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EDITORIAL

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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Dec 11, 1928

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 55, No. 49.

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EDITORIAL

By Editor

ASA OSCAR TAIT ALONZO L. BAKER

“WILL HOLD THY HAND”

Last week we called attention to some of the prophecies of the Old Testament that were given concerning the Messiah, and it was the particular desire to lay special stress upon the prophetic promises that were given to the Master before He should come to this earth to assume human flesh and human nature, and thus to fight in person for humanity the divinely heroic battle against sin.
In His human form, although He was the infinite Christ, He must, nevertheless, as the “Son of man,” Himself test the power and show the trustworthiness of the mighty promises given through the prophets to the battling sinner who is striving for the mastery that results in the true principles of righteousness being enthroned within.
With these thoughts in mind, carefully read this additional portion of that wonderful forty-second chapter of Isaiah, all of which is addressed primarily to the Christ:
“Thus saith God Jehovah, He that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; He that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I, Jehovah, have called Thee in righteousness, and will hold Thy hand, and will keep Thee, and give Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. I am Jehovah, that is My name; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise unto graven images. Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
“Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and His praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit; let the inhabitants of Sela sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto Jehovah, and declare His praise in the islands. Jehovah will go forth as a mighty man; He will stir up His zeal like a man of war: He will cry, yea, He will shout aloud; He will do mightily against His enemies.
“I have long time holden My peace; I have been still, and refrained Myself: now will I cry out like a travailing woman; I will gasp and pant together. I will lay waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and will dry up the pools. And I will bring the blind by a way that they know not will I lead them; I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things will I do, and I will not forsake them. They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly put to shame, that trust in graven images, that say unto molten images, Ye are our gods.” Isaiah 42:5-17.
Thoughtful study of this remarkable passage of Scripture will reveal the terrible conflict that sin has occasioned. It will show the mighty stress through which the Master Himself was called upon to pass in order to make a way of escape for the sinner. As this scripture is studied, we will sense the force, more than ever, of that injunction of the Master’s, “Strive to enter in by the narrow door: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able.” Luke 13:24.
It is only when we attempt to break away from sin that we realize its exceedingly strong hold on us; it is only when we seek to conquer the bad habits that we have formed; it is only when we seek to have the love of God in our hearts take the place of our grudges and our hatreds and all our evil nature, that we have a realizing sense of the hopelessness of the task, except as we lay hold upon divine power. And how apropos is the statement at the beginning of this quotation from Isaiah, “Thus saith God Jehovah, He that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; He that spread abroad the earth, and that which cometh out of it; He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I, Jehovah, have called Thee in righteousness.”
It requires the mighty power exercised in the creation of the heavens and the earth to cope with the powers of sin that have entrenched themselves in the hearts of men.
The Master entered human flesh to win this struggle in our behalf, and as He entered the conflict, the promise was given to Him by His divine Father, “I, Jehovah, . . . will hold Thy hand, and will keep Thee.” The infinite Christ, when He lays aside His divinity and becomes one of us, and accepts the title of “Son of man” as well as “Son of God,” must cling to divine power, and must sense that His Father is holding Him in the conflict. In this conflict He is to open the blind eyes, He is to make a way for the sinner to escape, He is to fill him with the confidence of victory; and, because of this great success, the triumph song is sung, as recorded in verses 10-13.
As we view the battle that the Master Himself fought, as so graphically expressed in scriptures like these from Isaiah, we realize what salvation has cost heaven; and we renew our consecration to Him who loved us so much as thus to give Himself for us. T.