The preceding section of Isaiah, which we have just completed, dealt particularly with

Israel and the Messiah under the common appellation of "My Servant". The section now

before us considers Israel and their Messiah under the title of "My Witnesses". We

found, as a severe and awful contrast, that the worship of graven images was placed over

against true service, and, once again, we shall find that idolatry is the black background

against which true witness is depicted. Moreover, in connection both with Witness and

Idolatry, Isaiah reiterates the glorious fact that God is One, and that there is none else.

This constitutes the positive witness of Israel, which is definitely assailed by the

introduction of false gods.

If we left the matter there, however, it would both misrepresent Isaiah's prophecy and

manifest an ignorance of his great purpose. While positive witness to the fact that there

is one God is of itself an essential element in all worship and service, we are nevertheless

reminded by James that demons believe the fact yet tremble (James 2: 19). In Isaiah's

prophecy Israel's witness and the doctrine of the unique supremacy of the Deity, are a

means to an end. The end before Isaiah and before the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob;

the end to which Israel themselves are witnesses, is "Restoration", the key-note of

which has already been sounded in our meditation upon the opening words of Isa. 40:,

and we shall find a three-fold recurrence of it in the section now before us, viz.,

Isa. 42: 18 - 45: 15, each division of which is introduced by the subject of Restoration.

First we have a lament, that although Israel have been robbed and spoiled, "none saith,

Restore" but, where man fails, God, in His mercy, triumphs, as is shown by the

immediately following sweeping promise of Isa. 43: 5, 6. But whether He deals with

Man (Adam), Men (the individual), Nations (generally spoken of as Gentiles) or the

Nation, Israel, God deals with them as with responsible, moral agents. Israel are not to be

taken by sheer force; dragged unwillingly from the East, the West, the North and the

South, and dumped into the land of Palestine regardless of their sins or of their desires.

They are called upon to "Return", and Israel have been "Redeemed", and it is upon the

basis that Restoration proceeds (Isa. 43: 9 - 44: 27). The third section of the prophecy

differs from the bulk of the book, and introduces an historic character, Cyrus, the king of

Persia. He takes his place in the foreshadowing of Israel's final restoration under their

true King and Shepherd, as Sennacherib's fate foreshadowed the ultimate overthrow of

the last world conqueror, the Beast of the Apocalypse.