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CHAPTER  4

THE COHESION, COHERENCE AND COMPREHENSION OF ASPECTS OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH

In Three Parts
with a fourth
Rocket into Space type
OVERVIEW

For an overview of the THRUSTS of SPRING
in the whole prophecy of Isaiah,
proceed here

 

Part I

In this Chapter, the need is to facilitate an understanding of the 'evangelical prophet' Isaiah, and to this end, there is presented a compilation largely outside The Shadow of a Mighty Rock*1, of expositions, more or less in numerical order of the Isaiah chapters. This prophet, like many, has written at different times, but unlike nearly all, has not done so as merely a man writing, with whatever divine aid, such as the Lord's people can readily gain for His due purposes. Rather he has written in the direct and infallible revelation of the word of God.

Thus it is of intense apologetic interest and profit, to see how his themes resound, extend, return upon themselves, here flying out like a flying buttress, there intensifying like light on a stained glass window, when the sun is bright, there expressing Messianic light on the sufferings, there on the millenium, there in the rebuke to sin, here on the glory of God, and again, on the glory of the Messiah's care, His coming - and as to His rebukes are not hidden. That is precisely as in Matthew 12, the topic of Chapter 8, below. Tenderness and triumph, suffering for just cause, both in reproof to His people, and in sin-bearing on His own incarnate part, glory exposed like the sun glittering in sudden intensity on a vast waterfall, grace revealed as by a spotlight, and sin likewise, and its spuriousness, deliverance is seen in historic events and in the ultimate event, the cross of Christ. In the end, hell is seen in a flash, a terrible tableau, made intimate to the very earth, that it might learn before it goes (Isaiah 66, end, cf. 51:6).

You can have glorying at the ultimate as in Isaiah 7 and 9, exposure in its intensity likewise in 7, as in 59; you can see the tender graces of the Messiah 7 or in 40; His judgments in 24 as in 66; the international terminus point in 24 as in 66; the care in the Messiah for His people in 4, 9, 32 as in 54-55. It is all there, intermingled, moving in themes, covering needful historic exposes in contemporary prophecy and moving to far distant themes in the Messiah, His first and second comings, His atrocities suffered, His triumphs to come, His people and their classic exposure (30), and again (59), together with their amazing return (42,49), and the church, which after all, apostles from Israel were used, in Christ, to found, moving like a vast galleon in the moonlight, exposed but awaiting even more detail in the New Testament, in 60-61, with the Israel connection not hidden, but distinctly divorced from any spiritual efflorescence merely.

For though Israel is shown to be coming back, as also in Ezekiel and Zechariah, and coming to its promised own, it is not as some prince (Isaiah 19), not at all. It is with shame ("who is blind but My servant!"), that turns to glory ONLY when the Messiah (Isaiah 53:1) is accepted, following that return (49:7 with 49:20) by those whom it concerns, the believing remnant (Isaiah 59:20-21). For alas, the terms of reference for Israel spiritually, have yielded to another name (62:1ff.), and by this are the Lord's servants now called (Isaiah 65:13-15). Alas ? in sadness for the mangled race, yes; but not so in joy for their restoration in spirit as in Romans 11 (cf. The Biblical Workman Chs. 1, 3). That is a glory as it was to be from Deuteronomy 32:43 (cf. Romans 15:10). When that synthesis is complete, the Middle East will know a peace it has not known for millenia. That ? It is all a matter of the Messiah, who, being God (Isaiah 43:10-11, 53:5-12), is absolutely pivotal, His words terminal in power and His will operative without reduction (43:13, 40:10).

As to other 'shepherds', they have always tended to be ghoulish, and the more recently, if possible the worse! (cf. Zechariah 11:17, and Isaiah 30:1ff.). The 'day of Jacob's trouble' was an illustration, presumably climaxing in Hitler, for one would hope there is not worse to come before Israel returns to the Lord (cf. Jeremiah 30:5-9 with 31:15-22, and see The Biblical Workman
Ch. 1 for exposition on this point).
 
 

HEART and SOUL, MIND and STRENGTH

Isaiah, on the other hand, a faithful prophet, fearless and incisive, his own heart and soul, mind and strength seemed securely alight from the Lord, so that he became like so many, of whom it is written, "He makes His ministers a flame of fire". In Isaiah 6 you see the call to his multiple and multiplied ministry, not in the complacency of self-acceptance, let alone self-esteem, that deadly substitute for realism and holiness through repentance and cleansing, keeping and enabling from the Lord, but in a scouring, a burning, a cleansing - the ultimate and essential preliminary to anything for the Lord, from any of our race! In this chapter, you will see therefore much consideration given to this spirited, spiritual and inspired testimony, which has lasted the millenia, foretold history, detailed events, never slipping. After all, when GOD sets HIS mind to something, you can count it done. In this case, it was to a wide-ranging and staggering testimonial to His will, words and desires, His love, compassion and judgments, all with summary detail at every street corner, and resonances and illuminations of that peculiar intimacy which pervades the whole, with the identical sound heard and indeed vision seen, in each part. The words compound; the vision remains.
 
 

EXCERPT

FROM The Kingdom of Heaven Ch. 9,

End-Note 4: on Isaiah 2:22.

23)  In Isaiah 2:22: "Cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils, for of what account is he ?" Delitzsch has an interesting rendering, much the same: "Oh, then, let man go, in whose nostrils is a breath; for what is he estimated at ?" This is the sense, and this is the severance in view: from man who, estimated as empty in pride when divorced from God, is the inflated but spiritually fallen object one must cease to follow.

As Delitzsch points out justly, "it is preceded by the prediction of the utter demolition of everything which ministers to the pride and vain confidence of man…"  MAN the generic is the one exalted, to be debased. THAT is the message, and Isaiah 2:22, showing his end, prescribes the finale, CEASE from MAN (or mankind).

‘Man’ is in the Hebrew text precisely the same word with precisely the same definite article as in Isaiah 2:17, "the loftiness of man shall be bowed down," translated as such in the NKJV. But amazingly, leaving this consistent emphasis of the text, and this total parallel in construction, it wishes to translate "man" in this generic sense, as "such a man", which is in the text, is simply "the man" or as a generic, "man". This invention has no defence perceptible whatever. It is not the idea of not being drawn to the craven refugees who move in terror to the rocks for protection - the preceding verse (2:21); for who would be! It is man, the lofty one who has been attacked in religion in Isaiah 1 and here as that from which the "house of Jacob" must not relate as ground or rule for the heart, for "come and let us walk in the light of the LORD," is the call. In 2:10ff., there is the invitation,

"Enter into the rock and hide in the dust
From the terror of the LORD… The lofty looks of man shall be humbled…
The LORD alone shall be exalted in that day."

