What is the zeal of the Lord, and what assurance does it give us (Isaiah 9:7)?

Lastly, being all this, He is "Prince of peace," the only One who, in this rebellious world, can establish it upon a permanent basis. This He will do by the warrior judgments, predicted in verses 4 and 5. Becoming "Seed of David," as we have seen, He will sit upon the throne of David, and having crushed man's rebellion and evil, He will govern with judgment and justice to the glory of God and the blessing of men. The Second Advent of our Lord will see these great predictions fulfilled to the letter.

The epoch in which we live is not the day of God's government upon the earth but the day of His grace, when government is still in the hands of the Gentiles and God is gathering out of the nations a people for His name. The time of grace may soon end, and then God will arise to deal with the world problems created by the sin of man. To bring the whole earth into subjection will indeed be a colossal task, but as our scripture says, "The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this." We may well rejoice that so it will be.

Now the Messiah rejected by the Jews sits on the throne of God His Father, in contrast with His own throne, which He is to take another day. Neither David nor any other sat on the Father's throne. The very notion is not only ignorance but profanity. At His coming again He will sit upon the throne of David according to the prophecy before us and many more. Then will be fulfilled the latter part of Psalm 2. The nations will be shattered, not converted (whatever mercy may follow), and Zion rejoice with gladness everlasting. The transition here is plain and immediate from the first advent in grace and humiliation to the second in power and glory. The heavenly exaltation of Christ, and of the church in union with Him, is passed over.

The hour of freedom and victory for Israel is come; and Jehovah it is Who has done all. But it is not as in ordinary war: the noise of human conflict and bloodshed shall end, greave and war-cloak be for burning and fuel of fire. And no wonder, when He stands out their Kinsman-Redeemer, the true but once rejected Son of David, Who is their boast now, with every name of power and peace and blessing, with an endless reign before Him, established with righteousness and judgement from hence forth and for ever. Truly "the zeal (or jealousy) of Jehovah of hosts will perform this."

The birth of Jesus was an event as full of love as it was deep in wisdom and humiliation; but it was what Jehovah had ages before promised, and patriarchs had long looked for. When man disobeyed his Maker, and fell under Satan's power, God, in boundless grace, lighted up the dark and hopeless scene with the most merciful declaration, that the Seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head; thus announcing a Redeemer for fallen man, and that He should be born of a woman. Afterward, the Lord taught Abraham that the promised Seed should be through him and his much-loved son Isaac. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." After this, it was revealed to David that the promised Seed should be of the fruit of his loins, and also that after His death and resurrection He should sit upon Israel's throne. At a later period, the prophet Isaiah was moved by the Holy Ghost to predict that the Saviour would be a virgin's son: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." And more than this, for he also spake of the Godhead of Christ, as well as His reigning in power, as the King of the Jews, on the throne of His father David, saying, "Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this." (Isa. 9.) Still later, the prophet Micah was instructed to inform God's people of the locality where Jesus should be born: "But thou, Bethlehem-Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." (Micah 5.)

Nevertheless the dimness would not be as of old, in the former ravages of the Assyrian. The Lord of hosts had now taken the thing in His own Almighty hand. The great light would now shine forth upon a people who were walking in darkness, upon those that had learned to fear the Lord, and to obey the voice of His servant, walking in darkness, having no light. Those that had learned to trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon their God, (Isaiah 1:10,) upon them the light would shine. Light in the harvest time, when men divide the spoil. "Thou hast multiplied the nation and to it (margin) increased the joy; they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil." The oppressor's yoke would then be broken — the yoke of their burden, and the staff of his shoulder, and the rod of the Assyrian — by Him against whom it had boasted itself. It would be like the day when Gideon took his 300, with empty pitchers and lamps within. The sword of the Lord had scattered the mighty hosts of Midian, not merely like the battles of the warrior, with confused noise and garments rolled in blood: this would be with burning and fuel of fire — the fire of God's judgment would be there. (Compare Isaiah 10:12-27.) Thus would the delivered remnant, with their faces in the dust, learn that the same Saviour-God had walked through the land of Zebulun and Naphtali, in the way of the sea beyond Jordan in Galilee of the Gentiles, in His day of humiliation, and had passed through death to be their Saviour. But now, in the day of His glory, they would learn to say, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, (so long and deeply faithless) and upon His kingdom to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." "The work of righteousness shall then be peace: and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever." P.

