Now for this service,--which had been the purpose of the nation's election at first, the mainstay of its unique preservation since, and the reason of all its singular pre-eminence before God,--Israel was equipped by two great experiences. These were Redemption and Revelation.
On the former redemptions of Israel from the power of other nations our prophet does not dwell much. You feel, that they are present to his mind, for he sometimes describes the coming redemption from Babylon in terms of them. And once, in an appeal to the _Arm of Jehovah_, he calls out: _Awake like the days of old, ancient generations! Art thou not it that hewed Rahab in pieces, that pierced the Dragon? Art thou not it which dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; that made the depths of the sea a way of passage for the redeemed?_[145] There is, too, that beautiful passage in ch. lxiii., which _makes mention of the lovingkindnesses of Jehovah, according to all that He hath bestowed upon us_; which describes the _carriage of the people all the days of old_, how _He brought them out of the sea, caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, divided the water before them, led them through the deeps as a horse on the meadow, that they stumbled not_. But, on the whole, our prophet is too much engrossed with the immediate prospect of release from Babylon, to remember that past, of which it has been truly said, _He hath not dealt so with any people_. It is the new glory that is upon him. He counts the deliverance from Babylon as already come; to his rapt eye it is its marvellous power and costliness, which already clothes the people in their unique brilliance and honour. _Thus saith Jehovah, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: For your sake have I sent to Babylon, and I will bring down their nobles, all of them, and the Chaldeans, in the ships of their exulting._[146] But it is more than Babylon that is balanced against them. _I am Jehovah, thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I am giving as thy ransom, Egypt, Cush and Seba in exchange for thee, because thou art precious in mine eyes, and hast made thyself valuable_ (lit., _of weight_); _and I have loved thee, therefore do I give mankind for thee, and peoples for thy life._[147] _Mankind for thee, and peoples for thy life_,--all the world for this little people? It is intelligible only because this little people are to be for all the world. _Ye are My witnesses that I am God. I will also give thee for a light to nations, to be My salvation to the end of the earth._