The TOPIC is man, the place to go is the LORD, to walk, to be secure, to be in friendship, whose is the glory, unlike majestic man, a triumph of trivia, vainly exalted. From him one must cease in all his ways, for look, does he not lurk in the shadows of obviously inadequate protection in physical rocks (still ‘the man’, 2:1), when (Isaiah 26:1ff.), their ‘strength’ or literally ‘rock of Ages’,  is the LORD!
This is perhaps the worst example of eisegesis in the NKJV, destructive of the sense of the entire passage, abortive of its dénouement and contrary to the consistent usage in this chapter,

2:11,17,22, except for the reference to MAN casting away his idols in v. 20, and since it is also ‘the man’ or the common generic, ‘man’ that here appears in the text, there is even here the sense of this being the ultimate ‘repose’ of riotous flesh for mankind: holes in rocks, because not abiding in that intrinsically secure Rock, the LORD! It is all man so small and devious, derelict and pretentious, and God so grand and innately glorious, to be trusted, as distinct from the defiled, and defiling, lofty haughtiness of man. The generic, man, it is he who is without strength or help, except in the Lord, and from him, thus occupied, one is to be severed. It is not so much the punishment of pride, but the presence of it which is the thrust of what one is to cease from, throughout: for in punishment is the pitiful, rather than the vaingloriously attractive in its vaunting.
Indeed, in Isaiah 57:11-13 has the same theme:

"And of whom have you been afraid, or feared,
That you have lied,
And not remembered Me,
Nor taken it to your heart…
I will declare your righteousness and your works,
For they will not profit you…
But he who puts his trust in Me shall possess the land,
And shall inherit My holy mountain"


It is not some fleeing man, who, for some unknown reason, though called ‘the man’ or man, is rendered ‘such a man’, suddenly invented  it is not this vagrant and refugee who is the butt of the passage, but gloriously arrogant man, and indeed, man whether punished or not, as a phenomenon of unbelief. CEASE from him! comes the challenge, this breathing fragility, with farcical loftiness, like a prince outside the Lord.

Contrary to context, grammatically unwarranted, it is also unaligned with other parallel emphasis. Rather, do we find:

"I dwell in the high and holy place
With him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
To revive the heart of the contrite ones.
For I will not contend forever,
Nor will I always be angry;
For the spirit would fail before Me,

And the souls which I have made" (from Isaiah 57:15ff.).

 

EXCERPT

FROM The Shadow of a Mighty Rock pp. 770ff.
on Isaiah 7 (1)

*2 One should first read Isaiah 7-10-14, and preferably 7:14, to better grasp discussion. We see in Isaiah 7:14 a Hebrew term which denotes "the lass", something as E. J. Young points out in his Studies in Isaiah (p. 183) rather more definite even than 'damsel', since there is no evidence it was ever used of a married woman. A simple girl, unmarried (a 'laddess' as Dr Duff Forbes rendered it), is to be with child. This Hebrew word is unlike bethulah, a technical term which, though it may mean 'virgin' may also be associated with marriage (Joel 1:8 - where a bethulah mourns for the husband of her youth). Young notes this other term may also be used with the addition, 'who had never known a man' (loc. cit.) which, in view of the betrothal arrangements, is not meaningless.

'Almah,' however, the term in Isaiah 7:14, conveys the sense of simple, normal, as yet unwed, uninvolved, untouched youth. It is divorced from marital maturity or participation like Spring from Summer.

Now rightly denounced, in no uncertain terms, has been any sense of a fornicator or slut.

There is simply no ground for assuming an immoral or fallen or guilty young lady. "Innocent till proved guilty" is merely one facet of the case. You don't engineer a focus for deliverance (as is the context in Isaiah 7), a 'sign' as this young lady in that place undoubtedly is, with a reference to the perversion of youth or the squandering of sanctity in sexual licence - as a mere guess! The context says no such thing; nor does it censure. It speaks rather, categorically of youth outside child-birth considerations, that would in any way relate to marriage. It is indeed set in idyllic atmosphere (Isaiah 7:21 ff.). Further, for God to designate a simple young lady in His holy plan as a focus, (Behold the virgin, He announces, "the unmarried maiden with child"), and for us to assume that He has a 'dirty', distorted or specifically fallen thing in mind: this comes near to imputing to God a breach of His own principle, "whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy- meditate on these things" (Philippians 4:8), and breaches this one: "Love hopes all things" (1 Corinthians 13:7).

We have no right to enter here such territory, no warrant, no ground or basis, without being instructed so to do. It would be eisegesis - that is the importation of thought from outside the passage, not exegesis - the expression and bringing out of the passage, what is written. To add to God's words is forbidden (Proverbs 30:6), and to follow such a procedure would be to become a joint author with God, without invitation so to be...

Yet the 'case' for avoiding the virgin prophecy is far worse than that. How can a straightforward and not very uncommon 'fallen woman' syndrome be a sign (Isaiah 7:ll) of such magnitude as is found here, and found rather rarely in Scripture. As Machen points out (op. cit. pp. 290-291), the divine offer of the sign in this passage would naturally lead us "to think of some event like the turning back of the sun on Hezekiah's dial, or the phenomena in connection with Gideon's fleece" - the first in Isaiah, the other in Judges - such focus was made on a sign... Such focus ? some such focus, for in this case the focus is explicitly more than merely astronomical, it is CELESTIAL. "Ask a sign!", God challenges, reaching up upwards into the heights, down into the depths ... There is not only a request to ask a sign, and this being God, the limits of magnitude are not there; these limits are explicitly off as well. Here is a sign to end all signs, making history a preliminary! Events in the coming will 'unwrap' what is more than remarkable, or even unique; they will paint, portray, institute a supreme marvel even in the action of the divine One, of God Himself, upon this earth.

As Machen puts it, "Equally suggestive is the elaborate way in which the 'sign' is introduced. The whole passage is couched in such terms as to induce in the reader or hearer a sense of profound mystery as he contemplates the young woman and her child." The offer to Ahaz was virtually infinite and the Lord's choice of sign, when Ahaz declined to activate the matter, is in the category that has no bounds. Such is this setting, situation and scope.

