ed to this God, and thus to
become partakers of His salvation--a call resting on the striking force
of this argumentation--and with this call is, in ver. 23-25, connected
the solemn declaration of God, that, at some future time, this shall
take place; that, at some future time, there shall be one shepherd and
one flock. How would these high, solemn, words have been spoken in
vain, if "the great unknown" had spoken them! In ver. 19 [Pg 186] it is
said: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I
said not unto the seed of Jacob: Seek ye me in vain; I the Lord speak
righteousness, I declare rectitude." The Lord here says, first, in
reference to His prophecies, those namely which He gave through our
Prophet, that _they were made known publicly_, that, hence, there could
not be any doubt of their genuineness,--altogether different from what
is the case with the prophecies of idolatrous nations which make their
appearance _post eventum_ only, _no one knowing whence_. Every one
might convince himself of their truth and divinity. This is expressed
by the words: "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the
earth." Then he says that the Lord had not deceived His people, like
the idols who leave their servants without disclosures regarding: the
Future; but that, by the prophecies granted to our Prophet, He had met
the longings of his people for revelations of the Future. While the
gods of the world leave them in the lurch, just when their help is
required, and never answer when they are asked, the Lord, in reference
to prophecies, as well as in every other respect, has not spoken: "Seek
ye me in vain," but rather: When ye seek, ye shall find me. And,
finally, he says that his prophecies are true and right; that the
heathenish prophets commit an _unrighteousness_ by performing something
else than that which they promised to perform. To declare
_righteousness_ is to declare that which is righteous, which does not
conceal internal emptiness and rottenness under a fair outside. The
words: "I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare rectitude," could not
but have died on the lips of the "great unknown."--In chap. xlvi. 8-13
the apostates in Israel are addressed. They are exhorted to return to
the true God, and to be mindful, 1. of the nothingness of idols, ver.
8; 2. of the proofs of His sole divinity which the Lord had given
throughout the whole of the past history; 3. of the new manifestation
of it in announci