Isaiah 42

Persia lay to the east of Babylon; Media northward, and Cyrus’s army (of which the Medes made a considerable part) is described (Jer. 50: 9, 41) as coming out of the north. For his profession of belief in the great “God of heaven and earth,” see Ezra 1: 2. Prideaux.

At a very early age Cyrus was removed to Media, lying on the north of Babylon; and it was from Media that he came down at the head of victorious hosts upon the doomed capital. The prophet thus sees in a vision a prince of eastern birth, marching upon the city from the north, and that his name was Cyrus (45: 3). Phelps.

26. The meaning of the whole verse is that the events in question had been foretold by Jehovah and no other. A.—The whole description is true not only in reference to these old idolaters, but to critics in modern times, who see only forgeries after the event in these Divine prophecies. Birks.

28. The verse is full of laconic and elliptical expressions, which however may be easily completed, as will appear from the following brief paraphrase. I will look (once more to see whether any of these idols or their prophet can predict the future), but there is no one (who attempts it). From among (all) these (I seek for a response, but there is none). Yet once more I will ask them, and (perhaps) they will return an answer. The same application of the verb to the prediction of the future occurs in chap. 44: 26.

29. This is at once the termination of the sentence begun in the last clause of the verse preceding, and the summary conclusion of the whole preceding controversy as to the divinity of any gods except Jehovah. To the usual expressions of nonentity the prophet adds two other strong descriptive terms—viz., wind and emptiness. A.

42: 1 BEHOLD my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delighteth: I have put my spirit upon him; he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgement in truth. He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgement in the earth; and the isles shall wait for his law. Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am the LORD; that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise unto graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the LORD, and declare his praise in the islands. The LORD shall go forth as a mighty man; he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, he shall shout aloud; he shall do mightily against his enemies. I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together. I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not; in paths that they know not will I lead them: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not for-

17 sake them. They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods.18, 19 Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I send? who is blind as he that is at peace with me, and blind as20 the LORD’s servant? Thou seest many things, but thou observest not; his ears are open, but21 he heareth not. It pleased the LORD, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify the law, and22 make it honourable. But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a23 spoil, and none saith, Restore. Who is there among you that will give ear to this? that will24 hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD? he against whom we have sinned, and in whose ways they would25 not walk, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle; and it set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.

Chap. 42. The servant of the Lord is the central personage throughout this chapter. This phrase, “My servant,” is first applied to the Messiah (verses 1-4); His mission and work are to enlighten the Gentiles (verses 5-7). The blessedness and joy of this stupendous change appear (verses 8-16); consequently idol worshippers shall be confounded (verse 17); and are exhorted to open their long blinded eyes to behold this Gospel light (verse 18). Now the people of the Lord appear also as His servant; they have strangely relapsed into moral blindness (verses 19, 20); for which the Lord gives them up to chastisement and spoiling to reclaim them from their sins and to retrieve His own honor (verses 21-25).

1. My servant.** It is vital to the just exposition of this chapter to fix the exact sense of the phrase, “My servant.” With only these verses (1-4) before us, it might appear quite obvious that they refer simply and only to Jesus, the Messiah. That these verses refer to Him primarily and legitimately there can be no doubt. The citation of this entire passage by Matthew (12: 18-21) as a prophecy fulfilled in Christ is itself ample authority, the more conclusive because the special point for which they are cited—viz., the quiet, modest bearing of Jesus in reference to His miracles as contrasted with the noisy, obtrusive, ostentatious pretensions of impostors generally, corresponds precisely with the strain of this prophecy. Then, moreover, the first verse, “Mine elect in whom My soul delighteth,” “I have put My Spirit upon Him,” is manifestly referred to in the scenes of the Saviour’s baptism, when the Holy Spirit fell visibly upon Him, and a voice from heaven announced, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3: 17). The same words were spoken again and distinctly heard at His transfiguration (Matt. 17: 5).