To seek a simple, common, all too natural signal in the sight of such supernatural initiative is to ignore what is written, be blind to the context and to miss the point... which is that here is something prima facie all but incredible! But that is precisely what we have been led to expect, might expect in any case perhaps, but certainly must expect in such a context. God appoints it on His own, with scathing effect on the welfare of Ahaz, but no remission of His intended utterance. Weary God they may, but God is not wearied to perform what He will (Isaiah 7:13). "Therefore - [in the very face of this weary faithlessness of man], the Lord Himself will give you a sign!" activating on a personal basis what they failed to appropriate, in a way that might have brought blessing personally as well.

The divine irony is intense, for the onset of Assyria in desolating triumph over Jewry is announced at once (Isaiah 7:17-20), penal clauses proliferating in the face of this rejection of mercy by jesuitical jousting with God. Certainly this blessedness of Immanuel is far removed from the people whose faith was as far removed from accepting the unconditional gift and glorious deliverance so lightly esteemed by Ahaz. This, their defaulting king, was all too fitting a representative of the people (Isaiah 1:4-17), for which only chastisement was fitting; yet to whom IN THE LORD'S OWN TIME, THE virgin would nevertheless come. It WOULD come however wearisome (Isaiah 7:13) the contemporary hardness of heart and blindness of eyes, deafness of ear, might be! It would come when once the penalties were come, and the realities of trifling with God, as if to try His patience, were met with long years in which the people would need in patience to await their deliverer, so lightly esteemed.

Does not this action of Ahaz, then, rise to the peak as the very exemplar for all the straight, liberal radicalism, frothy existentialism, name of the game changing neo-orthodox and neo-evangelical lethargy now provided by the parallel deviations of the Gentiles ? He, Ahaz would not tempt the Lord by believing what He said! Such sanctified restraint by which to characterise rebellion! He would not accept the unlimited bounty of the divine gift - ASK! (Isaiah 7:11-12). God was merely mocking him perhaps in giving such a gift as this ? a gift  which was later, despite the lack of hands at that time to receive it, to come in any case as the Lord Jesus Christ, not a god without power, but the power of God and the wisdom of God (I Cor. 1).

Yes, the Gentiles have come, as in the time of judgment which began to settle on Judah, now themselves near the end of the Age appointed (SMR Ch.8), and in their falsetto evasions and spectrum of deviations to match the error of the Jews at that critical point, they too in droves will not 'tempt' the Lord by believing in obedience what He says, by acting on what He gives; but rather from the midst of the structures of many churches, they build with Ahaz a resort of verbal subterfuge, a substitute for the wholehearted acceptance that walks with God in the way He assigns, as well as talks about Him (cf. Ezekiel 33:32). But let us return to the tableau in Isaiah 7.

THE virgin then ? Not some woman of unknown character, unnamed, in the crowd whose time was coming fast for desolation, castigation and correction. Rather the one who would do the job, perform the function, encompass the man who, as sinless for a human offering (Isaiah 53, Leviticus 4:3, Hebrews 9:14) and of eternal divine character (Micah 5:1-3, Psalm 45) MUST obtain a parentage which was not encompassed by sin. THE virgin is the one predicted, THE virgin is the one written, who must bear the MIGHTY GOD (Isaiah 9:6), one who can be called the Everlasting Father (cf. John 14, Zechariah 12:10); for this is the name of Isaiah 9:6.

It is there, in Isaiah 9:6-7, that the Messiah is in focus, His works in view, His name announced with accolade, deposited in profusion. THAT, it is no name for the Father, but for the gift, the sacrifice, the ruler to come, the Son of David to bring the glory of God to the earth. THAT, it is no name for the Father, but for the Son whose kingdom shall know no end (Isaiah 9:7), for how would it be a specific for the Father when it is specialised in the precise person of the Son in this way! Is the Father to be the son of David? How far must confusion go ? as far as with Ahaz, who simply WOULD NOT ACCEPT plain dealing and unambiguous blessing from God, and who dared to pretend reason backed him, humility helped him to ruin his people by trifling with God, as if he were some magical modern theologian, inventing gods that are not there, and fittingly enough, failing to worship what he makes.

Hence THE virgin is announced with the clarity of mid-day sun overhead in the open fields; the virgin whose offspring had been so long predicted, the seed on its female side, of woman, whose heel would be bruised in crushing the serpent's head (Genesis 3:15). There is exactly no other specific for the "THE" which signalises, except the signal given, which is  'God with us', through the medium of the one chosen to bear His incarnate form.

There is then simply no other option but something like Jeremiah's "new thing" (31:22) and at that, a new thing in the world. What was that? "A woman shall encompass a man!" This is in the context of a change from catastrophe and calamity, in the midst of tender and solicitous divine love and appeal, leading to incalculable blessing. The term 'encompass' is, as Harris and Archer point out in their Theological Word Book of the Old Testament, related to concepts of damming, shutting up, encircling, being shut up to something so that it is all around you, as to God's will for our life. The totality of word and context indicates categorically a human prodigy of divine basis which is transformative of malignancy to benignancy, in the love of a tender and seeking Father.

This therefore  is precisely what we find in Isaiah 7, with the differences noted, and this we discover in particular: that this blessing is delivered to unbelief; for the day of its coming is by the sovereign will of God. On the other hand, Jeremiah adds to the total context also, despite amazing and intimate similarities: in that case, the new covenant is spelt out (Jeremiah 31:31), alike with Jeremiah 31:22 as a new thing, in all its transformative, and inward wonder and as a procedure for a new inward thing for all who receive Him. We are in the same transformative, infinitely sacred and vastly significant arena. The vistas merge both in content and uniqueness, in preliminaries and in results. As in the Isaiah 7 case, we marvel at the human vehicle in its providing certain bounds to so amazing a result as this prince; in Jeremiah we wonder at the exclusion of the human male partner.

One deals with the inclusion of deity via result; the other with the exclusion of the human male, by method. Both share the consequences, the need and the prodigious character of the stakes, significance and wonder involved, with the intense blessing to come to those over whom this incarnate Sovereign will rule in peace with hearts who know this peace (Jeremiah 31:33-34, Isaiah 9:7).

In both however, is this transcendent wonder and absolute novelty, the key, the king, the incarnate One, the penetration of God in Person into this realm, with uncontainable results. In Isaiah 7, in particular, it is to be something so categorically different, celestially filled with initiative that even among signs it will have an initiative and wonder that will stagger. So it does and that is both the demonstration and verification.

