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David's prayer reached its consummation in Psalm 72: in which he says of his
greater Son, "He shall judge the poor of the people" (Psa. 72: 4).
While Isaiah sometimes uses the word mishpat in its condemnatory meaning, the bulk
of the occurrences are in line with the usage already indicated.
"Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead
for the widow" (Isa. 1: 17).
Here it is evident that reference to the exhortation to seek judgment involves
"relieving the oppressed" and "pleading for the widow".
"How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness
lodged in it; but now murderers" (Isa. 1: 21).
One has but to read on in verses 22 and 23, to see, by contrast, what is implied by "full
of judgment".
The manner of the restoration of Israel when that day comes is thus described:
"And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning;
afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness, The faithful city. Zion shall be
redeemed with judgment" (Isa. 1: 26-27).
The opening chapter of Isaiah speaks primarily of Israel, but in the closing section the
"Gentiles" are given a place.
"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" (49: 6).
But judgment is not only "to the Gentiles"; it is also "unto Truth". An investigation
of the meaning of emeth, the Hebrew word translated "Truth", and which gives us our
word "Amen", cannot be undertaken now, but it is not without interest to discover that
the word is used by Isaiah exactly twelve times, six occurrences coming in 1:-39: and
six in 40:-66:
Victory by aggression may be swift, but it is short-lived. Truth will and must prevail,
but it is slower in achievement, even as the characteristics of the Conqueror are
essentially different from those of brute aggression.
"The smoking flax shall He not quench; He shall bring forth judgment unto truth."
Finally, this judgment shall be set "in the earth". We remember the prophetic cry of
the Seraphim: "The fullness of the whole earth is His glory" (Isa. 6: 3, Margin), and the
assurance of the millennial hope: "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea" (Isa. 11: 9).