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Isaiah Chapter
Forty
Isaiah 40
Chapter Contents
The preaching of the gospel, and glad tidings of the
coming of Christ. (1-11) The almighty power of God. (12-17) The folly of
idolatry. (18-26) Against unbelief. (27-31)
Commentary on Isaiah 40:1-11
(Read Isaiah 40:1-11)
All human life is a warfare; the Christian life is the
most so; but the struggle will not last always. Troubles are removed in love,
when sin is pardoned. In the great atonement of the death of Christ, the mercy
of God is exercised to the glory of his justice. In Christ, and his sufferings,
true penitents receive of the Lord's hand double for all their sins; for the
satisfaction Christ made by his death was of infinite value. The prophet had
some reference to the return of the Jews from Babylon. But this is a small
event, compared with that pointed out by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament,
when John the Baptist proclaimed the approach of Christ. When eastern princes
marched through desert countries, ways were prepared for them, and hinderances
removed. And may the Lord prepare our hearts by the teaching of his word and
the convictions of his Spirit, that high and proud thoughts may be brought
down, good desires planted, crooked and rugged tempers made straight and
softened, and every hinderance removed, that we may be ready for his will on
earth, and prepared for his heavenly kingdom. What are all that belongs to
fallen man, or all that he does, but as the grass and the flower thereof! And
what will all the titles and possessions of a dying sinner avail, when they
leave him under condemnation! The word of the Lord can do that for us, which
all flesh cannot. The glad tidings of the coming of Christ were to be sent
forth to the ends of the earth. Satan is the strong man armed; but our Lord
Jesus is stronger; and he shall proceed, and do all that he purposes. Christ is
the good Shepherd; he shows tender care for young converts, weak believers, and
those of a sorrowful spirit. By his word he requires no more service, and by
his providence he inflicts no more trouble, than he will strengthen them for.
May we know our Shepherd's voice, and follow him, proving ourselves his sheep.
Commentary on Isaiah 40:12-17
(Read Isaiah 40:12-17)
All created beings shrink to nothing in comparison with
the Creator. When the Lord, by his Spirit, made the world, none directed his
Spirit, or gave advice what to do, or how to do it. The nations, in comparison
of him, are as a drop which remains in the bucket, compared with the vast
ocean; or as the small dust in the balance, which does not turn it, compared
with all the earth. This magnifies God's love to the world, that, though it is
of such small account and value with him, yet, for the redemption of it, he
gave his only-begotten Son, John 3:16. The services of the church can make
no addition to him. Our souls must have perished for ever, if the only Son of
the Father had not given himself for us.
Commentary on Isaiah 40:18-26
(Read Isaiah 40:18-26)
Whatever we esteem or love, fear or hope in, more than
God, that creature we make equal with God, though we do not make images or
worship them. He that is so poor, that he has scarcely a sacrifice to offer,
yet will not be without a god of his own. They spared no cost upon their idols;
we grudge what is spent in the service of our God. To prove the greatness of
God, the prophet appeals to all ages and nations. Those who are ignorant of
this, are willingly ignorant. God has the command of all creatures, and of all
created things. The prophet directs us to use our reason as well as our senses;
to consider who created the hosts of heaven, and to pay our homage to Him. Not
one fails to fulfil his will. And let us not forget, that He spake all the
promises, and engaged to perform them.
Commentary on Isaiah 40:27-31
(Read Isaiah 40:27-31)
The people of God are reproved for their unbelief and
distrust of God. Let them remember they took the names Jacob and Israel, from
one who found God faithful to him in all his straits. And they bore these names
as a people in covenant with Him. Many foolish frets, and foolish fears, would
vanish before inquiry into the causes. It is bad to have evil thoughts rise in
our minds, but worse to turn them into evil words. What they had known, and had
heard, was sufficient to silence all these fears and distrusts. Where God had
begun the work of grace, he will perfect it. He will help those who, in humble
dependence on him, help themselves. As the day, so shall the strength be. In
the strength of Divine grace their souls shall ascend above the world. They
shall run the way of God's commandments cheerfully. Let us watch against
unbelief, pride, and self-confidence. If we go forth in our own strength, we
shall faint, and utterly fall; but having our hearts and our hopes in heaven,
we shall be carried above all difficulties, and be enabled to lay hold of the
prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 40
Verse 1
[1]
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Ye — Ye prophets and
ministers.
Verse 2
[2] Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the
LORD's hand double for all her sins.
Warfare —
The time of her captivity, and misery.
Double —
Not twice as much as her sins deserved, but abundantly enough to answer God's
design in this chastisement, which was to humble and reform them, and to warn
others by their example.
Verse 3
[3] The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
The voice — An
abrupt speech. Methinks I hear a voice.
Wilderness —
This immediately relates to the deliverance of the Jews out of Babylon, and
smoothing their passage from thence to Judea, which lay through a great
wilderness; but principally to their redemption by the Messiah, whose coming
was ushered in by the cry of John the baptist, in the wilderness.
Prepare ye the way —
You to whom this work belongs. He alludes to the custom of princes who send
pioneers before them to prepare the way through which they are to pass. The
meaning is, God shall by his spirit so dispose mens hearts, and by his
providence so order the affairs of the world, as to make way for the
accomplishment of his promise. This was eminently fulfilled, when Christ, who
was, and is God, blessed for ever, came into the world in a visible manner.
Verse 6
[6] The
voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
Cry —
God speaks unto his ministers.
He — The prophet.
All flesh —
The prophet having foretold glorious things, confirms the certainty of them, by
representing the vast difference between the nature, and word, and work of men
and of God. All that men are or have, yea, their highest accomplishments, are
but like the grass of the field, weak and vanishing, soon nipt and brought to
nothing; but God's word is like himself, immutable and irresistible: and
therefore as the mouth of the Lord, and not of man, hath spoken these things,
so doubt not but they shall be fulfilled.
Verse 9
[9] O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O
Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it
up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Zion —
Zion or Jerusalem is the publisher, and the cities of Judah the hearers.
Get up —
That thy voice may be better heard.
Afraid —
Lest thou shouldest be found a false prophet.
Say — To
all my people in the several places of their abode.
Behold —
Take notice of this wonderful work, and glorious appearance of your God.
Verse 10
[10]
Behold, the Lord GOD will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for
him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
His arm — He
shall need no succours, for his own power shall be sufficient to govern his
people, and to destroy his adversaries.
His reward — He
comes furnished with recompences as well of blessings for his friends, as of
vengeance for his enemies.
His work — He
carries on his work effectually: for that is said in scripture to be before a
man which is in his power.
Verse 12
[12] Who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with
the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the
mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
Who hath —
Who can do this but God? And this discourse of God's infinite power and wisdom,
is added to give them the greater assurance, that God was able to do the
wonderful things, he had promised.
Verse 13
[13] Who
hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
Who —
Who did God either need or take to advise him in any of his works, either of
creation or the government of the world.
Verse 15
[15]
Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small
dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
Are counted — By
him, and in comparison of him.
The dust —
Which accidentally cleaves to the balance, but makes no alteration in the
weight.
The isles —
Those numerous and vast countries, to which they went from Judea by sea, which
are commonly called isles.
Verse 16
[16] And
Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a
burnt offering.
Lebanon — If
men were to offer a sacrifice agreeable to his infinite excellency, the whole
forest of Lebanon could not afford either a sufficient number of beasts to be
sacrificed: or, a sufficient quantity of wood to consume the sacrifice.
Verse 18
[18] To
whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?
To whom —
This is a proper inference from the foregoing discourse of God's infinite
greatness; from whence he takes occasion to shew both the folly of those that
make mean and visible representations of God, and the utter inability of men or
idols to give any opposition to God.
Verse 19
[19] The
workman melteth a graven image, and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold,
and casteth silver chains.
Melteth — He
melts metal into a mould, which afterwards is graven or carved to make it more
exact.
Verse 20
[20] He
that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not
rot; he seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that
shall not be moved.
He — That can hardly
procure money to buy a sacrifice.
Chuseth — He
is so mad upon his idols, that he will find money to procure the choicest
materials, and the best artist to make his idol.
An image —
Which after all this cost, cannot stir one step out of its place to give you
any help.
Verse 21
[21] Have
ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning?
have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?
Known —
God to be the only true God, the maker and governor of the world.
Verse 22
[22] It
is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and
spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Sitteth —
Far above this round earth, even in the highest heavens; from whence he looketh
down upon the earth, where men appear to him like grasshoppers. As here we have
the circle of the earth, so elsewhere we read of the circle of heaven, Job 22:14, and of the circle of the deep, or
sea, Proverbs 8:27, because the form of the heaven,
and earth and sea is circular.
Spreadeth —
For the benefit of the earth and of mankind, that all parts might partake of
its comfortable influences.
Verse 24
[24] Yea,
they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall
not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall
wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
Sown —
They shall take no root, for planting and sowing are in order to taking root.
They shall not continue and flourish, as they have vainly imagined, but shall
be rooted up and perish.
Verse 26
[26] Lift
up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth
out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his
might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
Bringeth —
That at first brought them out of nothing, and from day to day brings them
forth, making them to rise and set in their appointed times.
Faileth —
Either to appear when he calls them; or to do the work to which he sends them.
Verse 27
[27] Why
sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and
my judgment is passed over from my God?
What —
Why dost thou give way to such jealousies concerning thy God, of whose infinite
power and wisdom, and goodness, there are such evident demonstrations.
Is hid — He
takes no notice of my prayers and tears, and sufferings, but suffers mine
enemies to abuse me at their pleasure. This complaint is uttered in the name of
the people, being prophetically supposed to be in captivity.
Judgment — My
cause. God has neglected to plead my cause, and to give judgment for me against
mine enemies.
Verse 30
[30] Even
the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
The youths —
The youngest and strongest men, left to themselves.
Verse 31
[31] But
they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up
with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,
and not faint.
Wait —
That rely upon him.
Renew —
Shall grow stronger and stronger.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
40 Chapter 40
Verses 1-11
Verse 1
Comfort ye, comfort ye My people
The great prophecy of Israel’s restoration
In passing from chaps, 36-39, to chap. 40. we find ourselves
introduced into a new world. The persons whom the prophet addresses, the people
amongst whom he lives and moves, whose feelings he portrays, whose doubts he
dispels, whose faith he confirms, are not the inhabitants of Jerusalem under
Ahaz, or Hezekiah, or Manasseh, but the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. Jerusalem
and the Temple are in ruins (Isaiah 44:10), and have
been so for long Isaiah 58:12; Isaiah 61:4 --the “old
waste places”): the proud and imposing Babylonian empire is to all appearance
as secure as ever; the exiles are in despair or indifferent; they think that
God has forgotten them, and have ceased to expect, or desire, their release (Isaiah 40:27; Isaiah 49:14; Isaiah 49:24). Toarouse the
indifferent, to reassure the wavering, to expostulate with the doubting, to
announce with triumphant confidence the certainty of the approaching
restoration, is the aim of the great prophecy which now occupies the last
twenty-seven chapters of the Book of Isaiah. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The Gospel of Isaiah
Here beginneth the Gospel of the prophet Isaiah, and holdeth on to
the end of the book. (J. Trapp.)
Does Isaiah 40:1-31. treat of the return from Babylon?
The specific application of this chapter to the return from
Babylon is without the least foundation in the text itself. The promise is a
general one of consolation, protection, and change for the better, to be
wrought by the power and wisdom of Jehovah, which are contrasted, first, with those
of men, of nations, and of rulers, then with the utter impotence of idols. That
the ultimate fulfilment of the promise was still distant, is implied in the
exhortation to faith and patience. The reference to idolatry proves nothing
with respect to the date of the prediction, although more appropriate in the
writings of Isaiah than of a prophet in the Babylonish Exile. It is evidently
meant, however, to condemn idolatry in general, and more particularly all the
idolatrous defections of the Israelites under the old economy. (J. A.
Alexander, D. D.)
A comforting message
There is evident allusion to the threatening in Isaiah 39:7. Having there
predicted the captivity in Babylon, as one of the successive strokes by which
the fate of Israel as a nation and the total loss of its peculiar privileges
should be brought about, the prophet is now sent to assure the spiritual
Israel, the true people of Jehovah, that although the Jewish nation should not
cease to be externally identified with the Church, the Church itself should not
only continue to exist, but in a far more glorious state than ever. (J. A.
Alexander, D. D.)
God’s return to a pardoned people
The beginning of the good tidings is Israel s pardon; yet it seems
not to be the people’s return to Palestine which is announced in consequence of
this, so much as their God’s return to them. “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah,
make straight a highway for our God. Behold, the Lord Jehovah will come.” (Prof.
G. A. Smith, D. D.)
“My” people; “your” God
All the prophecy we are about to study may be said to hang from
these pronouns. They are the hinges on which the door of this new temple of
revelation swings open before the long-expectant people. (Prof. G. A. Smith,
D. D.)
A storehouse of Divine promise
This portion (chaps. 40-66.) of the great prophet’s writings may
well be regarded as the Old Testament Store house and Repertory of “exceeding
great and precious promises,” in which Jehovah would seem to anticipate His own
special Gospel name as “the God of all comfort.” (J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
Jehovah and His Church
1. A glorious
change awaits the Church, consisting in a new and gracious manifestation of
Jehovah’s presence, for which His people are exhorted to prepare (Isaiah 40:1-5).
2. Though one
generation perish after another, this promise shall eventually be fulfilled,
because it rests not upon human but Divine authority (Isaiah 40:6-8).
3. Zion may even
now see Him approaching as the conqueror of His enemies, and at the same time
as the Shepherd of His people (Isaiah 40:9-11).
4. The fulfilment
of these pledges is insured by His infinite wisdom, His almighty power, and His
independence both of individuals and nations (Isaiah 40:12-17).
5. How much more
is He superior to material images, by which men represent Him or supply His
place (Isaiah 40:18-25).
6. The same power
which sustains the heavens is pledged for the support of Israel (Isaiah 40:26-31). (J. A.
Alexander.)
“Comfort ye, comfort ye”
The double utterance of the “Comfort ye,” is the well-known Hebrew
expression of emphasis, abundance, intensity;--“Great comfort, saith your God.”
(J. R. Macduff, D. D.)
God’s great comfort
At the close of the prophecy, the prophet tells us what the
strength and abundance of that comfort is. Earth’s best picture of strong
consolation is that of the mother bending over the couch of her suffering and
sorrowing child (Isaiah 66:13). (J. R.
Macduff, D. D.)
A Divine art
When the soul is in the period of its exile and bitter pain, it
should do three things.
I. LOOK OUT FOR
COMFORT.
1. It will come
certainly. Wherever the nettle grows, beside it grows the dock-leaf; and
wherever there is severe trial, there is, somewhere at hand, a sufficient store
of comfort, though our eyes, like Hagar’s, are often holden that we cannot see
it. It is as sure as the faithfulness of God. “I never had,” says Bunyan,
writing of his twelve years’ imprisonment, “in all my life, so great an insight
into the Word of God as now; insomuch that I have often said, Were it lawful, I
could pray for greater trouble, for the greater comforts’ sake.” God cannot
forget His child.
2. It will come
proportionately. Thy Father holds a pair of scales. This on the right is called
As, and is for thine afflictions; this on the left is called So, and is for thy
comforts. And the beam is always kept level The more thy trial, the more thy
comfort. As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also
aboundeth through Christ.
3. It will come
Divinely. God reserves to Himself the prerogative of comfort. It is a Divine
art.
4. It will come
mediately. What the prophet was as the spokesman of Jehovah, uttering to the
people in human tones the inspirations that came to him from God, so to us is
the great prophet, whose shoe-latchet the noblest of the prophetic band was not
worthy to unloose; and our comfort is the sweeter because it reaches us through
Him.
5. It will come
variously. Sometimes by the coming of a beloved Titus; a bouquet; a bunch of
grapes; a letter; a message; a card. There are many strings in the dulcimer of
consolation. In sore sorrow it is not what a friend says, but what he is, that
helps us. He comforts best who says least, but simply draws near, takes the
sufferer’s hand, and sits silent in his sympathy. This is God’s method.
II. STORE UP
COMFORT. This was the prophet’s mission. He had to receive before he could
impart. Thy own life becomes the hospital ward where thou art taught the Divine
art of comfort. Thou art wounded, that in the binding up of thy wounds by the
Great Physician thou mayest learn how to render first-aid to the wounded
everywhere.
III. PASS ON
COMFORT. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
The Divine ministry of comfort
There are ministries in the world.
1. There is the
Divine ministry of instruction. In this ministry nature, history, and the Bible
are constantly employed.
2. There is the
Divine ministry of Justice. Nemesis is always and everywhere at work, treading
on the heels of wrong, and inflicting penalties.
3. In the text we
have the Divine ministry of comfort. The words suggest three thoughts
concerning this ministry.
I. It implies the
existence of DISTRESS. Bright and fair as the material world often appears, a
sea of sorrow rolls through human souls The distress is of various kinds.
1. Physical
suffering.
2. Social
bereavement.
3. Secular
anxieties.
4. Moral
compunction.
II. It implies the
existence of SPECIAL MEANS. All this distress is an abnormal state of things.
Misery is not an institution of nature, and the creation of God, but the
production of the creature. To meet this abnormal state something more than
natural instrumentality is required.
1. There must be
special provisions. Those provisions are to be found in the Gospel. To the
physically afflicted there are presented considerations fitted to energise the
soul, endow it with magnanimity, fill it with sentiments and hopes that will
raise it, if not above the sense of physical suffering, above its depressing
influence. To the socially, bereaved it brings the glorious doctrine of a
future life. To the secularly distressed it unfolds the doctrine of eternal
providence. In secular disappointments and anxieties it says, “Your heavenly
Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.”
2. There must be
special agency. A physician may know the disease of his patient, but if he does
not know the precise mode of application he will not succeed. So it is with the
Gospel. A man to give comfort to another requires a special qualification. The
comforting elements must be administered--
III. It implies a
LIMITED SPHERE. “My people.” The whole human family is in distress, but there
is only a certain class qualified to receive comfort, those who are here called
God’s “people,” and who are they? Those who have surrendered themselves to His
will, yielded to His claims, and dedicated themselves to His service. (D.
Thomas, D. D.)
Comfort for God’s people
I. THE SPEAKER. It
is the God of comfort, the God of all comfort that here speaks comfortably to
His people. There is a danger of our thinking too much of comfort, and one may
only value the word preached as it administers comfort; this is a great error,
because all Scripture is profitable for doctrine, and reproof, as well as for
comfort. One great end which even the Scriptures have in view, is not only to
lead us to patience in suffering, but to comfort us under suffering. It is one
thing for man to speak comfort, it is another thing for God to speak comfort.
II. THE PERSONS
THAT ARE HERE SPOKEN TO. “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people.”
1. The Lord has a
people upon earth--He has never been without a people.
2. The Lord has a
people; and if He has a people He will try them, and they shall not be found
summer flies just resting on the surface of things, but they shall be found to
be those that know the truth in the power of it, and they shall be made to feel
and experience the worth of it. It shall not be enough for them to say, I am a
sinner, but they shall feel the wretchedness of being a sinner, they shall not only
confess that Christ is precious, but they shall be placed where they shall know
Him to be precious.
3. The Lord has a
people; and it is a most blessed consideration to reflect that while He has a
people, He is their God. Talk not of your wretchedness and your poverty and
your disease, of your weakness; if God be your God, not only heaven is your
home, but you have that without which heaven would not be worth the having.
4. God has a
people; no wonder then He comforts them--His eye is upon them from the
beginning to the end of the year. They are the salt of the earth to Him, and he
that touches them touches the apple of His eye.
III. THE LORD’S
MESSAGE UNTO HIS MINISTERS. “Comfort ye,” etc. The-great cause of comfort to a
child of God may be summed up in a little sentence--through eternity he never
shall come to the close of it. Let me point out some few of those great mercies
that flow to a child of God in consequence of his having Christ as his portion.
1. He has that
which made David glad (Psalms 32:1-2). The great
contest Satan has with our consciences is about the pardon of our sins. Well
might the people of God then be comforted by this truth, that their sins have
all been blotted out as a cloud.
2. Do you ask for
another ground of comfort? See it in a covenant, ordered in all things (2 Samuel
23:5).
3. But the
Psalmist found another source of comfort. “It is good for me to draw near to
God” (Psalms 73:1-28.). There is no
mercy on earth greater than to have a God in heaven, to have an Intercessor at
the right hand; to have the heart of God; to have the promise of God: to have
Jehovah Himself as my portion.
4. One comfort
more is the bright prospect that is before the child of God. (J. H.Evans, M.
A.)
Comfort for Zion
It was once said by Vinet, that the three great objects of the
preacher were the illumination, consolation, and regeneration of men. The work
of comforting is surely an important one, but it is God’s people whom we are to
comfort. We are not to say, Peace, peace! where there is no peace. Stoical
indifference is not real comfort, but peace alone is found in God.
I. Notice what a
discovery is made in the text of GOD’S NATURE. He has not hidden away from men;
He is not asleep or tied down by law, but His tender mercies are over all His
works. He is near to every one of us, seeking our love and confidence.
II. HUMAN SOULS
NEED COMFORT. Constitutional characteristics render us susceptible to
consolatory truths. Even those hardened in sin have been melted by a woman’s
tears, or have yielded to the persuasiveness of a child.
III. Look at the
GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS COMFORT IS ADMINISTERED. Not those of philosophy. When
the Greeks, under Xenophon, caught sight of the Euxine, they jubilantly cried,
“The sea, the sea!” The discoveries of Divine grace--a sea without a bottom or
a shore--elicit profounder joy. (G. Norcross, D. D.)
“Comfort ye, comfort ye My people
The words of this passage (1-11) look on to the captivity. The
people, afflicted, chastened, broken in spirit, are called upon to listen to
the strains of consolation which God had breathed for them in His word. I
venture to think that they were laden with a richer consolation in that they
came down a vista of nearly two hundred years. Old words are precious to
mourners. That which is spoken at the moment is apt to be coloured by the
thoughts and the doubts of the moment; an old word spoken out of the region of
these present sorrows has double force. It seems to bring that which is
absolute and universal to bear on that which is present and passing. This is
why the Scripture is so precious to mourners. It belongs to all time. And these
words rule all its declarations. It is comfort throughout and to the end. The
mercies of judgment is a subject we too little study. Yet mercy is the deepest
element in every judgment with which God afflicts mankind. Stern, hard,
unfaltering to the eye, but full of rich mercy to the heart. It was in tender
mercy that man, the sinner, was sent forth to labour. In society we see on a
large scale how God’s judgments are blessings in disguise. Great epidemics are
healing ordinances. They purify the vital springs. They leave a purer, stronger
health when their dread shadow has passed by. Catastrophes in history are like
thunderstorms; they leave a fresher, brighter atmosphere.
Reigns of terror are the gates through which man passes out into a
wider world. May we pray, then, in calamities for deliverance, when they are so
likely to be blessings? Yes, for prayer is the blessed refuge of our ignorance
and dread. But Isaiah had the profoundest right to speak o| comfort, because he
could speak of the advent of the Redeemer to the world. He not only preaches
comfort, but discloses the source from which it springs--“Emmanuel, God with
us.” (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
Divine comfort
1. Living in the
midst of sorrow, and himself personally its victim, the Christian has need of
comfort. Whatever form the affliction may take, it is hard for flesh and blood
to bear; it runs contrary to all the tastes and desires of the natural man.
Often under its pressure, especially when long continued and severe, is he
tempted to faint and despond; it may be, even to repine and murmur; to doubt
the faith fulness of God; to ask, in bitterness of heart, why such woe is
appointed to man?
2. With what
power, then, do words like these reach him in the midst of his sorrow, coming
from God Himself, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people!” No sooner are they heard
than hope revives, and the assurance of Divine sympathy at once soothes his
trouble, and allays his fears.
I. GOD HAS A
PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
The Lord’s people comforted
II. I proceed TO
COMPLY WITH THE INJUNCTION IN THE TEXT. To this end, I will endeavour to
obviate some few of the most common causes of that want of comfort to which the
people of God are liable.
1. One cause is
their misunderstanding the nature and extent of that pardon of sin, which the
Gospel provides.
2. Another cause
arises from their seeking comfort where it is not to be found. You can never
find it from poring into your own hearts. Look in faith to Jesus Christ--His
glorious person and gracious offices, etc.
3. Another cause
arises from their mistaking the proofs and marks of a really religious state.
They suppose that it consists in warm and rapturous feelings. Your salvation is
grounded on the faithfulness of Him who cannot lie. (E. Cooper.)
The trials of business men
These words came to the prophet in the olden time, but they come
just as forcibly to any man who stands to-day in any one of the pulpits of our
great cities. A preacher has no more right to ignore commercial sorrows than
any other kind of sorrow.
I. A great many of
our business men feel ruinous trials and temptations coming to them FROM SMALL
AND LIMITED CAPITAL IN BUSINESS. This temptation of limited capital has ruined
men in two ways. Despondency has blasted them. Others have said, “Here I have
been trudging along. I have been trying, to be honest all these years. I find
it is of no use. Now it is make or break.
II. A great many of
our business men are tempted to OVER-ANXIETY AND CARE. God manages all the
affairs of your life, and He manages them for the best.
III. Many of our
business men are tempted TO NEGLECT THEIR HOME DUTIES. How often it is that the
store and the home seem to clash, but there ought not to be any collision. If
you want to keep your children away from places of sin, you can only do it by
making your home attractive. We need more happy, consecrated, cheerful
Christian homes.
IV. A great many of
our business men are tempted to PUT THE ATTAINMENT OF MONEY ABOVE THE VALUE OF
THE SOUL. The more money you get, the better if it come honestly and go
usefully. But money cannot satisfy a man’s soul; it cannot glitter in the dark
valley; it cannot pay our fare across the Jordan of death; it cannot unlock the
gate of heaven.
