian captivity, 201, 402.\n\n  Bribery, 47.\n\n\n  Captivity of Israel, first, 128;\n    second, 148.\n\n  Christ, 80, 142 ff., 254 ff., 328, 426.\n\n  Church, origin of idea of, 126.\n\n  Commerce, 296.\n\n  Conscience, 6;\n    its threefold character, 12;\n    simplicity, 151.\n\n  Cromwell, 160 ff., 220.\n\n\n  Damascus, 95, 120, 122, 274.\n\n  Drunkenness, 44 f., 152 ff.\n\n\n  Earthquake, 50.\n\n  Edom, 94, 276, 438 ff.\n\n  Egypt, 92, 96, 197 ff., 222 ff., _passim_.\n\n  Ekron, 308 f.\n\n  Eliakim, 317.\n\n  Ethiopia, 93, 222, 275.\n\n\n  Faith, moral results of, 106 f., 163 f.;\n    power to shape history, 109, 352 ff.\n\n  Fatalism, 110.\n\n  Forgiveness of sin, 13, 71 ff., 326 ff., 361, 381.\n\n  Formalism, 216, 240.\n\n  Free-will, 82.\n\n\n  Glory, 68.\n\n\n  Hamath, 94.\n\n  Heine, 158, 242, 413.\n\n  Hezekiah, 352, 378 ff., _passim_.\n\n  Holiness, 63 ff.\n\n  Holy Spirit, 185-188.\n\n\n  Immanuel, 102, 115, 124 ff., 133 ff.\n\n  Immortality, 385 ff., 394 ff., 410, 444 ff.\n\n  Individual, the, and the community, 389 ff.\n\n  Inspiration, 23 ff., 213, 372.\n\n  Isaiah:\n    apprenticeship, 19;\n    youth, 21, 59;\n    a son of Jerusalem, 22;\n    threefold vision, 23-25;\n    idealist, 25;\n    realist, 27;\n    prophet, 30;\n    patriotism, a conscience of his country's sins, 30 f.;\n    call and consecration, 57 ff.;\n    personality, 75 f., 253;\n    comp. with Mazzini, 85-87;\n    with Moses, 88;\n    contribution to religious development of Israel, 101, 284, 288;\n    no fatalist, 110;\n    habit of appealing to the people, 119;\n    saved from the popular drift, 121;\n    scorn, 127;\n    sanity, 109, 154 f., 166, 300;\n    comp. with Cromwell, 160 ff., 220;\n    self-control, 166;\n    regard for animals, 190;\n    walks stripped for a sign, 199;\n    inspiration, 213, 372;\n    working of his imagination, 234;\n    style, 281;\n    humanity, 285, 294;\n    triumph, 323 ff.;\n    imagination and conscience, 335;\n    lesson for all time, 366;\n    contrasted with Crusaders, 367;\n    personal religion, 391;\n    ideal, 392;\n    satire, 29, 139, 156.\n\n  Israel, religious condition, 99;\n    and Greece, 365.\n\n\n  Jerusalem, 22, 25 ff., 169 f., 211 f., 231 f., 243, 267 f., 279,\n      Book IV., _passim_.\n\n\n  \"King Lear,\" 49, 55.\n\n\n  Land question, 41 ff.\n\n  Language, abuse of, 260.\n\n\n  Maher-shalal-hash-baz, 120.\n\n  Mazzini, 84-86.\n\n  Merodach-baladan, 200, 376.\n\n  Messiah, 89, 90, 115 ff., 129, 131-144, 180 ff., 249.\n\n  Moab, 94, 273.\n\n  Monotheism, moral and political advantages, 108-110;\n    growth in Israel, 357, 363.\n\n\n  Name of the LORD, 233 ff.\n\n  Nature, fourfold use of by the prophets, 16 f.;\n    redemption of, 188;\n    destruction of, 417 ff.\n\n\n  Palestine, 92.\n\n  People, the, ultimately responsible, 119, 198, 224 ff.\n\n  Philistines, 94, 272.\n\n  Phoenicia, 94, 96, 288 ff.\n\n  Poetry, Hebrew, 411.\n\n  Polytheism, 99, 107.\n\n  Preaching the word, 82, 83.\n\n  Prophecy, its power of vision, 23-25;\n    its service to religion, 100 f.\n\n  Providence, 98.\n\n\n  Rabshakeh, the, 343 ff.\n\n  Remnant, the, 31, 87, 101, 126, 129, and _passim_.\n\n  Resurrection, 387, 444 ff.\n\n  Return from exile, 195, 401 ff., 429, 440 f., 450.\n\n  Righteousness, Isaiah's doctrine of, 334 ff.\n\n\n  Sacrament, an Old Testament, 74.\n\n  Samaria, 95, 147, 152 ff.\n\n  Sargon, 148, 169, 198 ff.\n\n  Scepticism, 15.\n\n  Sennacherib, 209, 302, 308 ff., 355 ff.\n\n  Serbonian bog, 361.\n\n  Shebna, 317.\n\n  Sheol, 385, 410, 447 ff.\n\n  Shiloah, 122.\n\n  Sin, 52, 69, _passim_;\n    effect on man's material circumstance, 416.\n\n  Sorrow, man's abuse of, 54.\n\n\n  Tiglath-pileser II., 96, 103 f.\n\n\n  Uzziah, 59 f., 98.\n\n\n  War, 51.\n\n  Women, Isaiah to, 262.\n\n  Wrath of God, 47 f., 55.\n\n  _Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury._\n\n\n\n\nTHE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._\n\n\nFIRST SERIES.\n\n  Colossians.\n  By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n  St. Mark.\n  By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n  Genesis.\n  By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n  1 Samuel.\n  By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n  2 Samuel.\n  By the same Author.\n\n  Hebrews.\n  By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.\n\nSECOND SERIES.\n\n  Galatians.\n  By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n  The Pastoral Epistles.