He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.
The Servant is Jesus Christ, upheld by God and filled with His Spirit as He labors among people as a man. He does not fail or lose heart and courage, but perseveres until He finishes His appointed work, sheltered by God so that hatred and opposition cannot stop Him. To set judgment in the earth is to bring justice and truth to the Gentiles and establish it faithfully as God ordained, while distant nations and islands hunger for and wait to receive His instruction and light. He does this work quietly and gently, without display or breaking the bruised and faint, while honoring God's law, freeing it from human burdens, and restoring fallen people to God's image. His unfailing perseverance is the pattern and resolve of all faithful workers, who go forward in faith through impossibility and discouragement to win souls until truth triumphs.
Servant Identity and Context
The Servant is Jesus Christ, God's chosen Servant upheld by God and endowed with His Spirit, laboring in humanity as a man among men. He stands as truth personified, bringing judgment unto truth to the Gentiles and faithfully completing the appointed work in the way God ordained. His mission is carried out in dependence on God, humbling Himself to lead humanity and revealing perfect obedience to all God's commandments. Tempted yet loyal to His Father, He lays aside royal power and labors in lowliness and humility as the example in all words and works.
The immediate setting is gentle, quiet service without crying, striving, self-exaltation, noise, or display in the street. He does not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax, but protects the weak rather than crushing them, encouraging faint faith and shepherding the afflicted. His quiet, compassionate manner treats the weak with gentleness while He brings God's judgment to the Gentiles and establishes it in truth.
His commission is to be called in righteousness to be a covenant of the people and a light of the Gentiles. He is upheld by God and given for this work, to open blind eyes and bring prisoners out of darkness into light. This fulfills God's declared purpose and brings God's instruction to the nations, giving light to the Gentiles in every land and island and causing a new song of praise declaring His praise. When spiritual darkness covered the earth, with divinity veiled by humanity He came as the light of the world to restore the moral image of God in all who would receive Him, preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering captives, giving sight to the blind, setting at liberty the bruised, and releasing the oppressed.
The verse belongs to comfort spoken to Jerusalem and to God's revealed purpose for His people. It is part of a chapter of promises and assurance encouraging believers that the Lord's word will be fulfilled, continuing God's promises of what He has done and will do for His people if they follow on to know Him, whose coming is as certain as the morning. It stands in a chain of promises running chapter after chapter through Isaiah 44, 45 and onward, calling for far greater appreciation of that encouragement. This revelation is to be prayerfully studied, with wisdom sought from God and not from finite human beings, and to be studied in connection with Isaiah 40 and Second Peter as a call to deeply spiritual, thorough reformatory work with prepared hearts, clear understanding, and no haphazard work, led out by men worked by the Holy Spirit.
Perseverance Until Success
Not failing nor being discouraged means persevering without failing, losing heart, losing courage, or losing hope until judgment is set in the earth and the appointed work is finished. It is perseverance without failure or discouragement until judgment is established throughout the earth in truth and faithfulness, in the way ordained, with judgment brought to the Gentiles. The distant isles and peoples, the nations in every land and island, wait for His law, instruction, and light.
This endurance was upheld by God, who sheltered Him so that hatred directed against Him could not thwart the plan of salvation or stop the completion of His work. Human hatred inspired by Satan was not permitted to thwart the design of the great plan, because sheltering care protected His mission to earth. He pressed on without failing or losing courage until He set judgment in the earth, and did not fail nor grow discouraged until His work was done.
He continued without giving up or losing heart despite the discouraging conditions of a world marred by sin, seared and marred with the curse. He came to this speck of a world to become incarnate and suffer rather than going to unfallen worlds, and the outlook for His work was unfavorable and most discouraging, yet He did not fail nor become discouraged until He set judgment in the earth. Though the greatest Teacher, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, treated worse than His followers are treated, yet He did not fail. He paid the great price that man should not perish but have everlasting life, because one human soul is of highest value and outweighs all the world and worlds beside, so His followers must not talk of failure or discouragement when only a few receive truth and returns seem small but must keep working with wise perseverance to hold minds to the point. He did not give up or lose heart but continued until He set judgment in the earth even when those who prided themselves on keeping the law opposed Him with fierce national anger and sought to murder Him because their ideas were crossed, and He bore grief from privileged people turning into forbidden paths amid poverty, sorrow, and rejection.
He faced great temptations to resist yet would not fail or be discouraged, and though Satan brought Him pain, temptation, sorrow, rejection, obstacles, and daily contact with evil, He did not yield. By cherishing self-command He met the hosts of Satan at every advance step, declaring that Satan would find nothing in Him to appropriate to His service, with the hosts of heaven at His command to be His rear guard. Through unexampled self-denial He steadfastly followed the path to Calvary, where He became the sacrifice and surety for humanity, joining divinity with humanity and enduring profound humiliation as God giving Himself for the salvation of the fallen race. All the host of Satan worked against Him during His earthly life to keep Him from accomplishing the work He came to do, yet He kept on without failing or losing courage even to suffering on Calvary's cross, and His endurance gained victory over Satan and brought deliverance from Satan's power and bondage to the human family.
Judgment and Law Worldwide
To set judgment in the earth is to bring judgment and justice to the Gentiles and to establish it in truth throughout the earth. It is to bring forth judgment unto truth, He Himself being truth personified, and to faithfully continue and complete God's appointed work in the way God ordained until it is established. This establishing is done steadily and gently, without failing or losing heart, courage, or hope, as part of God's plan to redeem humanity.