Treasures in heaven are the only uncorruptible treasures. Have you
ever ciphered out in the rule of Loss and Gain the sum, “What shall it profit a
man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul?” Seek after God; find His
righteousness, and all shall be well here and hereafter. (T. DeWitt Talmage,
D. D.)
Religious comfort
I. SHOW WHAT THE
COMFORT IS which the Gospel of our Lord conveys to mankind. Whenever we speak
of comforting another, the very expression implies that he is in tribulation
and distress. Without the Gospel of Christ the condition of men must be
wretched.
II. DESCRIBE THE
PERSONS WHO ARE AUTHORISED TO TAKE THAT COMFORT TO THEMSELVES. Evangelical
obedience is to be the foundation of evangelical comfort. (T. Gisborne.)
Comfort for God’s people
“Comfort ye My people”--
1. By reminding
them that I am their God.
2. By reminding
them that their captivity in this world is nearly over, and that they will soon
be home.
3. The Saviour is
coming to this world, and is on His way to show His glory here. He will come
and fill the world with His victories. (C. Stanford, D. D.)
Comfort proclaimed
What a sweet title: “My people!” What a cheering revelation: “Your
God!” How much of meaning is couched in those two words, “My people!” Here is
speciality. The whole world is God’s. But He saith of a certain number, “My
people.” While nations and kindreds are passed by as being simply nations, He
says of them. “My people.” In this word there is the idea of proprietorship. In
some special manner the “Lord’s portion Is His people; Jacob is the lot of His
inheritance.” He has done more for them than others; He has brought them nigh
to Himself. How careful God is of His people; mark how anxious He is concerning
them, not only for their life, but for their comfort. He would not only have us
His living people, His preserved people, but He would have us be His happy
people too. He likes His people to be fed, but what is more, He likes to give
them “wines on the lees well refined,” to make glad their hearts.
I. TO WHOM IS THIS
COMMAND ADDRESSED? The Holy Spirit is the great Comforter, and He it is who
alone can solace the saints; but He uses instruments to relieve His children in
their distress and to lift up their hearts from desperation. To whom, then, is
this command addressed?
1. To angels,
first of all. You often talk about the insinuations of the devil. Allow me to
remind you that there is another side of that question, for if evil spirits
assault us, doubtless good spirits guard us. It is my firm belief that angels
are often employed by God to throw into the hearts of His people comforting
thoughts.
2. But on earth
this is more especially addressed to the Lord’s ministers. The minister should
ask of God the Spirit, that he may be filled with His influence as a comforter.
3. But do not
support your ministers as an excuse for the discharge of your own duties; many
do so. When God said, “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people,” He spake to all His
people to comfort one another.
II. WHAT ARE THE
REASONS FOR THIS COMMAND?
1. Because God loves
to see His people look happy. The Roman Catholic supposes that God is pleased
with a man if he whips himself, walks barefooted for many miles, and torments
his body. When I am by the seaside, and the tide is coming in, I see what
appears to be a little fringe, looking almost like a mist; and I ask a
fisherman what it is. He tells me there is no mist there; and that what I see
are all little shrimps dancing in ecstasy, throwing themselves in convulsions
and contortions of delight. I think within myself, “Does God make those
creatures happy, and did He make me to be miserable? Can it ever be a religious
thing to be unhappy?” No; true religion is in harmony with the whole world; it
is in harmony with the whole sun and moon and stars, and the sun shines and the
stars twinkle; the world has flowers in it and leaping hills and carolling
birds; it has joys in it; and I hold it to be an irreligious thing to go moping
miserably through God’s creation.
2. Because
uncomfortable Christians dishonour religion.
3. Because a
Christian in an uncomfortable state cannot work for God much. It is when the
mind is happy that it can be laborious.
4. Again, “Comfort
ye” God’s people, because ye profess to love them.
III. God never gives
His children a duty without giving them THE MEANS TO DO IT. Let me just hint at
those things in the everlasting Gospel which have a tendency to comfort the
saints. Whisper in the mourner’s ear electing grace, and redeeming mercy, and
dying love. Tell him that God watcheth the furnace as the goldsmith the
refining pot. If that does not suffice, tell him of his present mercies; tell
him that he has much left, though much is gone. Tell him that Jesus is above,
wearing the breast-plate, or pleading his cause. Tell him that though earth’s
pillars shake, God is a refuge for us; tell the mourner that the everlasting
God faileth not, neither is weary. Let present facts suffice thee to cheer him.
But if this is not enough, tell him of the future; whisper to him that there is
a heaven with pearly gates and golden streets. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Comfort for England
I will make one little change in the translation, taking the words
of Dr. George Adam Smith, “Speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem.” “Comfort ye,
comfort ye My people, saith your God! Speak ye to the heart of England, and cry
unto her that her warfare is accomplished.” Had the Hebrew prophets no other
claim upon our regard we ought to hold them in everlasting respect for their
patriotism. For Israel the prophet thought a man might well die. Israel was also
God’s people. The strength of Israel in every time of trouble was the Lord of
hosts. And the prophet’s interest was not confined to the sacrifices of the
temple, nor to the coteries of pious people, but swept into its heart
everything that concerned the welfare of the community.
1. Why should not
our faith go farther afield and have a more generous range? We also carry in
our hearts, not only as citizens, but also as Christians, this England which
God gave to our fathers, and has continued in its glory unto their children.
Why should we not take our courage in both our hands and, looking at the
history of the past and comparing it with the history of the present, recognise
in our own people another Israel called of God in a special manner, set apart
by God for a special mission, and gather into our soul all the promises of God,
and also make our boast in Him as the prophets did? What did they depend on,
the Hebrew prophets, for this great conception that God had called the nation,
and had a great work for that nation to do? They depended on the facts of
history behind them creating in their soul an irresistible conviction. And I
ask you whether the right arm of the Most High has not been as conspicuous in
English history? From what perils in past centuries has He not delivered this
country when the whole world was against us and was put to confusion! Have not
we been surrounded by the sea, our national character formed, for purposes that
we can recognise? What nation has ever planted so many colonies, explored so
many unknown lands, made such practical contributions to civilisation, set such
an illustrious example of liberty?
Within our blood is the genius for government, the passion for
justice, the love of adventure, and the intelligence of pure faith. Our Lord
came of the Jewish stock, and therefore that people must have a lonely place,
but when it comes to the carrying out of those great blessings, physical,
political, social, and religious, which have been conferred upon the world by
the Cross and the pierced hand of the Lord, I challenge anyone to say whether
any nation has so extended them within her own borders, or been so willing to
give them to the ends of the earth as God’s England.
2. I do not forget
England’s sins, for we have sinned in our own generation by inordinate love of
material possessions, by discord between the classes of the commonwealth, by a
certain insolence which has offended foreign peoples, and also by hideous sins
of the flesh. Our sins have been great, and it becomes us to acknowledge them.
Does our sin destroy our calling? Does our sin break the Covenant which the
Eternal made with our fathers? No people ever sinned against God like Israel.
And between the sin of Israel and the sin of England, God’s chosen people of
ancient and modern times, there has been the similarity which arises from the
sin of people in the same position. Both boasted themselves over-much against
other peoples. Both were intoxicated with prosperity. Both depended upon it
instead of utilising and conserving the favour of the Most High. When we desire
to confess our sins where do we go? We go to the confessions of the Hebrew
prophets. And when we ask mercy for our sins, what are the promises we plead?
The great promise of mercy declared by the evangelical prophet and now sealed
by the life and death and resurrection of our Lord! Because the Hebrew prophet
believed that his people were God’s people, he had the courage to speak plainly
to them. He is not a traitor to his country who on occasions points out his country’s
sins. When Israel sinned there was no voice so loud as that of Isaiah or Amos,
but they delighted not in the work, any more than their God delighted in
judgment. If God sent them with a rod they took the rod and gave the stroke,
but the stroke fell also on the prophet’s own heart, and he suffered most of
all the people. When the people repented and turned again to God, when they
brought forth works meet for repentance and showed humility, there was no man
so glad as the prophet.
3. When the prophet
takes up the work of consolation he has no bounds, he makes the comfort of God
to run down the streets like a river. It is not enough to say it once, but
twice must he sound it, till the comfort of God shall run like lightning
through Jerusalem. And when he takes to comforting he is not to be bound by
theories of theology or arguments of the schools. He is not going to ask
questions--whether a man can expiate his sins, or whether a nation can win
repentance. He flings all this kind of argument to the wind, for he has come
out from the presence of the Eternal, who does not keep accounts like that, and
he cries, “Speak ye home to Jerusalem; her warfare is accomplished.”
Accomplished! More than that! God hath now repented! It was His people repented
first, now He is repenting. They repented of their sins; behold, God has begun
to repent of His judgment! “I have,” he makes the Eternal say--“I have been
over-hard with these people, and I have punished them more than they have
deserved. Go and comfort them. Comfort them royally. Give it out with a lavish
hand--they have received double for all their sins.” When the prophet speaks in
this fashion he is not referring to material prosperity, for the words were
spoken to the exiles in Babylon. He comforted the exiles because they had
repented and been reconciled unto God. The comfort I preach is not based on
arms. It is based on the nobler spirit which God has given England during the
progress of the war in South Africa. We sinned, and according to our sin was
our punishment. We have repented. Through our churches and through our homes,
and individually, we have laid the lessons of the Eternal to heart; and
according to our repentance shall be the blessing of God. (J. Watson, M. A.)
“Comfort ye My people”
This command is adapted to the needs of the country in which we
live. There is a good deal of weariness and depression in modem life. If the
blessings of an advanced civilisation can make people happy, there are
multitudes who ought to be enraptured, for they are surrounded by material
comfort. The gospel of recreation is preached to them. Outward nature is
enjoyed and reverenced. Music and painting are filling them with sensibility;
literature is contributing to their intellectual gratification; and church
privileges abound. Worship to-day gratifies the artistic faculty, without
putting a very great strain on the spiritual nature of man. There never was so
much ingenuity displayed as now in the manufacture of forms of enjoyment.
People never waged such a successful war as to-day against physical and social
discomfort. And yet, if you watch them closely, you can see that they are not
really satisfied. Affection to-day is not at rest, intellect is not at rest,
conscience is not at rest, faith is not at rest. Thank God, there is sweet
satisfaction of soul to be found. “Comfort ye,” etc.
I. There is a
message in this text for ALL WHO ARE UNDER DISCIPLINE ON ACCOUNT OF SIN. The
connection between sin and punishment is never really broken. Men were never so
clever as they are to-day in the efforts they have put forth to evade the
penalties of wrong-doing, and they very often succeed so far as outward effects
are concerned, But the inward penalty is always sure. Loss of self-respect,
loss of faculty, and deterioration of nature itself. “Thy warfare is
accomplished,” thy discipline may come to an end. It is the spirit of rebellion
which lengthens the period of discipline. Lay down your weapons, give up
fighting against God, and He will forgive you now, and the consequences of your
wrongdoing shall inwardly be done away. Further, your pardon will tell at once
on the outward consequences of your wrong-doing. You forfeited the confidence
of your friends by your sin; that will come back to you. You damaged your
health; that will improve. You injured your social position; that will be
retrieved. Just as there is no decree in God’s mind as to the length of time
during which a man’s discipline shall be continued, so there is no decree as to
the amount of suffering man can endure. The suffering, like the time, may be
relieved by speedy submission and penitence.
II. There is a
message in this text for ALL WHO IN RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE HAVE NEVER GOT BEYOND
CONVICTION. Beyond conviction there is the forgiveness of God. Beyond the sin
there is purity. Beyond doubt there is faith; and beyond all this miserable
weariness of spirit there is rest.
III. There is a
message here, also, for ALL TIMID CHRISTIANS. They feel it would be presumption
to expect conscious pardon and Christian perfection. Cultivate your capacity to
take in the comfort of God.
IV. There is a
message here for ALL DISCONSOLATE CHRISTIANS. You want new ideas, the old ones
are about worn out. Thy warfare with weariness is accomplished.
V. There is a
message here for DISCONSOLATE CHURCHES. The Jewish Church was disconsolate at
the time of the captivity, and there are Churches to-day which are in a sort of
captivity. They have made exceptional provision for the needs of the people,
yet they are declining. The declension of Churches in great populations is due
to many causes, but due to one cause that is a great deal overlooked, and that
is the very peculiar temperament of the generation in which your lot has been
east. Competition, in particular, has led to a vast amount of advertising. But
disconsolate Churches may be comforted. We are coming out of the captivity of
those habits and conditions which have come down from the restrictive ages of
society. Modern evangelism has grown steadily in the elements of truth and
spiritual intelligence. It is resulting to-day in the deepening of spiritual
life, and in the expansion of the kingdom of God.
VI. There is a
message here for THE NATION AND THE EMPIRE. The return from captivity was the
beginning of a new spiritual movement, which was destined to extend over many
countries. The classical period of human history was about to begin. My text is
the new strain with which the prophet greets the expanding prospect. As one has
said, It is the keynote of the revived and purified Israel, and the reason of
the hold of Christendom on Europe and on modern times. There is a wonderful
correspondence between that period and ours. England is the centre to-day.
Judaism at the time referred to was rational-ised by being brought into contact
with forms of Roman and Greek thought. Christianity is being rationalised by
contact with natural religion. But who is the leader of the improvement of the
modern world? “Who is this that cometh from Edom?” etc. (chap. 63:1). Was it
some king ruling the nations with a rod of iron? No. Some soldier with a
two-edged sword? No. Some philosopher ruling the intellect of the race? No.
Jehovah s righteous servant and witness it was: “that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save.” And the Lord Christ, the Son of God, never spoke to the race
as He is speaking to-day, and He needs His messengers to prepare His way. (T.
Allen, D. D.)
Conviction and comfort
A quaint Scotch preacher said that the needle of the law opens the
way for and carries the thread of the Gospel. I once quoted this saying in a
tent-meeting, and a hearer remarked to me afterwards: “Yes, you’re right; but
the needle should be pulled out and not left behind.” (H. G. Guinness, D. D.)
Verse 2
Speak
ye comfortably to Jerusalem
Voices that
speak to the heart
This
is one characteristic of the voices that reach us from God: they speak home to
the heart (R.., marg.). The phrase in the Hebrew is the ordinary expression for
wooing, and describes the attitude of the suppliant lover endeavouring to woo a
maiden’s heart. Love can detect love.
I. THE VOICE OF FORGIVENESS. The first need of the soul is
forgiveness. It can endure suffering; and if that suffering, like the Jewish
exile, has been caused by its own follies and sins, it will meekly bow beneath
it, saying with Eli, under similar circumstances, “It is the Lord; let Him do
what seemeth good to Him.” But the sense of being unforgiven! This bitterness
of heart for sin is the first symptom of returning life! And before God can
enter upon His great work of salvation, before He can clear away the debris and
restore the ruined temple, before He can reproduce His image, it is needful to
assure the penitent and believing soul that its time of service is
accomplished, that its iniquity is pardoned. In dealing with the question of
sin and its results, let us always distinguish between its penal and natural
consequences. The distinction comes out clearly in the ease of drunkenness or
criminal violence. Society steps in and inflicts the penalties of the fine, the
prison, or the lash; but in addition to these, there is the aching head, the
trembling hand, the shattered nervous system. So in respect to all sin. The
natural consequences remain. David was forgiven, but the sword never left his
house. The drunkard, the dissolute, the passionate, may be pardoned, and yet
have to reap as they sowed. The consequences of forgiven sin may be greatly
sanctified; the Marah waters cured by the tree of the Cross--yet they must be
patiently and inevitably endured. It was thus that Jerusalem was suffering,
when these dulcet notes reached her. The backsliding and rebellious people were
doomed to serve their appointed time and captivity, and suffer the natural and
inevitable results of apostasy. Hence the double comfort of this first
announcement.
II. THE VOICE OF DELIVERANCE. Between Babylon and Palestine lay a
great desert of more than thirty days’ journey. But the natural difficulties
that seemed to make the idea of return chimerical, were small compared with
those that arose from other circumstances. The captives were held by as proud a
monarchy as that which refused to let their fathers go from the brick-kilns of
Egypt. Mountains arose in ranges between them and freedom, and valleys
interposed their yawning gulfs. But when God arises to deliver His people who
cry day and night unto Him, mountains swing back, as did the iron gate before
Peter; valleys lift their hollows into level plains; crooked things become
straight, and rough places smooth.
III. THE VOICES OF DECAY AND IMMORTAL STRENGTH. As man’s soul is still,
and becomes able to distinguish the voices that speak around him in that
eternal world to which he, not less than the unseen speakers, belongs, it hears
first and oftenest the lament of the angels over the transcience of human life
and glory. In a stillness, in which the taking of the breath is hushed, the
soul listens to their conversation as they speak together. “Cry,” says one
watcher to another. “What shall I cry?” is the instant inquiry. There is,
continues the first, “but one sentiment suggested by the aspect of the world of
men. All flesh is grass, and all its beauty like the wild flowers of the
meadow-lands, blasted by the breath of the east wind, or lying in swathes
beneath the reaper’s scythe.” The words meet with a deep response in the heart
of each thoughtful man. But listen further to the voices of the heavenly
watchers. The failure of man shall not frustrate the Divine purpose. “The Word
of the Lord shall stand for ever.”
IV. VOICES TO HERALD THE SHEPHERD-KING. The Old Version and the margin
of the R.V. are, perhaps, preferable to the R.V. Zion, the grey fortress of
Jerusalem, is bidden to climb the highest mountain within reach, and to lift up
her voice in fearless strength, announcing to the cities of Judah lying around
in ruins that God was on His way to restore them. “Say unto the cities, Behold
your God! Behold the Lord God will come.” All eyes are turned to behold the
entrance on the scene of the Lord God, especially as it has been announced that
He will come as a mighty one. But, lo! a Shepherd conducts His flock with
leisurely steps across the desert sands, gathering the lambs with His arm, and
carrying them in His bosom, and gently leading those that give suck. It is as
when, in after centuries, the beloved apostle was taught to expect the Lion of
the tribe of Judah, and, lo! in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had
been slain. Do not be afraid of God. He has a shepherd’s heart and skill. (F.
B. Meyer, B. A.)
God the
Comforter of His people
The
skill of a physician is shown, in the first place, in selecting out of many
diseases that under which his patient suffers; and, in the second place, in
choosing, out of many remedies, that which is most likely to effect his cure.
There is as great variety in the diseases of the soul as in those of the body.
And if there be this variety in spiritual diseases, and this variety of remedy,
then evidently, in ministering to a mixed people, the preacher of Christianity
will have to decide in each separate case what is the precise form of sickness,
and what the exact medicine best adapted to its cure. Where the soul is utterly
insensible to the truths of religion, there must not be the same process as
where the conscience is busy in remonstrance. There are spiritual patients with
whom we must try argument; but there are others with whom argument would be
altogether out of place, whose disquieted minds totally incapacitate them for
any process of reasoning; who require the cordials of the Gospel, that they may
be strengthened for the trials and endurances of life. There is the lowering
medicine for the over-sanguine and presumptuous; and there is the stimulating
for the timid and mistrustful.
I. In our text, there is a specification of one large class of
medicine; and therefore, by inference, ONE LARGE CLASS OF SICKNESS. “Comfort”
is the staple of the prescription. And what was the condition of these
patients? We may ascertain this from the subsequent words, “Cry unto her, that
her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath
received of the Lord’s hands double for all her sins.” Here evidently the
condition of Jerusalem is one of distress and anxiety and distraction; and this
accords most exactly with a passage in the Psalms, and with which we shall
connect our text--“In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts
delight my soul.” Here there is the same medicine--“comfort”; but you have the
disease more clearly defined--a “multitude of thoughts.” Bishop Austin’s
version is, “The multitude of my anxieties within me”; whilst the
representation in the original Hebrew would seem that of a man involved in a
labyrinth, from whose intricacies there was no way of escape. All this agrees precisely
with the case of Jerusalem in the text. And what cause of distressing anxiety
would there be whilst there was warfare unfinished, and sin unforgiven! A
multitude of thoughts is a very common symptom; but in different patients it
requires very different medicines. A man might be “a man after God’s own
heart,” and yet subject to the invasion of a crowd of anxieties. It is not
uncommon for religious persons to erect standards of excellence, failing to
reach which they become uneasy and doubtful as to their spiritual state.
Reading the promises of the Bible, which speak of the righteous as “kept in
perfect peace,” which breathe tranquillity, abstraction from earthly cares and
foretastes of the blessedness of heaven, they conclude that what they ought to experience
is perfect serenity of mind; and when they often experience distracting
anxieties which the spirit is unable to throw off altogether, and when in times
of approaching in prayer the Lord God of heaven and earth, they find their
attention broken, then they will add to every other grief a worse grief than
all--they will suspect their own sincerity in religion. And never can it be a
part of our business to lessen the extent of what is blameworthy, or to
endeavour to persuade the righteous that freedom from anxiety is not a
privilege to be sought for, or that the concentration of the whole soul is not
to be attempted, and failure therein not bitterly lamented. But we know that
amid the turmoil of this busy world there will often be such an invasion of the
altar of the Lord as when the birds came down on Abraham’s sacrifice. “The
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And whilst we could not wish
men to regard their infirmities as sufficient excuses, or to be content with
imperfection, as though unavoidable; still, where there is the honest endeavour
to stay the mind on God, and abstract it from earth, we may tell them that
piety may consist with anxiety, and sincerity of prayer with a multitude of
thoughts. God is speaking to those who were sorely distracted, and yet He still
calls them “My people.” It is not every failure which should fill you with
apprehension as to your state before God.
So
wonderfully are we made, so many are the inlets into the mind, so great are the
facilities with which evil angels can ply their suggestions, so difficult,
moreover, is it to keep that attention to worldly business which is required
from us as members of society, from being deformed by that carefulness which is
forbidden us as members of Christ’s Church; that, indeed, it were vain to hope,
however it be right to desire, that anxiety shall never harass us in a world
that teems with trouble. So far from being necessarily a cause of despair or
despondency, the Christian may rise superior to all these intruders, and prove
that they do but heighten the blessedness of the blessing, though invaded by
the influence of earth. God speaks to those as still “His people” who are
wearied and worn down with warfare and toil; and in place of speaking to them
reproachfully He has only soothing things to utter--“Comfort ye,” etc.
II. Our latter observations have somewhat trenched on THE CHARACTER OF
THE MEDICINE which should be tried when the disease is a multitude of thoughts;
but we must now examine with attention, and endeavour to determine its
faithfulness and its efficiency. The case is that of a righteous man on whom
cares and sorrows press with great weight; and whose mind is torn with
anxieties and thronged by a crowd of restless intruders distracting him even in
his communings with God. Now, the very disease under which this man labours
incapacitates him in a great measure for any process of argument. His
distracted mind is quite unfitted for that calm and searching inquiry which is
required into the matter of the evidences of Christianity for strictly
convincing him of the inspiration of Scripture. His mind is evidently unfitted
for duly considering, and examining with that singleness of purpose which is
demanded by their solemnity, mysteriousness, and importance such truths as
those of the Trinity, the Incarnation, and the Atonement. Ask ye what these
comforts are? There are the rich assurances of God’s forgiving love; there are
the gracious declarations of His everlasting purpose of preserving to the end
those whom He has chosen in Christ; there are the multiplied promises which
make to the eye of faith the page of Scripture one sheet of burning brightness,
always presenting most radiantly what is most suited to the necessity. There
are the foretastes of immortality. You may without sinfulness and merely
through infirmity be invaded and harassed by a multitude of thoughts. But the
evil is that when thus invaded and harassed the Christian is apt to attempt a
critical examination of his spiritual state, to encourage doubts as to his
acceptance with God, and to try and satisfy himself by some process of
reasoning as to whether he has indeed believed unto the saving of his soul,
whereas his very state is one which unfits him for reasoning, for sitting in
judgment on himself, and delivering an accurate verdict. He is sick, and
requires God’s comfort.
III. The comforting message is to be delivered to Jerusalem, and
annexed is a statement of her warfare being accomplished; and if you connect
with this the exclamation of St. Paul--“I have fought the good fight, I have
finished my course,” you will see that we make no far-fetched application of
the text, if we affirm it as SPECIALLY APPROPRIATE ON THE APPROACH OF THE LAST
ENEMY, DEATH. Never is it likely that there will be a more tumultuous gathering
of conflicting emotions than when the mind fixes itself on approaching death.
It is here that the power of all mere human resources must eventually fail.
Christianity furnishes an abundance of what is needed for allaying the fear of death,
and soothing man’s passage to the tomb. (H. Mevill, B. D.)
Her warfare is accomplished
The Christian’s
warfare
The
acceptableness of any announcement will depend very much upon the state of mind
and feeling in which we are found in respect to the subject of such
announcement. Go to the soldier, wearied with a long campaign, and many a
hazardous engagement, longing for a sight of his beloved home--to him how
welcome will be the announcement, “Thy warfare is accomplished!” It was on this
principle that the prophet Isaiah was directed to take a message of consolation
to the ancient people of God. The language of the text may, without any
impropriety, be applied to the termination of any state of anxiety, hardship,
and grief.
I. THE LIFE OF THE TRUE BELIEVER IS A WARFARE. Frequently is it
represented to us in the Holy Scripture by this form of military phraseology.
Hence, says the apostle, “Fight the good fight of faith”; and, writing to
Timothy, “That by these thou mightest war a good warfare”; “I have fought a
good fight,” etc.
