(Continued-Chapter V-Elohim, The Divine Personalities)

Messiah, therefore, when He comes in fulfillment of Isaiah, chapter 48, declares that the fuller revelation has not, up to that time, been given to the people because they would not receive the truth but have continued in their own way. Let us, friends, realize the gravity of these great and fundamental truths and facts and be open to conviction and be ready to receive anything and everything that God has said. At the same time we must not swallow down everything that man says. We should investigate with open minds to determine whether or not a message that is brought to us is correct. After examination, when we see the truth, we should accept it.

"For my name's sake will I defer mine anger, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut thee not off" (Isa. 48:9). Let us continually bear in mind that in this exposition the prophet is impersonating God, the Creator of the universe, whom the Lord Jehovah sends to Israel. As we have seen, this is Messiah, who enters the world by miraculous conception and virgin birth. Since He accuses the people as a nation of dealing treacherously and being transgressors from birth, it is evident that they do not receive the message which He delivers. He tells them new things and confirms His message by His works; yes, He creates something new at that time. Nevertheless, the people do not hearken to his message. This attitude stirs His righteous indignation, anger, and wrath to their depth. Yet, for His own sake, He declares that He will defer His anger. If He should deal with them according to the merits of the case, He would send His summary judgments upon them and exterminate them from the face of the globe. But He will not, so He declares, do this thing for His own sake. This incident reminds one of the episode of the golden calf which Israel made at Sinai while Moses was in the mount, conversing with God. The Lord therefore told Moses to let Him alone in order that He might consume the people and make of him a mighty nation. Moses instantly began to implore the Lord to spare His people and to turn from His wrath. In his pleading, he asked the Almighty to remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would make their seed as multitudinous as the stars of heaven. The Lord heard the petition and spared the nation. This is such an important instance I wish to call attention to the historical narrative found in Exodus 32:7-14.

7 And Jehovah spake unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, that thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: 8 they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it, and said, These are thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 9 And Jehovah said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people: 10 now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation. 11 And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, that thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak saying, for evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14 And Jehovah repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people.

In commenting upon the Lord's sparing Israel, the psalmist declared:
Therefore 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 them (Ps. 106:23).

From the facts we see that the Lord's anger was turned away and Israel was spared, not because of her own goodness, but because of the oath which He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For a similar reason--"for mine own sake"--declares the Messiah, "will I defer mine anger." If it were not for His own sake, the Lord would cut off Israel from being a nation--would annihilate her from the face of the globe for not receiving His message when He comes in fulfillment of this prediction. But the Lord continues to remember His covenant which He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For His own sake and for that of the covenant, therefore, He restrains His anger and permits the Chosen People to continue to live.

"Behold, I have refined thee, but not as silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (Isa. 48:10). A casual glance at Israel's history shows that God has purged the rebels from the nation at various times. For instance, the Hebrews left Mount Sinai and journeyed to Kadesh-barnea, the gateway from the wilderness of the south into the Promised Land. The Lord ordered them to march forward by faith into the land and take possession of their possessions. The people, giving heed to the distorted statements of the spies who had gone through the Land of Promise and who had reported adversely, refused to enter. Then on account of their unbelief the Lord did not permit them to do so but caused them to wander through the wilderness for forty years in order that all the rebellious ones might die off and that a new generation might arise to enter it. At various times one stroke of judgment after another fell upon the people. Thus the unbelievers in Israel were purged out. During the period of the Judges God permitted certain foreign nations to invade the land and to enslave the people. These measures were for the purpose of correction and for destroying the evil ones from among the people. Finally, in the last days of the monarchy in Israel the people became incurably wicked. There was but one thing which a holy God could do; namely, that of sending them into Babylonian captivity to purge and refine them. Thus the various crises, declares Messiah at His coming, have been for the purpose of cleansing and purifying the nation. But He states that in all of these past experiences He has not refined them "as silver." There are various methods of separating the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad, and the goats from the sheep. All of Israel's former experiences have been sent upon her to purify and refine her, but she has never been caused to pass through any experience--up to the coming of Messiah in fulfillment of this prediction--that can be compared to being refined as silver or gold.

