p. 680Following the terrible denunciation of the blind watchmen of Israel, the prophet in chapter lvii. dwells a moment on the hopeful death of the righteous, and then resumes his scathing rebuke of the people’s sins:—
“The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil. He shall go in peace. They shall rest in their beds, every one that walketh in his uprightness.
“But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against whom do ye sport yourselves?” (Isa. lvii. 1-4).
Before thinking of the full scope of the prophetic message, pause a moment over the expressions concerning the death of the righteous. “The righteous perisheth,” is lost or destroyed, for that is the meaning here. “Merciful men are taken away,” often by violence, none considering the resurrection, when “the earth shall cast forth the dead” (Isa. xxvi. 19). Then they shall “enter into peace.” “He shall go in peace” (the margin of the A.V.), is to be preferred as harmonising at once with the first principles of divine truth and the recorded deaths of the righteous. Thus, of Abraham it was said by the Lord God: “Thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age” (Gen. xv. 15). And the aged Simeon, having lived to see the Lord’s Christ according to the promise of the Holy Spirit, prayed: “Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace according to thy word” (Luke ii. 29).
“They shall rest in their beds, every one that walketh in his uprightness,” is a beautiful metaphor for the profound sleep p. 681 of the grave. The Psalmist says: “If I make my bed in sheol, behold thou art there” (Psa. cxxxix. 8). Isaiah himself had already said by the spirit: “Thy dead shall live. . . . Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust” (xxvi. 19). And the angel revealed to Daniel that the time of this awakening would be “the time of the end,” when Michael the Great Prince should stand up for the Israel of God (ch. xi. 40: xii. 2). Then, said the angel, “many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life.”
These allusions sufficiently illustrate the prophet’s meaning in this place; and it would be unnecessary to refer to so plain and self-evident a matter but for the obscurity in which it has become involved by the unscriptural doctrines of Christendom. These suppose that the righteous “enter into peace” in heaven above at the moment of death, independently of the coming of Christ and the resurrection of the dead. These ideas have somewhat affected even the translation of the passage; but the version given above, and obtained by choice from the R.V. and A.V. margin, and comparison with other scriptures, represents the obvious truth of the matter.
What was in the prophet’s mind when he said: “The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart”? And to what did the spirit of God point in the future? Isaiah would no doubt remember the base ingratitude with which Joash the king had slain Zechariah and other sons of Jehoiada the priest who had saved his life in infancy, caused him to be enthroned after the cutting off of Athaliah, and instructed him in the ways of God in truth and righteousness. But “they left the house of the Lord God of their fathers, and served groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass. Yet he sent prophets to them to bring them again unto the Lord, and they testified against them, but they would not give ear” (2 Chron. xxiv. 18-19).
This, of course, was before Isaiah’s ministry which began in the last days of Uzziah; but the evil course of the people was continued, and is specifically recorded in connection with the p. 682 wicked reign of Ahaz, with whom Isaiah personally had much to do. Ahaz erected images to Baal, burned incense in the valley of Hinnom, made his son to pass through the fire, sacrificed in high places and under every green tree, and in general “debased himself unto hell” (2 Kings xvi.; 2 Chron. xxviii.).
Under these circumstances no doubt many righteous protestants against the royal declension, which was only too readily followed by the common people, perished as in a previous reign.
Hezekiah, however, reversed the insane policy of his father, and did much towards purging Jerusalem and Judah. But there was a relapse again in the reign of Manasseh, his son, who attained an evil eminence that is on record in the scriptures, and in whose early years, according to the tradition in the Talmud, and in the early Christian ecclesias, Isaiah himself perished, being sawn asunder. Manasseh “filled Jerusalem with innocent blood from one end to the other” (2 Kings xxi. 16). And “the Lord would not pardon it,” but gave Jerusalem into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings xxiv. 4).
It was in this massacre of the innocents that Isaiah is believed to have “perished,” and the reference of Heb. xi. 37: “sawn asunder,” is considered to support the Jewish and Christian tradition, since no other case of such an end is current in the annals of those “of whom the world was not worthy.”