1. The great principle of the conflict is faith, founded and
implanted in the mind by a super-natural agency. No man will ever in a
Christian sense contend, until he is united by a living faith to Jesus, the Son
of God: for faith acquaints him with his spiritual enemies; faith is the
principle of the new life which puts itself into an attitude of resistance
against all that is hostile to itself. “This is the victory that over-cometh
the world, even our faith.” When a man is slumbering in his sin, nothing is
further from his thoughts than to maintain a spiritual conflict with invisible,
spiritual existences; but, under the influence of faith, he will find he is
surrounded by a legion of foes. He looks within, and there he finds the corruption
of fallen nature. Besides the corruption of an evil nature, there are the
powers of darkness. The world, even in its lawful form, is a very serious enemy
to our spiritual progress and our spiritual peace.
2. This contention will continue as long as life shall last.
II. THE HOUR OF DEATH WITNESSES THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THIS WARFARE.
1. Death is the instrumental means of separating us from our
connection with the present evil world; it strikes at once a line of
demarcation, which throws us beyond the reach of all the elements of this
present sensible life. He upon whom death has performed his solemn office, has
no further interest in the possessions, the endearments, the gains, the
business, the pleasures, and the satisfactions of this vain world.
2. Then, death terminates the strife of sin.
3. Death confesses that the believer is a conqueror over himself, and
fields the palm of victory at the moment when he inflicts the blow (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).
III. THE CONSOLING AND EXHILARATING QUALITIES OF THIS BLESSED
CONSUMMATION.
1. When the warfare ends, the rest begins.
2. This state of rest is also a state of peculiar and inexpressible
delight. It is something more than rest, as implying a cessation from toil and
from contention; it is a joyful rest. Think of the place of rest into which the
departed spirits of the just are received. They are where Christ is; they
behold His glory. And then, consider the society to which the ransomed spirits
of the just are admitted. Think of the employments to which they are advanced.
They serve God day and night in His temple, and His name is in their foreheads.
3. This felicity is evermore increasing.
4. This felicity will be for ever and ever. “So shall we ever be with
the Lord.” (G. Clayton.)
Undeserved
grace
“Fulfilled
is her warfare, absolved her guilt, received hath she of Jehovah’s hand double
for all her sins.” The very grammar here is eloquent of grace. The emphasis
lies on the three predicates, which ought to stand in translation, as they do
in the original, at the beginning of each clause. Prominence is given, not to
the warfare, nor to the guilt, nor to the sins, but to this, that
“accomplished” is the warfare, “absolved” the guilt, “sufficiently expiated”
the sins. It is a great At Last which these clauses peal forth; but an At Last
whose tone is not so much inevitableness as undeserved grace. (Prof. G. A.
Smith, D. D.)
Grace masked by
grace
How
full of pity God is, to take so much account of the sufferings sinners have
brought upon themselves! How full of grace to reckon those sufferings “double
the sins” that had earned them! It is, as when we have seen gracious men make
us a free gift, and in their courtesy insist that we have worked for it. It is
grace masked by grace. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Double for all her sins
“Double for all
her sins”
It is
not to be pressed arithmetically, in which case God would appear
over-righteous, and therefore unrighteous. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Verse 3
The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness
The Baptist a
pattern preacher
I.
DEPRECIATION OF SELF. Isaiah had predicted simply a “voice”; and
John Baptist, accordingly, with a humility which ministers of the New Testament
should follow, laid no stress on anything personal to himself--the announcement
of his birth by an angel, his priestly descent, his years of
preparation--though all these supplied advantages to his ministry. He
concentrated attention on what he had to tell In me there is nothing to attract
or benefit. I am only what centuries ago was predicted--a voice.
II. EXALTATION OF HIS MESSAGE AS DIVINE.
III. A PROCLAIMING AS THE CENTRAL TOPIC IN THE EVERLASTING MESSAGE A
DIVINE, AND THEREFORE EFFECTUAL, HELPER FOR THE RUINED. “He shall gather”; “He
shall carry”; “He shall gently lead”; “All flesh shall see the salvation of the
Lord” (verses 10, 11, with 5). And John Baptist accordingly announced, as
ministers of the New Testament should now announce, the presence in Christ
Jesus of a perfect Saviour (John 1:26-27; John 1:29; Matthew 3:11; John 3:29-30). Who among the audience of the “faithful ambassador” have
rightly caught the message? (1 Peter 2:3.)
1. Those who surrender all habits inconsistent with his call
2. Those who rejoice greatly in the guardianship and guidance of the
great Deliverer proclaimed (1 Peter 1:5-6).
3. Those who steadily tread in the blessed steps of His life (Luke 1:74, 1 Peter 1:21). His sheep hear His voice; He knows them; they follow Him. (D.
D. Stewart, M. A.)
Verses 3-5
Prepare ye the way of the
Lord
The way of the Lord
prepared
I.
THE
JEWISH THEOCRACY. It is a favourite statement with those who seek to account
for Christianity on entirely mundane principles, that Christ grew, as it were,
out of His age. The age was waiting for some such Teacher, some such
Gospel--and Teacher and Gospel came. Just as the wreck of the Roman Republic
demanded a hand and brain like Caesar’s, and they appeared at the critical
moment and reorganised the State, so the Great Preacher of the universal Gospel
was called for by His times, and He came. There is something in the spirit of
an age, we are told, which creates the heroes and teachers of the age. This is
very interesting, and has a large measure of truth in it. Men of high genius
are singularly sensitive to the influences around them, and are created while
they create; but it is blankly impossible to account for Christ and
Christianity by natural evolution, with the Jewish theocracy, a grand prophetic
system which for nearly two thousand years looked unto and prophesied of the
Messiah, standing in the way. There was existing for ages in the world, kept
alive by marvellous interventions of a higher hand, a national community, whose
function was distinctly, from first to last, to prepare the way for the Advent,
for the Divine kingdom which was to rule over and to bless mankind. These Jews
were set to bear witness of the reality of the Divine rule, and its necessity,
if states were to be saved from chaos, and the whole world from wreck. There
was a period, when Moses led them in the wilderness, when the theocracy came
out with wonderful clearness. Then there was a period, under their kings, when,
through their worldly conformity to the life of surrounding nations, the
theocracy was obscured. But the captivity ended that conformity in sorrow and
in shame. From the time of the captivity the idea of the theocracy was
restored. The prophets are throughout its great witnesses. The expectation, as
matter of history, grew intense as the Advent approached. The expectation of
the Advent of a Being, a Person, who should fulfil the promise and the prophecy
with which their national life and literature were charged; who should bring,
what Christ has brought--a Gospel of salvation to the world. It is a wonderful
feature of thepreparation, that just as the nation which exhibited the
theocracy was dying away as a nation its belief in the theocracy grew more
intense, and its witness grew more clear and impressive to the approaching
Advent of the great world theocrat--the Christ.
II. THE
JEWISH DISPERSION. It was a very wonderful chain of providential agencies
which, before the Advent, scattered that people, these witnesses so charged
with the promise and the prophecy, through the civilised world. Up to the time
of the captivity the Jews kept themselves in a kind of stem, or, as the heathen
around them called it, a sullen isolation. They cherished the sense of a lofty
superiority. But, after the captivity, they displayed a singular facility of
dispersion, a happy art of settling and flourishing among the Gentile peoples,
which makes them to this day, pace the Anglo-Saxon, the first settlers
of the world. In every chief city of the empire which Alexander founded a
colony of Jews was sure to be settled; and the same state of things afterwards
obtained in the far wider empire of Rome. In order to appreciate the
significance of this, you must estimate the utter confusion of human beliefs
and ideas about Divine things and beings which had been the fruit of the Greek
and Roman conquests. Neither Greek nor Roman had belief enough in his gods to
impose them on the conquered nations; nor did they find anything Divine among
the conquered nations which seemed better worth worshipping than their own.
This confusion of religious ideas and systems and deities, none of which had
power to emerge with absolute or even strong claims to belief, was profoundly
detrimental to moral earnestness, and indeed to any high-toned belief about
Divine things. There was an utter confusion and decay of faith. But here were
communities settled among them who had an absolute and indestructible belief in
their Revelation. They had a God to worship of whom they could give
intelligible account. The Jews lived among the heathen in isolation still; but
the isolation was visibly based on a religious faith, and on religious records.
These Jews, scattered abroad, were witnesses everywhere of the reality and
necessity of Divine revelation to, and Divine legislation for, man. They
familiarised men with the ideas which Christianity proclaimed, and on which it
rested its authoritative claim to the homage and the obedience of mankind.
III. THERE
WAS A VERY REMARKABLE CHANGE WITHIN THE BOSOM OF HEATHEN SOCIETY ITSELF, IN ITS
INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL IDEAS, WHICH NOT ONLY OPENED THE WAY FOR THE TRUTH OF
CHRISTIANITY, BUT SEEMED TO DEMAND SOME SUCH REVELATION OF TRUTH TO MANKIND.
Students of philosophy note a very decided progress between the age of Socrates
and the age of Seneca in the consideration of questions bearing on man’s
individual life and destiny. The supreme interest of a man’s life in the golden
age of Greek philosophy lay in his relations, as a member of a society, as a
citizen of a State. Within the little circle of Athenian society men realised a
closeness of relation to each other, which made the State something of a
household. The conquests of Alexander created an entirely new order of things.
The Greek became, not the citizen of a State almost domestic in its magnitude
and character, but the subject of a great Empire, lost in an undistinguished
mass of fellow-subjects, and quite cut adrift from the landmarks and the
moorings by which he had been wont to steer and stay his life. The Greek must
think about himself and his world, and Alexander led him out into a world too
big for him, which oppressed and distracted him, and overthrew all the
traditions of his schools. It was a world, too, of ceaseless conflict and
change. The state of the Greek world between Alexander’s conquests and the
establishment of Roman supremacy, say, roughly, two hundred years, was such as
to throw the thinker back upon himself, to lead him to realise his individual
responsibility, to force on him the question, “What, after all, am I? Whence
did I come? For what am I here? Whither do I tend? I am in a world full of
confusion and misery--how am I to regulate my life, so that my happiness may
not become a wreck?” So the great thinkers increasingly concerned themselves
with questions which had to do with the individual man, his duty, his
responsiblilty, his destiny, his means of arming himself for the battle of
life, his means of saving himself from utter and hopeless loss. Thus there was
a growing tendency in men to consider very much the question which Christianity
came to treat of as salvation. The thoughts of man, the longings and
aspirations of man, seem to be led up step by step to the point in which the
cry, “Lord, save, or I perish!” was ready, did he but know all the meaning of
his dumb pain, to fashion itself on his lips. All was waiting for the
proclamation, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me
to preach the Gospel to the poor,” etc. When men went abroad and proclaimed the
Advent of a Saviour, they found a ready entrance to the world’s sad, wistful
heart.
IV. THE
ROMAN EMPIRE. Incomparably the most important secular herald of the Advent was
the Empire--an Empire under whose sceptre such a decree could go forth (Luke
2:1). There
are many points of view from which the Empire may be regarded as the herald of
the kingdom which was destined to master it, and found on it the edifice of
Christian society. We are working and building on the foundations of the Empire
still. The whole of modern European society is but the fully developed Empire
of Rome. It is the centre of the secular, as the Advent of Christ is the centre
of the spiritual, history of mankind. I might say much about the universal
peace, which made the preaching of a universal Gospel possible. About the
universal law and language, which made the career of the preachers, at any
rate, far easier and more rapid than it could have been in any previous state
of society. The fundamental question opened by the Empire is also a fundamental
question of Christianity, the relation of men to each other. Is it enmity? is
it brotherhood? Is the struggle for existence the ruling principle of progress,
or brotherly sympathy, care, and love? The state of natural enmity and constant
war gave way to a state in which peace, good-fellowship, and mutual ministries
were regarded as the natural condition of society. Briton and Egyptian, Syrian
and Spaniard, formed together a great political unity; and were drawn into
bonds of relation to each other, the nature and bearings of which men were
eager to explore. There rose on the minds of men the idea of human brotherhood.
Men began to speculate about a common good in which civilised humanity was to
share, and a duty of the whole human community to its weaker members, its sick,
its poor, its wretched. Men wanted to know why and how they were brethren, why
and how they were to love. And so arose perhaps the greatest herald of the
Advent in secular society, the longing for a kingdom which should fulfil the
promise which Rome in the nature of things was constantly breaking; and give
peace, concord, love to a distracted world. Thus the way was prepared, the
highway through the desert was made. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)
The Divine glory revealed
in Christ
I. ITS LITERAL
ACCOMPLISHMENT.
1. In
the appearance of John the Baptist. Ages rolled away, and no such preparing
voice was heard in the desert of Judea. But it was at length heard.
2. Following
the footsteps of the servant, comes the Master. And as John had said, “Prepare
ye the way of the Lord,” then was the glory of God manifested; and all flesh,
living at that time in Judea, saw it together: the glory of God in human
nature. Jesus Christ was the visible image of the glory of God all the time He
was on earth. The visible image--
II. ITS
SPIRITUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. This is seen in the manifestation of Christ to the
hearts of men. In this there is both preparation and manifestation; for Christ,
in mercy, no more bursts upon the soul at once than He did upon the world; He
sends His messenger to prepare the way before Him; this is the first part of
the process. That preparing herald, figured by John the Baptist, is repentance.
Consider what repentance is, and you will see how it prepares the soul for
Christ, for pardon, happiness, and purity.
1. The
first element is a deep and serious conviction of the fact of our sin. For if
we justify ourselves, there will be no preparation.
2. The
second element is a conviction of the extreme danger of sin and its infinite
desert.
3. The
third element is a burdened and disquieted spirit. This supposes a feeling that
we are not able to deliver ourselves. The way of the Lord is then plain; all
obstructions are removed when we come to this; for all true repentance, like
the preaching of John the Baptist, concludes by saying, “Behold the Lamb of
God!” It is here alone that we see the glory of God. For what is the happiness
of a pardoned soul, but one of the brightest manifestations of the glory of God
upon earth? Here is a visible manifestation of the glory of the Divine
patience; that man, amidst all his repeated provocations, should at last be
saved and made happy. The glory of the grace of God! What a comment on the
words of the apostle, “By grace are ye saved!” And then, see the glory of that
working of the Divine power by which the soul is finally brought into the
enjoyment of all the mind that was in Christ; the soul changing from glory to
glory, and the work completed by an abundant entrance into the everlasting
kingdom. This is the manifestation of Christ to the soul.
III. ITS
ALLEGORICAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. It is seen in the establishment of Christ’s kingdom
upon earth. He sends forth His heralds. It is by the ministry of His Gospel
that His dominion is established. The doctrine to be preached is that of
repentance. So St. Paul preached at Athens. The manifestation of the master
follows. Here is a manifestation of the glory of the heavenly wisdom, raising,
exalting, and purifying the human intellect; of the Divine righteousness, putting
a stop to all cruelty and injury. The glory of peace and harmony; the union of
man’s heart to man, the extinction of external wars, and the diffusion of
internal harmony. The glory of that order among families, and societies, and
nations, preserved, and sanctified, and so regulated that no part infringes on
the other, but the whole proceeds harmoniously, like a piece of sound
mechanism. The glory of mercy and charity: teaching men to remember those that
are in afflictions, as being themselves in like manner afflicted. This is a
glory peculiar to the Christian revelation. (R. Watson.)
Preparation for the Advent
Messiah
A positive preparation of
the race itself was necessary, before the plan of redemption could be
successfully revealed. This preparation was gradually going forward at the same
time that our moral helplessness was so amply illustrated. If we reflect upon
the nature of the Christian revelation we shall be convinced that its
conceptions belong to an advanced period of civilisation. It addresses itself
exclusively to the spiritual nature of man. But, in the earlier periods of our
race, our conceptions are all from without; they have to do almost exclusively
with sensible objects. The Gospel has to do with thought, feeling, sentiment,
motive, and all their various attributes; and it could not be well understood
until the mind of man had become somewhat at home in these conceptions. Nor is
this all. The Christian religion addresses itself to the moral nature, the
conscience of man.
I. Hence,
a remedial dispensation would naturally be delayed, until the moral character
of man, both individual and social, had been fully displayed; and MANKIND HAD
BECOME IN SOME DEGREE CAPABLE OF APPRECIATING THE FACTS THUS PRESENTED TO THEIR
NOTICE. But, besides this, the Gospel is a revelation communicated to man by
language, and its authenticity, as is meet, is attested by miracles. Now,
considerable progress must have been made in civilisation before such testimony
could be given as we would be willing to receive on a question of so vital
importance. Until the laws of nature are to some extent known, we cannot
determine whether the Creator has or has not in a particular case departed from
them. And this leads us to observe, again, that a revelation from God to man, informing
him of this wonderful change in the conditions of his probation,--a revelation
designed for all ages to the end of time, and destined towork a perfect
transformation in the moral character of our race,--could not have been
completed until language had arrived at a considerable degree of perfection. It
was necessary that the doctrines and motives peculiar to the new dispensation
should be promulgated with all possible explicitness, and yet guarded from all
tendency either to incompleteness or excess. Amidst all the agitations of
society, throughout all the overturnings of empire, the human mind, during this
long period, had been gradually attaining maturity. Each nation, during its
brief existence, had either added something to the stock of human knowledge, or
made some contribution to the materials for human thought. Every revolution had
illustrated in some new phase the principles of conduct, and had bequeathed the
lesson to succeeding generations.
II. We
see, then, that God not only prepared a language in which this revelation for
all coming ages could, be written, but HE DIFFUSED THAT LANGUAGE OVER THE
CIVILISED WORLD. He created a suitable vehicle for the truth, and He made that
vehicle, as far as was necessary, universal. And this work was accomplished by
means of the ambition of Alexander, and the all-grasping love of dominion of
the citizens of Rome. Men ignorant of the existence and character of the true
God, bowing down to the senseless images which their own hands had fashioned,
indulging without restraint their own corrupt passions, were thus advancing His
purposes, and opening the way for the advent of His Son.
III.
One other
condition remains yet to be observed.
The nations
inhabiting the shores of the Mediterranean were originally distinct in
government, dissimilar in origin, diverse in laws, habits, and usages, and
almost perpetually at war.
To pass from
one to the other without incurring the risk of injury, nay, even of being sold
into slavery, was almost impossible.
A stranger and
an enemy were designated by the same word.
It was
necessary that these various peoples should all be moulded into one common
form; that one system of laws should bind them all in harmony. This seems to
have been needful, in order that the new religion might be rapidly
and extensively promulgated. In order to accomplish this purpose WAS THE ROMAN
EMPIRE RAISED UP, AND ENTRUSTED WITH THE SCEPTRE OF UNIVERSAL DOMINION. In many
respects it resembled the dominion of Great Britain at the present day in Asia.
We perceive that the overturnings of forty centuries were required in order to
prepare the world for the advent of the Messiah. The same omniscient wisdom has
ever since been engaged in carrying forward the work which was then commenced.
(D. Wayland, LL. D.)
Vox clamantis
It were surely a vain
thing for a voice to cry in the wilderness where none can hear but the startled
wild animals; where there are no sympathetic human hearts that can thrill with
its message. But we must remember that of old the wilderness had a strange,
weird attraction for many who aspired to live a holy life. And other souls who
had similar longings, but did not possess the means or the courage to gratify
them, would resort to the hermit of the wilderness for counsel and benediction.
1. The metaphor,
so wild and striking, of a voice crying in the wilderness, is as appropriate as
metaphor could be for representing the man of God who, in a degenerate age,
lifts up his voice to declare the truth, to reprove sin, to call men to a new
life. Rocks are not harder than hearts sometimes; the wandering blustering
winds are not more inattentive to the speaker’s message than are some souls. To
a divinely taught spirit nothing is so truly a desert as the crowded city. To
him it is lonely, forbidding, sad, yet mightily attractive, awakening his
tenderest compassions, calling forth his mightiest and most patient exertions.
2. Now
that it has been done, we probably fall into the way of thinking that nothing
was easier than for John the Baptist to preach to the Jews of the time of
Herod, or for our Lord to open His mission to the same people, or for Paul to
preach Christ at Corinth and Athens and Rome. How different the reality! Could
any one of the inhabitants of these places have been consulted by God’s messenger
beforehand he would probably have said: “Do you think that these cavilling,
disputing doctors and philosophers will ever give credence to such stories as
you bring? Do you think that these pleasure-loving people will ever wear the
yoke of such an austere religion of self-sacrifice as you proclaim? Go home to
your ordinary work again, and don’t trouble yourself to speak a message which
nobody will hear; or if you cannot be at peace unless you say something about
it, then go into the desert and speak it to yourself and to nature; for your
chances of succeeding will be as great there as anywhere.” Strange all this,
yet more strange the fact that it is the wilderness and the solitary place
which shall rejoice and be glad for the messenger of God who comes to prepare
Messiah’s way. The unlikely ground yields the harvest; they that are afar off
come nigh. The voice in the wilderness is that of a herald announcing that a
Greater One is on His way; be ye ready to receive Him. Widespread, radical, and
lasting reformation was not achieved through the word of the Baptist; but such
souls as could be prepared for the coming of the Lamb of God were aroused,
called, separated from the hardened and worldly and unbelieving, and placed
under discipline and teaching. From among their number our Lord chose His first
disciples and chief apostles. Beyond the fringe of that little company which
kept close to the Baptist something of good also was done. A wave of spiritual
feeling passed over a great part of the nation; Jerusalem was greatly excited,
if not savingly renewed. A general condition of desire was produced.
3. There
are many advents of the Son of God, and for every one of them there is some
forerunner, some voice crying in the wilderness: “Prepare ye His way; make
straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The voice of some John the
Baptist has gone ringing through the wilderness of a dead faith, of a formal
worship, of a worldly life, and men have been startled into attention, have
been made conscious of shortcomings and sins. And although God never ceases to
work among men, yet we come on barren dreary years of history, a very desert,
when the signs of the Divine working are not apparent. Then arises some John
the Baptist, or a general sense of dissatisfaction pervades the Churches, a
sense of shortcoming and of shame, and the obstructions to a Divine
manifestation are swept out of the way. Hardly a decade passes now without a
cry arising from the Churches themselves: “Prepare the way of the Lord; make
His paths straight.” Their conscience becomes increasingly quick and true;
their ideal grows nobler; their conception of the Christian life assimilates to
the standard given in the Word of God. And with attainment comes a longing for
more, a sense of need, a craving for God. Then let us prepare His way, as we
would that of a dear Friend whom we long to see, and whom we would not keep
from us by any neglect or disrespect of ours. (J. P. Gledstone.)
Prepare ye the way of the
Lord
I. GOD
HAS MANY MESSENGERS, AND THEY HAVE OFTEN LIFTED UP THEIR VOICE IN THE
WILDERNESS. Some speak with a voice of thunder to arouse a sleeping world. The
doctrine of others distils as the dew. Some open new paths to the seekers after
wisdom: to others it is given to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered
to the saints. Ever since man was driven from Eden he has been a wanderer in
the desert. The thorn and the thistle around him are the emblems of the sin and
the sorrow which spiritually mark his nomad state of existence. No wonder,
then, that the wilderness is so often used as an emblem of this present life,
in which you and I must listen to the voice of Heaven’s messengers. We want
more law work. Our consciences are too easily satisfied. Modern religion is far
too superficial. The law prepares for the Gospel. The Comforter must first
convince of sin.
II. ISAIAH
USES IT AS AN ILLUSTRATION OF HIS OWN MINISTRY. He, too, living now probably in
the idolatrous reign of Manasseh, felt himself in a spiritual desert. Yet by
faith he sees afar off, and the seer is himself transported into that bright
future. Already foreseeing the seventy years’ captivity of Judah, and then the
joyful return of the exiles under the decree of Cyrus, Isaiah writes of these
events as if himself living and acting among them. Yea more, he pictures the
dawn of the day as ushered in by that return from Babylon.
III. THE
TRANSITION IS EASY TO THE PERSONAL TIMES OF THE MESSIAH, AND OF HIS HERALD,
JOHN THE BAPTIST. The homely and heart-searching appeals of the Baptist proved
him to be the pioneer of the righteous King. Before this wilderness preacher
the mountains of Pharisaic pride were levelled, the valleys of Sadducean
unbelief were filled up, the tortuous vices of the courtly Judaean were
corrected, and the rude ignorance of the Galilean smoothed and reformed.
IV. But
even in this day THE WORDS HAD A WIDER SIGNIFICATION. Not only the land of
Israel, but the Gentile world, even “all flesh,” was then being prepared “to
see the salvation of God.” The former was accomplished by John’s own preaching;
of the latter he was only the herald. Providential agencies were even then at
work preparing Christ’s way among the Gentiles.
1. At
the time when our Saviour was born the knowledge of the Greek language had
spread more widely throughout Asia and Europe than has since been the case with
any other tongue. What a preparation was this for the spread of the Christian
religion. We know that there is no greater harrier separating nations than a
difference of language. But at the very period when Christianity began to be
published it found one language generally read and understood from the Alps to
the Caucasus; and so the Septuagint Version of the Old Testament could now
travel, with the gospels and epistles, to the many provinces of the Roman
Empire; for the valleys had been exalted, and the mountains and hills made low.
2. A
second preparation designed by God’s providence was--the extent of Roman
dominion. The chief means employed by that great Empire for consolidating her
possessions were her roads and her laws.
V. HOW
THIS PROPHECY SHEDS A LUSTRE ON THE WORLD’S FUTURE. Once more in this wide
desert “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,” and not “one,” but “all lands
shall see it together.” Yes, He who ascended into heaven shall so come again.
Are we ready for that day? Are we making others ready? I believe that every
Christian should be as the “voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare
ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” The
true Church, in short, must remain in the desert until the mystic “times” are
fulfilled. She is to be “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” Meanwhile
the voice of prophecy is given to cheer her amidst trial and disappointment. We
labour for years to tunnel through the Alps: shall we not labour patiently to
prepare the way of the Lord? (S. P. Jose, M. A.)