According to verse 10b of this passage Messiah declares, "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." There is a time yet lying in the future when the Lord will put her in this furnace of affliction and purge out her dross. This period of cleansing is called "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer. 30:7). Malachi spoke of this same time when God will purify the nation.

3 Behold, I send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom ye desire, behold, he cometh, saith Jehovah of hosts. 2 But who can abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap: 3 and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer unto Jehovah offerings in righteousness. 4 Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in ancient years. 5. And I will come near to you to judgment: and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against adulterers. and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts. 6 For I, Jehovah, change not; therefore ye, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed (Mal. 3:1-6).

"For mine own sake, for mine own sake, will I do it; for how should my name be profaned? and my glory will I not give to another" (48:11). For His own sake the Lord will purge Israel and cleanse her of all her dross. It is inconceivable that His name should continually be profaned because of the failures and he sins of His people. In this verse the prophet looks forward to the time beyond Israel's purging when all nations will accept the true and the living God and worship Him.

During the present time and throughout the past centuries much of the glory due to God has been given to idols, heathen gods; but in the Millennial Era, of which Messiah here speaks, glory and praise will be rendered to God alone. "And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall Jehovah be one, and his name one" (Zech. 14:9). Thus God's glory will not be given to another in the Kingdom Age.

"Hearken unto me, 0 Jacob, and Israel my called: I am he; I am the first, I also am the last. 13 Yea my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spread out the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together" (48:12,13). As we have already seen in studying verse 3, the speaker declares to Israel that He has uttered all the prophecies from primitive days, up to the time when He, being sent by the Lord Jehovah speaks to the nation. This fact shows His pre-existence prior to His being sent on this mission. That thought is in perfect accord with verse 12. Here the speaker calls upon Israel to hearken to Him. The basis for this exhortation is this fact: "I am he" This statement harks back to Deuteronomy 32:39 and is an affirmation of His absolute existence. He is the independent one--the one upon whom all material things, together with the inhabitants of the universe--depend. Moreover, He declares that He is both the first and the last--the one who has been in eternity in the past and who asserts that He will continue throughout all eternity in the future.

In addition to His affirmation concerning His eternal and absolute existence, the speaker reveals the fact that He laid the foundation of the earth and that He spread out the heavens. In other words, He claims to be the creator of the entire material universe. Although He is this, He, having been sent by the Lord Jehovah, comes and speaks to Israel--as one person does to another. This is the force of all the facts of this context--if the words are allowed to give their meaning without distortion, or modification.

Not only does the speaker declare His eternal existence and assert that He is the creator of the entire universe, but He also affirms that the material heavens and earth stand at attention when He commands--as soldiers to their superior officer. This bold figure is equivalent to an affirmation that all the earth and the heavenly bodies are moving at His command and are absolutely under His control. They have been His servants from the time of His creating them through the ages and will continue in obedience to His mighty behests.

"Assemble yourselves, all ye, and hear; who among them hath declared these things? He whom Jehovah loveth shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans" (48:14). The speaker, in the most dramatic manner, calls upon the nations to assemble themselves and to listen to His message. Then He challenges them with this question: "Who among them hath declared these things?" In this graphic action the speaker asks the peoples of the world to inform Him of anyone who has foretold the things that are mentioned in this passage, beginning with verse 6 and running through verse 13. There is no one who has done this; no one can do it. Though the claim is made for the pagan idols that they are gods, they cannot reveal the future. Of course this ideal tribunal is silent and cannot answer the speaker a word.

Then He makes a further revelation: "He whom Jehovah loveth shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans." The marginal reading of the first part of this quotation is: Jehovah hath loved him: he shall. . . ." Though both of these renderings are grammatically correct, that which is in the text is in accordance with the facts of the context and is to be preferred above the marginal rendering.