The reference of this phrase (“My servant”) to the Messiah might be confirmed yet further by comparison with other Messianic prophecies where He bears this name—e.g., chaps. 43: 10; 49: 3, 6; 52: 13 and 53: 11. All then would be very plain, and this view would seem to require no modification were it not for the demands of the context, both the preceding (41: 8, 9) and the succeeding (42: 19, 20). In both these passages it is manifest that Israel as the Lord’s professed and chosen people is also called “the servant of the Lord;” “My servant.” Hence the phrases, “My servant” and the “servant of the Lord,” must be used in a broadly comprehensive sense to include all those by whom the Lord works in promoting His kingdom in this revolted world; Jesus Christ, the head, and His people, the members, all together comprising one complex body. This view is not unfrequently presented in the New Testament. “As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you;” all alike sent forth on the same mission, to do various parts of the same great work. It should also be noticed that this view is entirely in harmony with the scope of the previous chapter (41), the central idea of which is, God and His people versus sin and its earthly champions; a grand antagonism in which the Almighty God is one party, working, however, with and through His Son and His redeemed people; and the nations of idolaters, with all their idol gods, are the other. Entirely in harmony with this strain of chap. 41, our present chapter expands more in detail the agents through whom the Lord works in this world the manner and spirit of their work and the results. In such a detailed account, the Messiah must of necessity be prominent. Hence the chapter speaks first of Him. In the closing paragraph (verses 19-25) His people are altogether in the foreground, this passage being entirely inapplicable to the Messiah, but painfully true of His people, especially in the age before His personal advent. This view of the scope of the chapter and in particular of the phrase, “My servant,” seems to meet exegetically all the conditions of the case. Hence there is no occasion to discuss or refute the theory that this “servant” is Isaiah, or the prophets taken collectively. H. C.

Briefly, the underlying idea of the Old Testament, in its subjective aspect, is that of “the servant of the Lord.” The history of the Old Testament in its progress to the New is that of the widening of the idea of the servant of the Lord into that of the kingdom of God. Lastly, its realization and completion is in the Christ and the Church of God. Unless, indeed, the Old Testament had this higher meaning and unity, it could not possess any permanent or universal interest, except from a historical point of view. It would not permanently concern mankind—no, nor even Israel, at least, in its present relation to the world. On the other hand, without it the New Testament would want its historical basis, and the historical Christ offer what would seem an absolutely unintelligible problem. A. E.

1. My chosen one, or the one whom I have selected to accomplish My great purposes. It implies that God had designated or appointed Him for the purpose. In Matt. 12:18 it is rendered “My beloved.” It implies that God had chosen or appointed Him to perform the work of a Messiah. In whom My soul delighteth. This language is applied to the Lord Jesus in Matt. 3:17 and in Matt. 12:18. God regarded Him as qualified for His work; He approved of what He did; He was well pleased with all His words, and thoughts, and plans. I have put My Spirit upon Him. (Cf John 3:34.) “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” The Lord Jesus was Divine, yet as mediator He is everywhere represented as “the anointed” of God, or as endowed with the influences of the Holy Spirit. See Isa. 61:1, where the Messiah says of Himself, “the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me,” etc. (Cf. Luke 4:18.) Before He entered upon His work the Spirit of God descended on Him at His baptism (Matt. 3:17), and in all His work He showed that He was endowed abundantly with that Spirit, and was like God. Barnes.

Christ was chosen to the office of God’s servant and our Saviour; chosen in the eternal counsel, before time, to assume human nature in the fulness of time. “In whom My soul delighteth.” Doth God’s soul delight in the person and work of His beloved Son? So doth ours. Is God’s soul delighted that Christ hath satisfied His justice, magnified and made honorable His law, and finished salvation for miserable sinners? So is ours. Then as surely as our souls delight in Christ, the Lord’s soul delights in us (62:4). W. Mason.

By “Spirit,” as in all such cases, we are to understand not only Divine influence, but the Divine person who exerts it. The use of the phrase on Him, where in Him might have seemed more natural, is probably intended to suggest the idea of descent, or of an influence from heaven. A.

“Judgment,” a prominent word in this passage (verses 1, 3, 4), has no better equivalent than true religion, in the sense of what is essentially right in heart and life, both toward God and toward man. It is the spirit of loving and serving God according to truth, made practical also in one’s whole heart and life toward mankind. To be righteous in the broad sense of right purpose and right doing is the radical idea. Such true religion the Messiah will bring forth, and diffuse widely throughout the Gentile world. H. C.