Prepare ye the way of the
Lord
I. THERE
ARE CERTAIN THINGS WHICH HINDER THE SPREAD OF THE REDEEMER’S KINGDOM, spoken of
here as valleys, hills, etc. Heathenism abroad: ignorance and vice at home.
Intemperance hinders the progress of God’s kingdom on every hand.
1. Intemperance
hinders the progress of God’s kingdom at home. Our country is occupied by three
armies--an army of paupers, an army of criminals, and an army of police, to
stand between the vicious and the virtuous, and protect the latter from the
assaults of the former. How is this? There is this huge evil established
amongst us, which casts its dread shadow over everything that is lovely and of
good report. Where, e.g., are the working men of England to be found
to-day? Not in the house of prayer. In the case of many of them, they have no
suitable clothes; but why is this? Because wages are low? Because trade is bad?
I answer, because the money is carried to the public-house, and is thus worse
than wasted. There are some who go many times, perhaps regularly, to the house
of God, and yet are not saved. Why? The grand neutraliser of the Gospel is the
habit of drinking intoxicating liquors.
2. It is
also a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel abroad.
II. IT IS
THE DUTY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH TO SWEEP THIS ENEMY AWAY. God has decreed that
these mountains shall perish.
1. The
Church can remove this mountain. Look at her power as a teacher. Are not the
children of our country in her hands? Look at the political power which she
possesses. Is there an election in which the Christian Church cannot turn the
balance? She has not only the ordinary power which men have, but she has
omnipotence at her command.
2. The
Church must, if she would hold her own. If we are not assailing strong drink,
it is assailing us.
3. The
Church must, if she would please her Master. How are we to proceed? Abstinence
first; then entire prohibition of the traffic.
III. THE
GLORIOUS RESULT. (C. Garrett.)
Preparing the way of the
Lord
I. THE
ADVENT IMPLIED. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
1. The
Lord here spoken of is doubtless the supreme Jehovah; and from the
appropriation of the passage by inspired authority to Christ, I apprehend
nothing less can be intended than to intimate that He who was coming was the
true God and eternal Life. This was that Immanuel who was to bring in an
everlasting righteousness, to redeem and restore the Israel of God, and
accomplish salvation for all the ends of the earth. Let us, then, inquire, Is
this interpretation of the passage justified by other scriptures, and
especially by the event itself? Assuredly He came with all the signs and
demonstrations of incarnate Deity. He Himself laid express claim to this high
character, and most manifestly displayed the perfections which it involves.
With these sublime views of His character agrees the testimony of all His
inspired apostles.
2. The
disciples of John were required to contemplate here the true Messiah coming to
effect salvation, to fulfil all the promises made of old to their fathers. It
is, therefore, of great interest and importance to ascertain what was involved
in that character, and what was the work assigned Him to do. It is expressly
declared that He came to do the will of God,--to magnify the law and make it
honourable,--to render to it a perfect obedience, and make reconciliation for
iniquity.
3. The
way of the Lord to us must be understood of His approach to our consciences and
hearts by His word and spirit.
II. The
charge to “prepare the way of the Lord” implies that there ARE DIFFICULTIES OR
OBSTACLES IN HIS WAY.
1. There
is the pride and self-righteousness of the human heart,
2. The
heart is by nature hard and impenitent, blinded to its own defects, and, even
after the confession of them, unwilling to have them condemned or to give them
up.
3. The
state of human desires and affections presents other and formidable obstacles
to the claims of the Lord. Their desires are low--their affections carnal. The
poor grovelling heart must be raised to noble and exalted ends and aims.
4. In
some there exists a mass of prejudice, and the truth of Christ is viewed under
a false light, or through a perverting medium. They will not receive the
kingdom of God as a little child, and they cannot enter therein. Some are
prejudiced against the authority of revelation--some against the mysteries of
godliness--some against the doctrines of grace or salvation by the merit of
another; and many dislike the holiness, the self-denial, the separation from
the world which Christianity inculcates.
5. Repentance
is necessary to prepare the way; humility, to receive and learn the doctrine;
prayer, to give it success in the heart; and watchfulness, to carry it out into
practice. Every one who is himself a disciple of the Lord, has something to do
in preparing the way of Christ in the earth. (G. Redford, LL. D.)
The road maker
(with Mattheew 3:3):--To
the writers of the Gospel story this vivid expression seems to have commended
itself as peculiarly applicable to the Baptist. He came heralding the speedy
advent of the Messiah, and his life and ministry were a preparation for the
greater life and more potent ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. In all essentials
that task still remains to be performed. The modern road maker--the herald and
hastener of a better and holier day--must be distinguished--
I. BY A
PROFOUND SENSE OF THE EVIL OF THE PRESENT. The prophet was no blind optimist
cherishing a foolish hope of a happier future because he did not see the
abounding evils around him. He saw with clear, penetrating eyes the moral and
spiritual degradation of his nation and day. He speaks of it, ay, and of the
national evils which must issue from it--exile, defeat, the overthrow of their beautiful
city. That is true of the prophetic band from first to last--from Elijah to
John. The man who deliberately closes his eyes to the evils of his day, or
seeing them minimises their importance, or in thought disguises them by some
euphonious phrase, will never--let his life be prolonged to beyond the age of
the patriarchs--prepare the way of the Lord. Too many of us live in an
imaginary world as different as possible from the world of stern fact. The men
who do most in their own generation to make a way for a better day in the
future are usually the men who see clearly one wrong which needs righting, one
obstacle which needs removing, one lie which needs refuting, and give
themselves to the doing of that one thing--e.g., Wilberforce and
slavery, Wesley and Evangelism, Cobden and Free Trade, Booth and the submerged
tenth. One word of warning. To look fearlessly at the evils of your own day is
not without danger. Not until that Voice which speaks of comfort through
forgiveness has been heard and welcomed does the call come which bids hands and
feet and active will prepare the way of the Lord.
II. BY AN
UNQUENCHABLE FAITH IN THE FUTURE. The road maker is an optimist because he is a
man of faith. There is an optimism which is both foolish and unfounded. But if
the optimist has first looked facts in the face, and then rises by sheer force
of faith in God above all that contradicts his hope, his optimism is not a
vice, but a shining and beneficent virtue. Such was this prophet’s. So with
John. He is certain, despite the manifold evils--moral and social--that afflict
his people, that the day of the Lord sanointed will be a glorious day--a day of
great things; and he speaks of it and of Him whose shoe-latchet he is not
worthy to unloose with an unbounded faith. “He must increase; I must decrease.”
Note on what the road maker rests--not on man. “All flesh is grass; the grass
withereth, the flower fadeth, but the Word of our God endureth for ever.” The
people have God’s Word; when all their human leaders have fallen, and every
visible authority for God is taken away, this shall be their rally and their
confidence.
III. BY
HIS READINESS TO SERVE OR SUFFER. So Isaiah: so John. No good cause but has
exacted its toll of both from heroic hearts that have espoused it. (W. H.
Williams.)
Comfort for the afflicted
Church
I. THE
DESIGN OF THIS PROPHECY is to speak peace and comfort to an afflicted Church.
Not only to the Jewish Church under a temporal captivity, but to every
Christian Church, and every faithful soul.
1. “Every
valley shall be exalted.” As the way St. John was sent to prepare by repentance
was in the hearts of men, this must express some change to be wrought in those
hearts. And what does it proclaim, but that humility is the way to glory?
2. “Every
mountain and hill shall be made low.” As the lowly and fruitful valleys
represent the meek and pious servants of Christ, so do the lofty and barren
mountains point out to us the haughty and unprofitable children of this world
that oppose Him.
3. “The
crooked shall be made straight.” This is a most essential part in a highway,
the end and intent of which is, to lead those who travel in it directly to the
place and city where they would be. Man, at his creation, was placed in the
straight way to heaven and happiness. Had he kept the eyes of his faith
steadily fixed upon it, and walked directly on in the path of God’s
commandments, he had soon arrived at it. But he listened to the suggestions of
the devil, who drew him out of it, pretending to show him a pleasanter and
shorter road than that appointed. But no sooner was man a sinner than God was a
Saviour. When the valley of humility is exalted by faith and the mountain of
pride and self-sufficiency brought low in your hearts, the crooked shall
instantly be made straight before you.
4. “The
rough places plain.” When the low ground is raised, the high levelled, and the
whole marked out with a line and made straight, nothing remains but to clear
away all obstructions.
II. The
words thus explained, what remains but that we APPLY THEM TO OURSELVES, FOR THE
DIRECTION OF OUR PRACTICE? (Bp. Horne.)
Preparing the way of the
Lord
I. THE
DUTY OF PREPARING THE WAY OF THE LORD.
1. The
herald. Allusion is here made to an ancient custom, according to which heralds
were sent before to prepare the way for the monarch when he was about to march
from one place to another. Christian ministers are the “voice” of God “crying
in the wilderness.” The very circumstance of this voice being needed shows the
disordered state of man by nature. It is not enough for ministers gently to
remind men of their state and duty--they must “cry.” Very many are the souls
that need to be thus roused.
2. The
scene of his labours--“the wilderness.” This is highly descriptive of the state
of men in every age. A wilderness, a desert, indeed, is this world, while void
of God’s grace; destitute of beauty, and unfruitful as to every good work.
3. What
is the work to which the herald calls? As far as we have it in our power, we
are to aid in removing whatever hinders the reception of Christ in the world.
What is it hinders the reception of Christ in our own hearts? The success of
the messenger will ever depend upon his looking up to the Lord.
II. OUR
ENCOURAGEMENTS.
1. Every
difficulty, however formidable, shall be surmounted. For “every valley shall be
exalted,” etc. What are the difficulties which present themselves? In the work
of salvation there are two leading classes of impediments.
2. There
shall be an universal manifestation of the Divine glory. “The glory of the Lord
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” There was a great
manifestation of the Divine glory when Cyrus and the foes of the Church were
made the instruments of delivering God’s people from their captivity.
Christians! this is not our work, or we should soon be dismayed. It is the way
of the Lord. He is to work; He is to display His own glory. What tenderness
and-condescension has God shown!
3. The
certainty of all this. “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” When one
promises who can fulfil our wishes, we have all the encouragement we can
possibly need. In no blindness of mistaken zeal, in no rashness of enthusiasm,
yet with all holy boldness, let us labour to prepare the way of the Lord. (W.
Williams.)
The King’s highway
I. VALLEYS
MUST BE LEVELED UP.
1. Inattention.
2. Apathy.
3. Despondency.
II. EMINENCES
MUST BE LEVELLED DOWN.
1. The
mountain of pride must be reduced.
2. The
mountain of presumption must be depressed.
3. The
hills of ingratitude must be brought low.
III. THE
CROOKED PLACES MUST BE STRAIGHTENED.
1. Prejudice.
2. Jealousy.
3. Censoriousness.
4. Covetousness.
IV. THE
ROUGH PLACES MUST BE SMOOTHED.
1. That
ugly rock of Sabbath desecration must be removed.
2. That
rut of drunkenness must be filled up.
3. Those
sinks of immorality must be filled. Lying, cheating, oppression, uncleanness.
4. The
rough places of instability must be smoothed.
Preparing the way of the
Lord
(with Luke
3:10-14):--
I. EXTERNAL
PREPARATION (Isaiah
40:3-5).
Our King has notified usthat He wants to encircle this world with His glory,
and we are the pioneers to make way for His chariot. Let me indicate a few
things about this work if you are going to make it a grand success.
1. There
must be a willingness to undertake it. Indifference will kill the enterprise.
Difficulties will appear; there must be courage and a cool head to guide a
brave heart. Three things must be prominent--
2. There
must be an appreciation of the importance of the work. If the King has given an
order, there must be some reason for it; and when the carrying out of that
order involves careful planning and difficult execution we must infer the
importance of the result, and hence of the preparation.
(2) Levelling
the hills. Pride is a high hill. Unbelief is a considerable mountain. Criticism
is a rocky mound.
II. INTERNAL
PREPARATION (Luke
3:10-14).
Every pioneer of the coming King must observe these demands.
1. Generosity.
A niggardly nature is too narrow quarters for the Lord to dwell in.
2. Justice.
3. Peaceableness.
It was the soldier’s duty to fight, but only when necessary, and only to secure
peace. The ultimate aim of justifiable war is always peace. When you have got
the way all prepared, you will find that it is--
A great work requires
preparation
There is a lesson which
man is taught in many ways, but which he is very slow to learn. It is the
necessity of preparation before any great work can be taken in hand and brought
to a prosperous end. Before men begin to build, they must dig the foundation.
Before they reap the harvest they must sow the seed and prepare the soil. The
truth is an elementary one and yet through neglect of it, many a good work has
failed, many an earnest worker has despaired. And the greater and more lasting
the work, the longer and deeper the preparation must be. Things which shoot up
quickly, quickly pass away. A tree does not spring up in a night. A nation is
not born in a day. History shows us the long period of conception, and the
painful period of travail, before great ideas can be brought to the birth and
great changes can be wrought in the political world. Geology again teaches us
the countless number of the ages of preparation in which this earth was fitted
to be the home of man. (F. Watson, M. A.)
Preparation for the coming
of Christ
There is one event in the
world’s history which by every Christian must be admitted to be unique, alike
in itself and in its consequences. The coming of God in the flesh, bringing
life to a dying world, light to a dark world, peace to a world at enmity with
God, may find its types and shadows, but it can find no parallels amongst other
historical facts. There had been comings of great men, but never the coming of
the great God. There had been revelations of truth, but now the Truth Himself
was revealed. Great kingdoms had been set up quickly to pass away, but now the
world-wide eternal kingdom was established. We may call it a crisis in history;
indeed it was. It was the crisis, the turning-point in the history of the
world, the turning-power in the history of each individual man. We may describe
it in its results as a re-creation, but even that word is inadequate, unless it
means much more than a restoration of the old creation to its original beauty
and perfection. The preparation for this unique event, how can we exaggerate
its importance! So much preparation was needed for any one of the ages; how
much more for that which is described as the fulness of them all! So many
agencies were set at work to fit this world to be the home of man; how can we
overestimate the preliminary work by which men were prepared to be the home of
God? (F. Watson, M. A.)
The gnostic gospel
It is well worthy of
notice that almost the earliest heresy with which the Church battled was one
which denied the reality of this preparation. A fundamental gnostic doctrine
was the suddenness of the appearance of the Christ in human fashion. There was
indeed a preparation, a development, so to speak, of the Supreme Being before
He could stoop so low as earth. But there was no preparation of man for the
reception of his God. Suddenly, at the time of His baptism, the Christ appeared
in human form upon the earth. His human nature, or human body, if indeed it
could be called human, had no previous history. It did not grow like ours. It
could not trace its origin from the parents of the race like ours. It was an
instrument which the heavenly Christ took to Himself for His work, and which He
flung away when He had no further use for it. Thus teaching, the gnostics cut
off the Christ from all the men before or after Him. They were not bone of His
bone, or flesh of His flesh. Thus was denied all preparation of the human
nature by which the Saviour of men worked. And the world into which He came, it
also had not been prepared for His coming. If the supreme spiritual God bad in
any way come in contact with this material world, it had been by accident; nay,
rather by mishap. In this world of ours God had not been the king, and never
could be king. With this human nature of ours, God had not been and never could
be united. The Christ did not come to give this earth, in their fulness, truths
of which He had already vouchsafed us foretastes, but He came to deprive us of
a higher life, which had unawares come in contact with material bodies, and had
been contaminated by them. Instead of light struggling with the darkness to
subdue it, the gnostics imagined light struggling in the darkness to escape
from it. If fuller light was revealed by their Christ, it was only that He
might gather up the stray light lost from heaven and take it for ever away.
This is the gnostic gospel. This is the gospel without the Old Testament. This
is the gospel without preparation of the Man Christ or man’s world. Not such
the teaching of the Church. She has taught us to regard the history of the
world as the unfolding of the great plan by which God would gather all nations
and peoples to Himself. (F. Watson, M. A.)
Preparation among the
heathen for the reception of Christianity
This preparation is not to
be regarded as confined to the chosen people of Israel. It is true, “Darkness
covered the earth, and gross darkness the peoples.” But even darkness, thick
darkness, may be preparatory to light. It was so at the creation of the world.
It is so in everyday experience. If we believe, as believe we must, that man
was created with capacities for comprehending the light; if we believe that in
his pure and unfallen state it was natural for him to love the light; if we
believe that his higher nature is never wholly lost: then we must confess that
the very darkness in its depth and grossness must have caused longings deep and
vast. When men groped in the darkness, and missed their way, and felt they had
missed it, they must have longed for the Day Star to arise and shine. They must
have said, we were meant for something better than this. They must have hoped
for happier times. “They sat in darkness and the shadow of death, being fast
bound in misery and iron. They fell down, and there was none to help. Then they
cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them from their
distress.” He in whose heart a longing for better things has arisen, albeit
that longing may be indefinite and ill-directed, has not been left unprepared
for receiving a gift from God. (F. Watson, M. A.)
Israel’s preparation for
the coming of Christ
Beyond this general
preparation of the nations there was also a special preparation of a particular
people. We are entitled to argue this from the condition of that people when
the Saviour appeared. You find that nation scattered all over the world; though
in it, yet not of it. It was disliked and despised. It was persecuted and
down-trodden. In most places it was a mere handful. In no place had it the
supreme authority. Numbers, educated opinion, popular prejudice, and state
power were all against it and its distinctiveness. Yet it was never crushed,
and it was never absorbed; it never ceased to exert power and influence. Low as
its fortunes then were, none of any nation were so proud of their history, none
were more hopeful of their future. Indeed, it might be said, with some truth,
that at that time the Jews alone had hope. The nations were groaning in their
pains. Old institutions and old religions were worn out. Men’s hearts were
failing them for fear, and for looking for those things which were coming upon
the earth. The Jews alone hoped for the coming of new and better times. The
Jews alone thought that the pains they were suffering were not pains of
dissolution, but birth-pangs, the pains followed by new life and fresh joy. (F.
Watson, M. A.)
Vox clamantis
The note of all times that
are progressive is a note of urgency, preparation, advance. (J. Parker, D.
D.)
The appealing “voice”
Sometimes there is nothing
to instruct us but a “voice.” We hear it, but cannot trace it. It is called the
spirit of the times, the voice of the day, the genius of the hour. Sometimes it
is personated in one man, one policy; at other times it is a diffused voice,
coming, apparently to the ear, from all the points of the compass at once, but
with singular unanimity, emphasis, truthfulness. It is never a voice of
despair, or a tone that would cast the soul into dejection, but always like a
clarion, or a chiming bell, or a father’s call, or a soldier’s resounding peal.
(F. Watson, M. A.)
Make straight
in the desert a highway for our God
A highway in the
wilderness
We ought to read here, not
“the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,”
but rather, “the voice of one crying, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of
the Lord.” Now, “the voice of one crying in the wilderness”--if you read
so--will have a sufficiently direct application to John Baptist and to few
menbesides. But “the voice of one crying, Prepare a highway in the wilderness,”
is no more exclusively applicable to him than to John Calvin or John Knox or
John Ruskin. It is applicable to everybody who does anything for the world,
especially in its waste places and its worst places, in the way of improvement.
It is applicable to Copernicus, Bacon, James Watt. Above all, it is applicable to
Christ Himself. It is an anticipation of better and still better times for all
mankind.
1. Does
it matter at all to us who can have no hope of seeing it in our time, who have
certainly, as it would seem, to live out our lives in a condition of things in which
not so much the presence of improvement as the need of it is conspicuous? To
this question, I think, there are two answers, both of which, for religious
minds at any rate, have some weight.
2. “Prepare
ye in the wilderness a highway for our God.” In this, possibly, rather than in
any other form, there comes the Divine call to those in every age, and
especially in this age, to whom the Divine order is most of a reality and a
power. Personal piety--you must have that, say the professors of ecclesiastical
pedagogy--before entering upon this or that work, It is quite true: personal
piety you must have to be fit to live, not to say to teach others or help
others to live well. But if you have piety enough to have any satisfaction in
helping to leave the world a little better than you have found it, then that is
enough of a qualification and commission for taking part in work which will
occupy your whole life. This general view of the Divine order and of the
demands which it makes upon those who are most conscious of the reality of it
suggests one or two reflections.
Christ requires a straight
road
The King’s chariot is
coming; you must fill up the ravines and level down the hill,. He will not
accommodate His chariot to the tortuous lines of your life. If the Lord Jesus
Christ is coming into your soul, He is not going to follow the crooked ways of
your iniquitous conduct. You have got to make a straight road for Him. (A.
T.Pierson, D. D.)
Verse
4-5
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall
be made low
Christianity an essential element in true civilisation
I.
THE WORLD IS STILL FULL OF
THINGS NEEDING TO BE SET STRAIGHT. So far as the economy of our earth is
concerned a period of confusion has immediately preceded the establishment of
Divine order. Chaos preceded Paradise. Egyptian bondage was the precursor of
the exodus, which was the beginning of a national life Divinely ruled. Judaism
was at its worst and Paganism in its most corrupt condition when the voice of
the preacher of righteousness was heard, preparing the way of the Lord. Isaiah
here compares the social and religious condition of a people awaiting a
revelation of Divine glory to the condition of a country, barren as a desert,
and impassable by reason of mountains and valleys; and the preparation of a
highway amongst these physical obstacles represents the exaltation of what is
base and the abasement of some things that are high in human life before the
coming revelation of God. Around us here in England, as well as in those
foreign countries to which missionary enterprise addresses itself, is a
wilderness, in which what is good cannot and does not grow. The bodily and
moral degradation of some of our own people, if it were revealed in all its
nakedness, would startle the Church from its stately propriety. A “wilderness”
is a fit emblem of a large section of our own population. Yet in this land we
have had the Gospel for centuries. How much more, then, do the heathen want and
deserve your sympathy! Another phrase in our text, which speaks of “valleys,”
may remind us further of depths in our social life in which corruption hides.
Meanwhile pride covers us, as with a garment. We talk of “the progress of the
age,” we boast ourselves of our achievements and discoveries. There are
“mountains” of pride to be brought down, as well as valleys of degradation to
be exalted. And how many “crooked” things are yet to be made straight! What
distortions of truth are yet to be found in England, as well as elsewhere! The
orderliness of Divine progress in the natural world is a truth so contorted
that some argue from it that all things seen were originally made of things
that do appear, and chat there was no Divine Creator in whom they found their
origin. The mercifulness of God is used as an argument against the possibility
of punishment for sin.
II. THE WORLD IS NOT
ESSENTIALLY THE BETTER FOR THE HUMAN INVENTIONS OF WHICH THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
IS SO BOASTFUL. Much of the misery of modern life is due to the fact that moral
and religious advance has not kept pace with mechanical advance, and our danger
is lest developed mechanism should be to our age what a complicated and
resistless machine would be in the hands of a child who knows not the ends for
which it is designed. Trains and steamers carry us over land and sea with a
swiftness which, to our grandfathers, would have seemed incredible. Our daily
bread is often the product of labour done in the far-off fertile fields of
California. There has been a literal fulfilment of these words, which speak of
conquering mountains and valleys, and overleaping all obstacles, such as Isaiah
never dreamed of. But the question is fairly asked, Are we the better for all
this? Are we wiser, are we happier, are we nobler, are we more Christ-like,
than our fathers were? We have greater appliances than our fathers, but it may
be fairly doubted whether we surpass them either in capacity or in enjoyment.
When you go for a holiday you can rush up the Rhine, through Switzerland, and
back across France in a fortnight, but probably, in a dozen journeys of that
sort you see far less than poor Oliver Goldsmith did when, with a fife as his
companion, he trudged along the highways of Europe. Scientific instruments are
marvellous in power and in accuracy, but scientific men have not advanced in
genius beyond Newton or Herschel. Music is heard on every hand; but it is not
better than the music of Handel, or of Bach, or of Haydn. In short, we have not
a higher life because we have higher material appliances, and you and I are not
one whit the nobler men because we can read all the news of the world in a
penny paper, and transact our business with the other ends of the earth in a
few hours. What do we all gain if, in covering our land with factories and
steam engines, we are covering it also with want and wretchedness? In spite of
all scientific discoveries and mechanical appliances, it is evident that the
world wants something more than these can give. It wants freedom from its sins,
and a Redeemer who can set it free. It wants love amidst its cruelties, and
rest amid its weariness.
III. THE WORLD REQUIRES MOST OF
ALL A REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF GOD. Many say, “Let our trade and our railways
and all our conveniences first find entrance to a heathen land, and then the
people there will be prepared for the Gospel.” A grosser delusion could hardly
be promulgated. Our own social condition might show its fallacy, and experiment
in heathen lands has confirmed it. When this so-called “civilisation” has
preceded Christianity, idolaters have become atheists, and their last state
worse than their first. The great object we Christians are to keep in view, in
all our achievements, is that “the glory of God” may be revealed--not the glory
of man, nor of a society, nor of a sect, but the glory of God. As a king, a man
finds his glory in the contentment of his people; as a father, a man finds his
glory in the well-being of his children; and so the great King and Father of us
all finds His “glory” in our contentment and well-being. And how can that be
brought about? It is by the work and words of those who speak “comfortably” to
the sinners, who proclaim a reconciled God revealed in Jesus Christ.
IV. GOD IS LOOKING TO THE
CHURCH TO BRING ABOUT THIS CHANGE. He is addressing His people here, and,
instead of saying “I will comfort,” He says “Comfort ye.” No angel messengers
now wing their flight from heaven to announce the glad tidings of great joy.