\n  By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n  Isaiah I.--XXXIX.\n  By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n  The Book of Revelation.\n  By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.\n\n  1 Corinthians.\n  By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n  The Epistles of St. John.\n  By the Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.\n\nTHIRD SERIES.\n\n  Judges and Ruth.\n  By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n  Jeremiah.\n  By the Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.\n\n  Isaiah XL.--LXVI.\n  By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n  St. Matthew.\n  By the Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.\n\n  Exodus.\n  By the Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.\n\n  St. Luke.\n  By the Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.\n\nFOURTH SERIES.\n\n  Ecclesiastes.\n  By the Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.\n\n  St. James and St. Jude.\n  By the Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.\n\n  Proverbs.\n  By the Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.\n\n  Leviticus.\n  By the Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.\n\n  The Gospel of St. John.\n  By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n  The Acts of the Apostles.\n  By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.\n\nFIFTH SERIES.\n\n  The Psalms.\n  By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.\n\n  1 and 2 Thessalonians.\n  By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n  The Book of Job.\n  By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n  Ephesians.\n  By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n  The Gospel of St. John.\n  By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n  The Acts of the Apostles.\n  By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.\n\nSIXTH SERIES.\n\n  1 Kings.\n  By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n\n  Philippians.\n  By Principal RAINY, D.D.\n\n  Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.\n  By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n  Joshua.\n  By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.\n\n  The Psalms.\n  By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.\n\n  The Epistles of St. Peter.\n  By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.\n\nSEVENTH SERIES.\n\n  2 Kings.\n  By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n\n  Romans.\n  By the Right Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, D.D.\n\n  The Books of Chronicles.\n  By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n  2 Corinthians.\n  By Prof. JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n  Numbers.\n  By the Rev. R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.\n\n  The Psalms.\n  By the Rev. A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.\n\nEIGHTH SERIES.\n\n  Daniel.\n  By the Very Rev. F. W. FARRAR, F.R.S.\n\n  The Book of Jeremiah.\n  By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, D.D., D.Lit.\n\n  Deuteronomy.\n  By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.\n\n  The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.\n  By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.\n\n  Ezekiel.\n  By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.\n\n  The Books of the Twelve Prophets.\n  By Prin. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.\n\n\n\n\nWORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d._\n\n\nVOLUME II.\n\nTHE BOOK OF ISAIAH.\n\nCHAPS. XL.-LXVI.\n\nREV. DR. MARCUS DODS, in _The British Weekly_, says: \"That criticism so\nkeen and so well principled should co-exist with a historical sense so\nfully developed as Mr. Smith's, is perhaps not so wonderful as that both\nthese high and useful faculties should seem not to overwhelm and\nsmother, but rather to stimulate and find opportunity for the faculty of\ndramatic presentation, for the magical English style, and, above all,\nfor the singular spiritual insight which this volume exhibits.\"\n\nREV. DR. BEET says: \"The first volume of Smith's _Isaiah_ took us all by\nsurprise, and revealed the advent of an expositor of the first rank. The\nhigh standard thus set up is fully maintained in the second volume.\nIndeed, as dealing with more difficult topics it increases greatly our\nrespect for the author. We have accurate Hebrew scholarship, keen\ninsight into the life and thought of Isaiah's day, and devout\nappreciation of the abiding spiritual worth of this ancient prophecy\npresented in a form intelligible and attractive to all.