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"And will yet choose Israel."--The opening chapters of the prophet Zechariah
expound this promise.
"Cry, yet, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; My cities through prosperity shall yet
be spread abroad; and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem"
(Zech. 1: 17).
"And the Lord shall inherit Judah His portion in the holy land, and shall choose
Jerusalem again" (Zech. 2: 12).
"The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke
thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" (Zech. 3: 2).
So we may supplement every clause. Israel are to be set in their own land; this makes
void all propositions to settle Israel in any land other than that given to Abraham.
Strangers are to join with them in that day, yea, they shall even bring them to their place,
and the house of Israel, so long the outcast among the nations, shall "possess them in the
land of the Lord for servants". Those who had been held captive by others shall in that
day "rule over their oppressors". In that day the Lord shall give Israel "rest". The
glimpse of the glorious future which Isaiah gives in these three verses, is comparable
with the lifting of the veil in Isa. 2: 2-5 and 4: 2-6. It is as though the glorious purpose
toward which the Lord moves cannot be entirely hidden even in a day of ruin and
judgment.
From verse 4 to 23 of Isa. 14: we have a "proverb" or a "parable" against the King
of Babylon, but we must observe that it is not Isaiah himself who "takes up this parable",
but the restored Israel of verses 1-3. This is made evident by the initial word "that" of
verse 4:
"And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy
sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve,
that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the
oppressor ceased!" (Isa. 14: 3, 4).
This is comparable with the connection between Isa. 11: and 12: where we have the
song which Israel will sing in that day. Like the lamentation which is taken up against
the king of Tyre in Ezek. 28:, we shall find in this parable a double reference. There
will be a reference to the fall of the actual king of Babylon, who will also be a
foreshadowing of the great oppressor and usurper, Satan himself:
"How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut
down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also
upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (Isa. 14: 12-14).
The expression, "the sides of the north", is not so much explanation as revelation.
Satan knew where God held His court, for Job 1: 6, 7 tells us of his access. The word
"sides" means "recesses" or "remote regions". Seeing that Satan had aspired to a throne
above the stars of God, the remote recesses of the north must refer to that region of the
sky which is associated with the Pole Star. In solemn contrast with this blasphemous
thought is the doom that is expressed in the very next verse: "Yet thou shalt be brought