Isaiah 40

THE LATER PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH. CHAPTERS 40-66.

INTRODUCTORY, 40-41.

We enter now upon the division of Isaiah’s prophecies usually called his Later Prophecies, about which many questions have arisen the chief ones being whether Isaiah or some later though unknown prophet was the author, and whether this collection was written and delivered in Isaiah’s last days, or in or near the time of the Babylonian exile. In both questions the former alternative is, in these comments, deemed the true one, while it is admitted that much honest criticism assumes the latter as true, and not the first solely on critical grounds. These grounds will receive more or less attention in the course of the following comments: but we notice here chiefly the affirmative side of the question, namely, that they constitute the last memorials of Isaiah’s teaching; a section by itself, written in his last years, when, saddened, possibly at the failure of Hezekiah’s best efforts at reform, and seeing the nation, despite all effort to the contrary, sinking at the opening reign of the child Manasseh into a hopeless idolatry, he turned aside from the sickening sight of human sacrifices offered to devils, and wholly gave, as often before he had partially given, himself up to the view of the glorious times of a certainly coming Messiah.

It is certain that in the New Testament throughout, Isaiah is accounted the author of this section of these prophecies. The writers of the Gospels are witnesses to this fact: see John the Baptist’s witness referring to Isaiah 40:3, as given Matthew 3:3, and our Lord’s testimony, referring to Isaiah 42:1-5, at Matthew 12:18-24. St. Luke, in his Gospel, records the opening of our Lord’s ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth, (Luke 4:18,) when he says, referring to Isaiah 61:1-4, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” etc. Again, John bears his witness, when, in John 12:37-41, he quotes Isaiah’s language, (liii, 1, etc.,) when he says, “Who hath believed our report,” etc. It is said of Philip the evangelist, (Acts 8:26,) that he finds the Ethiopian eunuch reading “Esaias the prophet,” at Isaiah 53:7-8, when the eunuch asks, “Of whom is the prophet speaking?” etc. St. Paul, also, refers (Romans 10:15) to Isaiah as author of these chapters. Isaiah 10:16; Isaiah 61:1-2, are pointedly ascribed by Paul to this prophet to confirm a great doctrine of Christianity.

Before Isaiah’s authorship of these chapters can be impugned, the testimony of the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles must also be impugned, together with Isaiah 40-66. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Philip the Evangelist, the angel of the Lord to Philip, and St. Paul, nay, our Lord himself, and the Holy Ghost, are liable to the charge of having made mistakes together, for they all bear witness in respect to the genuineness of these chapters as Isaiah’s own writings.

Such, too, is the witness of Jesus, the son of Sirach, the writer of the apocryphal Ecclesiasticus, and of Josephus, in his Jewish Antiquities, xi, Isaiah 1:1-2.

The modern hypothesis, that Isaiah 40-66 was written by some unknown, nameless prophet, near the close of the exile in Babylon, is discountenanced by external and internal evidence, positive and negative, and especially by the absence of features which such an origin requires. The prophet or author is wanting; he is called the Great Unknown; the hypothesis furnishes no name or title to this body of prophecies; the date and place of writing is lacking as well as the name or title; the prophetic call or commission is wanting; contemporary persons and names are wanting; the prophetic structure is also wholly absent. Later date is also disproved by the strong assertions of divine foreknowledge respecting the victories of Cyrus, chapters 41, 42, 43. The transfer of these predictions to the days of Cyrus himself robs them of their force and plain meaning.

The structure of this body of prophecies is very like to that of the earlier prophecies, and so hints to nothing else than real unity of authorship. Birks. This unity is further shown by most fitting consolations of the later to the discouragements of the earlier prophecies. The latter abundantly offsets brilliant promise to revive the hope lost from failures so numerous to be seen in the former. Nevertheless, it may be seen that in the close of the former prophecies hope did not entirely die out. The last six historical chapters of the former series have this closing: “Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. He said, moreover, for there shall be peace and truth in my days.” Isaiah 39:8. Hezekiah, the reformer king, it seems, did not leave the world wholly dispirited. But Isaiah, at his death, retired from all further civil struggle, and in the spirit of the glorious hope still lingering with the unsuccessful and dying Hezekiah, he beautifully and fitly matches this new series of glorious Messianic compositions with the shrill, swan-like, dying cry of the old. More strikingly may this matching of the two series be seen if we regard as properly we can the last six chapters of the first as interpolated history, and the real close of the first series to occur at the thirty-fifth chapter. There the point of connexion with the later series is marvellously appropriate. Observe instances as follows of striking correspondence. Chapter 35, with chapters 41-45, and Isaiah 42:6-7; Isaiah 42:16; Isaiah 35:5-6 with Isaiah 43:19-20; Isaiah 35:8 with Isaiah 42:16, and Isaiah 43:19; Isaiah 35:10 with Isaiah 51:11, etc. Almost indefinitely may others be added. Not the thirty-fifth chapter alone, but every Messianic passage in the former series of prophecy finds its correspondent Messianic sentiment in the later.

