iii. 16-18), and of countless sacrifices for truth and righteousness
known only to God, but which He will never forget. But if a man does not really believe this truth, how easily is he swept away by temptation, whether it presents itself threateningly or seductively! 3. God has revealed Himself _as, for Christ's sake, pardoning absolutely all who repent and believe._ Into the hearts of those who accept this revelation there come peace and joy, but into their hearts only. Want of faith in this revelation is the secret of all painful efforts to merit the Divine mercy. 4. God reveals Himself _as the Saviour of His people from sin,_ as their Sanctifier from all the stains of iniquity. Want of faith in this revelation is the secret of the trouble that fills and oppresses many devout souls. They will never travel towards Zion with steadfast feet and rejoicing hearts until they do indeed believe it (Jude 24, 25). 5. God reveals Himself in Christ _as the Good Shepherd who is with His people always._ How troubled, because of the possibilities of life and the mystery of death, are those who do not with any vital faith accept this revelation which He has been pleased to give us! But the twenty-third Psalm is the song of those who do believe it (P. D. 1156-1160).
The practical application of all this is very simple, but supremely important. First, let us inquire whether God is worthy of our trust; and then, if the inquiry should lead us to an affirmative conclusion, let us trust Him. This trust will transform our whole life. No terrors shall have power to dismay us. The misery of Ahaz and his people (ver. 2) we shall never know (H. E. I. 1911-1919); but ours shall be the rejoicing confidence of the spiritual hero of whom Ahaz was such an unworthy descendant (Ps. xxvii. 1-6; P. D. 1177).
STABILITY THROUGH FAITH.
vii. 9. _If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established._
Thus closes the address of Isaiah to Ahaz and his people on a very memorable and trying occasion. . . . Its meaning is, Take God at His word; place entire reliance upon Him, and not upon an arm of flesh. If ye will not do this as a country, the state cannot be safe; and if you will not do this as individuals, your minds cannot be composed and established. Now, let us pass from the house of David naturally to the house of David spiritually, and pursue the train of thought set in motion. Let us consider the stability of faith, and the peace it induces. In the Christian's life there are three kinds of stability. +I. There is a stability of judgment.+ This regards the _truths_ of religion. It is of great importance to have a judgment clear and fixed, as it respects the great concerns of the soul and eternity, and the great doctrines of the Gospel of Christ; for as we think we feel, as we feel we desire, and as we desire we act, and as we act our characters are formed and our conditions determined. Instability concerning these great truths is both perilous and painful; but whence is stability to come? Not through human authority; for what one patronises, another denies. Not through human reason (H. E. I. 537, 1087, 2022-2024; P. D. 2926, 2929, 2931, 2934). There must be a revelation received by faith; Divine declarations, believed because God has made them. This leads to an experience which tends still further to establish the Christian in the faith (H. E. I. 1087, 1142-1148). +II. There is a stability of practice.+ This regards the _duties_ of religion (1 Pet. i. 5). In order to see the strength and beauty of the sentiment contained in the text, let us place the believer in three positions. 1. In a place of _secrecy._ To many this is a place of temptation. Not so to the believer. Faith brings God and places Him before us (Gen. xvi. 13; xxxix. 9). 2. _In prosperity and indulgence_ (Prov. i. 32). But faith brings to the Christian the earnests of a better country, the first-fruits and foretastes of it, and thus gives him a victory which others can never achieve (1 John v. 4). 3. In a condition of _suffering and danger_ (Heb. xi. 24-27; Dan. vi. 10; H. E. I. 1911-1919). +III. There is a stability of hope.+ This regards the _comforts_ of religion (Rom. xv. 13; 1 Pet. i. 8; Ps. xxiii. 1, 4, 6). 1. _Beware of unbelief._ It is a grievous offence against God; it is hurtful and perilous to man. Every sin renders our salvation impossible by the law, but only one sin renders it impossible by the Gospel, and that is unbelief; not by any desire or threatening of God, but by its natural tendency and result. For there is only one remedy that can restore a perishing sinner, and if this be rejected, destruction is inevitable (H. E. I. 443). 2. _Labour and pray for an increase of faith_ (Mark ix. 23; 2 Chron. xx. 20).--_William Jay: Sunday Morning Sermons,_ pp. 101-109.
MAN'S IMAGINED INDEPENDENCE OF GOD.
vii. 12. _But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord._
We are commanded to ask for all we need and desire (Matt. vii. 7; Phil. iv. 6). But many say, "I will not ask." +I. Men are apt to act thus when possessed of earthly resources.+ How hard it is for a man of wealth to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread!" He has much goods laid up for many years. How natural for a man in health and prosperity thus to forget his dependence on God (H. E. I. 4000, 4001). Even in trouble a man is apt to look elsewhere for aid: _e.g.,_ in sickness to the physician; even when convinced of sin, to his own efforts, or to a human priest. +II. Men often act thus on the pretence of not tempting God.+ On the ground that their affairs are beneath His notice (H. E. I. 4015-4025, 2245-2248, 2325, 3226, 3403). On the ground that God has already established the laws by which all things are regulated (H. E. I. 3179-3182, 3751, 3752, 3757). +III. But the real reasons why men act thus are because they trust in themselves, and have no real faith in God.+ The real reason why Ahaz did not ask was because he was bent on forming an alliance with Assyria. Let it be ours gratefully to accept the privilege so graciously offered, seeing that God has given us far more than was given to Ahaz: we have all the great and precious promises contained in the Scriptures, the knowledge of the unspeakable gift of God's dear Son, the accumulated experience of all generations of His faithfulness as the hearer of prayer. We may have our own experience of it; if we will but ask, we shall receive. How much greater our sin than that of Ahaz, if in these circumstances we say, "I will not ask!"--_John Johnston._
MOMENTOUS DECISIONS.
