Isaiah 42:4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. God has formed islands and separated them from the great lands, and richly furnished them for human habitation, in order that mankind by means of them might be broken up into smaller sections. On continents human beings have always been apt to corrupt each other. He separated mankind into distinct communities, placed them in different scenes and circumstances, and effectually kept them apart by means of tractless seas, and thus the passions of men were confined within the narrowest limits, and rendered comparatively innocuous. By this method of separation national character was also formed and educated; and the one type of human nature at the beginning developed itself into every possible modification by the force of different circumstances and experiences. If there were no individuality among nations mankind would make no progress, all human societies would lose the mental activity which distinguished them. For such serious and gracious purposes God separated mankind into different nations and races, and placed them amid varied scenes of nature and circumstances of life And into this Divine method of dealing with mankind the existence of islands fitted admirably as part of one wise and gracious scheme. God made use of islands as places in which infant races might receive the education and the discipline which should afterwards qualify them for enlarged intercourse with each other when the sea should cease to be an estranging barrier, and by improved methods of communication should be a marriage-ring uniting nations. It was on islands chiefly that those who greatly influenced their fellows were educated under God's own eye, and in close communion with heaven. It was in islands chiefly that those great events began which ever and anon raised the human race from ignorance and vice to nobler aspirations and purer ideals. How much does the world owe to the isles of Greece, gilded with the eternal summer of human memory, where poetry and art and all that dignifies and blesses human life originated! How much does the world owe to the little islands of Great Britain and Ireland, which have colonised the largest portions of the globe, which have been the bulwark of political freedom and the channel of world-wide enterprise, and to whose hospitable shores the white wake of every ship is the fitting avenue of approach! (H. Macmillan, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law. |
    |