The isles waiting for His law are the distant nations, the Gentiles in every land and island, who hunger for the knowledge of God and wait to receive His law. They wait for His instruction, teaching, and light, to have blind eyes opened and prisoners in darkness brought out, to be given light, to sing a new song and declare His praise. Distant peoples in every place look to His law and await it with expectancy.
His setting of judgment magnifies God's law and makes it honorable. He upholds its importance, perfection, truth, and binding claims rather than lessening its dignity, diminishing its authority, or abolishing it. He lifts it from under trampling feet and frees its precepts from discouraging human burdens and traditions that hindered acceptable service, as shown when He healed on the Sabbath to declare those burdensome human requirements void.
Grace does not abolish law or take its place, but grace and law are in perfect harmony and walk hand in hand. By grace sinners are enabled to draw near by faith and, only by partaking of the divine nature, to keep the commandments and testify to the validity of the law by living out its principles. Christ condemned sin in the flesh, bore the curse of sin for humanity, and kept His Father's commandments, and His lived law provides victory over corrupting natural inclinations, mastery over temptations from within and without, and completeness of character by divine power for genuine reform.
Christ's Manner and Work
He worked in lowliness and humility, laying aside royal power and standing as a man among men, without contention, noise, crying, lifting His voice in the street, self-exaltation, self-importance, human praise, or large outlay for display. Centuries before His birth it was foretold that He would come in this way, foreign to the homage the world gives to position, wealth, or talent, using none of the means men employ to win allegiance, not bursting upon the world in splendor to dazzle the senses but coming quietly and gently as morning daylight dispels darkness and wakes the world to life, arising as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. As the truth personified He brought forth judgment unto truth to the Gentiles, ministering as the greatest Medical Missionary to the afflicted and teaching the way of life from place to place until He set judgment in the earth, with the Gentiles and the isles in every land and island waiting to receive His law, to be given light, to have blind eyes opened and prisoners in darkness brought out, and to sing a new song and declare His praise. His persevering, diligent, earnest personal labor to bring the truths of God's Word to bear upon human hearts, turning many to the Lord in confidence and joining heavenly gifts to skillful use of natural agencies for disease with no haphazard work, is the pattern for working cities and calling rich and poor in highways and byways to God's supper, by inexpensive thorough spiritual labor without absorbing God's money in needless display or theatrical meetings. The true science of redeeming grace revealed in this is to be diligently studied and treasured above gold and silver, with a firm stand on the Word of God against every false science that would turn truth into nothingness.
His tender, forbearing love for fallen men, even His enemies whom He ransomed with His life, was beaten back by rocky, sin-bound, resistant souls and grieved by the dullness of His own disciples, yet it was not quenched or extinguished but returned again in stronger waves of light and affection, suffering long, bearing much, and loving still. Supernaturally sustained by strength drawn from a hidden source, He endured their hostility and the continual grief of seeing people reject Him and perish within reach of help, His love did not languish, and He continued His ministry of compassion without failing or growing discouraged until His work was done.
He is the Restorer who does not fail nor become discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth and restored the moral image of God in man that Satan nearly obliterated. He took humanity and entered the depths of human misery and sin to seek and save the lost through self-denial and self-sacrifice, giving His followers an example to leave selfish pleasure and ease, resist Satan's temptations, and bring people from darkness to the light of God's love with forgiveness, renewed character, and His righteousness. All who connect themselves with God have hereditary peculiarities and deficiencies of character overcome through faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ in the new birth, and receive by His grace a fitness to do successfully the very work God has chosen for them, even when phrenological head-reading has judged them unfit and turned them away into false paths. He saw in man vast powers and capabilities for good for the upbuilding of God's kingdom, and came to reveal the Father and restore spiritual life to a human family sunk so low under broken law that infusion of spiritual life seemed impossible, giving life to those dead in trespasses and sins, rousing hearts palsied by transgression by the Holy Spirit, awaking sleepers and raising them from the dead. To arouse the spiritually dead, to create new tastes and new motives and convert the sinner from the error of his ways, is giving life to the dead and requires as great an outlay of power as raising one from physical death, but having life in Himself as the Father has life in Himself and having come to destroy the works of the enemy, He is able to do it and will accomplish what He pledged to perform, continuing to serve and save even when few responded, with joy in the salvation of those who accepted His grace, since even one person uplifted and prepared for the Lord's presence was worth His toil and sacrifice.
He sustained His mission by solitude and peaceful retirement, withdrawing from the noise and confusion of the city to retired places and often spending whole nights on the lonely mountain in earnest prevailing intercession to His Father with strong cries and tears for strength to meet temptation and to accomplish salvation, then quietly resuming through the day without ceasing His labor of mercy and disinterested benevolence. His whole soul went out for His little flock, and while others slept He gained strength to meet the temptations of the enemy and prayed for those who would not pray for themselves, carrying on His work without being overcome or discouraged. He kept this humble, pious course in marked contrast to the hypocritical chief priests, scribes, elders and Pharisees who prayed in crowded synagogues and street corners to be seen and praised, did charity publicly to draw attention, raised their voices in self-exaltation and doctrinal contention, and were resentful, unforgiving, proud and bigoted, whose relentless hatred sought to destroy Him without thwarting Him.