vii. 12. _But Ahaz said, I will not ask, &c._
In studying what the commentators have to say about this chapter, I met with a sentence that set me thinking. It was this: "In that very hour, in which Isaiah was standing before Ahaz, the fate of Jerusalem was decided for more than two thousand years" (_Delitzsch_). +I. How true is this declaration!+ Ahaz was called upon to choose between the alliance with Assyria and alliance with God. His choice was announced in these four words, "I will not ask;" then he decided against God, and all the disasters which have come upon Jerusalem since that day have been in a very real sense the result of that fatal decision. +II. How typical is this incident!+ How often men, like Ahaz, arrive at decisions which are irrevocable, and unspeakably momentous! 1. To have to make decisions that may be solemn in both these senses is one of the things that make the position of a ruler or statesman so serious. Not to be coveted are the positions in which a man's resolves and utterances become fateful for whole peoples. But Pharaoh was in such a position, and like Ahaz he made a fatal mistake (Exod. x. 28). 2. Few are called to fill positions of such responsibility, but every man is at some juncture called to make a decision the results of which to him individually will be of unspeakable importance. The Young Ruler arrived at such a juncture, and made such a decision. Every one of you will at some moment be called upon to decide for or against Christ, and the decision will be final and irreversible. The fact that it is so will probably not be suspected by you; you will decide against Christ, in the expectation of reversing the decision on some other occasion, _which will never come to you._ This decision you _may_ make now; it is the undeniable possibility which makes the preaching and hearing of the Gospel so solemn a thing. This supreme decision may be made by you in another manner. The test may come to you in another form--in the shape of a temptation appealing to some passion of the mind or lust of the flesh, and your eternal destiny may be determined by the manner in which you deal with that _one_ temptation (H. E. I. 4737, 4738, 4636). 3. Like a railway train, we are continually arriving at "points," and the manner in which we "take" them affects our whole after career. This is true in regard to many things, unspeakably inferior in importance to the questions of surrender or non-surrender to Christ, or of loyalty or disloyalty to Him, but yet of marvellous influence in determining whether our after life is to be happy or miserable: business, social and domestic relations.
In view of these facts--that so much may depend upon any decision we make, and that it is absolutely concealed from us _which_ decisions are final and irrevocable--what is it that, as wise men, it becomes us to do? +1. Let us settle each question that is put before us in the spirit of righteousness.+ Always let us ask only, What is _right?_ (1.) This is the only path of _safety._ (2.) By this path _heroism_ is reached, and _world-wide influence_ may be reached. We think of Moses (Heb. xi. 24-27), of the Apostles (Acts iv. 19, 20), and of Luther before the Diet of Worms, as heroes; but _they_ had no such thought--their only thought was that of fidelity to duty; and it is thus only that true heroism can be reached (P. D. 1189). +2. Let us day by day commit ourselves to the guidance of God,+ praying Him to strengthen our conscience, to sanctify our desires, and so to "work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
IRRELIGIOUS PIETY.
vii. 12. _But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord._
Ahaz here poses as a better man than the prophet. He refuses to follow the direction which Isaiah has given him, and refuses, because he alleges, to do so would be wrong. His disregard of what he knows to be a Divine direction, he covers by an appeal to a general principle which God has been pleased to give for our guidance (Deut. vi. 16). Thus he sought to silence the reproaches of conscience within, and of good men without. We may take him as the representative of that large class of persons who for their actions assign reasons that really are not their governing motives, and cover wrong actions by what appear to be cloaks of righteousness, but really are cloaks of hypocrisy.
How numerous these people are! We find them in all ranks of life; there is this skilful use of pretexts in all realms of human activity. +1. Social life,+--_e.g.,_ A man rejects a suitor for his daughter's hand, the suitor being forty-five years of age and the daughter twenty-two, professedly for the excellent reason that too great a disparity in age between man and wife is not desirable but really because the suitor is not sufficiently wealthy. +2. Business,+--_e.g.,_ A man refuses to become security for another, because, he says, he has entered into an undertaking with his partners not to incur any such responsibility, and because it is important that deeds of partnership should be honourably observed; really because he had no wish to oblige the man who asks his aid. +3. Politics.+--Why, this is a form of activity which has to a large extent ceased to be care for the welfare of the city or of the community, and has to the same extent become a game of pretexts, in which broad and great principles are used to cover petty and personal ends. +4. Religion.+--Alas! into this realm also men carry the same spirit and practices. Let us look at some of the prevalent forms of irreligious piety. (1.) There is the man who will not make any confession of Christ, because "religion is a thing between a man's own soul and God." (2.) There is the man who will not join the church, because the members of the church are so inconsistent, and inconsistent Christians are among the greatest of all hindrances to the progress of Christianity. (3.) There is the man who never attends a week-evening service, because "there is no real religion in neglecting one's daily duties, and we are expressly told that we are to be diligent in business." The same man, however, finds it neither impossible nor inconsistent with his duties to attend political meetings and popular concerts. (4.) There is the man who never subscribes to any foreign missionary society, because "religion, like charity, should begin at home, and even in this so-called Christian land there are millions of practical heathen who need to have the Gospel preached to them." How much does this man contribute towards home missions? (5.) There is the man who will not contribute towards any church-building fund, because he does not "believe in bricks and mortar," and because "true religion before God and the Father is--not to build costly sanctuaries--but to help the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world" (cf. John xii. 4-6). (6.) There is the man who has no hesitation in joining in a Sunday excursion, because "the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath," and because--the two pleas almost always go together--"it is possible to worship God as truly in the great temple of nature as in any temple built by man." Picture the man as he actually "worships God in the great temple of nature;" and inquire how he feels on Monday after what he calls "a little relaxation on the Sunday." (7.) There is the man who indulges freely in what many people consider worldly amusements, because "it is not well to be too strait-laced; Solomon, indeed, warns us against being righteous over-much; and there is nothing so likely as Pharisaism to disgust young people with religion" (H. E. I. 5038-5043).
