Isaiah 66:18-24

DISCOURSE: 1025
THE JEWS TO CONVERT THE GENTILES

Isaiah 66:18. It shall come, that I will gather all nations and longues; and they shall come, and see my glory. And I will set a sign among them; and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles. And then shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, at the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean ressel into the House of the Lord.

WHEN we look upon the world around us, and consider how utterly God is neglected and despised by the great mass of his intelligent creatures, and that successive generations of immortal beings are swept away without any knowledge of a Saviour, or any hope of beholding the face of God in peace, we are ready to say with the prophet, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep night and day [Note: Jeremiah 9:1.],” for the dishonour done to my God, and for the miseries which, like a relentless deluge, are overwhelming the whole earth! It is however a consolation to know, that this state of things is drawing to a close, and that a new era is about to appear, when the darkness which now covers the earth shall be dispelled, and righteousness reign, where sin hath hitherto maintained an undisputed sway. The prospect of this period, which is now fast approaching, and speedily to commence, was the great support of the Church under the distresses to which she was reduced in the Babylonish captivity; and it still forms the richest source of consolation to all who have any zeal for God, or any concern for the welfare of mankind. So impressed was the prophet Isaiah with his views of this mighty change, that he could scarcely speak of any thing else: or, if he did speak of the restoration of the Jews from Babylon, or of the blessings treasured up for them by the introduction of the Messiah’s kingdom, he constantly interwove in his statements such grand and glorious expressions, as could not fail of carrying forward the minds of his readers to this blessed time, when “new heavens and a new earth were to be created [Note: ver. 22.],” and the universal empire of righteousness to be established throughout the earth. Of this period he speaks in the words before us; which will lead me to set before you,

I. God’s purpose respecting the Gentile world—

“It shall come to pass, that I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see my glory.” This is the fixed purpose of Jehovah; a purpose,

1. Proclaimed by all the prophets—

[Respecting “the gathering of the nation” to Christ, there is but one voice, from the time of Abraham to the close of the sacred canon. Christ is that “Seed in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed [Note: Genesis 18:18.];” that “Shiloh, to whom the gathering of all people shall be [Note: Genesis 49:10.].” “The utmost ends of the earth are promised to Him for his possession [Note: Psalms 2:8.]:” “all kings shall fall down before him, all nations shall do him service [Note: Psalms 72:11.]:” “from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof shall his name be great among the Gentiles [Note: Malachi 1:11.];” and all the kingdoms of the world shall become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ [Note: Revelation 11:15.].”

But there is a peculiarity in this prophecy which must not be overlooked. God has in the great work of redemption revealed his glory to mankind. In that he he shewn how “mercy and truth could meet together, and righteousness and peace could kiss each other [Note: Psalms 85:10.].” There he has proclaimed his name as “merciful and gracious, and yet as not by any means clearing the guilty [Note: Exodus 34:6.].” It is this harmony of his perfections that chiefly constitutes his glory. Previous to the revelation of his Gospel, the highest archangel could not have conceived how God could be “a just God, and yet a Saviour [Note: Isaiah 45:21.].” But in Christ Jesus the whole difficulty is solved. By sending him into the world, and laying our iniquities on him, the fullest demands of justice are satisfied, and a way is opened for the richest exercise of mercy towards a guilty world: the truth of God which was pledged for the execution of all his threatening, is preserved; and yet may the sinner, who was obnoxious to them, be absolved, and be restored to the enjoyment of his forfeited inheritance. This is the mystery in which all the glory of the Godhead shines; and which all the nations of the earth shall in due time have revealed to them in its meridian splendour. This is fully declared by the prophet in a preceding chapter: “Arise, shine! for thy light is come; and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising [Note: Isaiah 60:1; Isaiah 62:2.].” And the prophet Habakkuk also marks it with peculiar precision: “The earth,” says he, “shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”]

