Holy One of Israel

“ How fortunate are the people of Israel, for they are more beloved before the Holy One, blessed be He, than the ministering angels. For when the ministering angels wanted to sing before Him, they would first come around the throne of glory carrying mountains of fire and fiery hills. ”

“ For the same reason Isaiah saw him 'sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.' Holy is, further, a description of the spiritual, which never assumes a corporeal form, and which nothing concrete can possibly resemble. God is called: the Holy One of Israel, which is another expression for the Divine Influence connected with Israel himself and the whole of his posterity, to rule and guide them, but not to be merely in external contact with them. Not everyone who wishes is permitted to say, 'My God and Holy One!' except in a metaphorical and traditional way. ”

“ And how is the effect of devotion heightened by the junction of numbers in the same service—even of the "multitude who keep holy day!" A scene, so honorable to Him "who inhabiteth the praises of Israel," so fit in itself, so congruous to man's social nature and dependant condition, so impressive on the actors and spectators, and so salutary in its influence,—awakened in the "sweet singer of Israel," the most ardent longings for the courts of the Lord, and constituted the glowing theme of more than one of his unrivalled songs. ”

“ At the same time, saith the LORD, I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. 2 Thus saith the LORD, The people who were left by the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. 3 The LORD appeared of old to me, saying, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. [212] [213] 4 Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry. ”

“ God drew Israel, though Israel did not yield to the drawing. But if these gentle, attractive influences, which ever are raying out from Him, are resisted, another set of cords, not now sustaining and attracting, but hampering and fettering, twine themselves round the rebellious life, and the man is like a wild creature snared in the hunter's toils, enmeshed in a net, and with its once free limbs restrained. ”

“ If we purify ourselves, and keep the feast of the true passover with joy as well as purity, we shall not want for outsiders who will separate themselves from the more subtle and not less dangerous idolatries of modern life, to seek the Lord God of Israel. If His Israel is what it ought to be, it will attract. A bit of scrap-iron in contact with a magnet is a magnet. They who live in touch with Him who said, 'I will draw all men unto Me' will share His attractive power in the measure of their union with Him. ”

“ But did Israel's unbelief and rejection of their King frustrate the purposes of God? Did it for ever rob Christ of that to which He has a right as the Son of David, and which is pre-eminently the reward of His humiliation and pouring out His soul unto death? "Yet have I anointed My king on the holy hill of Zion." Man's unbelief and disobedience may defer, to his own hurt, the accomplishment of the purposes of God; but man's unbelief and the very gates of hell cannot frustrate them. ”

“ This is the immediate prospect after restoration to Palestine of the people who rebelled against the Most High, and rejected His Son, and always resisted the Holy Spirit—a furnace seven times heated, and anguish as acute as are the pangs of a woman in travail. Alas! poor Israel, who desire the day of the Lord, to what end is it for you? Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light, even very dark and no brightness in it? ”

“ He is the Righteous Judge; but He remembers that man is dust, He pardons sins, and His loving-kindness is over all. He is unchangeable, yet repentance can avert the evil decree. He is in heaven, yet he puts the love and fear of Him into man's very heart. He breathed the Soul into man, and is faithful to those that sleep in the grave. He is the Reviver of the dead. He is Holy, and He sanctified Israel with His commandments. ”

“ The nation of Israel was favored of God above all nations of the earth in the past, to say nothing of what awaits it in the ages to come. The esteem in which Israel was held by God is shown by the following testimonies:
Deut. 7: 6--For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. ”

“ ISRAEL RETURNING 'O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. 2. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. 3. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. 4. I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from Him. ”

“ Though Israel had in heart rejected God, and He gave them a king that they might learn how much better they would have been without one, it is as true that He lovingly listened to the cry of their fear, and answered them, in pity and tender care, by giving them the king whom they desired, and who would deliver them from their enemies. Let us learn how patient of our faithless follies, and how full of long-suffering love, even in 'anger,' He is. ”

“ Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath multiplied the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made beautiful images. [69] [70] 2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images. [71] [72] [73] 3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us? 4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. ”

“ In Isa. xvii. we have a somewhat parallel prediction of men s eyes, and specially of the eyes of Israel, being turned to God as the result of judgment, and there also it is primarily coupled with the burden, or oracle, against Damascus : " In that day" we read, " shall a man look unto his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel ”

“ Now, that is the standing faith of the Old Testament, which no doubt was more easily held in those days, because, if we accept its teaching, we shall recognise that Israel lived under a system in so far supernatural as that moral goodness and material prosperity were a great deal more closely and indissolubly connected than they are to-day. So, many a psalmist and many a prophet breaks out into apostrophes, warranted by the whole history of Israel, and declaring how blessed are the men who, apart from all other defences and sources of prosperity, have God for their help and Him for their hope. ”

“ The chosen people killed the Messias and would not believe in Him, but Almighty God reserved to Himself a sufficient number of “true Israelites”, that through them, that is, through the apostles, salvation might be proclaimed to the whole world. Salvation came out of Israel, and through her gave life to the nations of the world, even though, by their own fault, it turned to the destruction of the unbelieving Jews themselves. ”