In keeping with His mission to magnify the law and make it honorable rather than lessen its dignity, He healed on the Sabbath to free it from burdensome human requirements and show that those traditions were void. As the spotless sacrifice represented by the ancient offering, He faithfully carried out His work of establishing God's law, and His work calls God's children to be holy and without blemish. He lived that law and provides victory over corrupting natural inclinations and completeness of character, bringing the body and its powers under God's rule and using them in the service of character and good. His life is the source of divine power for genuine reform, enabling people to resist temptations from within and without and to gain mastery over corrupt natural inclinations.
Prophecy and Fulfillment
Centuries before His birth it was foretold that He would come quietly and gently, as morning daylight dispels darkness and wakes the world to life, without bursting upon the world in splendor to dazzle the senses with glory. He would live without self-assertion, foreign to the homage the world gives to position, wealth, or talent, and would use none of the means men employ to win allegiance or command homage. When spiritual darkness covered the earth, God sent Jesus with divinity veiled by humanity to bring truth as the light of the world and to restore the moral image of God in all who would receive Him. The distant nations waiting for His teaching are the Gentiles beyond Israel, hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and virtue and coming to His light. His mission was to reach beyond Israel, to set judgment in the earth and establish it throughout the earth as part of God's plan to redeem humanity, and His words and teaching would command attention.
Isaiah 42:4 foretells the work Christ would do to proclaim the gospel, the Word of life, to a world shadowed and corrupted by transgression and sin by establishing judgment in the earth with a law the distant lands would wait for. After His crucifixion and resurrection, thousands opening the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation with intense desire and anointed eyes would see in Christ crucified the exact work the prophecies declared He would do. His gathered words proclaimed in the New Testament would thrill the world.
He would not fail nor be discouraged till He set judgment in the earth, arising as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, bringing judgment to truth while the distant nations await His law. His announced work is preaching the gospel to the poor, preaching good tidings to the meek, healing the brokenhearted and binding them up, delivering captives and proclaiming liberty to them, giving sight to the blind, setting at liberty the bruised and releasing the oppressed, comforting mourners, and making them trees of righteousness for the glory of God. This work belongs to the opening proclamation of His mission and is also the final work that closes this world's history, when as Messenger of the Covenant and Sun of Righteousness He shines gloriously upon His people and brings God's light to the world. He works with human agents through the Holy Spirit without failing or becoming discouraged until judgment is set in the earth, having arisen to clothe His people with the garments of salvation for that anointed work. It is the work of presenting the warning message to the world and giving the reason for this faith, with camp meetings providing the opportunity to give people the information they desire.
Pattern for Faithful Workers
His persevering, diligent labor to bring the truths of God's word to bear on human hearts is the pattern for preaching, teaching, city work, and calling rich and poor in highways and byways to the supper. That pattern is lowly, humble, self-emptying service without crying, contending, self-exaltation, noise, display, or large outlay of money, ministering to the afflicted and teaching the way of life from place to place as the greatest Medical Missionary. It is inexpensive thorough spiritual labor rather than absorbing means in needless display or theatrical meetings, done with no haphazard work, joining heavenly gifts to skillful use of natural agencies for disease until many are turned to the Lord. It is to be diligently studied and treasured above gold and silver as the true science of redeeming grace, with a firm stand on the Word against every false science that would turn truth into nothingness. His servants follow the same example by showing mercy and tenderness to the oppressed, poor, afflicted, tempted, and discouraged, helping rather than deepening distress, and his enduring worldwide mission calls Christians to keep working with him to bring the gospel to distant peoples waiting for his law.
I will not fail nor be discouraged is the resolve, motto, and prayer of everyone transformed into His likeness and filled with the spirit of the great missionary Worker. That spirit creates desire to bear tidings of salvation to regions beyond to those who know not the Saviour, consecrating time and strength, means and influence, and using every ability to win souls to Christ. The sacrifice of Calvary is the motive for untiring effort and unflagging zeal, drawing those around to the Saviour by a consistent life showing man may become a partaker of the divine nature. When man becomes a co-worker with God through faith the human mold fades before the divine resemblance, and his work is one God can approve in highest terms, not uncertain but abiding through eternal ages and bearing the divine test. It means not giving up or being hindered but gathering forces in unity to carry the work steadily forward, laboring faithfully to the end, urging others not to faint but to hold on, and continuing to open new territory despite criticism, opposition, and hardship.
Workers share His enduring faith to go forward through apparent impossibilities, despairing of nothing and hoping for everything by grace, overcoming difficulties and resisting evil through power given by God. He had stronger reason for discouragement than any worker will ever have, yet did not fail, and His perseverance is the example and measure for His church to awaken to earnest activity and work by faith. This means doing their best in obedience to His commands and promises, sowing beside all waters, expecting God to work, praying much, refusing hopeless and discouraging talk, refusing to sit still, and when enemies close the way going to work in another place. No word of doubt or unbelief is to be spoken to weaken fellow workers, and speech is not to exalt Satan's power or limit God, but to speak faith, courage, praise, and prayer while moving forward in trust. Those who seek the Lord, trust Him implicitly, walk humbly, and use every help receive divine power, with His strength becoming their strength as shield and fortress, securing perseverance through cooperation of divine and human agency unto salvation, while the disheartened are to cease gloomy thoughts, fall broken on the Rock, and let Him fashion character after His likeness until discord dies for lack of food.
