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Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 53:1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed? 5 CHAPTER XX THE SUFFERING SERVANT Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 WE are now arrived at the last of the passages on the Servant of the Lord. It is known to Christendom as the Fifty-third of Isaiah, but its verses have, unfortunately, been divided between two chapters, Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 . Before we attempt the interpretation of this high and solemn passage of Revelation, let us look at its position in our prophecy, and examine its structure. The peculiarities of the style and of the vocabulary of Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 , along with the fact that, if it be omitted, the prophecies on either side readily flow together, have led some critics to suppose it to be an insertion, borrowed from an earlier writer. The style-broken, sobbing, and recurrent-is certainly a change from the forward, flowing sentences, on which we have been carried up till now, and there are a number of words that we find quite new to us. Yet surely both style and words are fully accounted for by the novel and tragic nature of the subject to which the prophet has brought us: regret and remorse though they speak through the same lips as hope and the assurance of salvation, must necessarily do so with a very different accent and set of terms. Criticism surely overreaches itself, when it suggests that a writer, so versatile and dramatic as our prophet, could not have written Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 along with, say, chapter 50 or Isaiah 52:1-12 or chapter 54. We might as well be asked to assign to different authors Hamlet’s soliloquy, and the King’s conversation, in the same play, with the ambassadors from Norway. To aver that if Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 were left out, no one who had not seen it would miss it, so closely does chapter 54. follow on to Isaiah 52:12 , is to aver what means nothing. In any dramatic work you may leave out the finest passage, -from a Greek tragedy its grandest chorus, or from a play of Shakespeare’s the hero’s soliloquy, -without seeming, to eyes that have not seen what you have done, to have disturbed the connection of the whole. Observe the juncture in our prophecy at which this last passage on the Servant appears. It is one exactly the same as that at which another great passage on the Servant was inserted, { Isaiah 49:1-9 } viz. , just after a call to the people to seize the redemption achieved for them and to come forth from Babylon. It is the kind of climax or pause in their tale, which dramatic writers of all kinds employ for the solemn utterance of principles lying at the back, or transcending the scope, of the events of which they treat. To say the least, it is surely more probable that our prophet himself employed so natural an opportunity to give expression to his highest truths about the Servant, than that some one else took his work, broke up another already extant work on the Servant and thrust the pieces of the latter into the former. Moreover, we shall find many of the ideas, as well as of the phrases, of Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 to be essentially the same as some we have already encountered in our prophecy. There is then no evidence that this singular prophecy ever stood apart from its present context, or that it was written by another writer than the prophet, by whom we have hitherto found ourselves conducted. On the contrary, while it has links with what goes before it, we see good reasons why the prophet should choose just this moment for uttering its unique and transcendent contents, as well as why he should employ in it a style and a vocabulary so different from his usual. Turning now to the structure of Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 , we observe that, as arranged in the Canon, there are fifteen verses in the prophecy. These fifteen verses fall into five strophes of three verses each, as printed by the Revised English Version. When set in their own original lines, however, the strophes appear, not of equal, but of increasing length. As will be seen from the version given below, the first { Isaiah 52:13-15 } has nine lines, the second { Isaiah 53:1-3 } has ten lines, the third ( Isaiah 53:4-6 ) has eleven lines, the fourth ( Isaiah 53:7-9 ) thirteen lines, the fifth ( Isaiah 53:10-12 ) fourteen lines. This increase would be absolutely regular, if, in the fourth strophe, we made either the first two lines one, or the last two one, and if in the fifth again we ran the first two lines together, -changes which the metre allows and some translators have adopted. But, in either case, we perceive a regular increase from strophe to strophe, that is not only one of the many marks with which this most artistic of poems has been elaborated, but gives the reader the very solemn impression of a truth that is ever gathering more of human life into itself, and sweeping forward with fuller and more resistless volume. Each strophe, it is well to notice, begins with one word or two words which summarise the meaning of the whole strophe and form a title for it. Thus, after the opening exclamation "Behold," the words "My Servant shall prosper" form, as we shall see, not only a summary of the first strophe, in which his ultimate exaltation is described, but the theme of the whole prophecy. Strophe 2 begins "Who hath believed," and accordingly in this strophe the unbelief and thoughtlessness of them who saw the Servant without feeling the meaning of his suffering is confessed. "Surely our sicknesses" fitly entitles strophe 3, in which the people describe how the Servant in his suffering was their substitute. "Oppressed yet he humbled himself" is the headline of strophe 4, and that strophe deals with the humility and innocence of the Servant in contrast to the injustice accorded him; while the headline of strophe 5, "But Jehovah had purposed," brings us back to the main theme of the poem, that behind men’s treatment of the Servant is God’s holy will; which theme is elaborated and brought to its conclusion in strophe 5. These opening and entitling words of each strophe are printed, in the following translation, in larger type than the rest. As in the rest of Hebrew poetry, so here, the measure is neither regular nor smooth, and does not depend on rhyme. Yet there is an amount of assonance which at times approaches to rhyme. Much of the meaning of the poem depends on the use of the personal pronouns-we and he stand contrasted to each other-and it is these coming in a lengthened form at the end of many of the lines that suggest to the ear something like rhyme. For instance, in Isaiah 53:5-6 , the second and third verses of the third strophe, two of the lines run out on the bi-syllable enu , two on inu , and two on the word lanu , while the third has enu , not at the end, but in the middle; in each case, the pronominal suffix of the first person plural. We transcribe these lines to show the effect of this. Wehu’ meholal mippesha ‘enu Medhukka’ me’ awonothenu Musar shelomenu ‘alaw Ubhahabhuratho nirpa’-lanu Kullanu kass-ss’on ta’inu ‘ish ledharko paninu Wa Jahweh hiphgi ‘a bo eth’awon kullanu. This is the strophe in which the assonance comes oftenest to rhyme; but in strophe 1 ehu ends two lines, and in strophe 2 it ends three. These and other assonants occur also at the beginning and in the middle of lines. We must remember that in all the cases quoted it is the personal pronouns, which give the assonance, -the personal pronouns on which so much of the meaning of the poem turns; and that, therefore, the parallelism primarily intended by the writer is one rather of meaning than of sound. The pair of lines, parallel in meaning, though not in sound, which forms so large a part of Hebrew poetry, is used throughout this poem; but the use of it is varied and elaborated to a unique degree. The very same words and phrases are repeated, and placed on points, from which they seem to call to each other; as, for instance, the double "many" in strophe 1, the "of us all "in strophe 3, and "nor opened he his mouth" in strophe 4. The ideas are very few and very simple: the words "he, we, his, ours, see, hear, know, bear, sickness, strike, stroke," and "many" form, with prepositions and participles, the bulk of the prophecy. It will be evident how singularly suitable this recurrence is for the expression of reproach, and of sorrowful recollection. It is the nature of grief