2. Assuredly to be fulfilled in its season—

[Were we to judge by present appearances, we should say, that such an event could never be accomplished. But so we should have thought respecting the deliverance of the Jews from Egypt, and from Babylon; and of the establishment of Christianity by the ministry of a few poor fishermen. But it is not in this way that we are to form our judgment or our expectations. We have only to ask ourselves; “Has God promised these things? and, Is he able to perform them?” These points being ascertained, we are as sure of the event, as if we already saw it before our eyes: for “God is not a man that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent.” In fact, the prophet did, as it were, behold it actually accomplishing in his day: he saw the Gentile world “flying to Christ, as doves to their windows;” and he called upon the Church to rejoice in it: “Break forth into joy; sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people; he hath redeemed Jerusalem: the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God [Note: Isaiah 52:9. with 60:4, 8.].”]

If the purpose itself fill us with wonder, we shall be no less amazed when we are informed of,

II.

The instruments by whom he will effect it—

It was by the ministry of Jews that God was pleased to bring in the first fruits of the Gentiles; and by the ministry of the Jews will he gather in the whole harvest. In this passage the prophet distinctly states who are,

1. The persons ordained to this work—

[They are here designated as “those who have escaped unto the nations:” and who these are there can be no doubt. They are the remnant of the Jewish nation dispersed throughout the world [Note: See Isaiah 4:2.]. What the particular places are amongst which they are scattered, it is not necessary to determine: it is sufficient to know, that they are countries widely distant from each other, and countries “which have not heard of the Redeemer’s fame, or seen his glory.” Amongst these nations shall “an ensign be raised” by the Jews, whom “God has sent to them” for this express purpose: and it is by their ministry that God will diffuse the knowledge of salvation amongst them. The language here used is clear and decisive: “I will send those that escape of them,” that is, the Jews; “I will send them unto the nations; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.” How little has the Christian world adverted to this prophecy! How little have any of us, when perhaps we have been pouring contempt upon the Jews, recollected for what glorious purposes they are reserved, and what a blessing they are ordained to be to the whole world! Be it known unto you, Brethren, that the jews are the persons ordained of God to “declare his glory among the Gentiles.” They themselves are at present as unconscious of the end for which they are so dispersed, as the Gentiles are amongst whom they are scattered: but they shall nevertheless infallibly execute the office for which they are designed. The prophet Micah says of them, “The remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord, as the showers upon the grass, that tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men [Note: Micah 5:7.].” Now the clouds know not the end for which God sends them over the face of the earth; nor is the dew aware of the purpose which God has designed it to effect: but both the one and the other infallibly and effectually execute the purposes of heaven, and cause the parched ground to send forth its fruits. So shall the Jews do, when once the light has burst in upon their minds; and “the receiving of them into the Christian Church shall be as life from the dead” to the whole world [Note: Romans 11:15.]

2. The success that shall attend their labours—

[As the effects of rain are rapid on the whole vegetable creation, so shall the fruits of their ministry among the Gentiles be rapid and abundant; “They shall bring all their Gentile brethren for an offering unto the Lord, out of all nations, saith the Lord; as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel into the house of the Lord.” The meat-offering consisted of fine flour unleavened, and mingled with oil: oil also was poured upon it, and frankincense put thereon [Note: Leviticus 2:1.]. Of how many myriads of particles an handful of flour consisted, we know not: but it very fitly represents the congregated masses of believers that shall then be presented to the Lord, all of them pure and unleavened, and all of them sanctified by the Holy Ghost. This is the very construction which St. Paul himself puts upon the text, which he represents as in part fulfilled in himself, who was, in a more peculiar manner than any other of the Apostles, “the minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the Gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost [Note: Romans 15:16.].” Nor let it be thought that this is a fanciful interpretation: for the prophet himself, in a foregoing chapter, represents the converts as “a cloud [Note: Isaiah 60:8.],” which, whether it be understood of dust, or of rain, conveys precisely the same idea as we have just suggested from the meat-offering: and the Psalmist also places the matter in exactly the same view, when he says, that “the handful of corn cast by them upon the tops of the mountains shall grow up as the woods of Lebanon, and as the piles of grass upon the earth [Note: Psalms 72:16.].” Indeed the prophet himself uses in another place a still stronger figure: for he represents the Gentile world at that period as “flowing (contrary to nature), like a mighty river, up to the Lord’s House, when established upon the top of the highest mountains [Note: Isaiah 2:2.];” so powerful, so harmonious, so universal shall be the concourse of the Gentiles to Mount Zion, in consequence of God’s blessing on the labours of their Jewish instructors.]

