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Isaiah Chapter
Thirty-two
Isaiah 32
Chapter Contents
Times of peace and happiness. (1-8) An interval of
trouble, yet comfort and blessings in the end. (9-20)
Commentary on Isaiah 32:1-8
(Read Isaiah 32:1-8)
Christ our righteous King, and his true disciples, are
evidently here intended. The consolations and graces of his Spirit are as
rivers of water in this dry land; and as the overhanging rock affords
refreshing shade and shelter to the weary traveller in the desert, so his
power, truth, and love, yield the believer the only real protection and refreshment
in the weary land through which he journeys to heaven. Christ bore the storm
himself, to keep it off from us. To him let the trembling sinner flee for
refuge; for he alone can protect and refresh us in every trial. See what pains
sinners take in sin; they labour at it, their hearts are intent upon it, and
with art they work iniquity; but this is our comfort, that they can do no more
mischief than God permits. Let us seek to have our hearts more freed from
selfishness. The liberal soul devises liberal things concerning God, and
desires that He will grant wisdom and prudence, the comforts of his presence,
the influence of his Spirit, and in due time the enjoyment of his glory.
Commentary on Isaiah 32:9-20
(Read Isaiah 32:9-20)
When there was so much provocation given to the holy God,
bad times might be expected. Alas! how many careless ones there are, who
support self-indulgence by shameful niggardliness! We deserve to be deprived of
the supports of life, when we make them the food of lusts. Let such tremble and
be troubled. Blessed times shall be brought in by the pouring out of the Spirit
from on high; then, and not till then, there will be good times. The present
state of the Jews shall continue until a more abundant pouring out of the
Spirit from on high. Peace and quietness shall be found in the way and work of
righteousness. True satisfaction is to be had only in true religion. And real
holiness is real happiness now, and shall be perfect happiness, that is,
perfect holiness for ever. The good seed of the word shall be sown in all
places, and be watered by Divine grace; and laborious, patient labourers shall
be sent forth into God's husbandry.
¢w¢w Matthew Henry¡mConcise Commentary on Isaiah¡n
Isaiah 32
Verse 1
[1]
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in
judgment.
Behold ¡X
This seems to be a distinct prophecy from the former, and delivered before that
which is related in the former chapters. The prophecies are not always set down
in that order, in which the prophets delivered them. The foregoing prophecy was
delivered, not in the time of Ahaz for he sent to the Assyrian, not the
Egyptian, for help; it was Hezekiah, who rebelled against the king of Assyria,
and was too prone to trust upon the staff of Egypt. But this seems to have been
delivered in the time of Ahaz.
A king ¡X
Hezekiah, a type of Christ, and Christ typified by him.
Verse 2
[2] And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the
tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land.
A man ¡X
Each of his princes.
A hiding place ¡X
Unto the people under their government.
The wind ¡X
From the rage and violence of evil men.
As rivers ¡X No
less refreshing.
As the shadow ¡X In
a dry and scorched country, which is called weary, because it makes travellers
weary; as death is called pale in other authors, because it makes mens faces
pale.
Verse 3
[3] And
the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear
shall hearken.
The eyes ¡X
The people, they shall not shut their eyes and ears against the good counsels
and examples of their religious king and rulers, as they have done formerly:
both princes and people shall be reformed.
Verse 4
[4] The
heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the
stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
The rash ¡X
Who were hasty in judging of things; which is an argument of ignorance and folly.
The tongue ¡X
That used to speak of the things of God, darkly, and doubtfully; which though
it was in part fulfilled in Hezekiah, yet was truly and fully accomplished only
by Christ, who wrought this wonderful change in an innumerable company both of Jews
and Gentiles.
Verse 5
[5] The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be
bountiful.
The vile ¡X
Base and worthless men.
Liberal ¡X
Shall no longer be reputed honourable, because of their high and honourable
places, but wickedness shall be discovered where ever it is, and virtue
manifested and rewarded.
The churl ¡X
The sordid and covetous man; but under this one vice, all vices are understood,
as under the opposite virtue of bountifulness; all virtues are comprehended.
Verse 6
[6] For
the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to
practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul
of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
Villainy ¡X
Men shall no longer be miscalled; for every one will discover what he is by his
words and actions.
Will work ¡X He
will, from time to time, be advising wickedness, that he may execute it when he
hath opportunity.
To practise ¡X To
do bad things, tho' with a pretence of religion and justice.
To utter ¡X To
pass unjust sentence, directly contrary to the command of God.
Cause the drink ¡X
Whereby they take away the bread and the drink of the poor.
Verse 7
[7] The
instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy
the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
Lying words ¡X
With false and unrighteous decrees.
Even ¡X
When their cause is just and good.
Verse 9
[9] Rise
up, ye women that are at ease; hear my voice, ye careless daughters; give ear
unto my speech.
Ye ¡X That indulge
yourselves in idleness and luxury.
Careless ¡X
Who are insensible of your sin and danger.
Verse 10
[10] Many
days and years shall ye be troubled, ye careless women: for the vintage shall
fail, the gathering shall not come.
The vintage shall fail ¡X During the time of the Assyrian invasion.
The gathering ¡X Of
the other fruits of the earth.
Verse 11
[11]
Tremble, ye women that are at ease; be troubled, ye careless ones: strip you,
and make you bare, and gird sackcloth upon your loins.
Strip ¡X
Put off your ornaments.
Verse 12
[12] They
shall lament for the teats, for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.
The teats ¡X
For the pleasant and fruitful fields, which like teats yielded you plentiful
and excellent nourishment.
Verse 13
[13] Upon
the land of my people shall come up thorns and briers; yea, upon all the houses
of joy in the joyous city:
Yea ¡X
Upon that ground, where now your houses stand, in which you take your fill of
mirth and pleasure.
Verse 14
[14]
Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left;
the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture
of flocks;
Forsaken ¡X Of
God, and given up into their enemies hands.
A joy ¡X
Desolate places, in which wild asses delight to be.
Verse 15
[15]
Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a
fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.
Until ¡X
Until the time come, in which God will pour, or, as the Hebrew word properly
signifies, reveal, evidently and plentifully pour out his spirit from heaven
upon his people, which was fully accomplished in the days of the Messiah.
The fruitful field ¡X
God's people who were desolate, shall be revived and flourish, and their
flourishing enemies shall be brought to destruction.
Verse 16
[16] Then
judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the
fruitful field.
Judgment ¡X
Just judgment.
Righteousness ¡X
Justice shall be executed in all the parts of the land.
Verse 17
[17] And
the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness
quietness and assurance for ever.
The work ¡X
The effect of this shall be prosperity.
Quietness ¡X
Tranquility, both of mind and outward estate.
Assurance ¡X Of
God's mercy, and the fulfilling of his promises.
Verse 19
[19] When
it shall hail, coming down on the forest; and the city shall be low in a low
place.
It shall hail ¡X As
my blessings shall be poured down upon my people, who, from a wilderness, are
turned into a fruitful field, so my judgments (which are signified by hail,
chap. 28:2,17, and elsewhere) shall fall upon them,
who were a fruitful field, but are turned into a forest, upon the unbelieving
and rebellious Jews.
The city ¡X
Jerusalem, which, though now it was the seat of God's worship and people, yet
he foresaw, would be the great enemy of the Messiah.
Low ¡X
Heb. shall be humbled with humiliation: shall be greatly humbled, or brought
very low.
Verse 20
[20]
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of
the ox and the ass.
Blessed ¡X As
the barren forest shall be destroyed, so the fruitful field shall be improved,
and bring forth much fruit; which is signified by a declaration of the
blessedness of them that sow in it.
Waters ¡X In
all moist grounds, which are like to yield good fruit. But this also is to be
understood of the times of the gospel, and of the great and happy success of
the ministers of it.
The ox ¡X Which
they employed in plowing and sowing the ground.
¢w¢w John Wesley¡mExplanatory Notes on Isaiah¡n
32 Chapter 32
Verses 1-8
Behold, a King shall reign in righteousness
Asayria and Judah
Such (Isaiah 31:8-9) will be the ignominious
end of the proud battalions of Assyria.
For Judah a happier future immediately begins. There should be no break between
the two chapters. The representation which follows (Isaiah 32:1-8) is the positive complement
to Isaiah 31:6 f., and is parallel to Isaiah 30:23-26, completing under its
ethical and spiritual aspects the picture of which the external material
features were there delineated. Society, when the crisis is past, will be
regenerated. Kings and nobles will be the devoted guardians of justice, and
great men will be what their position demands that they should be--the willing
and powerful protectors of the poor. All classes, in other words, will be
pervaded by an increased sense of public duty. The spiritual and intellectual
blindness (Isaiah 29:10) will have passed away (Isaiah 30:3); superficial and precipitate
judgments will be replaced by discrimination (Isaiah 30:4 a); hesitancy and
vacillation will give way before the prompt and clear assertion of principle (Isaiah 30:4 b). The present
confusion of moral distinctions will cease; men and actions will be called by
their right names. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A new era
For Judah--sifted, rescued, cleansed--a new era opens.
I. JUST GOVERNMENT
IN BLESSING TO THE PEOPLE is the first good fruit (Isaiah 32:1-2).
II. The second is
AN OPEN UNDERSTANDING AFTER THE CURSE OF HARDNESS (Isaiah 32:3-4).
III. A third good
fruit is CALLING AND TREATING EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS TRUE CHARACTER (Isaiah 32:5-8). Nobility of birth and
riches will give place to nobility of disposition, so that the former will not
be found, nor find recognition without the latter. (F. Delitzsch.)
A flourishing kingdom
It may be taken as a directory both to magistrates and subjects,
what both ought to do. It is here promised and prescribed--
I. THAT
MAGISTRATES SHOULD DO THEIR DUTY IN THEIR PLACES, and the powers answer the
great ends for which they were ordained of God (Isaiah 32:1-2).
1. There shall be a king and princes that shall reign and rule; for
it cannot go well when there is no king in Israel.
2. They shall use their power according to law, and not against it.
3. Thus they shall be great blessings to the people (Isaiah 32:2). ¡§A man¡¨--that man, that
king that reigns in righteousness--¡§shall be as a hiding-place.¡¨
II. THAT SUBJECTS
SHALL DO THEIR DUTY IN THEIR PLACES.
1. They shall be willing to be taught, and to understand things
aright (Isaiah 32:3). When this blessed work of
reformation is set on foot, and men do their part towards it, God will not be
wanting to do His. Then ¡§the eyes of them that see¡¨--of the prophets, the
seers--¡§shall not be dim,¡¨ &c.
2. There shall be a wonderful change wrought in them by that which is
taught them (Isaiah 32:4).
3. The differences between good and evil, virtue and vice, shall be
kept up and no more confounded by those who put darkness for light, and light,
for darkness (Isaiah 32:5). (Matthew Henry.)
Reformed society
Though Isaiah s words are only perfectly ful-filled in Jesus
Christ, it was not concerning Christ that they were spoken. The prophet is
speaking of the religious future and social progress of his people. He is
presenting a picture of regenerated Judah. He points to the essential elements
of all national stability and greatness. He speaks first of the righteousness
that shall be exalted, and exemplified in the government of king and rulers;
and then he goes on to speak of the moral conditions of real blessedness and
progress, as they shall appear among the people. Great characters are the
outstanding feature in the reformed society that he anticipates. Through them
the progress of the nation is secured; in them the greatness of the nation will
consist. But great characters can only exercise their full and proper influence
when they move among those who are able to discern their greatness. Hence
Isaiah declares that in that glorious time for which he confidently looks the
moral blindness of the people, over which he had so often and so deeply
mourned, the moral insensibility dulness, with all the confusion and false
judgment it occasioned, shall have ceased (verse 3). Men shall know true
manhood when they see it, and honour the manhood that they see. They shall no
longer debase the moral currency, and make false use of terms denoting moral
qualities. The great men shall be seen in all their greatness, and shall raise
others to a moral elevation like their own. They shall protect the weak, and
encourage the faint-hearted; they shall foster the growth of all goodness, and
be an unfailing source of noblest inspiration. As they stand there in all their
moral grandeur, rooted and grounded in the eternal righteoushess, they are
indeed--and they are known to be--¡§as a hiding-place from the wind, and a
covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a
great rook in a weary land.¡¨ (E. A. Lawrence.)
Isaiah¡¦s Utopia
The first eight verses of this chapter are like the sudden opening
of a window. The hall behind you resounds with the clamour of fierce
contentions; the window before you frames in the prospect of a fair country,
all bathed in rosy light, a land of corn and wine and oil, a land of plenty and
peace. Isaiah is not the only politician who has found relief from the
anxieties of a stormy time in a Utopia of his own imagining. The air was full
of the noise of change, the Reformation was in full career on the Continent,
and the ground-swell of the great movement already trembling on the shores of
England, when Sir Thomas More wrote his description of the ideal state. When,
as they think, everything is going wrong, men often have brightest visions of
what the world would be if everything were going right. Isaiah¡¦s Utopia has
three grand characteristics:
1. The triumph of righteousness in government. His programme for the
ruling power is this: ¡§A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall
rule in judgment.¡¨
2. The new state shall be broad-based, not upon the people¡¦s will,
but upon the people¡¦s character. Men shall not be, as they have been, weak and
unstable, and ungenerous; but, rock-like and river-like, they shall be strong
and bountiful.
3. The ideal Israel, themselves judged justly, shall be just judges
of others. They shall be able to discriminate character, and to recognise and
honour the truly good. ¡§The quack and the dupe,¡¨ says Carlyle, ¡§are upper and
under side of the same substance.¡¨ So, in the kingdom of the future, ¡§the vile
person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.¡¨
There will be no quacks, because there will be no dupes. Those who are liberal
themselves are not likely to err in what constitutes liberality in others. (W.
B. Dalby.)
Behold, a King shall reign
in righteousness
Asayria and Judah
Such (Isaiah
31:8-9) will
be the ignominious end of the proud battalions of Assyria.
For Judah a happier future immediately begins. There should be no break between
the two chapters. The representation which follows (Isaiah
32:1-8) is
the positive complement to Isaiah
31:6 f.,
and is parallel to Isaiah
30:23-26,
completing under its ethical and spiritual aspects the picture of which the
external material features were there delineated. Society, when the crisis is
past, will be regenerated. Kings and nobles will be the devoted guardians of
justice, and great men will be what their position demands that they should
be--the willing and powerful protectors of the poor. All classes, in other
words, will be pervaded by an increased sense of public duty. The spiritual and
intellectual blindness (Isaiah
29:10) will
have passed away (Isaiah
30:3);
superficial and precipitate judgments will be replaced by discrimination (Isaiah
30:4 a);
hesitancy and vacillation will give way before the prompt and clear assertion
of principle (Isaiah
30:4 b).
The present confusion of moral distinctions will cease; men and actions will be
called by their right names. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
A new era
For Judah--sifted,
rescued, cleansed--a new era opens.
I. JUST
GOVERNMENT IN BLESSING TO THE PEOPLE is the first good fruit (Isaiah
32:1-2).
II. The
second is AN OPEN UNDERSTANDING AFTER THE CURSE OF HARDNESS (Isaiah
32:3-4).
III. A
third good fruit is CALLING AND TREATING EVERYONE ACCORDING TO HIS TRUE
CHARACTER (Isaiah
32:5-8).
Nobility of birth and riches will give place to nobility of disposition, so
that the former will not be found, nor find recognition without the latter. (F.
Delitzsch.)
A flourishing kingdom
It may be taken as a
directory both to magistrates and subjects, what both ought to do. It is here
promised and prescribed--
I. THAT
MAGISTRATES SHOULD DO THEIR DUTY IN THEIR PLACES, and the powers answer the
great ends for which they were ordained of God (Isaiah
32:1-2).
1. There
shall be a king and princes that shall reign and rule; for it cannot go well
when there is no king in Israel.
2. They
shall use their power according to law, and not against it.
3. Thus
they shall be great blessings to the people (Isaiah
32:2). ¡§A
man¡¨--that man, that king that reigns in righteousness--¡§shall be as a
hiding-place.¡¨
II. THAT
SUBJECTS SHALL DO THEIR DUTY IN THEIR PLACES.
1. They
shall be willing to be taught, and to understand things aright (Isaiah
32:3).
When this blessed work of reformation is set on foot, and men do their part
towards it, God will not be wanting to do His. Then ¡§the eyes of them that
see¡¨--of the prophets, the seers--¡§shall not be dim,¡¨ &c.
2. There
shall be a wonderful change wrought in them by that which is taught them (Isaiah
32:4).
3. The
differences between good and evil, virtue and vice, shall be kept up and no
more confounded by those who put darkness for light, and light, for darkness (Isaiah
32:5). (Matthew
Henry.)
Reformed society
Though Isaiah s words are
only perfectly ful-filled in Jesus Christ, it was not concerning Christ that
they were spoken. The prophet is speaking of the religious future and social
progress of his people. He is presenting a picture of regenerated Judah. He
points to the essential elements of all national stability and greatness. He
speaks first of the righteousness that shall be exalted, and exemplified in the
government of king and rulers; and then he goes on to speak of the moral
conditions of real blessedness and progress, as they shall appear among the
people. Great characters are the outstanding feature in the reformed society
that he anticipates. Through them the progress of the nation is secured; in
them the greatness of the nation will consist. But great characters can only
exercise their full and proper influence when they move among those who are
able to discern their greatness. Hence Isaiah declares that in that glorious
time for which he confidently looks the moral blindness of the people, over
which he had so often and so deeply mourned, the moral insensibility dulness,
with all the confusion and false judgment it occasioned, shall have ceased
(verse 3). Men shall know true manhood when they see it, and honour the manhood
that they see. They shall no longer debase the moral currency, and make false
use of terms denoting moral qualities. The great men shall be seen in all their
greatness, and shall raise others to a moral elevation like their own. They
shall protect the weak, and encourage the faint-hearted; they shall foster the
growth of all goodness, and be an unfailing source of noblest inspiration. As
they stand there in all their moral grandeur, rooted and grounded in the
eternal righteoushess, they are indeed--and they are known to be--¡§as a hiding-place
from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry
place, as the shadow of a great rook in a weary land.¡¨ (E. A. Lawrence.)
