Christology of the Old Testament: And a Commentary on the Messianic Predictions. Vol. 2

by Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg

After ישא "he shall lift up," "His voice" must be supplied from the context. The words must not be understood in such a manner, as if they stood in opposition to chap. lviii. 1: "Cry with thy throat, do not refrain, lift up thy voice like the trumpet, and show my people their transgression, and to the house of Jacob their sins." The Prophet, in that passage, encourages himself; and he cannot mean to represent that as objectionable, by the circumstance that, in the case of the Servant of God, the very ideal of all the servants of God, he points out and praises the very opposite. And, in like manner, every interpretation is to be avoided according to which "dumb dogs which cannot bark" find a pretext in this passage. According to Prov. i. 20: "Wisdom crieth aloud without, she uttereth her voice in the streets."

Just as the prohibition of swearing in Matt. v. 34 is qualified by the opposition to Pharisaic levity in cursing and swearing, so here, also, the antithesis to the loud manner of the worldly conqueror must be kept in view,--the contrast to his violence which stakes every thing upon carrying his own will, which cries and rages when it meets with opposition and resistance, (Matt. renders יצעק by ἐρίσει, "He shall contend"), to the earnestly sought publicity, to the intention of causing sensation, as it proceeds from vanity or pride. The κραυγάσει, by which Matthew renders the ישא, has nothing in common with the ἔκραξε which, in John vii. 28, 37, is said of Christ. With the passionate restlessness, with which the conqueror from the East seeks to carry through his human plans, and to place himself in the centre of the world's history, is here contrasted the inward composure and deportment of the Servant of God, His equanimity, His freedom from excitement,--all of which are based upon the clear consciousness of His dignity and mission, upon the conviction of the power of the truth which is of God, of the power of the Spirit which opens up the minds and hearts for it, and which has its source in the declaration: "I put my Spirit upon Him," by which the great wall of separation between Him and the conqueror from the East is set up. It is just because of His not being beat upon carrying through any thing, because of His great confidence, that the Servant of God gains everything, and obtains His object of bringing right to the nations.--Matt., in chap. xii. 15-21, finds the confirmation of the character here assigned to Christ in two circumstances:--first, in His not entering into a violent dispute with the Pharisees opposing Him (οἱ δὲ φαρισαῖοι συμβούλιον ἔλαβον κατ' αὐτοῦ ἐξελθόντες, ὅπως αὐτὸν ἀπολέσωσιν), in His not exciting against them the masses who were devoted to Him, but in withdrawing from them (ὁ δὲ Ἰησοῦς γνοὺς ἀνεχώρησεν ἐκεῖθεν, ver. 15), being convinced that the cause was not His but God's, and that there was no reason for getting angry with those who were contending against God; just as David said of Shimei: "Let him curse, because the Lord has said unto him, Curse David."--Secondly, in the circumstance that instead of availing himself of the excitement of the aroused masses, He charged them that they should not make known His miraculous deeds (καὶ ἐπετίμησεν αὐτοῖς ἵνα μὴ φανερὸν αὐτὸν ποιήσωσιν, ver. 16), being convinced that He did not need to seek to draw attention to himself, but that, by the secret and hidden power of God, His work would be accomplished.

Ver. 3. "The bent reed shall He not break, and the dimly burning wick shall He not quench; in truth shall He bring forth right."

