3. "The sense in which אות is elsewhere used in Scripture, is altogether disregarded by this interpretation. For, according to it, אות would refer to a future event; but according to the _usus loquendi_ elsewhere observed, אות 'is a prophesied second event, the earlier fulfilment of which is to afford a sure guarantee for the fulfilment of the first, which is really the point at issue.'" But, in opposition to this, it is sufficient to [Pg 52] refer to Exod. iii. 12, where Moses receives this as a sign of his Divine mission, and of the deliverance of the people to be effected by him: "When thou hast brought forth my people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain." In chap. xxxvii. 30, our Prophet himself, as a confirmation of the word spoken in reference to the king of Asshur: "I make thee return by the way by which thou earnest," gives this sign, that, in the third year after this, agriculture should already have altogether returned into its old tracks, and the cultivation of the country should have been altogether restored.[4] The fact here given as a sign is later than that which is to be thereby made sure. The sign consists only in this, that the idea is vividly called up and realized in the mind, that the land would recover from the destruction; and this of course, implies the destruction of the enemy. But in our chapter itself,--the name of Shearjashub affords the example of a sign (comp. chap. vii. 18), which is taken from the territory of the distant future. It is time that _commonly_ אות is not used of future things; but this has its reason not in the idea of אות, but solely in the circumstance that, ordinarily, the future cannot serve as a sign of assurance. But it is quite obvious that, in the present case, the Messianic announcement _could_ afford such a sign, and that in a far higher degree than the future facts given as signs in Exod. iii., and Isa. xxxvii. The kingdom of glory which has been promised to us, forms to us also a sure pledge that in all the distresses of the Church, the Lord will not withhold His help from her. But the Covenant-people stood in the same relation to the first appearance of Christ, as we do to the second.