Yes, the prophecy means just what it says: not in a common way, but in a unique and celestial way, which God only could do, there will be a sign among signs, reaching as we see in the outcome - up, upwards, yes up to God Himself and coming down to earth from God Himself, in a way that will spell categorical, absolute, spiritual and effective deliverance, though not for the anti-opportunistic, unbelieving, devious seeming Ahab (Isaiah 7:11). The splendour of this thing is illimitable, boundless, incomparable: those are its criteria, this is the offer. And to this ? To this king relates his negative to a divine offer in terms of a specious humility; and small wonder it is deemed a weariness (Isaiah 7:13) to the sparkling glory of the practical and performing divine love, to encounter this jesuitical (to allow the anachronism for the sake of the spirit of the thing, which matches to perfection) substitute for faith, on the part of Ahab.

Thus there is simply no other meaning but that given by Matthew in rendering the prophecy. A young damsel is to be with child, without marriage and with morals. A donation of deity is to occur, as Isaiah 9:6 and Micah 5:1-3 make so clear, as does indeed Isaiah 48:16, in human format. In human form is to come One whose name is the same as God's (Psalm 45:6, Isaiah 9:6), who being on the one hand, able to be deemed "the everlasting Father", is also called "the Prince of peace". God has chosen to include Himself, not merely for display purposes, not only for performance, but for being stricken by men. The grandeur of the beginning of this action will lend lustre to the meaning of its end, and indeed, of its ends!

It is not an unknown but a declared thing that is given, focussing a stated Prince who is identical with the Father, One with an everlasting kingdom while His shoulder will bear both this and the glory (Zechariah 6:12-13), in a way stringently forbidden to any but God as we have seen; and do it in such a manner as to combine that forbidden synthesis, as far as Israel was concerned, Prince plus Priest!

What then could be both "everlasting Father" and "Prince of peace", as a man? nothing could have both except an incarnation, express and unique, categorical and complete, depictive and declarative of God without essential diminution... indeed, without being such as Paul describes in Colossians 2:9 as a matter of fact - "in Him was the fulness of the Godhead in bodily form."

For this incarnation, then, the context of Isaiah more broadly asks, as indeed does that of the prophets; and Isaiah 7 gives the medium. This is met by the young damsel, the virgin it is, the one without whom genuine incarnation could not occur: the incarnation which is so often assumed, but now as in Jeremiah and in Micah 5:1-3, is spoken of in more terrestrial terms. This is how and through whom the Christ of the Psalms and the prophets (Psalm 40 tells us that a body is to be gained by the One who is to dispense with sacrifices), is to gain that body, which as man on earth He would need to have. Not through a splendid creation of a new frame without man; but through woman will this Messiah come. This Immanuel is the crux.

To the Jew for whom, as Machen points out, Isaiah 53 would remain mysteriously obscure, for whom indeed the concept of celestial splendour reaching down to human squalor and its sin (albeit as a ransom for that part of it surrendered in repentance) could be repugnant, this passage would be a trial!

As with so much else (Luke 21:24), the plain sense of prophecy can be avoided with spectacular ability when God's prodigious and sometimes spectacular works are not faced with that simple realism with which He faces us. Taken as it undoubtedly stands, this virgin birth prophecy is so prodigious as to make many baulk at it. Yet it is in the area, the arena of prodigy, quite explicitly, that this scripture, this benign event, this hallowed offer to Ahaz is found - the sign reaching up to heaven or down to the abyss.

Hence what amazes becomes what verifies that the plain sense is meant. We are not told that the sign will be the absence of sign, or the signal will be a metaphor. Behold the unmarried and moral damsel, she is with child! Small good it may do faithless Ahaz, and indeed the prophecy is now addressed to the house of David which is to continue. It is rebuke; and this and the remarkable - are now to mix. The sign will come; it will meet the specifications; but it will not be so used as to bring on Ahaz the blessing he missed; but rather God's choice within these dimensions is a sign of magnificence formed so as to constitute contemporary rebuke, to the king who missed the opportunity of a lifetime, indeed of an epoch, and future blessing which indeed applies to any (cf. Isaiah 53:1) who will believe.

There is probably no greater rebuke to disbelief than the format of the sign which is the focus for faith. God-with-us is the name the mother (the only one involved other than God, not the father as normal child-namer, at this time) is to give this prodigy: in Himself, that is what He confers. Wherever he goes, where faith is and hence operation, that is the result. Isaiah 9:6 expatiates much more on this aspect, but here in Isaiah 7, it is already announced. It is God (Isaiah 48:16) who is being sent; and this through a human mother so that His powers and protection will be available, through faith, to man (Isaiah 11, 32:1-3, 9:6-7, 7:14).

There was disfaith then, that poignantly pathetic disease, as there is the same syndrome now; there was disheartened rejection then, with appalling consequences complementing other inducements to disaster for the Jews; and there is disfaith now, with similarly appalling disasters for the Gentiles, for all those little Ahazes indeed, who flock to the contemporary scene as if the whole world were Surfer's Paradise, and the prime sport of luxuriant folly were this: to skid down the wave of unbelief. This was crucial then; it is as crucial now; and those who have more light now (John 1) have merely this in store, more responsibility for the same folly. Let us however proceed with the exposition.

God in His grandeur is able to despatch of Himself no mere glint or glimmer, but a Person who is His very expression, bearing His name and glory (Zechariah 6:13, 2:8-10, Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, Micah 5:1-3). If that is not a sign to eclipse signs, what is! The match of meaning to word is perfect; and rational alternatives do not exist.

The fact of the incarnation, its place in tribe (Genesis 49), in geography (Micah 5), and in woman (Isaiah 7, Jeremiah 31), in Jewish history (Isaiah 49:7, Zechariah 11:1-11), and in consequences in the face of sustained unbelief (Matthew 23:37-39, Luke 19:42 ff., Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 18) on the one hand, and for faith on the other (Isaiah 7:14, Psalms 2, 45) are all set forth. All that the devil had to do was to breach THE PRACTICAL AND HISTORICAL FULFILMENT of any one of these prophecies. He tried in Herod at the 'Massacre of the Innocents', as it is called (Matthew 2:16-19). He tried  at the temptation more subtly (Matthew 4), and of course, the devil tried yet again at Calvary (1 Corinthians 2:6-7). He tried and he failed. Neither his power nor his wisdom is sufficient. His negativity is overwhelmed by reality. His failure, like that of all his minions, whether conscious and committed or unconscious and duped, it  is simply one more verification of the word of God. Satan and his cohorts, whether glamorous or merely fallen and specious, always fail.