The message has been entrusted to us. Let us have patience, though the results
of our work at home and abroad seem sparse and small. The upraising of valleys
and the levelling of mountains is no child’s play, even in the physical world,
and it is harder still in the spiritual realm. When we remember the cost at
which some modern discoveries were won, and see the patience and skill and risk
which accompany the driving of tunnels through mountains, or under the sea, we
are ashamed of the ease with which Christians give way to disheartenment. In
preparing the highway here spoken of we must work on the plan the Norwegians
adopt for keeping up their roads. Each occupier of land, in proportion to his
acreage, has his own allotted portion of road to maintain, and for that he is
responsible. So, in proportion to your capacities and opportunities, you have
your work to do--in your home, in your class, in your sphere of thought or
activity, and from that responsibility none can release you. (A. Rowland, B.
A.)
The prospects of the Church
I. SOME OF THE MOST
FORMIDABLE OBSTRUCTIONS TO THE DIFFUSION AND PROGRESS OF TRUE RELIGION AND THE
CERTAINTY OF THEIR REMOVAL.
1. The defective character of
personal religion. There are many features of the Christian character scarcely
ever brought out to public view; and others whose nature is so misapprehended
as to lead to a misshapen exhibition of the spirit and precepts of the Gospel
of Christ. Have you never been pained when at the close of the day you have
endeavoured to ascertain the character of your thoughts, feelings, and actions?
Have you never been surprised at the moral personage who has presented himself
to your view at such seasons? There is much of secularity mingled with the
religion that prevails. What has religion done for us if it has not so elevated
the tone and order of our feelings as to render us indifferent to the pleasures
of sin? As a natural consequence of this defective piety much is withheld from
the service of God. There is so much of self mingled[with our religious
engagements. The purposes of God embrace the agency and co-operation of man.
If, then, the piety of the Church be defective, if the body that acts for God
be enfeebled by disease, or misguided in its operations, how fatally must its
efficiency be counteracted! But assuredly an end will be put to this state of
things, for “every valley shall be exalted,” etc.
2. The division and
animosities amongst Christians. A sectarian character has thus been given to
the Church, a fictitious and morbid zeal has been engendered, and those
resources which ought to have been expended in the evangelisation of the world
have, on many occasions, been laid out for party and sinister purposes.
3. The connection that
subsists between religion and State politics. The Christianity that has been
patronised by the State--that has been adopted as the stepping-stone to
emolument and power, this has been mistaken for the religion of the Bible.
II. THE RESULTS WHICH THE
PROPHET REPRESENTS AS CONSEQUENT UPON THE REMOVAL OF THESE OBSTRUCTIONS. “The
glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for
the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Nothing can be more inspiring than this
prospect. If it is gratifying to see the boundaries of science enlarged, or the
elements of human happiness increased; if the political resurrection of a
nation inspires us with joy; if it invigorates our hearts to see the spirit of
an age awakening from its slumber and preparing itself for wise and virtuous
action, what should be the emotion of our hearts in contemplating such a
consummation as is represented in my text? It is not the mere promise of an
approaching good by which the prophet here seeks to inspire our mind. It
contains the elements of all conceivable happiness. It will embody and secure to
the inhabitants of our world the highest enjoyment of which their nature is
susceptible. The glory of God has hitherto been but partially unveiled. The sun
is still behind the cloud, and a shadow is in consequence thrown on our path.
But when the piety of the Church shall be freed from its present stains, when
her divisions are healed, then shall she arise and shine, for her light will
have come, and the glory of the Lord will be risen upon her. But we are
informed that” all flesh shall see it “together.” The Evangelist slightly,,
varies the latter part of the prophecy--“All flesh shall see the salvation of
God.” As yet the salvation of God is known to but a limited portion of the
world. But the salvation of God all are yet destined to see. (T. Price.)
The levelling force of Christianity
There are and ever have been in the soul of society opinions,
prejudices, feelings, conventional notions which, like mountains and valleys,
have separated men into classes, and prevented the free-flowing interchange of
soul. Those mountains rear their frowning heads and throw their chilling
shadows in every district of society. Those valleys yawn everywhere, and form
an impassable gulf between the brothers on either side. Christianity has a
power to remove those mountains, fill up the valleys, etc. How does
Christianity do this? In two ways--
I. BY THE LEVELLING TRUTHS
WHICH IT REVEALS.
1. A common God.
2. A common nature.
3. A common obligation.
4. A common depravity.
5. A common salvation.
II. BY THE LEVELLING SPIRIT WHICH
IT GENERATES. The spirit which Christianity generates in the human soul is such
that raises a man above all those prejudices of the heart and conventionalities
of life that divide men. What is the spirit? It is a spirit that has supreme
regard to three things--
1. The spiritual in man.
2. The right in conduct.
3. The eternal in destiny.
The socially levelling force of Christianity, however, does not involve
spoliation. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The crooked shall be made
straight
The prophet and the picturesque
There is much in us which would instinctively resent and repudiate
this ideal that he has put before us. Take, for instance, that sensitive
faculty in our century receiving so peculiar and overwhelming a development,
the sense of the picturesque. The words of my text break in with a very
surprising emphasis. This vehemence of the prophet clashes with all the primary
instincts of this sentiment of ours. Mountains flattened out, valleys filled
in, highways levelled from end to end, every broken piece of rough ground
repaired, every turn and twist in the path straightened--what a picture to
portray with such rapturous enthusiasm! Could any result be more deplorable? It
is the very murder of the picturesque! The picturesque asks only that the
mountains should rise yet higher, be more pathless, more craggy, more perilous;
that they should be torn by glaciers and scoured by avalanches and wasted by
storms and bemoaned by winds, and be aghast with lonely desolation--that is
what it prefers, that is what excites it,--and the valleys shall plunge yet
deeper, more gloomy vaults, sunless, with hoarse torrents buried in awful black
gulfs and roaming along in anger out of sight. There should be no roads if
possible; at least, never level or straight for two yards together; and there
should be cliffs that are frowning and overhanging and ruinous and threatening,
and high and fierce and solitary rocks. Everything should be rough, everything
should be crooked, for the sake of the picturesque! (Canon H. Scott-Holland,
M. A.)
Picturesque abuses
In this contrast between the prophet and the picturesque is there
nothing but of a light or superficial nature, nothing serious? I doubt it. The
prophet’s thunderous intensity brings our sentiment to a check just at the
point where it is apt to pervert the moral judgment. Where is that? At the
point where it helps to blind us to the actual life, the actual needs and
necessities of a living present. The feeling for the picturesque belongs always
to those who are outside the object of their admiration. They are looking on as
unconcerned spectators. That which they observe lies wholly outside their own
living, personal experience, and that is why it touches them and startles them,
and pleases because it startles. It is so odd, so unexpected, so dreamy, so
old. That is the sentiment bred in tourists, in passengers tarrying the day,
gazing from without at a scene, unaffected by its sorrows, aloof from its inner
reality. We like these strange, huddled, dirty streets, and these swarming
beggars, and these crumbling walls, and these crooked alleys, and all the
oddities of decay, and all the quaintness of the obsolete. Abuses, so long as
they do not hurt us, are much more picturesque than their remedies. In this
mood what serious blunders we have made abroad--offences against our best
English self, for the native English have a love for liberty, for a free
people. How much has our love for the picturesque killed our sympathy for
freedom in Rome or in Venice, shall we say? This error which we make again and
again abroad is very apt to repeat itself here at home; for those who have
leisure to enjoy the picturesque are bound, of course, to have already reached
some comfort themselves, some security of position. That thatched cottage in
the dell, in the hollow of the wood, could anything be more engaging? We have
sketched it again and again. It is very damp, and those colours on it that we
like so, the greens and the yellows, reveal the dampness. It is buried under
the trees, it stands on soppy ground, and there is no drainage; there is a
cesspool behind. But how raw the new brick four-roomed house would look without
an offence in our rustic nook! There is a great deal more of this among us
comfortable and educated people than we are at all aware of. It acts as a dead
weight on us, it counteracts the force of our reforming zeal. We should never
for one moment dream of letting the picturesqueness stand in our way if we had
to sink into consumption through the damp or die of typhoid in some undrained,
old-fashioned street; but somehow it puts in its plea with us with far greater
power when others are concerned, and we are but spectators. It is against all
this that the prophet’s zeal thunders. The picturesque may rightly widen our
sympathies for the past; it may plead for gentle handling of what is so fair in
the deposits of the past, it may rightly prompt us to do oar very utmost to
save what is beautiful and natural from cruel, hideous misuse by commercial
greed, but there is one supreme law which it never must gainsay, the law which
is uttered in the cry of the recovered king, Hezekiah, when he recovered from
his sickness: “Death cannot celebrate Thee. The living shall praise Thee, as I
do this day.” (Canon H. Scott-Holland, M. A.)
Redemptive growth
Since the cloud and curse of sin, all this growth of ours, which
is our life, is remedial, corrective, redemptive. It is won through strife over
wrong, through struggling out of evil, and always, therefore, it must witness
to its vitality by straightening the crooked, by making the rough places plain.
It must always testify to its life. Always it must be bettering bad highways.
It must be abasing mountains that obstruct and daunt. It must be filling up
valleys that cramp and choke and darken. That is the necessity, the necessity
of clearing the way for free motion towards a better day. But, again, even from
inside this growing life, even after we have torn ourselves out of the ranks of
unconcerned spectators and irresponsible tourists, and have thrown ourselves
with heart and hope into this remedial work, and are keenly striving to bring
the crooked straight and to loosen the terrible burden of wrong; even then this
old perplexity and trouble will recur, and recur in a subtler and much deeper
form. Perhaps in the very midst of our reforming zeal there will suddenly come
a thought, a sight crossing our mind of all our hopes achieved. The crooked,
now so cruelly wrong or disastrously distorted, has at last been made perfectly
straight. What then? Are we better off? What a poor, stale, stupid place this
world will have become. All wrongs redressed, all blunders rectified, all
inequalities levelled; everybody on the same platform, decent, snug,
comfortable--a dull, unbroken mass of average respect-abilities. Comfort for the
comfortless--it was for that that we had hungered and toiled. But the
comfortable! Look at those who have already attained it. Are they so
encouraging a prospect? What if all were as they? After all, moral character is
our sole aim; and will character have lost or gained when our efforts have
succeeded? Where is character found now? we say. Is it found amid the
comfortable? Hardly. Is it not always won through suffering, strife, anguish?
Those rare simplicities of the poor, those generosities, those devotions--are
they not worth all the smugger virtues? Would they not have vanished in a world
where there was nothing crooked, no high lights and no dark shadows, no ups and
downs? Perhaps we take up some industrial Utopia, some book like “Looking
Backward,” and as we read we are chilled to the marrow. There is a dull recoil.
How utterly repugnant; how fiat and stale and unprofitable! All that makes
humanity dear and pathetic and glorious gone, died out! “No room in such a
world,” we say, “for high adventures, shining heroisms; no trumpet calls, no
splendid risks, no holy indignation, no exaltation of sacrifice, no prophetic
passion. Democratic equality has levelled all the roads straight as dies. They
run between their kerbstones. All is smooth, orderly, equitable, and there is
no material there for art, none for music. Where shall we seek for Schubert’s
songs that float like dreams? “They were won,” we say, “by his tears.” And
where will be our Hamlets and our Lears in the romance? How will man ever
display his higher capacities except through pain and struggle and sorrow? Yet
those are the very conditions that we are labouring to deny him. Alas! our
hearts sink, our imagination protests, our hopes flag, and the glowing passion
of the prophet, as it catches sight of the very fulfilment of its dream, dies
away in the wail of the preacher, “Vanity, vanity, even this is vanity.” (Canon
H. Scott-Holland, M. A.)
No fear of Utopia
We have invented a terror for ourselves. We need not be the least
afraid. These visions of the future deceive us by suggesting a finality at
which man will have arrived. These Utopias are just what will not be true. That
is just what we are quite certain will never occur while this present age
endures. The one thing that we know of the future is that it will not be like
that, for we know that at each moment of his earthly career, until his Lord
Jesus comes again to make earth and heaven anew, man will be found warring as a
soldier--a pilgrim pressing on towards eternity with mountains still towering
ahead, dark with unknown destiny, with valleys into which he must plunge, and
moaning with perils through which he must dare his way; with tough tasks still
set him to achieve; with nerves, therefore, still strung and prophet voices
calling and eyes strained forward into the night, and loins girt, and heart on
fire, and foes to fight, and deaths to die, and victories to win. But you will
say, “Is that a very encouraging message? Why waste our efforts, then, in
struggling to set things right if the crooked will never be straight, if the
high road will never be levelled? Why grind at smoothing down our present hills
if always there will be fresh mountains beyond?” Just because man is, in
essence, a pilgrim, a soldier, a servant of Jesus crucified, and it is his very
life to bring this to the front. He discovers himself in and through this
struggle and pilgrimage, through the strain of the war. That is his mission in
which he proves his courage and his nerve. Unless he is always correcting evil,
unless he is always battling down wrongs, he is not himself, and he knows not
of what spirit he is made. What the particular wrong may be which he is called
upon to redress at this moment, or at that, is determined for him by the
conditions of history, by God Himself, for God is in history-He directs, He
allots, He distributes the task to man--there is a design clearly disclosed.
One by one, God brings up to men the difficulties, the obstructions that He
would have them encounter. Our forefathers had their own fight to fight, and
they fought it. They were tested and proved in other ways. One fight at a time!
They fought for liberty, they fought for free speech; they could not attend to
underlying poverty. Now their part is played, their mountains are brought low,
and their crooked things are made straight, and therefore there is time and
opportunity for something else. There is another task for us, another test
applied. We are not to enjoy what our fathers put straight without doing our
own part to bend the crooked into line, to make rough places plain. (Canon
H. Scott-Holland, M. A.)
The battle for to-day
Since God is in history, there is continuity in our pilgrimage,
and there is purpose. The old wars, by healing some wrongs, prepared
opportunities for new efforts. There is advance, after all, along this-
highway, -however much there is still always a rough place just ahead, a cruel
corner to put straight. We are farther along. There are wrongs righted and
thrown behind us, and therefore the nearer we draw to the end. Enough for us
that we know the spot on the road at which we stand, that we know what are the
crooked things which it is our own special task to set straight. Let us look at
them and leave the rest to God. Who can doubt at what spot on the road we stand
to-day? Those crooked things on which the light of God has been turned in our
day-there they are; we know them and we see them--the commercial pressure that
falls on the weak, and that breaks and spoils the humanity under it, manhood,
womanhood, home, joy; the heartless mechanism of an impersonal economic system
which crunches the aged, the women, the children; the sorrows of those who
labour on without any hope of reaching an end of their labour; men and women,
jaded, bruised, disfigured, always under-fed, invalided by penury, unqualified
for work, unfit for what they do; men and women tossed to and fro by blind
tides of fluctuating markets over which they have no control; men and women
accumulated in hordes, unsheperded and unregarded in squalid tenements, in sordid
and mean dishonour, living environed by disease, born into a world too
masterful for their infirmities, sustained at the edge of starvation by a
competition that never improves them and yet never eliminates them, drawn under
by demands which they are helpless to fulfil, bruised and damaged in trying to
meet them. No one anticipated that our industries would create them or sustain
in existence classes of this type. They are the signals of some defect in our
system, of some perversion, of some disease,, of some disaster--that something
that meant well enough has gone crooked, that the machinery of our civilisation
is out of gear. We have got out of the track. That much is plain. Therefore a
responsibility is laid upon us; a thing has got to be done. (Canon H.
Scott-Holland, M. A.)
And the rough places plain--
The rough places made plain
I. We may take this to be, in
outline, THE DESCRIPTION OF GOD’S WORK WITH OUR WORLD AND WITH MANKIND,
REGARDED AS A PREPARATION FOR THE FUTURE. It is the voice of history, of
nature, of science, of revelation. The present is a preparation for the future,
as the past was a preparation for the present, and as the future will be a
preparation for a still coming and greater future. We know the history of
religion; how slow its progress--how for centuries it was only successful in
casting down obstacles, and preparing the hearts of men for the entrance of a
faith which was worthy of its Author. It required not the labours of one
prophet like John only, but the labours of many generations of prophets, to
prepare for the advent of Jesus Christ. Religion passed through numerous forms
before it arrived at that form which Christ gave it. And as this was the work
of God in the religious thought and life of man, so was it the work of God in
the world. The kingdom of heaven did not come until the world was in a measure
ready for it.
II. So we may say that this is
AN INDEX TO THE COURSE OF HIS PROVIDENCE IN EVERY AGE AND COUNTRY. This lesson
may be learned--that in all cases the spiritual is above the material; and that
all progress and improvement in the material world are but means to an end, and
are intended to serve far higher interests. All these benefits of rapid
intelligence, of conveniences, of comforts, are but the removal of hindrances
out of the way of the progress of what is spiritual and Divine. If they leave
men devoid of better aims--if they leave us selfish, earthly, false--they are
no blessings after all! If we use the gifts of nature and invention and
discovery merely to attain our own ends, and if there is no growth of the
spirit of truth and charity, we have gained nothing: we have merely added to
our former powers the power to increase our selfishness. But such is not the
use for which these new acquisitions are designed. If there are more facilities
for reaching the human mind by thought and speech or writing, all the more
carefully ought everyone who has influence over his fellows to see that that
influence is wholesome, and not hurtful. The material is the servant of the
spiritual. What John the Baptist was to Christ, such is all the world to the
Christ. All nature was a preparation for Him, all knowledge, all discovery. The
world did not see this at the time; but the fact is true for all that. People
say that the growth of human wisdom and the increase of human blessings are
adverse to the Gospel; but on looking back on history we see that all these
things were in the hands of God, and were all made to prepare the way for the
kingdom of God. So it is, and so ought it ever to be.
III. THE INFLUENCE OF
CHRISTIANITY IN MAKING THE PATH TO GOODNESS EASIER.
IV. THIS IS OUR WORK AS
CHRISTIANS IN THE WORLD AND FOR THE WORLD. This is part of our task for those
who are finding the road to goodness and right living hard and rough. Each of
us has something in his power to prepare the way for the kingdom of God in the
lives and hearts of others. To many, the difficulties of a right life are very
great, and it is no easy task for them to carry it out. Everything is against
them: training, circumstances, companions, habits. From their youngest years
they have been familiar with evil. It comes to them naturally to deceive, to
lie, to do all manner of misdeeds. How can such a youth ever open into a
manhood of worth or goodness? He must be helped by education, by guidance, by
living examples of affection and well-doing. Christian society, the Church,
must come to his aid. And what is all this but doing the work of Christ, the
work of prophets and evangelists, the work of the Gospel, preparing a highway,
helping those who cannot walk, making the rough places plain, making it easier
for a man to stand in goodness and truth? After all is done, however, both for
nations and individuals, there will be difficulties to overcome. You can never
for yourselves, or for those whom you most love, so arrange things that all
personal need for care and effort shall cease. There will be for every man the
cross to carry, and for many men the thorn to trouble them. (A. Watson, D.
D.)
Rough places
I. ROUGH PLACES.
1. In general human history.
2. In individual human life.
II. ROUGH PLACES MADE PLAIN.
1. The supreme power of Jesus
Christ.
2. The supreme power of Jesus
Christ used for the advantage of mankind.
3. The advantage of mankind
identified with the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.
III. THE TRANQUIL AND BLESSED
FUTURE OF THE WORLD. Christianity is good news. Inequalities are to be
rectified. Relations are to be adjusted. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Verse 5
And the glory
of the Lord shall be revealed
The revelation of God’s
glory
From this
animating prophecy we may consider--
I.
THE GLORY OF THE LORD. When Isaiah was favoured with the Divine
vision the angels sang, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth
is full of His glory.” Another inspired writer observes, “The heavens declare
the glory of God.” In the display of this glory God “hath clothed Himself with
light as with a garment”; and hath peculiarly manifested it in those two grand
events, the creation and redemption of the world. Hence the glad tidings are
emphatically called “the glorious Gospel”; and the spiritual instruction of the
Gospel is called “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.” This plan of redemption is the arena of heaven, into which the
angels “desire to look.” It is the rich assemblage of love and mercy, justice
and faithfulness, truth and goodness.
II. THE REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD. The dispensation under
which God revealed Himself to our first parents is commonly called the Covenant
of Works. The condition required was perfect obedience. By the sin of Adam and
Eve this covenant was broken, and “judgment passed on all to condemnation.” The
glory of the Lord shone round about our offending parents when the very
sentence of condemnation was associated with an intimation of mercy. The glory
of the Lord was first revealed in the promise that the seed of the woman should
bruise the head of the serpent. As generations succeeded, it pleased the most
High God gradually to reveal larger discoveries of this sovereign remedy of
human woe. In the days of Abraham the promise of mercy was repeated (Galatians 3:8; Galatians 3:17). The inspired compositions of King David more explicitly
unfolded the Divine glory in the redemption of sinners. The grand
accomplishment of the words of our text was reserved for the personal
appearance of the Son of God.
III. THE GLORIOUS EXTENT OF THIS REVELATION. “All flesh shall see it
together.” At the period of this prophecy the earth was full of darkness and
habitations of cruelty. The light of Israel was, comparatively, but as the
light of a taper. The space which it illuminated was contracted. The glory of
the Lord to be revealed under the Christian dispensation was to resemble the
sun in the firmament: it was to shine for all kingdoms, nations, and languages
under heaven. It was to be “a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of
God’s people, Israel.” The aspect of the present times encourages us to hope
that the day is rapidly advancing when “all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”
IV. THE GLORY OF THIS ANIMATING PROSPECT IS CONFIRMED BY ITS
CERTAINTY.
1. “For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (2 Timothy 1:9; Psalms 2:7-8; Isaiah 49:5-6; Isaiah 42:6; John 10:16; John 12:32).
V. THE DUTY OF MISSIONARY EXERTIONS IN ORDER TO PROMOTE THE
REVELATION OF THIS GLORY.
1. Doth any one ask, “Where is the authority for missionary
exertions?” It stands upon the authority of the Most High God.
2. The duty is great, as you regard the exceeding great love of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The duty is great, as you consider the personal obligation which
you yourselves are under to missionary societies.
4. The duty is great, as God, in His bounty, hath entrusted you with
talents to promote this charitable work. (Basil Wood, M. A.)
The glory of the King
The august
manifestation promised.
I. AS TO ITS NATURE.
1. It is the King Messiah in person.
2. The Shechinah was a type of Christ.
3. Meanwhile Christ reveals Himself in His Spirit. He displays--
II. AS TO ITS EXTENT. “All flesh shall see it together.”
1. This term includes the Jew. The day is coming when “all Israel
shall be saved”--when the nation shall become Christian.
2. It also comprehends the Gentile.
3. The grand fulfilment is future.
III. AS TO ITS CERTAINTY. “The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
1. The Lord can do it.
2. He will do it.
3. Are we prepared to meet Christ? (J. A. Macdonald, M. A.)
Verses
6-8
The
voice said Cry.
And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass
The earthly
transitory: the heavenly enduring
When
we make a judgment of the objects of sense and of faith, “the things that are
seen” claim the preference over “the things that are not seen.” The appearance
which the world presents is seducing, that which religion exhibits is
forbidding. The appearances are deceitful, and the judgment we form of them
false.
I. THE VANITY OF THE THINGS OF THIS LIFE. Empty as is every thing in
the world, and limited in its duration, it is one of the truths the most common
and the least received.
1. The voice of reason teaches men that they have only a little while
to live. If they will but reflect upon their constitution, they cannot but
discover, both within and without, innumerable principles of their speedy
dissolution.
2. This the Scripture teaches without ceasing: adapting its lessons
to the importance of the awakening truth, no strong expressions are overlooked,
no striking images escape the sacred writers.
3. Besides, our own experience proclaims to us the fact by the most
indubitable proofs.
II. THE SOUNDNESS OF A CHRISTIAN’S HOPE IN FUTURITY. The future is as
enlivening to the Christian as the past is humiliating to the man. Death,
properly speaking, is only the lot of the wicked. The Christian, in the
estimation of the Gospel, never dies; he falls asleep, he “rests from his
labours.” (P. Huet.)
The fading and
the abiding
I. “ALL FLESH IS GRASS.” The prophet describes man by this name of
“flesh,” as that which strikingly sets forth his general state and ordinary
habits. What is man? Is not the care of the flesh his grand concern?--the
pampering the body, the gratifying its senses, or fulfilling the lusts thereof?
Here and there, indeed, we meet with one who has broken its trammels;, whose
soul, rising up on the wings of faith and love, seeks for happiness in God; but
when we look at the world at large, we are compelled to say that it is a world
whose aims, pleasures, pursuits, are earthly. Yet how vain are these pursuits!
“All flesh is grass”; that is, like the grass it is liable to various casualties.
If it abides to its utmost duration it soon withers and is gone. The blade when
it has only just sprung above the ground may be trodden under foot, may be
parched by the heat, cut off by the cold, or withered by the blight; may be
plucked by the hand, or mowed down by the scythe; thus is it with man. No
sooner does he appear in the world than some little casualty may at once
deprive him of life. This is the state of all--“for all flesh is as grass, and
all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field”: “the wind passeth over
it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more!” But is there
no difference? Surely there are some distinctions. Yes, there are, and as
Archbishop Leighton observes, this difference is beautifully expressed by the
inspired writer--“the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.” When
we enter a field, it is not so much the common blade which attracts the eye. It
is the flower--those various beautiful ornaments with which the creative power
of God has adorned the face of the earth. So there are various external
embellishments which distinguish some from the ordinary race of men. Every
soul, indeed, is of inestimable value. Still, it must be confessed that there
are properties which some possess which are more attractive--youth, beauty,
honours, talent. But what are they all? But the flower of the grass. They
partake of the fading nature of the plants from which they spring.
II. THE WORD OF GOD IS AS ABIDING AS HIMSELF and this notwithstanding
all the attempts that have been made, by wicked men instigated by evil spirits,
to destroy it. This has been their constant aim, for the Word of God has been
their constant dread.
1. It abides in its doctrines. These are not evanescent theories,
like some of the dicta of the philosophers; they are eternal truths.
