Isaiah 45

45:1 THUS saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings; to open the doors before him, 2 and the gates shall not be shut; I will go before thee, and make the rugged places plain: I 3 will break in pieces the doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that 4 I am the LORD, which call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant’s sake, and Israel my chosen, I have called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, 5 though thou hast not known me. I am the LORD, and there is none else; beside me there is 6 no God: I will gird thee, though thou hast not known me: that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me: I am the LORD, and there 7 is none else. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the LORD, that doeth all these things. 8 Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, that they may bring forth salvation, and let her cause righteousness to spring up together; I the LORD have created it. 9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! a potsherd among the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no 10 hands? Woe unto him that saith unto a father, What begettest thou? or to a woman, With 11 what travailest thou? Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: Ask me of the things that are to come; concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my 12 hands, command ye me. I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my 13 hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded. I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will make straight all his ways: he shall build my city, and he shall let my exiles go free, not for price nor reward, saith the LORD of hosts. 14 Thus saith the LORD, The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine; they shall go after thee; in chains they shall come over; and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, saying, Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no 15, 16 God. Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. They shall be ashamed, yea, confounded, all of them; they shall go into confusion together that are 17 makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. 18 For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; he is God; that formed the earth and made it; he established it, he created it not a waste, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the 19 LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, 20 I declare things that are right. Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that carry the wood of their graven 21 image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Declare ye, and bring it forth; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath shewed this from ancient time? who hath declared it of old? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a saviour; 22 there is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am 23 God, and there is none else. By myself have I sworn, the word is gone forth from my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall 24 swear. Only in the LORD, shall one say unto me, is righteousness and strength: even to him 25 shall men come, and all they that were incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory.

Chap. 45. This chapter continues the same general course of thought, beginning with a further description of the victories of Cyrus, and of his work as the deliverer of God’s people; and then making this great event the occasion and the ground for renewed declarations of God’s infinite supremacy; of His worthiness to be trusted; of His purpose to confound all idols and idol-worshippers, and, with the co-operation of His true people, to bring all nations to acknowledge His name and to worship at His feet. H. C.—As to the order and arrangement of the parts, the chapter opens, in direct continuation of the forty-fourth, with a further prophecy of Cyrus and of his successes (verses 1-3). These are then referred to the power of God and His design of mercy toward His people, so that all misgivings or distrust must be irrational and impious (verses 4-13). Then leaving Cyrus out of view, the prophet turns his eyes to the nations, and declares that they must be subdued, but only in order to be blessed and saved, which is declared to have been the Divine purpose and revealed as such from the beginning (verses 14-25). A.

1. Remarkably the Lord applies to Cyrus the same descriptive term, “anointed,” by which Jesus Christ is usually designated in prophecy. “Messiah” means precisely the anointed One, and is the very Hebrew word used here. The just view seems to be that Cyrus was anointed as king for the special work which the Lord had for him to do, as Jesus was for His special work, while yet their respective missions were exceedingly unlike. “To subdue nations” receives from history a striking fulfilment. H. C.—It can scarcely be considered a fortuitous coincidence that Herodotus speaks of the gate which led to the river as having been left open on the night of the attack. Xenophon says the doors of the palace itself having been unguardedly opened, the invaders took possession of it almost without resistance. A.

Loose the loins. There is a special allusion to the night when the handwriting appeared on the wall, when “the king’s countenance changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote together one against another” (Dan. 5:6). The opening of the doors and gates has a similar reference to that night of revelry, when the river-gates were carelessly left unclosed. Birks.

2. The gates of brass.** In every side of the great square wall which encompassed Babylon were twenty-five gates, one hundred in all, of solid brass; those which led to the river and those which enclosed the temple of Belus were of the same material. Prideaux.—Without doubt, the distinct prediction by Isaiah, of a matter so much beyond the range of common experience, must have had great weight upon the mind of Cyrus, in convincing him not only that the prophecy was true, but the Divine Author of that prophecy was He who had indeed made straight his path before him, and who had opened to him the two-leaved gates of the numerous strong cities which he had won. Kitto.

