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Expositor's Bible Commentary Isaiah 56:1 Thus saith the LORD, Keep ye judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed. 6 BOOK 4 THE RESTORATION WE have now reached the summit of our prophecy. It has been a long, steep ascent, and we have had very much to seek out on the way, and to extricate and solve and load ourselves with. But although a long extent of the prophecy, if we measure it by chapters, still lies before us, the end is in sight; every difficulty has been surmounted which kept us from seeing how we were to get to it, and the rest of the way may be said to be downhill. To drop the figure-the Servant, his vicarious suffering and atonement for the sins of the people, form for our prophet the solution of the spiritual problem of the nation’s restoration, and what he has now to do is but to fill in the details of this. We saw that the problem of Israel’s deliverance from Exile, their Return, and their Restoration to their position in their own land as the Chief Servant of God to humanity, was really a double problem-political and spiritual. The solution of the political side of it was Cyrus. As soon as the prophet had been able to make it certain that Cyrus was moving down upon Babylon, with a commission from God to take the city, and irresistible in the power with which Jehovah had invested him, the political difficulties in the way of Israel’s Return were as good as removed; and so the prophet gave, in the end of chapter 48, his great call to his countrymen to depart. But all through chapters 40-48, while addressing himself to the solution of the political problems of Israel’s deliverance, the prophet had given hints that there were moral and spiritual difficulties as well. In spite of their punishment for more than half a century, the mass of the people were not worthy of a return. Many were idolaters; many were worldly; the orthodox had their own wrong views of how salvation should come; { Isaiah 45:9 ff.} the pious were without either light or faith. { Isaiah 50:10 } The nation, in short, had not that inward "righteousness," which could alone justify God in vindicating them before the. world, in establishing their outward righteousness, their salvation and reinstatement in their lofty place and calling as His people. These moral difficulties come upon the prophet with greater force after he has, with the close of chapter 48, finished his solution of the political ones. To these moral difficulties he addresses himself in 49-53, and the Servant and his Service are his solution of them:-the Servant as a Prophet and a Covenant of the People in chapter 49 and in Isaiah 50:4 ff.: the Servant as an example to the people, chapter 50 ff.; and finally the Servant as a full expiation for the people’s sins in Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 . It is the Servant who is to "raise up the land, and to bring back the heirs to the desolate heritages," and rouse the Israel who are not willing to leave Babylon," saying to the bound, Go forth; and to them that sit in darkness, Show yourselves". { Isaiah 49:8-9 } It is he who is "to sustain the weary" and to comfort the pious in Israel, who, though pious, have no light as they walk on their way back. { Isaiah 50:4 ; Isaiah 50:10 } It is the Servant finally who is to achieve the main problem of all and "make many righteous". { Isaiah 53:11 } The hope of restoration, the certainty of the people’s redemption, the certainty of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the certainty of the growth of the people to a great multitude, are, therefore, all woven by the prophet through and through with his studies of the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1 ., and Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 , -woven so closely and so naturally that, as we have already seen, we cannot take any part of chapters 49-53 and say that it is of different authorship from the rest. Thus in chapter 49 we have the road to Jerusalem pictured in Isaiah 49:9-13 , immediately upon the back of the Servant’s call to go forth in Isaiah 49:9 . We have then the assurance of Zion being rebuilt and thronged by her children in Isaiah 49:14-23 , and another affirmation of the certainty of redemption in Isaiah 49:24-26 . In Isaiah 50:1-3 this is repeated. In 51- Isaiah 52:1-12 the petty people is assured that it shall grow innumerable again; new affirmations are made of its ransom and return, ending with the beautiful prospect of the feet of the heralds of deliverance on the mountains of Judah { Isaiah 52:7 b} and a renewed call to leave Babylon ( Isaiah 52:11-12 ). We shall treat all these passages in our twenty-first chapter. And as they started naturally from the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1-9 a-and his example in Isaiah 50:4-11 , so upon his final and crowning work in chapter 53 there follow as naturally chapter 54 (the prospect of the seed Isaiah 53:10 promised he should see), and chapter 55 (a new call to come forth). These two, with the little pre-exilic prophecy, Isaiah 56:1-8 , we shall treat in our twenty-second chapter. Then come the series of difficult small prophecies with pre-exilic traces in them, from Isaiah 56:9 through Isaiah 59:1-21 . They will occupy our twenty-third chapter. In chapter 60 Zion is at last not only in sight, but radiant in the rising of her new day of glory. In chapters 61 and 62 the prophet, having reached Zion, "looks back," as Dillmann well remarks, "upon what has become his task, and in connection with that makes clear once more the high goal of all his working and striving." In Isaiah 63:1-6 the Divine Deliver is hailed. We shall take Isaiah 60:1-22 - Isaiah 63:6 together in our twenty-fourth chapter. Chapter 63:7-64 is an Intercessory Prayer for the restoration of all Israel. It is answered in chapter 65, and the lesson of this answer, that Israel must be judged, and that all cannot be saved, is enforced in chapter 66. Chaps. 63:7-66 will therefore form our twenty-fifth and closing chapter. Thus our course is clear, and we can overtake it rapidly. It is, to a large extent, a series of spectacles, interrupted by exhortations upon duty; things, in fact, to see and to hear, not to argue about. There are few great doctrinal questions, except what we have already sufficiently discussed; our study, for instance, of the term righteousness, we shall find has covered for us a large part of the ground in advance. And the only difficult literary question is that of the pre-exilic and post-exilic pieces, which are alleged to form so large a part of chapters 56-59 and 63-66. 7, Isaiah 55:1-13 , Isaiah 56:1-8 CHAPTER XXII ON THE EVE OF RETURN Isaiah 54:1-17 , Isaiah 55:1-13 , Isaiah 56:1-8 ONE of the difficult problems of our prophecy is the relation and grouping of chapters 54-59. It is among them that the unity of "Second Isaiah," which up to this point we have seen no reason to doubt, gives way. Isaiah 56:9-12 is evidently pre-exilic, and so is Isaiah 59:1-21 . But in chapters 54, 55, and Isaiah 56:1-8 we have three addresses, evidently dating from the Eve of the Return. We shall, therefore, treat them together. I. THE BRIDE THE CITY ( Isaiah 54:1-17 ) We have already seen why there is no reason for the theory that chapter 54 may have followed immediately on Isaiah 52:12 . And from Calvin to Ewald and Dillmann, critics have all felt a close connection between Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 and chapter 54. "After having spoken of the death of Christ," says Calvin, "the prophet passes on with good reason to the Church: that we may feel more deeply in ourselves what is the value and efficacy of His death." Similar in substance, if not in language, is the opinion of the latest critics, who understand that in chapter 54 the prophet intends to picture that full redemption which the Servant’s work, culminating in chapter 53, could alone effect. Two key-words of chapter 53 had been "a seed" and "many." It is "the seed" and the "many" whom chapter 54 reveals. Again, there may be, in Isaiah 54:17 , a reference to the earlier picture of the Servant in chapter 50, especially Isaiah 50:8 . But this last is uncertain; and, as a point on the other side there are the two different meanings as well as the two different agents, of "righteousness" in Isaiah 53:11 , "My Servant shall make many righteous," and in Isaiah 54:17 , "their righteousness which is of