Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions Volume Ii Part 7

The setting up of the ensign for the Gentiles, around which they are to a.s.semble for the purpose of restoring Israel, took place, in a prelude, under Cyrus; comp. chap. xiv. 2, xlix. 22: "Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold I lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the nations, and they bring thy sons on their bosom, and thy daughters are carried upon their shoulders;" where the sons and daughters correspond to the exiled men of Israel, and to the dispersed women of Judah, equivalent to all the exiled and dispersed men and women. As early as in the Song of Solomon, we are taught that in the Messianic time the Gentile nations will take an active part in the restoration of Israel. According to the first part of that Song, the appearance of the heavenly Solomon is connected with the reception of the Gentiles into His Kingdom, and that, through the instrumentality of the [Pg 130] old covenant people, as is intimated by the name of the daughters of Jerusalem; comp. my Comment. on Song of Solomon, iii. 9-11. In the second part of that Song we have a description of the reunion of apostate Israel with Christ,--which reunion takes place by the co-operation of the daughters of Jerusalem, the same whom they formerly brought to salvation. According to Is. lxvi. 20, the Gentiles, converted to the Lord in the time of salvation, bring the children of Israel for an offering unto the Lord,--A significant allusion to the pa.s.sage before us is found in John xi. 52: ?a? ??? ?p?? t?? ??????

????, ???' ??a ?a? t? t???a t?? Te?? t? d?es???p?s??a s??a???? e??

??. It is the same mercy seeking that which is lost that manifests itself in the gathering of apostate Israel, and in the gathering of the Gentiles. What is said of the one furnishes, at the same time, the guarantee for the other.

Ver. 13. "_And the envy of Ephraim departeth, and the adversaries of Judah are cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim._"

According to the explanatory fourth clause, the "adversaries of Judah"

in the second clause, can only be those among Judah who vex Ephraim. At the very beginning of the separation of the two kingdoms, their future reunion had been announced by a prophet; and this must now take place as certainly as Jehovah is G.o.d, who had promised to David and his house the eternal dominion over all Israel. The separation had taken place because the house of David had become unfaithful to its vocation. In the Messiah, the promise, to the Davidic race is to be completely realized; _and this realization has_, for its necessary consequence, the _removal for ever_ of the separation; comp. Ezek. x.x.xvii. 22. It was a _prelude_ to the fulfilment, that a portion of the subjects of the kingdom of the ten tribes united with Judah in all those times when, in the blessing accompanying the enterprises of a pious son of David, the promise granted to David was, in some measure realized,--as was the case under Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. Even before Christ appeared in the flesh, the announcement here made was all but realized. The exile put an end to the kingdom of the ten tribes, and hence also to the unnatural separation which had been designated as the severest calamity of the past, chap. vii. 17. The other tribes [Pg 131]

joined Judah and the restored sanctuary; comp. Acts xxvi. 7; Luke ii.

36. The name of "_Jews_" pa.s.sed over to the whole nation; the jealousy disappeared. This blessing was conferred upon the people for Christ's sake, and with a view to His future appearance. In Christ, the bond of union and communion is so firmly formed that no new discord can alienate the hearts from one another.

Ver. 14. "_And they fly upon the shoulder of the Philistines toward the West, spoil together the children of the East; Edom and Moab shall be their a.s.sault, the children of Ammon their obedience._"

As Israel is united internally, so it shall be externally powerful.

According to the Song of Solomon vi. 10, the congregation of Israel when, by her renewed connection with the Lord and His heavenly Solomon, she has regained her former strength, is "terrible as an army with banners."--The nations mentioned are those of the Davidic reign. Even before the time of the Prophet, they had been anew conquered by Jehoshaphat, in whom the spirit of David had been revived anew; comp. 2 Chron. xx.; Ps. lx.x.xiii. A prelude to the fulfilment of the prophecy before us took place at the time of the Maccabees, comp. Vol. i. p.

467, 468. But as regards the fulfilment, we are not ent.i.tled to limit ourselves to the names here mentioned. These names are the accidental element in the prophecy; the thought is this: As soon as Israel realizes its destiny, it partakes of G.o.d's inviolability, of G.o.d's victorious power. The Prophet's sole purpose is to point out the victorious power, to give prominence to the thought that outward prosperity is the necessary consequence of inward holiness.--In the first clause, the image is taken from birds of prey; comp. Hab. i. 8: "They fly as an eagle hastening to eat," which pa.s.sage refers to the enemies of Israel at the time of wrath. In the time of _grace_, the relation will be just the reverse.--???? ?? occurs, in a series of pa.s.sages in Deuteronomy, of that which is taken in hand, undertaken.

