Isaiah 48:16

16. This verse is hard to understand from ambiguity.

Come ye near unto me, hear ye this It is scarcely to be doubted that the party summoned is Israel, and that the subject to be communicated is, what follows to the latter member of the verse. But who is the speaker? Some hold it to be the prophet in behalf of Jehovah; but most of the commentators think it is Jehovah himself, summoning his nation to hear still further concerning himself. Moreover, from the interactions of personality in the Godhead of Jehovah in trinity, and from the well-settled facts as deduced from the two Testaments, that the transacting divinity, or the Jehovah of the Old Testament, is the Son of God of the New Testament, not a small number of expositors find a satisfying explanation of the verse in supposing the Second Person of the Trinity to be here the speaker. Among these may be named Basil, Augustine, Vitringa, Alexander, Henderson, Stier, Delitzsch, Birks, Nagelsbach, etc.

I have not spoken in secret The coincidence of resembling verbiage in texts known to bespoken by or applying to Christ, is taken as evidence of the truth of this theory, as in Christ’s words. John 18:20.

From the time that it was, there am I See Proverbs 8:27, and Christ’s words, “Before Abraham was, I am:” “I am hath sent me,” etc: language quite coincident in expression with passages appertaining to facts and features of Christ.

And now Antithetic to the previous “from the beginning.” From the foundation of the earth (Proverbs viii) I was present through human history, as the Wisdom of God, aiding the plan looking to man’s redemption.

And (or but) now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me The prophet is the mouthpiece in these antithetic sentences, but for whom does he speak in this? For himself, as not a few hold, or for Christ, or Messiah, yet unincarnated, as the majority of expositors hold? Evidently, from lack of the conditions required, not for the prophet. The conditions are something more than being the recorder of these statements. The prophet elsewhere (Isaiah 6:8) speaks of and for the three Persons, and most probably here for the Second Person. See, for the same reference, Exodus 23:20; Isaiah 61:1; Malachi 3:1; John 3:34; John 7:16; John 17:18; John 20:21. From these citations the clause is by most settled as meaning Christ here, and should read, for this meaning: “The Lord God hath sent me, with his Spirit.” Sent me to Israel, with the Spirit’s aid, to enlarge in Israel’s mind (now about to close his exile) the great consolation, and (as Logos, or Word) also the revelation. Christ’s mission here, then, is not the incarnation, but the signal providence of the return from Babylon. By this interpretation the predicates of the Jehovah of the Old Testament are in nowise changed, who is throughout the divine Regent, the divine Wisdom and Revealer. Co-acting with Jehovah the Father, the source of all divine counsels, and with the Spirit who inspires leadership and prophecy, He, Jehovah the Son, administers, disciplines, consoles, and instructs.

Some of the old reformed theologians have stoutly claimed, in this view of the Old Testament tenor and purport, that strong proofs of the doctrine of the Trinity can be made out. It is to be observed, however, that Calvin, the great exegete of the Reformation, was gravely conservative on this passage. He says: “This verse interpreters explain in various ways. Many refer it to Christ, but the prophet designs no such thing. Such forced and violent interpretations are to be avoided.” Barnes also says, with emphasis: “It would require more time, and toil, and ingenuity, to demonstrate that this passage had reference to Messiah, than it would to demonstrate the doctrines of the Trinity and Divinity of the Redeemer from unequivocal declarations of the New Testament.” No doubt this caution is extreme. In pursuance of a proper caution, this much may be admitted: In so far as the prophet speaks and sets in prophecy as the speaker and writer for Jehovah, who, in the New Testament, by various indications and proofs, appears in the incarnated divinity of Jesus Christ, so far only are these words to be regarded in a Messianic point of view. Further, whether the prophet himself apprehended this dogmatic view of the words is far from certain. The action of the Revealer upon the old prophetic minds in their deliverances was doubtless in proportion to their power at the time to apprehend. See Zechariah 2:7-9.