Me, saith Jehovah." In the former, righteousness is the inward justification; in the letter, it is the external historical vindication. In chapter 54 the people of God are represented under the double figure, with which the Book of Revelation has made us familiar, of Bride and City. To imagine a Nation or a Land as the spouse of her God is a habit natural to the religious instinct at all times; the land deriving her fruitfulness, the nation her standing and prestige, from her connection with the Deity. But in ancient times this figure of wedlock was more natural than it is among us, in so far as the human man and wife did not then occupy that relation of equality, to which it has been the progress of civilisation to approximate; but the husband was the lord of his wife, -as much her Baal as the god was the Baal of the people, -her law-giver, in part her owner, and with full authority over the origin and subsistence of the bond between them. Marriage thus conceived was a figure for religion almost universal among the Semites. But as in the case of so many other religious ideas common to the Hebrews and their heathen kin, this one, when adopted by the prophets of Jehovah, underwent a thorough moral reformation. Indeed, if one were asked to point out a supreme instance of the operation of that unique conscience of the religion of Jehovah, which was spoken of before, one would have little difficulty in selecting its treatment of the idea of religious marriage. By the neighbours of Israel, the marriage of a god to his people was conceived with a grossness of feeling and illustrated by a foulness of ritual, which thoroughly demoralised the people, affording, as they did, to licentiousness the example and sanction of religion. So debased had the idea become, and so full of temptation to the Hebrews were the forms in which it was illustrated among their neighbours, that the religion of Israel might justly have been praised for achieving a great moral victory in excluding the figure altogether from its system. But the prophets of Jehovah dared the heavier task of retaining the idea of religious marriage, and won the diviner triumph of purifying and elevating it. It was, indeed, a new creation. Every physical suggestion was banished, and the relation was conceived as purely moral. Yet it was never refined to a mere form or abstraction. The prophets fearlessly expressed it in the warmest and most familiar terms of the love of man and woman. With a stern and absolute interpretation before them in the Divine law, of the relations of a husband to his wife, they borrowed from that only so far as to do justice to the Almighty’s initiative and authority in His relation with mortals; and they laid far more emphasis on the instinctive and spontaneous affections, by which Jehovah and Israel had been drawn together. Thus, among a people naturally averse to think or to speak of God as loving men, this close relation to Him of marriage was expressed with a warmth, a tenderness, and a delicacy, that exceeded even the two other fond forms in which the Divine grace was conveyed, -of a father’s and of a mother’s love. In this new creation of the marriage bond between God and His church, three prophets had a large share, -Hosea, Ezekiel, and the author of "Second Isaiah." To Hosea and Ezekiel it fell to speak chiefly of unpleasant aspects of the question, -the unfaithfulness of the wife and her divorce; but even then, the moral strength and purity of the Hebrew religion, its Divine vehemence and glow, were only the more evident for the unpromising character of the materials with which it dealt. To our prophet, on the contrary, it fell to speak of the winning back of the wife, and he has done so with wonderful delicacy and tenderness. Our prophet, it is true, has not one, but two, deep feelings about the love of God: it passes through him as the love of a mother, as well as the love of a husband. But while he lets us see the former only twice or thrice, the latter may be felt as the almost continual under-current of his prophecy, and often breaks to hearing, now in a sudden, single ripple of a phrase, and now in a long tide of marriage music. His lips open for Jehovah on the language of wooing, - "speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem"; and though his masculine figure for Israel as the Servant keeps his affection hidden for a time, this emerges again when the subject of Service is exhausted, till Israel, where she is not Jehovah’s Servant, is Jehovah’s Bride. In the series of passages on Zion, from chapter 49 to chapter 53, the City is the Mother of His children, the Wife who though put away has never been divorced. In chapter 62 she is called Hephzi-Bah, My-delight-is-in-her , and Beulah, or Married , -"for Jehovah delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a youth marrieth a maiden, thy sons shall marry thee; and with the joy of a bridegroom over a bride, thy God shall joy over thee." But it is in the chapter now before us that the relation is expressed with greatest tenderness and wealth of affection. "Be not afraid, for thou shalt not be shamed; and be not confounded, for thou shalt not be put to the blush: for the shame of thy youth thou shalt forget, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt not remember again. For thy Maker is thy Husband, Jehovah of Hosts is His name; and thy Redeemer the Holy of Israel, God of the whole earth is He called. For as a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit thou art called of Jehovah, even a wife of youth, when she is cast off, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In an egre of anger I hid My face a moment from thee, but with grace everlasting will I have mercy upon thee, saith thy Redeemer Jehovah." In this eighth verse we pass from the figure of clear through flood and storm in Isaiah 54:11 . "Afflicted, Storm-beaten, Uncomforted, Lo, I am setting in dark metal" (antimony, used by women for painting round the eyes, so as to set forth their brilliance more) "thy stones," (that they may shine from this setting like women’s eyes,)" and I will found thee in sapphires": as heaven’s own foundation vault is blue, so shall the ground stones be of the new Jerusalem. "And I will set rubies for thy pinnacles, and thy gates shall be sparkling stones, and all thy borders stones of delight, -stones of joy, jewels." The rest of the chapter paints the righteousness of Zion as her external security and splendour. II. A LAST CALL TO THE BUSY ( Isaiah 55:1-13 ). The second address upon the Eve of Return is chapter 55. Its pure gospel and clear music render detailed exposition, except on a single point, superfluous. One can but stand and listen to those great calls to repentance and obedience, which issue from it. What can be added to them or said about them? Let one take heed rather to let them speak to one’s own heart! A little exploration, however, will be of advantage among the circumstances from which they shoot. The commercial character of the opening figures of chapter 55 arrests the attention. We saw that Babylon was the centre of the world’s trade, and that it was in Babylon that the Jews first formed those mercantile habits, which have become, next to religion, or in place of religion, their national character. Born to be priests, the Jews drew down their splendid powers of attention, pertinacity, and imagination from God upon the world, till they equally appear to have been born traders. They laboured and prospered exceedingly, gathering property and settling in comfort. They drank of the streams of Babylon, no longer made bitter by their tears, and ceased to think upon Zion. But, of all men, exiles can least forget that there is that which money can never buy. Money and his work can do much for the banished man, -feed him, clothe him, even make for him a kind of second home, and in time, by the payment of taxes, a kind of second citizenship; but they can never bring him to the true climate of his heart, nor win for him his real life. And of all exiles the Jew, however free and prosperous in his banishment he might be, was least able to find his life among the good things-the water, the wine, and the milk-of a strange country. For home to Israel meant not only home, but duty, righteousness, and God. ( Isaiah 1:1-31 ; Isaiah 2:1-22 ; Isaiah 3:1-26 ; Isaiah 4:1-6 ; Isaiah 5:1-30 ; Isaiah 6:1-13 ; Isaiah 7:1-25 ; Isaiah 8:1-22 ; Isaiah 9:1-21 ; Isaiah 10:1-34 ; Isaiah 11:1-16 ; Isaiah 12:1-6 ; Isaiah 13:1-22 ; Isaiah 14:1-32 ; Isaiah 15:1-9 ; Isaiah 16:1-14 ; Isaiah 17:1-14 ; Isaiah 18:1-7 ; Isaiah 19:1-25 ; Isaiah 20:1-6 ; Isaiah 21:1-17 ; Isaiah 22:1-25 ; Isaiah 23:1-18 ; Isaiah 24:1-23 ; Isaiah 25:1-12 ; Isaiah 26:1-21 ; Isaiah 27:1-13 ; Isaiah 28:1-29 ; Isaiah 29:1-24 ; Isaiah 30:1-33 ; Isaiah 31:1-9 ; Isaiah 32:1-20 ; Isaiah 33:1-24 ; Isaiah 34:1-17 ; Isaiah 35:1-10 ; Isaiah 36:1-22 ; Isaiah 37:1-38 ; Isaiah 38:1-22 ; Isaiah 39:1-8 ) God had created the heart of this people to hunger for His word, and in His word they could alone find the "fatness of their soul." Success and comfort shall never satisfy the soul which God has created for obedience. The simplicity of the obedience that is here asked from Israel, the emphasis that is laid upon mere obedience as ringing in full satisfaction, is impressive: "hearken diligently, and eat that which is good; incline your ear and come unto Me, hear and your soul shall live." It suggests the number of plausible reasons, which may be offered for every worldly and material life, and to which there is no answer save the call of God’s own voice to obedience and surrender. To obedience God then promises influence. In place of being a mere trafficker with the nations, or, at best, their purveyor and moneylender, the Jew, if he obeys God, shall be the priest and prophet of the peoples. This is illustrated in Isaiah 55:4-6 , the only hard passage in the chapter. God will make His people like David; whether the historical David or the ideal David described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel is uncertain. God will conclude an everlasting "covenant" with them, equivalent to the sure favours showered on him. As God set him for a witness (that is, a prophet) to "the peoples, a prince and a leader to the peoples," so (in phrases that recall some used by David of himself in the eighteenth Psalm) shall they as prophets and kings influence strange nations-"calling a nation thou knowest not, and nations that have not known thee shall run unto thee." The effect of the unconscious influence, which obedience to God, and surrender to Him as His instrument, are sure to work, could not be more grandly stated. But we ought not to let another point escape our attention, for it has its contribution to make to the main question of the Servant. As explained in the note to a sentence above, it is uncertain whether David is the historical king of’ that name, or the Messiah still to come. In either case, be is an individual, whose functions and qualities are transferred to the people, and that is the point demanding attention. If our prophecy can thus so easily speak of God’s purpose of service to the Gentiles passing from the individual to the nation, why should it not also be able to speak of the opposite process, the transference of the service from the nation to the single Servant? When the nation were unworthy and unredeemed, could not the prophet as easily think of the relegation of their office to aft individual, as he now promises to their obedience that that office shall be restored to them? The next verses urgently repeat calls to repentance. And then comes a passage which is grandly meant to make us feel the contrast of its scenery with the toil, the money-getting and the money-spending from which the chapter started. From all that sordid, barren, human strife in the markets of Babylon, we are led out to look at the boundless heavens, and are told that "as they are higher than the earth, so are God’s ways higher than our ways, and God’s reckonings than our reckonings" we are led out to see the gentle fall of rain and snow that so easily "maketh the earth to bring forth and bud, and give seed to the sower and bread to the eater," and are told that it is a symbol of God’s word, which we were called from our vain labours to obey; we are led out "to the mountains and to the hills breaking before you into singing," and to the free, wild natural trees, tossing their unlopped branches; we are led to see even the desert change, for "instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead of the nettle shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." Thus does the prophet, in his own fashion, lead the starved worldly heart, that has sought in vain its fulness from its toil, through scenes of Nature, to that free omnipotent Grace, of which Nature’s processes are the splendid sacraments. III. PROSELYTES AND EUNUCHS { Isaiah 56:1-8 } The opening verse of this small prophecy, "My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed," attaches it very closely to the preceding prophecy. If chapter 55 expounds the grace and faithfulness of God in the Return of His people, and asks from them only faith as the price of such benefits, Isaiah 56:1-8 adds the demand that those who are to return shall keep the law, and extends their blessings to foreigners and others, who though technically disqualified from the privileges of the born and legitimate Israelite, had attached themselves to Jehovah and His Law. Such a prophecy was very necessary. The dispersion of Israel had already begun to accomplish its missionary purpose; pious souls in many lands had felt the spiritual power of this disfigured people, and had chosen for Jehovah’s sake to follow its uncertain fortunes. It was indispensable that these Gentile converts should be comforted against the withdrawal of Israel from Babylon, for they said, "Jehovah will surely separate me from His people," as well as against the time when it might become necessary to purge the restored community from heathen constituents. { Nehemiah 13:1-31 } Again, all the male Jews could hardly have escaped the disqualification, which the cruel custom of the East inflicted on some, at least, of every body of captives. It is almost certain that Daniel and his companions were eunuchs, and if they, then perhaps many more. But the Book of Deuteronomy had declared mutilation of this kind to be a bar against entrance to the assembly of the Lord. It is not one of the least interesting of the spiritual results of the Exile, that its necessities compelled the abrogation of the letter of such a law. With a freedom that foreshadows Christ’s own expansion of the ancient strictness, and in words that would not be out of place in the Sermon on the Mount, this prophecy ensures to pious men, whom cruelty had deprived of the two things dearest to the heart of an Israelite, -a present place, and a perpetuation through his posterity, in the community of God, -that in the new temple a monument and a name should be given, "better" and more enduring "than sons or daughters." This prophecy is further noteworthy as the first instance of the strong emphasis which "Second Isaiah" lays upon the keeping of the Sabbath, and as, first calling the temple the "House of Prayer." Both of these characteristics are due, of course, to the Exile, the necessities of which prevented almost every religious act save that of keeping fasts and Sabbaths and serving God in prayer. On our prophet’s teaching about the Sabbath there will be more to say in the next chapter. Isaiah 56:9 All ye beasts of the field, come to devour, yea , all ye beasts in the forest. -26 BOOK 4 THE RESTORATION WE have now reached the summit of our prophecy. It has been a long, steep ascent, and we have had very much to seek out on the way, and to extricate and solve and load ourselves with. But although a long extent of the prophecy, if we measure it by chapters, still lies before us, the end is in sight; every difficulty has been surmounted which kept us from seeing how we were to get to it, and the rest of the way may be said to be downhill. To drop the figure-the Servant, his vicarious suffering and atonement for the sins of the people, form for our prophet the solution of the spiritual problem of the nation’s restoration, and what he has now to do is but to fill in the details of this. We saw that the problem of Israel’s deliverance from Exile, their Return, and their Restoration to their position in their own land as the Chief Servant of God to humanity, was really a double problem-political and spiritual. The solution of the political side of it was Cyrus. As soon as the prophet had been able to make it certain that Cyrus was moving down upon Babylon, with a commission from God to take the city, and irresistible in the power with which Jehovah had invested him, the political difficulties in the way of Israel’s Return were as good as removed; and so the prophet gave, in the end of chapter 48, his great call to his countrymen to depart. But all through chapters 40-48, while addressing himself to the solution of the political problems of Israel’s deliverance, the prophet had given hints that there were moral and spiritual difficulties as well. In spite of their punishment for more than half a century, the mass of the people were not worthy of a return. Many were idolaters; many were worldly; the orthodox had their own wrong views of how salvation should come; { Isaiah 45:9 ff.