2,3. The mode in which the Messiah and His people were to bring forth judgment to the nations, or in other words, to spread the true religion. It was not to be by clamor or by violence. That such is the true import of the words is clear from the addition of the last clause, which would be unmeaning if the verse related merely to a compassionate and sympathetic temper. It was meant to be descriptive not of our Saviour’s human virtues, but of the nature of His kingdom and of the means by which it was to be established. In their original connection and in Matthew’s application of them they describe that kingdom which was not of this world; which came not with observation (Luke 17:20); which was neither meat nor drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost (Rom. 14:17); which was founded and promoted not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord. A.

He shall insure the eventual triumph of judgment or righteousness. And this ascendancy of goodness in the earth, He shall effect by no violent nor forceful measures. He shall not cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets. But full of tenderness, the bruised reed shall He not break; full of patience and holy purpose, the smoking flax shall He not quench; and by this mild and gentle management He shall win for the true religion a worldwide victory. The same principle pervades the Lord’s dealing with each individual soul. Hamilton.

In His very walks of love, as He went about doing good, while the largesses of His charity flowed to thousands, He fled from the thanks and praises of His beneficiaries, and stole away, again and again, from the captivated populace, to cast Himself before His Father, in the cold recesses of the mountain or the strand. His voice was ascending to heaven in solitary intercession; it was not heard in the streets. J. W. A.—It is true that He denounced the scribes and Pharisees; and against them His voice was heard. But then they were hypocrites, and He came to teach truth as well as mercy. His gentleness was never intended as a renunciation of wisdom or of righteousness; and to disabuse the minds of the people concerning their false guides was clearly part of His office. In relation to others, however, how lowly was His whole deportment; how easy of access; how tender in invitation; how mild in rebuke. How gentle in all His dealings with His apostles; bearing with their mistakes, forgiving their infirmities, and loving them, in spite of repeated provocations, even unto the end. How pitiful toward His enemies, and forgiving even to His murderers. J. Angus.

The promises are not made to strong faith, but to true. The promise doth not say, He who hath a giant faith, who can believe God’s love through a frown, who can rejoice in affliction, who can work wonders, remove mountains, stop the mouth of lions, shall be saved; but, Whosoever believes, be his faith never so small. A reed is but weak especially when it is bruised; yet the promise is made to it—“A bruised reed will He not break.” Watson.—We never have more than we can bear. The present hour we are always able to endure. As our day, so is our strength. If the trials of many years were gathered into one, they would overwhelm us; therefore, in pity to our little strength, He sends first one, then another, then removes both, and lays a third, heavier, perhaps, than either; but all is so wisely measured to our strength that the bruised reed is never broken. H. E. Manning.

The prophet employs another and a kindred metaphor, drawn from the common lamps of the Hebrews, in which the wick was of nothing better than flax. The office of the lamp is to blaze and give light; but when instead of this it barely smokes we hasten to extinguish it. Not so the benign Redeemer; He does not extinguish even that which flickers in the socket and is ready to die out. The smoking flax He shall not quench. It is part of His Messiahship to spare the perishing and rejected, the outcast reed, the half-quenched lamp. Blessed be His name! His princely advent is accompanied with a proclamation fitted to “revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57:15). J. W. A.

His coming was full of mercy and peace, of healing and salvation; noiseless as the light, gentle as the dew; but, like the light, giving life and joy; like the dew, giving beauty, fragrance and refreshment. The heart that is bruised and crushed with its sorrows and sins He will not break with the severity of judgment, but soothe and heal with His pardoning grace. The dim torch of faith and love, though like the just-expiring wick of flax it emits hardly a spark of light. He will not extinguish, but with the oil of His mercy will kindle it to a pure, bright flame. Eyes that have been blinded to truth He will open to the sunlight; souls that have been shut up in the darkness of guilt or of despair He will bring out into the free air of hope and peace. For every sin He has mercy; for every sorrow, healing; while yet His law of truth and holiness shall judge the earth. This holy, just, gracious, merciful Prince of Israel is our Saviour and Lord. J. P. T.

Never deviating from the way of God, as mighty in deed, as silent, self-denying and piously trustful in suffering, He was also as mild and full of love as the gentlest woman, when He would aid, console, feelingly sympathize. He went about and did good, helped the poor in body and in spirit. Nothing that concerned humanity was foreign from Him; every man stood near to Him as a brother. His characteristic action was to raise up again the bruised reed, to enkindle anew the glimmering wick. He wept over the city that rejected Him, and prayed on His cross for those who had nailed Him to it. His whole life was a sacrifice. Ullmann.