Herodotus, the ancient historian of the event, writing seventy years afterward, comments upon it in this manner: “If the besieged had been aware of the designs of Cyrus, they might have destroyed his troops. They had only to secure the folding gates leading to the river, and to have manned the embankments on either side, and they would have enclosed the Persians in a trap from which they could never have escaped. As it happened, they were taken by surprise; and such is the extent of the city, that they who lived in the extremities were made prisoners before the alarm reached the palace.” “As it happened.” Yes, it happened; but a hundred and more years before God had said by His prophet how it should happen. He had said, “I will open the two-leaved gates.” So Cyrus found them wide open, and the way clear to the very banquet-hall of the palace, just as Isaiah had said, before Cyrus was born, that they should be. Phelps.

3. It is thought by some eminent writers that no conquests have ever been attended with such acquisition of wealth as those of Cyrus. The last clause gives a reason why this circumstance is mentioned—viz., in order that Cyrus might be able to identify the being who brought it to pass with the being who foretold it.

5. What is said before of naming him is here said of girding him—i.e., investing him with royal dignity or personally strengthening him; both may be included. A.

6. These manifestations of the great God, both in His antecedent predictions respecting Cyrus and in His wonderful providences in fulfilling them, had a vastly important purpose—viz., to make the true God known over all that Eastern world; to give them such demonstrations of His being, His omniscience and His universal providence as should at least suffice to convince all candid minds that He is the one only and infinite God, and that there can be no other besides.

7. The statements made in the previous verses give the clue (probably) to the special significance of this—viz., that the people of the distant East, the regions of the rising sun, might know that there is no God besides Me. For Persia, pre-eminently to the Hebrews the land of the rising sun, was the home of the celebrated doctrine of Zoroaster, taught in the Zend-Avesta—viz., that there is not one God only, but virtually two; one the author of all good, the other, of all evil; one, the former of light; the other, of darkness. But squarely in opposition to this dualistic system, and that His word might go at once through all that Eastern world whence Cyrus came, the Lord here affirms that He alone both formed the light and created the darkness; both makes peace and creates evil; He, the one supreme Lord God, doeth all these things.

8. When this ardent prophet, speaking for God and in sympathy with God, would summon all the active powers of the race to any special work, he is wont to call upon the heavens and the earth, as if to arouse all the realms of nature to combine and to help forward the mighty endeavor. H. C.

The figure is varied and complete. The heavens are to distil righteousness, like dew, and the skies to pour it down in copious showers. The earth is to open her bosom, and to receive these gifts of heaven. Both, in concert, are thus to yield the fruit of salvation; and the earth is to bring forth righteousness in response to the floods of righteousness from on high. Birks.

It is descriptive, doubtless, of what is yet to take place under the Messiah on the earth, in the better days which are to succeed to the present, when the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the earth. The heavens shall drop down righteousness, and the clouds shall distil salvation, and the earth shall bring forth the fruits of holiness, and the world shall be full of the love of God. All the earth shall be blessed, as if descending showers should produce universal fertility, and every land, now desolate, barren and sterile, and horrid by sin, shall become “like a well-watered garden” in reference to salvation, and shall be full of the fruits of holiness. Barnes.

There is here the first sign of transition, in this prophecy, from Cyrus to the days of Messiah. The Lord, having been revealed as the true God, in contrast to idols and Persian dualism, and also as the God of Israel, is further revealed as the God of all grace, righteousness and salvation. The mercies to the returning exiles were an earnest of this promise. But its main fulfilment is in the Incarnation and Atonement of our Lord, and the Pentecostal gift of the Spirit. Then “truth flourished out of the earth, and righteousness looked down from heaven.” Birks.

9,10. Shall the clay pretend to be wiser than the potter, and therefore to advise him; or mightier than the potter, and therefore to control him? He that gave us being, that gave us this being, may design concerning us, and dispose of us as He pleases; and it is presumption for us to prescribe to Him. Shall we impeach God’s wisdom or question His power, who are ourselves so curiously, so wonderfully made? Shall we say He has no hands whose hands made us, and in whose hands we are? The doctrine of God’s sovereignty has enough in it to silence all our discontents and objections against the methods of His providence and grace (Rom. 9: 20, 21). H.

11. The logical connection of thought here is plain and beautiful. Instead of presuming to call in question the wisdom and goodness of God, the Great Maker and Ruler of all, go rather to Him in due humility and ask Him to reveal the future destinies of His sons, since these are all determined in His all-wise plans and counsels; and in respect to the work of His hands, commit all to Him. H. C.