Isaiah¡¦s Utopia
The first eight verses of
this chapter are like the sudden opening of a window. The hall behind you
resounds with the clamour of fierce contentions; the window before you frames
in the prospect of a fair country, all bathed in rosy light, a land of corn and
wine and oil, a land of plenty and peace. Isaiah is not the only politician who
has found relief from the anxieties of a stormy time in a Utopia of his own
imagining. The air was full of the noise of change, the Reformation was in full
career on the Continent, and the ground-swell of the great movement already
trembling on the shores of England, when Sir Thomas More wrote his description
of the ideal state. When, as they think, everything is going wrong, men often
have brightest visions of what the world would be if everything were going
right. Isaiah¡¦s Utopia has three grand characteristics:
1. The
triumph of righteousness in government. His programme for the ruling power is
this: ¡§A king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in
judgment.¡¨
2. The
new state shall be broad-based, not upon the people¡¦s will, but upon the people¡¦s
character. Men shall not be, as they have been, weak and unstable, and
ungenerous; but, rock-like and river-like, they shall be strong and bountiful.
3. The
ideal Israel, themselves judged justly, shall be just judges of others. They
shall be able to discriminate character, and to recognise and honour the truly
good. ¡§The quack and the dupe,¡¨ says Carlyle, ¡§are upper and under side of the
same substance.¡¨ So, in the kingdom of the future, ¡§the vile person shall be no
more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.¡¨ There will be no
quacks, because there will be no dupes. Those who are liberal themselves are
not likely to err in what constitutes liberality in others. (W. B. Dalby.)
Verse 2
A man shall be as an
hiding-place from the wind
A hiding-place from the wind
In the East, the following
phenomenon is often observed.
Where the desert touches a river, valley, or oasis, the sand is in a continual
state of drift from the wind, and it is this drift which is the real cause of
the barrenness of such portions of the desert, at least, as abut upon the
fertile land. For under the rain, or by the infiltration of the river, plants
often spring up through the sand, and there is sometimes promise of
considerable fertility. It never lasts. Down comes the periodic drift, and life
is stunted or choked out. But set down a rock on the sand, and see the
difference its presence makes. After a few showers, to the leeward side of this
some blades will spring up; if you have patience, you will see in time a
garden. How has the boulder produced this? Simply by arresting the drift. Now
that is exactly how great men benefit human life. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The true shelter/or the world
A Saviour who does not
seek first to improve man¡¦s condition, but to improve man. (W. C. E.
Newbolt.)
A man
The prophet here has no
individual specially in his view, but is rather laying down a general
description of the influence of individual character, of which Christ Jesus was
the highest instance. Taken in this sense, his famous words present us--
I. WITH A
PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. Great men are not the whole of life, but they are the
condition of all the rest; if it were not for the big men, the little ones
could scarcely live. The first requisites of religion and civilisation are
outstanding characters.
II. But in
this philosophy of history there is A GOSPEL. Isaiah¡¦s words are not only man¡¦s
ideal: they are God¡¦s promise, and that promise has been fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ is the most conspicuous example--none others are near
Him--of this personal influence in which Isaiah places all the shelter and
revival of society. This figure of a rock, a rock resisting drift, gives us
some idea, not only of the commanding influence of Christ¡¦s person, but of that
special office from which all the glory of His person and of His name arises:
that ¡§He saves His people from their sins.¡¨ For what is sin? Sin is simply the
longest, heaviest drift in human history. ¡§The oldest custom of the race,¡¨ it
is the most powerful habit of the individual. Men have reared against it
government, education, philosophy, system after system of religion. But sin
overwhelmed them all. Only Christ resisted, and His resistance saves the world.
III. In
this promise of a man there is A GREAT DUTY AND IDEAL for every one. If this
prophecy distinctly reaches forward to Jesus Christ as its only perfect
fulfilment, the vagueness of its expression permits of its application to all,
and through Him its fulfilment by all becomes a possibility.
1. We can
be like Christ the Rock in shutting out from our neighbours the knowledge and
infection of sin, in keeping our conversation so unsuggestive and unprovocative
of evil, that, though sin drift upon us, it shall never drift through us.
2. We may
be like Christ the Rock in shutting out blame from other men; in sheltering
them from the east wind of pitiless prejudice, quarrel, or controversy; in
stopping the unclean and bitter drifts of scandal and gossip. How many lives
have lost their fertility for the want of a little silence and a little shadow!
3. As
there are a number of men and women who fall in struggling for virtue simply
because they never see it successful in others, and the spectacle of one pure,
heroic character would be their salvation, here is a way in which each servant
of God may be a rock. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Humanity greater than all distinctions of
class
In the first and second
verses of this chapter we have suggested to us the three great forms of
government or social power, in accordance with which society has been
constructed, and under which men have lived; namely, the monarchy, the
aristocracy, and the democracy. A king shall reign, princes shall rule, and a
man shall be as a hiding-place. First, there is a throne, then a palace, and
then the common earth. It seems to be a descent from a king to princes, and
from princes to a man; but it is also an ascent, for the man is the climax
rather than the king. The king and the princes disappear in the man. Humanity
or the common nature is greater than all distinctions of class. A king exists
for men, rather than men for a king; and the salvation of society consists in
the elevation of the common substratum of the race. In this elevation all the
three powers may play a part--the power of the throne, the power of the nobles,
and the power of the people themselves. All these three forms of government may
exist in the same constitution. In the heavenly, or eternal government, there
is a King with different orders of subjects. But since, in this heavenly
kingdom, He who is King of kings and Lord of lords became a man, and a poor
man, that He might serve all, and lift up all to citizenship in His kingdom,
and to sit even on His throne, the great moral and spiritual law has been laid
down, that every one, from the ruler on the throne to the humblest subject,
rises in moral character and dignity just as he stoops to the help of others.
If it is by the gentleness of God that we are made great; if He who is over all
became servant to all, we cannot hope to become great on a different principle;
that is, by seeking to be ministered unto rather than to minister. (F.
Ferguson.)
Christ the shield of the believer
It is probable that the
prophecy had some reference to Hezekiah, who, as the successor of the
iniquitous Ahaz, restored the worship of God, and re-established the kingdom of
Judah. The very striking deliverance vouchsafed by God to His people, in the
reign of this monarch, when the swarming hosts of the Assyrians fell in one
night before the destroying angel, may justly be considered as having been
alluded to by the prophet in strains which breathe high of the triumphs of
redemption. And when ¡§a king¡¨ is spoken of as ¡§reigning in righteousness,¡¨ and
there is associated with his dominion all the imagery of prosperity and peace,
we may, undoubtedly, find, in the holy and beneficent rule of Hezekiah, much
that answers to the glowing predictions. But the destruction of the army of the
Assyrians may itself be regarded as a figurative occurrence; and Hezekiah, like
his forefather David, as but a type of the Lord our Redeemer. There are to be
great and fearful judgments ere Christ shall finally set up His kingdom on
earth. We shall consider the text as containing a description--metaphorical,
undoubtedly, but not the less comforting and instructive--of what the Redeemer
is to the Church.
I. The
first thing which may justly strike you as remarkable in this description of
Christ, is THE EMPHASIS WHICH SEEMS LAID ON THE WORD ¡§MAN.¡¨ A man¡¨ shall be
this or that; and Bishop Lowth renders it ¡§the man,¡¨ as if he were man by
distinction from every other--which is undoubtedly St. Paul¡¦s statement when he
writes to the Corinthians: ¡§The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second
man is the Lord from heaven.¡¨
It is the human nature of
Christ to which our text gives the prominence; it is this human nature to which
seems ascribed the suitableness of Christ¡¦s office prophetically assigned. What
our blessed Saviour undertook was the reconciliation of our offending nature to
God; and of this it is perhaps hardly too much to say that it could not have
been effected by any nature but itself.
II. Let us
now proceed to consider WITH WHAT JUSTICE OR PROPRIETY THE SEVERAL ASSERTIONS
HERE MADE MAY BE APPLIED TO OUR SAVIOUR. There are four assertions in the text,
four similes used to represent to us the office of our Redeemer, or the
benefits secured to us through His gracious mediation. These assertions or similes
are not, indeed, all different; on the contrary, there is great similarity, or
even something like repetition. Thus, ¡§a hiding-place from the wind¡¨ does not
materially differ from ¡§a covert from the tempest.¡¨ The idea is the same; there
is only that variety in the mode of expression which accords with poetic
composition. Neither is ¡§the shadow of a great rock in a weary desert¡¨
altogether a different image; the idea is still that which shields--shelter
from the heat, if not from the tempest. It may, perhaps, be more correct to say
that there are two great ideas embodied in the text, and there are two figures
for the illustration of each. The first idea is that of a refuge in
circumstances of danger; and this is illustrated by ¡§a hiding-place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest.¡¨ The second idea is that of refreshment under
circumstances of fatigue; and this is illustrated by ¡§rivers of water in a dry
place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.¡¨ There is one thing,
according to the three illustrations, which should be separately and carefully
considered. The ¡§hiding-place,¡¨ the ¡§covert,¡¨ and the ¡§rock,¡¨ give shelter and
relief, through receiving on themselves that against which they defend us. It
were a dull imagination, nay, it were a cold heart, which does not instantly
recognise the appropriateness of the figure, as taken in illustration of the
Lord our Redeemer. These Scriptural figures while under one point of view they
represent Christ, under another they represent ourselves. And it is simply
because there is so little feeling of our own actual condition that there is so
little appreciation of the character under which Christ is described. (H.
Melvill, B.D.)
Jesus, the hiding-place
There is not a want, not a
need, but we find Jesus enough for it.
I. MAN¡¦S
NEED OF A HIDING-PLACE.
1. What a
tempest will sharp afflictions sometimes raise, particularly if one follows
another in quick succession.
2. There
are other storms--national judgments.
3. What a
storm can the Eternal Spirit raise in a man¡¦s own conscience when the poor
Christless sinner catches his first glimpse of God!
4. What a
burning wind has oft withered the mere professor when the Eternal Spirit has in
a dying hour forced him to the fearful review of the past.
II. THE GLORIOUS
HIDING-PLACE WHICH THE GOSPEL POINTS OUT. As God-man, who can describe the
hiding-place? What a hiding-place is His Person! What a hiding-place is His
intercession! What a hiding-place is His deep sympathy! What a hiding-place is
His fulness of grace! What a hiding-place, that has all the power, strength,
and merit of Deity in it, and all the tenderness, love, and sympathy of
humanity in it! The great question is, Have we really entered in? (J. H.
Evans, M. A.)
A covert the tempest
We cannot easily imagine
the fury of whirlwinds in the East. Granite and iron columns are snapped in
two; the largest trees are torn up by the roots; houses are tossed about like
straws, and at sea whole fleets are cast away. But Eastern storms are most
terrible in the desert. There mountains of sand are lifted up and dashed down,
sometimes burying whole caravans, and even whole armies. Picture a traveller in
such a case. After a strange stillness, he sees a cloud of sand arising in
front of him. At once the sky is darkened, and earth and heaven seem
confounded. The angel of destruction rides on every blast, and claims the whole
desert as his own. The poor man stands appalled, as if the clay of doom had
come. Oh, for a shelter: it is his one chance for life! Lo! a gigantic rock
rears its head; he runs under it. The storm spends its fury upon the sheltering
rock, not upon the sheltered pilgrim. (J. Wells, M. A.)
Our hiding-place
I. IN THE
SAVIOUR THERE IS SHELTER FOR OUR SOULS. What are the storms from which the
Saviour shields us? The Bible speaks most about two: the storm of God¡¦s wrath
against sin, and the storm of life¡¦s trials.
II. IN THE
SAVIOUR WE HAVE SAFETY. Shelter and safety are different things, though we may
not see the difference at once. About eighteen hundred years ago there was a
town in the south of Italy, called Pompeii, which owes its fame to its
destruction. It was buried under streams of boiling mud from Vesuvius, and
showers of dust and ashes. Most of the people escaped by flight. The priests,
having no faith in their idols, seized their treasures and fled. But some poor
folks ran to the temples, hoping that their gods would save them. They found
shelter, and--a grave. Since many are more anxious about shelter than real
safety, Christ is at great pains to warn us against a mistake as common as it
is dangerous. You remember Christ¡¦s story about the two builders; the one
building upon the sand, and the other upon the rock. Very likely the two houses
were equally fair to look upon, and both the wise man and the fool found
shelter enough in sunny weather. But the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew and beat upon the fool¡¦s house, and it fell, and great was
the fall thereof. The poor man found shelter-and death. Many ¡§refuges of
lies¡¨--man-made refuges all--would lure us away from our true safety.
III. IN THE
SAVIOUR THERE IS SYMPATHY. Shelter and safety are often found without sympathy.
The fortress that gave the besieged safety from their foes has often been a
hateful prison, in which famine and pestilence slew more than the sword. The
dens and caves which were the hiding-places of our martyrs were equally
wretched and safe. The Alpine traveller, overtaken by snowstorms, hurries to
the nearest shelter, and finds only four bare walls. No cheerful fire, no kind
host welcomes and revives him; and often he faints on the threshold, and dies
within. But the soul¡¦s hiding-place is the soul¡¦s banqueting-house. You must
lay the stress on the word ¡§man.¡¨ To the Jews before Christ it was no news to
be told that God was a hiding-place. But that a man should be their
hiding-place and covert, their overshadowing rock and water of life--that was a
very surprising and glorious prophecy. And what a man! The Man of men, the
alone perfect Man, of all men the most gracious and tender-hearted the God-man.
And He is a man by His own choice. More, He is a man from love to us. Had He
been only God, we sinful, trembling creatures might not have dared to draw
near; had He been only man, we should have doubted His power; but being both
God and man, we can approach Him with equal confidence and affection. Your
safety is not a hard, cold, empty thing. No, it is like the safety of the young
eagle, covered with the feathers, and drawn close to the warm, ,beating side of
the parent bird.
IV. IN THE
SAVIOUR THERE IS SATISFACTION. Tis thorough satisfaction, as when the
desert-traveller, perishing with thirst, finds ¡§rivers of water in a dry
place.¡¨ Among men, Beasts, and birds, how boundless is the delight the thirsty
find in fresh water! Every one has a craving for happiness, that never can The
conquered, but lives while the soul lives. The Bible is ever declaring these¡¨
two truths--
1. Your
soul cannot get true satisfaction away from Christ.
2. You
may find it in Him. (J. Wells, M. A.)
The hiding-place
I. THE
HOLY GHOST DECLARES IT IS ¡§A MAN THAT SHALL BE THE HIDING-PLACE FROM THE WIND.¡¨
II. IN
WHAT RESPECT OUR BLESSED LORD IS THAT ¡§HIDING-PLACE.¡¨
III. THE
MANY ENCOURAGEMENTS THAT ARE GIVEN IN GOD¡¦S SACRED WORD TO THE POOR AND WEARY
TEMPEST-BEATEN TRAVELLER TO ENTER INTO THAT ¡§HIDING-PLACE.¡¨
1. The
commandment of God, on the one side.
2. The
freeness of invitation, on the other.
3. The
open door.
4. The
testimony of all those who are in heaven, and all those who are on earth, under
the teaching of the Eternal Spirit, that never did any go thither and have a
negative, but that as many as went were freely welcomed by the Lord of life and
glory. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The value of true man-hood
Change the emphasis of
your policy. You have been busy making alliances; now make a man. That was the
teaching of this statesman-prophet. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
The variety and urgency of human need
What a revelation is here
of the wants of men! The very supply indicates the depths and urgency of the
need which craves for satisfaction. ¡§Hiding-place!¡¨ ¡§Covert!¡¨ ¡§Fountains of
water!¡¨ ¡§The shadow of a great rock!¡¨ Each of these beautiful images serves to
accentuate the impression of urgent and pitiful need. Lighthouses and harbours
are always terribly suggestive. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Human need met in Christ
I. WIND.
How apt a symbol of our lives is here! Often when all seems fair, suddenly a
wild storm envelops us in a furious melee. A calumnious story is
circulated, which is absolutely without foundation; a well-meant act is
misconstrued; a love suddenly cools; a dam which had warded off the wild North
Sea breaks; a life which had been dearer than our own fails; our whole nature
is plunged into a bath of agonising pain; the mind is cast into a tumult of
perplexity; the heart is rent. Then we know bitterly the spiritual side of the
words, No small tempest lay upon us.
II. STORM.
We are exposed not only to great and crushing sorrows, which threaten to
suddenly engulf us, as it is said the old seats of human life were engulfed in
the midst of the Indian Ocean; but we have to suffer from the accumulations of
little stinging irritations, which are like the grit or sand grains of the
desert. The rasping temper of some one with whom we have to live; the
annoyances and slights which are daily heaped on us; petty innuendoes and
insinuations that sting; trifles which we could not put into words, but which
hurt us like acid dropped into a sore.
