lamented in chap. xlix. 14. Instead of the concealed presence of the
Lord during the misery, which, to the feeling, so easily appears as
entire absence, there comes the presence of God manifested in the
salvation. This return of the Lord to Zion truly took place in Christ
only, Luke i. 68.--Ver. 9: "Break forth into joy, shout together, ye
ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord comforteth Jerusalem, redeemeth His
people." This call goes far beyond the time of the restoration of
Jerusalem after the exile; for, even at that time, the spiritual eye
still beheld ruins, where the bodily eye saw firm, walled buildings.
The condition of the Kingdom of God was still miserable, the eye
of the faithful remained still fixed, with hopes and longings, upon the
Future which was to bring, and has brought, _true_ comfort and
consolation.--Ver. 10: "The Lord maketh bare His Holy arm in the eyes
of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth see the salvation of
our God." The making bare of the arm of the Lord designates the
manifestation, by deeds, of [Pg 264] the divine power and glory, such
as took place by the sending of Christ, and by the wonderful elevation
of the Church over the world,--an elevation which has it roots in Him;
comp. chap. liii. 1. In vers. 11 and 12 there is still the exhortation
to the Church of the Lord that, by true repentance, she should worthily
prepare for the impending salvation.

After the Prophet has, in chap. li. 1 to lii. 12, described the
transition of the Church of God from humiliation and sorrow to
glorification, it is quite natural that he should now turn from the
members to the Head, through whose mediation this transition was to be
accomplished, after the same contrast had been exhibited in Himself
There is the most intimate connection between the Church of God and His
Servant; for, all that He does and suffers. He does and suffers for
her; and all that befals her is prefigured by the way in which He has
been led by the Lord.

With what follows, too, the section before us stands in a close
relation. The glorification of the Servant of God described at the
close of chap. liii., is, in Him, bestowed at the same time, upon the
Church. Thus chap. liv., in which the Church is comforted by pointing
to her future glorification, is connected with the preceding. The
Church of the Lord appears here as a woman who, after having been put
away by her husband, and after having, for a long time, lived in a
child