} the pious were without either light or faith. { Isaiah 50:10 } The nation, in short, had not that inward "righteousness," which could alone justify God in vindicating them before the. world, in establishing their outward righteousness, their salvation and reinstatement in their lofty place and calling as His people. These moral difficulties come upon the prophet with greater force after he has, with the close of chapter 48, finished his solution of the political ones. To these moral difficulties he addresses himself in 49-53, and the Servant and his Service are his solution of them:-the Servant as a Prophet and a Covenant of the People in chapter 49 and in Isaiah 50:4 ff.: the Servant as an example to the people, chapter 50 ff.; and finally the Servant as a full expiation for the people’s sins in Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 . It is the Servant who is to "raise up the land, and to bring back the heirs to the desolate heritages," and rouse the Israel who are not willing to leave Babylon," saying to the bound, Go forth; and to them that sit in darkness, Show yourselves". { Isaiah 49:8-9 } It is he who is "to sustain the weary" and to comfort the pious in Israel, who, though pious, have no light as they walk on their way back. { Isaiah 50:4 ; Isaiah 50:10 } It is the Servant finally who is to achieve the main problem of all and "make many righteous". { Isaiah 53:11 } The hope of restoration, the certainty of the people’s redemption, the certainty of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the certainty of the growth of the people to a great multitude, are, therefore, all woven by the prophet through and through with his studies of the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1 ., and Isaiah 52:13-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 , -woven so closely and so naturally that, as we have already seen, we cannot take any part of chapters 49-53 and say that it is of different authorship from the rest. Thus in chapter 49 we have the road to Jerusalem pictured in Isaiah 49:9-13 , immediately upon the back of the Servant’s call to go forth in Isaiah 49:9 . We have then the assurance of Zion being rebuilt and thronged by her children in Isaiah 49:14-23 , and another affirmation of the certainty of redemption in Isaiah 49:24-26 . In Isaiah 50:1-3 this is repeated. In 51- Isaiah 52:1-12 the petty people is assured that it shall grow innumerable again; new affirmations are made of its ransom and return, ending with the beautiful prospect of the feet of the heralds of deliverance on the mountains of Judah { Isaiah 52:7 b} and a renewed call to leave Babylon ( Isaiah 52:11-12 ). We shall treat all these passages in our twenty-first chapter. And as they started naturally from the Servant’s work in Isaiah 49:1-9 a-and his example in Isaiah 50:4-11 , so upon his final and crowning work in chapter 53 there follow as naturally chapter 54 (the prospect of the seed Isaiah 53:10 promised he should see), and chapter 55 (a new call to come forth). These two, with the little pre-exilic prophecy, Isaiah 56:1-8 , we shall treat in our twenty-second chapter. Then come the series of difficult small prophecies with pre-exilic traces in them, from Isaiah 56:9 through Isaiah 59:1-21 . They will occupy our twenty-third chapter. In chapter 60 Zion is at last not only in sight, but radiant in the rising of her new day of glory. In chapters 61 and 62 the prophet, having reached Zion, "looks back," as Dillmann well remarks, "upon what has become his task, and in connection with that makes clear once more the high goal of all his working and striving." In Isaiah 63:1-6 the Divine Deliver is hailed. We shall take Isaiah 60:1-22 - Isaiah 63:6 together in our twenty-fourth chapter. Chapter 63:7-64 is an Intercessory Prayer for the restoration of all Israel. It is answered in chapter 65, and the lesson of this answer, that Israel must be judged, and that all cannot be saved, is enforced in chapter 66. Chaps. 63:7-66 will therefore form our twenty-fifth and closing chapter. Thus our course is clear, and we can overtake it rapidly. It is, to a large extent, a series of spectacles, interrupted by exhortations upon duty; things, in fact, to see and to hear, not to argue about. There are few great doctrinal questions, except what we have already sufficiently discussed; our study, for instance, of the term righteousness, we shall find has covered for us a large part of the ground in advance. And the only difficult literary question is that of the pre-exilic and post-exilic pieces, which are alleged to form so large a part of chapters 56-59 and 63-66. CHAPTER XXIII THE REKINDLING OF THE CIVIC CONSCIENCE Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 IT was inevitable, as soon as their city was again fairly in sight, that there should re-awaken in the exiles the civic conscience; that recollections of those besetting sins of their public life, for which their city and their independence were destroyed, should throng back upon them; that in prospect of their again becoming responsible for the discharge of justice and other political duties, they should be reminded by the prophet of their national faults in these respects, and of God’s eternal laws concerning them. If we keep this in mind, we shall understand the presence in "Second Isaiah" of the group of prophecies at which we have now arrived, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 . Hitherto our prophet, in marked contrast to Isaiah himself, has said almost nothing of the social righteousness of his people. Israel’s righteousness, as we saw in our fourteenth chapter, has had the very different meaning for our prophet of her pardon and restoration to her rights. But in Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; Isaiah 58:1-14 ; Isaiah 59:1-21 we shall find the blame of civic wrong, and of other kinds of sin of which Israel could only have been guilty in her own land; we shall listen to exhortations to social justice and mercy like those we heard from Isaiah to his generation. Yet these are mingled with voices, and concluded with promises, which speak of the Return as imminent. Undoubtedly exilic elements reveal themselves. And the total impression is that some prophet of the late Exile, and probably the one whom we have been following, collected these reminiscences of his people’s sin in the days of their freedom, in order to remind them, before they went back again to political responsibility, why it was they were punished and how apt they were to go astray. Believing this to be the true solution of a somewhat difficult problem, we have ventured to gather this mixed group of prophecies under the title of the Rekindling of the Civic Conscience. They fall into three groups: first, Isaiah 56:9-12 ; Isaiah 57:1-21 ; second, chapter 58; third, chapter 59. We shall s

Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment. Isaiah 56:1 Privilege and responsibility F. A. Alexander. The doctrine of the passage is simply this, that they who enjoy extraordinary privileges, or expect extraordinary favours, are under corresponding obligations to do the will of God; and, moreover, that the nearer the manifestation of God's mercy, whether in time or eternity, the louder the call to righteousness of life. These truths are of no restricted application, but may be applied wherever the relation of a Church or chosen people can be recognized. ( F. A. Alexander. ) God's mercy and man's duty When God is coming towards us in a way of mercy, we must go forth to meet Him in a way of duty. ( M. Henry . ) Reformation the precursor of regeneration H. Melvill, B. D. God does not demand of a man, when He sends to him the gracious announcement of the Gospel, that he should change his heart, in order to his having a share in His proffered mercy. He does not say to him, You are now a disloyal subject, and before you can have an interest in the blood of My Son, I require you to become loyal. But He does require that he should set himself to the giving up the overt acts of disloyalty. He sends the tidings of a flee pardon to His alienated subjects, but He bids them, as it were, get ready for its reception. "Keep ye judgment, and do justice," etc. The manner in which the doctrines of Scripture are oftentimes propounded has a distinct tendency to repress men's energies, or to give them an altogether wrong direction. The Bible addresses itself unreservedly to sinners, as though they had a moral power of action, for which they were, in the largest sense, accountable, and through which they might make some progress towards deliverance. Hence, it calls on the wicked to forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and to turn unto the Lord. It bids them cease to do evil, and learn to do well; it clearly demands a preparatory reformation, and such an attention to the conduct as shall, in some sense, make way for the free pardon of the Gospel. I. SHOW WHAT LIES WITHIN THE POWER OF THE UNCONVERTED; AND WHAT, THEREFORE, THEY ARE BOUND TO DO IF THEY HOPE FOR, CONVERSION. We apply this direction to the case of every individual, whatever his station in society; and we consider it as requiring of him a more diligent attention to the duties of that station, as preliminary to his obtaining a single share in the mercies of redemption. If he be living in any known sin, let him renounce it. God's Spirit, so to speak, is scared away by his intemperance, his lust, his uncontrolled tempers, and if he would hope for visitation from this Spirit, let him strive to sweep the chamber, and to garnish it for its reception. II. THE PERFECT HARMONY OF THESE STATEMENTS WITH THE DOCTRINES OF GRACE. We are accustomed to preach to you the insufficiency of works, in helping forward that justification which is purely of faith; and now we seem to teach the vast importance of works, and those, too, works wrought by mere human strength, as distinctly instrumental to human salvation. 1. The throwing of a man upon certain resources which we hold him to possess, is not representing him as able to advance one step without God. It is God's own appointment that we should use the strength which we have, before more is imparted; and since we only teach submission to this appointment, there can be nothing of interference with the freeness of grace. 2. Our representation of the duties of the unconverted, if they desire conversion, must be correct, inasmuch as it is formed altogether on a Scriptural model. We refer you to the preaching of John the Baptist, as furnishing this model. 3. There is a difficult passage in the history of our Lord's ministrations, which can only be explained on the supposed truth of what we have advanced. When the young man came to Jesus, and demanded what good thing he must do that he might have eternal life, the Saviour replied, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." 4. We admit that, if a man reform his life under the idea that the reform is meritorious, he may possibly be no nearer conversion i but if he attempt to reform, simply as a preliminary, he shall, surely, be thereby brought unto greater fitness for the reception of grace; and yet the grace when it comes shall have lost none of its characteristics, but still be grace the very freest and the most undeserved. 5. Again, salvation is a thing of faith, not of works. The very desire after conversion pre-supposes faith. If a man do not believe in the coming wrath, he can have no wish for a change that is to secure him against the outbreak of that wrath i and in exhorting him unto an immediate fighting against sin, we exhort him to bring his faith into practice. 6. The individual who goes out into the arena of life and makes an effort in his own strength to overthrow evil, will be a hundredfold better taught the moral decrepitude of man, by the little progress that he makes, or the defeat that he sustains, than another who sits down in his closet and seeks to ascertain his native insufficiency by throwing his power into a balance, or computing it by a process of mathematical calculation. ( H. Melvill, B. D. ) Blessed is the man that doeth this. Isaiah 56:2 The blessedness of right-doing R. Macculloch. "Blessed is the man that doeth this." It must be so, for in doing judgment and justice he in some measure resembles the blessed God, who exerciseth judgment and righteousness in the earth, and delighteth in these things. ( R. Macculloch. ) Comprehensive righteousness Prof. S. R. Driver,D. D. The duties of the first table are typified by the observance of the Sabbath; those of the second table are signified in the comprehensive expression, "That keepeth his hand that it do no evil." ( Prof. S. R. Driver,D. D. ) Sabbath-keeping J. A. Alexander. A great variety of reasons have been given for the special mention of the Sabbath here. The true explanation is afforded by a reference to the primary and secondary ends of the Sabbatical institution, and the belief involved in its observance. 1. It implied a recognition of Jehovah as the omnipotent Creator of the universe ( Exodus 20:11 ; Exodus 31:17 ). 2. As the Sanctifier of His people, not in the technical or theological sense, but as denoting Him by whom they had been set apart as a peculiar people ( Exodus 31:13 ; Ezekiel 20:12 ). 3. As the Saviour of this chosen people from the bondage of Egypt ( Deuteronomy 5:15 ). Of these great truths the Sabbath was a weekly remembrancer, and its observance by the people a perpetual recognition and profession, besides the practical advantages accruing to the maintenance of a religious spirit by a weekly recurrence of a day of rest. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Sabbath-keeping I. THE DUTY REQUIRED. To keep the Sabbath, to keep it as a talent we are to trade with, or a treasure we are entrusted with; keep it holy, keep it safe, keep it with care and caution, keep from polluting it; allow neither yourselves nor others either to violate the holy rest nor omit the holy work of that day. II. THE ENCOURAGEMENT WE HAVE TO DO THIS DUTY. Blessed is he that doeth it. The way to have the blessing of God upon our employments all the week is to make conscience and business of Sabbath sanctification; and in doing so we shall be the better qualified to do judgment and justice. The more godliness the more honesty ( 1 Timothy 2:2 ). ( M. Henry . ) Sabbath-keeping and justice We are not just if we rob God of His time. ( M. Henry . ) Resoluteness in Sabbath observance Those that would keep the Sabbath from polluting it must put on resolution; must not only do this, but lay hold on it, for Sabbath time is precious; but it is very apt to slip away if we take not great care; therefore we must lay hold on it, and keep our hold; must do it, and persevere in it. ( M. Henry . ) The utility of the Sabbath D. Rees. As the Sabbath was instituted while man was yet within the precincts of Paradise, and unseduced by the wiles of the devil, we are warranted to conclude that a day of holy rest was useful and necessary to him, even in a state of innocence; and if it was of use and advantage to him then, how much more must it be now! Man is now become so sinful, so earthly, so forgetful of God, so careless of his highest interests, that were it not for the solemnities of the Sabbath, he would speedily lose all sense of religion, and utterly neglect the salvation of his soul. ( D. Rees. ) An unpolluted Sabbath D. Rees. The text gives us to understand that in order to keep the Sabbath from polluting it, we must keep our hands from doing any evil. Nor can we suppose that the day is to be sanctified merely by acts of negative holiness, but also by acts of positive goodness. ( D. Rees. ) Sabbaths and week-days " That keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. The best evidence of our having kept the Sabbath well will be a care to keep a good conscience all the week. ( M. Henry . ) The blessedness of keeping Gods holy day J. N. Norton. What are we to understand by "polluting the Lord's day? 1. This holy time is certainly thus .abused when it is spent in mere idleness. 2. When it is devoted to worldly amusement. 