12. This is a statement of the reason why He could be trusted to protect His people—viz., because He was almighty and had proved Himself to be so in creation. A.

13. I, the same God who created all worlds, evermore controlling all events, have also raised up him, Cyrus. I have done it in righteousness—i.e., for purposes of justice and righteousness both toward my people, whom I am to redeem, and toward the guilty king of Babylon, whom in justice I must destroy. The words do not refer to the character of Cyrus as good or just, but to the purpose of God in raising him up. The last clause means that Cyrus would send home those Jewish exiles without demanding any redemption price, doing it of his own generous and free will.

14. The next thought in order is the accession of the Gentiles to the true Church of God, with their wealth, and of course with their hearts. Egypt, Ethiopia and the Sabeans are named here because they are named in chap. 43: 3, and as specimens of the whole Gentile world, the promise applying not less to all other nations. H. C.

15. An apostrophe, expressive of the prophet’s own strong feelings in contrasting what God had done and would yet do, the darkness of the present with the brightness of the future. If these things are to be hereafter, then oh, Thou Saviour of Thy people, Thou art indeed a God that hides Himself—that is to say, conceals His purposes of mercy under the darkness of His present dispensations. A.—

When God is acting as Israel’s God and Saviour, “commonly His way is in the sea” (Ps. 77 : 19). The salvation of the Church is carried on in a mysterious way, by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts working on men’s spirits (Zech. 4 : 6), by weak and unlikely instruments, small and accidental occurrences, and not wrought till the last extremity; but this is our comfort, though God hide Himself, we are sure He is “the God of Israel, the Saviour.” H.

We know enough of God to love and adore Him without His explaining to us all the principles of His government. It enters into His character as a sovereign to conceal some of the reasons of His conduct from His subjects. He is a God that hideth Himself. If it were otherwise, He would not be God. And it is best for us that it should be so. It is best for our education that it should be conducted under a system of mysteries. It does not cramp the intellect. It does not impair its freedom. A wish to solve every mystery is indicative of anything but profoundness of views or goodness of heart. Such a system as that under which we live keeps the curiosity awake, enables the soul, shows it the greatness of the kingdom into which it is introduced, inspires it with reverential awe, enlarges its capacities, and fits it for its destinies. B. B. Edwards.

How often the people of God say with the prophet, “Verily Thou art a God that hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour!” It is true a steadfast faith in the providence of God, that all that He does and all that He permits and disposes is best, will quiet the passions and change the tempestuous ocean into the pacific sea; but when they are admitted into the council of state above and see the immediate reasons of His decrees, what a heavenly wonder, what an exquisite pleasure will fill their minds? When the original fountains of wisdom, as clear as deep, shall be opened, what sweet satisfaction will be shed abroad in their spirits? They will see the beauty of providence in disposing temporal evils in order to their eternal felicity; that as in a curious picture the darkest tinctures are so disposed as to give light and grace to orient colors, so all the afflictions of this state were but shadows or foils, to make their faith, and love, and patience more resplendent, and their reward more excellent. What our Saviour said to Peter is applicable to the impenetrable dispensations of providence to us in our mortal state: “What I do, thou knowest not now, but shalt know hereafter.” Then the secrets of His counsels shall be unsealed, and we shall understand that His overruling providence is most eminently glorified in extracting good out of evil, for we shall know as we are known. Bates.

16,17. Two grand facts are here put in antithesis: 1. That the makers of idols shall be confounded and put to shame. 2. That the true Israel shall be saved with everlasting salvation and never be put to shame through disappointment by the failure of her God to fulfil His promises. These promises, now fresh in mind and deeply affecting, are in these words guaranteed against possible failure.

18. That God “made the earth to be inhabited” is significant here in connection with this prophecy of the ultimate conversion of the nations, as much as to say, I have not only made this earth “all very good,” but I made it to sustain a vast population, and my ultimate purpose is to bring all these nations up to the gates of Zion to say there, “Surely God is in Thee, and there is none else, no other God.” H. C.

19. As He has in His word invited them to seek Him, so He never denied their believing prayers nor disappointed their believing expectations. He said not to them, to any of them, “Seek ye Me in vain;” for if He did not think fit to give them the particular thing they prayed for, yet He gave them grace sufficient and the comfort and satisfaction of soul which were equivalent. God not only gives a gracious answer to, but will be the bountiful rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. H.

