Covenanter Witness Vol. 55 - Rparchives.org

soul."many."satisfied."soul."satisfied."us."glory."elect,"Our Happy RedeemerJ. K. Robb, D.D."He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall beIsaiah 53:11We think of the Old Testament prophets as having been the predictors of coming events. It is butnatural, perhaps, that we should so regard them,since we have come to know of so many events fulfilled that were foretold by them. But the prophetsthemselves must have regarded their predictions asbeing secondary in importance to other work of amore pressing nature.These men were preachers of righteousness.They were religious statesmen. And so their missionwas primarily to the people of their own day. Butdelivering to Israel the messages of God, they pointed to the future, and uttered predictions of a mostwonderful character concerning things to come. Buttheir prophecies, whether of promise or of warning,whether of blessing or of woe, were employed bythem as so many reasons why Israel should in thepresent return to God, and renew their vows madewith Him. And so it was for the purpose of kindlingagain in the hearts of backslidden Israel the fire ofdevotion to their Lord that Isaiah presented this incomparable picture of the Messiah's sufferings andthe glories that should follow.This chapter deals principally with the lowliness and sufferings of Jesus, and contrasts strangelywith other prophecies of glory and of royal majestythat are found in this same book. It presents Jesusas the suffering Saviour in a light that is scarcelyexceeded by the actual story of the cross as foundin the gospel, and the whole range of His sufferingsis expressed in these simple words, "The travail ofHis But let the prophet tell us what he meansby them : "He was wounded for our transgressions ;He was bruised for our iniquities ; the chastisementof our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes weare healed." It means just what Jesus Himself said"The Son of man came not to be ministered unto,but to minister, and to give His life a ransom forIt means just what Paul said: "He, whoknew no sin, was made to be made sin for Inother words, all the sorrows and humiliations andsuffering in His undertaking to save His people fromtheir sins, all the agony and cost of it, are expressedin this saying, "The travail of HisAnd so Isaiah goes on to say, "He shall see thetravail of His soul, and shall be After soultravailcome the fruits of it. What has been the outcome of the soul-travail of Jesus? What have thesufferings and death of the Saviour accomplished,and with what measure of satisfaction to Himself ?I HE WAS SATISFIED WITH HIS EXHIBITIONOF THE DIVINE CHARACTER.One of His earlier and best-remembered utterances is, "I must work the works of Him that sentMe."And what was that work so imperitive in character? It was to reveal God to a sinful world. Theworld had forgotten. The divine image,even where it324remained dimly,was all distorted and blurred. Theminds of men were darkened; they did not understand God. They made deities with their own hands,and called them their gods. And how much menneeded to know God, and to understand the divinecharacter as it really is ! And let us not forget thatthe divine attributes had not been revealed in alltheir glory until the Lord Jesus Christ Himself declared, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father."And so this soul-travail of Jesus has revealed God,and has enabled men to know Him as he really is,the One and only God.And so it has come to pass that we can now knowGod in what would seem strange to us the most unlikely manner imaginable. Strange as it is, there hasbeen made a revelation of the Most High, to us themore wonderful than that which burst upon the eyesof trembling Israel when Sinai, altogether on asmoke because the Lord descended upon it, shookwith His footsteps, and its crest flamed with the fireof the unapproachable Presence. And Isaiah himselftells of the vision that he had seen of One seated on athrone high and lifted up; One before whom theSeraphim stood with veiled faces, crying one to another and saying; "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord ofHosts the whole earth is full of His Onewhose verypresence smote the prophet with penitence and caused him to cry out, "Woe is me !for Iam undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, anddwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; formine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts."But if we are to know God we must turn our eyestoward Calvary, and see that rabble about thosecrosses, on the central one of which a Jewish peasantis transfixed. He is dying of a grief that has brokenHis heart. His enemies are mocking Him, and laughing at His agony. And finally, under a darkened sky,with none to pity, with none to comfort, this crucified Jew expires with a loud cry. Who is He? and thevoices of angels, the voices of prophets, the voices ofapostles,and now the voices of countless multitudesproclaim, "Behold your God." Jesus on Calvary presented the opportunity for the world to know thetrue God, "the only Redeemer of God's theeternal Son of God. This is the climax of God's revelation of Himself to man. And today our Lord sits atthe Father's right hand, knowing that He has madeit possible for man to know God; that He has madeGod's purpose and desire known, and all that wasneeded to be done. So, out of this travail of soul Hehas enabled men to know God, and with this exhibition of the Divine character Jesus is satisfied.II. HE SHALL BE SATISFIED WITH THERESULTS OF HIS REDEMPTIVE WORK.The text is the prophecy of the time when allends of the earth shall remember and turn unto theLord. He is to have the heathen for an inheritance,and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession.This is the sublime outlook for evangelism throughout the world. Jesus Christ is to be satisfied. He isCOVENANTER WITNESS