THE FORBIDDEN CHAPTER: Message 6
By Solomon Ostrovsky
ALL WE LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY; WE HAVE TURNED EVERY ONE TO HIS OWN WAY; AND THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.A. The great change begins in the realm of the spirit with a true assessment of ourselves. Isaiah, son of Amoz, representing the whole nation of Israel, witnesses to this by his great confession. He looks upon Him – the mysterious Man, the anonymous Sufferer of his vision, and he looks at US – at the whole of humanity, including himself, and a great change is effected in him, which is revealed in his new assessment of the suffering One on the one hand, and of ourselves on the other. The more the eyes of the prophet are opened to see the beauty that is in HIM, who stands out distinct and separate from the whole world, the more clearly he sees himself and mankind in their true light.
There are those who think that the prophet presents here the nations of the world vis-à-vis the nation of Israel, and speaks of Israel as bearing the iniquity of all the other nations. It is impossible to charge those who advance this interpretation with a lack of national pride, but since when does the nation of Israel have this special position of sin-bearer of the world? Does not this interpretation witness to the fact that “the arm of the Lord has not yet been revealed” to these commentators? Isaiah himself, when he saw the Lord in His holy temple, cried out, “Woe is me for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” How then can Israel bear the iniquity of the world when she herself is a nation of unclean lips? “Who can bring forth the pure from the impure?” said Job. No-one.
It is true that – in the words of the prophet – WE ALL LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY. The sheep is a symbol of innocence; it is an inoffensive animal, but has one great fault – a tendency to wander away from the flock. The sheep belongs to the shepherd and to the flock, and this “belongingness” is necessary for our eternal security and for our destiny on this earth. It is deadly and criminal folly to suppress and to silence within ourselves this sense of belonging to God. It was a miserable moment when the generation which came out of Egypt forgot this fact. They turned away from God and looked to themselves. As a result they wandered in the wilderness forty years – to no purpose and with no progress. “A people who erred in their hearts and did not know my ways,” says God. In a coming day, when Israel shall come face to face with her Messiah, she will understand the error of her way. “We have been fools,” they will say, “when we thought ourselves to be wise.” To deny our belonging to God, to wander away from His appointed way, is a serious expression of the sin and the self-will which is within us.
B. “WE HAVE TURNED EACH TO HIS OWN WAY.”
Universal sin – ALL of us – and personal, individual sin – “EACH one to his own way.” Your way, though right in your eyes, and a logical way, is still your OWN way, not God’s way, and consequently a way of error, without a goal or direction; it is a “wandering” in the wilderness of life. Our national history these past 1900 years has been the history of a wandering, erring people. In the wonderful providence of God we have lately “wandered” into the Promised Land, the Land of Israel, but spiritually we have not yet found our place. Our destiny is still far from us, we have no unifying centre, we have peace with neither God nor man. The mountain of the Lord’s house is still desolate and the Word of the Lord is not heard from Zion. Spiritually we are still wandering in a world full of hate and of darkness because the house of Jacob is not walking in the light of the Lord.
C. “THE LORD HAS LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.”
The Diaspora and the Geulah (Redemption) are both bound up in this mysterious Man, described by Isaiah. At the time of the second Temple we, as a nation, refused Him and “hid our faces from Him.” That was the time when our wanderings began – aimless and purposeless. Sin is reviewed in our text not merely as iniquity, but as folly, and we all share in this iniquity and folly, having strayed from the God-appointed path, not merely through ignorance, but through a wilful refusal to listen to the voice of God. But God, in His great mercy, gathered together this universal iniquity and placed it ON HIM, the representative Man described by Isaiah. Thus a central meeting-place was created for Israel and for all mankind. This is the sovereign work of God, the work of redemption, which transcends His work of creation. But the eyes of the “chosen nation” are still veiled and they cannot see.
Jesus, the Anointed One, is the theme and centre of prophecy in the Tanach. He is the central Figure of the people of Israel. He is the Light of the world. He suffered and bore the sin of the world in order to save the world – to save you and me from sin and death. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man comes to the Father but by Him.
“Who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
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