The prediction, "He whom Jehovah loveth shall perform his pleasure on Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans," is an example of Hebrew parallelism. The first member of this structure is, "He whom Jehovah loveth shall perform his pleasure on Babylon"; the second part is, "and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans." Who is the one, of this passage, whom Jehovah loves? The answer is that it is the one who is mentioned in the words "and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans." We have already learned who the "arm of Jehovah" is; namely, that He is the Messiah of Israel who is God appearing on earth in human form. The one therefore whom Jehovah loveth is none other than the Messiah. From the prediction found in these words we see that Messiah himself will perform all of God's pleasure upon Babylon and upon the Chaldeans.

As we have already seen, Babylon gradually declined through six or seven centuries and disappeared from the stage of action never suffered the sudden overthrow that is foretold in chapter 47 of our prophecy, as we have before seen; but it is scheduled to "stage a comeback and to be the world metropolis of the end time. When it thus rises from the dust and becomes the dominant factor in world politics, commerce, and trade, Messiah will perform all God's pleasure upon it by overthrowing it completely in a moment, in one day. This conclusion we cannot avoid when we study the three chapters-46, 47, and 48-together; for they constitute a single literary unit within the Book of Isaiah.

When we see this prediction is presented before the ideal tribunal by Messiah, we can understand more clearly the force of the language. When Messiah comes, He declares that He is the one who will complete the task of the overthrow of Babylon.

"I, even I, have spoken; yea, I have called him; I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous" (48:15). In this verse the personal pronoun, I, occurs four times. The question immediately arising is this: Is the speaker in this verse the same one who has been talking throughout the passage? In other words, is the Messiah still talking? It is altogether possible that it is He. If we assume this position, we must ask who is referred to by the pronouns, him, he, and his. There is no antecedent in the immediate context to which these can refer, if we accept this interpretation. It is altogether possible that the speaker looks at the one who will be at the head of Babylon and will be controlling things. Such an interpretation is altogether possible. If we accept this thought, we have Messiah saying that He will bring forward this one and cause his way to prosper. While this is a conceivable interpretation, it is hardly probable. Another suggestion which is by far more plausible is that verse 15 is parenthetical--just as verse 2 is. In the midst of Messiah's talking and speaking of Himself as the one whom Jehovah loves and who will perform all the latter's desire upon Babylon, Jehovah God in heaven breaks in and declares that He, the Almighty, is the one who has spoken and who has called "him" (Messiah) and has brought Him forward. Under such a condition He (Messiah) will make His own way prosperous. When all the facts are taken into consideration, it seems probable that this interpretation is in accord with all the data. Such an understanding in the general flow of thought is not uncommon in Moses and the prophets. We may therefore take verse 15 as a voice of confirmation from heaven, declaring Messiah's call and stating God's purpose to use Him in putting down Babylon in the end of the age. Such an interpretation concerning Babylon is in keeping with all the facts of these three chapters, which, as we have already seen, form a literary unit.

"Come ye near unto me, hear ye this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and his Spirit" (48:16). After the parenthesis of verse 15, Messiah, the speaker of this passage, calls upon this ideal tribunal to come near Him and to listen to what He has to say. His message is this: "From the beginning I have not spoken in secret; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord Jehovah hath sent me, and his Spirit." To what beginning does the speaker refer? In all probability to the beginning of the human race. God has spoken always openly and never in secret. The element explaining this assertion is ". . . from the time that it was." Since this is Hebrew parallelism, the last clause evidently is a repetition of the preceding statement. Messiah here declares that He has existed from the very beginning. From other passages we know that He existed throughout all eternity of the past. For instance, in Isaiah 9:6 He who by miraculous conception and virgin birth is born unto the Jewish nation will be given a number of titles. Among them will be this one--Everlasting Father. This name can mean only that He has been in existence throughout all eternity of the past and will continue throughout the ages of the ages.

