Jehovah continued toward them, and he brought his people back from the lands of their exile as he had in the older time brought them up out of the Egyptian bondage. His loving purpose of redemption never failed.

15. The Suffering Servant of Jehovah in Isaiah liii. The most remarkable prophetic portraiture of vicarious suffering is found in Isa. lii, 13—liii, 12. It is an old question of exegesis whether the servant of Jehovah in this passage is the same "Israel my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend," so frequently mentioned in preceding chapters (xli, 8, 9; xlii, 1; xliii, 10; xliv, 1, 2, 21; etc.), or some one individual of the nation, or the Messiah. Our use of the prophecy, however, need not wait for a final determination of that question; for the ideas of vicarious suffering presented in the language of the prophet are essentially the same in all these expositions, since the character described is that of "a man of sorrows," who leads Zion out of captivity, gives his soul as a trespass offering for sin, and makes intercession for the transgressors. Whatever, therefore, the possible explanations of the whole passage, the idea set before us is that of an individual.

(1) The Preceding Context. In the preceding context (lii, 1-12) the restoration of Zion and Jerusalem is portrayed in lively form. The captive daughter of Zion is called upon to shake herself from the dust and to go forth out of captivity, assured that her exodus from present oppression shall be more glorious than that from the Egyptian bondage. "For Jehovah hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem, hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." In departing from the present house of bondage they need not go out in such haste as in the ancient exodus, for Jehovah will go before and behind them like a pillar of cloud and of fire (ver. 12). Thereupon the prophet introduces his graphic picture of the servant who shall act wisely and become highly exalted.

(2) The Contrasts. In this graphic outline we cannot fail to observe several remarkable contrasts. The servant acts wisely and is exalted very high, yet is his form marred more than any man, and is also despised and rejected of men. He grows up as a tender plant, and as a root from the dry ground, but somehow he brings healing to a sick and sorrowing world. He is led as a lamb to the slaughter, yet he divides the spoil with the mighty. He is terribly stricken on account of the sins of the people, but he sees the fruits of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. He is even made a curse for others, being wounded and bruised for

their sins and bearing their iniquities, but by his knowledge he succeeds in making many righteous. It even pleases Jehovah to bruise him and put him to grief, but, as a result, "the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in his hand."

(3) Mediatorial Soul-Passion. Among the many facts of his humiliation and suffering is the notable statement of verse 6 that "Jehovah hath mediated in him (a) the iniquity of us all.” The word which we here translate mediated, and which is commonly rendered laid on, or made to light on, is used in the same causative form (hiphil), but intransitively, in verse 12, where it means maketh intercession. It indicates in both places the mediatorial soul-passion and struggle of personal intercession, and what is remarkable is that in verse 6 Jehovah himself is the causative subject of the intercession, and in verse 12 the suffering servant of Jehovah, who pours out his soul unto death and bears the sin of many, is the one who intercedes for the transgressors. So it is Jehovah who causes the iniquity of others to strike (D) and work an agony of travail in the soul of his servant, and the servant's mediatorial intercession avails for the transgressors.

(4) Triumph and Exaltation. The final triumph and exaltation of this servant of Jehovah are as wonderful as his subjection to suffering. He becomes highly exalted, attracts the attention of many nations and kings, his days are lengthened, a great posterity is promised him, he brings righteousness to multitudes, his soul is satisfied with the result of its travail, and he is conceived at last as a great conqueror who divides the spoil among his mighty heroes. Though numbered with the transgressors, he is a revelation of the arm of Jehovah's power.

(5) The Christian Interpretation. Well might Christian interpreters have ever recognized in this prophetic picture of "a man of sorrows" a striking portraiture of Jesus Christ. For, whatever collective idea may here as in other parts of this book attach to the "servant of Jehovah," this description obviously contemplates a person who is distinguished from the whole house of Israel and who suffers for transgressions not his own. No less than seven times is it said in one form or another that he was smitten for the sake of others, and verse 9 declares that he himself was guilty of no violence or wrong. After the manner of the sin and trespass offerings of the Levitical ritual, his soul was made an offering for sin, poured out unto death, and he bare the sin of many.

16. Idea Given in Daniel ix, 24. The language of Dan. ix, 24, is worthy of attention as indicating the writer's idea of the termination of an old order, the end of certain forms of transgression and sin, and the introduction of a new order of everlasting right

eousness.

The passage is best translated in the form of Hebrew

parallelisms:

Seventy heptades are decreed upon thy people and upon thy holy city,
To close up the transgression and to consummate sins,

And to expiate iniquity and to introduce eternal righteousness,
And to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint a Holy of holies.

The expiation of iniquity here spoken of seems to be some propitiatory mediation of epochal significance, which is to be effected at the point of time to which the prophecy refers. The sealing up of vision and prophecy most naturally means the fulfilling and cessation of prophetic oracles by the opening of the Messianic age of universal knowledge (comp. Isa. xi, 9). The consecration of a new Holy of holies implies the institution of a "greater and more perfect tabernacle," with its new and living way of entrance for all the pure in heart (comp. Heb. ix, 11; x, 19). It is easy to see how these references to some new and superior methods of expiation were capable of a special Messianic application, and the song of Zacharias contains (Luke i, 68, 77) profound conceptions of "redemption for his people," "knowledge of salvation," and "remission of sins," which formed a part of Israel's Messianic hope as held among the most pious of the nation. And it was thus through sacrifices, and symbolic forms of worship, and soul-stirring oracles of prophets, and prayers of the psalmists, that God's purpose and the mystery of the ages were slowly working in the course of Israel's history and preparing the way for a clearer revelation.