\"\n\nTHE RECORD. \"Mr. Smith is a sound and thoroughly capable Hebrew scholar,\nand he has written in these volumes an exposition of Isaiah which every\nscholarly teacher and every conscientious expounder of the evangelical\nprophet, even though he may differ from Mr. Smith upon occasion, ought\nto possess.\"\n\nTHE ACADEMY. \"It is needless to mention the literary merits which in\nreviews of the first volume of this work were so abundantly recognised.\nThis is, indeed, one of the few theological books which it is a pure\npleasure to read; nor need one, in the case of the present volume, add\nthe qualifying remark that the homiletical element is somewhat unduly\nlarge. The scholarship too, is still as accurate as might be expected\nfrom Mr. Smith's excellent training.\"\n\nTHE INDEPENDENT: \"It is in every way a notable book, and will even add\nto the now established reputation of its author among Old Testament\nstudents. The two volumes taken together constitute one of the most\nsuccessful attempts ever made to expound an Old Testament book in the\nlight of modern research. Mr. Smith has here shown something of the\npower of criticism to do constructive work, and has made it abundantly\nevident that some, at least, of the recent critical results may be used\nwith most illuminating and inspiring effect.\"\n\nLONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n_8vo, cloth, 15s. With Six Maps, specially prepared._\n\nTHE HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE HOLY LAND.\n\nEspecially in Relation to the History of Israel and of the Early Church.\n\n\"In some respects the book is the most comprehensive and complete\ncontribution to Palestinian literature of the last twenty years.... In\nEnglish, at least, there is no book from which the reader can carry away\nin his mind's eye so clear, connected, and permanent a picture of\nPalestine as from Dr. Smith's.\"--_Daily News._\n\n\"A very noteworthy contribution to the study of sacred history, based\nupon the three indispensable conditions of personal acquaintance with\nthe land, a study of the explorations, discoveries, and decipherments,\nespecially of the last twenty years, and the employment of the results\nof Biblical criticism during the same period. The necessity and\nimportance of such an undertaking need no demonstration, and the results\nas set forth in Dr. Smith's learned and laborious work will be\nappreciated by all competent scholars.\"--_Times._\n\n\"It is not often that we have to review a book so thorough and so\nmasterly, and, at the same time, written in a style which commands\nattention as well as admiration.... It contains and 'uses' the important\nparts of all the immense mass of modern research and discovery, enriched\nand illuminated by a mind of imagination and poetry, as well as\nscholarship.\"--_Saturday Review._\n\n\"This is really a great book. A subject of fascinating interest has been\ntreated with an ability and a fulness which leave nothing to be\ndesired.\"--_Westminster Gazette._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\nFOUR PSALMS.\n\n_Cloth, 1s. 6d._\n\n\"These expositions are in every way admirable, and worthy of the highest\nadmiration.\"--_Aberdeen Free Press._\n\n\"Very choice expositions in a deeply spiritual vein. Learning, genius,\nand grace combine to make these four choice psalms more precious than\never.\"--_Baptist._\n\n\nMODERN CRITICISM AND PREACHING OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s._\n\nDR. ROBERTSON NICOLL says in _The British Weekly_: \"Dr. George Adam\nSmith has given us a fresh, brilliant, Christian book on a vital\nsubject. In some respects it is perhaps on an even higher level than\nanything else he has written. It would be impertinent in us to speak of\nthe scholarship shown everywhere. Dr. Smith is as accurate as he is\nbrilliant. There are many evidences not only of his scholarship, but of\nthe wide range his reading has covered. The book is written throughout\nwith marked distinction, and in a high and generous spirit. It is\nanything but a mere _r\u00e9sum\u00e9_. It is full of originality and\nsuggestiveness, and is alive and challenging from end to end. It is as\npowerful and ardent as anything Dr. Smith has written, and it is also\nspiritual and subtle.