'He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me? let us stand
together: who is Mine adversary? let him come near to Me. 9. Behold,
the Lord God will help Me; who is he that shall condemn Me? lo, they
all shall wax old as a garment; the moth shall eat them up.'--ISAIAH l.
8, 9.
We have reached the final words of this prophecy, and we hear in them a
tone of lofty confidence and triumph. While the former ones sounded
plaintive like soft flute music, this rings out clear like the note of
a trumpet summoning to battle. The Servant of the Lord seems here to be
eager for the conflict, not merely patient and enduring, not merely
setting His face like a flint, but confidently challenging His
adversaries, and daring them to the strife.
As for the form of the words, the image underlying the whole is that of
a suit at law. It is noteworthy that since Isaiah xli. this metaphor
has run through the whole prophecy. The great controversy is God
_versus_ Idols. God appears at the bar of men, pleads His cause, calls
His witnesses (xliii. 9). 'Let them' (_i.e._ idols) 'bring forth their
witnesses that they may be justified.'
Possibly the form of the words here is owing to the dominance of that
idea in the context, and implies nothing more than the general notion
of opposition and victory. But it is at least worth remembering that in
the life of Christ we have many instances in which the prophetic images
were literally fulfilled even though their meaning was mainly
symbolical: as _e.g._ the riding on the ass, the birth in Bethlehem,
the silence before accusers, 'a bone of Him shall not be broken,' and
in this very contest, 'shame and spitting.' So here there may be
included a reference to that time when the hatred of opposition reached
its highest point--in the sufferings and death of our Lord. And it is
at least a remarkable coincidence that that highest point was reached
in formal trials before the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, for
the purpose of convicting Him, and that these processes as legal
procedures broke down so signally.