So we might go on with this miserable catalogue. Satan, we are told appears sometimes in the guise of an angel of light, and in this respect his children are wonderfully like him; they are marvellously ingenious in using holy principles to cover unholy purposes. But what does all this ingenuity amount to? Whom do they succeed in deceiving? Not men for any length of time. The wolf never succeeds in long completely covering itself with the sheep's clothing. The mask of the hypocrite will slip aside. And when it does so, men despise him for wearing it. Did he show himself as he is, men might, would, condemn him; but they would not despise him so much. And God--He is never deceived. He loathes the false pretenders to righteousness; and ere long He will strip them bare, and expose them to the execration of the universe (H. E. I., 3017-3032; P. D., 1923, 1924, 1930).
What is the practical lesson to be learned from the whole? To pray that God will help us in all things to be sincere; to live, "as seeing Him who is invisible," remembering that _He_ sees what is invisible--the motives underlying the actions that are seen of men. Nothing else can win for us from Christ the priceless commendation, "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!"
TRIALS OF THE DIVINE PATIENCE.
vii. 13. _Will ye weary my God also?_
In this chapter we are told under what circumstances this question came to be asked. An astonishing assumption underlies it, viz., that anything can be a weariness to God, that anything can be a trial of the Divine patience. Let us think of this.
+I. It is a wonderful and glorious thing that there is a Divine patience to be tried.+ This is a distinctively Biblical idea. Uninstructed by the Scriptures, men naturally think of God as doing as He pleases and when He pleases,--His pleasure being always a selfish one; a Divinity of Power who permits nothing to arrest or delay His purposes, crushing every obstacle as an express train dashes through or over a flock of sheep that has strayed on to its track. Or if men seem with impunity from a time to disregard or defy Him, this is only because He is indifferent to them, caring nothing what they do, because He knows that whensoever He pleases He can destroy them. But in this Book we are taught to think of Him as profoundly interested in what men do, as grieved and provoked by what they do, and as not merely resisting the impulse to destroy them, but as feeling no such impulse; as longing over them with yearning desire that they would, by repentance and reformation render it possible for Him righteously to abstain from dealing with them according to their desserts. The _forbearance_ of God is a conception which we find only in this Book and that should excite our wonder, our thankfulness, our love. This forbearance of God--this marvellous Divine patience with sinful men--what is its secret and explanation? It is the _love_ which God has for us. Love is slow to strike.[1]
+II. It is a sad and terrible thing that the Divine patience should be tried.+ There are some offences that are horrible, because they outrage even our imperfect sense of what is fitting, _e.g.,_ to falsely direct a blind man, so that he shall fall over a precipice; to kill a hunted creature that has fled to us for protection. But of all these outrages, the vilest are sins against love. This is the supremely loathsome thing in seduction, that it is a sin against uninstructed but trustful love. Our whole soul rises in disgust against the brutal wretch who smites to the earth the mother who bore and nursed him. But when we think of what God is, as He is presented to us in scriptures, we see that most heedlessness to His appeals, and warnings, and entreaties, of which we are apt to think so little, is really a horrible offence, because it is a sin against a love the depth and tenderness of which is but faintly imaged forth to us by the purest and most fervent human affection. Persistence in wrong-doing--we see its hatefulness even when it is maintained in spite of human love: the prodigal hardening himself against his mother's entreaties to reform. But what must we say of it as maintained against the entreaties of a love that is more sensitive than any mother's, and that it is rendered so wonderful by the fact that it is associated with a power that could instantly destroy? It is so startling and so horrible that it ought to be impossible. But--
+III. The Divine patience is often tried.+ Sins against it are common. In this respect Ahaz does not stand alone. Men commit such sins without compunction. Have we not done so? With what contempt and indifference we have treated God's expostulations with us! We have deferred the duty of repentance. Why? Very much because we know that God is patient, and will not be swift to take vengeance upon us. We have practised on His forbearance, and thus have been guilty of the basest crime that is possible; we have deliberately sinned against love. Yet we are not troubled; so possible it is to drug conscience; so delusive is peace of conscience in the impenitent. But let us look at our conduct as God must regard it, as any reasonable and holy intelligence must regard it, and let us humble ourselves before Him against whom we have sinned so basely.[2]
+V. Those who tire out the Divine patience shall find themselves righteously confronted by the Divine justice.+[3] God will not be permanently mocked. He would be unworthy of His position if He permitted sin to go unpunished.[4] What the punishment of sin is we do not know, because we are now living in an economy in which justice is tempered by mercy. Yet in the calamities and unspeakable woes that here and now befall obdurate transgressors, we have some faint intimation of what will be their doom when, having rejected mercy, they find themselves given over to the unmitigated rigours of justice. Of these things God has spoken because He would save us from them. All the threatenings of Scripture are merciful warnings.[5] Let us give heed to them, and return to Him who has declared with equal clearness and emphasis that He will by no means clear the guilty, and that He has no delight in the death of the sinner.[6]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] H. E. I. 2295.
[2] H. E. I. 2250.
Where men are bent upon wrong there is always a strong tendency to elect a character of God that is not very just, but that is very kind--so kind that behind it they may gain some security in their wrong course. And when God's long-suffering and patience are opened up to men they often say, "Well, if God is a being that is tender and loving, I need not be in a hurry to leave off my evil ways. He will bear with me a little longer, and I do not believe that He will account with me for my petty transgressions." Men deliberately employ God's mercy and goodness to violate His feelings. . . . That is infernal; it is inhuman, because kindness seems to lay almost every man under a debt of gratitude. A dog, even, feels itself laid under a debt of gratitude by kindness. It is only men who are corrupted that would ever think of making goodness, and kindness, and generosity towards them the ground on which to base a violation of these qualities. And yet hundreds say, "God is good, and we will go on a little longer in sin." Yes, He is infinitely good. He has been patient with you; He has longed for you; He has sent ten thousand invisible mercies to you, besides those visible mercies he has showered upon you; He has been long-suffering and forgiving; He has sunk in the depths of the sea thrice ten thousands of transgressions; He did it yesterday, He is doing it to-day, and He will do it to-morrow; and shall you argue with yourself that because God is so good you will go on and insult Him, and wound Him, and injure Him? Or shall the goodness of God lead you to repentance and newness of life? I beseech of you, for the sake of honour and manhood, do not tread upon God's goodness, and generosity, and magnanimity to offend Him more.--_Beecher._
[3] H. E. I. 2296-2301, 2349.