3. By all labour which may not fairly come under the description of work of necessity and mercy. ( J. N. Norton. ) Sabbath observance J. N. Norton. A little boy was on a visit to his uncle, and when the morning of the Lord's Day came, the uncle said, "Come, my man, you and I will go out and fish awhile! "Uncle," answered the boy, very gravely and somewhat .... puzzled, does God require us to fish here on Sunday at our house He doesnt allow us to do it." The fishing excursion was given up, and good came of the child's pointed sermon. ( J. N. Norton. ) Neither let the son of the stranger. Isaiah 56:3-5 "The son of the stranger Prof. J. Skinner, D. D., A. B. Davidson, . D. D. means simply the individual foreigner (R.V., "the stranger"), not one whose father was a foreigner. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. )The non-Israelite. ( A. B. Davidson, . D. D. ) Consolation far proselytes Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. The case supposed is that if a foreigner who has "joined himself to the Lord, i.e. has become a proselyte by accepting the symbols of Jewish nationality (circumcision, etc.), but now has reason to fear that his qualifications will be disallowed. It is likely that the immediate cause of apprehension was some manifestation of an exclusive and intolerant spirit amongst the leaders of the New Jerusalem. Against this spirit (if it existed) the prophets words enter a strong protest. ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Unbelief many times suggests things to the discouragement of good people which are directly contrary to what God Himself hath said; things which He hath expressly guarded against. ( M. Henry . ) The eunuch Eunuchs F. Delitzsch, D. D We must understand those of Israelitish descent. ( F. Delitzsch, D. D ) The eunuch "a dry tree A. B. Davidson, . D. D. The eunuch being "a dry tree" feels that having no children he will have no permanent place or name in the kingdom. ( A. B. Davidson, . D. D. ) For thus saith the Lord. Isaiah 56:4-7 Characteristics and privileges of God's people J. Gemmel, M. A. The pride of ancestry, and boast of ceremonial exclusiveness and glorying in the flesh, the Lord, by His prophet, looking forward to Gospel days, now abolishes, and marks out the true distinctions of His people to be that which is moral and spiritual, to the exclusion of all bodily defects or natural peculiarities. Observe — I. THE MARKS AND DISTINCTIONS OF GOD'S PEOPLE. 1. Keeping the Sabbath. 2. Choosing the things that please Him. 3. Taking hold of His covenant. 4. Being joined to Him to serve Him. 5. Loving His name. 6. Serving Him. II. THE GRACIOUS AND GLORIOUS PRIVILEGES OF GOD'S PEOPLE. 1. Incorporation with His Church. 2. Joy in the sanctuary. 3. Acceptance of their spiritual worship. ( J. Gemmel, M. A. ) And take hold of My covenant. Taking hold of God's covenant J. Trapp. By a lively faith, although the devil rap her on, the finger for so doing. ( J. Trapp. ) Holding fast" by God's covenant J. A. Alexander. (R.V.): — Hold fast (as ver. 2). By holding' fast My covenant is meant adhering to his compact with Me, which includes obedience to the precepts and faith in the promises. ( J. A. Alexander. ) Taking hold of God's covenant It was generally supposed by the Jews that no one, except the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, could be in covenant relationship with God. Paul, however, says, in writing to the Romans, "But Esaias is very bold;" and he is so in this instance. He declares that men may take hold of the covenant of God though, heretofore, they appeared to be shut out from its privileges. I. WHAT IS THIS COVENANT? It has been well said, "He who understands the covenants holds the key of all theology." There was, first of all, a covenant made with our father, Adam; — not, perhaps, in set terms, but virtually, — that, if he should do the will of God, he should live. But, alas l our great covenant head, Adam the first, could not keep that covenant. I should think that none of us want to take hold of that covenant, for we are all sufferers by it already. There is a second covenant, made with the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ; and by that covenant, it was provided that He should Himself perfectly keep the law, and that He should suffer the penalty due from His people for their breaches of the law; and that, if He did both these things, then all those who were represented in Him should live for ever. 1. The new covenant is a covenant of pure grace. 2. It is a "covenant ordered in all things and sure." 3. The ensign of this covenant is faith. II. HOW CAN WE LAY HOLD OF IT? 1. I must loose my hold of the old covenant. 2. The main plan is by believing in Christ Jesus unto the salvation of thy soul. 3. But I have known those laying hold on the covenant begin in different ways. Some have laid hold upon it by a confession of sin; and the Lord has said, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." 4. Another way of laying hold of it is, "by seeking" the Lord in prayer. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 5. When you have once accepted Christ, I like you to get a hold of the covenant in all sorts of ways. We have only two hands, but there are some creatures that have a great many hands, or feelers, or suckers; and when they want to be quite safe, they seize hold with all their hands. Christ has made a covenant with His Church, and I like to lay hold of that covenant by uniting with His people. It will be a great help to you to lay hold of the covenant by availing yourself of all Church privileges. The right thing for every sinner to say is just this, "The covenant of grace exactly suits my case. Jesus Christ has come to save the guilty and the needy; that is the sort of person I am, so I will lay hold of His covenant. I have got a grip of it, and there I hang. If His Gospel be true, I am a saved man." III. WHAT IS THERE TO LAY HOLD OF? 1. An atonement. 2. There is another place where you can lay hold of the covenant, and that is, the mercy-seat. Go and bow before God in prayer, Christ being your Intercessor, plead with God for mercy, through His atoning blood, and then say, " I will never leave off praying till I get the blessing." 3. It is also a grand thine to lay hold of a promise in God's Word. 4. There is another thing which you should lay hold of, and that is, an invitation. IV. WHY SHOULD I NOT LAY HOLD OF GOD'S COVENANT? 1. One reason for doing so is this. Others, who are like yourself, have done so. 2. Out of all who have ever come to Christ, there has never been one rejected. 3. You are the very sort of character that is bidden to come. "This man receiveth sinners." 4. There is nothing else for you to hold to. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Even unto them will I give. Isaiah 56:5 God gives, but not indiscriminately J. Parker, D. D. Again and again the Lord says "will I give," and " I will give." He is always giving; He lives to give. God so loved the world that He gave; His hands are outstretched in continual dispensation of blessing. Observe here the usual condition upon which great honour are promised. This is not an indiscriminate rain of benediction, clouds emptying themselves without regard to character; it is not a confusion of man with man; but there is a principle of discrimination, election, selection, or choice,, running,, through the whole action. ( J. Parker, D. D. ) A place and a name. "A place F. Delitzsch, D. D. The noun offers several meanings suitable in this passage. It signifies a "monument" or "memorial, ' as a lofty indicator or pointer ( Ezekiel 21:24 ), as a finger-post pointing to the person for whom it has been erected ( 2 Samuel 18:18 ; 1 Samuel 15:12 ); in this sense, however, the word would declare more than the promise permits one to expect. The Semitic term also signifies a place ( Numbers 2:17 ; Deuteronomy 23:12 ; Jeremiah 6:3 ), and a "share" or portion ( 2 Samuel 19:43 ). ( F. Delitzsch, D. D. ) God's promise to pious eunuchs Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. There seems no reason to doubt that the promise is to be understood literally. An illustration of what is meant is found in 2 Samuel 18:18 , where we read that Absalom, in the prospect of dying childless, erected the pillar to his own memory which was known as "Absalom's hand" (also 1 Samuel 15:12 , R.V. marg.). The case of those here spoken of is precisely similar. They have "no son to keep their name in remembrance, but their memory shall be perpetuated by a monument erected within the temple walls;, and such a memorial, testifying to the esteem of the whole