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
Now this pair of passages, in one of which God lays the work of
redemption upon His human agent, and in another Himself puts on its
passion and travail, are only one instance of a duality that runs
through the whole of the Old Testament. As we repeatedly saw in the
prophecies of Isaiah himself,[80] there is a double promise of the
future through the Old Testament:--_first_, that God will achieve
the salvation of Israel by an extraordinary human personality, who
is figured now as a King, now as a Prophet and now as a Priest; but,
_second_ also, that God Himself, in undeputed, unshared power, will
come visibly to deliver His people and to reign over them. These two
lines of prophecy run parallel, and even entangled, through the Old
Testament, but within its bounds no attempt is made to reconcile
them. They pass from it still separate, to find their synthesis, as
we all know, in One of whom each is the incomplete prophecy. While
considering the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah, which run upon the
first of these two lines, we pointed out, that, though standing in
historical connection with Christ, they were not prophecies of His
divinity. Lofty and expansive as were the titles they attributed to
the Messiah, these titles did not imply more than an earthly ruler of
extraordinary power and dignity. But we added that in the other and
concurrent line of prophecy, and especially in those well-developed
stages of it which appear in Isa. xl.-lxvi., we should find the true
Old Testament promise of the Deity in human form and tabernacling
among men. We urged that, if the divinity of Christ was to be seen
in the Old Testament, we should more naturally find it in the line
of promise, which speaks of God Himself descending to battle and to
suffer by the side of men, than in the line that lifts a human ruler
almost to the right hand of God. We have now come to a passage, which
gives us the opportunity of testing this connection, which we have
alleged between the so-called anthropomorphism of the Old Testament,
and the Incarnation, which is the glory of the New.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account