It should be enough for us to know that God has established an unfailing connection between prayer and blessing; enough that He has promised to answer prayer. We will leave it to Him to reconcile such absolute promises with His sovereignty and immutability. If He see nothing inconsistent in the promise and the purpose, if He assure us that He does not resign His sceptre or falter in His administration while actually answering a human call upon His interposition, it should satisfy us. The difficulties of the case should not trouble us if they do not trouble God. If we become entangled with them our prayers will surely be hindered. R. S. S.

Prayer is as much a means as anything else. It seizes the arm that moves the stars. It is a great force, not a physical, which you can measure, but a moral force acting on the mind of God, inducing Him to do what He would not do if we did not pray. It is by the regenerate, through Christ, by one who believes in it as an ordinance of God, submissive, accompanied by earnest and intelligent use of all the available means, and is always answered; either (1) What you ask is granted; or (2) in a different form at some other time; or (3) something else and better is given. When your child asks you for something which your wisdom sees is hurtful, you do not grant it, or you give it something better. Our heavenly Father never gives us a stone when we ask for bread, but, thanks be to His name, He often gives us bread when we ask for a stone. A. A. Hodge.

Desires breathed to God are not in vain, but they must be accompanied with seeking, which is effort. What do we do to secure possession of the gifts for which we pray? Spiritual character is not built up in answer to wishes only, whether spoken or unspoken. We have to seek for the treasure, not as if we did not know where it was, but as gold-diggers, who seek for it on their claim, because they know that it is there. The effort is to be continuous. A. M.

It is a mistake, a dangerous error to suppose that man should pray only when his heart prompts. Knowest thou not that the soul is stimulated to prayer by prayer itself? How to approach Him who approacheth you so graciously, you know. Seek the still hour every day. Read the holy Scriptures every day. Attend, every hour and every instant, to every attracting influence of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit keepeth silence, then cling to your prayer. Tholuck.

20,21. To hasten the desired and promised result of converting the nations to God, the summons goes forth. Call them together; let us have a vast convocation; let all those who have survived the judgments of God on guilty nations gather together; let them consider first how utterly ignorant and senseless are all those who set up the wood of their graven image and pray to a god who cannot save. Then let them also consider who hath brought out such minute and wonderful predictions of the distant future, which have moreover been so accurately fulfilled. Is not He who hath done all this the true Jehovah, the omniscient God? Do not these fulfilled predictions prove Him to be indeed the one only God? Yea, let them know that He is a just God and a Saviour, combining perfect justice with boundless mercy; a God whom sinners should fear to offend, yet dare to approach suppliantly, and to whom they should surely be attracted by His great mercies. H. C.

21. A just God, and a Saviour.** The Incarnate Son of God is the Bread of Life. There is no Gospel left when He is stripped of

His Deity; nothing remains but precept and example, empty platitudes about virtues and graces without redeeming energy to set the heart on fire and make life an inspiration. “Thy Saviour is thy God!” that makes all things new; that seals my free and full forgiveness; that makes my sonship real and indestructible; that makes my faith omnipotent; that makes me glory in tribulation and infirmities; that makes me sure of holiness and heaven; that sets the flaming cross for me in the blackest firmament; that makes the open grave the Mecca of my perpetual pilgrimage. Behrends.

When God absolves, it is only in one way—that is, through a Mediator. God cannot forgive sin at the expense of His justice, His holiness or His truth. It is through the blood of Christ alone that He can do this. Justice asked for the sufferings of a man—Christ rendered the sufferings of a God; hence the Fount of Infinite Justice now waits to forgive; and He forgives, for Christ’s sake, the moment that we ask Him. He is just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. Cumming.