Messiah, the creator of the universe, is still speaking here and affirms that the Lord Jehovah "hath sent me, and his Spirit." In this connection it is well for us to remember that Messiah is here sent to the entire nation and addresses it, as we have seen in the first verse of this chapter. Moreover, as we have already noted, Messiah's visit to the nation cannot be classified as a theophany such as those of which we read in the Books of Moses. An examination of the various accounts of such divine manifestations shows that just for a brief visit the angel of Jehovah frequently appeared to certain servants of God, delivered His message, and then vanished. Not so at this time, for He comes and calls upon the entire nation and delivers a message to it. This visit is of a more permanent character, for He declares that the Lord Jehovah has sent Him on this mission. To appear, as He had done of old to one individual with a single message, would not fill out the proportion of this picture, which is here national in its scope. A prolonged visit, one of a more permanent character than that of a mere theophany, is demanded by the facts of this context.

Along with the Messiah God sends His Spirit. The latter here is as much a person as the Creator, whom God dispatches to the earth. He is the same one of whom we have already learned in our investigation of Isaiah 63:7-14--the Holy Spirit. From this verse we again see very clearly that there are three divine personalities. This evidence confirms the conclusions reached in the preceding chapters.

With this last statement Isaiah ceased to impersonate the Messiah. A new phase of the revelation being given starts with verse 17. This fact is most significant and demands close scrutiny in connection with the following paragraph, which begins in this manner: "Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. . . ." From the introduction of the formula at this place in the narrative we see that the prophet has ceased to play the role of Messiah and begins to represent himself as His ambassador. In order for us to see the force of the stopping of the impersonation at this point, we must note the plaintive wail, "Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments!" (vs. 18-a). The rest of verse 18 and verse 19 should be studied carefully in this connection. Let us keep in sharp focus the fact that the message of verses 17-19 is delivered to the nation by Isaiah, the ambassador of Israel's rejected Messiah-Redeemer, only after he has ceased to play the role of Messiah. All the facts in the case demand the following interpretation: Isaiah's impersonation pictorially portrays to Israel Messiah, the Creator, and His appearance upon earth and His delivering His message to the nation. The people as a body do not hearken to His commandments. He disappears from the scene; that is, He leaves earth and returns to glory. After doing so, He sends a special ambassador to the nation to call attention to the fact that the people have committed the gravest error of their existence in not giving heed to Him. Thus from a study of this chapter every Hebrew can see that the prophet intended to inform the nation ahead of time that God the Creator, King Messiah, comes to them; shows them new truths to which their attention has never been called; creates something new in the earth; and, because they as a nation refuse to receive His commandments and to accept Him, He vanishes from the earth, returning to heaven. Thus verses 1-16 of this chapter are a dramatic presentation of Messiah's first visit to His beloved people.

At this point of our investigation we must now look more closely at verses 17-19.

17 Thus saith Jehovah, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Jehovah thy God, who teacheth thee to profit, who leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. 18 Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea: 19 thy seed also had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the grains thereof: his name would not be cut off nor destroyed from before me.

As noted above, Isaiah, having completed his dramatic impersonation of Messiah, now presents himself before his audience as the ambassador of Messiah, Israel's Redeemer and Holy One. In Chapter III we analyzed Israel's Great Confession and found that its literal translation is: "Hear, 0 Israel, Jehovah our Gods is Jehovah a unity." As we read the Scriptures, we frequently come across the word Jehovah. In many instances the facts of the context in which this name appears show us which of the three persons of the Godhead is meant. Sometimes, however, it refers to the Holy Trinity--the three divine personalities considered as the one Supreme Being. In verse 17 Isaiah tells which of these has sent him, namely, Israel's Redeemer and Holy One, the one who has just been rejected; for He charges the people with not having hearkened to His commandments (the direct discourse is my commandments). The commandments referred to are those which Messiah gives when, in fulfillment of the impersonation, He comes and delivers a message to His beloved people. The one who redeemed Israel from Egyptian bondage was "the angel of Jehovah," Jehovah himself. This one who is designated as Israel's Redeemer must be the same angel of Jehovah, the Messiah. Thus according to this dramatic presentation, after Messiah comes to this earth, delivers His message to the entire nation, and accomplishes the work of redemption, He returns to heaven and sends a message back to the nation of Israel by one of His ambassadors. The special word is that He teaches her for her profit. When He spoke through the mouths of the prophets that have been from of old, He was doing it for Israel's good. The message that He delivers when He makes His personal appearance upon earth is likewise for her spiritual and eternal good. Moreover, the message which He sends to the nation after He returns to glory is designed for her national good--both through time and throughout all eternity.