17. Doctrine of the Penitential Psalms. The psalmists as well as the prophets magnify that inner spiritual conception of mediatorial self-offering which is better than all burnt offerings. The most acceptable "sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Psa. li, 17). The deep inner struggles of the contrite heart partake of the nature of God's own yearnings to bring the truly penitent sinners into experiences of holy life and peace. The so-called "penitential psalms" are like so many cries out of the depths of profound sorrow for sin. They are full of confessions which acknowledge that rescue must come, if it come at all, from a lovingkindness of God which is able to blot out transgression and cleanse from all unrighteousness. Of all these penitential psalms the twenty-second is the most remarkable for the number and variety of its self-expressions of personal agony. Some expositors believe it to be a composition of David, describing a terrible struggle of soul through which he himself passed. Others have ascribed it to Hezekiah, and some to Jeremiah the prophet. Others discern in the pleading sufferer

of this psalm a personification of Israel in exile, and not a few insist that the language can be legitimately explained only of the sufferings of Christ and the glorious results secured thereby. Whatever view one takes of its authorship and immediate occasion, the various sentiments of this impassioned lyric, like those of Isa. liii, are to be studied for their profound suggestions touching the personal agony that may be felt in mediatorial intercession. The exclamation at the beginning implies a terrible sense of abandonment by God: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This feeling of rejection is the more amazing and impressive in view of the suppliant's continual cry, and the trust and deliverance of his fathers, as stated in verses 1-5. He thinks of himself as a writhing worm rather than as a man, an object of reproach and contempt among the people. All who gaze upon him in his agony treat him with derision; they laugh him to scorn, wag their heads, and cry out with biting sarcasm:

Roll it on Jehovah; let him deliver him;

Let him rescue him, for he delighted in him.

In the midst of this great distress he finds no deliverer at hand, although God has been his trust from infancy. The following words show the extremity of his affliction:

Many bulls have compassed me about,

Strong ones of Bashan have surrounded me.
They have opened their mouth upon me—

As a lion tearing and roaring.
Like waters am I poured out,
And all my bones are sundered;
My heart has become like wax,
Melted in the midst of my bowels.

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
And my tongue is cleaving to my jaws;
And thou dost set me in the dust of death.
For dogs have compassed me about;
A crowd of evil-doers have encircled me.
They have pierced my hands and my feet,

I can number all my bones;

They keep looking and gazing at me.

They divide my garments among them,

And upon my vesture they cast lots.

In this extremity of woe he directs his prayer again to Jehovah (vers. 19-21), and suddenly a marvelous answer comes.

Thou hast answered me, he cries;

I will declare thy name to my brethren;

In the midst of the assembly will I praise thee.

עניתני

The remainder of the psalm (verses 23-31) is a triumphal declaration of the result of his sufferings and his prayers. He seems to struggle up out of depths of agony into heights of power, whence he calmly surveys "all the ends of the earth" returning to Jehovah and bowing down before him as their rightful ruler, whose righteousness is to be celebrated through all generations. This remarkable poem abounds with metaphors which run into hyperbole, but the extravagance of the figures serves to intensify to the uttermost the portraiture of personal affliction. The psalm is usually reckoned among the Messianic psalms, but it contains expressions which are inapplicable to Jesus Christ. This much, however, should be said, that the sufferer who gives utterance to these impassioned words is an innocent sufferer, and in all his agony he gives forth no vent of anger against those who revile him. No other Old Testament scripture suggests in equal space so many facts mentioned in connection with the crucifixion of the Son of man. Verse 1 was uttered by him on the cross (Matt. xxvii, 46; Mark xv, 34). The wagging of heads, the mockery and sarcasm, the thirst, the piercing of hands and feet, the parting of his raiment and casting lots for it, are all mentioned in the gospels in describing the last agony of Jesus. And the last word of the psalm, ny, he has done it, or it is accomplished, reminds us of Jesus's last word, according to John xix, 30, TETÉλeσral, it is finished. All these facts along with the representative character of the sufferer, who assumes that his triumph through unspeakable agony is destined to secure the redemption and reunion of "all the families of the nations," makes the twenty-second psalm a typical prophetic oracle. It sets before us an ideal Israelite, in whom is no guile, subjected to a passion of soul that makes him a representative partaker of the sufferings of Christ and of the glories destined to follow.

18. Connection with Israel's Messianic Hope. A study of the foregoing ideas of priestly and sacrificial mediation, as found in the Hebrew scriptures, will enable us also to see how this general concept of mediatorial intercession and salvation became naturally associated with Israel's Messianic hope. The Lord who sits at the right hand of Jehovah, according to Psa. cx, and is destined to subdue and judge among the nations, is declared by the oath of Jehovah to be "a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." The epistle to the Hebrews (chaps. vi and vii) magnifies this saying as a most significant ideal of the priesthood of Jesus Christ, who is proclaimed (viii, 1, 2) as "a high priest who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man."