III. A DRY
PLACE. Our lot is sometimes cast, as David¡¦s was, in a dry and thirsty land,
where no water is. There are few helps in our religious life; we are cast into
a worldly family; we are obliged to attend an uncongenial ministry; we are too
driven with occupation to have quiet times for fellowship with God, and communion
with His saints; or we are so lonely that we long unutterably for some kindred
soul, some one to love, or to be loved. The eye ranges day after day over the
same monotonous landscape.
IV. A
WEARY LAND. Weary people--there are plenty of them! Weary of life, with its
poverty from which there is never a moment¡¦s respite; with the love of the life
unrequited; with the light of life hidden beneath a bushel; with common-place
duties and monotonous routine! The demands are so incessant, the pressure so constant,
the heartache so wearing, the pain so cruel! The eyes weary of looking for one
who never comes; the ears weary of listening for a step that never greets them;
the hearts weary of waiting for a love that never comes forth from the grave,
though they call never so loudly. But all these many-sided needs may be met and
satisfied in The Man Christ Jesus.¡¨ No one man could perfectly meet even one of
them; but Jesus perfectly meets them all. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Christ the perfect Man
Have you not often wished
to take the characteristic qualities from the men in whom they are strongest,
and put them all together into one nature, making one complete man out of the
many broken bits, one chord of the many single notes, one ray of the many
colours? But this that you would wish to do is done in Him-in whom the faith of
Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the patience of Job, the strength of Daniel,
the love of the apostle John, blend in one complete symmetrical whole. (F.
B. Meyer, B. A.)
Christ our hiding-place
I. THE
STORMS.
1. The
storm of adversity.
2. Of
conviction.
3. Of
temptation.
4. There
is an eternal storm.
II. THE
HIDING-PLACE. ¡§A man,¡¨ &c.
1. What
man? The Man Christ Jesus.
2. A
suitable refuge. While He feels for you as a man, He helps you as a God. A
refuge from--
III. DELIGHTFUL
REFRESHMENT. As rivers of water,¡¨ &c.
1. Refreshing.
2. Purifying.
3. Free.
4. Free
to all.
IV. NEEDFUL
SHELTER. ¡§As the shadow,¡¨ &c. (W. Jackson.)
Offices of Christ
I. Christ
came to be A HIDING-PLACE PROM THE WIND. This part of our text may be regarded
as referring to the lesser evils of human life; to those which chiefly affect
our temporal condition. Who does not feel, in his measure, the winds of
adversity, which never fail to blow upon this lower world? The widow mourns
over her bereavement, and sits alone, as a sparrow upon the housetop. The
orphans look in vain for a parent¡¦s sympathy and protection. The poor man
stands aghast at the prospect of penury. The sick languish under the
appointment of painful days and wearisome nights. The mourners go about the
streets, telling the sad tale of their desolation, and refusing to be
comforted, under the loss of some endeared object. But let us not imagine that
even our most trivial sufferings are beneath the notice of Jehovah. He became a
man that He might make Himself acquainted with the afflictions of humanity, and
thus be able to afford His sympathy.
1. There
is the shelter of His gracious declarations.
2. Of the
promises.
3. Of
Christ¡¦s example.
See Him weeping with those
that wept. See Him providing for the hungry multitude. See Him ever ready to
alleviate human misery, and, during the whole period of His life, going about
doing good. Is it possible to study the life of Jesus, and not derive succour
from the view of His sympathy and compassion?
II. The
second clause of our text leads us to the consideration of those greater evils,
from which Christ protects His followers. He is spoken of as A COVERT FROM THE
TEMPEST.
1. There
is the tempest of God¡¦s wrath, roused by man¡¦s transgression.
2. Of
Satan¡¦s buffetings.
3. Of
indwelling sin. But, amidst all these tempests, Christ is a covert for His
people. Consider how it is that He shelters them. It is by bearing Himself the
stormy wind and tempest.
III. Christ
is spoken of as RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE. To the renewed mind, what is
the whole world but a dry place?
IV. Christ
is spoken of as THE SHADOW OF A GREAT ROCK IN A WEARY LAND. What are we but
pilgrims toiling over the sandy desert of this weary world? We have various
burdens to carry, and labours allotted to us; and now are we straitened in our
work! With one hand we have to fight continually against our enemies, as we
hasten onward to our home: with the other, we have to labour diligently, both
for ourselves and others. We have to bear the burden and heat of the day. But
shall we faint because of the way? No, we have a grand support. We have the
shadow of a great rock in this weary land. (Carus Wilson.)
Christ a refuge
I. We are
reminded here of our DANGERS. These are set forth by images which we in our
climate can only half understand. Except at sea, we have little to fear from
winds and tempests. At the worst, they are inconveniences to us, seldom
dangers. But in other countries they are at times the causes of great havoc.
Besides these, there are gentler winds sometimes blowing in them, that are
almost as fearful. Hot and debilitating, they cannot be breathed without much
suffering, and instances, it is said, have been known in which they have been
so noxious as to occasion death. Is not this a true picture of our situation?
There are storms of outward affliction for us in the world. And there are
inward storms also--storms of conscience, storms of temptation; and still worse
storms than any of these--the ragings of our own corrupt affections. And yet
what are all these? They are all nothing compared with one storm yet to come.
There is the wrath of God awaiting us.
II. The
text tells us of A PROTECTOR FROM OUR DANGERS. And who is He? If we understand
what our dangers are, we shall all say He must be the great God. But the text
does not say this. It tells us that He is a man. But how, we may ask, can this
be? We have tried often enough to get help from men. This man is such as never
before was seen or heard of, the everlasting Jehovah manifest in our mortal
flesh, God and man united in one Christ. But why is the Lord Jesus called so
emphatically a man in this passage? Perhaps for three reasons.
1. To
lead the ancient Church to expect His incarnation.
2. To
encourage us to approach Him. We naturally are afraid of God. But here, says
this text, is God appearing before you in a new character and form. His mere
appearance in our world as a man, proclaims Him at once man¡¦s Friend and
Saviour.
3. To
show us the importance of His human nature to our safety.
III. THE
EXCELLENCE OF THAT PROTECTION WHICH THE LORD JESUS AFFORDS US. Imagine
yourselves in such a desert as the prophet has here in his mind. Suppose
yourselves asked, what kind of shelter you wished for.
1. You
would naturally say, in the first place, it must be a secure one. And Christ is
a secure hiding-place.
2. Then
you would say, the refuge I want must be a near one. And who so near at hand as
the Lord Jesus.
3. But,
you may ask, Can I gain admittance into this refuge if I flee to it? The answer
is, You can. It is an open refuge, a refuge ever open, and open to all who
choose to enter it.
4. He is
a well-furnished hiding-place. There is provision and plentiful provision in
this stronghold for all who enter it. Conclusion--
1. What
think ye of this hiding-place? What use have you made of it? Have you fled to
it?
2. But
there are those who are out of this hiding-place. Oh, brethren, have mercy on
yourselves! (C. Bradley, M. A.)
The suffering world and the relieving Man
I. THE
SUFFERING WORLD. The world¡¦s trials are here represented by the imagery of--
1. A
¡§tempest.¡¨ Tempests in nature are often most terrible and devastating.
Spiritually, the world is in a tempest. It is beaten by the storm of--
2. A drought.
¡§A dry place.¡¨ The Oriental traveller under a vertical sun, and on scorching
sands without water, is the picture here. He has a burning thirst and is in
earnest quest for the cooling stream. Is this not a true picture of man
spiritually as a traveller to eternity? He thirsts for a good which he fails to
get.
3. Exhaustion.
¡§In a weary land.¡¨ The Oriental traveller has exhausted his strength, and lies
down in prostrate hopelessness. Man, spiritually, is ¡§weary and heavy laden,¡¨
¡§without strength.¡¨ Without strength to discharge his moral obligations, to
please his Maker, to serve his race, and reach his destiny.
II. THE
RELIEVING MAN. ¡§A man shall be,¡¨ &c. Hezekiah did much to relieve Israel in
its political troubles, but Christ does infinitely more. He relieves the moral
troubles of humanity.
1. He is
a shelter from moral storms. What a secure, accessible, capacious refuge is
Christ.
2. He is
the river in moral droughts. Christ refreshes and satisfies souls by opening
rivers of holy thoughts, &c. (Homilist.)
The humanity of the way of salvation
I. A
PICTURE OF THE STATE OF THE WORLD. We may view this picture of the world under
four aspects--
1. A
picture of the natural world. The four elements of nature are brought into
view--earth, air, water, and fire; and each in its turn may become a blessing
or a curse to man. Man has lost the dominion of nature, and is no longer at
home in it. He fights an unequal battle, and is obliged to succumb.
2. A
picture of the moral world. Although war, famine, and pestilence are physical
evils, their causes are moral. They fall more directly on man than other
natural evils. They are the storms of human society.
3. A
picture of the spiritual world. This earth is the platform, not merely of a
natural and political moral strife; it is the arena, as well, of a spiritual
strife. To realise this, and to know it as the most certain of all facts, the
soul must be awakened by the Spirit of God to the true meaning of life. We must
feel the battle within ourselves in order to see it around us.
4. Something
that reminds us of a condition of existence in the eternal world. All the
storms of which we have spoken are but the foreshadowings of the wrath of God.
II. A
PROPHECY OF THE SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. This is represented under the figure of a
hiding-place, a covert, rivers of water, and the shadow of a great rock.
1. The
blessedness of the prophecy. In proportion as we have realised the world to be
what the word here describes it as being, Will the announcement of the text
appear most acceptable and blessed.
2. The
wonderfulness and apparent contradictoriness of the prophecy. It says that a
¡§man¡¨ shall be a hiding-place. Man is the creature who is in want of salvation.
3. The
prophecy itself, more directly and particularly. We accept the statement as at
once referring primarily to Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world. Only in Him
is the prophecy fully realised, and delivered from its apparently contradictory
character. Believers look upon Him as the only one who can save from physical,
moral, spiritual, and eternal evil.
4. How
the man Christ Jesus is such a hiding-place. (F. Ferguson.)
The hiding-place
I. There
underlies this prophecy A VERY SAD, A VERY TRUE CONCEPTION OF HUMAN LIFE.
1. We
live a life defenceless and exposed to many a storm and tempest.
2. ¡§Rivers
of water in a dry place!¡¨ And what is the prose fact of that? That you and I
live in the midst of a world which has no correspondence with nor capacity of
satisfying our truest and deepest selves--that we bear about with us a whole
set of longings and needs and weaknesses and strengths and capacities, all of
which, like the climbing tendrils of some creeping plant, go feeling and
putting out their green fingers to lay hold of some prop and stay--that man is
so made that for his rest and blessedness he needs an external object round
which his spirit may cling, on which his desires may fall and rest, by which
his heart may be clasped, which shall be authority for his will, peace for his
fears, sprinkling and cleansing for his conscience, light for his
understanding, shall be in complete correspondence with his inward nature--the
water for his thirst, and the bread for his hunger.
3. And
then there is the other idea underlying these words also, yet another phase of
this sad life of ours--not only danger and drought, but also weariness and
languor.
II. But
another thought suggested by these words is, THE MYSTERIOUS HOPE WHICH SHINES
THROUGH THEM--that one of ourselves shall deliver us from all this evil in
life. ¡§A man,¡¨ &c.
III. THE
SOLUTION OF THE MYSTERY IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christ a refuge
I. In the
day of earthly DISAPPOINTMENT.
II. In
times of AFFLICTION.
III. In the
day of TRIAL. God tries our faith, our hope, our patience, our principles.
IV. In the
day of FEAR.
V. From
the torments of an accusing CONSCIENCE.
VI. In the
day of FINAL WRATH. (J. M. Sherwood.)
The covert of Divine love
There are two very
distinct methods and aims in the Bible. A very large portion of the Scriptures are
in the form of appeals to duty, to service. But there is another part of the
Bible that appeals to exactly the opposite sentiment, and is a call to rest, to
quiet, to ease, to everything but action--to contemplation, to silence. And
there are times in our experience when we need the call to rest as absolutely
as at others we need the call to duty. I desire, then, to call your thought to
the rest side of religion.
I. PRAYER,
as revealed to us in Scripture, is beautifully illustrated by the shadow of a great
rock in a weary land.
II. THE
WORDS THAT ARE GIVEN US IN THE SCRIPTURE are offered to us like the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land--the Scripture is full of these delightful
surprises. ¡§Come unto Me,¡¨ &c. ¡§Let not your heart be troubled,¡¨ &c. ¡§Lo!
I am with you alway,¡¨ &c. Such doctrines as Divine Providence; the idea of
God giving you work to do; the idea that trouble comes to us as a dispensation
from our Father¡¦s hand, &c.
III. CHRISTIAN
HOPE is also like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Rest, in the Word
of God, is like rest in nature. The night is very blessed for the weary one,
but the morning follows the night, and rest is given that we may be strong to
labour. (A. D. Vail, D. D.)
The wayworn pilgrim¡¦s hiding-place
(with Isaiah
32:3):--
I. Who
THE TRAVELLERS are, on their homeward march, and the dangers and difficulties
which beset their path. The way to heaven is often spoken of in Scripture as a
journey, and this by no flowery meadow or purling brook, through no
over-arching bowers or verdant shade, but through a wilderness.
1. The
first peril mentioned is the wind. By ¡§the wind¡¨ here, I understand the
pestilential wind, sometimes called the simmom, or samiel, which at certain
seasons passes over the desert, blasting and withering all it touches, and
carrying death in its train. But what is there in the spiritual desert
corresponding to this pestilential wind? Sin.
2. The
second peril in the wilderness is ¡§the tempest.¡¨ This we may characterise as
the thunderstorm, which differs from the pestilential wind in being from above,
not from beneath; violent, not subtle; destroying by lightning, not by poison.
And what so aptly corresponds to this as the manifested anger of God against
sin?
3. But
there is a third peril in the wilderness--one in a measure peculiar to it, and
rarely absent from it, ¡§the want of water,¡¨ for the wondrous man here spoken of
is promised to be ¡§as rivers of water in a dry place.¡¨ The wilderness is
especially dry. What an expressive emblem, then, is thirst of the desire of the
soul after Christ!
4. The
last peril of the wilderness here mentioned is the wearisomeness of the way.
What poetry and beauty there are in the expression, ¡§a weary land¡¨! As if the
land itself were weary, weary of its own wearisomeness, weary of being such an
uncultivated waste, and of wearing out the lives of so many travellers. One
main, perhaps the chief, element of the weariness of the desert is the unclouded
sun, ever darting his beams down upon it. What does the sun here, then,
represent? Temptation.
II. THE
HIDING-PLACE AND COVERT--the refreshment and shade which the Lord has provided
for these travellers in the Son of His love.
1. ¡§A
hiding-place from the wind.¡¨ This wind we have explained as the pestilential
breath of sin. A hiding-place is wanted, lest it should destroy body and soul
in hell. Where shall we find it? In the Law? That is going out of the wind into
the storm. In self? That is the very thing we most want shelter from. Jesus is
the hiding-place, the only hiding-place from sin and self. But three things we
must know and experionce before we can enter into the beauty and blessedness of
Jesus as a hiding place from the wind.
2. But
the same wondrous man is also ¡§a covert from the storm.¡¨ This we explained as
referring to the law. How a shelter is needed from its condemnation and curse!
Where is this refuge to be found? In Jesus. He has redeemed us from its curse.
3. From
this springs the third character which Jesus sustains to the pilgrim in the
wilderness. ¡§As rivers of water in a dry place.¡¨ How graciously does the
blessed Spirit, by this figure, set forth the suitability of the Lord Jesus
Christ to travellers in the wilderness. The Lord Jesus is spoken of as ¡§rivers
of water.¡¨ The very thing in the desert which we need. In the wilder ness we do
not want strong drink; that would only inflame the thirst, make the blood boil
in the veins, and smite the frame with fever. As it toils through the desolate
wastes of sand it is water that the fainting spirit wants. It is water--the
well of water springing up into everlasting life--that is provided. The fulness
of the Lord Jesus is not a rill, but a river; not only a river, but ¡§rivers.¡¨
4. But
the Lord Jesus is spoken of also as ¡§the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land.¡¨ He has been tempted in all points like as we are; but as the rock bears
uninjured the beams of the hottest sun, and yet, by bearing them, shields in
its recesses the wayworn pilgrim, so did Jesus, as man, bear the whole fury of
Satanic temptations, and yet was as uninjured by them as the rock in the
desert. And having borne them, He shields from their destructive power the
tempted child of God who lies at His feet under the shadow of His embrace.
III. THE
OPENING OF THE EYES TO SEE AND THE UNSTOPPING OF THE EARS TO HEARKEN to the
blessings thus promised.
1. ¡§The
eyes of them that see shall not be dim.¡¨ Our text speaks rather of dimness than
blindness. There is a difference between the two. The dead in sin are blind;
the newly-quickened into life are dim. How true is this of the wilderness
pilgrim! The breath of the pestilential wind, the thick clouds of the tempest,
the hot and burning sand, and the glare of the mid-day sun, all blear and dim
the eye. But the hidingplace from the wind, the covert from the tempest, the
rivers of water, and the shady rock heal the dimness.
2. ¡§And
the ears of them that hear shall hearken.¡¨ The persons spoken of in the text
are not totally deaf, for they ¡§hear.¡¨ Yet there is a difference between
hearing and hearkening--a difference almost analogous to that between the eyes
being dim and seeing. To hearken implies faith and obedience. When the pilgrim
in the wilderness reaches the hiding-place from the wind, and the covert from
the tempest; when he drinks of the rivers of water, and lies under the shadow
of the great rock, he not only hears but hearkens--believes, loves, and obeys.