He the All-pure had tenderness for what was not pure. He who stood in Divine uprightness that never faltered felt compassion for the ruined and infinite gentleness for human fall. Broken, disappointed, doubting hearts, in dismay and bewilderment, never looked in vain to Him. Amid the wreck of human nature He was striving to lift it out of its degradation. He was searching out in revolting places that which had fallen down, that He might build it up again in fair proportions a holy Temple to the Lord. Therefore He labored among the guilty; therefore He was the companion of outcasts; therefore He spoke tenderly and lovingly to those whom society counted undone; therefore He loved to bind up the bruised and the broken-hearted; therefore His breath fanned the spark which seemed dying out in the wick of the expiring taper, when men thought that it was too late, and that the hour of hopeless profligacy was come. It was that feature in His character, that tender, hoping, encouraging spirit of His which the prophet Isaiah fixed upon as characteristic. “A bruised reed will He not break.” F. W. R.

And they follow Him who are sought by honor and repute rather than seek them, who delight to live in quiet communion with God, who are lost in their work when they enter upon it without wasting thought on themselves or the impression they make, who are not quick to attract attention, and need some discerning person to seek them out and discover them. Such persons are like Jesus—most like Him if their character rests on the rock of godliness, and more capable than others of becoming like Him, if it has only a natural foundation. T. D. W.

4. This righteous King “shall not fail nor be discouraged.” He is to be reckoned on to the uttermost, or, as the New Testament puts it, He is “the faithful and true witness.” This is the strong Son of God, who gathered all His powers together to run with patience the race set before Him, and to whom all may turn with the confidence that He is faithful “as a son over his own house,” and will inviolably keep the promise of His word and of His past acts. A. M.

No matter what may be here, the sun shines on, calmly, perpetually, radiating its light; and so Christ, the great Sun of Righteousness, sits on His throne, and there come from Him the beams of light that are shining upon humanity, penetrating the heart. On and on and ever from Him is this eternal efflux of radiant glory. . . . Now that all power is given Him, now that all thrones are subject to Him, now that He sits on the circle of the heavens, He cannot fail, He cannot be discouraged, and He sees how all things are moving to bring about that mighty triumph of His kingdom. And if He is not discouraged, should we be? Our Saviour is to conquer this world—to subdue the world unto Himself—and it is ours simply to go forward, to take His word, perform His will, to put forth the agencies, to speak, to live, to labor, to love for Christ, and love shall subdue all things. Oh, there is a glorious day; it is a little in advance! I know not how, but He will set judgment in the earth; the isles shall wait for His law. Simpson.

They wait for it in the sense that they perish without it, that this only can give them life, and that in God’s purpose this shall. The “isles” here are equivalent to the nations as in chaps. 40:15 and 41:1, 5, and must correspond to the Gentiles of verses 1, 6 in this context. Hence the passage must be accepted as a distinct, decisive prophecy that the nations are to be blessed by this life-giving Gospel. The great truths respecting God and salvation as taught by the Messiah are yet to go forth to them all.

5. The Divine name used here, El, meaning a Mighty One, and with the article, the mighty God, is specially appropriate in a passage which speaks of God in His relations as the Creator of all and the God of universal providence. The verbs are all in the present tense. Hence they affirm more than the general fact that God did once create, stretch out, spread forth, and give existence to vegetables and animals. They affirm that He is doing so still and continually. The strongest affirmation of a present activity which is possible in the Hebrew tenses is used throughout the verse, as well of creating and causing the productions of the earth to be as of giving breath and life to its people.

6. This mighty God has commissioned the Messiah, the pre-eminent “servant of the Lord,” for the work here indicated, and will sustain Him and energize His work by an agency no less constant than that which fills the realm of nature. “Called Thee in righteousness” means in faithfulness to My word, especially of promise. H. C.

Give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. God expressly declares that the Messiah should mediate a covenant between God and the people, and that the fruit of this covenant should extend to the Gentiles, who should enjoy the same privileges with the Jews, and be incorporated with them (chap. 49:8, 9; 55:3, 4; 61:8, 9). The extension of the Messiah’s kingdom over the whole earth is mentioned by Isaiah so often and so emphatically that it seems to be the main drift of all his writings. Allix.