and remorse to harp upon the one dear form, the one most vivid pain. The finest instance of this repetition is verse 6, with its opening keynote " kullanu " "of us all like sheep went astray," with its close on that keynote "guilt of us all," " kullanu. " But throughout notes are repeated, and bars recur, expressive of what was done to the Servant, or what the Servant did for man, which seem in their recurrence to say, You cannot hear too much of me: I am the very Gospel. A peculiar sadness is lent to the music by the letters h and i in " holie " and " hehelie ," the word for sickness or ailing (ailing is the English equivalent in sense and sound), which happens so often in the poem. The new words, which have been brought to vary this recurrence of a few simple features, are mostly of a sombre type. The heavier letters throng the lines: grievous b s and m s are multiplied, and syllables with long vowels before m and w . But the words sob as well as tramp; and here and there one has a wrench and one a cry in it. Most wonderful and mysterious of all is the spectral fashion in which the prophecy presents its Hero. He is named only in the first line and once again: elsewhere He is spoken of as He. We never hear or see Himself. But all the more solemnly is He there: a shadow upon countless faces, a grievous memory on the hearts of the speakers. He so haunts all we see and all we hear, that we feel it is not Art, but Conscience, that speaks of Him. Here is now the prophecy itself, rendered into English quite literally, except for a conjunction here and there, and, as far as possible, in the rhythm of the original. A few necessary notes on difficult words and phrases are given. I. Isaiah 52:13 : Behold, my Servant shall prosper, Shall rise, be lift up, be exceedingly high Like as they that were astonied before thee were many, -So marred from a man’s was his visage, And his form from the children of men! -So shall the nations he startles be many, Before him shall kings shut their mouths. For that which had never been told them they see, And what they had heard not, they have to consider. II. Who gave believing to that which we heard, And the arm of Jehovah to whom was it bared? For he sprang like a sapling before Him, As a root from the ground that is parched; He had no form nor beauty that we should regard him, Nor aspect that we should desire him. Despised and rejected of men Man of pains and familiar with ailing, And as one we do cover the face from, Despised, and we did not esteem him. III. Surely our ailments he bore, And our pains he did take for his burden. But we-we accounted him stricken, Smitten of God and degraded. Yet he-he was pierced for crimes that were ours, He was crushed for guilt that was ours, The chastisement of our peace was upon him, By his stripes healing is ours. Of us all like to sheep went astray, Every man to his way we did turn, And Jehovah made light upon him The guilt of us all. IV. Oppressed, he did humble himself, Nor opened his mouth- As a lamb to the slaughter is led. As a sheep 'fore her shearers is dumb- Nor opened his mouth. By tyranny and law was he taken; And of his age who reflected, That he was wrenched from the land of the living, For My people’s transgressions the stroke was on him? So they made with the wicked his grave, Yea, with the felon his tomb. Though never harm had he done, Neither was guile in his mouth. V. But Jehovah had purposed to bruise him, Had laid on him sickness; if his life should offer guilt offering, A seed he should see, he should lengthen his days. And the purpose of Jehovah by his hand should prosper, From the travail of his soul shall he see, By his knowledge be satisfied. My Servant, the Righteous, righteousness wins he for many, And their guilt he takes for his load. Therefore I set him a share with the great, Yea, with the strong shall he share the spoil: Because that he poured out his life unto death, Let himself with transgressors be reckoned; Yea, he the sin of the many hath borne, And for the transgressors he interposes. Let us now take the interpretation strophe by strophe. 1 Isaiah 52:13-15 . When last our eyes were directed to the Servant, he was suffering unexplained and unvindicated. { Isaiah 50:4-6 } His sufferings seemed to have fallen upon him as the consequence of his fidelity to the Word committed to him; the Prophet had inevitably become the Martyr. Further than this his sufferings were not explained, and the Servant was left in them, calling upon God indeed, and sure that God would hear and vindicate him, but as yet unanswered by word of God or word of man. It is these words, words both of God and of man, which are given in Isaiah 52:13-15 through Isaiah 53:1-12 . The Sufferer is explained and vindicated, first by God in the first strophe, Isaiah 52:13-15 , and then by the Conscience of Men, His own people, in the second and third; { Isaiah 53:1-6 } and then, as it appears, the Divine Voice, or the Prophet speaking for it, resumes in strophes 4 and 5, and concludes in a strain similar to strophe 1. God’s explanation and vindication of the Sufferer is, then, given in the first strophe. It is summed up in the first line, and in one very pregnant word. Jeremiah had said of the Messiah, "He shall reign as a King and deal wisely" or "prosper"; { Jeremiah 23:5 } and so God says here of the Servant, "Behold he shall deal wisely" or "prosper." The Hebrew verb does not get full expression in any English one. In rendering it "shall deal wisely" or "prudently" our translators undoubtedly touch the quick of it. For it is originally a mental process or quality: "has insight, understands, is farseeing." But then it also includes the effect of this-"understands so as to get on, deals wisely so as to succeed, is practical" both in his way of working and in being sure of his end. Ewald has found an almost exact equivalent in German, "hat Geschick"; for Geschick means both "skill" or "address" and "fate" or "destiny." The Hebrew verb is the most practical in the whole language, for this is precisely the point which the prophecy seeks to bring out about the Servant’s sufferings. They are practical. He is practical in them. He endures them, not for their own sake, but for some practical end of which he is aware and to which they must assuredly bring him. His failure to convince men by his word, the pain and spite which seem to be his only wage, are not the last of him, but the beginning and the way to what is higher. So "shall he rise and be lift up and be very high." The suffering, which in chapter 1 seemed to be the Servant’s misfortune, is here seen as his wisdom which shall issue in his glory. But of themselves men do not see this, and they need to be convinced. Pain, the blessed means of God, is man’s abhorrence and perplexity. All along the history of the world the Sufferer has been the astonishment and stumbling-block of humanity. The barbarian gets rid of him; he is the first difficulty with which every young literature wrestles; to the end he remains the problem of philosophy and the sore test of faith. It is not native to men to see meaning or profit in the Sufferer; they are staggered by him, they see no reason or promise in him. So did men receive this unique Sufferer, this Servant of Jehovah. The many were astonied at him; his visage was so marred more than men, and his form than the children of men. But his life is to teach them the opposite of their impressions, and to bring them out of their perplexity into reverence before the revealed purpose of God in the Sufferer. "As they that were astonied at thee were many, so shall the nations he startles be many; kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which was not told them they see, and that which they have heard not they have to consider,"- viz. , the triumph and influence to which the Servant was consciously led through suffering. There may be some reflection here of the way in which the Gentiles regarded the Suffering Israel, but the reference is vague, and perhaps purposely so. The first strophe, then, gives us just the general theme. In contrast to human experience God reveals in His servant that suffering is fruitful, that sacrifice is practical. Pain, in God’s service, shall lead to glory. II. Isaiah 53:1-3 . God never speaks but in man He wakens conscience, and the second strophe of the prophecy (along with the third) is the answer of conscience to God. Penitent men, looking back from the light of the Servant’s exaltation to the time when his humiliation was before their eyes, say, "Yes; what God has said is true of us. We were the deaf and the indifferent. We heard, but ‘who of us believed what we heard, and to whom was the arm of the Lord’-His purpose, the hand He had in the Servant’s sufferings-‘revealed?"’ Who are these penitent speakers? Some critics have held them to be the heathen, more have said that they are Israel. But none have pointed out that the writer gives himself no trouble to define them, but seems more anxious to impress us with their consciousness of their moral relation to the Servant. On the whole, it would appear that it is Israel, whom the prophet has in mind as the speakers of Isaiah 53:1-6 . For, besides the fact that the Old Testament knows nothing of a bearing by Israel of the sins of the Gentiles, it is expressly said in Isaiah 53:8 , that the sins for which the Servant was stricken were the sins of "my people"; which people must be the same as the speakers, for they own in Isaiah 53:4-6 that the Servant bore their sins. For these and other reasons the mass of Christian critics at the present day are probably right when they assume that Israel are the speakers in Isaiah 53:1-6 ; but the reader must beware of allowing his attention to be lost in questions of that kind. The art of the poem seems intentionally to leave vague the national relation of the speakers to the Servant, in order the more impressively to bring out their moral attitude towards him. There is an utter disappearance of all lines of separation between Jew and Gentile, -both in the first strophe, where, although Gentile names are used, Jews may yet be meant to be included, and in the rest of the poem, -as if the writer wished us to feel that all men stood over against that solitary Servant in a common indifference to his suffering and a common conscience of the guilt he bears. In short, it is no historical situation, such as some critics seem anxious to fasten him down upon, that the prophet reflects; but a certain moral situation, ideal in so far as it was not yet realised, -the state of the quickened human conscience over against a certain Human Suffering, in which, having noted it at the time, that conscience now realises that the purpose of God was at work. In Isaiah 53:2 and Isaiah 53:3 the penitent speakers give us the reasons of their disregard of the Servant in the days of his suffering. In these reasons there is nothing peculiar to Israel, and no special experience of Jewish history is reflected by the terms in which they are conveyed. They are the confession, in general language, of a universal human habit, -the habit of letting the eye cheat the heart and conscience, of allowing the aspect of suffering to blind us to its meaning; of forgetting in our sense of the ugliness and helplessness of pain, that it has a motive, a future, and a God. It took ages to wean mankind from those native feelings of aversion and resentment, which caused them at first to abandon or destroy their sick. And, even now, scorn for the weak and incredulity in the heroism or in the profitableness of suffering are strong in the best of us. We judge by looks; we are hurried by the physical impression which the sufferer makes on us, or by our pride that we are not as he is, into peremptory and harsh judgments upon him. Every day we allow the dulness of poverty, the ugliness of disease, the unprofitableness of misfortune, the ludicrousness of failure, to keep back conscience from discovering to us our share of responsibility for them, and to repel our hearts from that sympathy and patience with them, which along with conscience would assuredly discover to us their place in God’s Providence and their special significance for ourselves. It is this original sin of man, of which these penitent speakers own themselves guilty. But no one is ever permitted to rest with a physical or intellectual impression of suffering. The race, the individual, has always been forced by conscience to the task of finding a moral reason for pain and nothing so marks man’s progress as the successive solutions he has attempted to this problem. The speakers, therefore, proceed in the next part of their confession, strophe 3., to tell us what they first falsely accounted the moral reason of the Servant’s suffering and what they afterwards found to be the truth. III. Isaiah 53:4-6 . The earliest and most common moral judgment which men pass upon pain is that which is implied in its name-that it is penal. A man suffers because God is angry with him and has stricken him. So Job’s friends judged him, and so these speakers tell us they had at first judged the Servant. "We had accounted him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted,"-"stricken," that is, with a plague of sickness, as Job was, for the simile of the sick man is still kept up; "smitten of God and degraded" or "humbled," for it seemed to them that God’s hand was in the Servant’s sickness, to punish and disgrace him for his own sins. But now they know they were wrong. The hand of God was indeed upon the Servant, and the reason was sin; yet the sin was not his, but theirs. "Surely our sicknesses he bore, and our pains he took as his burden. He was pierced for iniquities that were ours. He was crushed for crimes that were ours." Strictly interpreted, these verses mean no more than that the Servant was involved in the consequences of his people’s sins. The verbs "bore" and "made his burden" are indeed taken by some to mean, necessarily, removal or expiation; but in themselves, as is clear from their application to Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the whole of the generation of Exile, they mean no more than implication in the reproach and the punishment of the people’s sins. Nevertheless, as we have explained in a note below, it is really impossible to separate the suffering of a Servant, who has been announced as practical and prosperous in his suffering, from the end for which it is endured. We cannot separate the Servant’s bearing of the people’s guilt from his removal of it. And, indeed, this practical end of his passion springs forth, past all doubt, from the rest of the strophe, which declares that the Servant’s sufferings are not only vicarious but redemptive; "The discipline of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." Translators agree that "discipline of our peace" must mean discipline which procures our peace. The peace, the healing, is ours, in consequence of the chastisement and the scourging that was his. The next verse gives us the obverse and complement of the same thought. The pain was his in consequence of the sin that was ours. "All we like sheep had gone astray, and the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all,"-literally "iniquity," but inclusive of its guilt and consequences. Nothing could be plainer than these words. The speakers confess that they know that the Servant’s suffering was both vicarious and redemptive. But how did they get this knowledge? They do not describe any special means by which it came to them. They state this high and novel truth simply as the last step in a process of their consciousness. At first they were bewildered by the Servant’s suffering; then they thought it contemptible, thus "passing upon it an intellectual judgment"; then, forced to seek a moral reason for it, they accounted it as penal and due to the Servant for his own sins; then they recognised that. its penalty was vicarious, that the Servant was suffering for them; and finally, they knew that it was redemptive, the means of their own healing and peace. This is a natural climax, a logical and moral progress of thought. The last two steps are stated simply as facts of experience following on other facts. Now our prophet usually publishes the truths, with which he is charged, as the very words of God, introducing them with a solemn and authoritative "Thus saith Jehovah." But this novel and supreme truth of vicarious and redemptive suffering, this passion and virtue which crowns the Servant’s office, is introduced to us, not by the mouth of God, but by the lips of penitent men; not as all oracle, but as a confession; not as the commission of Divine authority laid beforehand upon the Servant like his other duties, but as the conviction of the human conscience after the Servant has been lifted up before it. In short, by this unusual turn of his art, the prophet seeks to teach us that vicarious suffering is not a dogmatic, but an experimental truth. The substitution of the Servant for the guilty people, and the redemptive force of that substitution, are no arbitrary doctrine, for which God requires from man a mere intellectual assent; they are no such formal institution of religion