Edom and Moab are no longer an object of _Noli me tangere_ for them.

Ver. 15. "_And the Lord destroys the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, and waves His hand over the River with the violence of His wind, and smiteth it into seven streams, that one may go through in shoes._"

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Ver. 16. "_And there shall be a highway for the remnant of His people which was left from a.s.shur; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt._"

The miraculous power of the Lord shall remove all obstacles to deliverance. These obstacles are represented by the Euphrates and the Red Sea (the tongue of the Sea of Egypt, equivalent to the point of it), with a reference to the fact that, among the countries, in ver.

11, from which Israel is to be delivered, there had been mentioned, _Egypt_, between which and the Holy Land was the Red Sea, and a.s.shur, situated on the other side of Euphrates. To Euphrates, upon which there will be repeated that which, in ancient times, was done in the case of Jordan, the Prophet a.s.signs, in ver. 15, the last place, on account of ver. 16. The highway in that verse is prepared by the turning off of Euphrates, so that we might put: "And thus," at the beginning of the verse. As regards the destroying, ?????, it is the forced devoting to G.o.d of that which would not spontaneously serve Him; compare remarks on Mal. iii. 24. Objects of such devoting can properly be _persons_ only, because they only are capable of spontaneous sanctification to G.o.d, as well as of wilful desecration. The fact that it is here transferred to the sea may be accounted for by its being personified. The destruction which is inflicted upon the sea is, in it, inflicted upon the enemies of G.o.d thereby represented, inasmuch as it opposes the people of G.o.d, and thus, as it were, strives against G.o.d.--_With the violence or terror of His wind_, _i.e._, with His violent, terrible wind. There is in this an allusion to Exod. xiv. 21, according to which the Lord dried up the Red Sea by a violent wind. Against _Drechsler_, who thinks of "G.o.d's breathing of anger," first, this reference to Exod. xiv. 21, and farther, the circ.u.mstance that the ??? appears as something which the Lord has in His hand, are decisive.--In ver. 16 we need not, after "from a.s.shur," supply the other nations mentioned in ver. 11, which would be unexampled; but a.s.shur appears as the representative of all the enemies of G.o.d. Similarly in Micah also, a.s.shur is, with evident intention, used typically; comp. Vol. i. p. 515, 516.

[Footnote 1: Notwithstanding the arguments which we stated in favour of our proposition, that the original form of the name is ???. _Ebrard_ without even attempting to refute them, a.s.sumes, in favour of a far-fetched conjecture, that the name of the place was written ????

(_Kritik. d. Ev. Geschichte_ S. 843, 1st Ed.), and has introduced this opinion even into the text of the new edition of _Olshausen's_ Commentary, edited by him. The circ.u.mstance that elsewhere _commonly_ the Hebrew ? is, in Greek, rendered by ?, ? by s is, in this case, where the special arguments in favour of ??? are so strong, of no consequence.]

[Footnote 2: _Hofmann_ (_Weissagung und Erfullung._, II. S. 64) was the last who a.s.sumed that the Evangelist had generally in view those pa.s.sages in which the lowliness, contempt, and rejection of Christ are spoken of, and that, in the Old Testament pa.s.sages in question, the ?a???a??? was not contained according to the letter, but according to the spirit only. But this is opposed not only by the whole manner of quotation which is given as a literal one, but also by a whole series of a.n.a.logies: Christ's birthplace in Bethlehem, His stay in Jerusalem, His ministry in Galilee, and especially in Capernaum, His entrance into Jerusalem,--all these are by Matthew traced back to prophetical declarations which have a special reference to these localities.

Against the exposition given by us, _Hofmann_ advances the a.s.sertion that neither ??? nor ??? have ever attached to them the idea of lowliness, of una.s.suming appearance. But even if a twig were not of itself something lowly and una.s.suming in appearance, yet, in the pa.s.sage before us, that idea is, at all events, implied in the connection with the _stump_ and _roots_, as well as by the contrast to ????.]

