...Isaiah’s Tri-personal God in Action Returning to the book of Isaiah, there is one passage where the prophet attributes the work of salvation to three distinct entities: “I will tell of the kindnesses of Yahweh, the deeds for which he is to be praised, according to all Yahweh has done for us— yes, the many good things he has done for the house of Israel, according to his compassion and many kindnesses. He said, ‘Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me’; and so HE became their Savior. In all their distress HE too was distressed, and the Angel of his Presence saved them. In HIS love and mercy HE redeemed them; HE lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.” Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them. Then his people recalled the days of old, the days of Moses and his people— where is he who brought them through the sea, with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he who set his Holy Spirit among them, who sent his glorious Arm of power to be at Moses right hand, who divided the waters before them, to gain for himself everlasting renown, who led them through the depths? Like a horse in open country, they did not stumble; like cattle that go down to the plain, and the Spirit of Yahweh gave them rest. This is how you guided your people to make for yourself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us. But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O Yahweh, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” Isaiah 63:7-16 Here we find mention of Yahweh saving his people by the Angel of his Presence or Face, which is an obvious reference to the Angel whom Yahweh says bears his very name or essence and who appears all throughout the Pentateuch, or the five books of Moses: “Behold, I send an Angel before you, to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place which I have prepared. Give heed to him and hearken to his voice, do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression; for my Name is in him. But if you hearken attentively to his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. When my Angel goes before you, and brings you in to the Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their works, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces. Exodus 23:20-24 “Moses sent messengers from Kadesh to the king of Edom, ‘Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the adversity that has befallen us: how our fathers went down to Egypt, and we dwelt in Egypt a long time; and the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our fathers; and when we cried to Yahweh, he heard our voice, and sent an Angel and brought us forth out of Egypt; and here we are in Kadesh, a city on the edge of your territory.” Numbers 20:14-16 We also have a reference to Yahweh’s Holy Spirit whom the inspired prophet describes as having personal attributes, such as emotions, and granting rest to God’s people, i.e. the Holy Spirit of Yahweh saved and led the Israelites during the time of Moses even though they rebelled and grieved him. What makes these specific claims concerning the Spirit rather amazing is that other inspired writings testify that Yahweh was responsible for granting his people rest and that he was the One whom the Israelites grieved and rebelled against in the wilderness! “And he said, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’” Exodus 33:14 “How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert! They tested him again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel. They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe; when he wrought his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan. He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams. He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them. He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust. He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost. He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts. He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels. He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague. He smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham. Then he led forth his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock. He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies. And he brought them to his holy land, to the mountain which his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not observe his testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” Psalm 78:40-58 It is clear from these examples that the blessed prophet ascribes to the Holy Spirit language that is explicitly and uniquely used of Yahweh! This leads us to our next section. The Binitarian Implication of Isaiah 48:16 – The Divine Personhood of the Holy Spirit There are some who reject the view that in Isaiah 48:16 it is Yahweh who says that Yahweh has sent him and his Spirit. These expositors and scholars take the position that it is actually the prophet himself who is speaking and interjecting his comments at this point. II. The prophet himself, as a type of the great prophet, asserts his own commission to deliver this message: Now the Lord God (the same that spoke from the beginning and did not speak in secret) has by his Spirit sent me, Isaiah 48:16. The Spirit of God is here spoken of as a person distinct from the Father and the Son, and having a divine authority to send prophets. Note, Whom God sends the Spirit sends. Those