See then,
1.

Of what importance the conversion of the Jews is to the whole world!

[Many individuals may be, and are, converted from among the Gentiles by the labours of Gentile teachers; and we do well to exert ourselves in every possible way for the diffusion of Christian knowledge amongst them. But though we may reap the first-fruits, the gathering in of the harvest is reserved for labourers of the Jewish community. There is a passage which is supposed to establish a directly opposite opinion: but the passage itself is quite misunderstood. It is said, that “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in [Note: Romans 11:25.]:” and from thence it is supposed, that the whole of the Gentiles must be converted, before that blindness is removed from the Jewish people. But in another part of the same chapter it is said, that, as the diminishing of the Jews was the means of enriching the Gentile world, much more shall their fulness be so; the receiving of the Jews into the Church being the signal for, and the means of, a spiritual resurrection to the whole Gentile world [Note: Romans 11:12; Romans 11:15.]. The “fulness” in both places imports, not the complete ingathering of all, but the commencement of that mighty work. It will begin among the Gentiles (as it has indeed already begun); and then it will proceed among the Jews, who shall carry it on, and perfect it, among the Gentiles. As soon as the Jews determinately rejected the Gospel, it was preached unto the Gentiles [Note: Acts 13:45.]: and as soon as the Gentiles begin in any considerable numbers to embrace the faith of Christ, we hope and believe, that God will make known himself unto the Jews, and make them the instruments of converting the whole world. If then we have any concern for the Gentile world, we should labour with all our might (in prayer, and in the use of all suitable means) to impart the Gospel to the Jews; that so they may be ready to execute the work to which they are ordained, and for which they are fitted beyond any other people upon the face of the earth. As having their own Scriptures (upon which ours are founded) with them, and as understanding the languages of the different countries wherein they dwell, they are ready at any moment to preach the Gospel to those around them, as soon as ever “the veil shall be taken from their own hearts.” Being acquainted with their own Scriptures, they will unlock the mysteries contained in ours, the very instant that “the key of knowledge” is put into their hands. And their conversion will itself be such a confirmation of prophecy, that all will be ready to receive their word, and to obey the Gospel delivered by them. Let us therefore arise to our long-neglected duty; and “neither rest ourselves, nor give rest unto our God,” till he call in his banished children, and make Jerusalem once more a praise in the earth [Note: Isaiah 62:6.]

2. What are those points to which we must particularly attend in our own conversion—

[The Jews are to “declare God’s glory among the Gentiles,” and to “offer them up as an holy offering unto the Lord.” These are the two essential points of conversion; and if either be wanting in us, we can never behold the face of God in peace. We must have light in our understandings, and holiness in our hearts. The first thing in the old creation was light; and that also is the first in the new: “God, who created light out of darkness, must shine into our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2 Corinthians 4:6.].” This is not a mere speculative knowledge; but such a view of God’s glory, as leads immediately to a willing surrender of our souls to him, “as a living sacrifice [Note: Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 8:5.].” The two must go together, as the root and the fruit. They are absolutely inseparable. We never can devote ourselves unreservedly to God, till we feel our obligations to him for all the wonders of redeeming love: but if once we have right views of Christ, “we shall immediately purify ourselves, even as he is pure [Note: 1 John 3:3.].” Let us then never be satisfied, till “Christ is fully revealed in our hearts [Note: Galatians 1:16.],” and till we so “behold his glory as to be changed by it into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord [Note: 2 Corinthians 3:18.].”]

END OF VOL. VIII.