[4] H. E. I. 2316, 2317.
[5] H. E. I. 604, 605.
[6] H. E. I. 2283, 2284.
THE VIRGIN'S SON.
vii. 13-16. _And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David, &c._
On this supremely difficult passage Dr. Kennicott preached a remarkable sermon before the University of Oxford, on the 19th of May 1765. As this sermon is not readily accessible, I here give some extracts from it.
Concerning these words there have been the four following opinions:--
I. That the whole passage relates only to a son of Isaiah.
II. That the whole passage relates only to CHRIST.
III. That the whole passage relates both to Isaiah's son and to CHRIST; to the former in a primary and literal sense, and in a secondary sense to the latter.
IV. That there are here _two_ prophecies, each literal, and each to be understood in one sense only: the first relating to CHRIST, the second to Isaiah's son.
The first of these opinions is strenuously contended for by Jews and Deists, who, by confining this passage wholly to Isaiah's son, have attempted to derogate from the authority of St. Matthew, who applies it as a prophecy to CHRIST. But the word here translated _virgin_ signifies, in every other part of the Old Testament, a _woman who hath not known man._ And the consequence from hence is, that the words "a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son," cannot be applied properly to Isaiah's wife. As it is here affirmed that the original word signifies a _virgin_ in every other text, it should be just observed that the text in the book of Proverbs (xxx. 18, 19), which has been often brought to prove the contrary, is not here forgotten; and that even _that_ text might (if the nature of this discourse would permit) be explained fairly and to satisfaction, in a manner perfectly consistent with the preceding assertion.
If it should be objected, that the original words are not future, and therefore not likely to point out an event so very distant as the birth of CHRIST, it may be answered that the words are, strongly translated, "Behold! a virgin is conceiving and bearing a son," &c. This mode of speech is the animated but customary style of prophetic Scripture, which, in order to express the greatest certainty, describes future events as _past,_ or paints future scenes as _present_ to the eye. Thus the same prophet, in his most magnificent predictions of the Messiah's birth, exultingly cries, "Unto us a child IS BORN, unto us a son IS GIVEN:" and afterwards, in his pathetic description of the Messiah's sufferings, "He is despised and rejected of men. . . . Surely He HATH BORNE our griefs," &c. But though no argument can be drawn against the Christian sense of these prophetic words from their expressing the then present time, yet an argument of great weight may, and must be, formed upon this very circumstance, in proof of what is here contended for. And certainly, if the words mean _"a virgin is conceiving,"_ a woman conceiving was yet a virgin! this wonderful circumstance was true as to the Virgin Mary, but it was true as to no other woman.
To these remarks upon the original language must be added one arising from the circumstances of the text, for we learn from thence likewise that Isaiah's wife and the birth of a child in the common way cannot have been here intended. And an appeal may safely be made to persons of sense, though wholly unacquainted with the Hebrew language, whether it is at all probable that the prophet should address himself to the house of David so solemnly, on so interesting an occasion; should awaken their attention; should raise their wonder; should promise them in the name of GOD _a sign_ or _miracle;_ should mention the future son, not of a _man_ (as usual) but of a _woman,_ and call that woman _a virgin;_ and should foretell the Birth of IMMANUEL, _i.e.,_ GOD WITH US--and yet that no more was meant by all this than that _a son should be born of a young married woman,_ which is evidently no wonder, no miracle, at all.
If then, from this constant signification of the noun for _virgin,_ from the expression of the words in the _present_ tense, and from the nature of the context, a son of Isaiah by his wife cannot have been here meant; and if the first opinion be consequently proved indefensible, we may now proceed to consider the _second,_ which is that the whole passage of the text relates only to CHRIST.
But these words cannot be wholly applied to an event distant by more than seven hundred years, because the concluding clause speaks of a child either then born, or to be born soon; and before the child so spoken of should be old enough to distinguish natural good from evil, the two kings then advancing against Jerusalem were to be themselves destroyed.
The _third_ is the option of those who contend for a _double_ completion of some prophecies, and insist that this whole passage relates both to Isaiah's son and to CHRIST; to the former in a primary and literal sense, and in a secondary sense to the latter. But--not to enter into that extensive question, whether though some prophecies relate solely to the Messiah, others may, or may not, be doubly fulfilled--I shall only observe, that no such double completion can possibly take place here.
Whether a secondary sense is insisted on, there we must have a primary sense also which is at least _true._ But the present case renders that impossible. Because, if the principle noun does everywhere else signify a _virgin;_ and if it be here meant of the Virgin Mary, and was afterwards properly applied to _her,_ it cannot with any truth be applied to the wife of Isaiah. And further, if it were possible for _every other_ prophecy to admit of a double completion, yet will not _this_--because a child's being conceived and born of a virgin happened in the world only _once;_ and therefore, as this prophecy derives its force from specifying a case _singular and without example,_ it can be fulfilled in _one_ sense only.
There remains then the _fourth_ opinion, which is, that the text contains _two_ distinct prophecies, each literal, and each to be understood in one sense only; the first relating to CHRIST, the second to Isaiah's son. This, which is the opinion of some eminent defenders of Christianity, will (I presume) appear true and satisfactory, when the end of the first prophecy, and the beginning of the second, shall have been properly considered; and when some proofs which seem absolutely necessary, but perhaps were never yet produced, shall have been added to former observations.
The genuine sense of this passage depending greatly on the circumstances of those to whom it was delivered, it is here necessary to state the history.
Ahaz became King of Judah when the people were greatly corrupted, and he himself was strongly inclined to idolatry. To correct, therefore, both king and people, God permitted a powerful confederacy to take place between Rezin, king of Syria, and Pekah, king of Israel; who, growing jealous of their formidable neighbour, invaded Judæa in the first year of Ahaz; and so successfully, that above 100,000 of the men of Ahaz were slain in the battle, and above 200,000 of his people were carried captives into the land of Israel.