as mental indolence and superstition delight to have prepared for their mechanical adherence: but substitutive suffering is a great living fact of human experience, whose outward features are not more evident to men’s eyes than its inner meaning is appreciable by their conscience, and of irresistible effect upon their whole moral nature. Is this lesson of our prophet’s art not needed? Men have always been apt to think of vicarious suffering, and of its function in their salvation, as something above and apart from their moral nature, with a value known only to God and not calculable in the terms of conscience or of man’s moral experience; nay, rather as something that conflicts with man’s ideas of morality and justice; whereas both the fact and the virtue of vicarious suffering come upon us all, as these speakers describe the vicarious sufferings of the Servant to have come upon them, as a part of inevitable experience, If it be natural, as we saw, for men to be bewildered by the first sight of suffering, to scorn it as futile and to count it the fault of the sufferer himself, it is equally natural and inevitable that these first and hasty theories should be dispelled by the longer experience of life and the more thorough working of conscience. The stricken are not always bearing their own sin. "Suffering is the minister of justice. This is true in part, yet it also is inadequate to explain the facts. Of all the sorrow which befalls humanity, how small a part falls upon the specially guilty; how much seems rather to seek out the good! We might almost ask whether it is not weakness rather than wrong that is punished in this world." In every nation, in every family, the innocent suffer for the guilty. Vicarious suffering is not arbitrary or accidental; it comes with our growth; It is of the very nature of things. It is that part of the Service of Man, to which we are all born, and of the reality of which we daily grow more aware. But even more than its necessity life teaches us its virtue. Vicarious suffering is not a curse. It is Service-Service for God. It proves a power where every other moral force has failed. By it men are redeemed, on whom justice and their proper punishment have been able to effect nothing. Why this should be is very intelligible. We are not so capable of measuring the physical or moral results of our actions upon our own characters or in our own fortunes as we are upon the lives of others; nor do we so awaken to the guilt and heinousness of our sin as when it reaches and implicates lives which were not partners with us in it. Moreover, while a man’s punishment is apt to give him an excuse for saying, I have expiated my sin myself, and so to leave him self-satisfied and with nothing for which to be grateful or obliged to a higher will; or while it may make him reckless or plunge him into despair; so, on the contrary, when he recognises that others feel the pain of his sin and have come under its weight, then shame is quickly born within him, and pity and every ether passion that can melt a hard heart. If, moreover, the others who bear his sin do so voluntarily and for love’s sake, then how quickly on the back of shame and pity does gratitude rise, and the sense of debt and of constraint to their will! For all these very intelligible reasons, vicarious suffering has been a powerful redemptive force in the experience of the race. Both the fact of its beneficence and the moral reasons for this are clear enough to lift us above a question, which sometimes gives trouble regarding it, -the question of its justice. Such a question is futile about any service for man, which succeeds as this does where all others have failed, and which proves itself so much in harmony with man’s moral nature. But the last shred of objection to the justice of vicarious suffering is surely removed when the sufferer is voluntary as well as vicarious. And, in truth, human experience feels that it has found its highest and its holiest fact in the love that, being innocent itself, stoops to bear its fellows’ sins, -not only the anxiety and reproach of them, but even the cost and the curse of them. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends"; and greater service can no man do to men than to serve them in this way. Now in this universal human experience of the inevitableness and the virtue of vicarious suffering, Israel had been deeply baptised. The nation had been "served" by suffering in all the ways we have just described. Beginning with the belief that all righteousness prospered, Israel had come to see the righteous afflicted in her midst; the best Israelites had set their minds to the problem, and learned to believe, at least, that such affliction was of God’s will, -part of His Providence, and not an interruption to it. Israel, too, knew the moral solidarity of a people: that citizens share each other’s sorrows, and that one generation rolls over its guilt upon the next. Frequently had the whole nation been spared for a pious remnant’s sake; and in the Exile, while all the people were formally afflicted by God, it was but a portion of them whose conscience was quick to the meaning of the chastisement, and of them alone, in their submissive and intelligent sufferance of the Lord’s wrath, could the opening gospel of the prophecy be spoken, that they "had accomplished their warfare, and had received of the Lord’s hands double for all their sins." But still more vivid than these collective substitutes for the people were the individuals, who, at different points in Israel’s history, had stood forth and taken up as their own the nation’s conscience and stooped to bear the nation’s curse. Far away back, a Moses had offered himself for destruction, if for his sake God would spare his sinful and thoughtless countrymen. In a psalm of the Exile it is remembered that, He said, that He would destroy them, Had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, To turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy. And Jeremiah, not by a single heroic resolve, but by the slow agony and martyrdom of a long life, had taken Jerusalem’s sin upon his own heart, had felt himself forsaken of God, and had voluntarily shared his city’s doom, while his generation, unconscious of their guilt and blind to their fate, despised him and esteemed him not. And Ezekiel, who is Jeremiah’s far-off reflection, who could only do in symbol what Jeremiah did in reality, was commanded to lie on his side for days, and so "bear the guilt" of his people. But in Israel’s experience it was not only the human Servant who served the nation by suffering, for God Himself had come down to "carry" His distressed and accursed people, and "to load Himself with them." Our prophet uses the same two verbs of Jehovah as are used of the Servant. { Isaiah 46:3-4 } Like the Servant, too, God "was afflicted in all their affliction"; and His love towards them was expended in passion and agony for their sins. Vicarious

Who hath believed our report? Isaiah 53 The Messiah referred to in Isaiah 53 R.W. Moss, D.D. Isaiah 53 :— By some it has been supposed, in ancient times and in modern, that the prophet was referring to the sufferings of the nation of Israel — either of Israel as a whole or of the righteous section of the nation — and to the benefits that would accrue from those sufferings to the surrounding peoples, some of whom were contemptuous of Israel, all of whom may be described as ignorant of God. But to defend that opinion it is necessary to paraphrase and interpret some of the statements in a way that no sound rules of exposition will allow. Even Jewish historians are wont to represent the sufferings of their people as the consequence of sin, whereas these verses speak repeatedly of sufferings that are vicarious. St. Paul says in one place that the fall of the Jews "is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles;" but he is so far from meaning that the Jews suffered in the stead of the Gentiles, that he proceeds at once to argue by implication: If the world has been blessed notwithstanding the unfaithfulness of the Jew, how much more would it have been blessed if Israel had been true? It is quite possible that the great figure of the Servant of Jehovah, standing in the front of all these verses, was designed to have more than a single interpretation, to be reverently approached from many sides, to be full of appeals to the patriotism and to the piety of the Israelite; but at the same time it is no mere abstract conception, but the figure of a living and separated Person, "more perfect than human believer ever