community, is "better ' (and more enduring) "than sons and daughters." ( Prof. J. Skinner, D. D. ) Better than sons and daughters B. A. Alexander. may either mean better than the comfort immediately derived from children (as in Ruth 4:15 ), or, better than the perpetuation of the name by hereditary succession. Most interpreters prefer the latter sense, but both may be included. A beautiful coincidence and partial fulfilment of the promise is pointed out by J. D. Michaelis, in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, whose conversion is recorded in Acts 8:7 , and whose memory is far more honoured in the Church than it could have been by a long line of illustrious descendants. ( B. A. Alexander. ) I will give them an everlasting name. Names Our greatest poet asks, "What's in a name?" but whoever reads his Bible carefully will see that the Jews attached very great importance to names. Thus we often find in the Bible that the name of a person is used when the person himself is meant, as for example, " The name of the God of Jacob defend thee; — we will call upon the name of the Lord; — let their name be blotted out that they may be no more a nation." Jewish parents never gave their children a name for the sake of its sound, but because it expressed some peculiarity in the child, or some circumstance connected with its birth, or some wish for its future career. God Himself set this example when He named the first man Adam — "red earth" — to commemorate the fact that dust he was, and unto dust he should return. The noblest name J. W. Buxton. 1. Every Christian parent who now takes a child to the font of baptism should try and choose a name with some good meaning in it, and should endeavour to bring up the child to live a life worthy of its name, even as the parents of Timothy gave him a name which means " one who fears God," and early taught him in the Holy Scriptures that he might learn what God would have him to do. 2. No matter what name our parents may have given us, all who are baptized have the very best of names. It is the name of Christ, the name of "Christian."(1) It is the oldest name, older than all the Howards or Sydneys of England, older than Saxon or Norman, or Jew, or Greek, or Roman. The name of Christ, which we bear, is from everlasting.(2) It is the noblest name; most great families derive their name from some famous act of their founder, some great victory, or some wide estate; our name is better than all, for we are named after the greatest Conqueror, one who triumphed at the price of His own blood, one who conquered Death and Satan, and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. We are a royal family, for we bear the name of the King of kings, a better name than that of Caesar, or Pharaoh, or Tudor, or Stuart: all old families have a crest and a coat of arms, but our arms are the best, and they are the Cross.(3) It is an everlasting name; some of the grandest old names in England have died out, many of the proudest family names are only to be seen on a tomb, but the name of our family will never be extinct, it becomes better known every year, and will be spread far and wide till "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea." What, then, is required of us who bear such a name? The son of a good father would not willingly disgrace the name which has been made famous, so we must remember whose name we bear. ( J. W. Buxton. ) Also the sons of the stranger. Isaiah 56:6, 7 Gentiles enjoying God's favour J. Orton. This is a clear prophecy of the call of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ. Let us attend to this description of those who are objects of the Divine favour, and entitled to the privileges of His house. 1. They join themselves to the Lord. This supposes a former distance and alienation from Him. But that is removed by humble repentance and returning to the Lord. It includes, renouncing all their idols; forsaking all their sin, everything contrary to the nature and will of God: a deliberate choice of Him, as their portion and felicity; and of His people, as their friends and associates. 2. The design of their thus joining themselves unto the Lord is to serve Him. This is further expressed in the phrase, to be His servants; not only to serve Him occasionally, or for a while, but perpetually; to adhere to Him and His ways, from a deep conviction that nothing can be more reasonable, important, and advantageous than to hear what He saith, and to do it. 3. It is added, and to love the name of the Lord. They take delight in His service; they perform it not from fear and a servile dread, but from a sincere and strong affection. They love His name; that is, they love him, His worship and His ways, and pursue His work with delight. It is opposed to narrow; selfish, mercenary views, which render the service less acceptable and comfortable. They esteem it their meat and drink to do His will. 4. Another thing-expected from God's people is, that they keep His Sabbath from polluting it. This is an essential character, a distinguishing mark, of good men. 5. God's people take hold of His covenant. They enter into serious, deliberate, solemn engagements to observe and keep His laws, in order to obtain the blessings which He hath promised; and which, in so doing, they cheerfully expect. They take hold of it; which implies a hearty consent to God's terms, a cheerful approbation and acceptance of them and delight in them. It likewise implies a steady resolution. They take hold of it, as those who are determined not to let it go. ( J. Orton. ) The rewards of God's servants R. Watson. The text — I. HOLDS OUT UNIVERSAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO MAN. 1. By the transfer of the priesthood from Aaron to Christ. 2. By the change of sacrifice. From the blood of bulls and of goats to the precious blood of the Son of God. 3. By the removal of place. From Jerusalem to the temple of the universe. 4. By a change of worship. From ritual to spiritual. What an encouraging prospect! ( Ephesians 2:11-22 .) II. INCULCATES UNIVERSAL PIETY, Piety in heart and practice. The duties enumerated may be divided into three classes. 1. Those which relate to Christ, expressed by taking hold of His covenant — accepting — agreeing to it. 2. Those which relate to God as the Governor of the world. (1) His servants. (2) Walk by His laws. (3) Keep His Sabbaths. 3. Those which relate to the Church. III. PROMISES UNIVERSAL HAPPINESS. 1. Access to heaven. "I will bring them to My holy mountain." 2. Joyfulness in His service. "I will make them joyful in My house of prayer." 3. The Divine acceptance of their religious engagements. "Their burnt-offerings and sacrifices shall be accepted upon Mine altar." ( R. Watson. ) Even them will I bring to My holy mountain. Isaiah 56:7 The house of prayer T Davies, M. A. If we accept the interpretation that the second Isaiah has given us the prophecies of the restoration, we may regard this chapter as a description of Israel after the return from the Chaldean captivity, and, further, the condition of worship in the reign of the Messiah. We place before you the whole matter as a plea for God's house in the present day. I. THE LOCATION OF WORSHIP. "Mine house." With God every where, what need is there of setting apart any particular spot for worship? While all creation is God's magnificent temple, why should we consecrate any particular place of building for the purpose of worship? We have a promise in the Book itself ( Jeremiah 31:33 34). But we must suppose conditions of thought, and degrees of poetry, which do not exist, in order to worship God in the general terms implied in these statements. We infer from the history of public worship that God has adapted its forms to the state of mankind in the various periods of the periods of the past. To-day worship its forms to the state of mankind in the various periods of the past. To-day worship must be conducted with a view to the position of the religious thought which prevails. 