Jottings

Two cities are in view in the beginning of Isaiah 26., the strong city of Jerusalem with salvation for its walls and bulwarks, and the lofty city, and those who dwell on high in it, who thought that their very height would afford them deliverance in every circumstance. Isaiah 25. closes on a similar note. The delivering hand of Jehovah will yet rest in mount Zion, while Moab shall be trodden down in the dunghill. Their fortress of the high fort shall be laid low even to the dust. Such events shall take place in the day of the Loan, when; in the last scenes in the drama of Gentile power and government, the defences of self-confident men shall be swept away, leaving them as defenceless as when the inhabitants of Jericho saw their walls wherein they trusted fallen and become as rubble before them.

But wherein will be found the difference with Jerusalem, a city which has known more destructions and desolations than any other city on earth? The answer is that Jehovah, the God of Israel, will appoint His salvation as its walls and bulwarks. David said with oracular visionGod will save Zion " (Psalm 69.85).

And he addsThe seed also of His servants shall inherit it;

And they that love His name shall dwell therein" (verse 36).

when the tempest of His wrath has swept away every refuge of lies and alas many Jews as well as Gentiles shall be swept away by the floodwaters of'iudge'ment' (Isaiah 28.18-19), the seed of God's servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, seed which shall bear the character of those snintsefold, shall inherit the dty of God and those who have loved God shall dwell there ; a company indicated in the' Lord's words-" Many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jaeob, lathe kingdom of heaven" (Matthews. 11). These lovers of the Lord shalibear the hkeness of the centurion, that man of great faith, the like of whom the Lord had not found in Israel. Head this whole paragraph-Matthew 8.5-18.

What a day I and what a city! The weary groan of waiting years shall then be past. It will then be the day of song.

"In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah" (Isaiah 26.1).

Through the gates, open to welcome them, shall pour the rejoicing people who have passed through the judgement of King Messiah. But what is their character?

"Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth truth may enter in" (verse 2).

Young renders the word "truth" here as "steadfastness". Gesenius, seeing the word "truth" is plural, see A.V. margin, Heb. truths, renders it as "fidelities." The word is found in Deuteronomy 32. 20: "Children in whom is no faith" which means, no steadfastness, no fidelity. In contrast to those unsteadlast c'hildren unfaithful to the truth of Go d, we have in Isaiah 26.2asteadfast, faithful nation' a nation made up of men and women who bought the truth, and bought it dearly:

in a day of persecution and martyrdom, yet whose fidelities to all truths that they bought shine out as the glory of the LORD enlightens them (Isaiah 60.1). The gloom of the night of the departure of the many from the truth of God will then be for ever past. Faithfulness to God's word of truth is at a discount now and will become more 50 as the dispensation drags on to its close. Who can deny' that the truth of these words is with us ?

Truth is fallen in the street, and uprightness cannot enter Yea truth is lacking" (Isaiah 59.14, 15).

How often the words of Psalm 43.8-4 have lingered on the lips of the seeker~ after God I"0 send out Thy light and Thy truth; let them lead me:

Let them hring me unto Thy holy hill,

And to Thy tabernacles . . . unto the altar

unto God. J.M.

In contrast to the righteous nation that keepeth truths or fidelities-a faithful, steadfast people-of Isaiah 26.2, we have the individual man in verse 8.

"Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, 'whose mind is stayed on Thee:

because he trusteth in Thee."

Verse 1 of Isaiah 26. contemplates the beginning of the Millennium. The bitternesses of past experiences have gone, the night of suffering past, and the song of daybreak and of festal assembly has arrived. But the waiting saints before those days could do little more in many cases than hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Jehovah (Lamentations 3.26). The above words of Isaiah will have a meaning for them, as for all who are in any trouble or perplexity. "Trost" means, to lean on, confide in, or set one's hope and confidence on any one. "Trust" in Isaiah 26.3, Gesenius says, means trusting, with an active signification. Trust in any one is a matter of degree, and is measured by the extent of the need or distress of the one who trusts. David wrote at least two psalms about his experience in Gath (Psalms 34. and 56.). His life was in great danger and also the lives of his men. He said,

"This poor man eried, and the Loan heard him,

And saved him out of all his troubles.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him" (Psalm 34.6, 8). And in Psalm 56.8, 4, he saidJI~hat time I am afraid,

I will put my trust in Thee.

In God I will praise His word:

In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid."

The activity of David's trust was measured by the greatness of his realized danger. The Philistines had their enemy in their hands who had been the cause of their having received a crushing defeat. "David had slain his ten thousands" had echoed from city to city in Israel and had been heard in far Philistia. what can David do? He can trust in God, and with God rests the matter of his deliverance. God uses wonderful means of deliverance for trusting people. A tear on Moses' chubby cheek rewards the trusting Amram and Jochebed, the parents of Moses. They are given their son again with royal protection and reward. A stone from a sling delivers the trusting David from Goliath, and now a spittle on his beard is used by God to bring him out of the Philistines' stronghold. The reader will think of many other simple means of deliverance for trusting men and women. But what is the inward state of the trusting saint until deliverance arrives? It is clearly indicated here in Isaiah 26.:"To "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee."

keep" means to watch, to defend and preserve, and in this case to preserve the mind from the inward distress which is sure to be the portion of those who have not made the Lord their trust. Peace may be the portion of those who trust in the Lord, even in the most adverse and tempestuous scenes.

The word "mind" means the "imagination" (R.V. and A.V. margin)

Gesenius says that the word means " to form, to fashion, as a potter, clay, Genesis 2.7"; hence, here it means to form in the mind. "To stay" means to place, lay, lean, rest upon, and consequently the imagination or thought of the mind is supported, upheld, sustained, by God. This is a highly individual and personal matter. Here is true peace.

Then comes the exhortation"Trust ye in the Loan for ever: for in the Loan Jehovah is an everlasting rock."

The A.V. and R.V. margin say "Heb. rock of ages." Here is something immovable in this scene of movable men and things, a scene in which there is no stability. Trust God where you cannot trace His ways with you I

"I will trust, and will not be afraid: for the LORD Jehovah is my strength and song; and lie is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw wafer out of the 'cells of sahotion" (Isaiah 12.2, 8).

J.M.

unknown | Oct 1950
Jottings