was, uniting in himself more richly than any other messenger, of God everything that was necessary for the salvation of man, and finally accomplishing what no mere prophet" ever attempted. And some of the authorities of the synagogue even might be quoted in favour of the almost universal Christian opinion, that the Man of Sorrows of this chapter despised, and yet triumphant, is no other than the Messiah of Israel and the Saviour of the world, who over-trod the lowest levels of human pain and misery, and who hereafter will sit enthroned, on His head many crowns, and in His heart the satisfaction of assured and unlimited victory. ( R.W. Moss, D.D. ) The Jewish nation a vicarious sufferer A. Crawford, M.A. Isaiah 53 has been supposed by many to refer to the Jewish nation as a whole, and not to Christ or any other individual. And, in truth, it is in many ways singularly applicable to Israel as a nation. As a nation Israel was "despised and rejected," and "bore the sins of many." This people was the chief medium through which the Eternal was made manifest on earth. Hence came the peculiarities and deficiencies of the Hebrew nature. The Jews were haunted by the Infinite and Eternal; and therefore they knew not the free and careless joyousness of Greece. The mountains are scarred and rent by storms and tempests almost unknown in the valleys. The deepest religion necessarily involves prolonged suffering. The near presence of the Infinite pierces and wounds the soul. To Greeks or Romans Israel was a sort of Moses, veiling even while revealing the terrific lineaments of Jehovah. The face of Israel did indeed shine with an unearthly glory after communing with God on the mountain; but it was a glory utterly uncongenial to the gaiety of joyous Athens. Most truly might Greeks and Romans say of the devout Jew, "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Yet was Israel a mighty benefactor to the human race. "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Salvation came by the Jews. They had more genuine moral inspiration than any others of the sons of men. To them alone was clearly disclosed the true Jacob's ladder connecting earth with heaven. To the Greeks the Infinite was a mere notion, a thing for the intellect to play with, or a kind of irreducible surd left after the keenest philosophical analysis. To the Hebrews, on the other hand, the Infinite was an appalling and soul-abasing reality, an ever-menacing guide, as the fiery flaming sword of the cherubims "which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." "It pleased the Lord to bruise" Israel for the sake of the whole world. By being "numbered with the transgressors," Israel found out the real righteousness. ( A. Crawford, M.A. ) The Jewish nation was a type of Christ A. Crawford, M.A. and of all natures at once spiritual and sympathetic throughout the ages. All real prophets in every age have in them much of the true Hebrew nature, with its depths and its limitations. ( A. Crawford, M.A. ) The servant and Israel A. B. Davidson, D.D. "Who believed what we heard, and to whom did the arm of the Lord reveal itself?" Who believed the revelation given to us in regard to the Servant, and who perceived the operation of the Lord in His history! The speakers are Israel now believing, and confessing their former unbelief. ( A. B. Davidson, D.D. ) Christ in Isaiah F. Sessions. As an artisan, laying a mosaic of complicated pattern and diverse colours, has before him a working. drawing, and carefully fits the minute pieces of precious stone and enamel according to it, till the perfection of the design is revealed to all, so do the evangelists and apostles, with the working-drawing of Old Testament prophecy, and Old Testament types and shadows in the tabernacle services and ceremonies, in their hands, fit together the details of Christ's life on earth, His atoning death and His resurrection, and say, "Behold, this can be none other than the long looked-for Messiah." The central knop, or flower pattern, of the mosaic, from which all other details of the design radiated, was the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah. ( F. Sessions. ) The suffering Saviour I. We are led to THE ANTICIPATED LOWLINESS OF GOD'S RIGHTEOUS SERVANT, the Messiah. He would be low in the esteem of men, even of those He comes to serve. The Jews and Messianic prophecy From the Jews wresting this text, observe — 1. That there is an evil disposition in men to turn off upon others that which nearly concerns themselves. 2. That it is no new thing in persons to vouch that for themselves which makes most against them. Thus the Jews do this chapter against the Gentiles. 3. When God, for the wickedness of a people, hardeneth their hearts, they are apt to mistake in that which is most plain. 4. From the prophet's great admiration, observe, that when we can do no good upon a people, the most effectual way is to complain of it to God. 5. Those that profess the name of God may be much prejudiced against the entertainment of those truths and counsels that He makes known to them for their good. 6. It is a wonder they should not believe so plain a discovery of Christ, though by the just judgment of God they did not. 7. The first believing of Christ is a believing the report of Him; but afterwards there are experiences to confirm our belief ( 1 Peter 2:3 ; John 4:42 ). ( T. Manton , D.D. ) Christ preached, but rejected I. JESUS CHRIST MAY BE CLEARLY REPRESENTED TO A PEOPLE, AND YET BUT FEW WON TO BELIEVE IN HIM. II. THE GOSPEL IS THE ARM AND POWER OF GOD. III. SO FEW BELIEVE, BECAUSE GOD'S ARM IS NOT REVEALED TO THEM; the power of the Word is not manifested by the Spirit. ( T. Manton , D. D. .) Jewish prejudice against Christ At the time of Christ's being in the flesh there were divers prejudices against Him in the Jews. 1. An erroneous opinion of the Messiah. 2. A fond reverence of Moses and the prophets, as if it were derogatory to them to close with Christ ( John 9:29 ). 3. Offence at His outward meanness (that is the scope of this chapter), and the persecution He met with. ( T. Manton , D. D. ) Gentile prejudice against Christ 1. Pride in the understanding ( 1 Corinthians 1:23 ). 2. The meanness of the reporters — poor fishermen. 3. The hard conditions upon which they were to entertain Christ. ( T. Manton , D. D. ) Christ rejected in our time The hindrances to believing in Him are these: 1. Ignorance. Men hear of Christ, but are not acquainted with Him. 2. An easy slightness; men do not labour after faith. 3. A careless security. They think themselves well enough without Him. 4. A light esteem of Christ. As we do not see our own needs, so not His worth. 5. A presumptuous conceit that we have entertained Christ already. Many think every slight wish, every trivial hope, will serve the turn. 6. Hardness of heart. 7. Self-confidence. 8. Carnal fears. These hinder the soul from closing with that, mercy that is reported to be in Christ. They are of divers sorts. (1) Fear of God's anger, as if He were so displeased with us that certainly He did not intend Christ for us. (2) Fear of being too bold with the promises. (3) Fear of the sin of presumption. 9. Carnal reasonings from our sins. 10. Carnal apprehensions of Christ. ( T. Manton , D. D. ) The credibility and importance of the Gospel report J. Lathrop, D.D. I. WE WILL CONTEMPLATE THIS REPORT, AND INQUIRE WHETHER IT IS NOT WORTHY OF OUR ATTENTION AND BELIEF. 1. The report which we hear, is a most instructive report. It brings us information of many things which were before unknown, and which, without this information, never could have been known to the sons of men. "That which had not been told us, we see." The Gospel for this reason is called a message, good tidings, and tidings of great joy. The leading truths of natural religion are agreeable to the dictates of reason; and perhaps might be, in some measure, discovered without revelation. At least they were known among those who had never enjoyed a written revelation, though, indeed, we cannot say how far these might be indebted to traditional information. But certainly those truths, which immediately relate to the recovery and salvation of sinners, human reason could never investigate. 