Between Psalms 83 and 88 there are four psalms which treat of the four special spheres of Jehovah's interests, as reviewed by the Spirit of Christ in the believing Remnant; viz., His tabernacles (Psalm 84), His land (Psalm 85), His godly servants (Psalm 86), His city Zion (Psalm 87). Discipline there may have been, and will be, as in Psalm 88, but in the Psalms the mind of the Spirit rests first upon the Anointed, the Son of man made strong for Jehovah. (Psalm 80 Cf. Psalm 2.) Then follow the three psalms (Psalms 81 — 83) that speak of Israel's renewed glory, and God among them in judgment; the four subsequent ones (Pss. 84 — 87) giving the four circles of Jehovah's interests in connection with Israel, as to which this glory is displayed. Israel's chastisement as under the law, and penalty of sin, is then given, as we have seen, in Psalm 88. Finally, the whole series of subjects is concluded in Psalm 89, which celebrates the loving-kindness of Jehovah, according to which the covenant with David is established (see verses 3, 4, 24, 28, 29, 36) in the Seed of David, the greater David, the Anointed. This is the subject of Isaiah 9:1-7. The grace of His first coming is seen in verses 1, 2; then, in the following five verses, we have the zeal of the Lord of hosts establishing Him in power (a divine Person) upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom. (v. 7,)

To dwell further on such a prospect might have been a pleasant occupation, but the prophet has to turn to that which will edify the people of his day. So he next proceeds to produce the indictment, and a heavy one it was, which God had drawn up against those on whose behalf He had done so much. (Isa. 5) That stated, which concerns the whole nation, Isaiah turns aside for a time to what more directly concerns Judah, and the house of David. (Isa. 6 — 9:7.) The vision which he beheld in the year that king Uzziah died, brought home to him the condition of the people amongst whom he dwelt, besides God's judgment of what he himself a fallen creature was, with the divinely appointed method of cleansing marked out, namely, by association with the sacrifice on the altar of burnt-offering. Cleansed himself, set free in the presence of God from all thoughts of his vileness, after that the live coal had touched his lips, he can offer himself for Jehovah's service, and volunteer to be His messenger to the people, an offer immediately accepted. Chapter 5 had demonstrated by the indictment to which there was no good defence, what the people had been in the past, now the prophet has to show, what the appearance of Jehovah's glory had demonstrated to his own soul, the moral condition of Judah and Jerusalem, as unfit to behold the glory, which historically was proved by the presence of the Lord Jesus upon earth. (John 12:39–41.) God's people, redeemed to be His own for ever, unfit for His presence, what could follow, but judicial action against them? Thus the prophet declares blindness would fall upon them, and desolation roll over their land, but only for a season. This directly concerned the throne; so commencing with the attempt in his day by Pekah and Rezin to supplant the house of David (Isa. 7:6), Isaiah sketches out the result of that attempt, disastrous to the confederate kings, the invasion of the land by the Assyrian, and the final triumph of the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, born of the virgin. Judicial action must take place, but God's purposes cannot fail, so all attempts to subvert finally the house of David, as the royal house of Israel, must end in confusion to those, whoever they might be, who should undertake it. Syria, Samaria, and Assyria of that day found this to be true, as the northern enemy of the future will be a standing witness of it likewise. Distress, straitness, want; awaited the people for their sins; but the faithful, sanctifying the Lord of hosts, making Him their fear and dread, are to be delivered, and the never ending reign of Messiah upon the throne of David shall one day commence. "The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this." Then (Isa. 9:8 — 11) resuming the subject of chapter 5, the grievous behaviour of the people in the past and the then present, the rod of God's chastisement is predicted, the king of Assyria of that day, and the king of Assyria of the future, whose fall will be brought about after the Lord shall have performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem (Isa. 10:12), when the indignation shall cease, and God's anger in his destruction (Isa. 10:25) by the Lord Jesus, the Branch from the stem of Jesse, under whom Judah and Ephraim shall be united, just the opposite of what they were when Isaiah lived. (Compare Isa. 9:21 with Isa. 11:13.) All enemies overthrown, and the nations subject to Israel's king, peace shall be enjoyed, and Israel again dwell all of them in their land. In view of this happy consummation thus to be effected, the song that Israel will in that day sing we read of in Isaiah 12

