I. That the word "prophet" should so early in our language have come to be used as a synonym for a predictor is only an instance of the prevailing error which consists in looking for signs and wonders as evidence of Divine power. If a man possesses a superhuman commission", he must be able to do superhuman acts. Such is the vulgar reasoning. And as the prophets, men inspired by God, have looked forward into the future and spoken of what they saw, these predictions have been seized upon as the characteristic feature of the speaker's mission, and the noble office of prophet has come to be regarded as that of a worker of magic. The true seer is not the magician, but the pleader for the righteousness of God.
II. The attitude of the prophet Isaiah is that of the forward-looking man. His eye is not so much lifted to heaven, or bent downwards upon the people, as it is turned ever towards the horizon, waiting for the dawn. It is for all nations that he looks forward with hope. The keynote of his song has been struck long before in the promise to Abraham, that in his seed should all nations of the world be blessed. The prophets were commissioned to instil the truth which might have saved the peculiar people from the danger of exclusiveness. They saw from the height on which they stood, alone with God, the future of the world lying like a map at their feet, and bathed in the sunshine of God's favour. The prophet was a predictor. He could not fail to be. The firmer his faith in God, the farther a man sees. The "seer" owes his power to faith. The believer sees and knows what the unbeliever cannot see or know. These are the two notes of the prophetic character, its hopefulness and its catholicity.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church,p. 268.
References: Isaiah 58:8. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxx., No. 1793.Isaiah 58:11. Ibid.,vol. xiii., No. 736; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 364.Isaiah 58:12. Pulpit Analyst,vol. iii., p. 296. Isaiah 58:13; Isaiah 58:14. Plain Sermons by Contributors to" Tracts for the Times,"vol. ix., p. 267; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons,p. 257; H. F. Burder, Sermons,p. 426; H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit,4th series, p. 213.