2. The Gospel is a report from heaven. It was, in some degree, made known to the patriarchs, and afterwards more fully to the prophets But "God has in these last days, spoken to us by His Son." 3. the Gospel is a credible report. Many reports come to us without evidence: we only hear them, but know not what is their foundation, or whether they have any. And yet even these reports pass not wholly unregarded. But, if any important intelligence is brought to us which is both rational in itself, and at the same time supported by a competent number of reputable witnesses, we may much rather judge it worthy of our attention and belief. With this evidence the Gospel comes. It is credible in its own nature. The doctrines of the Gospel, though beyond the discovery and above the comprehension of reason, are in no instance contrary to its dictates. They are all adapted to promote real virtue and righteousness. Besides this internal evidence, God has been pleased to give it the sanction of His own testimony. Errors have sometimes been introduced and propagated by the artful reasoning of interested men. But Christianity rests not on the basis of human reasoning, or a subtle intricate train of argumentation: it stands on the ground of plain facts, of which every man is able to judge. The life, miracles, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth are the facts which support it. If these did really take place, the Gospel is true. Whether they did or not, men of common abilities were as competent to judge, as men of the profoundest learning. We, who live in the present age, have not, in every respect, the same evidence of the truth of the Gospel as they had, who were eye-witnesses of those facts. But we have their testimony, in the most authentic manner, conveyed to us. Some advantages we have, which they had not. We have the examination of preceding ages. We see Christianity still supporting itself against all the opposition of the world. We see the unwearied attempts of its enemies to subvert it, rendered fruitless and vain. We see many of the predictions contained in these records, already verified; and others, to all appearance, hastening on towards an accomplishment. 4. It is an interesting report. From the Gospel we learn that the human race have, by transgression, fallen under the Divine displeasure. This report corresponds with our own experience and observation. The Gospel brings us a joyful message. 5. This is a public report. It is what we have all heard, and heard often. II. WE WILL CONSIDER THE COMPLAINT. "Who hath believed our report?" ( J. Lathrop, D.D. ) Do the prophets believe J. Parker, D.D. "Who hath believed our report?" This inquiry has been read in various ways. Each of the ways has had its own accent and good lesson. 1. For example, the figure might be that of the prophets gathered together in conference and bemoaning in each other's hearing that their sermons or prophecies had come to nothing. We have preached all this while, and nobody has believed; why preach any more? If this thing were of God it would result in great harvests: it results in barrenness, and we are disappointed prophets. That is one way. Many excellent remarks have been made under that construction of the inquiry. 2. But that is not the meaning of the prophecy. The Revised Version helps us to see it more clearly, by reading the word thus: — "Who hath believed that which we have heard?" The idea is that the prophets are not rebuking other people; the tremendous idea is that the prophets are interrogating themselves and saying, in effect at least, Have we believed our own prophecy? is there a believer in all the Church? is not the Church a nest of unbelievers? That puts a very different face upon the interrogation. We shall now come to great Gospels; when the prophets flagellate themselves we shall have some good preaching. We might put the inquiry, if not literally, yet spiritually and experimentally, thus: — Which of us, even the prophets, have believed? We have said the right thing; people might listen with entranced attention to such eloquence as ours: but is it red with the blood of trust, has it gone forth from us taking our souls with it? If not, we are as the voice of the charmer; men are saying of each of us, He hath a pleasant voice, what he says is said most tunefully, but the man himself is not behind it and in it and above it: it is a recitation, not a prophecy. 3. Who can find fault with the prophets? Not one of us, least of all myself. They had some hard things to, believe; men do not willingly believe in wildernesses and barren rocks, and declarations that have in them no poetry and on them no lustre from heaven, hard and perilous sayings. Who can believe this, that when the Anointed of the Lord shall come, the Chosen One, He shall be "as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him?" It is incredible; if He is God's own Son He will be more beautiful than the dawn of summer. But God will not flatter His servants; He says to each of them, even the loftiest in stature of soul, Go out and proclaim a Cross. It is always so with this Christ; He is all Cross at the first: but what a summer there is hidden in the clouds! and it will come as it were suddenly. The prophets worked their own way under the guidance of the Holy Spirit out of this darkness. Having: dwelt more largely upon the tragical aspect of the life of this great One, they say towards the close, "He shall see His seed." That is a new tone; "He shall prolong his days," that is a new tone; "and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand." Why, they have turned the corner; they are getting up into the sunshine, they are unfurling the flag on the mountain-top. "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: His blood shall buy the universe. This is the other end; this the other aspect of the Gospel. You will never profitably read the Scriptures until you take the darkness with the light. 4. What is the application of this? Why are you wondering that other people do not believe? The voice says, Friend! didst thou believe thine own sermon? Was it alive with thine heart? ( J. Parker, D.D. ) A heavy complaint and lamentation T. Boston, M.A. I. TO WHOM IT WAS MADE. We find from parallel Scriptures that it is made to the Lord Himself ( John 12:38 ; Romans 10:16 ). II. WHOM IT RESPECTS. It respects the hearers of the Gospel in the prophet's time, and in after times too. III. THE MAKER OF THIS HEAVY LAMENTATION. 1. The unsucessfulness of the Gospel, and prevailing unbelief among them that heard it. Consider —(1) What the Gospel is. A "report." The word signifies a "hearing," a thing to be heard and received by faith, as a voice is received and heard by the ear. Hence that expression, "the hearing of faith" ( Galatians 3:2 ).(2) What faith is. It is a giving credit to the Gospel, and a trusting our souls to it, as on a word that cannot fail.(3) How rare that faith is. "Who hath believed!" The report is brought to multitudes; but where is the man that really trusts it, as news from heaven, that may be relied on? 2. The great withdrawing of the power of God from ordinances. "To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" This implies(1) That there is a necessity of the mighty power of God being exerted on a man, to cause him to believe ( John 6:44 ).(2) That few, very few, felt this power.(3) That hence so few believed. ( T. Boston, M.A. ) The little success of the Gospel matter of lamentation T. Boston, M. A. I. WHAT IS THAT SUCCESS WHICH THE GOSPEL SOMETIMES HATH? It is successful — 1. When sinners are thereby brought to faith in Christ ( Romans 1:17 ). 2. When they are thereby brought to holiness of life ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ). II. WHAT IS THAT DIVINE POWER WHICH SOMETIMES COMES ALONG WITH GOSPEL-ORDINANCES? 1. A heart and life discovering power ( 1 Corinthians 14:24, 25 ). The word comes, and the Lord's arm comes with it, and opens the volume of a man's heart and the life, and it is as if the preacher were reading the secret history of a man's thoughts and actions ( Hebrews 4:12 ). 2. A sharp, convincing power, whereby the sinner does not only see his sin, but sees the ill and danger of it, and is touched to the heart with it ( Acts 24:25 ). 3. A drawing and converting power ( John 12:32 ; Psalm 19:7 ). 4. A quickening power ( Psalm 119:50 ). 5. A clearing power, resolving doubts, removing mistakes and darkness in certain particulars, whereby one is retarded in their spiritual course ( Psalm 19:7, 8 ). 6. A comforting power ( Psalm 119:49, 50 ). 7. A strengthening power. The Spirit, with the Word blowing on the dry bones, makes them stand on their feet like s great army. 8. A soul-elevating and heart-ravishing power ( Luke 24:32 ). III. THE REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. I. It must be a matter of lamentation to the godly in general. For —(1) The honour of Christ is thereby overclouded.(2) The glory of the glorious Gospel is thereby veiled.