I ran across this quote in an article on the Servant Songs in Isaiah. I don’t remember seeing anyone connect the idea of progressive revelation so directly with the capacity of finite humans to comprehend spiritual truth in this way.
Of course, MacRae is defining revelation in this way for a reason… he is trying to respond to the objection that his argument about the Servant (which I won’t develop here right now) creates an apparent contradiction in Scripture.
The Bible is not like a textbook of grammar or of science. It does not take up logical divisions under which it gives precise definitions of the truths that God wishes His people to know. It is not a set of maxims nor a collection of independent verses, each of which is a separate presentation of the truth in relation to some particular subject. The Bible is a record of the way in which God revealed Himself to His people through a period of many centuries. Various parts of the Bible were given at different times and deal with different immediate situations. There is a progress in revelation as we see the great truths that God revealed through the Scripture.
Progressive revelation is necessary because the human mind cannot immediately grasp all of the truth on any particular subject. A certain truth has to be studied for a length of time before one is ready to receive certain other truths. Some truths have to enter into the experience of the individual, the nation, or the church, before they can be properly understood. There are events in the history of God’s dealings with mankind which have to occur before man can fully understand certain elements of the revelation that God desires to give.
Progressive revelation does not mean that God ever reveals anything that is false or wrong in any way. No part of the revelation that God has given is untrue, but many parts of it are incomplete. It might in a way be said that all the revelation of God is incomplete, because man can grasp only a very small part of the wisdom of God and of the vital facts about God. God desires that His people should understand certain particular truths. He often chooses that these truths should be revealed step by step and little by little, in order that they should be properly understood and should sink deep into the human heart.
I’m not certain that this is the best or the only way to respond to arguments about alleged contradictions, but MacRae is making an interesting point and arguing it well.
Yesterday it rained outside almost all day. In a modern American context, that rain is a good thing (lawns and gardens) and a minor nuisance (hair and umbrellas). But for God’s people in Isaiah’s day, the rain was only positive. The blessings brought by the rain parallel the value of God’s Word:
KJV Isaiah 55:10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
Here are some helpful thoughts from my class notes on these verses:
The point of vv. 10-11 is that God’s words/promises are purposeful (they have a design), effectual (they possess the power to accomplish what they pronounce), and therefore infallible (they cannot fail to accomplish their pronouncements). Job 37:10-13 describes God as sending ice and rain “by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.” YHWH uses this very precipitation illustration in Is. 55 to describe the purposefulness, effectualness, and infallibility of everything He pronounces and promises. However amazing or improbable or unimaginable or unlikely it may sound to you or me, if God said it, He will do it just like He said it.
“There is no such thing as a free lunch.” Of course! Everything worth having costs something.
But God offers free meals if you come to Him. Of course, this isn’t just “free lunch.” This is your spiritual needs fulfilled at no cost to you.
ESV Isaiah 55:1 ¶ “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
But nobody offers that. There’s always a catch somewhere. If this was worth having, should it not cost something?
Anything worth having has its price. Thus since this spiritual sustenance has value, it must be received for something of equal value. Shockingly, Isaiah says that it may be acquired, bought, without price. What merchant would ever think of selling his wares free of charge? But God does! How can he do it? Perhaps someone else has already paid the price? In any case, we can have everything necessary to life – for free. Why wait to accept the invitation?
That’s right, you heard it. It’s free because it’s already paid for.
This is an assignment in my Isaiah class for this week. I’m looking forward to this time of prayer, and I hope it challenges you as you look ahead to Easter Sunday.
Take your time praying/meditating through Isaiah 53 (40 minutes). Don’t be distracted by study Bible notes or commentaries—just the text and you and the Lord. Focus worshipfully on the text and pray personally over the events it records and their personal reality for you. Using something other than the KJV, read through the passage (I suggest aloud) consciously in God’s presence, or even to God, praying it back to Him, meditating consciously in God’s presence over the truths revealed in the passage, and talking with Him about the passage. Imagine the events and ponder their relevance to you personally. This is designed to be an exercise in conscious, prayerful, interactive meditation on the central event of soteriology, of theology, and of human history. It is a conscious exercise of 1 John 1:3—”truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ”—a fellowship in, over, and through a portion of His Word that is so central and vital that it is repeated in full four times over in the Bible.
KJV Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
The seraphs had praised God with pure lips, and this Isaiah could not do. His lips were unclean, and that means that he as a man was unclean. A sinful man, he cannot praise God, and his sinfulness manifests itself at the lips. What Isaiah must do is praise God as the seraphs were doing, but because of his depravity, he could not do this. Those whose natures are sinful cannot praise God as they should. There must first be a cleansing of the heart. The prophet must first of all be made conscious of his own sin and unworthiness before he can praise God as he should.