1. The first essential element of worship is concentration. The circumstantial in religion must be flamed to centre thought upon God in His nearness to man. The patriarch's altar, the tabernacle of Moses, and the temple of Solomon did this. In the teaching of Christ we meet with an expansion of the geography of worship. The temples on Moriah and Gerizim were doomed, both by the force of circumstances and the Incarnation. God in Christ became the consummation of the central idea of God. But Christ was human as well as Divine. We find Him both in the synagogue and the temple. He drew His disciples together, sometimes into a house, other times on the mountain slopes, or in secluded spots, for instruction and fellowship. He introduced a simplicity into worship which indicated a more spiritual thought than that which obtained when gorgeous ritualism formed its environment. The time had arrived when He would introduce a method by which we would worship the Father "in spirit and in truth. ' But never has Jesus Christ hinted at the probability that such a worship would consist of abstract thought, universal observation, or individual reflection, apart from the offices of time and space. When God and man meet they must meet somewhere. Although the necessity for a restricted spot had passed away, and the whole earth became a consecrated temple, when the eternal Son chose it as His imperial palace, yet the limitations of the spiritual man, while dwelling in a tabernacle of clay, suggest the setting apart of places for worship. In an age when life is at a higher pressure than ever it has been, and consequently, an age when our thoughts are agitated, scattered, embittered, and inflamed, of what incalculable value must the house of prayer be. 2. Our next point is association. We have been told that there is such a thing as abstract thought, but where is abstract life? How far can one go on the path of life without the aid of others? It seems absurd that people should assume so much piety as not to require any association or assistance. If the Hall of Science is needed, why not the Hall of Prayer? 3. Our third plea for the house of prayer is memorial. Every place of worship in England is a witness to the Being of God, and to His providence and salvation. "Mine house" is a significant designation, showing His acceptance of the gift. It is the language of love in response to the gift of love. II. THE ESSENCE OF WORSHIP. "House of prayer." Prayer is a comprehensive term, having devotion as its central idea. There would have been an appropriateness in calling it the house of praise, for from no other house has so much and so grand music ascended to heaven. It might have been called the house of preaching, because the word is gone forth out of Zion to the ends of the earth. But why did God name it the house of prayer? Under the old dispensation, sacrifice occupied the most prominent place in the services, but even then its name was the house of prayer. Reverence for God is the first step of the ladder. Waiting upon God is the next step. ( T Davies, M. A. ) And make them joyful in My house of prayer. My house of prayer W. Braden. Jesus Christ, when in a sublime act of indignation He drove out the desecrators of the temple, applied the words to the outer courts of that noble material building. But He Himself has taught us not to limit the phrase, but to give it the widest possible meaning. It is not for us to speak of God's house of prayer as if it were restricted to any one locality, or as if it described any particular kind of structure. God's house of prayer may be found anywhere, everywhere. Wherever the human heart reaches out with holy longing towards the Divine Father, and craves the blessing of His presence; wherever He unveils the glory of His truth and the beauty of his love, responding to the eager desires of His pleading children, there is His house of prayer. It may be grand in form, or poor and mean; there may be no material structure at all, but the solemn temple of Nature itself, yet shall it; be consecrated for worship by the prayers which ascend to God. Yet, we still find it necessary to establish and set apart places of worship, and because we frequent them for this holiest of purposes, we speak of each of them as a house of prayer. As it is necessary that we should consecrate one day out of the week for the special purposes of religion, so we find it desirable to meet at some regularly appointed spot to engage with our fellows in acts of devotion. And the reasonableness becomes apparent. We want such places for convenience' sake. If social religion is to have any existence at all, if the communion of the saints is to be a reality, if there are to be united praise and prayer and instruction in Divine truth, then men and women must know where they are to gather for these purposes. Further, it is not merely a matter of convenience; it is helpful to our spiritual and daily life. We want as places of worship some which are unassociated with our secular affairs — places which seem to stand away from the cares and worries and strivings of our common life — where we can give our minds and hearts a season of rest — an opportunity of calmly, and without distraction, contemplating and estimating the character and meaning, the worth or worthlessness of the work we are doing in the world. Of course this might be done at home, in the shop, in the office, in the chamber, but not so effectually, not so thoroughly, as in the quiet place specially devoted to religious worship. There, seeming to stand at a distance from worldly avocations, we judge them and our relation to them more impartially and honestly. ( W. Braden. ) Joyfulness worship W. Braden. I. THERE SHOULD, BE A NATURAL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE TWO. I reach this conclusion by remembering two things. 1. That we, as human beings, have in us the capacity for joy. 2. That the religion we profess, when rightly understood, is a joy-producing religion. II. WORSHIP IS THE EXPRESSION OF OUR NOBLEST RELIGIOUS FEELINGS IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD. It is not a mere ceremonial act, an observance of prescribed ritual on certain days and in appointed places. It is the going forth of the man towards God. Therefore, our joy must utter itself, ought to utter itself, when we enter into the courts of His house. I believe that the Divine Father has no sympathy with those who would turn His house of prayer into a place for gloomy, and unhappy thoughts, and who would exclude from His service everything pleasant and beautiful. They misunderstand and libel Him by their desire for dreariness If God has taught us anything with distinctness in the outer world of nature it is that He loves all that is pleasant and sweet and joyous. Is there n t something joy-exciting in the very thought and act of worship? This has been the thought of most peoples. 1.

56:1,2 The Lord tells us what are his expectations of duty from us. Be honest and just in all dealings. Also strictly observe the sabbath day. To have the blessing of God upon employments all the week, make conscience of keeping the sabbath holy. Have nothing to do with sin. Blessed is the man that keeps his hand from all things displeasing to God and hurtful to his own soul. Those who, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, will be found walking in ways of holy obedience. 56:3-8 Unbelief often suggests things to discourage believers, against which God has expressly guarded. Spiritual blessings are unspeakably better than having sons and daughters; for children are a care, and may prove a grief and shame, but the blessings we partake of in God's house, are comforts which cannot be made bitter. Those who love the Lord truly, will serve him faithfully, and then his commandments are not grievous. Three things are promised. Assistance: I will not only bid them welcome, but incline them to come. Acceptance, and comfort: though they came mourning to the house of prayer, they shall go away rejoicing. They shall find ease by casting their cares and burdens upon God. Many a sorrowful spirit has been made joyful in the house of prayer. The Gentiles shall be one body with the Jews, that, as Christ says, Joh 10:16, there may be one fold and one Shepherd. Thanks be to God that none are separated from him except by wilful sin and unbelief; and if we come to him, we shall be accepted through the sacrifice of our great High Priest. 56:9-12 Desolating judgments are called for; and this severe rebuke of the rulers and teachers of the Jewish church, is applicable to other ages and places. It is bad with a people when their shepherds slumber, and are eager after the world. Let us pray the Great Shepherd to send us pastors after his own heart, who will feed us with knowledge, that we may rejoice in his holy name, and that believers may be daily added to the church.