  • That frustrated diabolical act and series of actions,
  • like this consummated single act concerning the Messiah and His advent,


His performance according to His prophetic word, unspotted in any feature, adequate in all, never able to be exposed as error in any part or way, regard or aspect, but to the contrary, always luminous with creativity, wonder  and precision:
 

  • it is part of the attestation of God.

The even vaster verification is the arresting and glorious stature of the man-as-God who did in any case come, on time (see Daniel File), and do all that was required in the physical and spiritual specifications of His task.

 

 

EXCERPT

FROM SMR p. 765-769

This is the text from which the preceding 'end-note' above, is taken. The topic is also treated further in certain features, in Deliverance from Disorientation Ch. 1. You may find it convenient to use the hyperlinks here to access both of these.
 
 

EXCERPT FROM Habakkuk,

Item 22 in Barbs, Arrows and Balms,

starting on Habakkuk 2:4 in context 2:1ff.. "The Just Shall Live by Faith..."
This has special reference to Isaiah 7 (2)

*3

The term used for "faith" here, implying -

as Harris, Gleason and Waltke point out in their Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, established lives, reflecting His faithfulness in their own sure attitude towards God (II Chronicles 19:9, Psalm 119:30, I Chronicles 9:22) -

denotes stability, fidelity.

It is conviction, certainty with which the prophet is to wait for it, THE FINAL OUTCOMES OF GOD, "for it will surely come" - though that is not yet. As Paul says,

"We were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees ?

"But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance."

The very redemption of the body is one of those things we await in the consummation, for which the stupendous power so far displayed in the creation and resurrection, is a preliminary testimony, as is the account, the witness of the Spirit of God in our hearts, who believe (Romans 8:22ff., 1:1-4, I Cor. 15).

The situation at first envisaged in the book of Habakkuk, like that in Romans, is the present consuming power of the curse, and in the earlier sections of the writing of the prophet especially, there is traced the parallel cursed seeming conduct on the part of the many, within this: unredeemed and looking like it! Indeed, in Habakkuk 1, we find the prophet, in the face of the eager, delusive appeal of "might is right" plunder, pride and arrogance, as one appalled and revolted. In such a debased environment, however, he finds that  there is a certainty of a foundational kind, exactly as in Romans 8:18-31, in which life is to be lived. The stable, assured fidelity of mind, conviction of heart, imbued with the stability of God, is the way; for -

"WAIT FOR IT, FOR IT WILL SURELY COME" - 2:3.

What will come ? Redemption, rebuke, judgment and purification, all consummated in their time, when the courts are held, the worlds are stricken and the time is up.

Who then will come ? The One "whose ways are everlasting" (Habakkuk 3:6), and He will come for "the Salvation of your Anointed", providing for His Christ, the Gentiles for His inheritance (Isaiah 49:6, Psalm 2:8, 117), over whom He will rule (Jeremiah 23:5-6, 3:16-17); and the action will be one of drama and determination (Habakkuk 3:16).

For this then the prophet is the wait with a persistent, insistent, stable and assured fidelity: for the just will live by his faith (2:4). It is not yet. It will come. In the interim, a steadfast reliance on God is required, whatever the nets of violence may do (Hababkkuk 1:4,13-16), in their corrupted craft and violence. Receiving from Him who is stable, the means through being so founded, to be stable and unequivocal through trial, is the essence of the application in Habakkuk. God will act, first with the Babylonian discipline on Israel (Hab. 1:5ff.) in Habakkuk’s own day, later more fully on the world (Hab.3:3-16, cf. Isaiah 24). Meanwhile ?  faith!

Again we see the same word (emunah), in Proverbs 12:22: "Those who deal with faithfulness are His delight" - a concept with is entirely parallel to this: "Without faith you cannot please God" - Hebrews 11:6). Once more we find it, in II Chronicles 19:9, where Jehoshaphat, the righteous king is telling the officials to deal justly. With faithfulness, reliability, scrupulous conscientious zeal, from a steadfast heart, resting in the entirely faithful God, they must deal. THIS is the faithful man who deals by faith, walks in it, and of whom it may be said: "Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times" and, "the fear of the Lord is his treasure"  -Isaiah 33:6.

It is this faith, assured, stable, conviction, issuing in fearless action, embraced by hope, imbued with certainty, by which the just shall live.

Accordingly, the negative shute is just as clear, decisive and defined as the positive; but of course, in the opposite direction, with the contrary outcome. As Isaiah declares to the evasively religious and chronically troubled king Ahaz (Isaiah 7), faced with potential military disaster and  set in a formula of sanctity which denies the fact -

"Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God: ask it either in the depth or in the height above."

But Ahaz said,

"I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!" (Isaiah 7:11-12). In this phase at least, he appears the wriggler: and the reply ?

"Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also ?" (Isaiah 7:13). He missed the blessing, the powerful amazing blessing (ask it high to heaven, low to the depths!) and so became merely the instrument for hearing of the blessing to come! What was offered was unlimited; what was gained was according to his faith, or lack of it!

Obviously, we are in the unlimited dimensions of divine mercy and profundity of grace, those which in the end led the Son of God to be crucified on earth, as planned from the beginning and before the world so much as was. Yet in the face of this, just as the Christian, ALREADY provided with this Son (I John 5:12, Romans 8:32) has this vast provision, and acts in faith, so as one opposed, Ahaz acted in scribal seeming deviousness. He declined to ask and his answer was as if to make it a virtue actually to call in question the propriety of OBEYING A DIVINE COMMAND, namely ‘ASK’ - ask in whatever depth or dimension of the Lord, the matter requires. That was the authority the Lord gave him. That was what he declined to utilise!

How much worse, when this command was set in the celestial magnitudes the prophet was inspired to offer! How much worse yet, when the answer  is clothed in sanctity, as if it were to "TEMPT" the Lord (a sinful thing) to OBEY the Lord. That is expressly Ahaz’ stated thought. The essence of liberalism was already in his heart, it would seem, and certainly displayed itself ingeniously in this instance. Here is the very perfection of infidelity, instability, non-certitude, of anti-emunah, to use our Hebrew topic word in this end-note!

Thus it is here, in Isaiah 7, in fact verse 9, that the prophetic ultimatum which is the nether end of the glowing graciousness of the granting of such an offer, appears. He declares:

 

"IF you will not believe,
SURELY you will not be established!"