(J. C. Philpot.)
Men as hiding-places from the wind
The sandstorms of the desert
margin have their counterparts in human history and society. Here also the
victories of faith and effort are won painfully, and often, after a little time
of security, are overswept by some blighting evil influence. Isaiah himself,
St. Paul, Luther, Wesley, are examples of the rock-like men of history, who
have withstood the storm, and made the good things of life--faith, hope, and
charity--possible to others. Isaiah¡¦s bold stand against a disposition and a
policy which would have made Israel the plaything of the greater nations
around, preserved the national existence and made possible the great revival of
religion which took place in the reign of Josiah. St. Paul¡¦s protest against
the Judaisers saved the infant Church of Christ to be a worldwide faith instead
of a feeble sect. Luther¡¦s great work of reformation broke one of the strongest
currents of history--the dead set of things towards superstition and lifeless
formalism. And when in England religious indifference and a cold, heartless
scepticism lay on the land like a nightmare, it was the work of Wesley and his
helpers which gave a new opportunity to Christian enterprise and fervour. The
great value of these lives is not only in their own intrinsic nobleness and
beauty; they make space for others. Thousands of hearts pining in secret for
the opportunities of service, for the inspirations of faith and courage, gather
to them, take shelter in their greatness, and are vitalised and transformed by
their personal power. (W. B. Dalby.)
The rock-like man
Who is the rock-like man?
1. He is
always a man of great strength of will. A purely natural quality? Yes; but one
which is nourished on prayer and striving.
2. Another
virtue of the rock-man is moral courage. He dares to do right when right-doing
is dangerous, when it carries with it probabilities of loss and suffering.
3. But
that which adds the crowning value to the true moral hero is that he is always
a man of faith, i.e the unseen is real to him. He has many ways of
realising the unseen, differing according to the age in which he lives, the
influences which have moulded him, the manner and form in which the Divine
revelation has come to him; but this one thing is of the essence of his life,
whether he be a Socrates, a Marcus Aurelius, a St. Bernard, a Dante, or a
Martin Luther-that he shall have felt and known that ¡§man¡¦s life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth,¡¨ that ¡§man doth not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.¡¨ (W.
B. Dalby.)
Rock-men
It was said of one who
even as a boy showed the promise of his later years, ¡§it was easy to be good
when he came to the school.¡¨ A man may be a rock to his fellows at school, in
the office, in the home life, in the world, wherever his influence falls, a
fertilising shelter, a healing shade, an opposing barrier--the shadow of a
great rock in a weary land. (W. C. E. Newbolt.)
Christ¡¦s human sympathy
Once when addressing
children upon this text, I asked what word in it proved the sympathy of the Saviour.
A boy, in his eagerness forgetting where he was, started to his feet, and,
waving his right hand, made the whole church ring with, ¡§A man, a man.¡¨ (J.
Wells, M. A.)
Brotherhood in adversity
I was one of five or six
who, the other day, under a tree sought shelter from a passing shower. I
noticed that, though strangers to one another, we seemed then more friendly
than friends usually are. The storm gave us a sense of fellowship as well as of
danger. The common deliverance from the common peril, trifling though it was,
had power somehow, I thought, to awaken friendly feeling. The least easily
suggests the greatest. There is a sad want of love in the world, but brotherly
love would reign everywhere, if we only remembered that we are all
fellow-travellers through the desert, that the same storms may any moment sweep
down upon us, and that we have the same hidingplace in the man Christ Jesus. (J.
Wells, M. A.)
As rivers of
water in a dry place
Religion a river
This chapter is a
prophetic photogram of a bright age that awaits this world. The dry places are
unregenerated souls--souls scorched with the drought of sin, dusty and
leafless, without any vestige of spiritual life or verdure. Without figure--a
soul unrenewed by heavenly influence, is, in a moral sense, ¡§a dry place,¡¨
barren and unfruitful. What is the river that is to run through it, irrigate
its barren districts, clothe it with living beauty, and enrich it with fruit?
It is Christ¡¦s religion. Let the river then stand, not for objective
Christianity, but for Christianity in the soul, for experimental godliness; and
we have four ideas suggested concerning it.
I. VITALITY.
So necessarily do we associate life with a river, that the ancients traced the
universe to water as the first principle of all things. Life, in all its forms,
follows in profusion the meandering course of rivers. Even all the races of men
crowd to their banks and settle on their shores. The Euphrates made Babylon;
the Tiber made Rome; and the Thames makes London. Water is life. ¡§Everything
shall live whither the river cometh.¡¨ Religion, which, in one word, is supreme
love to God in the soul, is life; it quickens, develops, and brings to fruition
all the powers of our spiritual nature.
II. MOTION.
The river is not like the torpid pool or the stagnant lake, resting in the
quiet of death. It is active, essentially and perpetually active. So with real
godliness in the soul. It is in perpetual flow; it keeps all the powers of the
soul in action. Thought is ever at work, gathering elements to feed the fire of
devotion, and brighten the lamp of duty. The spirit is always abounding in the
work of the Lord.
III. EMANANCY.
A river is an outflow--it has a fountain-head somewhere. It has no independent
existence; there is a force that started it at first and feeds it every hour. A
river is an emanation; so is true godliness in the soul.
1. There
is a Divine fountain from which it emanates. What is its primal font? The love
of God. This fountain lies far back in the awful depths of eternity.
2. There
is a Divine channel through which it flows- Christ.
3. There
is a Divine agent to let it into the heart. The Spirit of God does this in
connection with means.
IV. PROGRESS.
In a river there is twofold progress.
1. Progress
in its volume. As the river meanders on its way, it grows in bulk by the
contributory streams that flow into it. At length it gets force enough to sweep
everything before it and to give a character to the district. So with godliness
in the soul. Holy currents of thought, sympathy, and purpose, deepen their
channels and rise in the strength and majesty of their flow, as years and ages
pass on.
2. Progress
towards its destination. So with the godly soul. Godward it ever moves. (Homilist.)
Christ the source of refreshment
1. Christ
relieves His people from their feelings of dissatisfaction, inspired by the
vanity of earthly things.
2. Christ
may be described as the source of refreshment to His people, in consequence of
the comforts He vouchsafes to them amidst the toils and sorrows of their
Christian pilgrimage. (J. B. Patterson, M. A.)
Rivers of water in a dry place
I. As
setting forth the benedictions which come to us through the incarnate God, LET
US STUDY THE METAPHOR of rivers of water in a dry place. This means--
1. Great
excellence of blessing. A river is the fit emblem of very great benefits, for
it is of the utmost value to the land through which it flows.
2. Abundance.
Jesus is full of grace and truth.
3. Freshness.
A pool is the same thing over again, and gradually it becomes a stagnant pond,
breeding corrupt life and pestilential gases. A river is always the same, yet
never the same; it is ever in its place, yet always moving on. We call our own
beautiful river, ¡§Father Thames,¡¨ yet he wears no furrows on his brows, but leaps
in all the freshness of youth.
4. Freeness.
We cannot say this of all the rivers on earth, for men generally manage to
claim the banks and shores, and the fisheries and water-powers. Yet rivers can
scarcely be parcelled out, they refuse to become private property. See how
freely the creatures approach the banks.
5. Constancy.
Pools and cisterns dry up, but the river¡¦s song is--
Men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.
So is it with Jesus. The
grace to pardon and the power to heal are not a spasmodic force in Him; they
abide in Him evermore.
6. The
text speaks of ¡§rivers,¡¨ which implies both variety and unity.
7. Force.
Nothing is stronger than a river; it cuts its own way, and will not be hindered
in its course.
II. A
SPECIAL EXCELLENCE which the text mentions. ¡§Rivers of water in a dry place.¡¨
In this country we do not value rivers so much because we have springs and
wells in all our villages and hamlets; but in the country where Isaiah lived
the land is parched and burnt up without rivers. When the man Christ Jesus came
hither with blessings from God, He brought rivers into the dry place of our
humanity. What a dry place your heart was by nature! Do not many of you find
your outward circumstances very dry- places?
III. THE
PRACTICAL LESSON from it all.
1. See
the goings out of God s heart to man, and man¡¦s way of communing with God.
Other rivers rise in small springs, and many tributaries combine to swell them,
but the river I have been preaching about rises in full force from the throne of
God. It is as great a river at its source as in its aftercourse. Whenever you
stoop down to drink of the mercy which comes to you by Jesus Christ you are
having fellowship with God, for what you drink comes direct from God Himself.
2. See
what a misery it is that men should be perishing and dying of soul-thirst when
there is this river so near. Millions of men know all about this river, and yet
do not drink.
3. Let us
learn, if we have any straitness, where it must lie. Our cup is small, but the
river is not.
4. Is
Christ a river? Then drink of Him, all of you. To be carried along on the
surface of Christianity, like a man in a boat, is not enough, you must drink or
die.
5. And if
you have drunk of this stream, live near it. We read of Isaac, that he dwelt by
the well. It is good to live hard by an inexhaustible spring. Commune with
Christ, and get nearer to Him each day.
6. If
Christ be like a river, let us, like the fishes, live in it. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Infinite fulness in Christ
I always feel very fidgety
when theologians begin making calculations about the Lord Jesus. There used to
be a very strong contention about particular redemption and general redemption,
and though I confess myself to be to the very backbone a believer in
Calvinistic doctrine, I never felt at home in such discussions. I can have
nothing to do with calculating the value of the atonement of Christ. Appraisers
and valuers are out of place here. Sirs, I would like to see you with your
slates and pencils calculating the cubical contents of the Amazon: I would be
pleased to see you sitting down and estimating the quantity of fluid in the
Ganges, the Indus, and the Orinoco; but when you have done so, and summed up
all the rivers of this earth, I will tell you that your task was only fit for
schoolboys, and that you are not at the beginning of that arithmetic which can
sum up the fulness of Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily. His merit, His power, His love, His grace, surpass all
knowledge, and consequently all estimate. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Freeness of grace in Christ
I took pleasure the other
gay in seeing the cattle come to the river to drink. The cows sought out a
sloping place, and then stood knee deep in the stream and drank and drank again
t I thought of Behemoth, who trusted he could snuff up Jordan at a draught,
they drank so heartily, and no one said them nay, or measured out the draught.
The dog, as he ran along, lapped eagerly, and no tax was demanded of him. The
swan was free to plunge her long neck into the flood, and the swallow to touch
the surface with its wing. To ox, and fly, and bird, and fish, and man, the
river was alike free. So thou ox of a sinner, with thy great thirst, come and
drink; and thou dog of a sinner, who thinkest thyself unworthy even of a drop
of grace, yet come and drink. I read near one of our public ponds a notice,
¡§Nobody is allowed to wash dogs here.¡¨ That is right enough for a pond, but it
would be quite needless for a river. In a river the foulest may bathe to his
heart¡¦s content. The fact of its fulness creates s freeness which none may
restrict. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Rivers of water in a dry place
Isaiah¡¦s moral ideal is
not exhausted in a single picture. The scene is changed, The desert is indeed a
¡§dry place¡¨; but so also is every place in Palestine when the hot season is
reaching its close. The whole land is thirsting for the coming rain. The harsh,
dry air shimmers over the rocks and dusty roads. The heavens are as brass.
Every evening when the red sun sinks below the western horizon one can imagine
him sullen and weary. The grass is no longer green, hut of a dull dead brown.
In the vineyard the vine leaves hang sapless and limp, or drift wearily to the
ground. The figs, the oranges, and the pomegranates have all been gathered; the
last flower has withered upon its stem. The reservoirs are rapidly becoming
exhausted; the diminished Jordan wanders sluggishly along its southward course;
its tributary streams have long since ceased to run. The land is a ¡§dry and
thirsty land, where no water is.¡¨ But by-and-by the watchers on Carmel see the
light clouds rising out of the Great Sea. Soon the heavens are overspread, and
the first heavy drops begin to fall. The rain comes at length in sheets, in
torrents. The water-courses fill as by magic. Kedron, Cherith, Kishon, and
Jabbok are now no longer mere names, but ¡§rivers of water in a dry place.¡¨ The
change wrought in a few days is wonderful. The hot earth drinks in the living
stream, and gives it out again in life, abundant, exuberant. Everywhere the
grass grows green, the fields are carpeted with flowers. Soon the orange trees
mingle the silver of their blossoms with the golden glow of their fruitage, and
the dark leaves of the oleanders are relieved by the rich red or snowy white of
their flowers. The air is clear and the horizon luminous. It is a land of
rejoicing now; the song of the birds is heard around, on high, fitting
accompaniment to the sounds of happy labour--labour which will soon result in
the abundance of vintage and harvest, when Palestine shall literally be ¡§a land
flowing with milk and honey.¡¨ (W. B. Dalby.)
The fertilising power of a gracious character
Where is the life that
answers to the comparison, ¡§as rivers of water in a dry place¡¨? Any life which
is rich in the softer virtues--unselfishness, gentleness, purity, patience,
charity. There are some people whose natures overflow in blessing. To have
known them is an education m morals and religion. They are strong: they have
will, courage--especially the courage which endures; they have a lofty faith.
But these are not the things which most impress you in them. Their sphere, it
may be, is a narrow one; their gifts of the quiet, homely order. It is not so
much what they say or do, it is what they are, that so penetrates you with a
sense of sweetness, graciousness, and charm. They are women with no particular
idea that they have a ¡§mission.¡¨ Or they are men of quiet, self-contained
nature, very high-principled, though they never tell you so; of sensitive
honour, though they never call attention to the fact. When trouble comes, they
meet it calmly; loss and sorrow are to them merely experiences which profit to
the increase of their hopefulness. If you make demands upon their patience,
upon their self-sacrifice, they are ready to endure hardness, to go all lengths
to succour any brother human being broken by the world. Their lives are lovely
and pleasant in themselves, fruitful in blessing to others. It is said of the
late Clerk Maxwell, the great natural philosopher, that ¡§he made faith in
goodness easy to other men.¡¨ You never heard of him as a public advocate of
religion or philanthropy. His life was absorbed in what are called ¡§secular
studies,¡¨ yet the character rang the true note of Christian purity and
graciousness. ¡§Rivers of water in a dry place¡¨: that is a very affluent
description of these quiet lives; but not any too much so, for without them the
work of the great moral reformer would be in vain. Each type has its place and
power; each is needed for the work of God in the world. (W. B. Dalby.)
Shelter and refreshment in Christ
During the Crimean War a
bombshell was fired from the fortifications of Sebastopol by the Russians,
which buried itself in the earth, and burst on the side of the hill on which
the British troops were encamped. Strange to say, immediately from the ragged
hole which it made in the ground came out a copious stream of clear, cold
water. The shell had tapped a hidden fountain in the dry and thirsty land, and
broken the rocky cover which hid it. And thus, in a most extraordinary fashion,
the British soldiers, who were complaining of thirst, and had great difficulty
in getting water, had their want supplied; and the enemy¡¦s shot that was meant
for their destruction, proved their salvation. And so the wounds inflicted by
your sins upon the Rock of Ages, not only produced a place of safety for you,
but also opened up a fountain of refreshment in it. And a Man, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is your hiding-place from the wind, and your covert from the
tempest--the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, and rivers of water in a
dry place. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
As the shadow
of a great rock in a weary land
Comfort in Christ
This is the agreeable
truth to be illustrated: that saints may always find comfort in Christ in this
wearisome world.
I. THIS
WORLD IS WEARISOME TO SAINTS. Their treasure is in heaven, and they are only
passing through the world to take possession of it.
1. This
is a laborious world. ¡§All things are full of labour.¡¨ Employment was
originally enjoined upon man. But since the apostasy servile labour has become
a burden.
2. This
is a troublesome world. Trouble attends every stage and condition of life.
3. This
is a dark world. What is past, what is present, as well as what is to come,
lies involved in darkness. Good men are often weary of conjectures, and despond
under the darkness of Divine dispensations.
4. This
is a sinful world.
II. WHEN
SAINTS ARE WEARY OF THE WORLD THEY MAY FIND COMFORT IN CHRIST. They are then
prepared to receive comfort; and Christ is always ready to bestow comfort upon
those who are prepared for it. In particular--
1. They
may always find compassion in Christ, which is a source of comfort. Christ has
gone through the heat and cold, the storms and tempests, the labours and troubles
of this world. He knows what it is to be faint and weary. He knows the heart of
a pilgrim and stranger. And He has the tenderest compassion for His friends in
distress or want.
2. Weary
saints may find comfort in the intercession of Christ.
3. When
saints are weary of the world, they may always find comfort in the strength of
Christ.
4. They
may find comfort in the government of Christ. Since Christ has the government
of all things in His hands, His people may safely confide in His wisdom, power,
and compassion to defend His own cause and repel every weapon formed against
it.
5. They
may find comfort in the promises of Christ.
Improvement
1. May
the friends of Christ always find comfort in Him when they are weary of the
world? Hence we may see the reason why He forbids them to be conformed to it,
or seek to derive their supreme happiness from it.
2. If
those who are weary of the world may find comfort in Christ, then the more they
become weary of the world, the better they are prepared to enjoy His promised
peace and comfort.
3. If
Christians who are weary of the world may always find rest and comfort in
Christ, then they may enjoy more happiness than sinners do, even in this life.
4. If
saints, when weary of the world, find comfort in Christ, then we may readily
believe that those who have lived in the darkest times, met with the greatest
troubles, and experienced the severest trials, have often arrived at the
greatest degrees of holiness and happiness in the present life.
