PROPHETIC testimony occupies a large and important part of Old Testament writings. It was when God’s people, the Jews, had terribly turned away from Him and His word that the principal prophets were raised up. They therefore testified against their evil ways, reminded them of former blessings through divine favor and goodness, and set forth God’s faithfulness. By their word they encouraged the true-hearted, and warned the unruly of divine displeasure and judgment. They generally brighten the dark page by bringing in the hope of Messiah’s coming, by whom all their blessings will be established on entirely new ground; for in Israel’s future glory they will know Him who died for that nation as the One by whom all their blessings arc secured, and all God’s promises established. Daniel gives us “the times of the Gentiles.” The post-captivity prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, only mention Israel, or Judah, as the people of God in connection with the future when their blessings will be established by Messiah. In tracing the history of God’s earthly people, we learn deeply-precious lessons of the goodness, patience, and faithfulness of God.
The prophets do not speak of “the Church,” though they do refer to blessing coming on the Gentiles. But this itself is not “the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” The revelation of that “mystery” was reserved for an after age. It was not known till revealed to the apostles. (See Ephesians 3:2-102If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: 3How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, 4Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) 5Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; 6That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: 7Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: 10To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, (Ephesians 3:2‑10).)
Isaiah. — No. 1.
The prophet Isaiah tells us that his vision and word are “concerning Judah and Jerusalem.” (chapter 1:1 and 2:1.) Nothing can be plainer. It is unaccountable how, in the face of the plainest possible evidence, so many have declared that this most blessed book is concerning the Church. To say that Israel, Judah, Jerusalem, the house of David, the house of Jacob, and such like names, mean the Church, is totally unsupported by Scripture testimony; and those who adopt such phraseology clearly show that they do not know what the Church is. A spiritual mind is subject to God’s word, and He says that Isaiah’s writings are “concerning Judah and Jerusalem.”
It has been noticed by many how rich and frequent are the allusions of this prophet to Christ; so much so, that he has been styled the evangelical prophet. But so it is, and no doubt because Isaiah more largely enters into the details of the ruin of the people, and their future establishment in the goodness and faithfulness of God, in connection with the Messiah, than any other prophet. We have therefore early in the book the person of the Messiah—the virgin’s child, Immanuel (chapter 7:14); afterward He is more largely set forth in connection with the establishment of His kingdom in chapters 9:6, 7, and many other parts which speak of “the day of the Lord.” But not only His birth, but His life of suffering, rejection, and sorrow—His death, burial, and future reign and establishment of Israel in glory, are largely entered into in many parts of this precious book. Nor should we fail to notice the sympathy with that faithful remnant which will come upon the scene after the Church is gone, of which you see a sample in the days of His flesh, as recorded in Matthew 24:16-2216Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains: 17Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: 18Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. 19And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! 20But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: 21For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 22And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened. (Matthew 24:16‑22). Our prophet declares, that “in all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old.” (chapter 63:9.)
Nothing can exceed the description of the moral degradation of God’s people as set forth in the first chapter. And yet there is a remnant left, and God is presented as ready to wash their scarlet sins white as wool; there is the hope of redemption, but accompanied with judgment (verse 27); for judgment always characterizes the period of their future blessing. And yet the second chapter opens with a glance at Israel in millennial times, when the word of the Lord shall go out from Jerusalem in blessing to “many people;” while the judgment upon the living wicked at the personal return of the Lord Jesus is described, when many shall cast away their idols, and go into the clefts of the rock to hide, for fear of the Lord and the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth. We are led back in the third chapter to the cause of the people’s fall, and dishonor to Jehovah, being in their pride and haughtiness. We have also Jehovah’s governmental dealing with them in consequence, again reminding us of the divine statute, “He that exalteth himself shall be abased.” The Lord help us to lay it afresh to heart! This is followed by a touching prophetic testimony of future blessing, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. (chapter 4)
In the fifth chapter the prophet looks back on Israel’s history—the vineyard of the Lord, which, instead of bringing forth grapes, brought forth wild grapes. Their terrible failures are traced to casting away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despising the word of the Holy One of Israel. Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, but His hand is stretched out still. The sixth chapter discloses the infinite holiness of God’s presence, when the prophet discovered that he was a man of unclean lips, and dwelt among a people of unclean lips, and there, in the very presence of the Lord of hosts, he learned that God was able, by the live coal from off the altar, to cleanse such, and take them up in His service. A remnant is referred to in the last verse.
As before noticed, the promise of Immanuel is presented, the hope of Israel, in the seventh chapter. In the eighth we see that He would be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling and offense to both the houses of Israel. The absolute authority of the Scriptures “the law and the testimony”— is again insisted on. (chapters 8:14, 20.) In the ninth chapter, the Messiah, of whose increase of government and peace there should be no end, is the child born, and the son given.
The judgment of the Assyrian is then set forth, immediately before the millennial reign is introduced. We are told that he boasted of his own strength and wisdom, and the faithful are enjoined not to be afraid of him. This Assyrian reminds us of the destruction of the antichrist, the great oppressor, at the coming of the Lord. (chapter 10:13, 24-26.)
The eleventh chapter most blessedly gives us Messiah’s reign in righteousness, the gathering together of His people for blessing, and the deliverance of creation from the bondage of corruption. Then the Messiah, the “root of Jesse,” will be for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek, and He shall assemble both “the outcasts of Israel” and “the dispersed of Judah” from the four corners of the earth. Observe here the perfect accuracy of Scripture. The ten tribes of Israel are cast out, but where, no one knows; they are, therefore, most significantly called “the outcasts of Israel,” in contradistinction to “the dispersed of Judah,” who, for their sin in rejecting Christ and the Holy Ghost, are scattered in judgment among all the nations of the earth. Both families will then be united, and Ephraim will not envy Judah, and Judah will not vex Ephraim. (verses 12, 13.) There will be a highway left for the remnant of His people which shall be left from Assyria. The people of Israel’s joy in millennial times is recorded in the twelfth chapter. They will praise Jehovah that His anger is turned away from them, and that He comforts them. They will sing and praise Jehovah, and say, “Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”
From chapters 13 to 27 we have the judgment of God upon the Gentile nations. Babylon stands first and foremost, and then Moab, Damascus, Egypt, Dumah, Arabia, Shebna, and Tyre pass before us under the judgment of God. All, however, is interspersed with promise and hope as to the people of Israel. While in chapter 14 judgment is executed upon Babylon, so that it shall be said, “How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased!” (verse 4), it is also said, “The Lord will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land...and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from thy hard bondage wherein thou wart made to serve.” (verses 1-3.) Again, in chapters 17, when judgment on Damascus and Israel are referred to, it is said, “In that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall be made lean.... Yet (referring to the remnant) gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel.” (verses 4-6.) In chapters 18 we are told, “In that time shall the present be brought unto the Lord of hosts of a people scattered and peeled, and from a people terrible from their beginning hitherto; a nation meted out and trodden under foot, whose land the rivers have spoiled, to the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, the mount Zion.” When Egypt and Assyria have gone through the discipline of the Lord, it is said, “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the Lord of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” (chapter 19:21-25.) In chapter 24 we are told, “Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His ancients gloriously.” (verse 23.) In chapter 25 God is praised, known too as the God of resurrection, who will swallow up death in victory. In chapter 27 it is declared that “Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the whole earth with fruit; that the children of Israel shall be gathered one by one; and when the great trumpet shall be blown, those ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come and worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.” (verses 12, 13.)