 

Here the verbal root for our topic word is used in two different forms, "believing" being one usage, and "established" in the passive, another. The "believing" is literally, "cause to be established". You participate in the stability and certainty of things WITH stability and certainty. So it has been, is and remains for spiritual exercises in the presence of the Lord. It is a matter of certitude, being established, with the grace and place of the Lord established in your heart, His word ruling.

Christian, ask therefore, that your joy may be full, for the great and precious promises are not limited: ask in His name, for His will and for what is needed to perform it (John 16:23, II Peter 1:4). For the end of the Age, wait; for the use of its opportunities, ask! That provision was made for Ahaz then. For himself and his nation, he missed the opportunity of a lifetime.

Christ’s offer - Ask and it shall be given you, that the Father may be glorified in the Son, is given to you now (Matthew 7:7, John 14:13, 16:23-24) - ask in Christ’s name!
The servant is not greater than his master, but his Master is given a name above every name, and to Him all power is given (Philippians 2:9, Matthew 28:18-20).
 
 

EXCERPT

FROM Joyful Jottings 26,

concerning Isaiah 8:18

How awful it if were not proper to worship such a ONE! Rejoice you pure in heart, for it is right and good and fitting and seemly , and eminently to be desired (cf. John 20:26-29). Recall what was shown of Him when we looked at Psalm 110 earlier! (Joyful Jottings 23).

He engendered children of His own (recall Isaiah 53:10 and its exposition - The Kingdom of Heaven, Ch.9, pp. 153ff.), and of course Hebrews 2:10ff., speaking of Him to whom the Father says, "Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever" (1:8), has this -
 

  • "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory , to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings ...saying, 'I will declare Your name to My brethren ...,' and again, 'Here am I and the children whom God has given Me.' "


As to the last reference, it is in turn from Isaiah 8, where in 8:20 God said this:
 

  • "To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."


Before this, Isaiah is led to reveal the Messiah, "He will be a sanctuary, but a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel" - verse 14, made obvious in 32:1-3, as in 40:10. It is this Messiah who is then portrayed with His disciples, just as in Psalm 40, with His body, delighted to act, so here prepared and potent for service in spiritual things. Indeed, He and His disciples become "signs and wonders" and as such they did indeed serve, being personally appointed to this end by the Father (Isaiah 9:1-7, cf. Isaiah 7:11,14, where this is prophetically definitive of the Messiah as such, the PERSON who would be the sign).

He and the CHILDREN whom the Father has given Him (as in John 6:37,39,44, 12:32) ...
children! "Here am I and the children whom God has given Me." These are they who must grow up - if they are alive!

Look at it in Ephesians 4:15! Next time we shall look at that in its Biblical setting. Growing up ? Great thing for children...

 

EXCERPT

Our next reference is so extensive - in fact a chapter in LIGHT OF DAWN, the sixth, that we merely hyperlink it for easy access. It concerns Isaiah 8:22-9:7 with special focus on Isaiah 9:3 text.
 

EXCERPT

Here also we refer only to a passage concerning chiefly Isaiah 9, but with dealings with other parts of the prophecy. It is so large and a whole chapter, so that it seems best merely to hyperlink it here; but it could well be read in series at this point. It is to be found in Divine Agenda Chapter 5.
 
  FOR ISAIAH  24 see COMFORT YE, MY PEOPLE, Ch. 3.

 

EXCERPT

FROM Repent or Perish Ch. 7

especially on Isaiah 9:6-7  but also on Isaiah 30, 40-46, 48-49, 52-53
 
  See also Dawn of Light CH. 6 on Isaiah 8-9

 

The statement in Acts 11:18 is singular.  Those concerned, hearing of Paul's labours, reflected in this way:

  • "Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life" -
  • literally, into life.

 

It shows that it is a privilege to be granted the grace of repentance. It is not a pretence, but it is a mercy when one seeks to be rid of the offence, out of the desire to be godly, to be at peace with God, to belong to Him whose we are, but against whom the human race in the biggest racist program of all, habitually rebels.

 

It rebels with discord, with brutality, with plain selfishness, with incredible seeming thrust and killing, as by the Russians who, last century,  invaded the Aleutian Islands and so acted ... as to make the term 'barbaric' seem genteel, in terms of their treatment of the Aleuts who lacked guns and large ships. Indeed,  simple perfidy seems almost pleasant by comparison, when one reviews their treatment of the sacked and abused race, like aphids in the control of wasps. The Spanish treatment of the Aztecs, in their misguided zeal for gold and Mary - the invention which is not Biblical at all but some kind of redemptrix who adds to that blood which is sufficient for all, and polluted by any (I John 1, Matthew 12:48-50) - did not lack in atrocity of thought and deed; and  were humbled later, cast down from their eminence and soon a scene of Communist civil war and lost glory. The British with their slave trade, were scarcely admirable; but they repented with the aid of Wilberforce, that splendidly devoted Christian statesman and churchman; oh but we could continue at length, down the roll call of the nations.

The road turned. Then the Russians learned what it is like with the Communists internalised in force in their land, like cancer; the Spanish with the Romanists in their own midst, in their civil war and vastly diminished stature; while the British, with this and the inhumanities needlessly added to the Industrial Revolution,  were pillaged in two world wars of their needless extremes of time and conditions for many; and they helped to make America rich, which however, she did not desire, having a desire to rebuild Europe and to unbuild herself with her endless concoctions which replace sound theology.

While the Protestant movement in England helped attenuate these evils, through such as Wilberforce and Lord Shaftesbury, yet the national glory found its all too wrongful place, and was used to justify much which cannot well be justified, such as the invasion of Scottish churches, in order to force them to conform to authoritarian practices preferred by the State, removing their very freedom to call their own Ministers and forcing preachers into the woods, to be shot at, with Christians even incarcerated in cages, to be the sport of foe and weather...

It is then, a mercy when repentance is granted to a nation from its wild excesses, brutalities and follies, insensitivities, or on the other hand, wild tolerations of searing follies in its midst, and indeed, in our own case of Australia, subsidies granted so abundantly to support and hence extend them.

It is a mercy when an individual is given the grace to repent. It may be rebutted with pride, ignored through envy, dashed to pieces through self-will; but it is indeed a grace when it is received.

REPENTANCE INTO LIFE is the term used in Acts. You do not merely repent FROM something, you repent, when you are coming to God, INTO SOMETHING.