5. Since
all real saints who are weary of the world may always find rest in Christ, they
have no reason to murmur and complain under any of the troubles and afflictions
in which they are involved.
6. Since
all true believers may always find rest in Christ, when they are weary of the
world, they have no more reason to be anxious about future, than to be
impatient under present, troubles and trials.
7. Since
saints may find rest in Christ when they are weary of the world, we may easily
account for their being sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker than other men
in adversity.
8. Since
weak and weary saints may always find rest in Christ, they have a much brighter
prospect before them than sinners. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
Beneficent interposition
A traveller, recently
returned from Africa, relates that one day, overcome by intense heat, he fell
asleep on the baked earth, but on awaking had the sensation of freshness, and
found it was caused by the thoughtfulness of his attendants, who were standing
around him, receiving upon themselves the fierce glare, and sheltering his
recumbent body from the ardent rays of a vertical sun. In truth, the whole
world rests in the shadow of Him who stands between us and the consuming fire
of outraged law, and in virtue of His interposition a thousand blessings are
ours. ¡§A man shall be as a hiding-place from the wind,¡¨ &c. (W. L.
Watkinson.)
Jesus the Rock
Of Jesus, the believer can
truly say that life on this side of Him is very different from life on that. (Prof.
G. A. Smith, D. D.)
An emblem of our gracious God
The rock and its shadow.
Look at it! It is the mingling of all that is most massive and immovable with
all that is gentlest and tenderest. The rock going down to the very depths of
the solid world, rooted and grounded, it is the very figure of all that is
enduring and abiding. Yet its shadow is a thing almost spiritual; noiseless in
its fall, it creeps as if it feared to disturb those whom it has lulled to
rest, like a mother who fears to stir lest she awaken the little one that she
has hushed to sleep. The shadow--is it not the perfection of gentleness?. The
breeze whispers of its coming and grows boisterously playful sometimes; but the
shadow will not add a burden to the flower bell. The rock and its shadow--it is
power and pity. It is the fit emblem of our God and Father. Thegreat Creator of
heaven and earth, from everlasting to everlasting He is God--yet how gracious
and pitiful is He, how gentle! (M. G. Pearse.)
Weariness in life
O! the weariness felt by
us all, of plod, plod, plodding across the sand! That fatal monotony into which
every man¡¦s life stiffens, as far as outward circumstances, outward joys and
pleasures go! the depressing influence of custom which takes the edge off all
gladness and adds a burden to every duty! the weariness of all that tugging up
the hill, of all that collar-work which we have to do! (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
A many-sided Christ
Applying the language of
the whole verse to the Lord Jesus Christ, the King in Zion, we are struck with
the number of the metaphors. He is not merely a hiding-place, and a covert, and
a river, but He is a shadow of a great rock. Yes, if we attempt to set forth
our Lord¡¦s glories by earthly analogies, we shall need a host of them, for no
one can set Him forth to perfection, each one has some deficiency, and even
altogether they are insufficient to display all His loveliness. It is very
pleasant to see that our Beloved is such a manysided Christ, that from all
points of view He is so admirable, and that He is supremely precious in so many
different ways, for we have so many and so varied needs, and our circumstances
are so continually changing, and the incessant cravings of our spirit are so
constantly taking fresh turns. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 3-4
The eyes of them that see
shall not be dim
Four tests of character
The whole of this chapter
refers to the state of the world during the time of the millennium.
The happiness which shall be the lot of God¡¦s children in that period will be
only an increase of our present state of happiness and holiness. Therefore this
passage may be fairly taken as furnishing tests of our conversion at the
present time.
I. There
are to be hereafter CLEAR VIEWS. If we are converted, we have clearer views
than we once had.
II. The
second test is, THE HEARING EAR There is a great difference in the manner in
which persons listen to the Word of God.
III. There
will be INCREASED KNOWLEDGE. It forms part of the promise of God that His
people shall be taught of Him. And what is it they are taught? They are taught
to see the excellence of the person of Christ Jesus their Saviour.
IV. There
shall be BOLD CONFESSION OF JESUS, for ¡§the tongue of the stammerers,¡¨ &c.
Can you say your character will bear these tests? (M. Villiers, M. A.)
Verse 5
The vile person shall be
no more called liberal
Vile person
(Hebrews, nabal):--Compare
1 Samuel
25:1-44.
(A. B.Davidson, LL. D.)
The conventional abuse of moral terms
¡§Liberal¡¨ and ¡§bountiful¡¨
were conventional names. The Hebrew word for ¡§liberal¡¨ originally meant exactly
that--open-hearted, generous, magnanimous. In the East it is the character
which, above all, they call princely. So, like our words ¡§noble¡¨ and
¡§nobility,¡¨ it became a term of rank--¡§lord¡¨ or ¡§prince¡¨--and was often applied
to men who were not at all great-hearted, but the very opposite: even to the
¡§vile person.¡¨ ¡§Vile person¡¨ is literally the ¡§faded,¡¨ or the ¡§exhausted,¡¨
whether mentally or morally--the last kind of character that would be princely.
The other conventional term used by Isaiah refers to wealth, rather than rank.
The Hebrew for ¡§bountiful¡¨ literally means ¡§abundant¡¨--a man blessed with
plenty--and is used in the Old Testament both for the rich and the fortunate.
Its nearest English equivalent is, perhaps, ¡§the successful man.¡¨ To this,
Isaiah fitly opposes a name, wrongly rendered in our version ¡§churl,¡¨ but
corrected in the margin to ¡§crafty¡¨--the fraudulent, the knave. When moral
discrimination comes, says Isaiah, men will not apply the term ¡§princely¡¨ to
¡§worn-out¡¨ characters, nor grant them the social respect implied by the term.
They will not call the ¡§fraudulent¡¨ the ¡§fortunate,¡¨ nor canonise him as
successful who has gotten his wealth by underhand means. ¡§The worthless
character shall no more be called princely, nor the knave hailed as the
successful.¡¨ But men¡¦s characters shall stand out true in their actions, and by
their fruits ye shall know them. In those magic days the heart shall come to
the lips, and its effects be unmistakable. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Verse 6-7
For the vile person will
speak villany
The outer life according
to the inner
A vile person and a churl
will do mischief; and the more if he be preferred, and have power in his hand.
His honours will make him worse, and not better. See the character of these
base, ill-conditioned men.
1. They are always plotting some unjust thing or other; designing ill
either to particular persons or to the public, and contriving how to bring it
about; and so many silly piques they have to gratify, and mean revenges, that
there appears not in them the least spark of generosity. Observe, there is the
work of the heart, as well as the work of the hands. As thoughts are words to
God, so designs are works in His account. See what pains sinners take in sin;
they labour it, their hearts are intent upon it, and with a great deal of art
and application they work iniquity. They devise wicked devices with all the
subtlety of the old serpent.
2. They carry on their plots by trick and dissimulation. When they
are meditating iniquity, they practise hypocrisy, feign themselves just men.
The most abominable mischiefs shall be disguised with the most plausible
pretences of devotion to God, regard to man, and concern for some common good.
Those are the vilest of men that intend the worst mischief when they speak
fair.
3. They speak villany. When they are in a passion, you will see what
they are by the base, ill language they give to those about them, which no way
becomes men of rank and honour. Or, in giving verdict or judgment, they
villainously put false colours upon things to pervert justice.
4. They affront God, who is a righteous God and loveth righteousness.
They utter error against the Lord, and therein they practise profaneness. They
give an unjust sentence, and then profanely make use of the name of God for the
ratification of it. Nothing can be more impudently done against God than to
patronise wickedness with His name.
5. They abuse mankind, those particularly whom they are bound to
protect and relieve.
6. These churls and vile persons have always ill instruments about
them, that are ready to serve their villainous purposes--¡§the instruments of
the churl are evil.¡¨ (M. Henry.)
Verse 8
The liberal deviseth liberal things
Liberality, natural and gracious
The liberal man is one who is generous and benevolent in his
feelings--a man of large views and public spirit--one far above covetousness and
selfseeking--ever desirous to promote the welfare of his country, and the best
interests of his fellowmen.
1. There is a certain kind of liberality which may be considered
natural and constitutional. Some there are who, from their earliest days,
evince a benevolent and generous disposition. The liberality which is natural
will be found to operate chiefly, if not exclusively, in promoting the temporal
welfare of mankind. And in this department of philanthropy the labours of such
are often entitled to highest commendation. But such rarely evince any interest
about the precious undying soul, and the eternity towards which we are all so
rapidly hastening.
2. The person described in the text, we may well suppose, is indebted
to a higher source than himself for a mind so enlightened and a heart so
enlarged. As water cannot rise higher than the fountain, so man cannot in
himself develop a character higher than he has inherited. There are some
feelings of natural amiability which have survived the ruin of the fall. These
may, along with certain external causes, form a character in which there is
much to admire and love. But just as, to borrow the words of a great writer,
¡§all the complexional varieties of the human countenance, from exquisite beauty
to revolting deformity, have the one universal attribute of decay, so, amid all
the varieties of human character, from the most lovely to the most hideous,
there is a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.¡¨
There is a constant tendency In the world to overlook the agency of God s
Spirit, and to put to the credit of something human--such as good education, or
good example, or sound philosophy--what, in reality, is the fruit of the
Spirit.(W. Runciman.)
The liberal man
I. THE CHARACTER
OF THE LIBERAL MAN. ¡§He deviseth liberal things.¡¨ It is not said he doeth
liberal things. This is implied. If he has the means, he has the heart and the
will to practise large and wide liberality. There is a far greater expenditure
both of mind and labour in devising, than in doing liberal things. It is an
easy thing for one who has abundant wealth to give largely in aid of any scheme
of philanthropy. But to originate and carry forward any plan for the
improvement of mankind, requires much wisdom, and energy, and patience, and
benevolence. The one is liberal; the other directs and stimulates the
liberality of others. The one is as the hand, the other the mainspring of the
watch. Of the multitude who cheerfully give, how few have the capacity to
devise! And one intelligent head, conjoined with a benevolent heart, can open
the purses of a whole community.
II. THE SECURITY OF
THE LIBERAL MAN. ¡§By liberal things shall he stand¡¨; or, as rendered in the
margin, ¡§shall he be established.¡¨ This statement does not mean that there is
anything about the most enlightened and generous liberality which has anything
meritorious, and which in any way is the procuring cause of God¡¦s favour.
1. The possession of this beauteous character is a clear indication
of possessing God¡¦s favour, and an important means of preserving that
privilege.
2. A liberal man is, by liberal things, established in the estimation
of the wise and good.
3. Devotion to the good of others establishes and secures much
happiness to the liberal man. The greater the outgoing of benevolence, the
greater the influx of peace. (W. Runciman.)
Liberality
The picture drawn has a twofold aspect.
I. THE INFLUENCE
OF LIBERALITY.
1. The liberal man is he whose mind has been freed and enlarged by
the truth of the Gospel. You cannot make a man liberal so long as a violent
craving for more sways his heart; neither will a man be liberal, though he may
count himself rich, if he disintegrate himself from the great community of
which he is a member. We are made free indeed by the Son when we see that all
things are ours, and that it is ours also to fulfil our mission as part of that
all of which God is the sum and substance.
2. The liberal man is he whose mind premeditates acts of
liberality--¡§he deviseth liberal things.¡¨ There are instincts of pity and
charity in human nature which may be brought into accidental action. There are
moments of weakness which make the miser even to relax his hold of his
hoardings. Many are terrified by the approach of death to make large bequests.
There are others who are naturally tender-hearted, and they give alms most
feelingly, but not from thought. There are some seasons of the year, such as
Christmas-tide and harvest, when many make a small display of their charity.
These are the once-a-year liberal folk. The text refers to a much higher class
of liberality than such can possibly be--the liberality of thought. The
goodness of God is not fitful or forced, but the outcome of His Fatherly care
and providence. Liberality in thought emanates from the Spirit of Christ in us.
3. The liberal man is he whose acts are liberal. The subject is far
wider than almsgiving. Our Sunday-school teachers and the leaders of religious
and temperance movements; our tract distributors, and those who visit the poor,
the afflicted, the dying, and the sinful--are greater benefactors than those
who can spare silver and gold. Alexander gave, not according to the merit of
the man, but according to the honour and resources of a king. Jesus gave. How
much? Time, and energy, and wisdom, and sympathy, and power? Much more. He gave
Himself. Let all yours be love-gifts.
II. THE REFLEX
INFLUENCE OF LIBERALITY. ¡§And by liberal things shall he be established.¡¨ There
is a power in liberality which strengthens our faith and character. Whatever
Christian work we engage in, the influence on ourselves is as great as on
others.
1. The liberal man, by his liberality, cultivates the Spirit of
Christ in himself.
2. The liberal man, by his liberality, increases the store of his
wealth Proverbs 11:24). Many Christians are poor
because they are not liberal.
3. The liberal man, by his liberality, obtains the approval of God.
That approval we now receive in our consciences, but hereafter the judgment
will demonstrate it, when the Judge will say, ¡§Well done, good and faithful
servant.¡¨
4. The liberal man, by his liberality, will conquer the hardness of
the human heart. If we look forth to the mission field, liberality has been the
vanguard of civilisation and religion. Or if we look nearer home, at the
liberal changes which have been made in the punishment of criminals, we have
ample proofs that crime has decreased in proportion as we have humanised
jurisprudence. The highest note of liberality is this, ¡§For God so loved the
world,¡¨ &c. (T. Davies, M. A.)
Liberality and its reflex advantages
I. THE SUBJECT, or
person spoken of.
II. THE PROPERTY
ascribed to him. ¡§He deviseth liberal things.¡¨
1. The act. ¡§He deviseth¡¨--the bent and inclination of his mind is
set this way. The word may denote two things. Either--
2. The object. ¡§Liberal things,¡¨ such as become a person of a large
and bountiful heart, redounding to the good of mankind.
III. THE BENEFIT or
advantage of it. ¡§By liberal things shall he stand.¡¨ Such persons shall not
only be not ruined by their bounty, but shall hereby be confirmed and advanced
in all kinds of prosperity. (Bp. J. Wilkins.)
The virtue of liberality
I. THE NATURE OF
THIS VIRTUE: what it is and wherein it consists.
1. The several names whereby it is described--generosity, &c. The
periphrastical descriptions of it are such as these,--Opening our hands Deuteronomy 15:8); drawing out our souls (Isaiah 58:10);dispersing abroad (2 Corinthians 9:9); being enriched
in everything to all bountifulness (2 Corinthians 9:11); to be rich in
good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate (1 Timothy 6:18).
2. The nature of it. Extended to persons in a state of suffering and
misery, it is styled mercy or pity. To persons in a condition of want it is
styled alms or charity.
3. The qualifications or conditions required to the due exercise of
it.
4. The opposites to it, which (as of all other moral virtues) are of
two kinds--redundant, and deficient.
II. THE NECESSITY
OF IT, or the grounds of our obligation to it from Scripture and reason.
1. Scripture proofs.
2. The arguments from reason.
(a) In respect of God, who bestows upon us all that we have, and
therefore may well expect that we should be ready to lay out some of it for His
use, according to His appointment.
(b) In respect of the poor, who by reason of their relation to us, and
their need of us, may reasonably expect assistance from us.
(c) In respect of ourselves. We can hope for nothing from God but upon
the account of bounty. Now, the rules of congruity require that we should be as
ready to show mercy to others as to expect it for ourselves.
III. APPLICATION. By
way of--
1. Doctrinal inference.
2. Practical inference. (Bp. J. Wilkins.)
The advantages of liberality
I. FOR THIS LIFE.
It is the most effectual way both to improve and preserve our estates, and to
render us honourable and amiable in the esteem of others.
1. For the increasing of our estates, the apostle compares it to
sowing, which refers to a harvest.
2. For the preserving them safe. The Jews call alms by the name of
salt, for its preserving power. It is laying up treasures in heaven, where rust
cannot corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. Saith the epigrammatist,
¡§A man can be sure only of that wealth which he hath given away.¡¨
II. FOR THE FUTURE
LIFE. Works of beneficence are called by St. Paul, £c£`£g£`́£f£d£j£h--the foundation of that reward we shall receive in the world to
come (1 Timothy 6:19). (Bp. J. Wilkins.)
Liberality
I. THE LIBERALITY.
II. THE DEVISING.
III. THE STANDING. (J.
Donne.)
True liberality
I. STATE THE TRUE
NOTION OF LIBERALITY. True liberality by no means intends profuseness, or a
wasteful, thoughtless scattering of our substance, without judgment or economy.
Neither is it consistent with the account the Scriptures give us of liberality,
nor indeed with the laws of nature and reason, that a man should abound in acts
of generosity to more remote objects, while he neglects those under his special
care (Matthew 15:3 - 1 Timothy 5:4; 1 Timothy 5:8; Galatians 6:10). But it is most of all
inconsistent with the liberality recommended in the Word of God, that we should
give that to others which is not our own; or distribute among the poor that
which should pay our just debts.
1. By a liberal man, we are to understand a man of a kind,
compassionate, benevolent disposition; one who observes, with admiration and
delight, that profusion of bounty with which the great Creator of the world
blesses the works of His hands; is truly thankful for the share he enjoys of
it; and as he sees his ¡§heavenly Father makes His sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,¡¨ so he is charmed
with the Divine pattern, and labours, according to his measure, to imitate it.
2. But his benevolence must, according to his ability, be put in
practice.
3. His charity is very diffusive; indeed, it can bear no limits but
such as are prescribed by Scripture and sound reason. The stranger must partake
of it as well as those of his own country and kindred.