Flushed with these successes, the two kings thought that Jerusalem itself would soon become an easy prey to their power; and in the second year of Ahaz marched towards it, with a resolution totally to abolish the royal succession, which had been for twelve generations in the house of David, and to establish, in the holy city, a heathen king, a Syrian, "the son of Tabeal."
At the approach of these confederates, "the heart of Ahaz was moved, and the hearts of all his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." The consternation was universal, and no wonder. For the young king and the corrupt part of his people would easily be led, from the sufferings they had felt, to fear greater. And the religious part of the nation would entertain fears still more alarming, fears of the extinction of the house of David; for were that house to fall, then farewell to all their glorious hope of a Messiah, a son of David, who was to reign for ever. These men, therefore, no doubt, "cried unto the Lord in their distresses," and expostulated with Him concerning "the sure mercies of David:" "Lord, where are Thy old loving-kindnesses, which Thou swearest unto David in Thy truth?"
Amidst these distresses, we find Ahaz "at the end of the conduit of the upper pool," probably surveying that chief source of their water, and contriving how to secure that water to the city, and defend it against the enemy. At this place, constantly frequented by the people, and then visited by the king, attended probably by the chiefs of his family, Isaiah is commanded to meet him, taking with him Shear-jashub, and to declare in the name of Jehovah, that the evil counsel against Jerusalem should not come to pass.
The counsel of these kings was evil, because, in opposition to God's appointment of the royal house of David, and His promises thereto (particularly of Messiah, the Prince, to spring from thence), their compact was, probably, like Eastern conquerors, to destroy the house of David; certainly, to remove the house of David from the throne, and to fix in the holy city a heathen king.
The prophet, having declared to Ahaz that the scheme of the confederates should be frustrated, bids him, at the command of God, ask some sign or miracle, either in heaven or on earth. "But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt Jehovah."
The king's disobedience, however coloured over with a specious piety in his allusion to a text of Scripture, appears from the next words of the prophet to have been highly censurable. And it probably proceeded from his distrust either of the power or the favour of Jehovah, after Judæa had suffered so much from these same enemies who worshipped other gods.
Thus repulsed by the king, the prophet addresses himself at large to "the house of David;" and probably there were then present other persons of the royal family. "Hear ye now, O house of David," &c.
The word _"Therefore"_ (ver. 14) may, upon good authority, be translated _"nevertheless,"_ a sense very applicable to this place. A sign or miracle hath been now offered at the command of God, but is refused; and can _you_ think it of little moment to treat with such contempt both the prophet and his God? "_Nevertheless,_ the Lord Himself will give to _you_ the sign following: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and call His name IMMANUEL. Butter and honey shall He eat, that He may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."
Here, I presume, ends this first prophecy, and the meaning may be stated thus: "Fear not, O house of David, the fate threatened you. God is mindful of His promise to your father, and will fulfil it in a very wonderful manner. Behold, a virgin (rather, THE virgin, the only one thus circumstanced) shall conceive, and bear a son; which son shall therefore be what no other has been or shall be, the seed of the woman, here styled THE VIRGIN; and this son 'shall be called' (_i.e.,_ in Scripture language, _He shall be_) IMMANUEL, God with us. But this great Person, this GOD visible amongst men, introduced into the world thus, in a manner that is without example, shall yet be truly _Man:_ He shall be born an infant, and as an infant shall He be brought up; for 'butter and honey' (rather, milk and honey) shall He eat,--He shall be fed with the common food of infants, which in the East was milk mixed with honey, till He shall know (_not_ that He _may_ know, as if such food were to be the cause of such knowledge, but _till_ He shall grow up to know) how to refuse the evil and choose the good."
Here, then, we find a comprehensive description of the Messiah, of the "Word who was made flesh and dwelt among us." His Divinity is marked by His being GOD; His residence upon earth, by His being GOD WITH US; and His Humanity, by His being born of a woman, and fed with the usual food of infants during His infant state. How perfect is the harmony between the parts of this description and the marks of the true Messiah in other sacred passages; and also between the first prophecy in the very beginning of the Old Testament and the completion of it, first mentioned in the very beginning of the New!
For the first promise of a Messiah was, that He should be (not the seed of Adam, as He would have been called, if to descend from a human father, but) "the seed of the woman," because He was to be born of a virgin. Therefore, the Apostle says, "When the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman." And that it was GOD, not man, who was to "prepare a body" for the Messiah, appears from the fortieth Psalm, according to the Apostle's very remarkable quotation of it, where the Messiah is prophetically represented as saying unto God: "A body didst Thou prepare for Me; then said I, Lo, I come; as in the volume of the Book it is written concerning Me."
Having thus endeavoured to illustrate the first prophecy contained in the text, and to defend the application of it to the Virgin Mary's conception and birth of Jesus Christ, I shall now briefly state the second prophecy, which is thus expressed in our present translation, "For before the child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings."
Now, that this verse contains a distinct prophecy may be proved thus--
1. The words preceding have been proved to be confined to the Messiah, whose birth was then distant above seven hundred years: whereas, the words _here_ are confined to some child who was not to arrive at years of discretion before the two kings, then advancing against Jerusalem, should be themselves cut off.
2. Some end was undoubtedly to be answered by the presence of Isaiah's son, whom God commanded to take with him on this visit to Ahaz; and yet no use at all appears to have been made of this son, unless he is referred to here.
3. These prophecies are manifestly distinguished by their being addressed to different persons: the first being _plural,_ and addressed to the house of David; but the second is _singular,_ and therefore is addressed to Ahaz.
We see, then, that the prophet addressed himself at large to the "house of David," when he foretold the birth of the Messiah; which, though the event might be very distant, would give present consolation, as it assured them of the preservation of the house of David; but that he addressed himself in particular to the king, when he foretold the speedy destruction of the two kings, his enemies. Note also, that King Ahaz is the person addressed in the very words which immediately follow, "The Lord shall bring upon thee and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days," &c.
