bone of Jesus to be broken, caused his body to be given to a rich man, and deposited, during the period of his death, in a sepulcher hewn in the rock. Matt. xxvii, 57-60. Nevertheless, the death of Jesus and the disposal of his body would ever be associated with a malefactor's end. He was numbered with transgressors, (verse 12,) and the unjust Pilate and his soldiers had the control and disposition of his burial, and only by the Roman governor's consent could Joseph of Arimathea take the body away. All this was a part of the humiliation. and indignity heaped upon one who was guilty of no violence or wrong. Compare 1 Pet. ii, 22. The rich man's obtaining the body from Pilate is not to be pressed as a triumph, and set forth as a deliverance of Jesus from the unjust; but only as a noticeable incident in connection with his death.

Verse 10. And now comes the wonderful announcement that Jehovah was pleased to crush him down like this. It was no accident; nor were Messiah's sorrows, and painful knowledge of the sicknesses of humanity, and the taking of them on himself, (verses 3, 4,) a penalty or consequence of his own sin, but God made him sick. He subjected him to all the humiliation that has been portrayed above, and such was his pleasure. For "thus it behooved Christ to suffer." Luke xxiv, 26, 46; Acts xvii, 3. There was a divine necessity that called for the sacrifice, and the sufferer was not an unwilling victim, but freely "bared his soul to death." Verse 12. And God set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, (Rom. iii, 25,) to manifest his glory, and wisdom, and power, and to bring many sons unto glory. Heb. ii, 10. In every stage and aspect of this atoning work the Eternal Father might well smile, and say, as when Jesus submitted himself to be identified with sinners in the baptism of repentance, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

Rising now in his emotion, the prophet addresses Jehovah, and, with an inspiration and revelation like that which once lifted Simon Peter beyond himself, (Matt. xvi, 17,) he says, If thou set forth his soul (that is, Messiah's soul) an offering for sin, he (Messiah) shall see seed, (that is, posterity.) If the All-wise Jehovah make his servant's soul a trespass-offering, (Dvs,) what immeasurable results are likely to follow! Such expiatory sacrifice will doubtless insure the noblest gains, else would not

the Omniscient make it. To see a numerous and powerful posterity was among the highest hopes of the pious Israelite, (compare Gen. xvii, 5, 6; 1, 23; Job xlii, 16; Psalm cxxvii, 3–5; cxxviii, 6;) and the thought is here used as peculiarly fitted to impress upon the Israelitish mind an ideal of Messiah's. after glory. In his spiritual seed would be fulfilled in its grandest form the ancient promise to Abraham, (Gen. xii, 3; xv, 5;) for the justified by faith are the true sons of Abraham, and also sons of him whose day of glory Abraham rejoiced to see. John viii, 39, 56; Rom. ii, 28, 29. In the next sentence we meet a kindred thought, he shall prolong his days. In a higher and grander sense than worldlings think, the Messiah has "the power of an endless life." Heb. vii, 16. Length of days in the temporal sense (Exod. xx, 12; Deut. iv, 40; Prov. iii, 2) was not for him who was cut off for Israel's transgression, (verse 8;) but by his voluntary sacrifice of himself, and obedience even unto the death of the cross, he obtained the keys of death and Hades, and is alive for evermore. Rev. i, 18. And so he attains "an unchangeable priesthood," (Heb. vii, 24, 25; compare Psalm xxi, 4;) and abides "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Heb. xiii, 8. And also, having risen to the right hand of God, (Psalm ex, 1,) "he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet." 1 Cor. xv, 25. In view of all this it is absolutely certain that the pleasure of Jehovah, his desire and purpose in the whole plan of redemption, in his hand (his servant's hand) shall prosper and prevail. Jehovah was pleased to crush his servant down, (verse 10,) not because he delighted in his or any one's sufferings, but because it was only by his stripes that the leprosy of sin could be healed, (verse 5,) and those results reached in which Jehovah has everlasting delight.

Verse 11. And yet in another form will the rapt prophet set forth the glorious outcome of Messiah's toil. Of the laborious travail of his soul shall he see; that excruciating labor, previously described, shall yield rich harvests to his eye, such as will abundantly satisfy him. He will see that the "much fruit" resulting from the dying grain is ample recompense for all the sacrifice. John xii, 24, 32. And with this thought he returns to that of the divine wisdom with which he began his lofty strain, (lii, 13;) and as the vision glows before him, and he is

conscious that Jehovah's own word is on his tongue, he again speaks in his name, and calls the wonderful Messiah my servant, and says of him in his superior knowledge will he bring righteousness to multitudes. In his wisdom and knowledge are the infinite resources by which Messiah becomes "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Rom. x, 4. He suffers for sins, the just for the unjust, that he may bring us sinners to God. 1 Pet. iii, 18. Thus he maintains and honors divine justice, while at the same time he secures justification to every sinner that believes in Jesus. Rom. iii, 26. Thus is manifested "the righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe." Rom. iii, 22. In his exalted state his mediation ever continues, (verse 12,) and as truly as he bore our sorrows, (verse 4,) he will ever bear the sins of many.