\"\n\n\nTHE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, 6s._\n\n\nJERUSALEM.\n\n_In Two Volumes. Net, 24s._\n\n\nTHE LIFE OF HENRY DRUMMOND, F.R.S.E.\n\n_With Portrait. Cloth, 3s. 6d._\n\n\"A very large audience may safely be predicted for his biography. The\nwork is well done.... A more devote life has rarely been portrayed, a\ncleaner soul has not often been unveiled.\"--_Spectator._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON\n\n\nTHE BOOK OF THE TWELVE PROPHETS.\n\nCommonly called the Minor.\n\n_In Two Volumes. Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d. each._\n\nVOL. I.--AMOS, HOSEA AND MICAH.\n\n     VOL. II.--ZEPHANIAH, NAHUM, HABAKKUK, OBADIAH, HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH\n     I.-VIII., \"MALACHI,\" JOEL, \"ZECHARIAH\" IX.-XIV., AND JONAH.\n\n\"In Dr. Smith's volumes we have much more than a popular exposition of\nthe minor Prophets. We have that which will satisfy the scholar and the\nstudent quite as much as the person who reads for pleasure and for\nedification.... If the minor Prophets do not become popular reading it\nis not because anything more can be done to make them attractive. Dr.\nSmith's volumes present this part of Scripture in what is at once the\nmost attractive and the most profitable form.\"--DR. MARCUS DODS in the\n_British Weekly_.\n\n\"By his two volumes on Isaiah, and that preceding the present one of the\nProphets, Professor Smith gave abundant evidence both of his Hebrew\nscholarship and his capacity as an expositor of Scripture, ... and he\nhas now put us under fresh obligations by publishing this volume, which\nin no respect falls behind its predecessors.\"--_Scotsman._\n\n\"The volume which completes the great enterprise is one of the\nbest.\"--_Methodist Times._\n\n\"The volume altogether, in its accurate scholarship, its vivid\ndescriptions, its bold and candid treatment of difficulties, and its\nfulness of reference to the labours of other critics of every school,\nforms not only one of the most brilliant of the series, but one of the\nforemost of British contributions to the literature of its special\nsubject.\"--_Christian World._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND VOLUME OF THE EXPOSITOR'S GREEK TESTAMENT.\n\nEDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\nEditor of the _Expositor_, _Expositor's Bible_, _etc._\n\n\n_CONTAINING_\n\nTHE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES.\n\nBy the Rev. Professor R. J. KNOWLING, D.D., Vice-Principal of King's\nCollege, London.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.\n\nBy the Rev. Professor JAMES DENNEY, D.D.\n\n\nTHE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.\n\nBy the Rev. Professor G. G. FINDLAY, B.A., D.D.\n\n\nTHE THIRD VOLUME, CONTAINING\n\nTHE SECOND EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.\n\nBy the Very Rev. Dean BERNARD, D.D.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.\n\nBy the Rev. FREDERIC RENDALL, M.A.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.\n\nBy the Rev. Principal SALMOND, D.D.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.\n\nBy the Rev. H. A. A. KENNEDY, D.Sc.\n\n\nTHE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.\n\nBy the Rev. Professor A. S. PEAKE, M.A.\n\n_The price of each volume is 28s. Volumes I. and II. may still be had at\nsubscription price, viz. 30s._\n\n_Those who have subscribed for Volumes I. and II. may have Volume III.\non payment of 15s._\n\nLONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\nTHE FIRST VOLUME OF THE EXPOSITOR'S GREEK TESTAMENT.\n\nEDITED BY THE REV. W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.\n\nEditor of the _Expositor_, _Expositor's Bible_, _etc_.\n\nThe First Volume, of 880 pages, handsomely bound in buckram cloth,\nconsists of the Gospels of ST. MATTHEW, ST. MARK, and ST. LUKE by the\nRev. Professor A. B. BRUCE, D.D., and the Gospel of ST. JOHN by the Rev.\nProfessor MARCUS DODS, D.D.\n\n_The Price of each volume is 28s; but for those who PAY IN ADVANCE the\nprice for two volumes is 30s._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFROM PRESS NOTICES OF VOLUME I.\n\n\"Dr. Bruce's commentary on the Synoptics is a notable piece of work. It\nis cheering and refreshing to find these books, with which our inner\nlife is so closely bound up, treated frankly and honestly, as well as\nadequately for English readers, and withal in so believing and reverent\na spirit that the treatment need not repel the most orthodox.... All is\nset forth with great frankness and admirable common sense, and often in\nracy language, not without an occasional Scottish flavour.