IN reading the prophets we may confine our attention to their prophecies and seek to learn what the future on the earth will be, or we may endeavor to enter into the longings of those who heard them uttered. Or, indeed, we may fill our hearts with the longings of the prophet who uttered the words. In these few lines we propose to sit at Isaiah’s feet, and hear him speak to Israel around him, and to ourselves.
Isaiah was a great evangelist as well as a great prophet. He had his piercing eye upon the religious feasts and ceremonies of Israel, so well attended, yet, alas, so often attended by many mere formalists. Who should discern between the real and the formal worshipper when gazing upon the multitudes keeping holy day? The gaze of the Spirit-taught and Spirit-inspired evangelist, pierced through the lifeless acts of divine worship and read the hearts of the worshippers. “To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices?” he cried, in Jehovah’s name. “Who hath required this at your hand, to tread My courts? Your appointed feasts are a trouble unto Me: I am weary to bear them.” Solemn words as applicable to ourselves as to Israel. Let the echo of his cry be heard in the places of worship of our land. It is not the mere observer of religious feasts and fasts, or holy days, God values. He looks into the hearts, the lives, the ways of men. “Put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well,” He says.
The evangelist must first deal with sin, for he deals with sinners in God’s name. Isaiah’s opening words are upon sin; upon Israel’s departure from God; upon their soul-sick state; upon their religious observances which could not heal the soul.
Let us picture this mighty man again. We seem to see him in the town looking upon the poor and thirsty on the hot summer’s day. Presently he lifts up his voice: “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” His own heart was full of God-given satisfaction and sweetness, or he could not have uttered such words of blessing. Here is the true spirit of the evangelist: love for souls, longing over them in their need, and a brimful, overflowing measure of joy in God.
Yet these people turn away. They are busy, the market has to be attended, money must be spent for the needs of home. What was the voice that cried to them, “Without money, without price”? “Hah! Such are not our terms. We buy, we sell.” The evangelist yearns over the people. He lifts up his voice again―it rings out above the clatter of the voices of the market― “Wherefore do ye spend (or weigh) money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me” ―some seem to lift up their eyes and look― “and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.”
We hear it said, “The people will not come to places of worship.” Then let Christian instructors go to the people. Preach not over their heads, but into their hearts. Learn from the crowd in the street, the man in his shop. Let the sights of misery and mourning, and the eagerness to buy and sell, be parables wherein to clothe the word of eternal peace.
We follow the great evangelist prophet. He gave out what God gave into his heart. The living waters within him welled up as a fountain, God filled his soul with divine consolation and Isaiah became a consoler; God comforted him, and Isaiah became a comforter We seem to see him in his own graphic picture of the evangelist. Let us look well into it. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation.” His ready elastic step betokens the gladsome message he bears. He brings the good tidings of good to the mourners of Zion he loved so well. “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God.” “Give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
In the spirit of prophesy, Isaiah declared the gospel, and in such a way as to make the heart leap for joy, and yet weep over the sufferings of our Saviour Jesus.
As we hear Isaiah, we see Him, who was “wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities,” upon Whom was “the chastisement of our peace.” He is before our very eyes― “led as a lamb to the slaughter” ―crucified for us. He is a personal Saviour. Haw far the Spirit which was in the prophet testifying of the sufferings of Christ, enabled Isaiah to penetrate into Christ’s coming and rejection we know not; but his soul was filled with the noblest thoughts of the rejection, the sufferings, and the glories of the Saviour.