whom God commissions for any service the Spirit in some measure qualifies for it; and those may speak boldly, and must be heard obediently, whom God and his Spirit send. As that which the prophet says to the same purport with this (Isaiah 61:1) is applied to Christ (Luke 4:21), so may this be; the Lord God sent him, and he had the Spirit without measure. (Matthew Henry Complete Commentary) And: (6) Theodoret of Cyrus It is the prophet who speaks here. I do not speak in my own name, he says, but as one who has been sent by the God of all and the all-holy Spirit. He clearly shows that there is another being referred to besides the person of God [the Father]((the person of the Spirit, so as to refute the Jews and the mad ravings of Sabellius)).... For he says: The Lord sent me and his spirit (48:16). Often he speaks of the one God. For example: I am the first, and I am forever (48:12). And: Before me there was no other god, nor shall there be any after me (43:10). He also speaks of the properties of the persons, sometimes of the Son and the Father, sometimes the Father and the Holy Spirit. So on the subject of the Son and the Father, he said: Because God is in you, and there is no god besides you (45:14). And on the subject of the Father and the Spirit: The Lord sent me and his spirit (48:16). (The Church’s Bible – Isaiah: Interpreted by Early Christian and Medieval Commentators, p. 361; comments within double parentheses ours) This position would still be supportive of God being multi-personal since we would still end up with two distinct Divine Persons, e.g. Yahweh and his Spirit whom he sends to empower his prophets to successfully carry out their missions, a point repeatedly made throughout the prophetic literature: “Now these are the last words of David: The oracle of David, the son of Jesse, the oracle of the man who was raised on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, the sweet psalmist of Israel: ‘The Spirit of Yahweh speaks by me, his word is upon my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me:’” 2 Samuel 23:1-3a “You gave your good Spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouth, and gave them water for their thirst… Many years you did bear with them, and did warn them by your Spirit through your prophets; yet they would not give ear. Therefore you did give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.” Nehemiah 9:30 “And the hand of Yahweh was there upon me; and he said to me, ‘Arise, go forth into the plain, and there I will speak with you.’ So I arose and went forth into the plain; and, lo, the glory of Yahweh stood there, like the glory which I had seen by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face. But the Spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet; and he spoke with me and said to me, ‘Go, shut yourself within your house.’” Ezekiel 3:22-24 “And the Spirit of Yahweh fell upon me, and he said to me, ‘Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel; for I know the things that come into your mind.’” Ezekiel 11:5 “But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of Yahweh, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” Micah 3:8 “They made their hearts like adamant lest they should hear the law and the words which Yahweh of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of hosts.” Zechariah 7:12 In fact, Isaiah not only claims that the Spirit has emotions and grants salvation to the people of God, the prophet also speaks of the Spirit restoring or regenerating the earth. Isaiah also believed that the Spirit gathers all of God’s people to Yahweh and enables them to keep covenant faithfulness: “The fortress will be abandoned, the noisy city deserted; citadel and watchtower will become a wasteland forever, the delight of donkeys, a pasture for flocks, till the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the desert becomes a fertile field, and the fertile field seems like a forest.” Isaiah 32:14-15 “Look in the scroll Yahweh and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together.” Isaiah 34:16 “This is what Yahweh says— he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Isaiah 44:2-3 “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares Yahweh. ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says Yahweh. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,’ says Yahweh.” Isaiah 59:20-21 The only way that the Spirit could replenish or restore the earth and empower countless numbers of individuals to walk in obedience to God is if he is omnipotent and omnipresent, which are exclusively Divine attributes! Isaiah even describes Yahweh’s Spirit as an incomprehensible and omniscient Being who needs no one to instruct or counsel him: “Who has understood the Spirit of Yahweh, or instructed him as his counselor?” Isaiah 40:13 In light of the above it is absolutely certain that the prophet believed that the Spirit of Yahweh is a fully Divine Person who has all of God’s essential attributes, e.g. the Spirit creates, regenerates, replenishes, empowers, saves, guides, instructs, preserves, has emotions etc. Hence, even if one were to deny that Isaiah 48:16 is a Trinitarian “prooftext” this wouldn’t undermine the fact that this passage is still an explicit witness to God being multi-personal in nature. answering-islam.org/authors/shamoun/trinity_isaiah_1.html
Posted on: Sat, 26 Jul 2014 00:03:47 +0000
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