All that was in former ages promised and prefigured for the reconciliation of man to God is fulfilled and embodied in Jesus Christ. Jehovah has given Him “for a covenant of the people (Israel), for a light of the Gentiles.” In Him all families of the earth are blessed. And

He is not remote from us as Abraham or David, with whom the Jews at all events are connected by long pedigrees. Christ is so closely united with all believers, that every fulfilment of the everlasting covenant to Him is also a fulfilment to them; every promise made to Him tends to their benefit, and every boon bestowed on them ought to issue in glory to Him. All the promises of God are to them “Yea and amen in Jesus Christ,” having their security and stability in Him as the accepted and beloved of God. Promises there are, exceeding great and precious, covering all wants, suiting all seasons, stretching over all eternity. Mercies there are, everlasting, ever sure, because bestowed in the covenant, and guaranteed by the faithfulness and omnipotence of God, and by the presence of the Mediator of the covenant in heaven itself to make intercession for us. Chastisements, too, are in the covenant; stripes for undutiful children, or blows of the hand or of the rod—never, thank God! any smiting with the sword. It is chastening, not condemnation. The covenant itself cannot be broken, nor can the Lord’s faithfulness fail. D. F.

Yes; Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles—and the glory of the upper heavens shall yet scatter and chase away the darkness which still broods sullenly over the earth; and the new, Divine life, long repressed, shall yet reveal itself in fair and wonderful and lavish fertility; the very deserts of the world shall be covered with a moral wealth and beauty of which the brightest spring-time and the richest autumn are poor and pale symbols, and of which the loveliness of Paradise was only a dim and imperfect promise. The songs which filled the night with joy when Christ was born shall be heard again, with sweeter music, deeper harmonies and more exulting raptures; all heaven shall come down to earth—thrones and dominions, seraphim and cherubim, and shining armies of angels—to celebrate with sounding trumpets and golden harps and loud acclamations and tumultuous strains of triumph the final victory of Divine love over human sin, and the restoration of our race to God. We are not “mad” in exulting in these happy and confident expectations. God’s mercy is mightier than all the powers of the world, the flesh and the devil. We—fanatics as men may deem us—“speak the words of truth and soberness.” R. W. Dale.

7. The “opening of blind eyes” is correlated to giving them light (verse 6), the kind of light in both cases being the same, that of Gospel truth to the mind. The Gospel goes forth to give sight to the spiritually blind, to release spiritual prisoners, and bring forth to the light of a new day the souls long shut up in confinement and darkness. The attempt to apply this to the restoration of the Jews from Babylon is unworthy of learned critics. H. C.

This is the craft and subtlety of the evil one, that he makes us fancy we are free, when we are in prison; he makes us fancy we are at liberty, when we are in bondage; he makes us fancy we are our own masters, when we are his slaves; he blinds and cheats and stupefies us, until we deem we are doing our own will and pursuing our own pleasure, when in fact we are drudging in his toils and rushing into the jaws of destruction before his lashing scourge. Therefore, in order that our eyes might be open to our misery and our danger before it was too late, God was mercifully pleased to give us His Scriptures, wherein He declares that, however its appearance may deceive us, sin is not a palace, but a prison, that in that prison we are all shut up, and that no earthly power can deliver us from it. Vinet.—We are captives in a foreign land; Christ was not only to pay our ransom for us, but to take us home when He had ransomed us. We are prisoners sitting in darkness in the prison-house; He is not only to come and throw open our prison-doors, bring us into the cheerful light and set us free; He is to take us by the hand when we are free, and to guide us by the right way to a city prepared for us. So then He who redeemed us keeps us; He who died for us lives for us; He who rescues us from the misery of our fall never leaves us till our whole salvation is completed; never lets one of us go till with His own right hand He has placed us out of the reach of all misery and all danger, in His own safe world of light and joy. C. Bradley.

8. From the assertion of Jehovah’s power and perfection as a ground for His people’s confidence, the prophet now proceeds, by a natural transition, to exhibit it in contrast with the impotence of those gods in whom the Gentiles trusted. The general doctrine of the verse is that true and false religion cannot coexist; because, however tolerant idolatry may be, it is essential to the worship of Jehovah to be perfectly exclusive of all other gods. This is included in the very name Jehovah, and accounts for its solemn proclamation here.