Thus arises the reflection that the prophet spoke beforehand by the spirit of his own approaching doom. We can well imagine that he would often and painfully recognise that his fiery denunciations would expose him to such possibilities, even if it were not, as in the case of Paul afterwards, that he was directly forewarned by the spirit. What proportionate comfort then would there be in the thought of “rest in sheol” till “the day of vengeance of our God,” when he should “awake and sing” and rejoice in the triumph of the Son of David in a new, and purified, and glorified Jerusalem.
And again of that same Son of David, and “Righteous Servant” of Yahweh, the Spirit of God thus spoke beforehand: p. 683 “The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart.” He, like Isaiah before him, rebuked the apostacy of Jerusalem, and was therefore “destroyed,” “cut off out of the land of the living.” But his rest in sheol was short, only three days and three nights; and he now walks before Yahweh in the land of the living, awaiting the time to return and raise Isaiah and all the prophets from the dead, and take possession of his royal, but long defiled inheritance.
And later still, of all in Christ who have “perished” in obedience to his commandments it may be said in the words of the prophet: “The righteous perisheth and no man layeth it to heart.” What does the world care for the death of such? It accounts itself well rid of them and their tormenting testimony. The consolation, however, of “the righteous” is sure, and is where the prophet looked for it, in the return of him who once was “cut off,” upon whom the Lord “laid the iniquity of us all,” and who returns to divide the spoil with the strong “because he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. liii.).
But the righteous were the natural “sport” of “the seed of the adulterer and the whore,” whose ways are here so terribly denounced. Rightly to appreciate the prophet’s position and the divine indignation against that which he denounced, it is necessary to have some acquaintance with the manners and customs of the nations dispossessed by Israel, and whose ways they copied with such fatal result. The following extract from a note by Rotherham on “The Destruction of the Canaanite Nations,” will be a sufficient indication of the true state of the case, monumental evidences of which are being brought to light in Palestine by excavations at the present time. In the above-named note, at the end of the book of Joshua, Rotherham says:—
“In reviewing the destruction of the nations of Canaan, it is most important to bear in mind the terrible nature of the crimes for which they were exterminated. Their very worship was grossly sensual and revoltingly cruel. In honour of their deities, women surrendered their virtue. Their sacred places were brothels. The generative organs were openly represented by disgusting p. 684 symbols. The peoples had holy (!) prostitutes, male and female—kedheshim and kedheshoth. Lustful gods are cruel, and demand to be worshipped with human blood. Hence, to the king-idol Molech, the Canaanites, with some contiguous nations, immolated their sons and daughters. At such crimes as these, nature shudders; and Palestine was fain in abhorrence, to eject her inhabitants. Who shall say that the Most High has not the right to extinguish such polluters of the earth and contaminators of mankind as these? . . . Divine equity warned the Hebrews that if they fell into the same sins, they should receive a like punishment. For their fathers’ sake, indeed, they were not to be utterly annihilated; but short of that, if they would sin, they must suffer. We know the sad sequel.”
This is enough; we need not trace the proof, which is accessible enough both inside the Scriptures and without, and is implied in the allusions of this denunciation, softened as they are in the translation. “The king-idol Molech” of the foregoing note is thought to be that meant by the allusion here in v. 9 to “the king” (Melek, or Molech). And the reference to the “slaying of the children in the valleys” (v. 5), with the history of Manasseh’s crimes, seems to justify the conclusion.
In view of such “debasement unto hell” (v. 9), God “gave them over” (Rom. i. 28), and said by the prophet: “When thou criest, let thy companies (multitude of idols), deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them; but he that putteth his trust in me shall possess the land, and shall inherit my holy mountain” (v. 13). We are witnesses of the fulfilment of the first half of this prediction, which is but the earnest of that of the last. Where are the apostates of Isaiah’s time? The wind has taken them all away, and the city that was polluted by them has been in disgrace among the Gentiles for about two thousand years. And if it be retorted, “But the prophet also is ‘taken away,’” the answer is, “Yes, but not for ever.” He will inherit the holy mountain at the time appointed, which is not yet.
“And he shall say (R.V.), (or, And one shall say), Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling-block p. 685 out of the way of my people. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls (breathing creatures, neshamoth) which I have made” (v. 14-16).