To quote all the passages relating to the latter-day hope of Israel would be to transcribe the larger part of the prophetic Scriptures. What I am anxious rather to impress upon my reader is the very important, but too often neglected consideration, that Gospel and prophecy are continually blended in the Spirit's testimony to ourselves. That Israel's prospective blessing should be here intimated to the Galatians is quite in keeping with the whole cast of the epistle. False Jewish teaching was corrupting the churches of Christ which were then existing in that region. In his endeavour to defeat and counteract this deadly work of Satan, lie has shown clearly the utter falsity of legal hopes of any kind for either Jew or Gentile (Chap. 2:15, seq.). He has declared, also, that in the mystic body of Christ is neither Greek nor Jew (Chap. 3:28). Moreover, Jerusalem that now is, is in bondage with her children, while Jerusalem above is the mother of the free (Chap. 4:25-26). The children of the bondwoman are exiles from their land and wanderers from the way of peace. But it remains written among the sure testimonies of God, as recorded by the spirit of prophecy, that "Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of Jehovah of hosts; although their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel" (Jer. 51:5). She who now is desolate, a captive, and removing to and fro, shall yet be called, "Sought out, A city not forsaken" (Isa. 62:12). The gifts and promises of God are without repentance. He knows, and has declared, the thoughts that He thinks towards them, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give them an expected end of grace and glory in Immanuel's land (Jer. 29:11; 30; 31). The zeal of the Lord of hosts will fulfil His own true sayings in their time (Isa. 9:7).

136 Now here we are broken off at once as to any pursuing the tree and chain of promise in Israel (though God will fulfil it) because if He is hiding His face from the house of Israel, and hence cannot, even in the Remnant, set it up again, they look to fires of their own kindling, to wizards that peep and mutter. They are without Jehovah. Every people would look to their God - not Israel. Thus they get into the depths of sorrow and irritation instead of repentance. But though thus in far deeper anguish than in the first visitation of Israel, all is trouble and darkness. Yet in this last dominion of Gentile power, light had sprung up in Galilee. There was Emmanuel, who had never been before - the great light had been there, and now the prophet, in the utter extremity of the people (depicted in verses 21, 22), bursts forth into the full consequence of this Emmanuel. He becomes the triumphant Deliverer for final blessing and peace. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts would do it. Thus, on the failure of the last resource of Israel, according to the flesh, in the house of David, God brings in Emmanuel.

How admirably suitable is the language used here. In glowing colours the Holy Spirit shows us this striking sign, shining in vividness and freshness upon the dark background of the enemy’s overwhelming devastation of the land. “This shall be a SIGN unto thee, Ye shall eat this year such as grows of itself; and the second year that which springs of the same: and in the third year sow ye, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruit thereof. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this” (Isa. 37:30-32). Here, again, we find resurrection pictured, and unmistakable unity with Isaiah II. See chapters 60:20-22, and 61:3.

In that lowly Babe, the Virgin's Son, conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, the Son of David and Heir to his throne, Jehovah the Saviour, and Emmanuel, the two Testaments are bound together; the hopes of the Old and the faith of the New unite in Him, and we can with exultation take up the prophetic word and join with Israel and say, “Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be on His shoulders: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth for ever. THE ZEAL OF THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL PERFORM THIS” (Isa. 9:6-7).