4. To finish the character of the truly liberal man, it is necessary
that his disposition and practice should be founded in religious principles,
and be the blessed fruit of the saving work of the Spirit upon his heart.
II. CONSIDER THAT
PART OF THE LIBERAL MAN¡¦S CHARACTER WHICH IS, IN A SPECIAL MANNER, RECOMMENDED
IN THE TEXT. He ¡§deviseth liberal things.¡¨ It is commendable to have a
readiness of soul to such works as these, when they are proposed and marked out
to us by others. It is well to have a mind easily impressed with the condition
of the indigent, and willing to submit to the dictates of conscience, the
importunity of the necessitous, and the advice of good men. But the charitable
character rises much higher when we devise liberal things ourselves. It supposes
a heart greatly set on doing good.
1. The liberal man wisely manages his own affairs to this good end.
2. He employs all his wisdom and prudence in order to dispose of his
bounty in the best manner and to the most advantageous purposes. He is so far
from hiding his face from his brother who is in want, that he searches
diligently to find him out. He will lay himself out in the service of every
community to which he stands related, and will labour what in him lies to
promote the true peace and welfare of the whole world.
3. He will also call in all proper assistance in this good work. He
will consult about these things with such of his pious friends as have generous
souls and good judgments.
4. The liberal man contrives how he shall diffuse and promote the
spirit of liberality.
5. He persists in this course.
III. SOME ACCOUNT OF
THAT SUITABLE AND GRACIOUS REWARD WHICH SHALL ATTEND THE LIBERAL MAN. ¡§By
liberal things shall he stand.¡¨
1. In some good degree in this life.
2. What will crown all, is the blessedness which shall follow in the
life to come. (Joseph Stennett.)
Liberality
I. THE TRUE SOURCE
OF LIBERALITY.
II. THE PRACTICE OF
THE LIBERAL.
III. THE BLESSEDNESS
OF LIBERAL MEN. (A. Brandram, M. A.)
The Christian liberal
The name liberal comes from the Latin word liberalis, meaning
free, open-handed, generous-hearted, and well-bred; it implies also a nature
which acts according to its own desire, and yet is neither selfish nor narrow,
being of pure mind and noble soul.
1. The genuine, Christ-inspired liberal loves freedom in the highest
sense of the word.
2. He embraces other interests than his own.
3. He should be unselfish, broad, and catholic in his character.
4. To be liberal-natured after the standard of Christ is not so easy
as it seems; it is the work of a life-time. (W. Birch.)
Saving and giving
He that locks up may be a good jailer, but he that gives out is
His steward. The saver may be God¡¦s chest, the giver is God¡¦s right hand. (J.
Donne.)
Devising liberal things
One of the most liberal and lavish givers to charitable objects
said to a friend who spoke of his generosity, ¡§You mistake: I am not generous.
I am by nature extremely avaricious: but when I was a young man I had sense
enough to see how mean and belittling such a passion was, and I forced myself
to give. At first, I declare to you, it was hard for me to part with a penny;
but I persisted until the habit of liberality was formed. There is no yoke like
that of habit. Now I like to give.¡¨ (W. Baxendale.)
A liberal heart desired
Sir Thomas Sutton, the founder of the Charter House, was one of
the wealthiest merchants of his day. Fuller tells how he was overheard one day
praying in his garden: ¡§Lord, Thou hast given me a large and liberal estate;
give me also a heart to make use of it. (Tinling¡¦s Illustrations.)
Verse 9
Rise up, ye women, that are at ease
Female complacency reproved
Isaiah turns aside abruptly from his main theme.
His eye, we may suppose, was arrested by the spectacle of some women, sitting
down perhaps at a little distance from where he stood, and testifying their
indifference to his words. In chap.
3. it was their vanity and love of display which called forth the
prophet¡¦s censure: here it is their complacency and unconcern. (Prof. S. B.
Driver, D. D.)
Verse 9
Rise
up, ye women, that are at ease
Female
complacency reproved
Isaiah
turns aside abruptly from his main theme.
His eye, we may suppose, was arrested by the spectacle of some women, sitting
down perhaps at a little distance from where he stood, and testifying their
indifference to his words. In chap.
3. it was their vanity and love of display which called forth the
prophet¡¦s censure: here it is their complacency and unconcern. (Prof. S. B.
Driver, D. D.)
Verse 11
Be troubled, ye careless
ones
Besetting sins may be the
defects of virtues
The besetting sins of
either sex are its virtues prostituted.
A man¡¦s greatest temptations proceed from his strength; but the glory of the
feminine nature is repose, and trust is the strength of the feminine character,
in which very things, however, lies all the possibility of woman¡¦s degradation.
(Prof g. A. Smith, D. D.)
The careless sinner
reproved
I. I am
to EXPOSTULATE WITH THOSE WHO ARE CARELESS IN THE CONCERNS OF RELIGION AND
THEIR SOULS. The following things are submitted to your consideration:--
1. The
importance of religion, which is neglected by you.
2. The
beneficial proofs of the Divine agency which surround you.
3. Your
personal obligations to God are neither few nor small.
4. The
grand display of the love of God in giving His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him, &c.
5. The
certainty of judgment and a future state.
II. We
are now to ADDRESS THESE EXPOSTULATIONS TO THE CONSIDERATION OF YOUTH, MANHOOD,
AND AGE. (A. Shanks.)
An alarm to the careless
To be careless in temporal
things is generally regarded as a very serious defect or offence. How much more
so when one is careless in spiritual things! Yet this is characteristic of
great numbers who hear the Gospel. Is there no cause for alarm? A careless
attitude and habit towards God and Christ and salvation are--
1. Unreasonable,
2. Hazardous.
3. God-provoking.
(J. M. Sherwood.)
Verses 13-19
Upon the land
of my people shall come up thorns and briers
The outpouring of the
Spirit
As the
communication of the Spirit is necessary to produce a reformation, so a large
communication or outpouring of the Spirit is necessary to produce a public general
reformation; such as may save a country on the brink of ruin, or recover one
already laid desolate.
Without this remedy, all other applications will be ineffectual; and the
distempered body politic will languish more and more, tin it is at length dissolved.
Until this outpouring of the Spirit, says the prophet, ¡§briers and thorns shall
come up upon the land; and the houses of joy, the palaces, and towers, shall be
heaps of ruins, dens for wild beasts, and pastures for flocks.¡¨ Until that
blessed time come, no means can effectually repair a broken state, or repeople
a desolate country. But when that blessed time comes, then what a glorious
revelation--what a happy alteration follows! (Isaiah 32:15-19). (S. Davies, M. A.)
The Holy Spirit in
prophecy
I. THE BLIGHT OF SIN. It is contrasted here with the beauty of
holiness; and this contrast makes the deep gloom more apparent than if it were
viewed by itself.
II. THE DARK OUTLOOK which Isaiah beheld. There is gloom first, and
then gladness--confusion first, then comfort--darkness first, then light. Sin
brings suffering and sorrow, either in this world or in the world to come.
III. THE BLESSING PROMISED. In proportion as the Church prays for, and
expects, and receives the more abundant outpouring of the Spirit, the work of
the world¡¦s conversion will proceed apace. We speak of a Pentecostal effusion;
but the Church prays and waits for a yet more abundant outpouring: and, when it
comes, the glory of the latter day will be fully realised.
IV. THE BRIGHT FUTURE. As the result of the pouring out of the Spirit,
¡§the wilderness shall become a fruitful field.¡¨ It has been said that this part
of the prophecy is ¡§luminous, rather than lucid; full of suffused, rather than
distinct meanings.¡¨ This much, however, is clear, that the good fruits of the
Spirit¡¦s outpouring will be both material and moral. (P. Mearns.)
Verses
15-17
Until
the Spirit be poured upon us from on high
Spiritual
influences
I.
THERE
IS PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE CHRISTIAN ECONOMY, THE BESTOWMENT OF
SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES ON MANKIND.
1. In what manner is the Spirit poured from on high? It cannot but be
expected that there must be not a little of mystery on such a subject. Yet the
information we possess is distinct and important. There was a distinct
communication of this influence made to the apostles, which was accompanied by immediate
and visible signs. But it was intended that this Spirit should influence the
hearts of men in general: an arrangement was made, in the Divine goodness, by
which the Gospel should be rendered powerful and effectual to produce great
moral results in the hearts and on the lives of men. We speak of this influence
as common and permanent. We pretend not to state how this Spirit comes down to
influence the minds of men: ¡§the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.¡¨ But we do regard it as an
essential principle, that the Spirit of God is poured out upon mankind; and we
declare that to reject this doctrine is most perilous to the immortal soul!
2. For what purposes is the Spirit poured from on high? One effect of
this influence on the minds of the apostles at first was a great and a public
one; it was intended to endow them with those miraculous gifts and graces which
were commensurate with the divinity of their claims--the truth of their
mission--the importance of their object. But the more ordinary influences of
the Spirit are still poured out, and are most important to effect the salvation
of the soul. He is the Spirit of repentance--of faith--of power--of
knowledge--of ¡§wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ¡¨ roof
holiness--of comfort--of love--of anticipation.
3. To what extent is the Spirit poured from on high? It is evidently
the design of God that there should be a very wide extension of this influence.
4. Under what necessity is the Spirit poured from on high? Excepting
it were the case that such an arrangement had been made, in the mercy of God,
for changing the state of mankind, there could have been no prospect of
happiness on earth, or of everlasting glory hereafter.
II. THE FACTS REGARDING THE BESTOWMENT OF SPIRITUAL INFLUENCE UPON
MANKIND OUGHT TO PRODUCE ON OUR MINDS THE MOST POWERFUL EFFECTS.
1. We ought carefully to ascertain whether we have the communication
of this influence of the Spirit.
2. Pray that there may be an outpouring of this communication. Pray
for this gift for yourselves--for your families--for the Church of God--for the
world. (James Parsons.)
The pouring-out
of the Spirit
Whoever
has paid any serious attention to religion must be convinced of his natural
weakness and inability to fulfil even his own wishes and resolutions. It is to
meet this undoubted fact of man¡¦s natural inability to do the will of God that
the Divine influence of the Holy Spirit was arranged and promised.
I. THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT IN THE PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL. The
Bible shows us our dependence on God as Creator, Preserver, and Lord.
1. On the first page we find the creation, with all its wonders,
recorded. ¡§The earth was without form, and void.¡¨ But the Spirit of God moved
on the face of the waters, and forthwith light and order proceeded, life
appeared, the heavens and the earth, and all was very good.
2. Sin came and devastated the social world. The evil spirit of
temptation was at work.
3. During the times of the prophets the limited range of the Spirit
was felt and more favoured days proclaimed.
4. These promises were revived in the words of Christ, who more
particularly entered into the offices and working of the Holy Ghost and its
influence on the future Church as well as on the individual lives of
Christians. On Him also the Spirit descended in a bodily form. He gives
definite promises of the particular gift--promises which the disciples did not
rightly apprehend.
5. In subsequent history all was made plain and clear. On the day of
Pentecost was the great promise fully realised.
6. The apostles, in all their writings, enter fully into its power
and influence. Do the converts need wisdom? The Father will give the Spirit of
wisdom. Or, deliverance from corruption? The Spirit works in them to ¡§will and
to do¡¨ the good pleasure. The distinguishing marks of a Christian are that he
¡§walks after the Spirit¡¨; is ¡§spiritually minded¡¨; that the Spirit dwells in a man
as a Spirit of adoption, confidence, and love; while the apostle glories in
tribulation ¡§because of the Holy Ghost,¡¨ and prays that the disciples may be
¡§filled with hope¡¨ by the power of the Holy Ghost. Thus we see the nature and
office of the Spirit.
II. ITS PRACTICAL APPLICATION TO OURSELVES. All persons are divided
into two classes.
1. Those who have no adequate apprehension of the nature or value of
divine things. ¡§The natural man receiveth not the things of God, for they are
foolishness unto him.¡¨ They are therefore ignorant for want of spiritual
illumination. ¡§But,¡¨ continues the apostle, ¡§God hath shined in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.¡¨ This reveals to us the knowledge of ourselves as ruined and lost.
2. But as there may be light without heat, so there may be knowledge
without practice. The Word of God may be received with joy, but it may not take
root in the soul. It is the glory of the Gospel that it not only inculcates
what is right, but gives strength to perform it: it teaches what is evil, and
helps to subdue that evil. All this is wrought by the Holy Ghost. (Homilist.)
A national
Pentecost
I. THE NATIONAL IMPORT OF THESE WORDS. That the thought of Isaiah was
national, and not individual, may easily be gathered from his opening words,
and from the whole burden of his message. It is of a king he speaks, and of the
effects of a righteous rule. The words of our text are especially addressed to
women, and reveal the sad state of society as it was when Isaiah addressed it.
There is no hope for the nation when its women are ¡§careless daughters,¡¨ and
contemptible of holy things. Woman is the last bulwark of godliness. If women
are lost to God, all is lost. Yet though the prophet¡¦s heart groans under the
lamentable state of the women of his day, he sees a glad day coming, when the
Spirit shall be so outpoured, that society will be purified. Upon the
outpouring of the Spirit, three things are to take place.
1. There is to be a godly revolution. It may be silent and natural,
but is to be very real. The very wilderness is to become a fruitful field. The
desert is to blossom as the rose. If we study the prophecy of Joel, we see the
signs are revolutionary. And no language employed by Carlyle in his French
Revolution is more potent, more expressive. ¡§I will show wonders in the
heaven and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke; the sun shall
be turned into darkness and the moon into blood.¡¨ It is the recreation of the
nation that the prophet has in his mind. Ezekiel¡¦s valley of dry bones is to be
re-animated. The national identity as well as the national life is to be
restored.
2. There is to be an outburst of new life. The wilderness is to
blossom, the fruitful field is to become a forest. Mazzini must foster a ¡§Young
Italy¡¨ to-day if he is to create a new Italy to-morrow. The Spirit generates
new life. The visions of possibilities in the young, the fresh dreams of the
old, all make for a new existence.
3. There is also to be a newly organised government. A king rules in
righteousness. And even the wilderness, type of lawless oppression, is to be
under a just government. Judgment shall rule in the wilderness. Righteousness
is the basis of peace. Pascal says, ¡§Philosophy says, know thyself.
Christianity says, know thy God.¡¨ That is all the difference between the maxims
of the world and the new force that Pentecost created in the world. When men
fall into right relationship with God, they will soon fall into right relations
with one another.
II. THE EFFECT OF THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY GHOST. Pentecost was only
a promise, a first-fruit, a miniature fulfilment of the prophet¡¦s great words.
1. There is in our prophecy a restoration of blessing. Acquainted as
Isaiah was with vast reaches of arid desert, he sees it a fruitful field. Out
of death life comes, and into barrenness, fruitfulness.
2. There is to be a multiplication of blessing. That vast, dreary
stretch of desert in the East is to be as the Vale of Carmel, luxuriant and
beautiful, and Carmel¡¦s valley is to be as precious as Lebanon¡¦s forest. And
righteousness is to sway its sceptre over all. The effect of righteousness is
to be quietness and assurance for ever. The Church of apostolic days was a
beautiful miniature of still larger things, of richer spiritual results.
3. There is to be a social betterment for all. Wherever Christianity
goes it uplifts the races. Unbelief may sneer at Christianity, but it still
remains the greatest civilising force in the world.
III. THINGS ESSENTIAL TO THE NEW ORDER. The Holy Spirit is to effect
regeneration, by convicting men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. By
breathing into them a new life, and by Divine illumination. Three things are
essential to a new kingdom. Power to create it, authority to govern it, a cause
for its existence. Garibaldi found his cause in the degraded condition of his
people. Jesus finds His cause not only in the lost condition of the human race,
but also in the Father¡¦s eternal love and purpose. Christ is said to be seated
at the right hand of power. That word power is the same as that from which we
get dynamics. The very strength of power, a mighty force. Christ is at the
right hand of Almighty power. There are certain powers in the world which we
call forces; such as gravity, steam, hydraulics, liquid air, electricity. These
forces operate along definite lines, just as surely as a train of railway
carriages runs along the track of its lines of steel. It is said, ¡§Whenever you
obey the law of power, the law of power obeys you.¡¨ Now, in fact, this is just
what Peter says. The Holy Ghost is given ¡§to them that obey Him.¡¨ If the Holy
Spirit is to use a man, work through and by a man, he must obey the laws of the
Spirit. He must be conformed to God¡¦s will. Let me now quote to you some cases
where men have been obedient to the Holy Spirit, and as a result have been
filled with power from on high. In each case they have obeyed Christ¡¦s
word--¡§Tarry ye . . . until ye be endued with power from on high.¡¨ Jonathan
Edwards, a quiet, strong intellect, strongly Calvinistic, whose influence in
the world has been most mighty, says, ¡§I found from time to time an inward
sweetness that would carry me away in my contemplations. This I know not how to
express otherwise than as a calm, sweet abstraction of the soul from all the
concerns of the world, and sometimes a kind of vision of being alone on the
mountains, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ, and wrapped
and swallowed up in God.¡¨ Then there is John Flavel, who one day journeying
alone, had such concentration of mind, such ravishing tastes of heavenly joys,
that he utterly lost sight and sense of this world, and for some hours knew no
more where he was than if a deep sleep had fallen upon him in the night. Thus we
see that these men wholly consecrated to God, obeying His will, placing
themselves in direct communication with the Spirit of God, leaving their whole
being open to the Spirit¡¦s operations, were filled with a Divine power that is
inexpressible. And may we not thus lie open to His gracious incoming, and wait
daily upon God ¡§until the Spirit be poured out upon us from on high¡¨?