\"--_Athen\u00e6um._\n\n\"The first thing that strikes one when he takes up the volume on the\nGospels is the uncommon handsomeness of the book. It is a joy to handle\nit and look into its pages. It is the very book to lure a student into\nreading. The form is so superb, the paper so choice and so light, the\nmargins so delightfully broad, the type so clear and so tasteful....\nThe two scholars to whom this volume has been committed are the very\nmen for the work. Each is a master of his subject, and each has gone\ninto his task _con amore_.... A work worthy of the most cordial\nappreciation.\"--_Critical Review._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\n\n\nWORKS BY THE REV. A. M. FAIRBAIRN, M.A., D.D., LL.D.,\n\nPRINCIPAL OF MANSFIELD COLLEGE, OXFORD.\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, 7s. 6d._\n\n\nCATHOLICISM--ROMAN AND ANGLICAN.\n\n\"Dr. Fairbairn's able and striking volume.... The treatment is\nthroughout so thoughtful and free from narrow polemical bias.\"--_Times._\n\n\"The book is certainly one every theologian must welcome--high-minded in\ntone, broad in its outlook, penetrating in its vision, and full of\nluminous _apercus_ on the history of thought and of events.\"--_Literature._\n\n\n_Crown 8vo, cloth, 3s. 6d._\n\nRELIGION IN HISTORY AND IN MODERN LIFE.\n\nTogether with an Essay on the Church and the Working Classes.\n\n\"In its new dress, 'Religion in History' is a timely and weighty\ncontribution to a subject with which theologians but too seldom venture\nto grapple.\"--_Scotsman._\n\n\"It is one of the best pieces of work which even Principal Fairbairn has\never done.\"--_Aberdeen Free Press._\n\n\n_8vo, cloth, 12s._\n\nTHE PLACE OF CHRIST IN MODERN THEOLOGY.\n\n\"His work is, without doubt, one of the most valuable and comprehensive\ncontributions to theology that has been made during this\ngeneration.\"--_The Spectator._\n\n\"A more vivid summary of church history has never been given. With its\nswift characterisation of schools and politics, with its subtle tracings\nof the development of various tendencies through the influence of their\ninvironment, of reaction, and of polemic; with its contrasts of\ndifferent systems, philosophies, and races; with its portraits of men;\nwith its sense of progress and revolt--this part of Dr. Fairbairn's book\nis no mere annal, but drama, vivid and full of motion, representative of\nthe volume and sweep of Christianity through the centuries.\"--_The\nSpeaker._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.\n\n\nWORKS BY SIR W. M. RAMSAY, D.C.L., LL.D.,\n\nPROFESSOR OF HUMANITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN, AND HON. FELLOW OF\nEXETER AND LINCOLN COLLEGES, OXFORD.\n\n\n8_vo, cloth, with Map, 10s. 6d._\n\nST. PAUL THE TRAVELLER AND THE ROMAN CITIZEN.\n\n\"Professor Ramsay brings not only his great experience as a traveller\nand arch\u00e6ologist, but the resources of an ingenious mind, and a lively\nstyle. The book is, like everything Professor Ramsay does,\nextraordinarily alive. It shows everywhere personal learning, personal\nimpression; it has the sharp touch of the traveller and the\neye-witness.\"--_Times._\n\n\n_With Maps and Illustrations, 8vo, cloth, 12s._\n\nTHE CHURCH IN THE ROMAN EMPIRE BEFORE A.D. 170.\n\n\"The whole volume is full of freshness and originality.... I lay down\nhis book with warm and sincere admiration. He has succeeded in investing\na number of critical discussions with extraordinary vividness and\nreality.\"--PROFESSOR W. SANDAY, in _The Expositor_.\n\n\n_Crown_ 8_vo_, _cloth_, 5_s_.\n\nWAS CHRIST BORN AT BETHLEHEM?\n\nA Study in the Credibility of St. Luke.\n\n\"The work is characterised by great earnestness as well as ability,\nwhile the learning which it displays is such as may be expected from one\nwho has long made the topics discussed matter of special study, for the\npursuit of which he has also had special opportunities.\"--_Scotsman._\n\n\"There is much interesting matter on allied topics in this learned and\ninforming work, which will sustain Professor Ramsay's reputation as an\naccomplished and courageous scholar.\"--_Christian World._\n\n     LONDON: HODDER & STOUGHTON.","title":"The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Isaiah, Volume 1 (of 2)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":136603}