p. 611Isaiah now turns from the picture of the latter-day deliverance of Zion and resumes the expostulation he was commissioned by God to deliver to Israel. “Thus saith the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement whom I have put away?” The argument is that it was Zion’s own faithlessness that procured her divorce, most reluctantly on God’s part. Jeremiah is very emphatic on the point (ch. iii.); and in this place the reason is made plain in the context. Zion did not respond to God’s call, though she had abundant proof of His power to destroy and build up. That there should be nobody in Zion fit to stand in the gap and bring the nation again to God, was an offence to Him.
“Wherefore when I came was there no man? When I called was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?” Then follows a rehearsal of the works they had seen. The time in which the prophecy finds its great fulfilment is when God “came” in Christ, because there was “no man,” “no intercessor”; and when, therefore, Jesus himself, as “the Arm of the Lord,” brought salvation. “He marvelled because of their unbelief,” it is said (Mark vi. 6). “Though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not,” says John (xii. 37).
“There are none so blind as those that won’t see.” There are those who “do not want to believe anyhow.” This is denied by some philosophical souls, but such denial is an absurdity on the face of it, and contrary to every-day experience. It is likewise contrary to scripture, which says of some: “Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see” (Isa. xxvi. 11), a saying that was superabundantly illustrated in the days of Jesus in p. 612 the first century. This rejection of Jesus by those who “would not see,” no matter what miracles were wrought, was the filling up of Zion’s cup of iniquity; and “divorce” followed speedily, culminating in the wreck of her heavens and earth within the lifetime of that generation.
Our times are not like those; the voice of God is silent, and in the language of the Psalm it may be said with almost universal application: “We see not our signs: there is no more any prophet: neither is there any among us that knoweth how long” (Psa. lxxiv. 9). Yet God is not without witness and “signs of the times.” But there are those who “will not see,” even now. Such, in the language of the prophecy, are “selling themselves” unto destruction, when the Gentile heavens and earth shall pass away in judgment before the face of the Lord “revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. i. 8).
The spirit of Christ in Isaiah then goes on to speak of Yahweh’s instruction, of Messiah’s inflexible faithfulness thereto in spite of every ignominy. Here, as in chapter viii. 18 and elsewhere, Isaiah is “for a sign” of Christ; that is, he personally in his language and in his experience represents that of Messiah at his coming.
“My Lord Yahweh (Adonai Yahweh), hath given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth morning by morning; he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. My Lord Yahweh hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back” (verses 4, 5).
Whatever illustration this may have found in Isaiah, it is certain it was fully and perfectly illustrated only in Christ. The terms of the prophecy refer everything to Yahweh as the Source of all life and light and learning. This is a conspicuous feature of the teaching of Jesus, and is just as conspicuously absent from modern Trinitarianism, which makes Jesus “co-equal” with the Father. Of “the Son of Man,” Jesus said “Him hath God the Father sealed” (John vi. 27). Again, “The words that p. 613 I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (ibid v. 63). “He that is of God heareth God’s words” (John viii. 47). “He gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak” (John xii. 49). “Say to my brethren, I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John xx. 17).
These and similar sayings of Jesus illustrate the prophecy concerning Yahweh’s instruction of His beloved “Servant” and “Son,” who was begotten by the spirit and endowed with it without measure, so that it became a matter of surprised enquiry in Jerusalem: “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (John vii. 15). Jesus answered them saying, “My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me;” or, in the language of Isaiah, “My Lord Yahweh hath given me the tongue of the learned.” How the doctrine of Jesus found expression in “words in season to the weary” is illustrated in all the records of his “gracious words.” Never had the like been heard, even in Israel. Here was a man who said to his little band of disciples, and all who should follow in their steps: “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And this too when a whole country side had contemptuously turned its back on him. From any other man such a saying would have been a mockery; but from Jesus it is (if we may so speak) natural. What are the facts now? The “wise and prudent” but “rebellious” are dead; the Galilean lake-side is a desolation, and Jesus is in heaven, having “entered into his rest;” and only awaits the time to give his disciples the “rest that remaineth” (Heb. iv.).
“I was not rebellious, neither turned away back,” is in contrast with the general attitude of Jerusalem and her children, and all the land, as so strikingly illustrated in Capernaum and Chorazin, now blotted out of existence. He submitted to the “smiting” and the “shame and spitting,” as the record of his life shows (Matt. xxvi. 67). The ground of his confidence and secret of his endurance is that which chiefly and most practically concerns us now. It is the same as that which sustained Isaiah in his day and generation, and will sustain all the servants of God unto the end.
p. 614 “For my Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifieth me; who will contend with me? Let us stand together: who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, my Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old as doth a garment, and the moth shall eat them up.”
Such adamantine confidence and resolution must have strong foundation, and it is found in the promise of help running through all the divine covenants. He should “bruise the serpent’s head”; he should “possess the gate of his enemies”; he should consume the sons of Belial like thorns; and triumph over death itself. How literally Jesus appropriated these promises, and even the language of this prophecy, we see from the New Testament. Challenging the Jews when they plotted his destruction, he said: “Which of you convicteth me of sin?” Who should condemn him? His adversaries could not stand before him. Even going forth to death he said: “I know that His commandment is life everlasting.”
These things are written for “the ecclesia” as well, and hence the apostles so apply them. Thus Paul, in his epistle to the Romans, speaking of those “who walk not after the flesh,” but “have the spirit of Christ,” and are “led by the spirit of God,” says: “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. . . . If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Rom. viii.).
