ISAIAH. INTRODUCTION. I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS ON THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS. § 1. The "Prophets" of the Hebrew Canon; their function as God's envoys to Israel; § 2 yet they all testify to God's universal Kingdom. §3. The assumption that God could not, or would not, have enabled men to foresee the distant future, shewn to be groundless. II. ON THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ISAIAH. §§ 1, 2. The duration of his ministry. §3. The downward course of events from Solomon's time to Uzziah's. §4. The national crisis under Uzziah, and Isaiah's work in regard to it. $5. This period a remarkable epoch in world-history. III. THE UNITY OF THE Book of ISAIAH $$ 1, 2. All historical evidence in its favour. §3. The grounds, the method, and the results of the disintegration-theory. § 4. The dictum, on I. Introductory Remarks on the Prophetical Books. PAGE I 7 1. THE title "PROPHETS" covers a larger space in the Hebrew Bible than it does in our own. It there includes the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel I and II, and Kings I and II, which are called the Former Prophets; while the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel' with the As Daniel did not prophesy directly to Israel, (his mission had a far wider range), his book is placed in the Hebrew Bible in the Third Division, the Hagiographa; which includes all the sacred writings besides the "Law" and the “Prophets.” VOL. V. which it rests, is inconsistent with facts. 5. The alleged critical objections examined; and found to supply strong confirmation of the unity of authorship. § 6. Positive evidence proving the close correlation of the two parts of the book. IV. HINTS ON THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. § 1. The language of prophecy analogical. §§ 2, 3. The importance of interpreting the prophetic books by the earlier books of Scripture; $4 and of remembering that the book of Isaiah is entitled his "Vision." § 5. The prophecies concerning Gentile nations; their bearing upon the Israelic Church. PAGE 18 22 ib. in the chronological order 24 towards, or receding from, the high purpose of their vocation, as the Holy People, through whom blessedness should be diffused over all the nations of the earth; and in what ways their Invisible King exercised His gracious authority among them; rewarding, encouraging, punishing, leading to repentance, delivering; providing ever anew fresh safeguards and additional motives of obedience; until all the resources of long-suffering goodness had been tried in vain, and judgment was at last pronounced upon the unfaithful nation. (2) And it was the function of the prophets to be God's envoys, to explain to the people the design of the several acts of His administration; to vindicate His righteousness; to make in His name renewed offers of mercy; to republish the fundamental truths of the Law; to reassert the obligations of the Covenant; and, at last, when the period of probation was drawing to its end and sentence of exile and excommunication had been passed in the court of heaven, then to declare aloud before heaven and earth, that in spite of man's unfaithfulness God's loving purposes should not be frustrated; that His promise of salvation for the whole world should yet be made good by means of a Person whom He had ordained, One who should be Son of David, Son of Abraham, and Son of God. Thus the two series of the "Prophets" combined set forth the entire issue of the Sinaitic Covenant. The "Former" cycle exhibits the Law as "holy and just and good," yet unable to bring in an epoch of righteousness. The "Latter" cycle then comes forward, "as a light shining in a dark" and dreary "region'," and points to a time, when the Law shall be transfigured and glorified, and its interior purpose be realized before all nations. It is desirable, then, to bear in mind, and to profit by, the arrangement which exists in the Hebrew. At the same time, it is obvious that, when the books of the New Testament were added to the canon, the natural position of the prophetical books would be at the end of the Old Testament volume; as if looking towards the histories of that great work, which (in outline) they had foretold". § 2. In the Hebrew, as in the English, Isaiah stands first among the prophets": though four, at least, of the minor prophets (Jonah, Joel, Amos, and Hosea) preceded him in time. The fitness of this arrangement will be readily admitted, on several grounds: of which one only need be referred to. The book of Isaiah ranges over the whole field of prophetic vision. It begins with a reiteration of the terms of the Mosaic Covenant. When that elicits no signs of repentance, it proceeds to record against the people a sentence of reprobation. Then the instrument, by which God's chastisement should be inflicted, is declared. Assyria shall overthrow Samaria and bring Judah into the extremity of peril. But the prophet is instructed. to assure the faithful remnant of safety, not only during the Assyrian crisis, but for all future time. He promises the birth of One whose name should be "Immanuel," "Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God." This dying world shall be rescued; and "death swallowed up for ever." In Zion would be laid "a sure Foundation," for the Church's faith to build upon. "The Servant of the Lord" should take the burden of human sin upon Him, and bear it away. He should found a New Covenant, under which the glory of the Lord should be revealed to all nations, and "a new heaven and a new earth" should be created, the eternal abode of holiness. When we look at the breadth and grandeur of the "Vision," we need no further reason for acquiescing in the existing order. Still the chronological order must be remembered, and the earlier books be viewed as standing in an organic relation to this. Indeed it is only by studying the whole body of the prophets that we can get a clear idea of the one ruling purpose which pervades them all. back to the witness of the prophets; Matt. i. 23; Mark i. 2, 3 (combining Isaiah and Malachi); Luke i. 32, 33, 70, 76; John i. 23, 29. In a Talmudic treatise (the 'Bava Bathra') we have the three greater prophets placed in the order,-Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah:-one motive of this arrangement, probably, being to bring the last chapter of 2 Kings into connexion with the book, of which it is the conclusion (Jer. lii). Obadiah is held by many to have been prior to Isaiah. |