Chapter 57

examination: Ver. 18. "And I ... their works and their thoughts; _the time cometh to gather_ all Gentiles and tongues, and they come and _see_ my glory." The first hemistich still belongs to the threatening. The holy God and unholy men, the unholy members of the Church to which the Lord spake: "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy," and their sinful thoughts and words are simply placed beside one another, [Pg 360] other, and it is left to every one to draw from it the inference as to the fate awaiting them. "I and their works"--what an immense contrast, a contrast which must be adjusted by the judgment! With the threatening, the Prophet then connects, by a suitable contrast to the rejection of a great part of the covenant-people, the calling of the Gentiles. The glory of the Lord, which the Gentiles see, is His glory which, up to that time, was concealed, but is now manifested; compare Is. xl. 5, lx. 2, lii. 10, liii. 1. Ver. 19. "And I set a sign among them, and send from among them escaped ones unto the nations, to Tarshish, &c., to the isles afar off that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory, and they declare my glory among the Gentiles,"--The suffix in [Hebrew: bhM] can refer to those only from among the nations and tongues who have come and seen the glory of God. They are sent out to bring the message of the living God, the message of salvation to those also who hitherto have not come. By the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they are marked out as blessed of the Lord, as His servants, separated from the world given up to destruction. Just as the wicked, the servants of the prince of this world, have their _mark_, Gen. iv. 50, so have the servants of God theirs also, which may be recognised by all who are well disposed. It is only by one's own fault, and at one's own risk, that the sign is not understood. The fact that "unto the nations" forms the beginning, and the "isles afar off"--isles in the sea of the world, kingdoms--the close, shows that the single names, Tarshish, &c., are only individualizations. In the following verse, too, all the heathens are spoken of Ver. 20: "And they bring, out of all nations, your brethren for a meat-offering unto the Lord, upon horses, &c., to my holy mountain to Jerusalem, as the children of Israel bring the meat-offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." It is in this verse that it clearly appears, that Zephaniah depends upon it; and it is by the offering of the spiritual meat-offering that his dependence is recognized. The subject in "they bring" is the Gentiles, to whom the message of salvation has been brought. They, having themselves attained salvation, offer to the Lord, as a meat-offering, the former members of His Kingdom who were separated from it. It is they, not the Gentiles who have become believers, who in the second [Pg 361] part of Isaiah, are throughout designated as the _brethren_. Salvation is first to pass from Israel to the Gentiles, and shall then, from them, return to Israel. The two verses before us thus contain a sanction for the mission among the heathens and among Israel. Vers. 18 and 19 divide the conversion of the Gentiles into two main stations; it is only when the Church has arrived at the second, that the missionary work among Israel will fully thrive and prosper. To the _clean vessel_ in which the outward sacrifice was offered, correspond the faith and love with which they, who were formerly heathens, offer the spiritual meat-offering. Ver. 21: "And of them also will I take for Levitical priests, saith the Lord." Of them, _i.e._, of those who formerly were heathens; for it is to them that, in the words preceding, a priestly function, viz., the offering of the meat-offering, is assigned. Of them _also_; not merely from among the old covenant-people, to whom, under the former dispensation, the priestly office was limited. The fact that the priests are designated as Levitical priests, is intended to keep out the thought that the point in question related only to priests in a lower sense, beside whom the Levitical priesthood, attached to natural descent, would continue to exist in full vigour. Priests with full dignities and rights are here so much the more required, that, according to what precedes, the point in question does not refer merely to a personal relation to the Lord, to immediate access to the throne of grace, but to the priestly office proper.

Vers. 11-13 describe the internal condition of the redeemed Church of the future,--a condition so different from the present one. The expression, "they that proudly rejoice in them," is from Is. xiii. 3. [Hebrew: ki] in ver. 13 is to be accounted for from the fact, that wherever there exists the blessing promised by the Law of God (Lev. xxvi. 6) to faithfulness, faithfulness itself must exist.

In ver. 14 ff., the Jerusalem of the future is addressed; compare the expression, "at that time," ver. 20.

[Pg 362]

THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.

GENERAL PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

In Malachi iii. 1, the Lord promises that He would send His messenger who should prepare the way before _Him_, who was to come to His temple, judging and punishing; vers. 23, 24 (iv. 5, 6): that before the coming of His great and dreadful day, before He smites the land with a curse, He would send another Elijah, who should bring back the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers. Even before this prophecy was expressed in words, it had _actually_ been given in the existence of Jeremiah, who, during the whole long period of forty-one years, before the destruction, announced the judgments of the Lord,--who, with burning zeal and ardent love to the people, preached repentance,--and who, even after the destruction, sought the small remnant that had been left, and was anxious to secure it against the new day of the Lord, which, by its obstinate impenitence, it was drawing down upon itself. It is this typical relation of Jeremiah to John the Baptist and Christ, of which the Jewish tradition had an anticipation, although it misunderstood and expressed it in a gross, outward manner, by teaching that, at the end of days, Jeremiah would again appear on earth,--it is this, which invests with a peculiar charm the contemplation of his ministry, and the study of his prophecies.

The name of the Prophet is to be explained from Exod. xv. 1, from which it is probably taken. It signifies "The Lord throws." He who bore it was consecrated to that God who with an almighty hand throws to the ground all His enemies. From chap. i. 10: "See, I set thee to-day over the nations [Pg 363] and over the kingdoms, to root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant," it appears that it was by a dispensation of divine providence, that the Prophet bore this name with full right, and that the character of his mission is thereby designated. The judging and destructive activity which the Prophet, as an instrument of God, is to exercise, is here not only placed at the commencement, but four appellations are also devoted to it, whilst only two are devoted to his healing and planting activity. As the object of the _throwing_, we have to conceive, not of the unfaithful covenant-people only. This appears from the mention of the _nations and kingdoms_ here, and farther, from ver. 14, where the Lord says to the Prophet: "Out of the North the evil breaks forth upon all the inhabitants of the earth." To be the herald of the judgment to be executed upon the whole world by the Chaldeans, was so much the destiny of the Prophet, that, in chap. i. 3, the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in which this judgment was brought to a close, as far as Judah was concerned, is mentioned as the closing point of his ministry. The Prophet, as is reported by the book itself, still continued his ministry even among the remnant of the people; but that is lost sight of The "carrying away of Jerusalem" is treated as the great closing point; just as, in a manner altogether similar, it is, in the case of Daniel, in chap. i. 21, the year of Israel's deliverance, although, according to chap. x. 1, his prophetic ministry extended beyond that period.

Jeremiah was called to his office when still a youth, in the 13th year of king Josiah, and hence one year after the first reformation of this king, who, as early as in the 16th year of his life, and the 8th of his reign, which lasted 31 years, began to seek the Lord. A king such as he, unto whom no king before him was like, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, (2 Kings