THE FACT OF PREDICTION. 



63 



3. He is to be of lowly, though of royal origin. The Davidic 

 glory had been for centuries a mere tradition before our liOrd's 

 birth. In the following words of Isaiah that royal house is 

 represented as having fallen, although David's descendants were 

 in the time of the prophet still reigning in Jerusalem : — " And 

 there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse " — the 

 tree has been felled — "and a branch shall grow out of his 

 roots "(xi, 1). The remainder of the chapter shows that this 

 " sprout " or " branch " is no other than He in whom " all 

 nations " are to be blessed ; for in verse 10, for example, we 

 read : " And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which 

 shall stand for an ensign to the peoples ; to it shall the Gentiles 

 seek, and His rest shall be glory." 



4. There will he nothing in His ^person, in His position in 

 society, or in the aims which He pursues to insure for Him an 

 enthusiastic reception hy the people. " Who hath believed our 

 report, and to whom is the arm of Jehovah revealed ? For he 

 shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of 

 a dry ground : he hath no form nor comeliness ; there is no 

 beauty thac we should desire him " (Isaiah liii, 1,2). There 

 we surely see the Man of Nazareth ! 



5. I now come to a circumstance among the most wonderful 

 that has ever occurred in a nation's history. Let it be remem- 

 bered that Israel was selected and specially trained to recognize 

 the Messiah when He should appear, to rally round Him, and 

 to become His ministers and messengers ; and yet, notwith- 

 standing, Israel, in its leaders and in the great body of the people, 

 is to reject the Messiah! The prophet (already quoted) 

 continues : " He is despised and rejected of men ; a man of 

 sorrows and acquainted with grief : and we hid as it were our 

 faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not " 

 (verse 3). 



In a preceding part of this prophecy the Messiah is repre- 

 sented as anticipating failure in His attempt to influence 

 Israel ; and coupled with that is an intimation that His success 

 will be found among the Gentiles ! " Though Israel be not 

 gathered, yet will I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my 

 God shall be my strength. And he (God) said ' It is a light 

 thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes 

 of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel : I will give thee 

 for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation 

 unto the end of the earth.' " This is supported by an indication 

 of the kind of glory the Messiah will win among the Gentile 

 peoples : " Thus saith the Lord, the Kedeemer of Israel and his 