This means continuing faithfully when hearers are few, prejudice strong, and no visible results appear, having the mind of Christ to work in His lines. Even as the greatest Teacher He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, treated worse than His followers are treated, yet He did not fail but kept working to rescue the perishing at great price. One soul uplifted and prepared for the Lord's presence outweighs all the world and is worth all toil and sacrifice, and there is joy in heaven over the rescued in which workers may share. He came to a world marred by the curse where the outlook was discouraging, yet persevered without losing heart until judgment was set in the earth. It means patient love burning in the heart, even greater than Moses had, with zeal balanced by wisdom, exercised especially toward the weak, youth, and erring, persisting in love and soul-saving instead of loveless indifference. Toward rough, stubborn, and sullen dispositions it means practiced love, sympathy, and tenderness, because they need help most and harsh treatment as deserved could destroy hope and ruin souls.
It calls for self-denial, holding firmly to the work when difficulties come, refusing to tear down what others are building, expecting no large wages nor to be carried financially or spiritually, visiting people where they are, and cooperating with God while others cooperate with them. Those laboring together with God partake of the Captain's patient, devoted, persevering mind under vigilant opposition, pressing truth into new territory and bringing souls into subjection instead of standing by as feeble spectators. A successful church is aggressive, not letting interest weaken but pressing the battle at whatever cost to the gates of the enemy, with heavenly intelligences ready to work with human agents under Christ's supreme authority and invincible power. Continuing dependence is on the throne of grace, persevering because people may perish otherwise, with men and women filled with self-sacrifice consecrating all they have and are to strengthen and build up what others are trying to do.
In Boston and other cities it means moving out by faith in answer to God's call, with assurance He will greatly bless, working quietly and earnestly without great outward demonstration as humble workers whom the Lord helps. In building meeting-houses it means advancing even when all money required is not in sight, working and praying and believing to receive fulfillment of promises, laying aside doubts and questioning, and obeying the command to arise and build without abridging the task or failing to provide places where the Redeemer may meet with His people. In the Southern field and among colored people it forbids foolish labor and working a little while then tiring and going home, requiring continuance despite criticism, opposition, and hardship. That field must be worked intelligently by the most capable workers who know how to deal with minds and who will not fail nor be discouraged, laboring in Christ's name without losing heart, with able colored men educated as missionaries to their own people, so that through the Holy Spirit ignorance and bondage are overcome, minds awakened, and lives changed.
It applies to carrying truth to wealthy, world-loving, world-worshiping higher classes by earnest, humble, decided personal effort imbued with the missionary spirit rather than casual touch, persisting to draw souls to Christ. It applies to canvassers enduring hardship by looking to the Author and Finisher of faith, to schools moving forward in God's strength under perplexity and hindrance until established in successful operation despite unbelief about location and prospects, and to sanitariums, soldiers' homes, and home missionary kindness by the fireside. Amid distressing necessities, sinking institutions, rushing cries for money, debts, disasters, and financial strain, workers repeat the resolve and trust the Lord as the bank who furnishes means when they drop their own way and take His plans, for He waits while men weave human threads into the pattern until they accept His way. Abiding in Christ gives the Master's steadfastness, so those yoked with Him lay the whole weight on Him and move forward with living faith certain of His unfailing steadfastness. The hardest time tests whether those entrusted with sacred responsibilities are true to principle or traitors, and while some stumble to seducing spirits and choose darkness, those abiding in Christ do not fall nor become discouraged.
He stays close beside workers when heavy burdens rest on them, giving daily rest and peace, keeping them cheerful without worry as instruments of the Master Workman, keeping the divine armor, surrounding them with His righteousness as a garment, and making their light shine as they trust like a little child. As safe infallible Counselor and great successful Worker He gives all knowledge and wisdom, walks and speaks with them, shuts them in with Himself, and Himself carries the burden of reforms, so human agents need not feel all rests on them nor become despondent when words seem weightless. This is what God is doing for His loyal commandment-keeping people, giving encouragement and assurance, every reason to change attitude toward God, to show appreciation for Christ's love, and to bear fruit of thanksgiving as living evidence of vantage ground in connection with Him. Believers must copy His unfailing perseverance day by day to gain life measuring with God's life, working in this life, watching unto prayer, working out salvation by faith in complete submission to become partakers of love and doers of will, always zealous as earnest whole-souled self-sacrificing laborers with eternal vigilance as the price of safety. Through suffering, pain, and infirmity this means continuing to pray and trust, keeping a clear mind on scriptural subjects, speaking His words to feed hungry souls, bearing affliction without murmuring, praising His name in assurance of presence, and enduring much without giving up.
His word will be fulfilled, for the chapter is promise and assurance, and truth will finally triumph as He advances redemption to completion without giving up despite Satan and vigilant foes watching every step. Those laboring with God unfurl the third angel's message and repair the breach in the law, learning patience, devotion, and perseverance from trials and continuing in His lines until judgment is established in the earth. Workers led by God keep moving through perplexity and obstacles, and apparent failures turn to success as they persevere in the light they have until God makes the way clear in time. From childhood through youth to manhood He walked alone under the awful weight of responsibility for salvation, day by day meeting trial, temptation, and contact with evil and witnessing its power on those He sought to bless, yet kept on without failing or losing heart, knowing all would be lost without decided change in human principles and purposes. Safety is in walking in the light as He is in the light, trusting without question the sure result of the word of Him who is truth and righteousness, following the humble practical life He left, marking every step in humility to receive light, joy, and crown of rejoicing.
