074. Israel’s Prayer In Returning To God, And For The Unconverted Remnant Of The People.

Israel’s Prayer In Returning To God, And For The Unconverted Remnant Of The People. The Prayer as recorded.—Isaiah 63:15 to Isaiah 64:12 The Lord’s Answer.—Isaiah 65:1 to Isaiah 66:24 In the following prayer the prophet has given us the words that penitent Israel shall use in returning to the Lord. The prayer is preceded by a thankful commemoration of God’s former mercies, and an earnest inquiring whether they are forgotten by the Most High; though all should disown them, yet they earnestly beseech him to remember them, acknowledging humbly there is help in no other. There is a beautiful allusion to the frailty of human hopes, represented by the figure of the fading leaf, so also an expression of the willingness of God’s chosen people to be entirely submissive, even as the clay in the hands of the potter. The “beautiful house alluded to was the temple of Jerusalem, now desolated. But this prayer of Israel will be heard; she hath not been cast off forever, nor is she to be always trodden down by the Gentiles. In the beautiful imagery of this prophet, a voice will say to the oppressed and fallen ones, “Arise shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is arisen upon thee.” We know not the precise instrumentality God will employ to call these wanderers from every island and shore on which they are scattered, but we believe that the north shall give up and the south keep not back, and the sons and daughters of Israel shall be gathered from far, for the voice of the Almighty has spoken it. God will hear the prayer of penitent Israel, and of his chosen children, for her welfare and restoration. The religion of Jesus, so long despised, will yet become theirs, and every hill-top and valley of Judea shall echo the song, “Glory to God in the highest; peace on earth and good will to men.” We are taught by the prophet in this prayer to put no trust whatever in our own merits, that our supplications must be earnest, that God may be approached as a Father, and that all who come in this way will prevail; and though God chooses his own time, and his people are sorely afflicted, yet all who trust in his mercy shall be accepted, and inherit, in the language of this prayer, the joy that no eye but God hath seen.