Isaiah 40:9 O Zion, that bring good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bring good tidings… The prophet is directing the attention of his countrymen and of the Church in every age to the Messiah who is the true God and eternal life. This illustrious personage we may behold in a variety of interesting and instructive situations. 1. Carry your thoughts back into eternity, and behold Him, who in time was made of a woman, sitting upon the circle of the heavens, in the essential glory of the Godhead; His habitation immensity, His duration eternity, His perfections uncreated and infinite. 2. As a confirmation of the original glory and Godhead of Jesus Christ, "behold your God" at the morning of creation, the dawn of time. Was it not His effective hand that planted the pillars of the universe and raised the magnificent fabric of earth and heaven? What He formed as the God of creation, He preserves as the God of power. 3. From the fall of our first parents to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer is only to be seen in promises and prophecies, in sacrifices and ceremonies. Passing over, therefore, this long lapse of time, suffer me to conduct your thoughts to Bethlehem. There, "behold your God." 4. Omitting the occurrences of His childhood and youth, let me invite you to look at Jesus entering into the wilderness under the influence and direction of the Holy Ghost. Behold Him tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights. It is a Divine maxim that "God cannot be tempted, neither tempteth He any man." But God in human flesh sustained the hour of trial. 5. After this strange event, permitted to the powers of darkness, Jesus appears in a new scene of life. Behold, then, your God going forth as a teacher, accompanying His ministrations and instructions with signs and wonders, and all the marks of Deity. And He is the "same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." In every age, as well as in the days of His flesh, there is treasured up in Him, for the flee use of all that come unto Him, pardon, and peace, and grace, and strength, and life, and salvation. 6. Just before the close of His ministrations, a profitable view of the Lord Jesus opens to us in the garden of Gethsemane: there "behold your God!" He appears emphatically a "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." But let us follow Him from the garden, through all the intermediate scenes of insult, reproach, and ignominy, to the bar of Pontius Pilate: there at the tribunal of man "behold your God!" He, who shall one day appear to judge every man according to his deeds, now stands arraigned as a criminal before the judgment-seat of man. Judgment is perverted: Pilate declares Him innocent, yet suffers Him to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified. Mingling in the crowd, follow Him from the common hall, and "behold your God" as He passes through, the streets of Jerusalem,. bearing. His cross amidst the revilings and tauntmgs of the people, who, m all the virulence of persecution, exclaim, "Away with Him, away with Him! crucify Him!" "Behold your God" ascending the summit of Calvary. Oh, what a scene was here! a scene which all nature seems backward to behold. Standing at the foot of the Cross, learn that "ye were not redeemed with corruptible things," etc. (1 Peter 1:18, 19). 7. The last view which we have to take of Jesus Christ closes His sufferings, and accomplishes our redemption. "Behold your God" bursting the barriers of the tomb, vanquishing the king of terrors, despoiling the sepulchre, breaking the bands of corruption, and rising to life, never to die again. Then was fulfilled that prophecy, "O death, I will be thy plagues." To enter into the spirit of the passage, you must keep your mind's eye upon the Saviour, and behold your God as He is ascending to the realms of bliss. Conclusion — "Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation." Now it is your privilege by faith to "behold your God" as a Saviour, delighting in mercy. (S. Payne.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! |
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