In this revelation of God in Christ is the assurance that that Holy One, in whose presence angelic purity grows dim, stoops to take the very nature of the guilty, and blend it in mysterious affiance with His own. More than this: the purity of heaven incarnate exposes itself to a long-continued companionship with evil, permits itself to be pierced with all the anguish that sin’s hostility could inflict upon it, and at last yields up itself as sin’s victim into the hands of death. Yet, with all this, from first to last, infinitely loving right, unerringly cognizant of man’s guilt, taking the full gauge of the abhorrent nature of that which He forgave, Jesus is seen with mercy ever on His lip, forgiveness, compassion, love to sinners in His every look and act. And further, the Gospel permits us to think of Christ as one who, in conveying pardon to guilt, instead of relaxing the strictness or bringing slight on the unbending rectitude of God’s law, offers up the grandest possible tribute to its majesty and the most awful atonement for the sins that infringed it. Here, therefore, in this Gospel of Christ is the most ample provision made for the guilty spirit’s needs. Though my sin cannot be literally unsinned, though the past is irrevocable, yet surely in this my trembling heart may find the rest for which it craves—the assurance that the past may be forgotten, and that sin is blotted out by an act in which its guilt is most fearfully condemned and expiated—when I behold the very God who is Law, Righteousness, Absolute Justice, in human form offering Himself up to the death to save me. Caird.

Everything which punishment, in its own nature, as a mere sanction of law, involves, is involved in the great sacrificial offering of Jesus Christ; and more, for punishment, strictly speaking, has no remedial influence about it. Penalty contemplates not so much the good of the offender as the good of the community or state whose rights he has outraged and whose interests he has sacrificed. The atonement of Jesus Christ contemplates both. By one and the same means it upholds and illustrates the righteousness of God, and reforms and renews the guilty. It constitutes the mightiest, nay the only power which can be brought to bear upon the alienated heart, and recover it to the love and service of its rightful Sovereign; and thus it gives to justice all its claims, and affords goodness free scope for its exercise; makes kindness to the sinner consistent with righteousness—blends mercy and truth, good will and justice together, showing to every intelligent being how God can be just and yet justify the sinner. E. M.

There is a just God over all, for men ever reap just what they sow. But justice in God is something far grander than the mere exercise of retribution; it is the love of eternal truth, purity, righteousness; and the penalties of untruth, impurity, unrighteousness are the outflashings of that holy anger which is founded in His love of the right, the pure and the true. In the same way God’s salvation is more than the mere deliverance from penalty. It is a deliverance from penalty; it is a salvation from the miseries of sin and the agonies inflicted on the soul by the remorse of conscience. But it is at the same time far greater than this; it is the deliverance from evil, salvation from the cruel lusts of wrong; from the bondage of unholy passions growing into the giant-life of eternity; from the deep degradation and horrible selfishness of sin. That is the salvation of God. Here, then, we see how His justice and His salvation are in perfect harmony. His salvation is to free men from the penalties of justice by making them righteous, true and holy in Christ. And thus the purpose of God the Saviour is to change men into the image of God the Just. His justice is not merely a holy anger against all the violations of truth, and righteousness, and purity, but a deep desire to make men like Himself—just, and holy, and true. In a word, God would save men from evil by making them righteous; and thus He is at once the just God and the Saviour. R. T.

22. These great truths crystallize into this broad and blessed invitation, addressed to all people on the wide earth—the most remote as well as the least—saying: “Look unto Me and be ye saved.” H. C.

This is said in view of the declaration made in the previous verse, that He is a just God and a Saviour. It is because He sustains this character that all are invited to look to Him; and the doctrine is that the fact that God is at the same time just, and yet a Saviour, or can save consistently with His justice, is an argument why they should look to Him, and confide in Him. If He is at the same time just—true to His promises; righteous in His dealings; maintaining the honor of His law and His government, and showing His hatred of sin; and also merciful, kind and forgiving, it is a ground of confidence in Him. The direction to look to God for salvation implies a deep conviction that we cannot redeem ourselves; a deep feeling that salvation is necessary; a deep conviction of helplessness and of sin; and a deep conviction that He only can save.

All the Ends of the Earth. The invitation here proves, 1. That the offers of the Gospel are universal. None are excluded. The ends of the earth, the remotest parts of the world, are invited to embrace salvation, and all those portions of the earth might, under this invitation, come and accept the offers of life. 2. That God is willing to save all, or desirous that all should be saved—since He would not give an invitation at all unless He was desirous that they should accept of it; nor would He give an invitation unless He was willing to save them. 3. That there is ample provision for their salvation—since God could not invite them to accept of what was not provided for them, nor could He ask them to partake of salvation which had no existence. 4. That it is His serious and settled purpose that all the ends of the earth shall be invited to embrace the offers of life. The invitation has gone from His lips, and the command has gone forth that it should be carried to every creature, and now it appertains to His Church to carry the glad news of salvation around the world. God intends that it shall be done; and on His Church rests the responsibility of seeing it speedily executed. Barnes.