2. Its promises endure. Its sanctions also stand for ever; namely,
the rewards and punishments which are there made known. Let those who are now
surrounded with many temporal blessings regard them as flowers, which the
goodness of God provides to sweeten their present path; still set not your
hearts upon them; they are but short-lived gifts, fading flowers. There is but
one flower that will never fade, “The Rose of Sharon.” (J. H.Stewart, M. A.)
The withering
work of the Spirit
(with
1 Peter 1:23-25):--Something more than the decay of our material flesh is
intended here; the carnal mind, the flesh in another sense, was intended by the
Holy Ghost when He bade His messenger proclaim those words. It does not seem to
me that a mere expression of the mortality of our race was needed in this place
by the context; it would hardly keep pace with the sublime revelations which
surround it, and would in some measure be a digression from the subject in
hand. The notion that we are here simply and alone reminded of our mortality
does not square with the New Testament exposition of it in Peter. Look at the
chapter in Isaiah with care. What is the subject of it? It is the Divine
consolation of Zion. The Lord, to remove her sorrow, bids His prophets announce
the coming of the long-expected Deliverer, the end and accomplishment of all
her warfare, and the pardon of all her iniquity. Further, there is no sort of
question that the prophet goes on to foretell the coming of John the Baptist as
the harbinger of the Messiah. The object of the coming of the Baptist, and the
mission of the Messiah whom he heralded, was the manifestation of Divine glory
(verse 5). Well, what next? Was it needful to mention man’s mortality in this
connection? We think not. But there is much more appropriateness in the
succeeding verses, if we see their deeper meaning. Do they not mean this? In
order to make room for the display of the Divine glory in Christ Jesus and His
children there would come a withering of all the glory wherein man boasts
himself; the flesh should be seen in its true nature as corrupt and dying, and
the grace of God alone should be exalted. This would be seen under the ministry
of John the Baptist first, and should be the preparatory work of the Holy Ghost
in men’s hearts, in all time, in order that the glory of the Lord should be
revealed and human pride be for ever confounded. The Spirit blows upon the
flesh, and that which seemed vigorous becomes weak, that which was fair to look
upon is smitten with decay. The withering before the sowing was very
marvellously fulfilled in the preaching of John the Baptist. When our Lord
Himself actually appeared, He came into a withered land whose glories had all
departed. But I am coming to your own ]personal histories. In every one of us
it must be fulfilled that all that is of the flesh m us, seeing it is but as
grass, must be withered, and the comeliness thereof must be destroyed.
I. Turning, then, to THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT IN CAUSING THE GOODLINESS
OF THE FLESH TO FADE, let us--
1. Observe that the work of the Holy Spirit upon the soul of man in
withering up that which is of the flesh is very unexpected. In our text even
the speaker himself, though doubtless one taught of God, when he was bidden to
cry, said, “What shall I cry?” Even he did not know that in order to the
comforting of God’s people there must first be experienced a preliminary
visitation. Many preachers of God’s Gospel have forgotten that the law is the
schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. They have sown on the unbroken fallow
ground, and forgotten that the plough must break the clods. Preachers have
laboured to make Christ precious to those who think themselves rich and
increased in goods; and it has been labour in vain. It is our duty to preach
Jesus Christ even to self-righteous sinners, but it is certain that Jesus
Christ will never be accepted by them while they hold themselves in high
esteem. Wherever there is a real work of grace in any soul, it begins with a
pulling down: the Holy Ghost does not build on the old foundation. The
convincing work of the Spirit, wherever it comes, is unexpected, and even to
the child of God, in whom this process has still to go on, it is often
startling. We begin again to build that which the Spirit of God has destroyed.
Having begun in the Spirit, we act as if we would be made perfect in the flesh;
and then, when our mistaken upbuilding has to be levelled with the earth, we are
almost as astonished as we were when first the scales fell from our eyes.
2. Furthermore, this withering is after the usual order of the Divine
operation. Observe, the method of creation. There seems to be every probability
that this world has been fitted up and destroyed, refitted and then destroyed
again, many times before the last arranging of it for the habitation of men.
What was there in the beginning? Originally, nothing. There was no trace of
another’s plan to interfere with the great Architect. The earth was, as the
Hebrew puts it, Tohu and Bohu, disorder and confusion--in a word, chaos. So it
is in the new creation. When the Lord new creates us, He borrows nothing from
the old man, but makes all things new. Take another instance from the ways of God.
When man has fallen, when did the Lord bring him the Gospel? The first whisper
of the Gospel was, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy
seed and her seed. He shall bruise thy head.” That whisper came to man
shivering in the presence of his Maker, having nothing more to say by way of
excuse; but standing guilty before the Lord. If you will pursue the meditation
upon the acts of God with men, you will constantly see the same thing. God has
given us a wonderful type of salvation in Noah’s ark; but Noah was saved in
that ark in connection with death; he himself, as it were, immured alive in a
tomb, and all the world besides left to destruction. All other hope for Noah
was gone, and then the ark rose upon the waters. Remember the redemption of the
children of Israel out of Egypt: it occurred when they were in the saddest
plight, and their cry went up to heaven by reason of their bondage. As in the
backwoods of America before there can be tillage, the planting of cities, the
arts of civilisation, and the transactions of commerce, the woodman’s axe must
hack and hew: the stately trees of centuries must fall: the roots must be
burned, the old reign of nature disturbed,--even thus the Lord takes away the
first, that He may establish the second. As it has been outwardly, we ought to
expect that it would be within us.
3. We are taught in our text how universal this process is in its
range over the hearts of all those upon whom the Spirit works. The withering is
a withering of what? Of part of the flesh and some portion of its tendencies?
Nay, “All flesh is grass; and all the goodliness thereof”--the very choice and
pick of it--“is as the flower of the field,” and what happens to the grass?
Does any of it live? “The grass withereth,” all of it. The flower, will not
that abide? So fair a thing, has not that an immortality? No, it utterly falls
away. So, wherever the Spirit of God breathes on the soul of man, there is a
withering of everything that is of the flesh, and it is seen that to be carnally
minded is death. Wherever the Spirit of God comes, our righteousness withers as
our sinfulness. There is much more to be destroyed, and, among the rest, away
must go our boasted power of resolution. Still the man will say, “I believe I
have, after all, within myself an enlightened conscience and an intelligence
that will guide me aright. The light of nature I will use, and I do not doubt
that if I wander somewhat I shall find my way back again.” Ah, man! thy wisdom,
which is the very flower of thy nature, what is it but folly, though thou
knowest it not? When the withering wind of the Spirit moves over the carnal
mind, it reveals the death of the flesh in all respects, especially in the
matter of power towards that which is good. We then learn that word of our
Lord, “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
4. Notice the completeness of this withering work within us. The
grass, what does it do? Droop? nay, wither. The flower of the field: does it
hang its head a little? No, according to Isaiah, it fades; and according to
Peter, it falleth away. There is no reviving it with showers, it has come to
its end. Even thus are the awakened led to see that in their flesh there
dwelleth no good thing. What dying and withering work some of God’s servants
have had in their souls! Look at John Bunyan, as he describes himself in his Grace
Abounding! For how many months and even years was the Spirit engaged in
writing death upon all that was the old Bunyan, in order that he might become
by grace a new man fitted to track the pilgrims along their heavenly way. The
old nature never does improve.
5. All this withering work in the soul is painful. As you read these
verses, do they not strike you as having a very funereal tone? “All flesh is
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass
withereth, the flower fadeth.” This is mournful work, but it must be done.
Those who experience much of it when they first come to Christ have great
reason to be thankful. Persons who come to Christ with but comparatively little
knowledge of their own depravity, have to learn it afterwards, and they remain
for a long time babes in Christ, and are perplexed with matters that would not
have troubled them if they had experienced a deeper work at first.
6. Although this is painful, it is inevitable. Why does the grass
wither? Because it is a withering thing. “Its root is ever in its grave, and it
must die.” How could it spring out of the earth, and be immortal? Every
supposed good thing that grows out of your own self, is like yourself, mortal,
and it must die. The seeds of corruption are in all the fruits of manhood’s
tree; let them be as fair to look upon as Eden’s clusters, they must decay.
7. This last word by way of comfort to any that are passing through
the process we are describing. It gives me great joy when I hear that you
unconverted ones are very miserable, for the miseries which the Holy Spirit
works are always the prelude to happiness. It is the Spirit’s work to wither.
“Because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it.” What doth the Lord say? “I
kill.” But what next? “I make alive.” He never makes any alive but those He
kills.
II. THE IMPLANTATION. According to Peter, although the flesh withers,
and the flower thereof falls away, yet in the children of God there is an
unwithering something of another kind. “Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for
ever.” “The Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you.” The Gospel is of use to us because it is not
of human origin. If it were of the flesh, all it could do for us would not land
us beyond the flesh; but the Gospel of Jesus Christ is superhuman, Divine, and
spiritual. If you believe a Gospel which you have thought out for yourself, or
a philosophical Gospel which comes from the brain of man, it is of the flesh,
and will wither, and you will die, and be lost through trusting in it. The only
word that can bless you and be a seed in your soul must be the living and
incorruptible Word of the eternal Spirit. Do you receive it? Then the Holy
Spirit implants it in your soul. And what is the result of it? There comes a
new life as the result of the indwelling of the living Word, and our being born
again by it. A new life it is; not the old nature putting out its better parts;
not the old Adam refining and purifying itself, and rising to something better.
Wherever this new life comes through the Word, it is incorruptible, it lives
for ever. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The transitory
and the durable
I. THE TRANSITORY NATURE OF ALL EARTHLY THINGS. Consider some of
those things which constitute the goodliness and the glory of man, and see how
they justify the assertion in the text.
1. Personal endowments of beauty and of form. We make our boast of
beauty: of the sparkling eye, of comely features. Small is our cause for boast!
That body which seemed to concentrate in it all that was beautiful, see it when
wasted by accidents and by time, when blasted by the touch of death!
2. The text may be illustrated by adverting to the wisdom, as well as
to the beauty and strength of man. Since the attention of man was first
directed to the objects of nature, what an innumerable succession has there
been of notions, of systems, of theories. And yet we look on these ill-digested
systems as belonging only to days which are gone by, and as now utterly
exploded. For the fact is, that all knowledge, except that which is derived
from the Bible, is destined to pass away.
3. Advert to the transitory nature of those things which are the
produce of the imagination and taste. Whatever the pencil of the painter has
portrayed; whatever the chisel of the sculptor has wrought; whatever the skill
of the architect has reared,--all these are destined shortly to be destroyed.
This should convey a very forcible reproof to those who expend so large a
portion of their time in the embellishments of life, in dress, and in
furniture, and in equipages.
4. In reference to the possessions of men,--wealth and fortune, and
their concomitants--grandeur, eminence, pomp, and luxury.
5. As strikingly is this illustrated by the emptiness of that
shapeless thing,--that shadow of ashade called fame.
6. See it illustrated, also, as to dominion and power. Kingdoms and
empires rise and fall--flourish and decay.
7. The world itself is an illustration of the sentiment.
II. THE DURABILITY OF THAT DISPENSATION WITH WHICH GOD HAS BEEN
PLEASED TO BLESS THE WORLD. The “Word of our God shall stand for ever.” This
sentiment is greatly illustrated, and abundantly confirmed, by--
1. The utter impotence of persecution.
2. The utter failure of the opposition of infidelity.
3. The blessed and delightful spread given to it in our day.
4. The dispensation of truth with which God has blessed the world is
the dispensation of the Spirit. The Word of our God is a living word; it is not
only a dispensation of words, addressed to the understanding and will, but a
dispensation of the Spirit coming to the heart of man. (J. Bromley.)
Israel’s
oppressors; Jehovah’s promise
The
words are of universal import; but the connection shows the sense in which they
are here used by the prophet. Israel’s oppressors are mortal: the promise of
Jehovah--such a promise, namely, as that contained in Isaiah 40:4-5 --remains sure. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
The abiding
Word
I. THE WEAK AND PERISHABLE NATURE OF THINGS OF EARTH. The word
translated “goodliness” signifies excellency. Every sort of excellency. Is it
external? Beauty of person, strength of frame, the influence which rank, title,
wealth, power, family bestow? It is but as grass, the withering flower. Is it
internal? The highest order of intellect, the finest imagination, the soundest judgment,
most retentive memory? But the word is wider still. It takes in all moral
excellency, truth, justice, benevolence, morality, and all the external
decencies of that sort of religion which often is taken for the true religion
of the heart, yet is not such. It embraces that in which we are so prone to
confide, human power, our own wisdom; all are as grass, as separated from the
Word of God, and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. The wind of deep
inward temptation, of sore trial, does but pass over it, and it is gone. If man
deal with us, we find it sometimes a very solemn thing, how much more when God
deals with us. When He comes in the convincing power of His Spirit, in the
solemn hour of death, and in the thoughts of immediate appearance before Him,
ah! how wither then the flowers that have seemed the fairest. But in the midst
of all that fades and perishes and is not, there is, blessed be God, that which
standeth for ever.
II. THE ABIDING CHARACTER OF “THE WORD OF OUR GOD.” This is true in whatever
sense we take it. Is it the decree of God? (Isaiah 46:10.) Is it His written and revealing Word? (Isaiah 55:9-10.) Is it His law? Matthew 5:18.) But by “the Word” here, is especially and pre-eminently meant
the Gospel (1 Peter 1:23-25). The Gospel stands upon the immutable perfections of God. There
is not an attribute that does not uphold it. “The Word of our God shall stand
for ever.” It shall stand amidst all the instability of the creature, amidst
all the faithlessness of man, amidst all the unfaithfulness and unbelief of our
own hearts. Is the grass to be despised, the flower to be scorned? Be thankful
for them while you have them, admire that God who is in them, their chief
Beauty, their only real Beauty. Be thankful, seek the right use of them by
seeking to glorify God in them. Is it strength of body? strength of intellect?
Use them for Him, and in His service. But remember, they fade as you behold,
and wither as you use them. Hold them as perishable memorials of the
imperishable God. How real are the blessings of the Gospel when realised in the
soul! The righteousness of Christ. It stands, it is everlasting (Daniel 9:24). Consolation is everlasting (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Light, everlasting Isaiah 60:19). Love, everlasting (Jeremiah 31:3). Life, eternal Romans 6:23). The blessings in the Gospel are durable riches, because the
Gospel endureth. Why is it that there is so much instability among many that
yet are true believers? They are not rooted and grounded in Christ. (J. H.
Brans, M. A.)
Verse 8
The grass withereth
The decay of the material
Viewed in its immediate
relations to the context, the “flesh,” which is grass, is the vast population
of the Babylonian empire.
The “goodliness thereof,” which is the flower of the grass, is the pomp and
pride of the Babylonian civilisation. The “Word of the Lord” is that prophetic
word of the future glory of Israel and her Messiah-King which seems to have
found a grave of oblivion beneath the overshadowing growth of Babylonian
splendour.
I. THE
NECESSARY DECADENCE OF ALL THAT IS SIMPLY MATERIAL AND EARTHLY.
1. The
world had never looked upon a more splendid civilisation than that which
greeted the eye of the prophet as he looked down in vision upon the great
empire of Nebuchadnezzar. For a thousand years Babylon had been the seat of
empire, but under her present sovereign she had risen to a glory of which her
founders had never dreamed. Nebuchadnezzar, following in the footsteps of
Nabopolassar, his illustrious father, had extended his empire by conquest until
he was in fact as well as in name, “King of men.” Northward, he held all
Assyria in subjection, and reigned to the limits of the frozen zone. Southward,
he had subjugated Egypt with its vast empire, and reigned to the limits of the
equatorial belt. Tyre, with all her world-wide commerce, was his vassal, and so
his fame had been carried to the remotest borders of the great west. This vast
empire it was now the ambition of Nebuchadnezzar to consolidate and unify. For
this purpose he had opened long lines of communication between its remotest
parts. Canals, one of which was five hundred miles in length; highways across
the great deserts connecting with the hills of Arabia and the Mediterranean
Sea, with caravansaries, fortified garrisons, wells of water, etc., at all
needed points; walled cities along the great thoroughfares as storehouses and
resting-places for man and beast--these were amongst the wise provisions for
bringing the people of various nationalities and races into the cordial
relations of mutual interchange and commerce. But the purposes of the great
conqueror went further than this. To give stability to his empire he sought to
bring about an amalgamation of all the races and a unification of all the
religions within his realm. This was the significance of the image of gold
which was set up in the plain of Dura, and which all were required to worship
on penalty of being thrown into the furnace of fire. And when, in obedience to
the Divine voice, the prophet declared all this might and glory to be but as
the evanescent and fading flower, you and I, if we had been present, would have
looked upon him as some misanthropic churl. And yet, what were the real facts
in the case? Within less than forty years from the time to which the prophet
alludes, the city was captured and pillaged, the seat of government removed,
and the empire distributed among the conquering allies.
2. We
find ourselves to-day in the midst of a civilisation as much more splendid than
that of Rome as the latter was superior to that of Chaldea. In all that constitutes
true greatness; in all that is at once beneficent and beautiful; in liberty, in
philanthropy, in literary and aesthetic culture, in adventure of science and
perfection of art, there seems scarcely anything more to be desired. Humanity
seems at last to have attained its goal. Culture is in its richest and most
perfect flower. We are ready to say, “Surely this consummate civilisation of
our race shall not wither like that of Babylon or Rome!” Has it any elements of
durability that its forerunners had not? The answer to these questions will be
found in the answer to another, namely, whether this civilisation shall root
itself simply in that which is material, or shall be permeated by that which is
spiritual and Divine? For amidst all the decadence of the past, there has been
ever that which could not perish, which was not subject to change, and which
had the power of communicating its own stability to all that came under its
influence.
II. THE
STABILITY OF THAT WHICH IS SPIRITUAL AND DIVINE. “The Word of the Lord.” Other
things undergo mutations, but it abides ever the same. It has also this
marvellous property, that it communicates the elements of its own permanence to
all that comes under its influence. It is thus like a seed cast into the soil, which
takes up inert matter, incorporating it with itself, and thus imparting to it
the life which is immanent in itself. Of this life-containing, life-imparting
power of the Word of God we may find beautiful illustration in the history of
the decline and fall of the empires to which we have referred. Look first at
Babylon. Is there anything that shall survive the wreck of the imperial city?
Yes, there is a captive people, despised, toiling as slaves in the erection of
the splendid architectural monuments of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign. Few and feeble
apparently they are, overshadowed by the countless hosts of Chaldea. But they
are believers in the Word of the Lord. That Word has, as an incorruptible seed,
found a lodgment in their hearts. It has imparted to them its own immortality.
Babylon, that rejects this Word, shall perish; but Israel that believes it and
lives upon it shall survive. That which we have seen to be true in this respect
of Babylon was equally true of Rome. The eternal city was “laid on heaps,” but
from the ruins came Christianity in all the beauty of undying youth. The
Vandals that destroyed everything else had no power over it. Nay, in the
breasts of the very slaves whom they bore to their northern homes, they carried
this incorruptible seed. The religion of the slave conquered the master; and
hence came that hardy type of Celtic and Saxon Christianity which made the
north of Europe the seed-bed of the Reformation. There are preserving salts
which, taken up into the pores of the frailest grass and the most delicate
flower, do, as it were, transfigure them in their beauty and so preserve them
for ever from decay. And thus the religion of Christ has power to give
immortality to that which is most fleeting and evanescent. It lays its wand
upon that frail flower of physical beauty which lasts but for a day, and it
transforms it into the undecaying beauty of the resurrection. It enters into
the pulses of youthful ardour and enthusiasm, and makes them beat high and warm
in pursuits that can never be interrupted and from motives that never pall. It
lifts ambition to a higher plane. It gives to all the activities of the soul
their normal and healthful development. It brings the favour of God which is
life, and His loving-kindness which is better than life. And what it does for
individuals it does in a certain sense for nations also. Let the atheistic
materialism, which is seeking to supplant Christianity, become the dominant
influence in this country, and Ichabod is written upon all our institutions.
The fate of Babylon and of Rome will be ours. The nation and kingdom that will
not serve God shall perish. (T. D. Witherspoon, D. D.)
The flower
fadeth
Progress in decay
There are at least two
sides to everything. To everything in morals there is a dark and a bright side.
Every truth is a revelation of God--a Theophany--a Shechinah. And as the Divine
pillar in the Exodus had sometimes an aspect of cloud, and sometimes of fire,
so is it with all truth. Its appearance alters with our own changes of
character or condition; to the eye of sense it may be a Shechinah of gloom, to
the eye of faith a Shechinah of glory. Thus is it with our text.
I. LET
US CONTEMPLATE IT FIRST BY THE EYE OF SENSE. Let us sit solemnly together in
the shadow of the Shechinah. How depressing seems the thought! What a tender
and fragile growth is “the grass”! How short-lived all the goodliness of “the
flower of the field”! Yet such is human life! “The flower fadeth!” How
impressive the truth when we think of others--the beloved of home and life!
Where are the happy children who sat with you in the school, and went forth in
your holiday?rathe men and women who shared with you life’s heavier tasks and
strangely saddened joys? How many of them do you meet to-day?
2. “The
flower fadeth!” How impressive the truth when you think of yourselves! Where
now is me bounding heart of your childhood? Where the unclouded hopefulness of
youth? As the tide of time rolls on, first, youthful beauty fades like a
flower. Then activity declines: the airy step of childhood flags into the slow
measures of weary feet! Then strength decays: the right arm loses its cunning,
the form bends under its load! Meanwhile, even the moral man seems to share the
infirmities of the physical; the tender affections are chilled, the glorious
intellect unhinged or exhausted. And it is all saddening--this withering of the
human blossom, and the heart recoils from its emblem--a fading flower! Let us
so live that it may be said of us truly, “His glorious beauty was a fading
flower.” For the fading flower hath fulfilled well its ministry! Was its life
long or short; was its beauty great or little; was its sphere wide or narrow;
the flower had done well the special work God gave it to do. Richly varied and
full of splendour was the flora of the now barren Palestine in the days when
Isaiah swept from his harp this requiem to the withering flower! In nothing,
perhaps, are there more notable differences than in the spheres and services of
flowers. In the wild howling desert the stately palm waves its radiant
flower-tuft, and many a lowly plant and shrub open fragrant blossoms. And amid
Polar ice-fields and in the fissured lava of volcanoes come forth these sweet
children of the summer in their ministry of beauty and of love. Meanwhile,
earth’s fairer fields are beautified, like old Eden, with their blessed
omnipresence. They are all of different classes and uses; but each, in its own
season and sphere, makes its little life a blessing--and the air of heaven is
sweeter, and insect-life is fed, and the heart of childhood is thrilled with
joy, and the soul of wearied manhood is made happier and holier, because of the
silent yet earnest ministries of the fading flower!
II. TO
THE EYE OF FAITH THE SHECHINAH IS GLORIOUS. Indeed, did these tides of time
roll over a sinless world, every premonition even of our mortal decay would
awaken only joyful anticipations and emotions. For what, after all, is a
flower? Is it in itself a perfection--a consummation? No! far from it! It is,
at most, a phenomenon of progress! And its decay is only the passing away of a
good thing, giving place to a better! The great end and purpose of all
vegetable life is the perfected seed! And analogous to this is the progress and
development of man’s mortal life. Its earthly offices and uses are only for the
strengthening within of the spiritual and immortal; our present life, with all
its activities and enjoyments, is but the flower-form of a being whose
fruit-form or seed-form is in an after and higher life! And death itself is no
more than the falling of the petals from the well-set fruit. Therefore, as the
wise husbandman grieves not when his orchards shower their gay blossoms, but
rejoices, rather, because this is but a prophecy and promise of the golden
wealth of autumn, so we should not grieve when, in the development of man, the
mortal flower-leaves fall away from the swelling fruit of immortality!
1. It
applies to individuals. Fruit is always of greater value than flowers.
Therefore, the trained intellect, the calm judgment, the sanctified affections,
the subdued passions, the strong, retruant conscience of the mature man, are
worth incalculably more than the fiery impulses, the hot and headlong passions,
and all the prodigal bloom and aroma of his younger and fairer life. It applies
as well to communities or nations--to that organic life of the race which
constitutes its oneness. Here, too, the fruit is worth more than the flowers.
2. The
world has had its radiant spring-time and its gorgeous flora. In Rome, Greece,
Persia, Egypt, Assyria, Judaea, human nature put forth splendid blossoms until
the whole air was fragrant with intoxicating aroma. The old philosophy, the old
mythology, the old arts and eloquence and poetry--the whole power and passion
of the young imperial genius of old time gave to earth the seeming of a fairy
palace filled with shapes and sounds of surpassing splendour. And verily that
weird glory hath passed away t. But have we lost by the decay? Are earth and
life sadder than in those heroic times? Would you exchange your printing-press
for all the pencils of old artists, and the tongues of old orators, and the
harps of old minstrels? Would you barter railroad and telegraph and steamship
for all the radiant dreams of the old idealists? Would you give up your simple
Christian faith for the old gorgeous mythology?
3. We
are considering the whole of earthly life as the flower-form, rudimental to the
heavenly fruit-form; and the analogy between flower-life and man-life is
manifold.
Summer blossoms
We expect the leaves to
fade and fall in October. They have had their full time of growth and
unfolding, and their fair share of the beauty and blessedness of the world. But
there is nothing to prepare us for the fading of the blossoms of early summer.
When, therefore, we see the flowers fading on the ground and the blossoms
falling from the tree, our feelings receive something like a shock. The
contrast between the death of these fair creations and the bright overflowing
fulness of life around fills us with a peculiar sadness. A premature fate, we
feel, has overtaken them; they have not had their full share of the feast of
life.
1. Looking
exclusively at the fact itself, there is nothing but sadness in the fading of
the flower. It seems a wanton destruction of so much life and beauty; and we
are apt to ask, “To what purpose is this waste?”