[Footnote 3: The following pa.s.sage, which we take from _Raim. Martini Pug. Fid._ III. 3, 19 p. 685, will fully ill.u.s.trate that custom: R.

_Abba_ said: His name is ???? Lord, according to the word in Jerem.

xxiii. 6; R. _Josua ben Levy_ said: "His name is Sprout, according to what is said in Zech. vi. 12. Others say that His name will be Comforter, Son of the strength of G.o.d, as is declared in Lam. i. 16.

Those from the School of R. _Siloh_ said: His name will be _s.h.i.+loh_, as is written in Gen. xlix. 10: 'Until s.h.i.+loh come.' Those from the School of R. _Chanina_ said: His name will be the Gracious one, as Jerem. said in chap. xvi. 13. Those from the School of R. _Jannai_ said: Jinnon shall be His name, according to Ps. lxxii. 17, &c."]

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CHAP. XII.

This chapter contains Israel's hymn of thanks after having obtained redemption and deliverance, and is connected with chap. ix. 2 (3), where the Prophet had, in general, mentioned the joy of the elect in the Messianic time. Here he embodies it in words. The hymn, which forms a kind of close, and, to a certain degree, belongs to the whole cycle of the preceding Messianic prophecies, is based upon the hymn of thanksgiving by Israel after having pa.s.sed through the Red Sea,--that historical fact which contained so strong a guarantee for the future redemption, and is in harmony with chap. xi. 15, 16, where the Prophet had announced a renewal of those wonderful leadings of the Lord. The hymn falls into three stanzas, each consisting of two verses. In ver. 1 and 2, and in ver. 4 and 5, the redeemed ones are introduced speaking; ver. 3 and 5, which likewise form a couple, contain an epilogue of the Prophet on the double _jubilus_ of the congregation.

Ver. 1. "_And in that day thou sayest: I will praise thee, Lord, for thou wast angry with me, and now thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest me._ Ver. 2. _Behold, G.o.d is my salvation; I trust, and am not afraid; for my strength and song is the Lord, and He became my Saviour._"

The words "my strength and my song," are from Exod. xv. 2. The two members of the verse enter into the right relation to one another, and the ?? becomes intelligible, only if we keep in mind that the words at the beginning, "The Lord is my salvation," are an expression of the conviction of the speaker; hence are equivalent to: we acknowledge Him as our G.o.d; so that the first part expresses the subjective disposition of the Church; the second, the objective circ.u.mstance of the case--that on which that disposition is founded, and from which it grew up.

Ver. 3. "_And ye draw water in joy out of the wells of salvation._"

During the journey through the wilderness, the bestowal of salvation had been represented under the form of granting [Pg 134] water. It is to it that we have here an allusion. The spiritual water denotes salvation.

Ver. 4. "_And in that day ye say: Praise the Lord, proclaim His name, declare His doings among the nations, make mention that His name is exalted._ Ver. 5. _Praise the Lord, for He hath done great things; this is known in all the earth._"

Ver. 6. "_Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in thy midst._"

There now follows a cycle of ten prophecies, which, in the inscriptions, have the name ??? "burden," and in which the Prophet exhibits the disclosures into the destinies of the nations which he had received on the occasion of the threatening a.s.syrian invasion under Sennacherib. For, from the prophecy against a.s.shur in chap. xiv. 24, 25, which is contained in the very first burden, it clearly appears that the cycle which, by the equality of the inscriptions, is connected into one well arranged and congenial whole, belongs to this period.

This prophecy against a.s.shur forms one whole with that against Babel, and by it the latter was suggested and called forth. In that prophecy, the defeat of a.s.shur, which took place in the 14th year of Hezekiah, is announced as future. It is true that the second burden, directed against the Philistines, in chap. xiv. 28-32, seems to suggest another time. Of this burden it is said, in ver. 28, that it was given in the year that king Ahaz died; not in the year in which his death was impending, but in that in which he died, comp. chap. vi. 1. The distressed circ.u.mstances of the new king raised the hopes of the Philistines, who, under Ahaz, had rebelled against the Jewish dominion.