9. This is an appeal to former prophecies already verified, as grounds of confidence in those yet unfulfilled. The strong and beautiful expression in the last clause can only mean that the events about to be predicted were beyond the reach of human foresight, and is therefore destructive of the modern notion that these prophecies were written after Cyrus had appeared, and at a time when the further events of his history could be foreseen by an observer of unusual sagacity. A.

10-13. The thing really predicted here is the triumph of truth, the diffusion of the Gospel, and the substantial victory of King Messiah over sin and Satan throughout all the earth. This passage should of course be taken in connection with verses 1-4, 6, 7 above, which declare with less of poetry yet perhaps with more precision in the form of statement, that the Messiah shall push onward the victories of truth and righteousness until true religion shall pervade the earth and bless all the nations.

16. The figures here follow the lead of those in verses 6, 7—the Messiah “a light to the Gentiles,” opening blind eyes. Truth is to the mind what light is to the body. The Gentiles, long blind to the true God and to the way of salvation, are to be led in ways never known to them before—the way of holiness and heaven. H. C.

There cannot be a human being among us that is not moved by these assurances, because there is no one among us all that has not found out by rough experience that there are crooked things in his life which need to be made straight, and dark places which need to be made light; that there are spots where the ways part, with no guide-post, leaving the judgment and conscience perplexed, and where one is almost certain there must be paths better than that one he is walking in, safer if not smoother, and running to a better end. F. D. H.—There is mystery everywhere in our way to heaven; mystery within us, mystery around us, many mysteries behind us not yet cleared up, and still many before us to be entered and passed through. It would be easy to show that much of this is unavoidable, arising from the character of real religion and our own character; and it would be as easy to show that it all tends to the Divine glory and our good. The Lord brings us acquainted by it with His own glorious perfections, exercises by it the graces He has given us, humbles us, strengthens our faith, teaches us to confide, repose and delight in Him. He works in us by it a meethness for heaven while leading us to it, making the very road which conducts us to His presence fit us for its joys. C. Bradley.

It is the very law of God’s dispensations, that when His people are going they know not whither, they are in the very path which the Master has appointed. “I will lead them in paths that they have not known; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” The knowledge of this should work in us both submission and hope—submission, because God is sovereign, because He is wise, because He is just, because He is omnipotent, and because all resistance and all repining are fruitless and wicked; hope, because we are assured that all things work together for good to them that love God, being disposed according to a most gracious plan for accomplishing their perfection. J. W. A.—

This guiding love of the heavenly Father is entirely independent of anything that we think, or do, or feel. It leads us in paths that we had not known. The love is undeserved and condescending. It comes out to us before we go after it. It deals with us as a mother handles a child just beginning to know only her face or her voice. F. D. H.

19. Why should He call the heathen blind and deaf, when Israel himself, with all his honors and advantages, refused to see or hear? The very people whose mission and vocation it was to make the Gentiles see and hear seemed to emulate their insensibility. The terms must be referred exclusively to Israel, the messenger whom God had sent to open the eyes of the other nations, but who had himself become wilfully blind. A.—“Who is blind as my servant?” The heathens who are blind from their birth, and have only some glimmering apprehensions that eternity succeeds time, are less culpable than those who have infinitely more reason to believe it, and yet believe it less. The plea for them will be a terrible accusation against such unbelievers. If a blind person falls, it moves compassion; but if one voluntarily shuts his eyes against the sun, and refuses the direction of the light, and falls from a precipice, his ruin is the just consequence of his folly. Simple ignorance excuses as to the degrees of the fault, but affected wilful ignorance, now reason and revelation with united beams give so clear a prospect into the eternal world, aggravates the guilt and sentence of such unbelievers. Bates.

20. The thought here is that the Lord’s people had utterly failed to improve their opportunities for Divine knowledge. They had seen many things of God, but would not observe—i.e., would not keep them in view; would not hold them before the mind for close and impressive attention.

21. This verse declares that God is propitious, favorably inclined, for the sake of His own righteous cause—i.e., that He will not abandon them to moral ruin and His kingdom with them, but will persist in remedial efforts; will reclaim His people and will magnify and bring forth in honor the truth and the moral power of His kingdom. H. C.

22-25. While applicable to the sufferings of the Jews in Babylon, it is in itself a general declaration of a fact, often verified and especially exemplified in ancient Israel, that the sufferings of God’s people are the consequence of sin. A.