(3) Souls are thereby lost, while salvation is come to their door.(4) The godly themselves suffer loss, the thronger Christ's family is, the better thriven are the children; and contrariwise. If there were more converting, there would be more confirming work too. 2. Particularly to godly ministers.(1) Thereby their care and pains are much lost, and in vain.(2) Their work is rendered more difficult and wearisome.(3) The seals of their ministry are but small. ( T. Boston, M. A. ) Evidences of non-success T. Boston, M. A. 1. The slighting of Gospel ordinances that so much prevails. 2. Little reformation of life under the dispensation of the Gospel. 3. Much formality in attendance on ordinances. 4. Little of the work of conversion or soul-exercise. ( T. Boston, M. A. ) The Gospel-report T. Boston, M. A. I. CONSIDER THE GOSPEL AS IT IS A REPORT. View it — 1. In the nature of a report in general.(1) There is the subject of a report, or the thing that is reported, some design, action, or event, true or false. The subject of the Gospel-report is, a love-design in God for the salvation of sinners of mankind ( 2 Timothy 1:9, 10 ). It is the report of an act of grace and kindness in God, in favours of them, whereby He has given them His Son for a Saviour ( John 3:16 ; Isaiah 9:6 ), and eternal life in Him ( 1 John 5:11 ). The report of the event of Christ's dying for sinners.(2) There is the place whence the report originally comes. And the place here is heaven. Hence the Gospel is called "heavenly things" ( John 3:12 ), revealed from the bosom of the Father.(3) The matter of a report is something unseen to them to whom the report is made. And so is the matter of the Gospel-report. It is an unseen God ( John 1:18 ); an unseen Saviour ( 1 Peter 1:8 ); and unseen things ( 2 Corinthians 4:18 ), that are preached unto you by the Gospel. So the Gospel is an object of faith, not of sight ( Hebrews 11:1 ). We receive it by hearing, not by seeing ( Isaiah 55:3 ).(4) There is a reporter or reporters. And in this case the report is made by many. The first-hand reporter is an eye-witness, Jesus Christ. Christ Himself was the raiser of the report of the Gospel ( Hebrews 2:3 ). And who else could have been so? ( John 1:18 ). What He reported He saw, and gives us His testimony of the truth of it on His eyesight ( John 3:11 ). Hence He is proposed to us as "the faithful and true Witness" ( Revelation 3:14 ), who was from eternity privy to the whole design revealed to us in the Gospel. The prophets and apostles, and ministers of the Gospel. They are the second-hand reporters.(5) There is a manifestation of the thing by the report, to the parties to whom the report is made. So is the grace of God to poor sinners manifested to them by the Gospel ( 2 Timothy 1:9, 10 ). 2. In the nature of a report to be trusted to, for some valuable end. And so it is —(1) A true and faithful report, that one may safely trust ( 1 Timothy 1:15 ).(2) An infallible report. A report may be true where there is no infallibility: but the report of the Gospel is an infallible truth ( Acts 1:3 ), for it is "the Word of God that cannot lie" ( 1 Thessalonians 2:13 ). And the Spirit of the Lord demonstrates it to believers, as Divine truth ( 1 Corinthians 2:4 ).(3) A good and comfortable report.(4) A weighty report, even of the greatest weight, as concerning man's greatest possible interest ( Isaiah 61:6 ). II. CONSIDER FAITH AS IT IS A TRUSTING TO THIS REPORT. Faith is — 1. A trusting of the Gospel-report as true.(1) In the general, with respect to the multitude whom it concerns. "It is a faithful saying, Christ came to save sinners."(2) In particular, with respect to oneself. Faith believes that there is a fulness in Christ for poor sinners, and for oneself in particular. Hence it appears — That there is an assurance in the nature of faith, whereby the believing person is sure of the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel, and that with respect to himself particularly ( 1 Thessalonians 1:5 ). That there is a necessity of an inward illumination by the Spirit, in order to the faith of the Gospel ( 1 Corinthians 2:10-14 ). 2. A trusting to the Gospel-report as good. It implies —(1) Not only a willingness, but a sincere desire to be delivered from sin, as well as from wrath.(2) A renouncing of all other confidence for his salvation.(3) A hearty approbation of the way of salvation manifested in the report of the Gospel ( Matthew 11:6 ).(4) A betaking one's self entirely to that way of salvation, by trusting to it wholly for our own salvation.(5) A confidence or trust, that He will save us from sin and wrath, according to His promise ( Acts 15:11 ). III. CONSIDER THE REPORT OF THE GOSPEL, AND THE TRUSTING TO IT, CONJUNCTLY. The Gospel is a report from heaven — 1. Of salvation for poor sinners, from sin ( Matthew 1:21 ), and from the wrath of God ( John 3:16 ), freely made over to you in the Word of promise. Faith trusts it as a true report, believing that God has said it; and trusts to it as good, laying our own salvation upon it. 2. Of a crucified Christ made over to sinners, as the device of Heaven for their salvation. The soul concludes, the Saviour is mine; and leans on Him for all the purchase of His death, for life and salvation to itself in particular ( 1 Corinthians 2:2 ). 3. Of a righteousness wherein we guilty ones may stand before a holy God ( Romans 1:17 ). And by faith one believes there is such a righteousness, that it is sufficient to cover him, and that it is held out to him to be trusted on for righteousness; and so the believer trusts it as his righteousness in the sight of God, disclaiming all other, and betaking himself to it alone ( Galatians 2:16 ). 4. Of a pardon under the great seal of Heaven, in Christ, to all who will take it in Him ( Acts 13:38, 39 ). The soul by faith believes this to be true, and applies it to itself, saying, This pardon is for me. 5. Of a Physician that cures infallibly all the diseases of the soul. The soul believes it, and applies it to its own case. 6. Of a feast for hungry souls, to which all are bid welcome, Christ Himself being the Maker and matter of it too. The soul weary of the husks of created things, and believing this report, accordingly falls a-feeding on Christ. 7. Of a victory won by Jesus Christ over sin, Satan, and death, and the world. The soul trusts to it for its victory over all these, as already foiled enemies ( 1 John 5:4 ). 8. Of a peace purchased by the blood of Christ for poor sinners, and offered to them. Faith believes it; and the soul comes before God as a reconciled Father in Christ, brings in its supplications for supply before the throne. ( T. Boston, M. A. ) The rarity of believing the Gospel-report T. Boston, M. A. I. CONFIRM THIS POINT. 1. Take a view of the Church in all ages, and the entertainment the Gospel has met with among them to whom it came. It has been a despised and disbelieved Gospel.(1) Under the patriarchal dispensation, from Adam to Moses. By Adam and Eve it was believed, and Adam preached it; but Cain slew Abel and headed an apostasy, etc. (2) Under the Mosaic dispensation, they had the Gospel, though veiled with types and figures. But the body of the generation that came out of Egypt, believed not, but fell in the wilderness ( Hebrews 4:2 ).(3) Under the Christian dispensation ( John 12:37, 38 ; Romans 10:16 ). At the Reformation the Gospel had remarkable success; yet believers were but few comparatively; and there have been but few all along since that time. 2. Take a view of the Church, setting aside those whom the Scripture determines to be unbelievers; and we will soon see that but few do remain. Set aside —(1) The grossly ignorant of Christ, and of the truths of the Gospel. How can they believe the Gospel, that know not what it is?(2) The profane, who are Christians in name, because they live in a Christian country; but have not a shape of Christianity about them. Surely these do not believe the Gospel ( Titus 1:16 ).(3) The carnal and worldly, who make the world their chief good, mainly seeking that, and favouring it only. These undoubtedly are unbelievers ( Philippians 3:19, 20 ).(4) Mere moralists, all whose religion is confined to some pieces of the second table ( Matthew 5:20 ).(5) Gross hypocrites. That Gospel that cleanses not a man's hands from unjust dealing, his mouth from lying, swearing and filthy speaking, is certainly not believed.(6) Close hypocrites, whose outward conversation is blameless in the eye of the world, but in the meantime are inwardly strangers to God and Christ ( Revelation 3:1 ).