Here, too, the antithesis to the worldly conqueror who, without mercy, "Cometh upon princes as mortar, and as a potter treadeth the clay" (chap. xli. 25), whose mind is bent only upon destroying and cutting off nations not a few (chap. x. 7), who does not give rest until he has fully cast down to the ground the broken power. The Servant of God, far from breaking the bent reed, shall, on the contrary--this is the positive opposed to the negative--care for, and assist the wretched with tender love. Just thereby does He accomplish the object of His efforts. The confirmation of the character here assigned to Christ is, by Matthew, found in His healing the sick (καὶ ἐθεράπευσεν αὐτοὺς πάντας, ver. 15), as prefiguring all that which He, who has declared the object of His coming to be to seek all that which was lost, did and accomplished, in general, for the misery of the human race. There cannot be any doubt that the bent reed and the dimly burning wick are figurative designations of those who, beaten down by sufferings, feel themselves to be poor and miserable. These the weary and heavy laden, the Servant of God will not drive to despair by severity, but comfort and refresh by tender love. His conduct towards them is that of a Saviour. As a bent reed, קנה רצוץ, Pharaoh appears on account of his broken power, in chap. xxxvi. 6, and in chap. lviii. 6, the רצוצים are the oppressed. The fact, that the wick dimly burning and near to being extinguished is an image of exhausted strength, is shown by chap. xliii. 17, where, in reference to the Egyptians carried away by the judgment, it is said: "They are extinct, they are quenched like a wick." In the parallel passages which treat of the Servant of God, the weary in chap. l. 4, and the broken-hearted in chap. lxi. 1, correspond to it. Elsewhere, too, the wretched appear as objects of the loving providence of the Saviour. Thus, in chap. xi. 4: "And He judges in righteousness the low;" in Ps. lxxii. 4: "He shall judge the poor of the people; He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor;" and in vers. 12-14: "For He delivereth the needy when he crieth, and the miserable, and him that hath no deliverer. From oppression and violence He delivereth their soul, and precious is their blood in His sight." Just as, in the passage before us, the bringing forth of right appears as a consequence of the loving providence for the bent reed, and the dimly burning wick, so in that Psalm, the great fact: "And all the kings worship Him, and all the nations serve Him," is traced back to the tender love with which He cares for and helps the poor and needy. In the Sermon on the Mount, the beatitude of the πτωχοί, Matt. v. 3, of the πενθοῦντες, ver. 4, and in Matt. xi. 28, the invitation of the κοπιῶντες καὶ πεφορτισμένοι, exactly correspond. The wicked and ungodly, upon whom the judgments of God have been inflicted, are not included, because they are not wretched in the full sense; for they harden themselves against the suffering, or seek to divert themselves in it; they do not take it fully to heart. The τῷ πνεύματι, "in their consciousness," which in Matthew is added to the simple πτωχοί, which alone we find in Luke, must be understood as a matter of course. He only is poor in the full sense, who feels and takes to heart his poverty. According to an interpretation widely spread, repenting sinners are designated by the bent reed, and dimly burning wick. Thus Luther writes: "That means that the wounded conscience, those who are terrified at the sight of their sins, the weak in life and faith are not cast away by Him, are not oppressed and condemned, but that He cares for them, tends and nurses them, makes them whole and embraces them with love." But repenting sinners do not here come into consideration per se, but only as one species of the wretched, inasmuch as, according to Luther's expression, truly to feel sin is a torment beyond all torments.--The last words: "In truth shall He bring forth right" again take up the close of ver. 1, after the means have been stated, in the intervening words, by which He is to bring about the result. The לאמת must not be translated: "For truth" (LXX: εἰς ἀλήθειαν); for there is a thorough difference between ל and אל; the former does not, like the latter, designate the motion towards some object, but is rather, here also, a preposition signifying "belonging to;" hence לאמת means "belonging to truth," "in a true manner," "in truth." By every other mode of dealing, right would be established in appearance and outwardly only. Matthew renders it: ἕως ἂν ἐκβάλῃ εἰς νῖκος τὴν κρίσιν, "until He has led right to victory." By the addition of ἕως he intimates, that the last words state the result which is brought about by the conduct of the Servant of God described in the preceding words. Εἰς νῖκος is a free translation of לאמת; κρίσις is "right," as in chap. xxiii. 23.--How objectionable and untenable all the non-Messianic explanations are, appears very clearly in this verse. If Israel were the Servant of God, then the Gentile world must be represented by the bent reed and dimly burning wick. But in that case, we must have recourse to such arbitrary interpretations as, e.g., that given by Köster: "The weak faith and imperfect knowledge of the Gentiles." No weak faith, no imperfect knowledge, however, is spoken of; but the Servant of God appears as a Saviour of the poor and afflicted, of those broken by sufferings. Those who, by the Servant of God, understand the better portion of the people, or the prophetic order, speak of "the meek spirit of the mode of teaching, which does not by any means altogether crush the sinner already brought low, but, in a gentle, affectionate manner, raises him up," (Umbreit); or say with Knobel: "These poor and afflicted He does not humble still more by hard, depressing words, but speaks to them in a comforting and encouraging way, raising them up and strengthening them." But in this explanation everything is, without reason, drawn into the territory of speech, while Matthew rightly sees, in the healing of the sick by Christ, a confirmation by deeds of the prophecy before us. In chap. lxi., also, the Servant of God does not only bring glad tidings, but creates, at the same time, the blessings announced. According to chap. lxi. 3, He gives to them that mourn in Zion beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, garment of praise for a weak (כהה) spirit. Verse 6 of the chapter before us most clearly indicates how little we are allowed to limit ourselves to mere speaking; for, according to that verse, the Servant of God is himself the covenant of the people, and the light of the Gentiles, and according to ver. 7, He opens the eyes of the blind, &c.

Ver. 4. "He shall not fail nor run away until He shall have founded right in the earth, and for His law the isles shall wait."

