The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Isaiah, Volume 2 (of 2)Smith, George Adam
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Isaiah, Volume 2 (of 2)
Smith, George Adam
Bible. Isaiah -- Commentaries
_But now, saith Jehovah--_
_Moulding me from the womb to be His own Servant,_
_To turn again Jacob towards Him,_
_And that Israel be not destroyed._[189]
_And I am of honour in the eyes of Jehovah,_
_And my God is my strength!_
_And He saith,_
_'Tis too light for thy being My Servant,_
_To raise up the tribes of Jacob,_
_Or gather the survivors of Israel._
_So I will set thee a light of the Nations,_
_To be My salvation to the end of the earth._
_Thus saith Jehovah,_
_Israel's Redeemer, his Holy,_
_To_ this _mockery of a life, abhorrence of a nation, servant
of tyrants,_[190]
_Kings shall behold and shall stand up,_
_Princes shall also do homage,_
_For the sake of Jehovah, who shows Himself faithful,_
_Holy of Israel, and thou art His chosen.
Thus saith Jehovah,_
_In a favourable time I have given thee answer,_
_In the day of salvation have helped thee,_
_To keep thee, to give thee for covenant of the people,_
_To raise up the land,_
_To give back the heirs to the desolate heirdoms,_
_Saying to the bounden, Go forth!_
_To them that are in darkness, Appear!_
"Who is so blind as not to perceive that the consciousness of the
Servant here is only a mirror in which the history of Israel is
reflected--first, in its original call and design that Jehovah
should be glorified in it; second, in the long delay and apparent
failure of the design; and, thirdly, as the design is now in the
present juncture of circumstances and concurrence of events about
to be realized?"[191] Yes: but it is Israel's calling, native
insufficiency, and present duty, as owned by only a part of the
people, which, though named by the national name (ver. 3), feels
itself standing over against the bulk of the nation, whose redemption
it is called to work out (vv. 8 and 9) before it takes up its
world-wide service. We have already sufficiently discussed this
distinction of the Servant from the whole nation, as well as the
distinction of the moral work he has to effect in Israel's redemption
from Babylon, from the political enfranchisement of the nation, which
is the work of Cyrus. Let us, then, at once address ourselves to the
main features of his consciousness of his mission to mankind. We
shall find these features to be three. The Servant owns for his chief
end the glory of God; and he feels that he has to glorify God in two
ways--by Speech, and by Suffering.
I. THE SERVANT GLORIFIES GOD.
_He did say to me, My servant art thou,
Israel, in whom I shall break into glory._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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