This transition will be the more evident if we render the first word _But,_ as the same word is rendered just before in the same passage: "Is it a small thing for you to weary men, _but_ will ye weary my God also?" It is so rendered in this very place in our old English Bibles, printed in 1535, 1537, 1539, 1549, 1550.
The word now rendered _"the child,"_ should be here rendered "THIS _child;_" and the sense of the verse may be then clearly ascertained.
The necessity for this last rendering has been observed by more than one expositor, but perhaps no one has quoted any parallel instance, or produced proper authority for this necessary change of our translation. But, that we may not be charged with offering violence to an expression, in order to defend the Evangelists or to confute their adversaries, some authority should be produced in a point on which so much depends, and I shall mention several passages similar to the case now before us.
When Jacob blessed Joseph's two sons, he laid his hands upon their heads, and used the very same word in the plural number which Isaiah here uses in the singular; and as that word is rendered "_these_ children" by the authors of the Greek and other very ancient versions, we have their joint authorities for rendering the word here "_this_ child."
The authors of our own translation have not indeed rendered the word in the text "_this_ child," but they have shown that it _may_ be so rendered, because they have themselves, in several other places, expressed the emphatic article by _this_ and _that_ in the singular number, and by _these_ in the plural. Thus in Jeremiah xxiii. 21, "I have not sent _these_ prophets;" in Numbers xi. 6, "There is nothing before our eyes, but _this_ manna;" in 1 Samuel xxix. 4, "Make _this_ fellow to return;" and, to omit other instances, we read in Jeremiah xxviii. 16 (what it is impossible to translate otherwise), "_This_ year thou shalt die."
But besides these instances, in which similar words _may_ and _must_ be so rendered, agreeably to our present translation, in this same verse of Isaiah there is the authority of our old English translation for both the alterations here proposed; for the very first printed edition, and at least two others, render these words, "_But_ or ever _that_ child," &c. And, to obviate any prejudice against the other alteration before proposed, it should be observed that so far from their being now first thought of to favour any new opinions, almost all of them are the very readings in our former English Bibles, from which our present has varied in this and other instances very improperly.
The translation of the principal word here by _this child_ being thus vindicated, it may perhaps be asked who this child was, and the answer is, A son of Isaiah, called _Shear-jashub,_ whom God had commanded the prophet to take with him upon this occasion, but of whom no use was made, unless in the application of these words;--whom Isaiah might now hold in his arm, and to whom therefore he might point with his hand when he addressed himself to Ahaz, and said, "But before _this_ child shall grow up to discern good from evil, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." There is an absolute necessity of attending to this action in several other sacred passages, as in John ii. 18, 19. "What sign showest Thou? . . . Destroy this temple;" our Lord there pointing to His own body.
The child's name is evidently prophetical, for it signifies, _a remnant,_ or the remainder, _shall return._ And probably he was so called because born the year before, when such multitudes were carried captives into the land of Israel; and this by way of prediction to the Jews that, though they had lost 100,000 men by the sword in one day, and double that number by captivity, yet those who remained alive--the _remnant_--certainly should return to their own country.
This prophecy was soon after fulfilled. And therefore, this son, whose name had been so consolatory the year before, was with the utmost propriety brought forth now, and made the subject of a second prophecy--namely, that before _that_ child, then in the second year of his age, should be able to distinguish natural good from evil--before he should be about four or five years old--the lands of Syria and Israel, spoken of here as one kingdom, on account of their present union and confederacy, should be "forsaken of both her kings:" which, though at the time highly improbably, came to pass about two years afterwards, when those two kings, who had in vain attempted to conquer Jerusalem, were themselves destroyed, each in his own country.
* * * * * * * *
"If the miraculous birth of Christ were true, yet how could an event so very distant be properly a _sign,_ at the time when the prophecy was delivered?"
To this natural and important question, Dr. Kennicott answers:--
The original word for a _sign_ means also a _miracle._ And as God had offered _Ahaz_ a miracle to be _then_ performed, which had been refused, God Himself promises to _the house of David_ a miracle which should be performed, not then, but _afterwards._ But the word signifies, not only something done at present, to induce a belief of something future, but also something to be done afterwards, declared beforehand in confirmation of something foretold.
Thus, when God commanded Moses to go from the wilderness into Egypt to demand the dismission of his brethren, God assures him of success, and tells him: "This shall be _a sign_ unto thee; when thou hast brought forth the people, ye shall serve God upon this mountain."
And thus, when the Assyrians were marching against Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah, Isaiah is again commanded to declare that the city shall not be taken; and after saying, "This shall be _a sign_ unto you," he specifies several particulars which were all future.[1]
If then a thing, at all future, may be declared as _a sign,_ it makes no difference whether the thing be future by three years or three hundred, provided that one circumstance be observed--which is, that the man, or body of men, to whom the fact is declared to be a sign shall exist to see the thing accomplished. This was manifestly the case here. For not only Ahaz, to whom the second prophecy was delivered, saw that fulfilled as to the two kings his enemies, but also the house of David, to whom the first prophecy as addressed, saw _that_ fulfilled in JESUS CHRIST.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Compare also our Lord's treatment of the demand for a sign, Matt. xii. 38-40. In this case also, to unbelievers, was given a "sign" which they could not possibly have understood when it was given.
IMMANUEL.
vii. 14. _And shall call His name Immanuel._
His being "called so," according to the usual dialect of the Hebrew, does not signify so much that this should be His usual name, as that this should be His real character.