The Servant is Jesus Christ, upheld by God and filled with His Spirit as He labors among people as a man. He does not fail or lose heart and courage, but perseveres until He finishes His appointed work, sheltered by God so that hatred and opposition cannot stop Him. To set judgment in the earth is to bring justice and truth to the Gentiles and establish it faithfully as God ordained, while distant nations and islands hunger for and wait to receive His instruction and light. He does this work quietly and gently, without display or breaking the bruised and faint, while honoring God's law, freeing it from human burdens, and restoring fallen people to God's image. His unfailing perseverance is the pattern and resolve of all faithful workers, who go forward in faith through impossibility and discouragement to win souls until truth triumphs.
Servant Identity and Context
The Servant is Jesus Christ, God's chosen Servant upheld by God and endowed with His Spirit, laboring in humanity as a man among men. He stands as truth personified, bringing judgment unto truth to the Gentiles and faithfully completing the appointed work in the way God ordained. His mission is carried out in dependence on God, humbling Himself to lead humanity and revealing perfect obedience to all God's commandments. Tempted yet loyal to His Father, He lays aside royal power and labors in lowliness and humility as the example in all words and works.
The immediate setting is gentle, quiet service without crying, striving, self-exaltation, noise, or display in the street. He does not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax, but protects the weak rather than crushing them, encouraging faint faith and shepherding the afflicted. His quiet, compassionate manner treats the weak with gentleness while He brings God's judgment to the Gentiles and establishes it in truth.
His commission is to be called in righteousness to be a covenant of the people and a light of the Gentiles. He is upheld by God and given for this work, to open blind eyes and bring prisoners out of darkness into light. This fulfills God's declared purpose and brings God's instruction to the nations, giving light to the Gentiles in every land and island and causing a new song of praise declaring His praise. When spiritual darkness covered the earth, with divinity veiled by humanity He came as the light of the world to restore the moral image of God in all who would receive Him, preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, delivering captives, giving sight to the blind, setting at liberty the bruised, and releasing the oppressed.
The verse belongs to comfort spoken to Jerusalem and to God's revealed purpose for His people. It is part of a chapter of promises and assurance encouraging believers that the Lord's word will be fulfilled, continuing God's promises of what He has done and will do for His people if they follow on to know Him, whose coming is as certain as the morning. It stands in a chain of promises running chapter after chapter through Isaiah 44, 45 and onward, calling for far greater appreciation of that encouragement. This revelation is to be prayerfully studied, with wisdom sought from God and not from finite human beings, and to be studied in connection with Isaiah 40 and Second Peter as a call to deeply spiritual, thorough reformatory work with prepared hearts, clear understanding, and no haphazard work, led out by men worked by the Holy Spirit.
Perseverance Until Success
Not failing nor being discouraged means persevering without failing, losing heart, losing courage, or losing hope until judgment is set in the earth and the appointed work is finished. It is perseverance without failure or discouragement until judgment is established throughout the earth in truth and faithfulness, in the way ordained, with judgment brought to the Gentiles. The distant isles and peoples, the nations in every land and island, wait for His law, instruction, and light.
This endurance was upheld by God, who sheltered Him so that hatred directed against Him could not thwart the plan of salvation or stop the completion of His work. Human hatred inspired by Satan was not permitted to thwart the design of the great plan, because sheltering care protected His mission to earth. He pressed on without failing or losing courage until He set judgment in the earth, and did not fail nor grow discouraged until His work was done.
He continued without giving up or losing heart despite the discouraging conditions of a world marred by sin, seared and marred with the curse. He came to this speck of a world to become incarnate and suffer rather than going to unfallen worlds, and the outlook for His work was unfavorable and most discouraging, yet He did not fail nor become discouraged until He set judgment in the earth. Though the greatest Teacher, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, treated worse than His followers are treated, yet He did not fail. He paid the great price that man should not perish but have everlasting life, because one human soul is of highest value and outweighs all the world and worlds beside, so His followers must not talk of failure or discouragement when only a few receive truth and returns seem small but must keep working with wise perseverance to hold minds to the point. He did not give up or lose heart but continued until He set judgment in the earth even when those who prided themselves on keeping the law opposed Him with fierce national anger and sought to murder Him because their ideas were crossed, and He bore grief from privileged people turning into forbidden paths amid poverty, sorrow, and rejection.
He faced great temptations to resist yet would not fail or be discouraged, and though Satan brought Him pain, temptation, sorrow, rejection, obstacles, and daily contact with evil, He did not yield. By cherishing self-command He met the hosts of Satan at every advance step, declaring that Satan would find nothing in Him to appropriate to His service, with the hosts of heaven at His command to be His rear guard. Through unexampled self-denial He steadfastly followed the path to Calvary, where He became the sacrifice and surety for humanity, joining divinity with humanity and enduring profound humiliation as God giving Himself for the salvation of the fallen race. All the host of Satan worked against Him during His earthly life to keep Him from accomplishing the work He came to do, yet He kept on without failing or losing courage even to suffering on Calvary's cross, and His endurance gained victory over Satan and brought deliverance from Satan's power and bondage to the human family.
Judgment and Law Worldwide
To set judgment in the earth is to bring judgment and justice to the Gentiles and to establish it in truth throughout the earth. It is to bring forth judgment unto truth, He Himself being truth personified, and to faithfully continue and complete God's appointed work in the way God ordained until it is established. This establishing is done steadily and gently, without failing or losing heart, courage, or hope, as part of God's plan to redeem humanity.
