bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God." (Isa. 40:9.)
There is no equivocation about this; their deliverer, who was foretold, was to be God Himself, the indivisible. That this was Jehovah and not another is shown by what follows:
"Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him." (Isa. 40:10.)
And yet we immediately identify this picture of Jehovah coming into the world with Jesus, "the Good Shepherd," by what is related in the next verse:
"He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and shall carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isa. 40:11.)
Jesus himself is our warrant for thinking of him as the Good Shepherd: "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep." (John 10:11.) And he tells us very many other beautiful and affecting things about himself as the true shepherd of the sheep.
But Jehovah, who has prophesied of Himself