+I. Explain the meaning of this great and extraordinary title,+ IMMANUEL (_cf._ viii. 8 and Matt. i. 23). This title may be considered under a double reference, either, 1. To the constitution of His person; or, 2. To His office and actings as mediator. 1. It is one of the great mysteries of the Christian revelation that "God was manifest in the flesh." The eternal Son of God became man, and was both God and man in His own person. In a matter of pure revelation, and of so sublime a nature, it is certainly the wisest and safest course to keep close to the revelation, and make it the standard and measure of all our conceptions about it. 2. As mediator, He is _Immanuel_ in this sense, that in Him the presence and favour of God with His people are most eminent and conspicuous. This has always been true. (1.) As a distant friend is said to be "with us" whose heart and thoughts are with us (1 Cor. v. 3), so Christ was _Immanuel_ from all eternity as to His purpose and design of mercy, and as His heart was towards us with thoughts of pleasure (Prov. xxix. 30). (2.) All the appearances of God to His people under the Old Dispensation were appearances of Christ (John i. 18, v. 37; 2 Cor. iv. 6). 3. As He took our nature and became man. This is the essential and highest meaning of our text. He took upon Him _our_ nature, with all its parts and powers, all its natural affections and infirmities, sin only excepted. 4. As He conversed with men, and revealed the will of God to them. 5. As He offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, and reconciled God and man together. This is mentioned by the Evangelist in the same context (Matt. i. 21). This was the great end of His taking our nature, and coming into the world (Heb. v. 9). 6. As He gives His Spirit to every true believer, and is powerfully present with them to the end of the world. He is present in them, on the principle of Divine life in their souls (John xiv. 16; Ephes. iii. 17). He is present with them whensoever they assemble to hear His Word or observe His ordinances (Matt. xviii. 20; John xx. 19). He is always present with His Church to preserve and succour it. 7. As He will be the visible Judge of the world at last; He will be the Judge in our nature who was Saviour of our nature (John v. 22; Acts xvii. 13). 8. He will be the glorious and triumphant Head of the redeemed world for ever. Their happiness will lie very much in being with Him and beholding His glory; and their employment in adoring love and triumphant grace.
+II. Consider why this declaration fills the hearts of God's people with joy.+ 1. God is here presented to us as we need Him. God absolutely considered is an awful name; the Divine majesty is bright and glorious, apt to strike an awe upon our minds, to awaken a sense of guilt, and keep us at a distance from Him (Gen. iii. 10; Deut. xxvii. 58; Job xiii. 21). But now He is _God with us,_ God in our nature, conversing with sinful men, and concerned for their good; this abates the natural dread of our minds, and is a ground of holy freedom towards Him (Eph. ii. 18; iii. 12). 2. The union in Christ of all Divine and human perfections--(1) Is the reason of our worship and adoration of Him; (2) Is the proper ground of confidence and trust in Him. We may safely depend upon Him for the accomplishment of His promises and the salvation of our souls, for He is an all-sufficient Saviour. 3. By this great doctrine the solemnity of our future life is relieved. The consideration of Immanuel, or God, in our nature, has been found by pious and devout persons a great relief to their thoughts of the final blessedness; we can conceive with greater ease, and with a more sensible pleasure, of being with Christ than of being with the absolute Deity.
+III. Consider some of the duties which arise out of this wonderful and glorious fact.+ 1. Let us adore the amazing condescension of our blessed Redeemer, who stooped from heaven to earth, consented to become a man, and submitted to die a sacrifice (Phil. ii. 7, 8). 2. Let us maintain constantly and boldly before all men the doctrine of His deity. If He were only a man, or only a creature, of how a rank soever and however dignified, He could not be _God with us;_ He could not restore the fallen world, or obtain by His sacrifice the pardon of sin, or give eternal life. 3. Be always ready to approach Him. Wait upon Him in all the ways of acceptable worship, for the manifestation of His favour and communication of His grace, for further discoveries of His will, and fresh supplies of His Spirit. Particularly attend upon Him at His _table;_ here He is with us in a more familiar and sensible manner in the brightest displays of His mercy and the largest communications of His grace. 4. Regard His presence with you in all your use of the means of grace. 'Tis reckoned a rude affront among men, and a token of great disrespect, to take no notice of a great personage or overlook a superior. Regard His presence with you as a mark of condescending favour, and as the life and soul of all the ordinances you attend upon. This will hallow your thoughts in the use of them, and make them to you "means of grace" indeed.--_W. Harris: Practical Discourses on the Principal Representations of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament,_ pp. 275-304.
THE GREAT OBJECT OF CHILD-TRAINING.
(_A Sunday-School Anniversary Sermon._)
vii. 16. _The child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good._
These words, taken above, form a complete sentence; yet they occur in the clause of a sentence which is intended to denote a space of time. Before the child which Isaiah held in his arms[1] should know the difference between right and wrong certain events would take place: in other words, before a space of four or five years at the most would elapse, certain things would occur. But it is not our intention to discuss the prophecy itself; we shall find it more in harmony with the present occasion, and perhaps more profitable, to consider what may be suggested to us by these words thus taken apart from their context.
_"The child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."_ There is nothing else so important for any child to know as this (H. E. I. 1751). Seldom made the object of education; consequently the majority of lives are failures. No child knows this without training: the child's natural tendencies are precisely the reverse of this. But, if this training is urgently needed, how immense and difficult is the task of those who undertake to give it! How difficult it often is to discern between what is good and what is evil--in all the realms of thought and activity; especially in the moral realm. The difficulty of the text is not to cause us to decline it. We have wonderful helps in it. 1. GOD'S WORD. What a wonderful help that is! What a proof that in the Bible we have God's Word is this, that for helpfulness in this task no other book can be compared with it (H. E. I., 506, 508, 509). Our text reminds us of what should be our object in the Scriptural teaching we give our children. What value is there in any so-called Scriptural instruction that does not tend to cultivate spiritual discernment--hate of what is evil, and love of what is good? 2. THE EXAMPLE OF CHRIST, "the law drawn out in living characters." Let us not overlook or neglect to use this marvellous instrumentality and help. 3. THE HOLY SPIRIT. Always ready to co-operate with us. Christian parents, let the remembrance of these helps encourage you to resume this supremely important task with fresh vigour. Keep it ever in view, aim at the whole of it. The training which consists merely in fighting against evil is foredoomed to fail. The child must be taught, not merely to refuse the evil, but to choose the good. Do not be content in the field of your child's heart merely to plough up the weeds; so there the corn which, when it is full grown, shall overshadow and kill the weeds which, in spite of all your efforts, will struggle for a place there. In those who undertake to give this training, there is imperative need of seriousness, humility, hopefulness, and a wise comprehensiveness. Consider what will be the result of success in child-training such as this. 1. Our children will be spared from indescribable misery. 2. They will grow continually in all that is noble and love-worthy. 3. Learning to choose what is good, they will necessarily choose God as He has been thus revealed to us in Jesus Christ. 4. Beholding them thus allied in heart and will to the supreme source of all goodness, and daily becoming more like Him, we shall feel that all our labours and sacrifices for them are overpaid.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See the paper entitled THE VIRGIN'S SON.