The isles waiting for His law are the distant nations, the Gentiles in every land and island, who hunger for the knowledge of God and wait to receive His law. They wait for His instruction, teaching, and light, to have blind eyes opened and prisoners in darkness brought out, to be given light, to sing a new song and declare His praise. Distant peoples in every place look to His law and await it with expectancy.
His setting of judgment magnifies God's law and makes it honorable. He upholds its importance, perfection, truth, and binding claims rather than lessening its dignity, diminishing its authority, or abolishing it. He lifts it from under trampling feet and frees its precepts from discouraging human burdens and traditions that hindered acceptable service, as shown when He healed on the Sabbath to declare those burdensome human requirements void.
Grace does not abolish law or take its place, but grace and law are in perfect harmony and walk hand in hand. By grace sinners are enabled to draw near by faith and, only by partaking of the divine nature, to keep the commandments and testify to the validity of the law by living out its principles. Christ condemned sin in the flesh, bore the curse of sin for humanity, and kept His Father's commandments, and His lived law provides victory over corrupting natural inclinations, mastery over temptations from within and without, and completeness of character by divine power for genuine reform.
Christ's Manner and Work
He worked in lowliness and humility, laying aside royal power and standing as a man among men, without contention, noise, crying, lifting His voice in the street, self-exaltation, self-importance, human praise, or large outlay for display. Centuries before His birth it was foretold that He would come in this way, foreign to the homage the world gives to position, wealth, or talent, using none of the means men employ to win allegiance, not bursting upon the world in splendor to dazzle the senses but coming quietly and gently as morning daylight dispels darkness and wakes the world to life, arising as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings. As the truth personified He brought forth judgment unto truth to the Gentiles, ministering as the greatest Medical Missionary to the afflicted and teaching the way of life from place to place until He set judgment in the earth, with the Gentiles and the isles in every land and island waiting to receive His law, to be given light, to have blind eyes opened and prisoners in darkness brought out, and to sing a new song and declare His praise. His persevering, diligent, earnest personal labor to bring the truths of God's Word to bear upon human hearts, turning many to the Lord in confidence and joining heavenly gifts to skillful use of natural agencies for disease with no haphazard work, is the pattern for working cities and calling rich and poor in highways and byways to God's supper, by inexpensive thorough spiritual labor without absorbing God's money in needless display or theatrical meetings. The true science of redeeming grace revealed in this is to be diligently studied and treasured above gold and silver, with a firm stand on the Word of God against every false science that would turn truth into nothingness.
His tender, forbearing love for fallen men, even His enemies whom He ransomed with His life, was beaten back by rocky, sin-bound, resistant souls and grieved by the dullness of His own disciples, yet it was not quenched or extinguished but returned again in stronger waves of light and affection, suffering long, bearing much, and loving still. Supernaturally sustained by strength drawn from a hidden source, He endured their hostility and the continual grief of seeing people reject Him and perish within reach of help, His love did not languish, and He continued His ministry of compassion without failing or growing discouraged until His work was done.
He is the Restorer who does not fail nor become discouraged till He has set judgment in the earth and restored the moral image of God in man that Satan nearly obliterated. He took humanity and entered the depths of human misery and sin to seek and save the lost through self-denial and self-sacrifice, giving His followers an example to leave selfish pleasure and ease, resist Satan's temptations, and bring people from darkness to the light of God's love with forgiveness, renewed character, and His righteousness. All who connect themselves with God have hereditary peculiarities and deficiencies of character overcome through faith and the imputed righteousness of Christ in the new birth, and receive by His grace a fitness to do successfully the very work God has chosen for them, even when phrenological head-reading has judged them unfit and turned them away into false paths. He saw in man vast powers and capabilities for good for the upbuilding of God's kingdom, and came to reveal the Father and restore spiritual life to a human family sunk so low under broken law that infusion of spiritual life seemed impossible, giving life to those dead in trespasses and sins, rousing hearts palsied by transgression by the Holy Spirit, awaking sleepers and raising them from the dead. To arouse the spiritually dead, to create new tastes and new motives and convert the sinner from the error of his ways, is giving life to the dead and requires as great an outlay of power as raising one from physical death, but having life in Himself as the Father has life in Himself and having come to destroy the works of the enemy, He is able to do it and will accomplish what He pledged to perform, continuing to serve and save even when few responded, with joy in the salvation of those who accepted His grace, since even one person uplifted and prepared for the Lord's presence was worth His toil and sacrifice.
He sustained His mission by solitude and peaceful retirement, withdrawing from the noise and confusion of the city to retired places and often spending whole nights on the lonely mountain in earnest prevailing intercession to His Father with strong cries and tears for strength to meet temptation and to accomplish salvation, then quietly resuming through the day without ceasing His labor of mercy and disinterested benevolence. His whole soul went out for His little flock, and while others slept He gained strength to meet the temptations of the enemy and prayed for those who would not pray for themselves, carrying on His work without being overcome or discouraged. He kept this humble, pious course in marked contrast to the hypocritical chief priests, scribes, elders and Pharisees who prayed in crowded synagogues and street corners to be seen and praised, did charity publicly to draw attention, raised their voices in self-exaltation and doctrinal contention, and were resentful, unforgiving, proud and bigoted, whose relentless hatred sought to destroy Him without thwarting Him.
