Isaiah 11:2-3
2. Spirit of the Lord—JEHOVAH. The Spirit by which the prophets spake: for Messiah was to be a Prophet (Isa 61:1; De 18:15, 18). Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are specified, to imply that the perfection of them was to be in Him. Compare "the seven Spirits" (Re 1:4), that is, the Holy Ghost in His perfect fulness: seven being the sacred number. The prophets had only a portion out of the "fulness" in the Son of God (Joh 1:16; 3:34; Col 1:19).
rest—permanently; not merely come upon Him (Nu 11:25, 26). wisdom— (1Co 1:30; Eph 1:17; Col 2:3). understanding—coupled with "wisdom," being its fruit. Discernment and discrimination (Mt 22:18; Joh 2:25). counsel . . . might—the faculty of forming counsels, and that of executing them (Isa 28:29). Counsellor (Isa 9:6). knowledge—of the deep things of God (Mt 11:27). The knowledge of Him gives us true knowledge (Eph 1:17). fear of the Lord—reverential, obedient fear. The first step towards true "knowledge" (Job 28:28; Ps 111:10).3. make him of quick understanding—literally, "quick-scented in the fear of Jehovah"; endowed with a singular sagacity in discerning the genuine principle of religious fear of God, when it lies dormant in the yet unawakened sinner (Mt 12:20; Ac 10:1-48; 16:14) [HORSLEY]. But MAURER, "He shall delight in the fear of God." The Hebrew means "to delight in the odors" of anything (Ex 30:38; Am 5:21); "smell," that is, "delight in."
after . . . sight—according to mere external appearances (Joh 7:24; 8:15; Jas 2:1; 1Sa 16:7). Herein Messiah is represented a just Judge and Ruler (De 1:16, 17). reprove—"decide," as the parallelism shows. after . . . ears—by mere plausible hearsays, but by the true merits of each case (Joh 6:64; Re 2:23). Isaiah 50:4
4. Messiah, as "the servant of Jehovah" (Isa 42:1), declares that the office has been assigned to Him of encouraging the "weary" exiles of Israel by "words in season" suited to their case; and that, whatever suffering it is to cost Himself, He does not shrink from it (Isa 50:5, 6), for that He knows His cause will triumph at last (Isa 50:7, 8).
learned—not in mere human learning, but in divinely taught modes of instruction and eloquence (Isa 49:2; Ex 4:11; Mt 7:28, 29; 13:54). speak a word in season— (Pr 15:23; 25:11). Literally, "to succor by words," namely, in their season of need, the "weary" dispersed ones of Israel (De 28:65-67). Also, the spiritual "weary" (Isa 42:3; Mt 11:28). wakeneth morning by morning, &c.—Compare "daily rising up early" (Jer 7:25; Mr 1:35). The image is drawn from a master wakening his pupils early for instruction. wakeneth . . . ear—prepares me for receiving His divine instructions. as the learned—as one taught by Him. He "learned obedience," experimentally, "by the things which He suffered"; thus gaining that practical learning which adapted Him for "speaking a word in season" to suffering men (Heb 5:8). Luke 12:12
John 14:26
25, 26. he shall teach you all things, and bring all to . . . remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you—(See on Joh 14:15; Joh 14:17). As the Son came in the Father's name, so the Father shall send the Spirit in My name, says Jesus, that is, with like divine power and authority to reproduce in their souls what Christ taught them, "bringing to living consciousness what lay like slumbering germs in their minds" [OLSHAUSEN]. On this rests the credibility and ultimate divine authority of THE GOSPEL HISTORY. The whole of what is here said of THE SPIRIT is decisive of His divine personality. "He who can regard all the personal expressions, applied to the Spirit in these three chapters ('teaching,' 'reminding,' 'testifying,' 'coming,' 'convincing,' 'guiding,' 'speaking,' 'hearing,' 'prophesying,' 'taking') as being no other than a long drawn-out figure, deserves not to be recognized even as an interpreter of intelligible words, much less an expositor of Holy Scripture" [STIER].
John 16:13
12-15. when he, the Spirit of truth, is come . . . he shall not speak of himself—that is, from Himself, but, like Christ Himself, "what He hears," what is given Him to communicate.
he will show you things to come—referring specially to those revelations which, in the Epistles partially, but most fully in the Apocalypse, open up a vista into the Future of the Kingdom of God, whose horizon is the everlasting hills.