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Second Isaiah's Two Fold Concept of the Father
I am here, Jesus:
The Second Isaiah developed a two fold concept of the Father as a result of Cyrus' kindness to the Hebrews. Cyrus, a pagan, was an instrument of God's will on earth to release the Jews just as the Assyrians and Nebuchadrezzar, the Babylonian, were His instruments to chastise His people for their backsliding. In short, the God of Israel is the only God, the universal God of all nations. In reaffirming Cyrus as the Messiah, God, Himself says through the Second Isaiah: (Chapt. 45, verses 12 - 13).
I, even My hands, have stretched out the heavens,
And all their hosts have I commanded.
I have raised him up in righteousness,
And I will make strait all his ways.
And again, God reiterates; Chapter 45, verse 6:
. . . there is none beside Me.
I am Jehovah, and there is none else.
And again in Chapter 45, verses 22-23:
Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth;
For I am God, and there is none else
. . . the word is gone from My mouth in righteousness,
and shall not return; That unto Me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.
The earth itself in the fullness of time, will be destroyed, as will all material things, to rebuild and regroup into other transitory forms, but God and His Salvation will remain forever: (Isaiah, Chapt. 51, verses 5-6).
For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke,
And the earth shall wax old like a garment,
And they that dwell therein shall die like gnats
But My Salvation shall be forever,
And My righteousness shall not be abolished.
Now the Hebrews, or the people of Israel, are the instruments of God through whom knowledge of Him must be given to the gentiles. This is demonstrated through the history of the people who through their leaders, Abraham, Moses, Josuah, David and the prophets, have known and accepted the Lord and who in their darkest days of defeat have retained their faith in Him. And thus it is that the Hebrews are the Servants of the Lord, Israel is the Servant of the Lord, with the mission of bringing Salvation to the Gentiles.
The Second Isaiah, then, with insight unsurpassed in the history of religion, wrote his four Servant Songs, interpreting Israel, the Suffering Servant of God, as the people called to bring God to the nations through suffering, just as the prophets, especially Jeremiah, and emphasized in the writings of Ezekiel, suffered and took upon themselves the iniquities of the incomprehending people.
Now these Servant Songs are four in number and I am going to analyze each of them in the light of the background I have written. The first is in Second Isaiah, Chapter 42, verses 1 to 4 inclusive.
Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold;
Mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;
I have put My spirit upon him,
He shall make the right to go forth to the nations.
He shall not cry, nor lift up,
Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break,
And the dimly burning wick shall he not quench.
He shall make the right to go forth according to the truth,
He shall not fail nor be crushed,
Till he has set the right in the earth;
And the isles shall wait for his teachings.
This passage attracted the quick notice of copyists seeking any relationship between the Christ and Old Testament prophecy to show fulfillment of the Scriptures in my coming. Here they underlined "I have put my spirit upon him", which they thought must refer to me, but which actually refers back to the great words in Jeremiah foretelling the New Covenant. It meant that, since the Hebrews were being permitted to return to Jerusalem, they were redeemed of the Lord and the prophecy of the "heart of flesh" was now fulfilled. They would return without sin and teach knowledge of God to the nations. The description of Israel as a people so spiritual that they would not break a bruised reed or blow out a lighted candle was thought by the Christian writers as referring to me, in that I offered no resistance to arrest, but actually this description merely portrays the people Israel when possessed of the spirit of God acting in them. The Second Isaiah had in mind Jeremiah as his model for the people Israel when redeemed from sin by the Spirit of God.
The prophet ends his song by referring to Israel's not failing or being crushed until bringing the truth into the world. This could have referred to me, as bringing to light the Divine Love of the Father, but it also meant having already brought to mankind the promise of the Father's Love, and the return of a redeemed people devoted to God, before Jeremiah's death.
Jesus of the Bible
and
Master of the Celestial Heavens.