It is the Christ whom God objectively sent to objectively die, made an object of derision, a subject of assault, a victim - carefully prepared and abundantly willing, despite the heavy load it meant - Luke 22:40-43, Acts 2:23-31, to whom one repents. This is the case because it is HE who is the Redeemer: HE PAID! You get the receipt from Him.

To be covered by ANOTHER,  wounds the pride, makes sheepish self-will, inserts nobility into the spirit, grinds into the face of obstinacy and cracks the heart of self-sufficiency. It opens thereby the way to victory and to deliverance from the endless seeming pathogens of sin which render the soul sick and make right seem wrong, wrong right, leading to the brutalities, the  insensitivities and crass self-interests which mar the globe. These pretences which put oneself, or one's interests first, HAVE to lead to strife with others such, since it is not objectively true that either oneself or another sinner is the CENTRE, able to merit such an approach. The lie given the light leads to repentance.

It is good it is not to any MAN or PERSON who is a sinner, who is limited and capable of deceiving or being deceived, that one is to repent. It is INTO LIFE one repents, and as Christ made so clear in John 14:6 concerning Himself: "I am the way, the truth and the life" ...

Such repentance, known to God, is not subject to fallible assessment. Some want to be sure their repentance is GOOD enough; but this is hideously beside the point. If one is wrong, one either does or does not regret it. If one does, it is either a self-serving desire which merely uses 'regret' in order to gain something; or it is regret. If it is regret, it is either because one was so stupid and betrayed oneself, or because one betrayed one's Maker. If it is because one betrayed one's Maker, it is either a matter for regret because He found out (though He always knew, who knows all), or it is a matter for regret that THIS is the sort of thing that one has in folly contributed. If it is the latter, one either detests it because it is not up to His divine standards, or would have liked to do it a little better. If the former, one is in confrontation with truth, and finding this,  one must capitulate and accept the awful facts about one's failures, wilfulnesses or weaknesses; while loathing these, turn to the Lord and INTO the life which is in Christ. You leave the road, the highway to hell, and take the entry to the narrow way, the road to heaven, accompanied (Psalm 23, Isaiah 40:10, 49:19) by Him to whose LIFE one has come, and what a road it is (Isaiah 35:8). Its end is certain and its provisions abundantly sufficient (John 10:9,27-28, I Peter 1:4ff.).
 
 

2. BEING OBJECTIVE ABOUT THE NEED

The REAL difficulty was for HIM. Thus we who repent to LIFE, come to the LIFE which was offered as sacrificial payment for our sins, make-weight for our deficiencies, that standards of justice and truth should be met, aided by mercy which, still not willing to be slack, paid for the judgment by the action of Christ voluntarily becoming a crucified victim, thus both portraying what sin looks like, what judgment feels like and the cost which, justice demanding, justice received. It is indeed ALL RIGHT in this universe, but only THROUGH REPENTANCE INTO LIFE. Without that, it is all wrong, not with the universe, but with that part of it which, refusing remedy, gains no remission and no admission.

On this turns the pivot of history, the direction of destiny, the calibre of life.

Hence we read well in advance in God's pre-coverage of history (cf. Amos 3:7, Isaiah 41:21ff., 43:5-14, 44:7, 45:11,19, 46:11, 48:1-11), of the actual payment for these things, the cost to cover the sins, the rebuilding and the judgments - like a rebuilding of Europe but on holy grounds - which would be paid for each and every individual who, repenting into life, found in the Lord, salvation.
 

Thus in Isaiah 43:11 we find, not surprisingly, that beside God there is NO SAVIOUR.

Such costs are too much for sinners to pay (cf. Psalm 49:7-8), and only God is both able and willing to pay (Psalm 49:15). In Isaiah, hundreds of years before the actual payment at Calvary, through the instrument of the Cross (Colossians 1:19-22), we find this (52:3):

"You have sold yourselves for nothing,
And you shall be redeemed without money."

The proportionality is beautiful!

Then in 52:10: "The Lord has made bare His holy arm,
In the eyes of all nations;
And all the ends of the earth shall see
The salvation of our God."

This is at once introduced (52:13). God-the-sent (Isaiah 48:16, Zechariah 2:8, Psalm 45) is shown in His self-humbling portfolio of "servant" ; and indeed, there IS no greater service than what is here. Pill-popping is no substitute, and psycho-analysis has long been ridiculed as too pretentious, too costly and too subject to vagaries. It does not deal with the real issue: GOD. As David put it in Psalm 51, 4:

"Against YOU, You only have I sinned."

God the source and owner of all, is the main and pivotal subject for repentance. The rest follows like light after sunrise.

The redemption (Isaiah 53:10-11) which is then shown in literally excruciating detail in this chapter, makes it clear that the Christ, the Messiah, actually BEARS our iniquities - OUR iniquities? those of the people who believe and HENCE receive what He has to offer, and who therefore "by His stripes ... are healed" (Isaiah 53:1,10, 5).

Here is the One who is then in a position to JUSTIFY, BECAUSE having borne the iniquities, accepted sentence for the sin, He grants the real absolution which comes from having paid already: for those who receive Him. It is not a Church, or a mission or a man who is himself a sinner who does it; it is Christ. He it is who died, who rose again, who returns, to whom glory is due. It is FROM HIM alone (I Timothy 2:5, II Timothy 2:9-10, Acts 4:10-11) that one must so receive, and as to that, it is by faith on the account of grace (Ephesians 2:8-10).

 

THERE is the one who as predicted, came seated on the colt of an ass: entering Jerusalem (which was to slay Him), amidst the exuberant and rejoicing plaudits and praise of so many (Zechariah 9:6); and as to Him, He was the One "having salvation". Hence (Isaiah 49:6), He IS the salvation of God, and as such is shown a light to the Gentiles, the non-Jewish people. HIS is the focus, HIS the name, HIS the fame (cf. Isaiah 9:6, 9:1-7).

It is of HIS kingdom there is no end, with peace eternal (Isaiah 9:7); and it is accordingly HIS NAME which is "prince of peace" (9:6), and for that matter, "the mighty God", as we there read, in perfect harmony with Psalm 45, and Hebrews 1:8, Philippians 2. The PRINCE OF PEACE designation requires the preceding names to be its company. The couples, or the sententious series in this name refrain are undivorceable, and this not only because if this were not so,   it would be peremptory, arbitrary and intrusive, as if to presume some lapse in divine concentration, some carelessness in composition, some abstruse and unevidenced complexity of speech.  They are undivorceable likewise because it is a person who is promoted, exposed and exhibited, who though a child in coming, is yet ‘Everlasting Father’, for that Father is to perfection exposed by Him, and moves by and through Him (cf. John 14). It is not per se a statement about the Father, but about the Son, His dealings and His advent, His Kingdom and His power, His future and His qualities.

