Isaiah 37:31

Isaiah 37:31

The Christian Church a continuation of the Jewish. Consider one or two difficulties which at first may be felt in receiving this view of God's dealings with His Church, which in itself is most simple and satisfactory.

I. It may be said that the prophecies have not been, and never will be, fulfilled in the letter, because they contain expressions and statements which do not admit, or certainly have not, a literal meaning. This objection is surely not well grounded, for it stands to reason that the use of figures in a composition is not enough to make it figurative as a whole. We constantly use figures of speech whenever we speak; yet who will say on that account that the main course of our conversation is not to be taken literally? Of course there are in the Prophets figurative words, and sentences, too, because they write poetically; but even this does not make the tenour of their language figurative, any more than occasional similes show an heroic poem to be an extended allegory. Why should we find it a difficulty that Israel does not mean simply the Israelites, but the chosen people, wherever they are, in all ages; and that Jerusalem should be used as a name for the body politic, or state or government of the chosen people, in which the power lies, and from which action proceeds?

II. But it may be asked, whether it is possible to consider the Christian Church, which is so different from the Jewish, a continuation of it, or to maintain that what was promised to the Jewish was fulfilled in substance in the Christian? (1) The chosen people had gone through many vicissitudes, many transformations before the resolution which followed on the coming of the promised Saviour, and which was the greatest of all. It is no objection, rather it gives countenance to the notion of the identity of the Jewish Church with the Christian, that it is so different from it, for the Jewish Church was at various eras very different from itself; and worms of the earth at length gain wings, yet are the same; and man dies in corruption and rises incorrupt, yet without losing his original body. (2) The sacred writers show themselves quite aware of this peculiarity in the mode in which God's purposes are carried on from age to age. They are frequent in speaking of a "remnant" as alone inheriting the promises. The word "remnant," so constantly used in Scripture, is the token of the identity of the Church in the mind of her Divine Creator, before and after the coming of Christ.

J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day,p. 180.

Reference: 37 E. H. Plumptre, Expositor,2nd series, vol. iv., p. 450.