On: "He shall not fail," properly, "He shall not become dim," comp. Deut. xxxiv. 7, where it is said of Moses, the servant of God: "His eye had not become dim, nor had his strength fled." The לא ירוץ "He shall not run away" (properly, "He shall not run") is qualified and fixed by the parallelism with לא יכהה "He shall not fail." רוץ in other passages also, several times receives, by the context, the qualified signification "to run away," "to take to flight," "to flee;" comp. Judges viii. 21; Jer. xlix. 19. The words: "He shall not fail nor run away" imply that, in the carrying out of His vocation, the Servant of God shall meet with powerful obstacles, with obstinate enemies, and shall have to endure severe sufferings. That which is here merely hinted at, is carried out and detailed in chap. xlix., l., liii. How near He was to failing and running away (David, too, was obliged to say: "Oh! that I had wings like a dove, then would I fly away and be at rest") is seen from His utterance in Matt. xvii. 17: ὦ γενεὰ ἄπιστος καὶ διεστραμμένη, ἕως πότε ἔσομαι μεθ’ ὑμῶν; ἕως πότε ἀνέξομαι ὑμῶν.--According to the current opinion, ירוץ is here assumed to be the Future of רצץ, for יָרֹץ, and that in the appropriate signification: "He shall not be broken." (Thus it was probably viewed by the Chaldean Paraphrast who renders לא ילאי non laborabit; by the LXX., who translate οὐ θραυθσησεται, while Aquila and Symmachus, according to the account of Jerome, render, non curret, thus following the derivation from רוץ). As יכהה points back to כהה in the preceding verse, so, in that case ירוץ would point back to רצוץ "He shall not break that which is bent, nor quench that which is dimly burning; but neither shall He himself be broken or quenched." But this explanation is opposed by the circumstance, that we must make up our minds to admit a double anomaly. The territories of the two verbs רצץ and רוץ are everywhere else kept distinct, and the former everywhere else means "to break," and not "to be broken." In the only passage, Eccl. xii. 6, brought forward in support of this irregularity, רוץ "to run," "to flee away," being in parallelism with נרחק "to be removed," is quite appropriate; just as in the second clause of that verse רוץ "to be crushed," is in parallelism with נשבר] "to be broken."--איים are, in the usus loquendi of Isaiah, not so much the real islands, as rather the islands in the sea of the world, the countries and kingdoms; compare remarks on Rev. vi. 14, and Ps. xcvii. 1 (second Edition). The law for which the islands wait is not so much a ready-made code of laws, as the single decisions of the living Lawgiver, which the Gentiles, with anxious desire, shall receive as their rule in all circumstances, after they have spontaneously submitted to the dominion of the Servant of God, having been attracted by His loving dispensations. Several unphilologically translate: "for His doctrine," which does not even give a good sense, for it is not the doctrine which is waited for; its value is known only after it has been preached. The Servant of God appears here as the spiritual Ruler of the nations; and this He becomes by being, in the fullest sense, the Servant of God, so that His will is not different from the will of God, nor תורה from that of God, just as, in a lower territory, even Asaph speaks the bold word: "Hear, my people, my law." "The singer comes forth as one who has full authority, the 'Seer' and 'Prophet' utter laws which leave no alternative between Salvation and destruction." Parallel is chap. ii. 3, 4, where the nations go up to Zion, in order there to seek laws for the regulation of their practical conduct, and according to which the Lord judges among the nations, and the law goes forth out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. The difference is this only,--that, in that passage, the matter is traced back immediately to God, while here, the Servant of God is mentioned as the Mediator between Him and the Gentiles. But we must keep in mind that, for chap. ii. also, the parallel passages in chap. iv., ix., xi., furnish the supplement. We must, farther, compare also chap. li. 5: "My righteousness is near, my salvation goes forth, mine arms shall judge the nations, the isles shall wait for me, and on mine arm shall they hope." The judging in that passage does not mean divine punitive judgments; but it is rather thereby intimated that all the nations shall recognise the Lord as their King, to whose government they willingly submit, and with whom they seek the decision of their disputes. Matthew purposely changes it into: "And in His name shall the Gentiles trust." The desire for the commands of the Lord is an effect of the love of His name, i.e., of Him who is glorified by His deeds. For the name is the product of deeds,--here especially of those designated in ver. 2 and 3. The commands are desired and longed for, only because the person is beloved on account of His deeds. Matthew has only distinctly brought out that which, in the original text, is intimated by the connection with the preceding verses. In consequence of this, His quiet, just, and merciful dispensation, the isles shall wait for His law.

In ver. 5-7 the Lord addresses His Servant, and promises Him that, by His omnipotence, the great work for which He has called Him, shall be carried out and accomplished, viz., that the covenant relation to Israel shall be fully realized, and the darkness of the Gentile world shall be changed into light.

Ver. 5. "Thus saith God the Lord, who createth the heavens and stretcheth them out; who spreadeth forth the earth and that which cometh out of it; who giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk thereon."

The Prophet directs attention to the omnipotence of God, in order to give a firm support to faith in the promise which exceeds all human conception. It is by this that the accumulation of the predicates is to be accounted for. He who fully realizes what a great thing it is to bring an apostate world back to God, to that God who has become a stranger to it, will surely not explain this accumulation by a "disposition, on the part of the Prophet, to diffuseness."

Ver. 6. "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and I will seize thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for the covenant of the people and, for the Light of the Gentiles."