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 my Lord Jehovah shall help me;_
_Therefore, I let not myself be rebuffed:
Therefore, I set my face like a flint,_
_And know that I shall not be shamed._
_Near is my Justifier; who will dispute with me?_
_Let us stand up together!_
_Who is mine adversary?_[199]
_Let him draw near me._
_Lo! my Lord Jehovah shall help me;_
_Who is he that condemns me?_
_Lo! like a garment all of them rot;_
_The moth doth devour them._
These lines, in which the Holy Servant, the Martyr of the Word,
defies the world and asserts that God shall vindicate his innocence,
are taken by Paul and used to assert the justification, which every
believer enjoys through faith in the sufferings of Him, who was
indeed the Holy Servant of God.[200]
The last two verses of ch. l. are somewhat difficult. The first of them
still speaks of the Servant,[201] and distinguishes him--a distinction
we must note and emphasize--from the God-fearing in Israel.
_Who is among you that feareth Jehovah,_
_That hearkens the voice of His Servant,_
_That walks in dark places,_
_And light he has none?_
_Let him trust in the name of Jehovah,_
_And lean on his God._
That is, every pious believer in Israel is to take the Servant for an
example; for the Servant in distress _leans upon his God_. And so
Paul's application of the Servant's words to the individual believer is
a correct one. But if our prophet is able to think of the Servant as an
example to the individual Israelite, that surely is a thought not very
far from the conception of the Servant himself as an individual.
If ver. 10 is addressed to the pious in Israel, ver. 11 would seem to
turn with a last word--as the last words of the discourses in Second
Isaiah so often turn--to the wicked in Israel.
_Lo! all you, players with fire,_[202]
_That gird you with firebrands!_
_Walk in the light of your fire,_
_In the firebrands ye kindled._
_This from my hand shall be yours;_
_Ye shall lie down in sorrow._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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