A SENTENCE OF DOOM.
vii. 17-25. _The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, &c._
+I. God is sovereign in the whole earth.+ He is the great controller of all nations. All governments are but instruments which He uses when and as He pleases (vers. 17-21). A thought full of comfort for the righteous, of terror for the unrighteous.
+II. The consequent insecurity of all prosperity that is not based upon, and promotive of, righteousness+ (ver. 23). True of nations: Britain will be "_Great_ Britain" only so long as God pleases. True of individuals: (H. E. I. 3991, 4403-4406).
+III. Whatever chastisements God may have inflicted, He has always a more terrible one behind+ (ver. 17).
IV. Seeing that all these things were threatened against and inflicted upon God's chosen people, learn that +no mercy that God has shown us will furnish any immunity for us, if, notwithstanding that mercy, we sin against Him.+ There is a tendency in our evil hearts to think, that because God has been spiritually good to us, we may sin with less risk than others; but the teaching of the Bible is, that those who "turn the grace of God into lasciviousness" shall be visited with a sorer doom than others (H. E. I. 4564, 4568, 4570).
MAHER-SHALAL-HASH-BAZ.
viii. 1-4. _Moreover, the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll,_ &c._[1]
This singular record reminds us, +I. How marvellously varied are the means which God employs to bring men to a knowledge and belief of saving truth.+ That which God's ancient people needed to save them from their mistakes and miseries was real faith in the elementary truth that God is the only safe counsellor, for this simple reason, that He alone sees the end from the beginning. All their circumstances, interpreted by merely human wisdom, seemed to point to the desirableness of an alliance with Assyria, the very thing which God by His prophets emphatically forbade. That it might be easier for them to believe what seemed so incredible, namely, that the Assyrian alliance would be a calamity and not a blessing to them, God gave, in addition to the testimonies of His prophets to this effect, a prophecy of an event seemingly as incredible, namely, that the great power of the two nations, Israel and Syria, from which they had suffered so much, and which seemed so likely to be permanent, and on account of which they sought Assyrian help, should be utterly broken, and that speedily. God predicted this in words (chap. vii. 4-9), and He condescended to a symbolic act that He might impress this truth more vividly on their minds. It is of that symbolic act that we have the record here. Now that God took so much trouble for such a purpose is a fact worth thinking about. As a matter of fact, it is but one instance of His constant method of dealing with men. He is so bent on bringing them to a knowledge and belief of truth that to them would be saving, that He shrinks from no trouble at all likely to secure this result (Jer. vii. 13, 25; Heb. i. 1; Luke xx. 10-13). Illustrate, _e.g.,_ how various are the methods by which He endeavours to awaken a careless soul to anxiety, and to effect its conversion! What is the explanation of this versatility and ingenuity of methods in dealing with us? It is the tenderness of His love for us; it is His yearning solicitude for our welfare.
+II. How mercifully clear are the warnings by which God seeks to turn men from ruinous courses.+ The tablet[2] on which Isaiah was to write was to be large, and he was to write upon it "with a man's pen," an obscure expression, but yet at least meaning this, that the writing upon it was to be easily legible (Hab. ii. 2). It is true that though the words on the tablet were easily legible, their meaning was obscure. But that very obscurity was of a kind to excite inquiry (Dan. v. 5-7), and that inquiry earnestly and honestly conducted would have led God's ancient people to a saving knowledge of truth. Thus it is with all the warnings contained in God's Word (H. E. I. 602-606).
+III. How important it is that God's servants should be prudent as well as zealous.+ After the prophecy was fulfilled, unbelief might have questioned whether it had ever been given, and therefore Isaiah, acting under Divine direction, selected two witnesses whose testimony could not be gainsaid.[3] Probably that which they were required to testify was, that the prophecy, _and its interpretation,_ was delivered to them on a certain day; the interpretation embracing both the facts, that to the prophet another son was to be born, and that while still in his infancy the two nations of which Judah stood in dread should themselves be conquered. Isaiah was thus acting on the general principle given by our Lord for the guidance of His people (Matt. x. 16). Now, as then, His prophets, while loyally obedient to His directions, should maintain a constant wariness and prudence, in order that the testimony they bear for Him should be placed beyond cavil and dispute.
+IV. How certain of accomplishment are the prophecies involved in God-given names.+ The prophecy contained in the name bestowed on this child of Isaiah's was fulfilled.[4] So already had that implied in the name bestowed on the child previously born to him, _Shear-jashub,_ "a remnant shall return."[5] As it was with the sons of Isaiah, so is it with the Son of God. The names bestowed on Him are not merely glorious but empty titles. He is the very truth JESUS and IMMANUEL (Matt. i. 21-23). He is JESUS because IMMANUEL. On the promises involved in these great names we may lay hold with joyful confidence, for they also shall be fulfilled.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] In the first chapter of Hosea occurs a like instance of symbolic names given by a prophet to his children, and in Habakkuk ii. 2, we have mention of the practice of writing a prophecy on a tablet in easily legible characters, and hanging it up in the Temple, market-place, or other public resort. And most modern commentators prefer to think that Isaiah now merely inscribed "HASTE PLUNDER, SPEED SPOIL," in large letters on a metal or waxed tablet, the לִ which the Authorised Version translates "concerning," being the _Lamed_ inscription is, in Jerem. xlix. 1, 7, 23, 28; Ezek.