(7) All unregenerate persons; for they are certainly unbelievers, as believers are regenerate. Set aside then all these, few remain who trust to the Gospel report. II. THE REASONS WHY SO FEW BELIEVE THE REPORT OF THE GOSPEL. 1. There is a natural impotency in all ( John 6:44 ). Believing the report of the Gospel is beyond the power of nature, Yea, everything in nature is against it, till the Spirit of the Lord overcome them into belief of the report of the Gospel. 2. The predominant power of lusts, to which the Gospel is an enemy. There our Lord lodges it ( John 3:19 ). 3. There is a judicial blindness on many ( 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 ). ( T. Boston, M. A. ) Divine power necessary for believing the Gospel report T. Boston, M. A. There is no true believing or trusting to the report of the Gospel, but what is the effect of the working of a Divine power on the soul for that end. I. EVINCE THE TRUTH OF THE DOCTRINE. Consider for it — 1. Express Scripture testimony ( John 6:44 ). 2. The state that by nature we are in, "dead in sin" ( Ephesians 2:1 ). Faith is the first vital act of the soul, quickened by the Spirit of life from Jesus Christ. 3. There can be no faith without knowledge: and the knowledge of spiritual things man is by nature incapable of ( 1 Corinthians 2:14 ). 4. Man is naturally under the power of Satan, a captive of the devil, who with his utmost efforts will hinder the work of faith ( 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4 ). Such a case the Gospel finds men in; and it is the design of the Gospel to bring them out of it ( Acts 26:17, 18 ). 5. Man's trust is by nature firmly preoccupied by those things which the Gospel calls them to renounce. He is wedded to other confidences naturally, which therefore he will hold by, till a power above nature carry him off from them — self-confidence, creature-confidence, law-confidence. 6. Man has a strong bias and bent against believing or trusting to the Gospel ( John 5:40 ; Romans 10:3 ). 7. It is the product of the Holy Spirit, wherever it is. II. WHAT IS THAT WORKING OF DIVINE POWER WHEREBY THE SOUL IS BROUGHT TO TRUST TO THE GOSPEL REPORT? There is a twofold work of Divine power on the soul for that end. 1. A mediate work, which is preparatory to it; whereof the Spirit is the author, and the instrument is the law.(1) An awakening work.(2) A humbling work, whereby the proud sinner is brought low to the dust: not only finding a need of salvation, but an absolute need of Christ for salvation. So he is broken off from self-confidence, creature-confidence, law-confidence. 2. An immediate work, whereby faith is produced in the soul; whereof the Spirit is the author, and the Gospel the instrument. It is —(1) A quickening work, whereby the dead soul is called again to spiritual life ( Ephesians 2:1 ).(2) An illuminating work. There is a knowledge in faith. ( T. Boston, M. A. ) The Monarch in disguise C. Clemance, D.D. There are four distinctive features predicted — 1. The lowliness, obscurity and sorrow of the coming Servant of God. 2. The putting forth of "the arm of the Lord" in Him and in His work. 3. The setting forth of this in a message or "report." 4. The concealing, as it were, of the "arm of the Lord," owing to the lowly appearance of this Servant. ( C. Clemance, D.D. ) Preaching and hearing J. Durham. I. THE GREAT SUBJECT OF PREACHING, and the preacher's great errand, is to report concerning Jesus Christ — to bring good tidings concerning Him. II. THE GREAT DUTY OF HEARERS is, to believe this report and, by virtue of it, to be brought to rest on Jesus Christ. III. THE GREAT, THOUGH THE ORDINARY, SIN OF THE GENERALITY OF THE HEARERS OF THE GOSPEL is unbelief. IV. THE GREAT COMPLAINT, WEIGHT AND GRIEF OF AN HONEST MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL is this — that his message is not taken off his hand; that Christ is not received, believed in and rested on. ( J. Durham. ) The offer of Christ in the Gospel J. Durham. I. The offering of Christ in the Gospel is WARRANT enough to believe in Him. Otherwise there had been no just ground of expostulation and complaint for not believing. The complaint is for the neglect of the duty they were called to. II. They to whom Christ is offered in the Gospel are CALLED to believe. It is their duty to do it. III. Saving faith is THE WAY AND MEANS by which those who have Christ offered to them in the Gospel come to get a right to Him, and to obtain the benefits that are reported of to be had from Him. ( J. Durham. ) The necessity of faith J. Durham. 1. Look to all the promises, whether of pardon of sin, peace with God, joy in the Holy Ghost, holiness and conformity to God — there is no access to these, or to any of them, but by faith. 2. Look to the performance of any duty, or mortification of any lust or idol, and faith is necessary to that. 3. Whenever any duty is done, there is no acceptation of it without faith ( Hebrews 4:2 ; Hebrews 11:6 ). ( J. Durham. ) A faithful minister's sorrow J. Durham. It is most sad to a tender minister to see unbelief and unfruitfulness among the people he hath preached the Gospel to. There is a fourfold reason of thi

53:1-3 No where in all the Old Testament is it so plainly and fully prophesied, that Christ ought to suffer, and then to enter into his glory, as in this chapter. But to this day few discern, or will acknowledge, that Divine power which goes with the word. The authentic and most important report of salvation for sinners, through the Son of God, is disregarded. The low condition he submitted to, and his appearance in the world, were not agreeable to the ideas the Jews had formed of the Messiah. It was expected that he should come in pomp; instead of that, he grew up as a plant, silently, and insensibly. He had nothing of the glory which one might have thought to meet with him. His whole life was not only humble as to outward condition, but also sorrowful. Being made sin for us, he underwent the sentence sin had exposed us to. Carnal hearts see nothing in the Lord Jesus to desire an interest in him. Alas! by how many is he still despised in his people, and rejected as to his doctrine and authority! 53:4-9 In these verses is an account of the sufferings of Christ; also of the design of his sufferings. It was for our sins, and in our stead, that our Lord Jesus suffered. We have all sinned, and have come short of the glory of God. Sinners have their beloved sin, their own evil way, of which they are fond. Our sins deserve all griefs and sorrows, even the most severe. We are saved from the ruin, to which by sin we become liable, by laying our sins on Christ. This atonement was to be made for our sins. And this is the only way of salvation. Our sins were the thorns in Christ's head, the nails in his hands and feet, the spear in his side. He was delivered to death for our offences. By his sufferings he purchased for us the Spirit and grace of God, to mortify our corruptions, which are the distempers of our souls. We may well endure our lighter sufferings, if He has taught us to esteem all things but loss for him, and to love him who has first loved us. 53:10-12 Come, and see how Christ loved us! We could not put him in our stead, but he put himself. Thus he took away the sin of the world, by taking it on himself. He made himself subject to death, which to us is the wages of sin. Observe the graces and glories of his state of exaltation. Christ will not commit the care of his family to any other. God's purposes shall take effect. And whatever is undertaken according to God's pleasure shall prosper. He shall see it accomplished in the conversion and salvation of sinners. There are many whom Christ justifies, even as many as he gave his life a ransom for. By faith we are justified; thus God is most glorified, free grace most advanced, self most abased, and our happiness secured. We must know him, and believe in him, as one that bore our sins, and saved us from sinking under the load, by taking it upon himself. Sin and Satan, death and hell, the world and the flesh, are the strong foes he has vanquished. What God designed for the Redeemer he shall certainly possess. When he led captivity captive, he received gifts for men, that he might give gifts to men. While we survey the sufferings of the Son of God, let us remember our long catalogue of transgressions, and consider him as suffering under the load of our guilt. Here is laid a firm foundation for the trembling sinner to rest his soul upon. We are the purchase of his blood, and the monuments of his grace; for this he continually pleads and prevails, destroying the works of the devil.