would therefore be stretched out to him in vain (1:15). For it was not their cattle, but their lives that he wanted worship which came out of pure and humble hearts (29: 13) and which expressed itself in an honorable civic life, in social justice, and in practical pity for the defenceless and the poor (1:17). Theirs was a God who looked not for holocausts, but for justice; for service indeed, but for moral and social rather than ritual service. "He looked for justice, but, behold, oppression; for righteousness, but, behold, a cry" (5:7). IV. ISAIAH THE MAN Whether we regard it on its political or on its social side, the task which Isaiah had to face was as hard as ever fell to the lot of mortal. Grave political problems had arisen with the intrusion of Assyria; while the social life of Judah, as we have seen, was honeycombed with pride, superstition (2:6; 8: 19), materialism, and frivolity. Yet throughout it all, the soul of Isaiah remained serene and steady, because his eyes had seen the King, Jehovah of hosts (6:5). The fine consistency of his policy and the quiet confidence with which he confronted even the most desperate crises are explained by the great vision with which he was launched upon his prophetic career (Chap. 6). Then it was given him to see the glorious Lord upon his throne, high and lifted up; and from that day to the end, he bore the vision on his heart. Whatever else he might see, he also saw the Lord, even in dark days when no other eyes in Judah could see him. His glorious presence and his invincible purpose were to Isaiah the most real things in the world. In this sense he is preeminently the prophet of faith. In individual life, in national history, God i the most potent factor, in the last analysis, the only potent factor, however completely he might be ignored or, in practice, denied by scheming politicians and their frivolous people. The deepest folly in a military crisis is to look only to the armory and ignore God (22:8-11). When, in the invasion of Judah by the confederate forces of Aram and Israel, the hearts of the king and his people were shaken like the forest trees before the wind (7:2), Isaiah's heart is calm - the only steady heart in Judah because his eyes had seen the King. Behind all the perplexities and confusions his faith pierced to the great immovable Reality, the sublime spiritual Presence whose glory fills the universe (6:3); to that mighty Purpose which embraces the whole world, and which no human power can ultimately thwart or annul (14:26 f.). Politicians might think themselves very astute, but he also is wise, as Isaiah trenchantly says (31:2). He has his great world-plan; and, whatever else miscarries, that is triumphant. It is this clear and steady vision of God, this unshaken faith in his abiding presence and in the triumph of his purpose, that explains the political conduct of Isaiah, and justifies its seeming inconsistency. In his earlier ministry he had passionately sought to dissuade Judah from forming an alliance with Assyria (7:4); towards the close of his career he is equally insistent that that alliance be maintained, and that no attempt be made to negotiate with Egypt (30:1 f.; 31:1). In both cases his advice must have seemed madness to the worldly-wise politicians. It is small wonder that Ahaz, menaced by the confederate troops of the two nations to the north of him, should have sought to secure his safety by the help of the mighty Assyrians; or that, thirty years afterwards, the patriotic politicians, eager to take advantage of the difficulties of Assyria, should have sought the aid of Egypt. Significantly enough, these are the two occasions on which Isaiah seems to have been moved to peculiar indignation "by the rejection of his policy. Ahaz's repudiation of his advice to "keep quiet and fear not" (7:4) he describes in passionate words as a rejection and a provocation of God himself (713); and on the political schemers who tried to negotiate a secret alliance with Egypt he denounces a Woe (30:1; 31: 1). Guthe has said that a politician of our day would have regarded his advice to Ahaz as at once idle and ridiculous; and, on the basis of it, some have maintained that, though Isaiah may have been a mighty man of faith, he was in no sense a statesman. But, as a matter of fact, even from a purely political point of view, Isaiah's judgment was the truest wisdom after all. Aram and Israel, had they been even more powerful than they were, Isaiah contemptuously calls them the "tails of smoking fire-brands" (7:4), - would in any case, even without the appeal of Ahaz, very soon have been crushed by Assyria, who, for good reasons of her own, would not have tolerated the rise of a powerful confederacy in the west; and as for Egypt, the folly of relying