Nothing supernatural is allowed in prophecy by the negative critics: and for this reason the thirty-fifth chapter, alike with chapters xl-lxvi, is by them rejected, as Isaiah’s inspired foresight or prediction of the far future, is with them utterly discounted. They have no spiritual level higher than the merest earthly sight or seeing. Their criticism is on this plane. Isaiah, as author, is mutilated and in large part rejected on this account. But the canon by which they work non-supernaturalism is no rule of judgment for believers in supernaturalism; hence little or no authority and respect can be accorded to results reached simply on that inferior plane. Criticism on other grounds, if not over tortured, may and always will command respect, because criticism, unless aiming at the overthrow of things fundamental, is entitled to a large and free field for the extension of certain knowledge in the earth.

STRUCTURE OF THESE PROPHECIES.

In bodies of prophecy some consideration of structure is advisable. All schemes are to some necessary degree artificial; yet it is clear that a ruling idea, or plan of arrangement, must have been prelaid, or else have grown in the progress of the writing of the following compositions of prophecy.

It is suitable to adopt here that scheme of structure which is presumably the most simple and nearest to correctness. The scheme of Birks, modified from Delitzsch, is chosen.

FIRST SECTION, chaps. 40-48.

Preface.

1 . Comfort to Zion, chap. 40.

First Trilogy.

2 . Controversy with Heathen, Isaiah 41:1 to Isaiah 42:16.

3 . Controversy with Israel, Isaiah 42:17 to Isaiah 44:5.

4 . Cyrus and Immanuel, Isaiah 44:6-28.

Second Trilogy.

5 . Woe on Idols, chap. 46.

6 . Sentence on Babylon, ch. 47.

7 . Rebuke and Warning of Israel, chap. 48.

SECOND SECTION, chaps. 49-60.

First Trilogy.

1. Messiah’s Voice to the Heathen, chap. 49.

2. Messiah’s Voice to Israel, Isaiah 50:1 to Isaiah 52:10.

3. Messiah and the Gospel, Isaiah 52:11-15.

Second Trilogy.

4 . Woe on Idolaters, ch. 56, 57.

5 . Sentence on Formalism, chap. 58.

6 . Rebuke and Promise to Israel, chap. 59.

Peroration.

7 . Zion’s Final Glory, chap. 60. THIRD SECTION, chaps. 61-66.

I. MESSIAH’S WORK OF MERCY AND JUDGMENT, chaps. Isaiah 61:1 to Isaiah 63:6.

1 . Messiah’s Ministry on Earth, chapter 61.

2 . His Heavenly Intercession, chap. 62.

3 . His Work of Judgment and Redemption, Isaiah 63:1-6.

II. THE LAST CONTROVERSY WITH ISRAEL, Isaiah 63:1 to Isaiah 65:25.

1 . Review of God’s Past Mercies, Isaiah 63:7-19.

2 . Israel’s Confession and Prayer in Last Days. chap. 64.

3 . Messiah’s Answer of Reproof and Blessing, chap. 65.

III. THE LAST CONFLICTS AND DELIVERANCES, chap. 66.

Section First. CHAPS. 40-48.

PREFATORY.

§ 1. COMFORT TO THE FEARFUL IN ZION, chap. 40.

In the preceding chapter, Isaiah 40:6, is a specific prediction of the breaking up of the Jewish nation and of its exile in Babylon; and this prediction, with fairest reasons, is regarded as the text or main theme of the prophecy that follows a prophecy of promise and consolation.