The announcement in 9:6 is of HIM, and it is HIS NAME which is explicitly focussed, just as it is HIS WORKS which draw the eyes in 9:7, the latter the justification of the former, and both of the huge announcement in Isaiah 9, concerning the light which is great, which comes to overcome darkness, the great light which (49:6, 9:1-2) He is.

It is, moreover, to Him who is wonderful and Counsellor that we are introduced, as also exposed for us in Isaiah 11 and 53. There is no ambiguity about whose throne it is in 9:7, and none about the characterisation of the One to sit upon it, whose qualities are set forth like the sun. It is no wonderful thing that is counselled, as though we were dealing in the abstract. The case is wholly other.

Rather it is the wonderful counsellor who is provided. It is in HIM, and not in some other thing, that the name is found, located, lodged, with the qualities leading on to the power and the glory in 9:7. It is not the plan but the person, not the thought but the deed, not the idea but the actualisation, not the potential but the person. Only as wonderful, that name used of the LORD in His theophany to the parents of Samson, can we find a way to put together the Prince of Peace who is both Almighty God and child, everlasting Father and yet one forwarded by the LORD! As God in the flesh, God-the-sent (Isaiah 48:16), the Word, He can be both, and in no other way. (Cf. The Shadow of a Mighty Rock p. 773.)

As Isaiah 49:6,8,10 and 40:10 show, it is Christ who is the plenipotentiary in all functions of salvation, itself the unique prerogative of God (Isaiah 43:10) - He is the covenant, the leader, the giver of inheritance, the establisher of the earth, the deliverer of prisoners, the provider of mercy, guide; and as to God, there is NONE LIKE HIM (Psalm 89:6-8), no,

  • not even in the heavens!

 

THERE is the Saviour, now shown on earth, for all eyes shall see His salvation (52:10). As to  GOD, He  is the only Saviour, while as to Christ, of necessity,  He is indeed God... for there is NO OTHER SAVIOUR (Isaiah 43:11, Acts 4:11-12). He is the Saviour from sin in the most personal way, even figured as a stone on which sin is ETCHED (Zechariah 3:9),

  • so that the sin of the land is removed IN ONE DAY! It is Christ to whom GLORY is expressly given, even in the eyes of the Lord, and it is HE HIMSELF who as light and covenant, is focus and cynosure, of whom it is written,


"He has chosen you" (49:7), even though

"man despises" Him, and

"the nation abhors" Him!

Chosen to display God's divine prerogatives, He is as Colossians states, Creator and in bodily form, possessed of the fulness of the Godhead.

God did not do things by halves!

J.G. Machen expresses himself in WHAT IS FAITH? (from pp. 115ff. in substance - scriptures added) essentially like this:

If Christ had merely drawn us closer to some great beyond, however far beyond our own unaided powers that might be, however great an advance it might comprise; if He merely had done this, taking us to some shoal or bar with the great beyond still in place, and we still out of that place, we would be left as helpless as we had been, short-changed as it were, at the edge of eternity. But less than infinity can ONLY be infinitely less. If it is NOT infinity, it is infinitely less. That is the nature of infinity. Short of God is desperately, despairingly deprived. Yet Christ being from God, and being God, has not brought us to some journeyman's sand-bar within the oceans of the unknown. Not at all! Christ offers to bring, and for the Christian has brought us,  to God, from whom He came (John 8:42, 5:19-23, 6:62, 17:1-3, 1:1-14, Philippians 2).

bullet As Jesus Christ directly put it,
 
bullet "If God were your Father you would love Me, for I proceeded and came forth from Him!" (John 8:42) and , "Before Abraham was, I am";

 

and indeed, WHATEVER the Father did, HE did in the SAME WAY (John 5:19-23).

 

Now if I were a champion golfer, you might "do" what I did, in your mutilated and cramped, crimped fashion; but you COULD NOT, if you were not of the same quality, do it in the SAME WAY! That is the prerogative of greatness. Hence the marvel, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father!" (John 14:9), and the force of the announcement in Isaiah 52, "All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of God"...with "Behold My servant...", and that following report before the time came, on the method by which Christ was that salvation, victim, vicarious victor and triumphant sin-bearer (Isaiah 26:19) breaking death (cf. Hosea 13:14), this the very prerogative in turn, of God Himself.

How simple it all really is! God suffered it, God paid for it and to God repentance is made, in terms of the salvation which Christ IS: a light and a covenant, He is also the SALVATION of God, which He shows, declaring, "Behold My Servant" (Isaiah 53:13), and indeed then showing that beyond which there neither is nor could be any greater, higher or more essential salvation: the BEARING OF SIN TO DEATH. Similarly, He is shown as the REDEEMER, the paying party who recovers what is lost.

As Psalm 2:12 has it, it is in HIM that one is to trust, while to trust in "flesh" is a cursed perversion of faith (Jeremiah 17:5ff., Isaiah 30:1-3); it is to Him one renders that divinely commanded devotion (Deuteronomy 6:5). It is HE whom God delights to honour, to exalt, to make Judge of the peoples and focus of His salvation. It is to HIM, Christ, that every knee therefore shall bow (Philippians 2:9-11, Psalm 72), in that very act which God requires towards Himself (Isaiah 45:23), declaring it required for Himself as the only One who is God. It is this one and only God, who - as He so  greatly emphasises in His word - has no equal, there being none comparable, none to whom He gives His glory (Isaiah 42:8, 43:10-11, 13, 44:6,8,24, 45:12,18-19, 44:6, 46:5,13), who thus requires THIS acknowledgment of His Son (Psalms 2,72).

This is He, the Christ, the salvation shown (Psalm 72:11,15): it is He  to whom this homage will be paid! It is He who is the judge of all (Psalm 2:7ff., John 5:26-27,30). As for others than the Lord Himself, they do not even KNOW and CANNOT know the human heart; but this One judges (Isaiah 11:3ff.), and knows all, as only God does. It is HE and HE ONLY who is the effectual ONE (Isaiah 41:28-42:1) - and Isaiah 53:4 shows the intimacy of this, the  Lord Himself, in the interstices of flesh, which He assumed for a purpose,