In keeping with His mission to magnify the law and make it honorable rather than lessen its dignity, He healed on the Sabbath to free it from burdensome human requirements and show that those traditions were void. As the spotless sacrifice represented by the ancient offering, He faithfully carried out His work of establishing God's law, and His work calls God's children to be holy and without blemish. He lived that law and provides victory over corrupting natural inclinations and completeness of character, bringing the body and its powers under God's rule and using them in the service of character and good. His life is the source of divine power for genuine reform, enabling people to resist temptations from within and without and to gain mastery over corrupt natural inclinations.
Prophecy and Fulfillment
Centuries before His birth it was foretold that He would come quietly and gently, as morning daylight dispels darkness and wakes the world to life, without bursting upon the world in splendor to dazzle the senses with glory. He would live without self-assertion, foreign to the homage the world gives to position, wealth, or talent, and would use none of the means men employ to win allegiance or command homage. When spiritual darkness covered the earth, God sent Jesus with divinity veiled by humanity to bring truth as the light of the world and to restore the moral image of God in all who would receive Him. The distant nations waiting for His teaching are the Gentiles beyond Israel, hungering and thirsting for the knowledge of God and virtue and coming to His light. His mission was to reach beyond Israel, to set judgment in the earth and establish it throughout the earth as part of God's plan to redeem humanity, and His words and teaching would command attention.
Isaiah 42:4 foretells the work Christ would do to proclaim the gospel, the Word of life, to a world shadowed and corrupted by transgression and sin by establishing judgment in the earth with a law the distant lands would wait for. After His crucifixion and resurrection, thousands opening the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation with intense desire and anointed eyes would see in Christ crucified the exact work the prophecies declared He would do. His gathered words proclaimed in the New Testament would thrill the world.
He would not fail nor be discouraged till He set judgment in the earth, arising as the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings, bringing judgment to truth while the distant nations await His law. His announced work is preaching the gospel to the poor, preaching good tidings to the meek, healing the brokenhearted and binding them up, delivering captives and proclaiming liberty to them, giving sight to the blind, setting at liberty the bruised and releasing the oppressed, comforting mourners, and making them trees of righteousness for the glory of God. This work belongs to the opening proclamation of His mission and is also the final work that closes this world's history, when as Messenger of the Covenant and Sun of Righteousness He shines gloriously upon His people and brings God's light to the world. He works with human agents through the Holy Spirit without failing or becoming discouraged until judgment is set in the earth, having arisen to clothe His people with the garments of salvation for that anointed work. It is the work of presenting the warning message to the world and giving the reason for this faith, with camp meetings providing the opportunity to give people the information they desire.
Pattern for Faithful Workers
His persevering, diligent labor to bring the truths of God's word to bear on human hearts is the pattern for preaching, teaching, city work, and calling rich and poor in highways and byways to the supper. That pattern is lowly, humble, self-emptying service without crying, contending, self-exaltation, noise, display, or large outlay of money, ministering to the afflicted and teaching the way of life from place to place as the greatest Medical Missionary. It is inexpensive thorough spiritual labor rather than absorbing means in needless display or theatrical meetings, done with no haphazard work, joining heavenly gifts to skillful use of natural agencies for disease until many are turned to the Lord. It is to be diligently studied and treasured above gold and silver as the true science of redeeming grace, with a firm stand on the Word against every false science that would turn truth into nothingness. His servants follow the same example by showing mercy and tenderness to the oppressed, poor, afflicted, tempted, and discouraged, helping rather than deepening distress, and his enduring worldwide mission calls Christians to keep working with him to bring the gospel to distant peoples waiting for his law.
I will not fail nor be discouraged is the resolve, motto, and prayer of everyone transformed into His likeness and filled with the spirit of the great missionary Worker. That spirit creates desire to bear tidings of salvation to regions beyond to those who know not the Saviour, consecrating time and strength, means and influence, and using every ability to win souls to Christ. The sacrifice of Calvary is the motive for untiring effort and unflagging zeal, drawing those around to the Saviour by a consistent life showing man may become a partaker of the divine nature. When man becomes a co-worker with God through faith the human mold fades before the divine resemblance, and his work is one God can approve in highest terms, not uncertain but abiding through eternal ages and bearing the divine test. It means not giving up or being hindered but gathering forces in unity to carry the work steadily forward, laboring faithfully to the end, urging others not to faint but to hold on, and continuing to open new territory despite criticism, opposition, and hardship.
Workers share His enduring faith to go forward through apparent impossibilities, despairing of nothing and hoping for everything by grace, overcoming difficulties and resisting evil through power given by God. He had stronger reason for discouragement than any worker will ever have, yet did not fail, and His perseverance is the example and measure for His church to awaken to earnest activity and work by faith. This means doing their best in obedience to His commands and promises, sowing beside all waters, expecting God to work, praying much, refusing hopeless and discouraging talk, refusing to sit still, and when enemies close the way going to work in another place. No word of doubt or unbelief is to be spoken to weaken fellow workers, and speech is not to exalt Satan's power or limit God, but to speak faith, courage, praise, and prayer while moving forward in trust. Those who seek the Lord, trust Him implicitly, walk humbly, and use every help receive divine power, with His strength becoming their strength as shield and fortress, securing perseverance through cooperation of divine and human agency unto salvation, while the disheartened are to cease gloomy thoughts, fall broken on the Rock, and let Him fashion character after His likeness until discord dies for lack of food.