upon her had been demonstrated over and over again. Always ready to promise, seldom willing or able to perform - such was her reputation far beyond her own borders; even the Assyrian Sargon, in 711, incidentally alludes to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as "a prince who could not save." Isaiah's faith in God turned out to be the truest political wisdom. On his view of the world, God alone was worthy of fear (813) - not Aram or Israel, not Egypt or Assyria, no force in the universe but God himself. For as the world is resplendent with his glory (6 : 3) and the arena of his purpose, so history is nothing but the gradual evolution of that purpose, and every earthly power is but his tool which, willingly or unwillingly, must become contributory to its accomplishment. The Assyrian may proudly work his cruel and terrible will upon the weaker nations of the world (10: 7 ff.); but in reality he is nothing but a tool in Jehovah's hand, an instrument with which his holy omnipotent will is done (10: 5): and he too, when he has played his predetermined part, will one day, for his pride and cruelty, be shattered by the Arm that is infinitely mightier than his own (10:33 f.). Doubtless the event did not always happen at the moment or in the manner Isaiah had anticipated. Samaria fell a decade or so later than he seems at one time to have expected (8:4); and the might of Assyria was not shattered upon the hills of Judah (14:25). But in every essential feature the forecast of Isaiah was justified. Samaria did fall, and Assyria did retire from Judah, her purpose unaccomplished. These marvellous forecasts were no accident; they came from the prophet's intimate communion with his God (Amos 3:7), and from his clear appreciation of and wholehearted devotion to the divine purpose which stood clear before his purged eyes. It was this that enabled him to announce the security of Jerusalem when, beleaguered as she was by Assyria, the prospects of her deliverance seemed meagre and remote indeed. Surely nothing in the annals of faith is more sublime than this, that after Judah had been cruelly overrun, with forty-six of her cities in ruins and the dread enemy at the gates, Isaiah should stand forth, calm and unafraid, and declare, against all seeming and all hope, that the unseen Jehovah would defend his city. Jerusalem was one day destined to fall, but not yet; her destruction at that time would have meant the extinction of the religion which found a home within her walls, and that must not be. There, in Zion, was to rise the building whose stones were the faithful (28:16) men like Isaiah and the little band he gathered about him, disciples who, like the master, had a passion for justice and righteousness (28: 17), and whose eyes had seen the King, in other words, men of faith and character. Isaiah is thus the prophet of hope as much as of faith. His hope he expressed in his so-called doctrine of the remnant, in the belief that, though not the whole people— that was impossible (22: 14) - yet a remnant would return to Jehovah ; and this hope he incarnated in the son whom he named Shear-jashub1 (7:3). He looked forward to the day when, by a stern judgment, the wicked city would be purged of her dross and become indeed "the City of righteousness, the faithful Town" (1: 25 f.). Righteousness and faith, just and noble civic life and quiet confidence in the unseen God, —it was to create these things among men that Isaiah devoted his long and splendid ministry. Others had insisted on righteousness, but more than any other is he the prophet of faith; and his message is summed up in these three immortal words: "If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established" (7:9). "He that believeth shall not give way"1 (28: 16). "In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength' (30:15). V. ISAIAH AS A WRITER The regal soul of Isaiah is reflected in the majesty of his style. He is a rare master in the art of noble speech: always incisive, never diffuse; clear, clean-cut, fulltoned, yet governed everywhere by a fine restraint. His superb imagination is evidenced alike in simple figures, such as the comparison of Jehovah to the lion that faces the shepherds, defiant and unafraid (31:4), and in longer and more sustained passages, such as his description of the day of Jehovah, or of the terrible Assyrian army. An illustration or two will be more effective than a chapter of criticism. Here, for example, is the day of Jehovah, as it appeared to the prophetic eyes of Isaiah : For a day of Jehovah is coming Upon all that is lofty and high: Upon cedars of Lebanon all, And oaks of Bashan all; Upon all the great mountains And all the high hills; 1 Emended text. RV has make haste, SV be in haste, Gr. be ashamed. |