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This was very discouraging, speaking after the manner of men. The fact that
the Lord would be rejected by Israel is anticipated in Isaiah. Reading on in
Isaiah 42, we come to the words:
'l ... will ... give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of
the Gentiles' (Isa. 42:6).
Later on in Isaiah we read words that at first sound a little like
discouragement, but reassurance immediately follows:
'Then I said, I have laboured in vain, I have spent My strength for
nought' (Isa. 49:4).
'And He said, It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My Servant to
raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I
will also give Thee for a light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My
salvation unto the end of the earth' (Isa. 49:6).
The fact that the Lord Jesus gave the title 'Lord of heaven and earth'
to the Father, in Matthew 11:25, looks back to Isaiah 42, for there we read,
immediately following the statement, 'He shall not fail nor be discouraged'
the words:
'Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens, and stretched
them out; He that spread forth the earth' (Isa. 42:5).
Surely it is not without purpose, that these words find an echo in the
closing verses of this Gospel:
'All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth' (Matt. 28:18).
Once again then, we can say with full assurance and with gratitude that knows
no bounds, 'He Faileth Not':
'I will sift the house of Israel ... yet shall not the least grain
fall' (Amos 9:9).
We have gratefully recorded two blessed facts.
(1)
The Lord will not fail in the sense that He will not bring His
promise and purpose to a finish (gamar).
(2)
The Lord will not fail in the sense that He will not go out like
a smoking flax (kahah).
We now turn our attention to another phase of this subject:
'There failed not aught of any good thing which the Lord had spoken
unto the house of Israel; all came to pass' (Joshua 21:45).
The word here translated 'fail' is naphal 'to fall'.
This word is of a very wide significance, meaning not only 'to fall' in
a general sense, but it has taken on several special meanings also. The
meaning that comes nearest to the subject in hand, namely the fulfilment of a
promise, is its usage in connection with Samuel, where we read:
'The Lord ... let none of his words fall to the ground' (1 Sam. 3:19).