IV. THE NATURE OF THE SPIRIT¡¦S MANIFESTATIONS. The Holy Spirit¡¦s
presence is seen in His conviction of the sinner. When He is among us, men
realise their sinfulness, and cry unto God. (F. James.)
Judgment and
mercy
Some
time ago, amid a very heavy thunderstorm, I heard, between two of the heaviest
peals, the carolling of a lark! It was a strange and welcome contrast. All
around us the thunder was growling and roaring, but in one of the brief
interludes there came this burst of bird-song. And all about this chapter one
hears the growl of the threatening thunder. There is a gathering storm of
judgment. The future is full of menace. And yet, in the midst of all the
approaching terror, there sounds out this sweet little paean about fruitful
fields, and righteous relationships, and peaceful homes, and happy, restful
days. It was ever the way of this great prophet. The hard note of judgment was
alternated with the softer note of mercy. The lark¡¦s song is frequently heard
amid the thunder. (J. H.Jowett, M. A.)
The Spirit
poured out
I. Here is A GREAT PROPHET FORESEEING THE OUTPOURING OF THE SPIRIT OF
GOD. That in itself would be interesting, but it is rendered doubly so by the
fact that--
II. HE PROCEEDS TO NAME THE RESULTS WHICH WOULD FOLLOW THE OUTPOURING
(Isaiah 32:15-17). (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Results of the
outpouring of the Spirit
Here
is the problem: If the Spirit of God were to be poured out upon a nation, what
would happen?
1. The unfolding of creation in accordance with the fullest design of
God. ¡§The wilderness a fruitful field,¡¨ &c. Is that to be taken literally
or only figuratively? Shall we interpret it as only meaning that the wilderness
of meanness and niggardliness and greed shall break into the fruitful field of
benevolence and philanthropy, or shall we interpret it according to its literal
meaning that nature itself shall pass into larger bounteousness and perfection?
I think the literal interpretation is the right one. I think Isaiah means just
what he says, that the beautifying of humanity will elicit higher beauty in the
world about us. Throughout the whole book you will find this doctrine taught,
that the perfection of nature is involved in the redemption of men. Nature
cannot put on all the fulness of her beautiful garments until man puts on the
beauty of holiness. The unfolding of one awaits the evolution of the other.
Scripture affirms that nature is held in bondage. She is fettered, and unable
to realise the full glory of her design, and this because of the moral and
spiritual bondage of man. This is not the teaching only of the prophet Isaiah.
It is apostolic teaching. Have you ever paused at that profound word of the
Apostle Paul, where he says that, ¡§the earnest expectation of creation waiteth
for the revealing of the sons of God¡¨? English translation does not in any
degree express the extraordinary force of the figure which the apostle employs.
What is the figure? It is this. Paul represents nature standing bound, ¡§with
uplifted head, scanning with longing eyes the horizon from which she looks for
help, her hands stretched out to grasp and welcome the redemption into freedom
and perfection which she yearns for and confidently expects.¡¨ That is the
figure: creation, bound and imperfect, yearning and waiting for her redemption
and perfection, which is to come through redeemed man.
2. Judgment and righteousness shall dwell among them as abiding
guests. Righteousness shall ¡§dwell¡¨ there! It shall not be an occasional
visitor, a spasmodic impulse, an inconstant and irregular desire. It shall
dwell there as a permanent disposition. It shall not be a weak emotion. It
shall be a mighty passion. When the Spirit of God is poured out upon a people,
that people shall hunger for righteousness. You know how it is with mountain
air. Down in the sultry valley we are sluggish and languid. We are indifferent
about our food. We come to it as a custom; we take it as a task.
But
if we get up into the pure, strong air of the higher moorlands, our languor
drops from us, and our appetite awakes, and we turn to our food with hunger,
and take it with relish.
3. The creation of social peace. Put things right, and peace will
come. Maladjustments always produce unrest in the physical and moral life. (J.
H.Jowett, D. D.)
Verse 17
And the work of
righteousness shall be peace
The true work of life
I.
THE NATURE OF TRUE LIFE
WORK--the work of righteousness. What is righteous work?
1. Working
by right law. God has established a law to regulate all action and motion
throughout His empire. What is the law by which mind is to be regulated? The
will of God, not expediency. Of expediency, we are no safe, no correct judges.
2. Working
by a right law from a right motive. A mere conformity to the letter of the law,
if it could be obtained, is not righteousness. We must keep the law not from
the fear of hell, or the hope of heaven, but from a predominant affection for
the Lawgiver. It is noteworthy that the work of righteousness is not a work to
be limited to any department of action. Righteousness must run through all
personal and social relationships.
II. THE
BLESSEDNESS OF TRUE LIFE WORK. ¡§Peace.¡¨ This is true.
1. Of
individuals.
2. Of
families.
3. Of
churches.
4. Of
nations.
Conclusion--Learn the
transcendent worth of the Gospel. The great object of Christ¡¦s mission was to
promote righteousness. His life was a revelation of righteousness, His death a
demonstration of righteousness, His whole history one great motive to
righteousness. This is the supreme want of humanity. Legislation, philosophy, poets,
priesthoods, civilisations, have tried to supply it and have failed. Christ
alone can establish righteousness. (Homilist.)
Righteousness and peace
Peace is not a root, but a
fruit. It is not the beginning of a process, but its end. It is not the summary
creation of an imperial fiat; it is the matured product of the spiritual order.
We cannot command peace; we can only grow it. If we would have the reapings we
must attend to certain sewings. To obtain peace we must plant righteousness. (J.
H. Jowett, M. A.)
The spiritual order
The first bugle-peal
proclaims not the advent of peace but the enthronement of right! The herald
withholds the word ¡§peace¡¨ until ¡§righteousness¡¨ is established. ¡§Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness!¡¨ That is the voice of the first trumpet, and
it is only when certain great redemptions have been wrought, certain
perversities corrected, certain degraded monarchies restored, certain pure and
muscular dispositions recovered, that we hear the sound of the second trumpet,
¡§And the work of righteousness shall be peace,¡¨ &c. That is the expression
of the spiritual order as contained in the teaching of the Divine Word. (J.
H.Jowett, D. D.)
Peace
Peace is the general glow
of health resulting from the inter-related life of many members, each of whom
occupies his appointed place in the spiritual order, and is possessed by the
spirit of equity and truth. Peace is the spirit of communion, the genius of
co-operation, the cohesion of many members into one pure and indissoluble
whole. Now there can be no cohesion among the unclean. Dirt is always divisive.
(J. H. Jowett, D. D.)
Righteousness and peace
Before iniquity intruded
King Arthur¡¦s court was whole, and the angel of peace abode in the temple. But
when the iniquitous stole into the court, the rare communion was broken, and
the angel of peace flew away into distant exile. (J. H. Jowett, D. D.)
Maladjustments
Maladjustments always
produce unrest whether it be in the physical or moral life. You say, ¡§I cannot
rest at night.¡¨ How is that? ¡§I have a great deal of pain.¡¨ Where? ¡§In this
hand.¡¨ How are you treating it? ¡§Oh, I bathe it very frequently, and I use a
little ointment.¡¨ But your finger is out of joint! There is a maladjustment.
Your finger is not where God intended it to be. Your finger will have to be set
right. Physical righteousness, physical rightness must be the first step to
physical rest. The truth is analogous in the moral sphere. There are
mal-adjustments there, disjointings there. (J. H.Jowell, D. D.)
Goodness and joy
¡§Why are you singing?¡¨ a
lady asked a little girl. ¡§Oh, I don¡¦t know, unless it is because I have tried
to be good to-day,¡¨ was the answer.
Verse 18-19
My people shall dwell in a
peaceable habitation
The safety of believers in
time of judgment
I.
CONTEMPLATE THE COMING
JUDGMENTS OF THE LORD.
II. CONSIDER THE
BLESSED PROMISES MADE TO HIS SEEKING PEOPLE.
III. THE PERIOD WHEN
THESE PROMISES SHALL HAVE THEIR FULFILMENT. Read the first verse of this
chapter, and what is there stated is enough to answer all inquiries upon this
head. ¡§Behold, a king, &c.¡¨ I expect this when the King of righteousness,
the Lord Jesus Christ, reigns. The personal improvement of this subject consists--
1. In directing you to the safety of believers.
2. In considering the conduct becoming those who have so high a
destiny. Watch and pray. Pray for yourselves, pray for your country. Be valiant
for the truth, continue in persevering faith. (J. Wilcox, M. A.)
The peaceable habitation
I. I believe I
shall not be doing justice to the prospective design of all Old Testament
truth, if I do not represent to you all peace--all true moral peace--as founded
in and on, not only THE ATONEMENT MADE BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, but on the
nature of that atonement. ¡§The peaceable habitation,¡¨ in which only we have ¡§a
sure dwelling,¡¨ and ¡§a quiet resting-place,¡¨ is made of the wood of the Cross.
II. Having said
this, I must say, that no doubt ¡§the peaceable habitation¡¨ is found in MORAL
DISPOSITIONS CREATED WITHIN BY DIVINE GRACE. There is, first, the chamber of
holiness. Oh, the sweet tranquillity of a holy life! This is the deep centre of
peace. There is a hallowed chamber in the same palace of holy dispositions--a ¡§quiet
habitation¡¨--resignation to the Divine will. From these chambers we climb the
stairs and rise higher. Trust in God¡¦s providence-this is the observatory; and
like all observatories, it is high and clear. Other observatories boast that
from them you may see the stars in the day-time; but from this, you may see the
sun in the night-time! A quiet habitation indeed! Scripture speaks of a ¡§peace
which passeth all understanding.¡¨ The grave is a hallowed cavern, a blessed
hiding-place. (Paxton Hood.)
A quiet life
George Herbert, thinking
of his former ambitions in the court of James I., in contrast with his quiet
life of prayer and song, could write: ¡§I now look back upon my aspiring
thoughts and think myself more happy than if I had attained what I then so ambitiously
thirsted for.¡¨
Quiet resting-places
The Christian in temporary
retirement from business
To speak of cessation from
business, to urge retirement, will sound very strange and, perhaps, very
ridiculous to some. ¡§What,¡¨ they exclaim, ¡§sacrifice opportunities of getting
money? To get what we can, and keep what we get, is our motto.¡¨ But, has it
ever occurred to you that you may so pursue business as to destroy the power of
doing it? Besides, if thou be getting the chief good, is getting all? Is there
to be no enjoyment of it? And no use of it? But, the gain on which thou hast
set thine heart, and which thou thinkest it a great mistake and weakness to
forego in any measure, will not last long. Does it accord with reason to let
thy nature be neglected for the sake of temporary possessions?
I. LET US CONSIDER
THOSE RETIREMENTS WHICH ARE INCUMBENT ON THE CHRISTIAN IN THE MIDST OF SECULAR
LIFE.
1. I shall omit the compulsory, and confine myself to the voluntary;
and shall treat of these in relation rather to their ends than to their
seasons.
2. I must say a few words on the relations of retirement from
business to business.
II. I did intend to
speak on another point, THAT RETIREMENT FROM BUSINESS WHICH CONSISTS IN A FINAL
ABANDONMENT OF IT, IN A COMPLETE RESIGNATION OF ITS CONCERNS not that which
takes place at death, but that which takes place, though a voluntary act, in
consequence of the obtainment of competency, on the growth of infirmities, or
the influence of other circumstances.
1. This retirement may be a duty. It may be a duty in order that you
may give place to others. It is a selfish thing for a man to go on getting as
much as he can, simply because he can. But the duty becomes still plainer when
considered in relation to a man¡¦s own well-being. If God has prospered secular
diligence so that there is enough and to spare, it is a loud call to modes of
activity and service that are impossible, to any great extent, in the heat and
absorption of worldly pursuits.
2. When a Christian has retired from business, he should form some
settled plan of life. (A. J. Morris.)
¡§Nothing to do!¡¨
I know that many find
retirement a burden and a snare, and that many have returned to business after
having left it, because they were oppressed by having nothing to do. But what a
condemnation is this of their past life; what a rebuke of their treatment of
the immortal mind! Nothing to do; and yet living in a world of mysteries!
Nothing to do; and yet surrounded with the images and works of God! Nothing to
do; and yet belonging to a race which has seen six thousand years, and to a
system of redemption which has been a Divine gift and power for nearly two!
Nothing to do; and yet the works of countless mighty dead extant, and full of
glorious things and thoughts! Nothing to do; and yet possessing a nature which
is the reflection of Deity, and the heir of immortality! Nothing to do; and yet
the world in its sin and suffering calling for the utmost tenderness of human
compassion, and the utmost activity of human energy. He who pleads that he has
nothing to do after business is abandoned, what has he been doing in the long
years devoted to its pursuits? (A. J. Morris.)
Quiet resting places
It is impossible to doubt
that the prophet, now and again, in describing those nearer scenes obtains and
reveals glimpses of a higher glory, and refreshes his readers and himself with
anticipations of Messiah¡¦s times. The closing verses of the chapter are full of
the Gospel, penetrated with the very spirit of evangelical peace. ¡§My people¡¨
seems to make the promise general, and to hold it out to us sealed with the
¡§yea and amen¡¨ which is attached to every promise of God. ¡§Shall dwell¡¨ seems
to import some settled order of Divine procedure. If Solomon said in his day,
¡§all things are full of labour,¡¨ what would he say in ours? How fierce and keen
are the conflicts of life! Where shall rest be found? Only in some of those
quiet resting-places which God makes and keeps for His pilgrim people. They
have soul-quietness for city strife.
I. THE EVENING. A
sacred time even in Eden was ¡§the cool of the day.¡¨ Isaac went out into the
field to meditate ¡§at eventide.¡¨ Jesus often left His disciples about sundown,
and wandered up among the Syrian hills to find some sequestered spot where He
might feel himself alone in the full presence of God. The breeze that fanned
the leaves of Paradise will touch our cheek, and make coolness at the close of
our day, if we will but cease from care and sin. We read in the Scriptures that
day and night are the ¡§ordinances¡¨ of God. Can anyone suppose that He has
established them for only material ends? Surely a higher end is found in the
trial, nurture, and purification of souls. To a devout soul the evening is like
¡§the secret place of the Most High.¡¨ It is ¡§the shadow of the Almighty.¡¨ It is
a closet of which God builds the walls and shuts to the door. Think, then, as
the evening comes round--for thought is the soul¡¦s rest--of the day that is
gone with gratitude, for every hour of it has been overflowing with the
goodness of God; with penitence, for you will easily discover that it has been
a day of shortcomings and sins; with wisdom, aiming to understand it better
than when you lived it; with tenderness and holy fear, as feeling how good and
how grand a thing it is to be permitted to live on, and to hope to live better.
Think of to-morrow which will come so soon, with its unknown and yet probable
events--of the task that will await you then; of the persons who will be around
you, of their words, their looks, their influence; of the peril you will have
to brave; of the weakness you will feel; of the strength you will need; of the
failure you fear, that by your thought and prayer it may be the less likely to
come; and of the goodness which will certainly enrich and crown to-morrow as it
has filled and now closes to-day. Think of the evening of life itself. Think
any such thoughts with prayer and faith, and your soul must be lifted at least
somewhat above the dust and drudgery of this vexing and down-dragging world.
II. THE SABBATH. In
the beginning God rested from His work, and blessed and hallowed the day for
all time, and never has there been a Sabbath on earth in which men have not
been entering into the very rest of God.
III. THE
PROVIDENTIAL CHANGE may be of such a character as to lead us at once into a
¡§quiet resting-place.¡¨ It may be a change of locality, or of occupation, or of
condition. Any considerable providential change has something of the same
character. An infant is born, and in his first sleep sheds through the house
something of the solemnity of being. A child is ¡§recovered of his sickness,¡¨ in
which the little pilgrim seemed to be wandering away from all your care and
love. A son has gone out to a foreign land. A daughter has been married.
Anything that breaks the continuity, that alters the relationships, that makes
a pause in life--an open space in the forest of its toils and cares--anything
of that kind is God¡¦s voice, saying, ¡§Here is relief for you. Enter this quiet
resting-place which My hand has made.¡¨ Or, let the change, be from health to
sickness, then the ¡§quiet resting-place¡¨ is made in the retirement of the
chamber, or the ¡§stillness¡¨ of the bed.
IV. THE GRAVE.
¡§There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.
The small and great are there, and the servant is free from his master. There
the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary be at rest.¡¨ It is not our
mere human fancy that invests the burial-place of the Christian dead with such
a sacred charm, that wraps it as in the peace and silence of God. It is Christ
who thus hallows the grave. He has been a sleeper there; He has taken the
harshness, the disquietude, the terror away.
V. HEAVEN is the
quietest resting-place of all. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
God¡¦s thoughtful loving-kindness
In eastern countries,
where the habit of hospitality is stronger than with us, the traveller is
sometimes surprised and regaled by much-needed but unexpected wayside comforts.
Yonder husbandman who is now a-field at his work was here in the early morning
to leave by the wayside that pitcher of water that the passing traveller might
drink. This clump of trees which makes a thick and welcome ¡§shadow from the
heat,¡¨ was planted by one who expected neither fame nor money for his toil, and
who now lies in a nameless grave. Hands now mouldering in dust scooped out this
cool seat in the rock. Some ¡§Father Jacob gave us this well after drinking
thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle.¡¨ Travellers from the west
are much affected by such instances of pure humanity and unselfish kindness.