But the Prophet beholds in the Spirit that, just under this king, the heavenly King of Zion would destroy these hopes, and would thrust down Philistia from its imaginary height. But from the time of the original composition of the prophecy, that of its _repet.i.tion_ must be distinguished. That took place, as is just shewn by the prophecy's being received in the cycle of the _burdens_, at the time when the invasion of Sennacherib was immediately impending. The a.s.syrians were the power from the _North_, [Pg 135] by whom the threatened destruction would break in upon the Philistines; and the truth of the word should be verified upon them, that prosperity is only the forerunner of the fall. In the view of the fulfilment, Isaiah repeated the prophecy.

From the series of these _burdens_, we shall very briefly comment upon those which are of importance for our purpose. First,

CHAPTERS XIII. l.-XIV. 27.

This prophecy does not contain any characteristically expressed Messianic element; but it is of no small consequence for bringing out the whole picture of the future, as it was before the mind of the Prophet. It is in it that Babel meets us distinctly and definitely as the threatening world's power of the future, by which Judah is to be carried away into captivity.

The genuineness is incontrovertibly testified by the close; and it is only by a naturalistic tendency that it can be denied. With the announcement of the deliverance from Babel is first, in chap. xiv. 24, 25, connected an announcement of deliverance from a.s.shur; and then follows in ver. 26 and 27, the close of the whole prophecy from chap.

xiii. 1, onward. Vers. 26 and 27, which speak of the whole earth and of all the nations, refer to chap. xiii., where the Prophet had spoken of an universal judgment, comp. ver. 5, 9, 10, &c.; while, in the verses immediately preceding, one single people, the a.s.syrians only, were spoken of It is thereby rendered impossible to separate chap. xiv. 24, 27 from the whole.

Behind the world's power of the present--the a.s.syrian--the Prophet beholds a new one springing up--the Babylonish. Those who have a.s.serted that the prophecy against Babel is altogether without foundation as soon as Isaiah is supposed to have composed it, are utterly mistaken.

Although the prophecy was by no means destined for the contemporaries only, as prophecy is generally destined for all times of the Church, yet, even for the Prophet's contemporaries, every letter was of consequence. If Israel's princ.i.p.al enemies belonged to the future, how very little was to be feared from the present ones; and especially if Israel should and must rise from even the [Pg 136] deepest abas.e.m.e.nt, how should G.o.d not then deliver them from the lower distress and need?

But just because weak faith does not like to draw such _inferences_, the Prophet at the close expressly adverts to the present affliction, and gives to the weak faith a distinct and sure word of G.o.d, by which it may support itself, and take encouragement in that affliction.

The points of connection must not be overlooked which the prophecy in chap. xi. offers for the prophecy before us. We already met there the total decay of the royal house of David, the carrying away of Judah into exile, and their dispersion into all lands. It is on this foundation that the prophecy before us takes its stand: it points to the power by which these conditions are to be brought about.

Farther--There, as well as here, the conditions of the future are not expressly _announced_ as such, but _supposed_: the Prophet takes his stand in the future. There, as well as here, the Prophet draws consolation in the sufferings of the present from a salvation to be bestowed in a far distant future only.

From the very outset, the Prophet announces an impending carrying away of the people, and, at the same time, that, even in this distress, the Lord would have compa.s.sion upon His people, comp. _e.g._ chaps. v., vi.

From the very outset, the Prophet clearly saw that it was not by the a.s.syrians that this carrying away would be effected. This much we consider to be fully proved by history. The progress which the prophecy before us offers, when compared with those former ones, consists in this circ.u.mstance only, that the Prophet here expressly mentions the names of the future destroyers. And in reference to this circ.u.mstance we may remark, that, according to the testimony of history, as early as at that time, the plan of the foundation of an independent power was strongly entertained and fostered at Babylon, as is clearly enough evidenced by the emba.s.sy of the viceroy of Babylon to Hezekiah.

In chap. xxiii. 13--the prophecy against Tyre, which is acknowledged to be genuine by the greater number of rationalistic interpreters--the Prophet shows the clearest insight into the future universal dominion of Chaldea, which forms the point of issue for the prophecy before us.

With perfect clearness this insight meets us in chap. x.x.xix. also, on which even _Gesenius_ cannot avoid remarking: "The prophetic eye of [Pg 137] Isaiah foresaw, even at that time, that, in a political point of view, Babylon would, in a short time, altogether enter into the track of a.s.syria."