Strange as it is, yet so it is; we can turn round upon Sovereign Fatherhood bidding us to His service and say, “I will not.” He pleads with us, and we can resist His pleadings. He holds out the mercies of His hands and the gifts of His grace, and we can reject them. We cannot cease to be the objects of His love, but we can refuse to be the recipients of its most precious gifts. We can bar our hearts against it. Then of what avail is it to us? Not to accept is to refuse; non-submission is rebellion. We do not need to emphasize our refusal by any action—no need to lift our clenched hands in defiance. We have simply to put them behind our backs or to keep them folded. The closed hand must remain an empty hand. “He that believeth not is condemned.” Remember that when Christ pleads and draws, to do nothing is to oppose, and to delay is to refuse. It is a very easy matter to ruin your soul. You have simply to keep still when He says, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved.” And all the rest will follow of itself. A. M.

Our salvation is not to be deferred to a distant judgment and a distant heaven. God would save us here, and save us now. He would inspire us with hope, bless us with peace and anoint us with gladness. He would bring our humanity under His curative and restorative power. He has actually accomplished this in regard to many. We see and know the men who are actually resuscitated and in process of being restored. They are not perfect. They are not holy as man was in Eden. They are not like the angels. They are men—heirs of all the ills to which our nature is subject; they have sinned; they have wept; but they have begun to hope and begun to live. The salvation begun will be carried on to perfection. W. Adams.

23. God is supreme, and will yet be acknowledged to be so by every rational being. Every knee shall bow to Him in this acknowledgment—freely and lovingly, or by compulsion and fear, for the language of this statement is not restricted to the voluntary submission of real converts. It is (apparently of purpose) made sufficiently general to include both the voluntary submission of the redeemed and the coerced subjection of the incorrigibly impenitent. Paul quotes this passage twice, first applying it (Rom. 14:11) to the whole world standing before Christ’s judgment-seat and recognizing His infinite supremacy there; and again (Phil. 2:9-11) to Christ’s glorious exaltation by the Father to the throne of the universe. H. C.

24. In the Lord the captive Jews had righteousness; grace both to sanctify their afflictions to them and to qualify them for deliverance, and strength for their support and escape. In the

Lord Jesus we have righteousness to recommend us to the good will of God toward us, and strength to begin and carry on the good work of God in us; He is the Fountain of both, and on Him we must depend for both, must “go forth in His strength and make mention of His righteousness” (Ps. 71:16). H.—No soldier of His goeth a warfare at his own charge. Christ being both their righteousness and strength, they can want nothing—neither riches nor power. Hence they go on from day to day, glorying in Him as their richest treasure, and trusting in Him as their almighty strength; and this is their constant song in the house of their pilgrimage and all their journey through: “Surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength.” Jesus’ righteousness inspires the soul with boldness before God. Jesus’ strength obtains victory over every enemy. This is the triumph of faith. So believers walk safely and comfortably. W. Mason.

In all thy love and well-doing gird thyself up to improve and use aright what remains free in thee, and if thou doest aught aright, say and thankfully believe that Christ hath done it for thee. Oh, what a miserable, despairing wretch should I be if I gave up the faith that the life of Christ would precipitate the remaining dregs of sin in the crisis of death, and that I should rise in purer capacity of Christ, blind, to be irradiated by His light, empty, to be possessed by His fulness, naked of merit, to be clothed by His righteousness! Coleridge.

25. The verse is really intended to wind up the previous addresses to the Gentiles with a solemn declaration of their true relation to the chosen people, as composed of those who really believed and feared God, whether Jews or Gentiles. This principle was recognized in every admission of a proselyte to the communion of the ancient Church, and is repeatedly asserted as a fundamental law of the Christian Church (Rom. 10:12; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). A.

All believers are the seed of Israel, an upright, praying seed. The great privilege they enjoy by Jesus Christ is that in Him and for His sake they are justified before God, Christ being made of God to them righteousness. All that are justified will own it is in Christ that they are justified, nor could they be justified by any other; and those who are justified shall be glorified. And, therefore, the great duty believers owe to Christ is to glory in Him and to make their boast of Him; therefore He is made all in all to us, that “whoso glories, may glory in the Lord;” and let us comply with this intention. H.