Thus the mind of Christ is characteristic of all “the sons of God.” They believe God’s promises with “full assurance of faith” and set their faces like flint against all opposition, in the confidence that ultimately they will not be ashamed. And Christ is the proof of it all.
p. 615 And then the spirit of Christ in Isaiah, having thus spoken beforehand of the sufferings of Christ, personally and individually, goes on to comfort and encourage “his body” as against “the rebellious,” by exhorting them to confidence unto the end and devoting the others to extinction.
“Who is among you that feareth Yahweh, that obeyeth the voice of His Servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of Yahweh, and stay upon his God (Elohim—the Lord Jesus Christ, Psa. xlv. with Heb. i., &c.). Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand. Ye shall lie down in sorrow” (verses 10, 12).
It has been pointed out by Dr. George Adam Smith (quoted by Rotherham) that the translation might better run thus: “‘Lo! all ye players with fire.’ Kindlers of fire is the literal rendering. But the word is not the common word to kindle, but is here used of wanton fire-raising.” Then again, it may be remarked that “sparks” would be better rendered “fire-brands.” Sparks do not give light to walk by, but fire-brands or torches may. The “players with fire” are those who “fear not Yahweh” and “obey not the voice of His Servant.” Their “fire” and “firebrands” are easily discoverable.
“God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God” (Deut. iv. 24; Heb. xii. 29). When He revealed Himself to Moses at the bush, it was in flaming fire. When He led Israel out of Egypt, it was by a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by day (Ex. xiii. 21, 22). In the crisis of the Exodus the pillar of cloud went from before the Israelites and stood behind them. “And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness TO THEM, but it gave light by night TO THESE, so that the one came not near the other all night” (Ex. xiv. 20). The Egyptians had to get along in the night by such light as they could raise on their own account, which was only enough to cause them to walk into the capture and destruction that Yahweh had prepared for them in the Red Sea. All of which p. 616 is an allegory, with a strong bearing upon the “Egypt” of Christ’s prophecy in Rev. xi. 8.
About a year after the Exodus another illustration of “players with fire” occurred—this time in Israel, and in the High Priest’s family. Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, offered strange fire before the Lord (Lev. x.), reasoning presumptuously, as do the moderns to this day, that any kind of incense offering would do. But “there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.” Thus, by His hand, they “lay down in sorrow,” and their dead bodies were carried out of the camp, and the High Priest of Israel and his sons mourned not over them, lest they also should die. Which things also are an allegory, with deep significance.
God is the Light of Israel and “a consuming fire.” Christ, being God manifested, is “the Light of the World,” antitypical of the Pillar of Fire and Cloud that went before Israel’s camp to “lead them the way.” He is also the altar of incense, upon which, and kindled by the fire thereof, the “prayers of the saints” (Rev. viii. 4) must ascend to the Father. This is “the voice of His Servant” Jesus: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John xiv. 6).
But the “players with fire” of the “outer court” (Rev. xi. 2) will have none of this. In the true spirit of Nadab and Abihu, they contend for the inalienable right of every man “to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.” It is true they profess belief in Jesus, or most of them do, but it is “another Jesus.” Some have made him a mere “Son of David,” like the Pharisees of old. Others have made him a superior god, even “co-equal” with the Father who begat him. Almost without exception, they consider themselves “sparks of the divine essence,” or “precious immortal souls,” to the pattern of which they have striven to make Jesus conform. However outrageous it may seem to affirm it, “the covenants of promise,” “the Hope of Israel,” “the gospel of the kingdom of God,” and “the things concerning the name of Jesus Christ,” are unknown and untolerated in “Christendom.”
p. 617 Its whole system is the work of “players with fire,” like the wreckers’ beacons of old, to follow which is to steer to certain destruction. “If ye believe not that I am he,” says Jesus, “ye shall die in your sins,” and it is certain that “Christendom” does not believe what is testified of Jesus in the Old Testament scriptures. If it did, its kings would never make war upon him, as he declares they will (Rev. xvii. 14). “Christendom” is really “hastening after another God,” and its incense rises not from the Jesus-altar, but is repudiated by him. Its prayers, if answered, would make God a liar, for they seek a rest in heaven for “immortal souls,” and take no account of the coming glory of His kingdom on earth that He has promised.
In a sense mankind in general are “brands in the burning,” and the Lord Jesus “a brand plucked out of the fire” (Zech. iii. 2). He is now of the divine nature—incorruptible; but they are still in the combustible state. He now shines by the light of God the Father; but they flame for a little while by “the light within,” consuming flesh and blood, and then “lie down in sorrow,” even in the natural order of mortality. But by-and-bye an international crisis in human affairs will be reached, in which, as in the days of the Exodus of old, it will be a question which is to prevail, God’s light, or the “light” of “Egypt” (which is “darkness,” Matt. vi. 23). Isaiah had before spoken of the issue when he spoke of the fate of the Assyrian, both in Hezekiah’s day and in “the day of Christ”: “The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and His Holy One for a flame, and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day” (Isa. x. 17). In the plainer language of the New Testament: “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven . . . in flaming fire taking vengeance,” and shall at that time give “rest” with the apostles and prophets to those who “are troubled” for his name’s sake (2 Thess. i. 7). The reward of obedience to the voice of Yahweh’s Servant will then be manifest in all the earth.