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already have been taken back to primeval rebellion, in the reference to Rahab and the
Dragon, and the accumulative testimony of these passages teaches us that behind or
beneath all the movement of man both in his fall and restoration, is the greater conflict
and ultimate victory of Divine right over Satanic wrong. Neither the fall and redemption
of man, the deliverance and restoration of Israel, nor the high glory of the Church are
ends in themselves, they are links in a chain, factors in a scheme, means to a greater and
more glorious end than has yet been perceived by man.
The same Hebrew word is used in each of the three calls to `awake' that we are
considering, but the form of the verb in Isa. 51: 17 differs from that used in the other two
passages. The Companion Bible suggests the words `rouse thee' for this form of the verb.
Here Israel is called upon to consider her ways. They had drunk at the hand of the Lord
the cup of fury, desolation and destruction had come upon them, and their comforters
were few. To such the Lord now returns in mercy saying:
"Behold I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup
of My fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: but I will put it into the hand of them that
afflict thee" (Isa. 51: 22, 23).
To this the prophet Jeremiah referred, when he said:
"For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at My
hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it . . . . . and the king of
Sheshach shall drink after them" (Jer. 25: 15-26).
This prophecy relates to the period following the end of the seventy years of Israel's
desolation (Jer. 25: 11, 12), after which Babylon was to be punished.
"Sheshach" is a cryptic reference to Babel. "B" is the second letter of the Hebrew
alphabet, and "Sh" is the second letter from the end of the same alphabet. The name of
this system of cryptic writing is athbash, a name which is made up of the first and last
letters "A" and "Th", and the second and last but one letters "B" and "Sh".
In Jer. 51: 41 Sheshach and Babylon are named together. There is more in this curious
method of naming the enemy than mere human artifice. Just as Rahab and the Dragon
represented Egypt, but more than Egypt, just as the references to the exodus refer to a
greater than Pharaoh and a greater deliverance, so the fall of the visible Babylon and its
king is but a faint picture of the greater fall of Satan and his evil system.
The third call to awake (Isa. 52: 1) is addressed to Zion, delivered, cleansed, clothed
and ready for her espousals, and for interest this call is placed in juxtaposition with that
of Isa. 47: 1.
To Israel the prophet cried:
"Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem,
the holy city; from henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the
unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from
the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion" (Isa. 52: 1, 2).