This means continuing faithfully when hearers are few, prejudice strong, and no visible results appear, having the mind of Christ to work in His lines. Even as the greatest Teacher He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, treated worse than His followers are treated, yet He did not fail but kept working to rescue the perishing at great price. One soul uplifted and prepared for the Lord's presence outweighs all the world and is worth all toil and sacrifice, and there is joy in heaven over the rescued in which workers may share. He came to a world marred by the curse where the outlook was discouraging, yet persevered without losing heart until judgment was set in the earth. It means patient love burning in the heart, even greater than Moses had, with zeal balanced by wisdom, exercised especially toward the weak, youth, and erring, persisting in love and soul-saving instead of loveless indifference. Toward rough, stubborn, and sullen dispositions it means practiced love, sympathy, and tenderness, because they need help most and harsh treatment as deserved could destroy hope and ruin souls.
It calls for self-denial, holding firmly to the work when difficulties come, refusing to tear down what others are building, expecting no large wages nor to be carried financially or spiritually, visiting people where they are, and cooperating with God while others cooperate with them. Those laboring together with God partake of the Captain's patient, devoted, persevering mind under vigilant opposition, pressing truth into new territory and bringing souls into subjection instead of standing by as feeble spectators. A successful church is aggressive, not letting interest weaken but pressing the battle at whatever cost to the gates of the enemy, with heavenly intelligences ready to work with human agents under Christ's supreme authority and invincible power. Continuing dependence is on the throne of grace, persevering because people may perish otherwise, with men and women filled with self-sacrifice consecrating all they have and are to strengthen and build up what others are trying to do.
In Boston and other cities it means moving out by faith in answer to God's call, with assurance He will greatly bless, working quietly and earnestly without great outward demonstration as humble workers whom the Lord helps. In building meeting-houses it means advancing even when all money required is not in sight, working and praying and believing to receive fulfillment of promises, laying aside doubts and questioning, and obeying the command to arise and build without abridging the task or failing to provide places where the Redeemer may meet with His people. In the Southern field and among colored people it forbids foolish labor and working a little while then tiring and going home, requiring continuance despite criticism, opposition, and hardship. That field must be worked intelligently by the most capable workers who know how to deal with minds and who will not fail nor be discouraged, laboring in Christ's name without losing heart, with able colored men educated as missionaries to their own people, so that through the Holy Spirit ignorance and bondage are overcome, minds awakened, and lives changed.
It applies to carrying truth to wealthy, world-loving, world-worshiping higher classes by earnest, humble, decided personal effort imbued with the missionary spirit rather than casual touch, persisting to draw souls to Christ. It applies to canvassers enduring hardship by looking to the Author and Finisher of faith, to schools moving forward in God's strength under perplexity and hindrance until established in successful operation despite unbelief about location and prospects, and to sanitariums, soldiers' homes, and home missionary kindness by the fireside. Amid distressing necessities, sinking institutions, rushing cries for money, debts, disasters, and financial strain, workers repeat the resolve and trust the Lord as the bank who furnishes means when they drop their own way and take His plans, for He waits while men weave human threads into the pattern until they accept His way. Abiding in Christ gives the Master's steadfastness, so those yoked with Him lay the whole weight on Him and move forward with living faith certain of His unfailing steadfastness. The hardest time tests whether those entrusted with sacred responsibilities are true to principle or traitors, and while some stumble to seducing spirits and choose darkness, those abiding in Christ do not fall nor become discouraged.
He stays close beside workers when heavy burdens rest on them, giving daily rest and peace, keeping them cheerful without worry as instruments of the Master Workman, keeping the divine armor, surrounding them with His righteousness as a garment, and making their light shine as they trust like a little child. As safe infallible Counselor and great successful Worker He gives all knowledge and wisdom, walks and speaks with them, shuts them in with Himself, and Himself carries the burden of reforms, so human agents need not feel all rests on them nor become despondent when words seem weightless. This is what God is doing for His loyal commandment-keeping people, giving encouragement and assurance, every reason to change attitude toward God, to show appreciation for Christ's love, and to bear fruit of thanksgiving as living evidence of vantage ground in connection with Him. Believers must copy His unfailing perseverance day by day to gain life measuring with God's life, working in this life, watching unto prayer, working out salvation by faith in complete submission to become partakers of love and doers of will, always zealous as earnest whole-souled self-sacrificing laborers with eternal vigilance as the price of safety. Through suffering, pain, and infirmity this means continuing to pray and trust, keeping a clear mind on scriptural subjects, speaking His words to feed hungry souls, bearing affliction without murmuring, praising His name in assurance of presence, and enduring much without giving up.
His word will be fulfilled, for the chapter is promise and assurance, and truth will finally triumph as He advances redemption to completion without giving up despite Satan and vigilant foes watching every step. Those laboring with God unfurl the third angel's message and repair the breach in the law, learning patience, devotion, and perseverance from trials and continuing in His lines until judgment is established in the earth. Workers led by God keep moving through perplexity and obstacles, and apparent failures turn to success as they persevere in the light they have until God makes the way clear in time. From childhood through youth to manhood He walked alone under the awful weight of responsibility for salvation, day by day meeting trial, temptation, and contact with evil and witnessing its power on those He sought to bless, yet kept on without failing or losing heart, knowing all would be lost without decided change in human principles and purposes. Safety is in walking in the light as He is in the light, trusting without question the sure result of the word of Him who is truth and righteousness, following the humble practical life He left, marking every step in humility to receive light, joy, and crown of rejoicing.