“ Now when the children of the patriarchs, were to be entered into this new covenant, the utmost care was taken by the Spirit of God, that to eyes that could see and ears that could hear, enough should be shewn and said, to prevent all carnal atheism to temporal and outward things, and bring forth a spiritual Israel, full of that faith and piety, in which their holy ancestors, as pilgrims on earth, had lived and died devoted to God, in hope of everlasting redemption. ”

“ Jerusalem is still trodden down of the Gentiles. The great king who is to be king of the Jews and to rule Israel has not yet taken possession of His city. The time has not come for "the Lord to inherit Judah his portion in the Holy Land, and to choose Jerusalem again." When that time does come, the Lord will cry out to Israel, "Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for lo, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord" (Zech. 2: 10) . Then "the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places ”

“ To honor God’s holy name and to maintain the truth of His revealed purpose, Israel’s restoration must take place, and when it does take place, God will be justified and sanctified in the eyes of all the world. No one will be able to ask, Why are these men favored? because those who will enter the land will be of a different character from their brethren whom we now see throughout the various parts of the world. They will have hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone. ”

“ Israel, its providential existence, and its wonderful development and progress in these latter times, notwithstanding its persecution in times past in all the world and at present in some parts. This is a sign, because Israel is to be ready for deliverance at the return of their Messiah as they were about thirty-five hundred years ago at the hands of Moses.
2. The Holy Land, its desolation of the past and the present attraction which is turning the eyes of the world thither; colonization and railroad enterprises which the nineteenth century has been remarkable for ”

“ In the dark watches of the night, when the waves ran highest and the heavens were obscured as with a pall, he felt that he had that within his soul beckoning him on, more brilliant in its coruscations than the starry cross that illumines the southern hemisphere, as unerring in its guidance as the beacon which of old led the children of Israel through the pathless desert—implicit belief in the sublimity of his mission, and an entire reliance on the mercy of his Creator, in whose hands he felt himself an humble instrument for the accomplishment of noble ends. ”

“ This world is an ante-chamber to the next.
The just of all nations have a portion in the future reward.
Every nation has its special guardian angel, its horoscopes, its ruling planets and stars. But there is no planet for Israel. Israel shall look but to God. There is no mediator between those who are called His children and their Father which is in heaven. ”

“ The Prophet adds in Isa. 11.12. And he shall set up a signe for the Nations, and he shall assemble the out-casts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the foure quarters of the earth. Where he notes two things; 1. That he cals the Israelites out-casts, but the Iewes scattered; and the reason is, because the ten Tribes are not only farre off from the Holy Land, but also they live in the extremities and ends of Countries; from whence the Prophet cals them cast-out. ”

“ And now, as it disperses, we come in full view of our old point again:—that what did attest Jesus Christ, was his restoration of the intuition. Jesus Christ found Israel all astray, with an endless talk about God, the law, righteousness, the kingdom, everlasting life, and no real hold upon any one of them. Israel's old, sure proof of being in the right way, his test which anybody could at once apply,—the sanction of joy and peace,—was plainly wanting. 'O Eternal, blessed is the man that putteth his trust in thee,' [1] was a corner-stone of Israel's religion. ”

“ Wherefore those few Iewes that were here, despairing 145of our expected successe, departed hence. And others who desired to come hither, have quitted their hopes, and betaken themselves some to Italy, some to Geneva, where that Commonwealth hath at this time, most freely granted them many, and great priviledges.
Now, O most high God, to thee I make my prayer, even to thee, the God of our Fathers. Thou who hast been pleased to stile thy self the keeper of Israel; Thou who hast graciously promised, by thy holy Prophet Ieremiah, (cap. 31.) ”

“ And He will deliver us, if not by removing the burden, by sending an angel from heaven to strengthen us to endure it, so that we shall be able all the more to glorify Him. But, though there is this general principle in this passage applicable to the saints of God in all ages, it has primary and special significance in relation to Israel at the climax of their national history, and is in strict harmony with all the rest of this sublime prophecy which deals with the great events of the time of the end. ”

“ There is none like unto the God of thee of Israel: he that sitteth upon heaven shall be thine help, whose glory is in the clouds, that is the dwelling place of God from the beginning and from under the arms of the world: he hath cast out thine enemies before thee and said: destroy. And Israel shall dwell in safety alone. And the eyes of Iacob shall look upon a land of corn and wine, moreover his heaven shall drop with dew. Happy art thou Israel, who is like unto thee? A people that art saved by the LORD thy shield and helper and sword of thy glory. ”

“ How great is thy Lord, O Israel! There is no being who can say to Him, 'Do this!' there is no womb which could have given birth to Him. He created the bottomless deeps above which He moves when He wishes. He brings light out of darkness, and from the dust of the earth He creates living things which have voices. ”

“ Give me leave, at such a juncture of time, to speak to your Highnesse, in a style and manner fitting to us Jewes and our condition. It is a thing most certaine, that the great God of Israel, Creator of Heaven and Earth, doth give and take away Dominions and Empires, according to his owne pleasure; exalting some, and overthrowing others: who, seeing he hath the hearts of Kings in his hand, he easily moves them whithersoever himselfe pleaseth, to put in execution his Divine Commands. ”