Isaiah did his best to “prepare the way and take up the stumbling-block,” and perished in the task. John the Baptist, of whom he spoke beforehand (ch. xl.), was a later “voice in the wilderness” going “before the face of the Lord to prepare his way: to give knowledge of salvation unto his people in the remission of their sins” (Luke i. 76). By angelic proclamation he was to turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. “He shall go before him,” said the angel Gabriel, “in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke i. 17). As he preached he rebuked the “generation of vipers” with which he was contemporary, and exhorted those who came to him to “bring forth fruits meet for repentance,” and to cease boasting in the flesh. But John, like Isaiah, “perished” in the work, though not before he had introduced Messiah and presented to him as Bridegroom, the Bride of the Father’s appointment (John iii. 29). This done, he was soon imprisoned for his testimony and attempt to remove the stumbling-block in the shape of Herodias (Matt. xiv.), and the sword of Herod’s executioner soon “took him away from the evil to come.”
But though John was “taken away,” Jesus remained, proclaiming himself “the way,” and in his preaching taking up the “stumbling-block out of the way of God’s people.” He was himself “a stumbling-block” to the wicked, as they were to the righteous and to themselves. They “set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling-block of their iniquity before their face,” and could not endure his preaching; while he unsparingly p. 686 rebuked their hypocrisy, and counselled reformation at any cost, in words by which they might have been saved if they could have received them. But “they stumbled at the stumblingstone,” and as it could not be that a prophet should perish out of Jerusalem, he also was there “taken away” by crucifixion.
But he was not thus finally disposed of. Being raised from the dead he became more than ever a stumbling-block to the Jews; while to the Greeks his doctrine was only “foolishness.” But in process of time his own people repeated the history of the apostacy of Israel of old; and hence the rebuke of the ecclesia at Pergamos: “Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. ii. 14).
The history of Balaam and his tragic fate, recorded in the book of Numbers, is the basis of this symbolic prophecy, and must be studied in connection with it. It is true that the language of the Revelation is highly symbolic and metaphorical; but the fact that flesh and blood remains the same from age to age, and the study of the New Testament combined with that of the history of Christianity, alike forbid the exclusion of the literal element in the first or any succeeding century. Stumbling-blocks there have always been, and they remain to this day.
The truth as it is in Jesus is the moral power of persuasion in any individual case; but a more drastic “preparation of the way” remains, and the Lord himself will apply it. It consists of the “taking away” of the wicked of all sorts at his appearing. We get a glimpse of it in his expounding to his disciples of the parables of “the tares of the field.” “The field,” he said, “is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this age. The Son of Man shall p. 687 send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend (all skandala, stumbling-blocks), and them which do iniquity. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear let him hear” (Matt. xiii. 38-43).
This is the end to which the prophecy of Isaiah looks. Then indeed the Father will dwell in and with the contrite ones, and an end (though not “the end”) of the spirit’s contention with flesh will have been reached, in which, though the slain of the Lord will have been many, a remnant sufficient for the Father’s purpose will have been saved.
Meanwhile Israel is smitten and God’s face is still hidden from him, while Christendom, professing Christ’s name and service, like Israel of old “goes on frowardly in the way of its own heart.” But the word of God says of Israel, “I will heal him” (v. 18), “I will lead him also and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, Peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him. But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.”
“The Israel of God” is, of course, the kernel of these promises, the true seed of Abraham and Isaac, who believe God’s promises and keep his commandments, “The fruit of the lips” spoken of here is “the fruits of the spirit” of apostolic preaching. “What fruit had ye then,” asks Paul, “in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Rom. vi. 21-22). God has created this in Christ Jesus. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit let us also walk in p. 688 the spirit” (Gal. v. 22-25). “Chastening yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Heb. xii. 11). “By him (Jesus) let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of the lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb. xiii. 15-16).
This is sufficient indication of what is meant in the prophecy by “the fruit of the lips.” It is all of God, and will result in everlasting peace and prosperity. It was God who sent the word to Israel, “preaching peace by Jesus Christ” (Acts x. 36); and it was God who made him joyful for ever, after he was despised and rejected and slain. And it is God who, by him, will satisfy every humble and contrite soul who trusts in him.
But—let us remember, for there is as much need as ever—“No peace, saith God, to the wicked.”