Verse 12. And now comes the grand conclusion. Therefore, says Jehovah through his prophet, in view of all the humiliation and suffering of my servant, and the results that follow, I will apportion him a lot with many. I will see that he obtain a reward worthy of a princely conqueror. In leading many sons unto glory he shall share with them an incorruptible inheritance, and the many, having become the sons of God, are also heirs, "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." Rom. viii, 17. It takes nothing away from the glory of the Messiah that others share it with him. Rather, his glory attains perfection only when his own redeemed rise to be with him in his glory. and behold its splendor. John xvii, 24. Nor will the glorified sons of God be unsuitable partners in Messiah's triumph. He himself will recognize them as-fellow conquerors, and say: "To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down on my Father's throne." Rev. iii, 21. Among such will Messiah delight to divide the spoil, as a conqueror among many mighty ones, and they shall all be "kings and priests unto God." Rev. 1, 6; v, 10; xx, 6; xxii, 5. In that day will the great Spoil-divider say: "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv, 34. Thus the vision stretches far beyond the millennial age, even into the new heavens and new earth, in which the saints will reign forever with their immortal Lord.

But the burden of this prophecy is the suffering and sacrifice that yield surpassing glory; and the inspired prophet will not close without once more reminding us that all this glory is possible because he bared his soul to death. "For the joy that was set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame." Heb. xii, 2. The words, with sinners he was numbered, are cited by Mark (xv, 28) and Luke, (xxii, 37,) as fulfilled in the fact that Jesus was crucified like a transgressor, and between two criminals. The last two lines express the two profoundest facts of Christ's redeeming work; namely, the one efficacious oblation for sin, once offered, and the eyerlasting intercession. The first "he did once, when he offered up himself." Heb. vii, 27. "Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared . to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Heb. ix, 26-28. The second is seen in his unchangeable priesthood, whereby "he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Heb. vii, 25. Compare also Rom. v, 10. So, in the exposition of these verses, we see Messiah set forth in the threefold character of Prophet, Priest, and King.

DISQUISITION.

In the foregoing exposition we have made little or no mention of interpretations differing from our own. If we have set forth the true exposition, all others are superseded, and it would be a needless labor to inention other views merely for the sake of refuting them, or saying that we differ from them. But there are three notable questions involved in this Scripture, which no interpreter has a right to ignore. They have been for centuries the subject of biblical and theological disquisition, and deserve our serious study. The first two are concerning the Servant of Jehovah; who he is, and what the nature of his sufferings. The other is the question of the authorship of this portion of the Book of Isaiah.

I. The first question was long ago put to Philip, the evangelist, by an Ethiopian: "Of whom speaketh the prophet this; of himself, or of some other man?" Acts viii, 34. And we are

told that "Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." This we know to have been the exposition of the apostolic age, and universally maintained in the Christian Church for more than fifteen hundred years. This exposition we have set forth above, and shown how the prophet's words have a well-defined and accurate fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Saviour of men. The most ancient Jewish exposition, also, as Hengstenberg has abundantly shown in his Christology, referred the prophecy to the Messiah. And this exposition, we believe, would never have been abandoned by Judaism but for the fact that in controversy with the Christians it was seen to be otherwise impossible to resist the proof that Jesus was the Christ. Nor does the Messianic view meet opposition outside of Judaism except from those who deny the supernatural element in prophecy. But, having rejected the beautiful and self-consistent Messianic exposition, what do these opposers give us in its stead? There is, first, one class, who understand by Jehovah's servant, not an individual, but a collective body. But these represent at least five different expositions. The most popular is that of the Jewish rabbins Jarchi, Aben Ezra, and Kimchi, according to whom Jehovah's servant is the Jewish people, now scattered abroad among all nations, and exposed to insult and abuse. This view is adopted by many modern Germans, (Rosenmüller, Eichhorn, Hitzig,) who understand, however, the Babylonish exile of the Jews rather than their present dispersion. Besides the numerous difficulties with which this view is beset in explaining particular words and phrases, it is sufficiently refuted by an appeal to this one fact, which all the world knows, that the Jewish people, both in their present dispersion and former exile, suffered for their own, and not for others' sins. And so far from being led like an unresisting sheep to the slaughter, they have been notoriously obstinate and rebellious. Others, however, limit the reference to a portion or class of the Jewish people, as, for example, the pious and more spiritual, (Paulus, Maurer, Ewald, Knobel ;) or the prophets, (De Wette, Winer;) or the priesthood. Eckermann understands the nation in the abstract, as distinguished from its individual members. And the Maccabees have also been adduced as meeting the description of the prophet. Each one of