The Messiah also informs her through the prophet as His ambassador that He leads her by the way in which she should go. He always does that which is best for her. Someone has said that God has several plans for each individual's life. These may be thought of as plan number one, number two, three, four, etc. If a person yields his life and walks with God by faith daily, the Lord will use him in the highest and holiest way possible. On the other hand, if he fails to yield himself to do the will of God and follows the Lord afar off, He will use him in a less honorable way--according to plan number two or three, or even four or five. The Lord never forces any man's will, but does under the circumstances the best for the individual that He can. It has been and will continue to be with Israel as it was with Jacob, the great ancestor of the Hebrew race. When his sons brought Joseph's coat, besprinkled with blood, he said: "It is my son's coat; an evil beast has devoured him . . . and Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days . . . but he refused to be comforted . . ." (Gen. 37:33-35). Later when his sons returned from Egypt where they had bought grain, they opened their sacks and found their money therein. Then the old patriarch lamented saying, "Me have ye bereaved of my children: Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away: all these things are against me" (Gen. 42:36). To Jacob in his bereavement everything appeared to be against him. The facts in the case were that God was overruling all things that came into his life and the lives of his family for their ultimate good and for the blessing of all men (Gen. 12:1-3; Isa. 49:5, 6). That this is true is certain from Joseph's speech to his brothers after their father's death: "And as for you [Joseph's brethren], ye meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive" (Gen. 50:20). To the same effect is the inspired psalmist's interpretation of these historical events.

17 He sent a man before them;
Joseph was sold for a servant:
18 His feet they hurt with fetters:
He was laid in chains of iron,
19 Until the time that his word came to pass,
The word of Jehovah tried him.
20 The king sent and loosed him;
Even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house,
And ruler of all his substance;
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure,
And teach his elders wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt;
And Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And he increased his people greatly,
And made them stronger than their adversaries.
25 He turned their heart to hate his people,
To deal subtly with his servants.
26 He sent Moses his servant
And Aaron whom he had chosen.

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37 And he brought them forth with silver and gold;
And there was not one feeble person among his tribes.

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44 And he gave them the lands of the nations;
And they took the labor of the peoples in Possession:
45 That they might keep his statutes,
And observe his laws.
Praise ye Jehovah. (Ps. 105:17-26,37,44,45.)

In keeping with these general principles which we have just noted, Messiah sends back to Israel the message, after His visit to earth, that He is leading her in the path in which she should go. That the path in which He leads her after His epochal visit is not the first choice that He has for her is evident from the fact that He is forced to complain, "Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea . .." (Isa. 48:18). Unfortunately Israel has never chosen God's first and best plan for her. As proof of this assertion I need only to call attention to the marvelous promise which the Lord made to her at Sinai, as recorded in Leviticus 26:1-13 and in parallel and related passages. An examination of these shows that, if she had only hearkened from the depths of her soul to the Lord when she entered the Land of Promise, He would never have laid upon her any of the diseases of Egypt. He would have given her rain in its season. The crops would have been abundant--so very much so that the people would have been unable to consume their supplies until another harvest would be gathered in and stored away. Moreover, according to His promise, if Israel had only been faithful to Him and had appeared before the Lord in the place where He chose to put His name--Jerusalem--the Almighty would have stood guard at her frontiers and would never have allowed one soldier of a hostile army to cross the borders. In other words, if Israel had only been faithful to the Lord, her land would have been a modern Utopia, Paradise regained. When she did not choose God's best but hindered His working in her behalf, He had to deal with her upon the basis of her spiritual and moral conditions. Thus she did not take His plan number one for her--the best possible.