Who hath believed our report ? And to whom hath the arm of the LORD been revealed? to For he grew up before us as a sickly plant, And as a root out of dry ground: He hath no form that we should regard him; He was despised, and forsaken of men; Surely he hath borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows: 20 Yet we did esteem him stricken, But he was wounded for our transgressions, The chastisement of our peace was upon him; 25 And with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep had gone astray; The guilt of us all. 30 He was afflicted, yet he humbled himself. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, And as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; So he opened not his mouth. By oppressive judgment he was taken away; 35 And of his generation, who considered That he was cut off out of the land of the living, For the transgression of my people had been stricken? And they made his grave with the wicked, 40 Although he had done no violence, Neither was any deceit in his mouth. cesses of nature, we see that out of darkness and pain frequently come life and joy. So bitter experiences are frequently the forerunners of wisdom and happiness. The principle which the prophet has here so beautifully portrayed as characteristic of the servant of Jehovah, by whom he meant faithful Israel, has been exhibited in many of the lives of later servants of Jehovah, and is universal in character. Yet it seemed good to Jehovah to bruise him; To make of his soul an offering for sin, He shall see his posterity, he shall prolong his days, 45 And the pleasure of the LORD shall be manifest in his hand. He shall see out of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my servant make many righteous Therefore will I give him a portion with the great, And making intercession for the transgressors. Come Ye to Jehovah So the lesson was set forth. The righteous, beloved of God, may learn, through suffering, truth which shall bless not only themselves but all mankind, and by this path Jehovah has revealed himself to the world. To all quarters went out the call from the prophet, "We know our God whereof we speak. Come to him.” 'Ho, every one that thirsteth,2 come ye to the waters, And he that hath no money come, Buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 5 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me, that ye may eat that which is good, And let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me; 10 Hear, and your soul shall live: And I will make an everlasting covenant with you, As the sure promises to David. Isa. 55:1-13. 2 Thirsteth: for hope and satisfaction. Even as I gave him for a witness' to the peoples, A leader and commander to the peoples, 15 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not,2 And a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, Because of3 Jehovah thy God, And for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye Jehovah while he may be found, 20 Call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts: And let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 25 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. 30 For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, And returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, And maketh it bring forth and bud, And giveth seed to the sower, and bread to the eater; 35 It shall not return unto me empty, But it shall accomplish that which I please, And it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.4 For ye shall go out with joy, And be led forth with peace: 40 The mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: 45 For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. I Witness: a witness to Jehovah's power and favor. 2 That is, a foreign nation. 3 Because of: hearing of Jehovah and his wonderful deliverance of his people. What I promise shall be accomplished. Have we in Isaiah of Babylonia reached the highest point of prophecy? There is one step still higher, and for its development we must wait another century and more. At this moment we have but to reflect that out of this period of spiritual darkness and apparent desertion, isolated in the midst of a populous land, and surrounded by the allurements of idolatry, the people came into a clear vision of Jehovah as the one God, creator of the universe, ruler of all nations, the moving force in human history. With this vision came also to Israel the consciousness of having been chosen by Jehovah not for her own sake but for the accomplishment of a divine purpose-to reveal the true God to all the world. Surely is was a great thing to be the first to give this interpretation of God to the world.1 1 We should do well to consider the courage and vision of the prophet who amid the darkest hours of coldness and the lack of enthusiasm on the part of his people only sang the louder of the joys which were to come. This is the sort of faith and courage which is needed by any man or woman who would arouse people to a great movement of any sort, for it was a political movement which Isaiah was championing. CHAPTER XIV PROPHETIC MESSAGES IN THE NEW CITY As we recall the inspiring predictions of the two prophets whose work was recorded in the immediately preceding pages, we feel that the only fitting theme for the present chapter would be the story of a glorious return to Jerusalem, and the restoration of the city, as so vividly depicted by the prophets, but ours is not so acceptable a task. It would naturally be expected that the literature through which the later history of Israel could be traced would be more systematic and accessible than the sources from which we gather the history of earlier years, but such is not the case. The events of the period from the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus in 538 B.C. until about 520 B.C. are recorded only in the Book of Ezra and the record seems quite clearly to be made up at a much later time with scattered and undated documents as a basis. The editor like ourselves was obliged to depend upon his imagination to fill in the gap.1 We know that Cyrus reigned but nine years. He died in 529 B.C. and was succeeded by his son Cambyses who within four years completed the conquest of Egypt. Three years later Cambyses committed suicide anticipating difficulty with an impostor, Gaumata, who had rallied discontented vassal states to his support during the absence of the king on his Egyptian campaigns. The usurper was in turn dethroned by Darius, who led a conspiracy of the nobles and claimed to be a descendant of the royal family from which Cyrus had come. In 519 B.C. Darius became master of the situation and established The books of Ezra and Nehemiah give us a story of events in Jerusalem commencing with a decree of Cyrus, said to have come from the first year of the reign of that king, and continuing for about 100 years. A careful study of these accounts with an effort to adjust the events to the established names and dates of Persian history results in confusion. This, with the further fact that the prophets whose writings come from a period not far removed from this make no allusion to so important an event as the decree of Cyrus, or the simultaneous return of so large and important a company of people, leads us to conclude that the account was much later than the events, and is highly colored by the author, who had little reliable data upon which to base his work, but concluded that the predictions of the prophets must have been fulfilled in this systematic and imposing way. |