And yet these are but feeble types, mere dim shadows of Divine thoughtfulness
and care. The heavenly benefactor comes down in preventing loving-kindness upon
the earthly pathway of His people. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
True rest in persons;
specially in God
We need one great
complemental truth--we do not find our true rest in places at all, but only in
persons. The living soul must have a living portion. What were the fairest
prospect if a man were condemned to behold it for ever alone? What even the
higher things of this human life, the duties, and the interests, and the
struggles, if there were not intermingled with them all a sense of the nearness
of other human beings, and if there were not the continual reciprocal action of
these affections and sympathies which make life so sacred and dear? But no
human being, no assemblage of human beings, can meet the wants and fulfil the
longings of even one human soul. Your heart is waiting, and aching while it
waits, for an infinite sympathy, for an everlasting strength, for a grace that
will cancel sin and restore purity, in one word, for the love of God; for the
love of God in Christ. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)
Verse 20
Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters
Times of peace should be improved
The war is now over; Asher has been crushed like a serpent, and
this sweet voice is heard when the enemy has been driven out of the land.
Understand that times of peace are to be times of cultivation. We are not to be
great only in war. (Jos. Parker, D. D.)
Moral cultivation
The allusion in this verse is supposed by some to be to pasturage,
by others to tillage. Lowth follows Chardin in applying the words to the practice
of treading the ground by the feet of cattle before planting rice; Henderson to
the act of setting them at liberty from the rope with which they were tied by
the foot. Knobel understands the verse as contrasting the condition of those
who lived at liberty, on the seaside or by rivers, with theirs who were pent up
and besieged in cities. Hitzig supposes a particular allusion to the case of
those who had escaped with their possessions from Jerusalem. Hendewerk applies
the verse to the happy external condition of the people in the days of the
Messiah. Henderson says it beautifully exhibits the free and unrestrained
exertions of the apostles and other missionaries in sowing the seed of the
kingdom in every part of the world. Ewald explains it exclusively of moral
cultivation, as implying that none can expect to reap good without diligently
sowing it. Of all these explanations the last may be considered as approaching
nearest to the truth, because it requires least to be supplied by the
imagination. Taking the whole connection into view, the meaning of this last
verse seems to be, that as great revolutions are to be expected, arising wholly
or in part from moral causes, they alone are safe, for the present and the
future, who with patient assiduity perform what is required; and provide, by
the discharge of actual duty, for contingencies which can neither be escaped,
nor provided for in any other manner. (J. A. Alexander.)
Missionary operations in the Christian dispensation
It has been granted to Isaiah to look into the future, and he
foresaw the call of the Gentiles and the Christian dispensation. There he
beheld the messengers of the Lord receiving their commission, ¡§Go ye and teach
all nations¡¨; and he pronounced them to be blessed as compared with himself,
sent to a single people, rebellious and gainsaying. This he expresses in
metaphorical language, and by reference to a process of husbandry, or to the
manner of sowing grain, particularly rice, which still prevails in Eastern
countries, and with which the Israelites were familiar. The mode of proceeding
is thus described:--The sowers cast their seed upon the waters, when, by the
swelling of the river, the waters cover the land. Beasts of burden are employed
to tread down the mud or slime, to render it capable of receiving the seed as
it sinks. (W. F. Hook, D. D.)
Sowing beside all waters
There is spiritual seed to be sown. It is to be sown by the side
of all waters. It is, however, sown in vain, unless the moral soil be
cultivated in which it is designed to take root.
I. THE NATURE OF
THE SEED WE HAVE TO SOW. Our Lord and Master, when explaining the parable of
the Sower and the seed to His disciples, saith, the seed is the Word o God.
1. The ministers of Christ are the sowers of the seed.
2. But they are not so exclusively. To sow the seed is in some
measure the duty of all who name the name of Christ; of the parent especially
to his child, and of every Christian in his daily conversation and walk.
II. THE IMPORTANCE
OF WATCHING THE TIMES, AND OF AVAILING OURSELVES OF THE OPPORTUNITIES
PROVIDENTIALLY OPENED TO US, FOR SOWING THE SEED. In every nation, and in every
clime, it is indeed as much the farmer¡¦s duty to watch the seasons as it is to
sow the seed. And in spiritual husbandry, this it is that distinguishes the
sober-minded Christian from the mere fanatic. But this is not the only lesson
that we are to deduce from our text. We are to sow beside all waters.
III. THE CONDITIONS
UNDER WHICH THE SOWING OF IT RESULTS IN A MORAL, SPIRITUAL, AND HEAVENLY HARVEST.
God requires the spiritual seed to be sown; He requires the spiritual seed to
take root in the heart, before the harvest of grace can be realised, or the
fruit be produced. It is by meditation that we tread down the seed into the
heart and soul. (W. F. Hook, D. D.)
The blessedness of communicating the privileges of the Gospel to
others
I. Blessed are
they in this work; for in acting thus THEY ARE INSTRUMENTS OF GOD¡¦S MERCY TO
MEN.
II. Blessed are
they, IN REFERENCE TO THE STATE OF RELIGION WITHIN THEMSELVES.
III. May we not add,
as another ground of blessedness, THE PRAYERS OF THOSE WHO ARE BROUGHT TO THE
KNOWLEDGE OF THE SAVIOUR BY MISSIONARY EFFORTS? (H. Raikes, M. A.)
The work of the evangel
I. It is a SOWING
WORK. Of all mere human works, this is--
1. The most Divine. The seed, the soil, are all of God.
2. The most righteous. Statesmen, merchants, warriors, may question
the rectitude of their work, but the agriculturist has no reason to doubt.
3. The most useful. The farmer feeds the world.
4. The most believing. The man who commits the precious grain to the
earth has strong faith in the laws of nature.
II. It is a BLESSED
WORK. ¡§Blessed is he.¡¨
1. He is blessed by the gratitude of society. All are indebted to his
services.
2. He is blessed with the approval of his own conscience. He feels
that in sowing he is doing his duty.
3. He is blessed by the smiles of his God.
III. It is an
UNRESTRICTED WORK. ¡§All waters.¡¨ The meaning is, all well-watered places. The
word ¡§beside¡¨ would be better translated ¡§upon.¡¨ Scatter seed upon all suitable
spots. The evangel has unlimited scope for his operations. His field of labour
is the world, and he is commanded to be instant in season and out of season. (Homilist.)
The blessedness of sowing beside all waters
I. They who wish
to be useful should never forget the many favourable opportunities for sowing
good seed on THE CLEAR AND UNRUFFLED WATERS OF CHILDHOOD.
II. Another
opportunity for scattering precious seed is on THE TROUBLED WATERS OF STRIFE.
III. Another
opportunity is upon THE STAGNANT AND MUDDY WATERS OF DOUBT AND UNBELIEF.
IV. If we are
really anxious to do good in our day and generation, there will be times when
WORDS OF COMFORT MAY BE SPOKEN TO BEWILDERED
SOULS ABOUT TO EMBARK UPON ¡§THE NARROW SEA¡¨ WHICH DIVIDES THIS
WORLD FROM THE NEXT. (J. N. Norton.)
Sowing beside all waters
1. Here is an assertion of that universal law that operates in the
whole domain of human life--the law of consequent following precedent, of
effect being the child of cause, of our sowing determining our reaping, of our
character and conduct evolving our destiny.
2. ¡§Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters.¡¨ Why? Not because the
sowing is itself an absolute benediction. Oftentimes it is attended with a
great deal of pain, and labour, and anxiety, and sacrifice. It is the casting
away of that which is in itself of great value. The sowing is blessed because
it is a prophecy of the increase of that which we sow, the promise of the
reward of our labour and our sacrifice.
3. We are very apt to say, ¡§I shall attain this and that, acquire
this and that by the goodness of God.¡¨ We do well to say this. But we must not
forget that the mercy and goodness of God alone will do nothing for us. It is
God¡¦s mercy and goodness, plus our own will, energy, and conduct, that
will determine our destiny, and evolve our circumstances, and ripen our
harvests.
4. The skill of the farmer lies in his knowledge of the relation of
his seed to the soil, to the season, and the atmosphere, and the conditions of
the growth and development of the seed. The highest wisdom of life is the
knowledge of the relation of conduct to character, and of character to destroy:
the perception of the conditions under which h e s highest elements are
perfected and its fruit-bearing qualities ripened. That is the mystic meaning
Of the benediction of my text: there is the secret of the blessedness of every
Sower.
5. Do we know what God¡¦s purpose in our life is? Along what lines
would He have us develop? What does He wish human life to be? I would answer
these questions first, and then show how the working of the human with the
Divine fulfils the purposes and plans of God. I do not think that He wants us
to go hungry or poorly clad in the biting cold; I do not think that we are
fulfilling His purpose when we sigh over accidents that are traceable to human
causes. It is anything but piety to sit down in poverty, rags, and dirt, and
say, ¡§The will of the Lord be done.¡¨ His will is our wellbeing--body, soul, and
spirit. I want to point out what lines of conduct will contribute to the
forming of such a Character and the developing of such circumstances as God
approves.
I. I would speak
of ACTIVITY as fruit-bearing seed that ripens into a harvest of blessedness. I
do not mean busyness in any realm of life that may present itself. What I mean
is activity in righteous pursuits, in holy ambitions, in legitimate callings;
activity in things that pertain to human improvement, human comfort and
well-being; things that belong to the many phases of life¡¦s wondrous economy;
things that tend to the uplifting of human lives, to the amelioration of human
woes, to the lightening of human burdens, to the redeeming of human souls from
tyranny, falsehood, and wrong.
II. The next
fruit-bearing quality of which I would speak is LEARNING. There is a trite old
saying, ¡§Never too late- to learn,¡¨ which in most lives has little or no
practical application. Do not let learning end at the schoolroom, net yourself
some task to learn that shall explain some of the mysteries of life to you. Go
apart from the ¡§madding crowd¡¦s ignoble strife,¡¨ and there open the windows of
your mind, till that ¡§light which never was on sea or land¡¨ shall flood it and
make it luminous as with the sunshine of God. Every task you set yourself to
learn, and learn it; every mystery that you make plain to yourself by processes
of reasoning and study; every new fact that you gain by search and research in
the domain of knowledge will not only make you wiser, but better; and, perhaps,
after much pain and labour, you shall find the task ripening into a harvest
that shall make the autumn of life golden.
III. I would mention
also THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH as that which will bear abundant fruitage in
our happiness and well-being. ¡§A sound mind in a sound body¡¨ is doubtless God¡¦s
will concerning us. And towards attaining that we can do more for ourselves
than all the physicians in the world can do for us. Blessed is every man that
sows his life¡¦s seeds in fertile places; he is promoting the Divine economy, he
is carrying out the purposes of God on earth. (W. J. Hocking.)
Sowing beside all waters
I. THE CHARACTERS
HERE DESCRIBED. Sowers. A sower implies seed. There is only one granary in
which the living seed of the kingdom is treasured, namely, the Bible.
1. The true spiritual sower, having first of all received himself the
seed, will manifest a real love for the work. He will go forth willingly,
conscientiously, and lovingly, to scatter broadcast the precious treasure, not
merely on well-cultivated patches of human soil, but ¡§beside all waters,¡¨
finding very often his chiefest joy in sowing the unlikeliest patches.
2. The true, spiritual sower will also have faith in his work.
3. He will not only have faith in the seed, but also in the soil. The
farmer who does not believe the soil capable of producing fruit will certainly
not waste time in its cultivation. If we did not believe that between every
human heart and the Gospel seed there was such affinity that it could not help
taking root therein, we should most certainly give up our toil.
4. The true, spiritual sower will often encounter difficulties in his
work.
5. The spiritual sower is earth¡¦s truest philanthropist.
II. OUR SPHERE OF
OPERATION. ¡§Beside all waters.¡¨ Wherever there is a solitary spot capable of
receiving the good and living seed--whether at home or abroad, in dens of
squalor or palaces of luxury and ease, in the crowded city or the rural
village--we are commanded to go and plant it there.
III. THE BENEDICTION
HERE PRONOUNCED. ¡§Blessed are they that sow beside all waters.¡¨
1. The work itself is its own reward.
2. The spiritual sower enjoys the benediction of others.
3. He has the smile and benediction of Him in whose service he is
engaged. (J. W.Atkinson.)
Sowing beside all waters
Isaiah ever had an eye to the golden age. In view of the
successful issue of the coming struggle, he intimates the wisdom of going on
with seed sowing. They are blessed who are not hindered by fear. May we not
learn the wisdom of hopefulness? The man who believes in Divine faithfulness
has every reason to be an optimist. This subject is capable of application in
various ways. The optimism of Isaiah, Christ, Paul, and John needs cultivation.
1. Those who give any thought to the social problems of the age are
met by many difficulties and discouragements. So much want to be relieved, so
many wrongs to be righted. Pessimism says, ¡§Society is going to the dogs; let
it go.¡¨ Optimism says, ¡§I¡¦ll save it if I can.¡¨ Present social inequalities and
woes should not make us hopeless. Jehovah was more mighty than Sennacherib. He
is more mighty than all the forces arrayed against true liberty. Having faith
in God we may sow the seeds of social reform.
2. In evangelistic and missionary work a spirit of optimism is
essential. With Divine promises of power and blessing we may hopefully sow.
Concerning foreign missions, Pessimism says, ¡§It is a waste of life, money,
energy¡¨; but the man whose faith in God is strong, points to the golden age
when all shall know the Lord.
3. Considering our own life and experience this same hopefulness is
essential. Is life worth living? Yes, if for no other reason because in it we
may sow for a golden harvest. (T. S. Williams, M. A.)
Selfishness in service
Some one tells of a physician, who, at the beginning of his
career, made a resolution that he would undertake no cases but those with which
he was certain he could succeed. While this would mean the loss of a good deal
of money, he shrewdly calculated on getting it back a hundredfold in the
reputation of skill which such a course would bring him. The idea is wholly
selfish. He preferred to let men, whom he might possibly have saved, die,
rather than run the risk of having the brightness of his reputation dimmed. (Christian
Endeavour.)
Usefulness!
Is there a word in our language which expresses more than that?
What images of the good, the devoted, and the self-sacrificing does it not
bring up vividly before us! We see Thomas Cranfield, the tailor, labouring
among the bricklayers in the cause of Sunday schools; John Pounds, the cobbler,
who founded ragged schools; Sarah Martin, the dressmaker of Yarmouth, the
devoted visitor to the workhouse and the jail; and Thomas Dakin, the Greenwich
pensioner and distributor of tracts. Among these, in the higher walks of life,
we recognise Howard, the philanthropist, over whose grave, in Russia, was
engraved the motto which kings might envy, ¡§He lived for others¡¨; Clarkson,
Wilberforce, and a host of honoured statesmen; the Thorntons, and a multitude of
other merchant princes; Washington and Wellington, and Havelock and Scott, who,
while they were leaders in the armies of this world, were proud to be humble
privates in the armies of the Lord of hosts. (J. N. Norton.)
Where shall we sow?
¡§Beside all waters.¡¨ Some waters are clear and sparkling, and the
murmur of their ripple gladdens the ear, sow there, of course. But there are
turbid, angry waters, fouled and polluted, sow beside them also. Into the
bright, sunny, prattling lives of the little ones cast the precious seed, but
also, all the more lovingly and skifully, when the swollen torrents of sin rush
past. God is able to make it grow and take root there; and also beside the
stagnant pools of stolid atheism. ¡§Thou canst not tell whether shall prosper, either
this or that.¡¨ (G. Soltau.)
The catechism
Many striking incidents are related of good ¡§Father Nash,¡¨ one of
the early heralds of the Cross in the more destitute and neglected regions of
the ¡§Diocese of New York,¡¨ who has been made to figure with such effect in
Fenimore Cooper¡¦s famous romance, The Pioneers. On a certain occasion,
when a number of clergymen were assembled for some purpose, and conversation
began to flag, one of them, who was almost too diligent a farmer for the good
of the Church, entertained the company with an account of his agricultural
operations, and, among other things, of his successful management of sheep.
Father Nash, whose whole heart was devoted to his Heavenly Master¡¦s work, felt
little interest in all this, and when the enthusiastic farmer-pastor turned to
him and asked, ¡§What do you feed your lambs with?¡¨ the worthy missionary could
not resist the temptation of administering a mild rebuke, and answered--¡§With
Catechism!¡¨ (J. N. Norton.)
Tact in seed-sowing
A young friend was invited to spend the evening with Dr and Mrs.
Horace Bushnell. She was a girl of fine intelligence and character, but not at
that time religious. When, therefore, she was invited to tea by Mrs. Bushnell,
she accepted with considerable misgiving, lest the evening should be made the
occasion of such exhortations as were then too commonly the only subject of
ministerial intercourse with the unconverted. To her great relief, however, the
time was spent in the pleasantest social intercourse, free from all remarks of
a personal nature. Dr. B., of course, saw her safely home when the evening was
over, and as the night was one of brilliant starlight, the talk on the way was
naturally of astronomy, and of the law-abiding order of the universe. He spoke
eloquently of the great harmony of the spheres, and of the perfect manner in
which each little star fulfilled its destiny, and swung in the Divine order of
its orbit. ¡§Sarah,¡¨ he said, turning to her with a winning smile, ¡§I want to see
you in your place.¡¨ No other word turned the suggestion into a homily, and her
quick intelligence was thrilled and won by a thought which seemed in that quiet
hour to have dropped upon her from the skies. He had simply let the occasion
speak its own thought. (Dr. Bushnell¡¦s Life.)
¢w¢w¡mThe Biblical Illustrator¡n