2. But
much as we mourn all these fading flowers, the human as well as the natural, we
cannot wish them to abide for ever. It is the fading flower that is so
wonderfully beautiful. Fix its beauty unchanged, and you make it an artificial
flower, a dry mummy. It is the fleeting human blossom that is so tenderly dear.
We love each other more devotedly owing to the shadow feared of man that falls
upon and consecrates our love; because we must soon, we know not how soon, be
parted. We should feel everlasting flowers to be utterly incongruous in a world
of change and decay; their steadfast continuance, when there was no reason for
their continuance, would weary and offend our minds.
3. But
the truth of the fading flower has another and a brighter side. It is not all
death and desolation. We shall pass at once out of the shadow into the sunshine
when we consider the reason why the flower fades. The flower fades that the
fruit may take its place. The fading of the flower, rightly viewed, is
therefore a natural and necessary phenomenon of life. In itself it is joyous,
and not grievous. In the unfallen Eden the fading flowers suggested no thought
of gloom to Adam, but only of bright progress from life to fuller life, from a
lower to a higher stage of development and perfection. Viewed, then, in the
light of Him who hath brought life and immortality to light in His Gospel, and
free from the cloud of sin, the fading of human-life and of flower-life is not in
reality sad, but joyful. Man dies, but his life on earth is only for the
formation of the eternal life. Every gift we receive is but a promise; every
beauty we behold but a prophecy; every pleasure we enjoy but a foretaste. The
Christian’s whole life is but the earnest of the inheritance that awaits him.
We see by faith, although we are slow of heart to believe it, that our very
losses and privations are ministering to a noble and goodly development
pregnant with an everlasting promise. Death itself is the act of blossoming. It
is a scientific fact that it is the dying plant alone that flowers. Blossoming
is the highest point in plant life. When it has produced its blossom it
perishes. In human life it is so likewise. Our existence here is but a daily
dying, the continual production of a blossom, within whose petals as they
wither is expanding the immortal fruit; and death is but the final falling of
the sere petals from the fruit when it has set. It is not destruction, but
development; the mortal not destroyed, but putting on immortality.
4. Then,
consider that the blossom belongs to the plant itself, the fruit to the race.
The blossom is the end of the selfish life; the fruit is the beginning of the
unselfish.
5. Further
still, the plant that flowers is confined to one spot; but when it fruits and
seeds it gets wings, as it were, and can fly away from its natal place to long
distances, as you have often seen the thistle-down or the fleecy parasol of the
dandelion do, to make the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad, and the
desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. Is it not so in human life? That
death which seems to bound our life, in reality gives us wings, and takes us
out of this cramped and narrow sphere of change, and sorrow, and sin, into the
freer air and larger sunshine of God’s everlasting kingdom. The fruition of
life is not the limitation, but the freedom and enlargement of life. And who
knows what life and beauty and blessedness to others may spring from seed
dropped by our losses and death? Looking thus at this life as only the
flower-form of our being, we see the reason of its brevity. The life of the
blossom is short because it has to prepare the way for the fruit; and the
season in which it is put forth is dangerous to the formation of the tender
germ. We should welcome the growing infirmities and decays of life as signs
that summer, the season of fleeting glories, is passing away, and that autumn,
the season of enduring fruition, is drawing nigh. They proclaim to us that now
our salvation is nearer than when we believed.
6. But I
reserve the grandest thought connected with my theme to the last. The flower
fades and falls off the plant, but it does not altogether vanish; it does not
perish utterly. Some part of it, larger or smaller, according to the species,
remains behind to form the nucleus of the fruit. In every case the lower part
of the central and most important part of the blossom is left, and it is out of
it that the fruit is formed. A good deal of the fleeting flower, indeed all
that is essential in it, is thus made permanent in the enduring fruit; and the
fruit itself may be looked upon as a more perfect and lasting blossom,
retaining the colour, and fragrance, and grace of form that distinguished the
blossom, but superadding qualities, such as nutritiousness and flavour, which
the blossom lacked. Is not the analogy here very instructive and consoling? Not
only do all our sanctified losses turn to gains, but the gains are largely
composed of what we lost. We take up with us into every stage of our advancing
progress what was best and most serviceable in the previous stage; and in the
fruit of our achievements we can trace much of the fair blossoms of hope and
aspiration which led to its formation. Nothing that is really good in human
life ought to be thrown away as useless when we have outgrown it. The good of
childhood ought to remain in manhood. The enthusiasm, the freshness of
interest, the innocent simplicity, the spirit of hope, inquiry, and wonder
which characterise our early years, ought to endure late in life, under the
calmer and quieter outside of maturity. Let us not mourn, then, that so many
fair and precious things pass away from us as we go on to our immortality; for
nothing that is really essential to our well-being shall perish utterly, but
shall be absorbed into our souls and become their eternal wealth. (H.
Macmillan, LL. D.)
The thought of death
The thought of death is
not to be dwelt upon morbidly in the manner of Swift, who said, “I was
forty-seven years old when I began to think of death, and the reflections upon
it now begin when I wake in the morning and end when I am going to sleep.” But
it is well for us to have the thought at hand. (W. R. Nicoll, LL. D.)
The Word of our
God shall stand for ever
The higher criticism
I. WHAT
IS MEANT BY “THE WORD OF OUR GOD”? You answer, “The Bible.” I think not. At
least, and certainly, to Isaiah it could not mean more of the Old Testament
than he possessed--a mere fragment of the Book in our hands. Even to Peter it
could not have meant all the records we have, seeing that some had not been
written when he repeated the prophet’s statement. What, then, are we to
understand by this phrase, “the Word of our God”? Simply, truth. Truth in its
very widest sense, whether in the Bible or out of it, is “the Word of God.”
II. Higher
criticism proposes to solve for you and me, what we have neither the time nor
ability to do for ourselves, TO WHAT EXTENT INTERPOLATION HAS GONE ON. It is a
strictly honest, unbiassed, sincere scrutiny into the claims, history,
authorship, date, and language of the books of the Bible.
III. WHAT
WILL BE THE RESULT? Only good. If we are honest we shall want only the truth;
and after the examination is completed truth will stand more grandly than ever
before us.
IV. OUR
ATTITUDE TOWARD HIGHER CRITICISM may well be for these reasons--
1. One
of welcome. We rejoice in every honest and reverential inquiry for truth.
2. One
of hope. The
future of our faith looks all the brighter from the discussions and questionings
of to-day. Men are beginning to think. An interest is awakening in the vast
questions that relate to our higher life.
3. One
of confidence. Are we wise in our fear for the safety of “the Word of our God”?
Does “the Word of our God” need our defence? Is not He pledged to its security?
That which cannot stand the test of criticism had better go; but truth, “the
Word of our God, shall stand for ever.” (J. E. W. Cook.)
The enduring Word
“The Word of the Lord
endureth for ever.” How do we know that? Certainly, not in the same way as we
are sure of the universality of death. We know it to be true if we believe two
things--
1. That
God, the perfect moral being, exists.
2. That
He has spoken to mare The Word of God, speaking in conscience, in revelation,
is like God Himself--above the waterfloods of change; it lasts. (H. P.
Liddon, D. D.)
The passing and the
abiding
I. Since
the Word of our God shall stand for ever, the BIBLE WILL REMAIN.
1. Think
of the Bible as history. “The Old Testament is supported by the exhumed records
of the kings of Egypt and Babylon and Nineveh and Moab. We are now shown in the
Boulag Museum at Cairo the very body of the Egyptian king who oppressed Israel.
At a hundred points confirmatory evidence has been dug out of the Assyrian ruins.
In the day when the Bible was attacked by unbelief, there appeared out of the
very ground hosts of defenders. God’s Providence supports His Book.”
2. Think
of the Bible as to philosophy. John Stuart Mill will tell us, “It is impossible
to find in the ideas of any philosophy, even the latest, a single point which
is not anticipated and ennobled in Christianity.”
3. Think
of the Bible as to science. It is true, as one has said wisely and wittily,
that “the intention of Holy Scripture is to teach us to go to heaven, and not
how the heavens go.” And yet the great astronomer Sir John Herschel will tell
us: “All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming
more and more strongly the truth contained in the Sacred Scriptures.”
4. Think
of the Bible as to morals. Those words of James Russell Lowell, spoken so
bravely at a dinner in London, before a company of sceptics, are well worth
treasuring: “The worst kind of religion is no religion at all. And those men,
living in ease and luxury, indulging themselves in the amusement of going
without religion, may be thankful that they live in lands where the Gospel they
neglect has tamed the beastliness and ferocity of the men who, but for
Christianity, might long ago have eaten their carcasses like the South Sea
Islanders, or cut off their heads and tanned their hides like the monsters of
the French Revolution.” This Bible, the Word of God, which history
substantiates, which philosophy cannot anticipate, which science reinforces,
which is the source of all true morals and secure civilisation, is to abide.
II. Since
the Word of our God shall stand for ever, THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST IS TO ENDURE
AND CONQUER. For the very heart and kernel of God’s Word is the revelation of
the certainly vanquishing kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
III. Since
the Word of our God standeth for ever, HEAVEN WILL SHINE ON US AT THE LAST. (W.
Hoyt, D. D.)
“The Word of our God”
All explanations can be
reconciled by suffering the prophet to express his own ideas, without any
adventitious limitation and admitting, as the only sure conclusion, that by
“Word” he means neither promise, nor prophecy, nor Gospel merely, but “every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy
8:3; Matthew
4:4).
There is a tacit antithesis between the Word of God and man; what man says is
uncertain and precarious, what God says cannot fail. Thus understood, it
includes prediction, precept, promise, and the offer of salvation; and although
the latter is not meant exclusively, the apostle makes a perfectly correct and
most important application of the verse when, after quoting it, he adds, “and
this is the Word which is preached ( εὐαγγελισθέν)
unto you”; that is to say, this prophetic declaration is emphatically true of
the Gospel of Christ. (J. A. Alexander.)
The Bible its own defence
A well-known Presbyterian
minister is reported to have said, “We must defend the Bible.” Must we? The
Bible is badly off when it needs your defence or mine. I stood on the “Big
Four” railway track the other day watching the Cincinnati and Cleveland express
pass by. A young bee, called out by the warm April winds and bright spring
sunshine, flew toward the train. Supposing I had rushed for a club or a rifle,
and had run down toward the approaching express, crying aloud, “I must defend
the cars from that bee’s attack,” would you not have said, “Get out of the way;
let the train defend itself”? The Bible is its own best defence. (J. E. W.
Cook.)
Verse
9
O Zion, that bringest good tidings
The tidings the Church has to publish
The text has been variously rendered.
The best authorities give it, “Thou that bringest good tidings to Zion,” which
rendering better agrees with the latter part of the verse, with some parallel
passages, and with the scope of the passage. Our translators took Zion and
Jerusalem in the nominative case, and so did others before them, as if the
prophet called on the chief city to acquaint the other cities of Judah with the
joyful news of their returning inhabitants: but there is far more congruity in
the herald’s being instructed to ascend the high mountains that the Jewish
captives in the remotest corners of Chaldea may hear the joyful proclamation of
liberty, and prepare to return to their own country. The Jewish Targum (no mean
authority) paraphrases the words thus: “O ye prophets that bring glad tidings
to Zion” Vitringa supports the same idea, as does also Bishop Lowth. The
language may, with great force, be addressed to the missionaries of every
denomination. “O thou that hast good tidings to tell, get thee up into the high
mountain. Say to the cities of the Eastern and the Western world, Behold your
God.”
I. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH HAS
GREAT TIDINGS TO TELL TO THE WORLD AT LARGE. The Jewish prophets were the
heralds of a Saviour to come, and beautiful upon the mountains were the feet of
those who published peace; but the Christian Church has to proclaim the actual
accomplishment of the great salvation. We have to tell of a Saviour incarnate,
crucified, enthroned. We have to tell of a justifying righteousness, a
sanctifying spirit, a pardoning God: of Satan vanquished. The Christian Church
has to reveal--
1. A system of truth as
opposed to the errors of heathenism. These truths are universally applicable.
All have minds to which truth is precious as life to the eye, and the truth as
it is in Jesus is more needful than life itself.
2. A system of devotion, as
opposed to the absurdities of their superstition. Would you choose to have them
still ignorant of the attributes of acceptable devotion?
3. A system of purity, as
opposed to the shameless vices of their idolatry. Morality is interested in the
triumph of missions.
4. The Christian Church can
tell them of the life and immortality brought to light by the Gospel, as
opposed to their obscure and degrading notions of futurity.
II. THESE TIDINGS OUGHT NOT TO
BE KEPT SECRET, BUT ARE TO BE URGENTLY AND UNIVERSALLY PROCLAIMED. “Lift up thy
voice with strength: say, Behold your God.” This light ought to be held forth
as a burning torch, like the beacon light of ancient Pharos, that it may
scatter the darkness of the night, and guide the tempest-tossed vessel of
distant nations to the safe anchorage and peaceful haven of the welcome shore.
We are bound by every tie, by all that can constitute the most solemn and religious
obligation, to diffuse far and wide the grand principles of salvation. Dwell
upon the moral destitution and wretchedness of the nations sitting in darkness,
and simply ask whether this be a desirable state of things.
III. THE CERTAINTY THAT THESE
TIDINGS SHALL NOT BE PROCLAIMED IN VAIN. God has said, “My Word shall not
return void.” The Spirit is promised. (S. Thodey.)
The Church and her message
I. THE THOUGHTS THAT CLUSTER
AROUND THE NAME. “O Zion, that bringest glad tidings.” That is almost a definition
of the Church; at any rate, it is a description of her by her most
characteristic office and function--that which marks and separates her from all
associations and societies of men. Her true dignity is that she bears a Gospel
in her hand, and grace is poured into her lips. We are to suppose the
manifestation and approach of the Divine Deliverer; hence what constitutes Zion
the messenger of good tidings is the presence in her of the living God.
Translate that into New Testament language, and it just comes to this: that
what constitutes the Church the evangelist for the world is the simple
possession of Christ, or of the Gospel, and that breaks out into two or three
points.
1. Whoever has Christ has the
power to impart Him.
2. The possession of Christ
for yourselves imposes upon you the obligation to impart Him.
3. The very fact of the
possession of this Gospel, or of this Christ, for ourselves ought to--and in
all healthy conditions will--inspire the impulse to impart. All deep conviction
longs to be vocal.
II. We have here, in a very
picturesque and vivid form, the setting forth of THE MANNER IN WHICH THE
EVANGELIST ZION IS TO PROCLAIM HER MESSAGE. The fair-featured herald is bidden
to get up into the high mountain, perhaps a mere picturesque detail, perhaps
some reference to the local position of the city set upon a hill, like the
priests of Ebal or Gerizim, or Alpine shepherds, calling to each other across
the valleys, to secure some vantage ground; and, next, to let her voice roll
out across the glen. No faltering whisper will do, but a voice that compels
audience. “Lift up thy voice with strength.” But a timid heart will make a
tremulous voice, and fear and doubt will whisper when courage will ring it out.
So “be not afraid”; there is the foundation of the clearness and the loudness
with which the word is to be uttered. Our message is to be given with a courage
and a force that are worthy of it. “Be not afraid.” That is a lesson for this
day. There are plenty of causes of fear round about us, if, like Peter on the
water, we look at the waves instead of at the Master.
1. Let us cherish a firm,
soul-absorbing confidence in the power and truth of the message we have to
tell.
2. Do not let us make too
much of the enemy.
3. Let us remember the
victories of the past.
4. Above all, let us remember
who fights with us.
III. THE SUBSTANCE AND CONTENTS
OF THE EVANGELIST ZION’S MESSAGE, “Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold you
God!” They were to be pointed to a great historical act, in which God had
manifested Himself to men; and the words are not only an exclamation, but an
entreaty, and the message was to be given to these little daughter cities of
Judah as representing all of those for whom the deliverance had been
wrought;--all which things are paralleled in the message that is committed to
our hand. We all have given to us the charge of pointing men to the great
historical fact wherein God is visible to men. You cannot reveal God by word,
you cannot reveal God by thought. There is no way open to Him to make Himself
known to His creatures except the way by which men make themselves known to one
another, that is, by their deeds; and so high above all speculation, high above
all abstraction, nearer to us than all thought, stands the historical fact in
which God shows Himself to the world, and that is in the person of Jesus
Christ. How beautiful in that connection the verses following my text are:
“Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand”; yet “He shall feed His flock
like a shepherd.” And so in that Christ is the power of God, for He is the arm
of the Lord; and in that Christ is the gentleness of God; and whilst men grope
in the darkness, our business is to point to the living, dying Son, and to say,
“There you have the ultimate, the perfect representation of the unseen God.” (A.
Maclaren, D. D.)
News proclaimed on mountain-tops
Some suppose an allusion to the practice of addressing large
assemblies from the summit or declivity of hills 9:7; Deuteronomy 27:12; Matthew 5:1). J.D. Michaelis compares
the ancient practice of transmitting news by shouting from one hill-top to
another, as described by Caesar (Bell. Gall. 7.3)
. The essential idea is that of local elevation as extending the diffusion of
the sound. (J. A. Alexander.)
Behold your God
The manifestation of God
Taking the words as they stand in the text, consider them in--
I. THEIR EXTERNAL
ACCOMPLISHMENT in the incarnation, nativity, personal appearance, and
ministration of the Son of God in Jerusalem and in the cities of Judah.
II. THEIR INTERNAL
ACCOMPLISHMENT in the hearts of all those who have spiritually received the
tidings of His Gospel. It is the process of Christ, from His incarnation to His
ascension, spiritually repeated within us; “God and Saviour” and our salvation
entirely depends upon our “beholding this”, manifesting Himself in all His
amiable attributes within us, and by our will cheerfully co-operating with Him
in His great work of love. (J. Duche, M. A.)
The beholding of Jesus Christ
The prophet is directing the attention of his countrymen and of
the Church in every age to the Messiah who is the true God and eternal life.
This illustrious personage we may behold in a variety of interesting and
instructive situations.
1. Carry your thoughts back
into eternity, and behold Him, who in time was made of a woman, sitting upon
the circle of the heavens, in the essential glory of the Godhead; His
habitation immensity, His duration eternity, His perfections uncreated and
infinite.
2. As a confirmation of the
original glory and Godhead of Jesus Christ, “behold your God” at the morning of
creation, the dawn of time. Was it not His effective hand that planted the
pillars of the universe and raised the magnificent fabric of earth and heaven?
What He formed as the God of creation, He preserves as the God of power.
3. From the fall of our first
parents to the birth of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer is only to be seen in
promises and prophecies, in sacrifices and ceremonies. Passing over, therefore,
this long lapse of time, suffer me to conduct your thoughts to Bethlehem.
There, “behold your God.”
4. Omitting the occurrences
of His childhood and youth, let me invite you to look at Jesus entering into
the wilderness under the influence and direction of the Holy Ghost. Behold Him
tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights. It is a Divine maxim that
“God cannot be tempted, neither tempteth He any man.” But God in human flesh
sustained the hour of trial.
5. After this strange event,
permitted to the powers of darkness, Jesus appears in a new scene of life.
Behold, then, your God going forth as a teacher, accompanying His ministrations
and instructions with signs and wonders, and all the marks of Deity. And He is
the “same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.” In every age, as well as in the
days of His flesh, there is treasured up in Him, for the flee use of all that
come unto Him, pardon, and peace, and grace, and strength, and life, and
salvation.
6. Just before the close of
His ministrations, a profitable view of the Lord Jesus opens to us in the
garden of Gethsemane: there “behold your God!” He appears emphatically a “man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” But let us follow Him from the garden,
through all the intermediate scenes of insult, reproach, and ignominy, to the
bar of Pontius Pilate: there at the tribunal of man “behold your God!” He, who
shall one day appear to judge every man according to his deeds, now stands
arraigned as a criminal before the judgment-seat of man. Judgment is perverted:
Pilate declares Him innocent, yet suffers Him to be mocked, and scourged, and
crucified. Mingling in the crowd, follow Him from the common hall, and “behold
your God” as He passes through, the streets of Jerusalem,. bearing. His cross
amidst the revilings and tauntmgs of the people, who, m all the virulence of
persecution, exclaim, “Away with Him, away with Him! crucify Him!” “Behold your
God” ascending the summit of Calvary. Oh, what a scene was here! a scene which
all nature seems backward to behold. Standing at the foot of the Cross, learn
that “ye were not redeemed with corruptible things,” etc. (1 Peter 1:18-19).
7. The last view which we
have to take of Jesus Christ closes His sufferings, and accomplishes our
redemption. “Behold your God” bursting the barriers of the tomb, vanquishing
the king of terrors, despoiling the sepulchre, breaking the bands of
corruption, and rising to life, never to die again. Then was fulfilled that
prophecy, “O death, I will be thy plagues.” To enter into the spirit of the
passage, you must keep your mind’s eye upon the Saviour, and behold your God as
He is ascending to the realms of bliss. Conclusion--“Now is the accepted time,
now is the day of salvation.” Now it is your privilege by faith to “behold your
God” as a Saviour, delighting in mercy. (S. Payne.)
Verses 10-12
Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand
Power and tenderness
The beauty and
peculiarity of these words consist in the combination of the might of
Adonai-Jehovah (Isaiah 40:10), with the gentleness of the Shepherd, carrying in His bosom the
weak and weary of the flock (Isaiah 40:11).
I. “Behold your God,” FULL OF MIGHT AND MAJESTY (Isaiah 40:10). To Christ all power has been committed. He is “the arm of God”
(Isaiah 51:9), “the Man of Jehovah’s right hand,” etc. (Psalms 80:17). His name is “Immanuel.”
II. HE COMBINES WITH THE POWER OF THE VICTORIOUS KING, THE GENTLENESS
OF THE TENDER AND LOVING SHEPHERD. “He shall feed His flock.” That word is a
comprehensive one. It means that He shall act all the part of a shepherd
towards them; leading them, protecting them, providing alike the green pastures
and the still waters, Nay, as if this were not enough, He is beautifully
represented as “gathering the lambs in His arms”;--making a pillow for them in
the folds of the loose “abbeh,” or shepherd’s mantle, as they nestle close in
His bosom. And while thus He deals with the tender lambs, He is equally
merciful and considerate not to overdrive their nursing mothers. Exult in this
twofold word of comfort, “Behold thy King cometh, meek and lowly.” Behold your
God! Behold your Shepherd!, strong to smite, strong to save. (J. R. Macduff,
D. D.)
Characteristics of the
great Saviour
These words
exhibit to our view some of the most lively characteristics of that illustrious
Saviour by whose incarnation our fallen race are become again entitled to that
long-lost inheritance which had been forfeited by sin, and by whose redeeming
process in their souls they are rendered capable of enjoying it. The
illuminated prophet proceeds to point out the personal character of this great
Deliverer.
1. “Behold! the LORD GOD shall come with strong hand, and His arm
shall rule for Him.” The mistaken Israelites vainly ascribed to these words a
temporal interpretation, and looked for a deliverer whose conquering arm should
effectually rescue them from the earthly powers to which they were tributary.
But the true children of faithful Abraham wait for the spiritual accomplishment
of this prophecy in their hearts; and see and feel “the strong hand” of their
Redeemer in that inward opposition which He raises in their breasts to all the
evil desires and corrupt passions of human nature.
2. “Behold! His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.” This
work is no other than the complete deliverance of man from the captivity of sin
and Satan. This reward is no other than the glorious acquisition of those lost
or wandering souls, who were originally His by creation, and are now doubly so
by redemption. The prophet seems to dwell upon the power and majesty of this
Deliverer. He represents Him as coming with a strong hand: and indeed, such is
usually His first appearance in the sinner’s heart. David speaks of this first
appearance in the most alarming terms: “The arrows of the Almighty stick fast
in me, and His hand presseth me sore.” The first feelings of an awakened and
convicted conscience are agonising indeed; for they are the breaking forth of
heaven’s majestic light upon the benighted soul, which shakes nature to her
very centre, and discloses every hidden recess to which conscious guilt flies
from its approach. But when viewed with composure, and received with
cheerfulness, it soon becomes as mild and sweet as the radiance of the risen
day after a dark and tempestuous night. Hence it is that in the next verse we
find the dignity and majesty of this august Personage sweetly tempered with
condescension and love, and melting into heavenly meekness, gentleness, and
compassion.
3. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd,” etc.
The magnitude and
tenderness of Divine dealings
We find
frequent reference in Scripture to the Divine hand, arm, and bosom, by which
God is brought the nearer to the level of our comprehension, and within touch
of our love and confidence. In these verses there is a striking combination in
the use made of these figures.
I. THE MAGNITUDE OF GOD’S POWER AND RULE. “Who hath measured the
waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span?” etc. The
reference to the Divine hand is essentially human, man being the only creature
on God’s earth who has a hand. How wonderful is its construction! It is
marvellously adapted for skill, power, and authority. It is that which in happy
combination with other endowments gives man dominion over creation. It is his
hand which, in more senses than one, sways the sceptre. It is his hand that
asserts his royal nature, his power and authority to rule. Again, the arm is
that which gives leverage to the hand, and without which the hand would be
useless. The hand and arm of God are spoken of here. We read elsewhere that the
heavens are the work of His fingers, that in His hands are the deep places of
the earth, and that His hands formed the dry land. Here we read, “Who hath
measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the
span? “The great Architect and Framer of the universe is represented as forming
and adjusting earth, sea, and sky with His hand. This is the graphic
representation of the Divine Worker at work. The one implement used is the hand
of the Great Worker--its hollow for the seas, its span for the heavens! What
sublime poetry descriptive of creative skill! The illustrations are taken from
primitive life. The truest poetry comes from primitive simplicity.
1. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?” What is
the sublime truth which this richly figurative speech conveys? One truth at
least is the self-sufficiency of God in His creative work. He needed not to go
beyond Himself. All creation is the outcome of His own power and skill,
independent of the shifts of machinery and tools. When this has been stated, the
prophet proceeds to draw other figures from, primitive life in the simplicity
of its operations to describe God’s creative work. “Comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure” that is a tierce, or the third of an ephah. It is the
same word as that used in Psalms 80:5, “Thou givest them tears to drink in great measure.” As Delitzsch
beautifully expresses it, it is a small measure for the dust of the earth, but
a “great measure” for tears. “Weighed the mountains in scales,” that is, a
steel-yard, that by which the greater loads are weighed; “and the hills in a
balance”--the tradesman’s balances which weigh smaller things, but with greater
accuracy than the “steel-yard.” Nothing has been done by haphazard. Every world
has been balanced, and the equilibrium of the universe adjusted with infinite
wisdom and skill. Astronomical observation leads to this conclusion; Isaiah
asserted it with regard to this earth before astronomy was born.
2. So far we have dwelt upon Isaiah’s statement of what God had done.
Now we notice the prophetic announcement of what God would do. The former
refers to His creative power, the latter to His providential rule. “The Lord
God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him.” There is here
a prediction of a special Divine advent in power, but I take this as typical of
all Divine advents and interventions throughout the ages. We have read of the
Divine hand in the record of God forming and adjusting the earth, but now we
read of the Divine arm in His personal advent and providential rule. There is a
Providence as well as a creation. God has not completed His work by His
creative skill and power. “He worketh hitherto.” The hand that formed and adjusted
is moved by the arm that rules and governs. It is the arm that wields the hand.
The Scriptures abound with emphatic references to the Divine arm. “Hast thou an
arm like Job 40:9) asked God out of the whirlwind of Job. “Thou hast a mighty arm”
(Psalms 89:13), exclaimed the Psalmist; and again, “His holy arm hath gotten
Him the victory” (Psalms 98:1). Isaiah wrote, “The Lord hath sworn by the arm of His strength”
(Isaiah 62:8), and again, “Therefore His arm brought salvation” (Isaiah 59:16). In these andsimilar passages the arm of God is the symbol of
His power in providential and redemptive works. “His arm shall rule for
Him,”--that is, shall bring all foes submissive, and make all subjects obedient
to His sovereignty and command. It is instructive to notice the different names
applied to God in the Scriptures to show various aspects of His character and
work. Observe the names by which God is called here. “The Lord God”
(Adonai-Jehovah)--a combination of the two greatest names by which God was
knownunder the Old Dispensation. The consequent announcement is that of the
advent of the “Mighty One” (R.V.). Yet these words, expressive of power and
dominion, are followed by others which have all the tenderness and grace of a
pastoral symphony.
II. THE TENDERNESS OF HIS SHEPHERDLY CARE. “He shall feed His flock
like a shepherd,” etc. The hand that meted out the heavens and measured the
waters of the deep is that which feeds the flock, and the arm that rules for
Him is the arm that gathers the lambs. “And carry them in His bosom.” Ah! I
have not read of “His bosom” in this context before now. I heard no mention of
His bosom when He was spoken of as measuring the waters in the hollow of His
hand, and meting out heaven with the span; it is only when the prophet speaks
of the lambs that he mentions not only God’s arm but also His bosom. The hollow
of His hand is good enough for the waters, His span for the heavens, His arm
for His subjects, but only His bosom for the lambs. This is a tenderness
specially adapted to the peculiar need. “And shall gently lead those that are
with young,” or. “those that give suck” (R.V.). The great Shepherd will not
forget motherhood with its cares and burdens. God s omnipotence can only be
equalled by His compassion. He is not only Almighty, but also “Almighty to
save.” Our God who created the heavens has also lifted up the Cross. (D.
Davies.)
The grandeur and pathos of
theology
In those words,
“His arm shall rule for Him,” we have the grandeur of theology; but in these
words, “He shall feed His flock like a Shepherd,” we have the pathos of
theology. (D. Davies.)
Consolation from the
thought of God’s omnipotence
In his
autobiography, Goethe tells us that the earthquake in Lisbon fairly stumbled
his faith and awakened his alarm at the time when he first heard the news of
it. The notion of Divine reliability fell under his suspicion; how could anyone
trust a God who would suffer that 70,000 people should be overwhelmed by one
awful tide of the ocean, rushing up and back as the earth rose in imperious
strength of upheaval; where was His goodness? What might He not do next? The
young man was frightened at the manifestation of so much almightiness. Later on
in life he saw how fine it was to have for his God a being who could rock the
world at His will. (C. S.Robinson, D. D.)
Verse 11
He shall feed His flock like a shepherd
The care of the Good Shepherd for His flock
1.
The prophet
first declares the general office of the Saviour. “He shall feed His flock like
a shepherd.”
2. Here His people
are described under the endearing name of a “flock.” It is thus descriptive of
the happy privileges which they enjoy. They are not left to roam at large like
the beasts of prey; but they are brought by Divine grace into a settled state.
They are as a flock of sheep under the shepherd’s eye. They are distributed, it
is true, in various parts; but yet under the Lord’s particular care.
3. “His flock.”
This is to make known more especially their privileges--they are emphatically
His. They are “His” as given to Him by His eternal Father. They are “His” by
His own immediate purchase; for He has redeemed them. They are “His” also, as
by the action of the Holy Ghost upon their hearts they are led into His fold.
4. The word
translated “feed” properly signifies the whole care and government that a
shepherd exercises towards his flock. Christ takes a general oversight of them;
but He has them particularly in His eye. So, too, a shepherd distinguishes the
different states of his flock, and suits himself to their particular wants.
5. By the “lambs,”
those are meant who are young in years, and young converts. They are described
by this emblem to set forth their weakness and tenderness and inability
properly to take care of themselves. He “gathers them with His arm, and carries
them in His bosom.” Here you notice a most pleasing union of power and love
employed in their service. It is thus that the Lord Christ exercises the
tenderness of a shepherd towards His flock. Remember how many sweet promises
are addressed to the weak and to the young in the flock (Isaiah 35:3; Isaiah 53:4; Isaiah 42:3). We
particularly notice this, to encourage those who may be setting out in the
Lord’s way. Sometimes a thought comes into the mind, “Ah! if I were but like
such a Christian! if I had as much zeal and devotedness to my Master’s service
as he has, if I had his joy and peace in believing,--then I should be able to
go on my way rejoicing in the Lord. This is a mistaken view. The love of the
Shepherd to His flock does not originate in their love to Him. He did not
expect to find them angels; He knew that they were sinners. He treats them as a
shepherd does his tender lambs. “He shall gently lead those that are with
young”; or, “those that give suck.” You see this beautifully illustrated in the
history of Jacob, after his meeting with his brother Esau. Esau said to him,
“Let us take our journey, and I will go before thee;” but Jacob, like a good
shepherd, knowing the roughness of his brother, said to him, “My lord knoweth
that the children are tender, and the flocks and herds with young are with me:
and if men should overdrive them one day”--only one day--“all the flock Will
die.” How many resting-places does the Good Shepherd provide! Conclusion--
Christ the Shepherd of His people
I. A DESCRIPTION
OF THE CHURCH AND PEOPLE OF GOD, under the notion of a flock.
1. With respect to
God they are called a flock because they are separated from the rest of
mankind, and given to the Lord Christ. A flock is a company of sheep which is
the property of some owner.
2. With respect to
the Lord Jesus, the Church is called a flock because He brings them into His
fold, calls them out of a natural state into a state of grace, and fellowship
with Himself.
3. With respect to
other men, among whom believers converse, they are called a “flock” upon a
threefold account.
II. THE RELATION
CHRIST STANDS IN TO THEM as a Shepherd. Two things are implied in this
relation--care and tenderness.
III. WHAT CHRIST
DOES FOR HIS CHURCH AND PEOPLE as their Shepherd.
IV. THE WAY IN
WHICH THIS IS DONE. Suitably to everyone’s circumstances and condition.
1. Christ’s
carriage towards His flock is according to their ages.
2. It is according
to their strength or weakness. Such as cannot walk shall be carried; and they
that are heavy laden shall be gently led. Comfort yourselves with this; none of
the flock shall be left behind.
3. It is according
to the difficulties or dangers His sheep are in.
Uses--
1. This doctrine
affords a just word of reproof to those who are shepherds under Christ, but act
not according to His example towards the flock. Knowledge of the state of the
flock is one great, though much-neglected branch of a pastor’s office.
2. How should
souls long to be under the care of this Good Shepherd! You are exposed to
wolves and devils, to all errors and sin, whilst you keep off from Christ;
there is no safety for you, but only in His arms; no provision, but in His
covenant.
3. How safe are
all the saints!
4. What a blessed
plea is here for the Church in dangerous times! Christ will spare His flock,
and the land for their sake.
5. With what
boldness may the people of Christ attend upon all holy ordinances. They are
designed for your support, till you get above them. (J. Hill.)
The Shepherd and His flock
I. THE SHEPHERD.
He, the Lord God, whose hand is strong, and whose arm shall rule for Him, “who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, who hath meted out heaven
with a span, who hath comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, who hath
weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance”--He for whom there
is nothing too hard to be accomplished, and nothing too minute to be observed,
offereth to be the Shepherd of your soul, to feed it and to watch over it. Will
not His love, His power, His wisdom, be sufficient for all its need?
II. THE FLOCK. As
the Shepherd is powerful and wise, and full of love, so are the flock weak and
foolish, and ready to go astray. The sheep is a weak, defenceless creature,
having neither strength to resist the wolf, nor speed to escape from him. It is
not like the ant, provident, and able to care for its own sustenance. If once
astray, it is rarely known to return of its own accord.
III. THE SHEPHERD’S
CARE OF HIS FLOCK. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. The word translated
feed refers to all a shepherd’s care for his flock, including all necessary and
beneficial attention to them (Ezekiel
34:15-16).
IV. THE TENDERNESS
OF HIS CARE. (G. Innes.)
The Redeemer as a Shepherd
I. THE REDEEMER
UNDER THE ENDEARING CHARACTER OF A SHEPHERD.
1. It is the
office of a good shepherd to know his flock. “I am the Good Shepherd, and know
My sheep, and am known of Mine.” He has a tender feeling, a compassionate
concern for the meanest and most sickly of His flock.
2. The Good
Shepherd defends His flock from every threatening danger. David exposed his own
life to defend his flock. Those holy and humble shepherds to whom our blessed
Saviour’s birth was first notified, kept watch over their flocks by night. Will
the Redeemer fall short in His office? No! “Behold, He who keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep.”
3. The Good
Shepherd gathers His flock, whether they have wandered from the fold, or have
been driven away by an enemy, or scattered by storms (Ezekiel 34:12). The Shepherd
of Israel will magnify His office in this respect. Christ shall gather the
Jews, the people of His ancient Church, into His sacred fold.
4. The Good
Shepherd heals His flock, whether languishing under deep disease or smarting
wounds. It was charged upon the shepherds of Israel as a high crime that they
had not healed the sick, nor bound up that which was broken, nor brought again
that which was driven away, nor sought that which was lost. But this could not be
objected against our compassionate Redeemer.
5. The Good
Shepherd provides green pastures and pure water for His flock.
II. WHAT KIND OF A
SHEPHERD IS CHRIST?
I. He is a great
Shepherd (Hebrews 13:10).
2. He is the chief
Shepherd (1 Peter
5:4). Other
shepherds are mere men, of like passions with ourselves.
3. He is the good
Shepherd (John 10:14).
4. He is a
Shepherd who has no equal This is obvious in numberless instances. Other
shepherds lay down their commission at death. But the Shepherd of Israel by
dying conquered death; and carries on His work by
His Holy Spirit, with all that power and success which attended
His personal ministry on earth.
III. THE FLOCK WHICH
CHRIST DOTH TEND.
1. It is a little
flock (Luke 12:32). Though small
and despised in the eyes of a vain world; though poor in spirit, humble and
meek in their deportment among men, they are greatly beloved by their God. They
are not only little in their own eyes, and in the eyes of a vain world, but
little in point of number, compared to a thoughtless multitude.
2. They are in
some degree acquainted with their own hearts.
3. They are a
peculiar flock, as they are all purchased with blood.
4. They are a
chosen flock.
5. They know their
Redeemer’s voice, and are charmed with it.
6. They follow the
blessed Shepherd (John 10:27). (J.
Johnston.)
Jesus Christ the Shepherd of His people
I. HOW THIS TITLE
OF SHEPHERD AGREES TO JESUS CHRIST. Our blessed Lord is spoken of in Scripture
under several characters--as a Physician, a Ruler, the Captain of our
Salvation, etc., and in this and many other places, as a Shepherd: a metaphor
full of comfort. A shepherd is called to the office and trust; and this may
eminently be said of Christ. God the Father appointed Him to this office, and
fitted Him for it (Ezekiel 34:23). And upon
this account God calls Him “My Shepherd” (Zechariah 13:7). A good
shepherd gives an account of his sheep; and so will Christ Hebrews 2:13).
II. SOME OF THE
CHARACTERS THAT BELONG TO HIM AS A SHEPHERD.
1. He is the
Shepherd of souls (1 Peter
2:25).
2. He is that
great Shepherd of the sheep (Hebrews 13:20). Great in
respect of the dignity of His person, and great in His accomplishments for His
office.
3. He is the Good
Shepherd (John 10:11). He is the
very best Shepherd--
III. WHAT IS IMPLIED
IN HIS FEEDING HIS FLOCK.
1. As being the
Shepherd of His people’s souls, the food wherewith He feeds is spiritual. Even
our common supplies for the body are from Him.
2. Of this
spiritual food He makes use of great variety.
3. The food
wherewith Christ feeds His flock is precious, even the privileges and promises
of the Gospel. How costly, how precious, are such things as these!
4. Christ feeds
His people with pleasant food.
5. The provision
Christ affords His flock is plentiful (Song of Solomon
5:1).
6. The food with
which Christ feeds His flock nourishes the soul to eternal John 6:50).
IV. IN WHAT RESPECT
MAY CHRIST BE SAID TO FEED HIS FLOCK LIKE A SHEPHERD?
1. As He feeds
them with judgment and discretion, with due regard to their age and growth.
2. Aa He doth this
with the greatest care and compassion, as those weak creatures He hath paid the
greatest price for, and stands in the nearest relation to.
3. As He feeds
them effectually, so as to make them to thrive.
4. As He will go
on to feed them, till they are nourished up to a fitness for the glory He
designs to bring them to. (D. Wilcox.)
Christ the Shepherd
The language is partly metaphorical, because spiritual and
intellectual ideas are taken from natural objects. But there is another sense
in which the language is not exclusively metaphorical; because there is such a
steadiness and determination in the character, that we know at once what it
means--it almost ceases to be metaphor. The metaphor is one most commonly used
to denote a king or ruler, a prophet or instructor, a priest or sacrifice. The
origin of this is obvious, especially in reference to the first of these
titles. In the country in which the scene is laid, all wealth consisted in
possessions of flocks and herds. Ancient history tells us of a race of shepherd
kings, whose tyranny over the people was so great that they were more like
wolves than shepherds. And it is conjectured that on this account chiefly it is
said of the Egyptians that “every shepherd was an abomination to them.” The
first idea, then, which the title of shepherd gives us is, that of the kingly
character, and we find that every king was the high priest of that people also.
Melchizedek was both “king of Salem and priest of the Most High God.” And he
who was recognised thus as a shepherd, was also regarded as the principal
teacher in spiritual matters. Thus we see how the title of Shepherd comprehends
all the other characters of our Lord--King, Instructor, and Priest. It would
naturally follow that when an individual was thus recognised as “shepherd,” the
people over whom he was placed would be denominated his “flock” or his “sheep.”
The word “shepherd” includes in it all that pertains to the office of a
shepherd.
I. SKILL.
II. TENDERNESS AND
AFFECTION.
III. WATCHFULNESS.
IV. POWER. (C.
Evanson, M. A.)
Jesus the Shepherd
I. OLD TESTAMENT
ILLUSTRATIONS of the manner in which the Lord Jesus Christ discharges the
office of feeding His flock like a shepherd.
1. Out of five
great types we begin with Abel, the shepherd slain. Abel was a type of the
Saviour, in that, being a shepherd, he sanctified his work to the glory of God,
and offered sacrifice of blood upon the altar of the Lord, and the Lord had
respect unto Abel and his offering. Farther down the page of sacred history we
find another shepherd. He is a more instructive type of the Saviour, perhaps,
than the first, but in Abel we discover a truth which is absent in all others.
Abel is the only one of the typical shepherds who dies at the foot of the
altar, he is the only sacrificing shepherd; and herein you see Jesus Christ in
the very earliest ages set forth to mankind as the slaughtered Victim.
2. Now we turn to
Jacob, the toiling shepherd. Here is a type of the Good Shepherd, not as dying,
but as keeping sheep with a view to get unto Himself a flock. Jacob’s labour
was of the most arduous character. It is sweet to dwell upon the spiritual
parallel of Laban having required all the sheep at Jacob’s hand. If they were
torn of beasts he must make it good; if any of them died, he must stand as
surety for the whole. And did not the Saviour stand just so while He was here
below? Was not His toil for His Church just the toil of one who felt that He
was under suretyship obligations to bring every one of them safe to the hand of
Him who had committed them to His charge? When Jacob had received a reward for
all his toil out of the flock which he himself tended, he then conducted both
his family and his flock away from Laban. Jacob coming back from Laban to the
Promised Land is a true picture of Jesus Christ coming up from the world,
followed by His Church, to enter into that better Canaan which has been given
to us by a covenant of salt for ever.
3. Joseph is a
type of Jesus reigning in the Egypt of this world for the good of His own
people, while they are here below. Jesus Christ is King over Egypt’s realm.
Observe the likeness between Joseph and Jesus in this respect. Joseph was of
very singular advantage to the Egyptians. They must have starved in the years
of famine, if his prescient eye had not foreseen the famine, and stored up the
plenty of the seven previous years. And Jesus Christ is of great service even
to this wicked world. It is by Him that it is preserved.
4. Moses, when he
kept sheep, kept them in the wilderness, far away from all other flocks; and
when he became a shepherd over God’s people Israel, his business was not to
preserve them in Egypt, but to conduct them out of it. Here, then, is a
representation of Jesus Christ as the Shepherd of a separated people. Jesus,
like Moses, might have been a king. As Moses refused to be called the son of
Pharaoh’s daughter, so Jesus Christ said, “Get thee behind Me, Satan,” to all
the pomp and glory of this present world, and preferred to take part with His
despised people, who were crushed down by the reigning powers in the Egypt of
His days. Now, Moses began his mission by going to Pharaoh, and saying, “Thus
saith the
Lord, Let My people go, that they may serve Me.” Jesus Christ
begins as the Shepherd of the separate ones by demanding that they should be
let go from the bondage of their natural estate. Our main point is the great
exodus of Moses. Every heir of heaven is brought right out of Egypt, led
through the Red Sea of Jesus Christ’s blood, baptized into Jesus, and brought
out into the separated position in the wilderness. It is easy to see how Moses
was a shepherd to the people while in the wilderness.
5. David. This
shepherd represents Jesus Christ, not at all as the others, but as King in the
midst of His Church. David, like Jesus Christ, begins his life with trials.
II. NEW TESTAMENT
DESCRIPTIONS.
III. IMPRESSIVE
APPLICATIONS.
1. One of comfort
and satisfaction to you who are poor, needy, weary, troubled lambs or sheep of
the flock. “He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in His
bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” The lambs have not the
value of mature sheep, yet they are the most thought of under the great
Shepherd. They might fetch the least price in the market, but they have the
greatest portion of His heart. The weaklings and the sickly of the flock are
the special objects of the Saviour’s care.
2. A second
application containing comfort and warning too. Sinner! our Lord Jesus Christ
now represents Himself as being a Shepherd who is come to seek and to save that
which was lost. Such is Jesus now, looking after stray sheep. Where are you?
3. So we shall
conclude with these words, which may be for both saint and sinner. Let it never
be forgotten that Jesus Christ is pre-eminently to be preached as the suffering
One. (Zechariah 13:7). You shall
know about the toiling Shepherd by-and-by; the Shepherd reigning in Egypt, the
Joseph you shall know soon; the Shepherd of the separated flock, you shall
follow ere long; the Shepherd reigning in Jerusalem, the David you shall
rejoice to serve; but now you have to do with the Shepherd bleeding and dying.
(C. H.Spurgeon.)
The Good Shepherd
The blessed Jesus is represented under this amiable character. The
metaphor suggests--
I. THE
GRACIOUSNESS AND BENIGNITY OF HIS NATURE. It was goodness, alike unmerited and
unsolicited, that originally moved Him to interpose in our behalf. On what
penitent did He ever look with coldness and aversion?
II. The idea of
PROVISION. As the shepherd leads about his flock from one spot of pasturage to
another, so does the Redeemer of His people conduct them to places where
nourishment and sustenance may be obtained.
III. The ideas of
WATCHFULNESS AND PROTECTION. They are exposed to a variety of perils; but He is
vigilant to observe, and omnipotent to defend.
IV. KIND ATTENTION
TO THE FEEBLE, AND TENDER SOLICITUDE FOR THE YOUNG. “He shalt gather the lambs
with His arm,” etc.
V. An idea of THE
FINAL BLESSEDNESS RESERVED FOR THE FLOCK. From the tender care exercised over
them here, we may infer somewhat of the dignity to which they shall be advanced
hereafter. There are many of the ordinary phenomena of nature that fail to
engage our wonder, merely because they are not uncommon. What, for example, if
it did not come under our daily observation, could more surprise and astonish
us than the progressive development of our own faculties? Who could believe
that, under the feeble exterior of infancy, there slumbered intellectual
energies, which, when a series of years had gone by, would expand to constitute
the profound scholar, the enlightened statesman, and the accomplished orator?
But multiplied experience has taught us what education and circumstances can
do, and we cease to wonder that from the infant mind such fruits are capable of
being reared. But surely, when we thus behold the admirable progress of which
our nature is susceptible within the narrow compass of threescore years and
ten--when we remember that the vast intellect of Newton was ledged in an
infant’s body--it may serve to remove our doubts as to the higher perfection of
which our nature is capable in a future state of being. The goodness of the
Great Shepherd in conducting His people to their final state, is most
beautifully represented in the concluding verses of the 7 th chapter of
Revelation--a passage at once so tender and sublime, that it is said our great
Scottish poet, from his very boyhood, could never read it without tears. (J.
L. Adamson.)
He shall gather the lambs
with His arm
The Good Shepherd’s consideration for the weak and tender of His
flock
I. CHRIST’S FLOCK
IS MADE UP OF BELIEVERS OF SEVERAL GROWTHS OF LAMBS AS WELL AS MORE GROWN
SHEEP.
I. As to the ages
and years of Christians, we read of Paul the aged, and of Mnason, an old
disciple (Acts 21:16); and of
others the kindness of whose youth God particularly remembers. Josiah (2 Chronicles
34:3); Obadiah (1 Kings
18:12); Samuel (1 Samuel
2:18); Timothy (2 Timothy
3:15).
2. In respect of
stature, strength, and growth in grace, Christ’s flock is made up of lambs as
well as sheep. Grace is not perfected as soon as implanted, nor does it thrive
in all alike. In some, the good seed brought forth an hundredfold, in others
sixty, in others but thirty (Matthew 13:1-58.). God has
ordered it thus for wise purposes; that the weak may be assisted by the strong,
and the strong have opportunity of showing their compassion and tenderness to
the weak; that the strong may by this means be kept humble, as seeing in the
case of others what they themselves once were; and that the weak may not be
discouraged, but reach after the attainments of the strong.
II. THE INSTANCES
HERE MENTIONED OF CHRIST’S COMPASSIONATE REGARD TO THE WEAK.
1. The lambs, when
wandering. He will gather with His arm. “Gathering” supposes our proneness to
wander.
(a) That He looks
after them, even when they are going astray from Him, and He is concerned for
them still.
(b) That He will
not let them wander too far, not beyond the reach of His arm, with which they
are both encircled and restrained.
(c) That He will
employ His power, when the case necessarily requires it, in order to their
recovery.
(d) That He will
gather them with gentleness and care.
(e) That He will
gather them with His arm, with it stretched out kindly to receive them, and to
give them a gracious welcome to Him again.
2. He will carry
them in His bosom. This implies great weakness in some that belong to Christ’s
flock, and great compassion and grace on the part of Him, their Shepherd. “The
lambs,” or young converts of Christ’s flock, may be in many respects weak: weak
as to knowledge, faith, and love. Such weaklings as these Christ “has in His
flock;” and yet He does not cast them off, but “carries them m His bosom,”
which notes--
3. Our Lord and
Shepherd Jesus Christ “will gently lead those that are with young.” These words
may set forth the condition and state of such sheep and followers of Him as are
sorely burdened. And there are many things to burden Christ’s sheep, as their
difficult services, the load of their unmortified sins, and the bitter fruits
of them, in their various sufferings of body and mind. As pressed with these,
some of Christ’s flock may be said to be as feeble as sheep that are with
young, or give suck: but such “He will gently lead.” Which implies--
III. CHRIST WILL
MAKE GOOD HIS CHARACTER OF A SHEPHERD TO HIS SHEEP THAT ARE WEAK, EITHER
THROUGH THEIR SMALL ATTAINMENTS IN GRACE, OR THE GREATNESS OF THEIR BURDENS.
1. This is here
expressly asserted, “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in
His bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.”
2. To this His
compassionate nature inclines Him (Hebrews 4:15). Such a
nature cannot but be peculiarly concerned for the weaklings of His flock, whose
groans are continually going to heaven.
3. This He has in
His commission. (Isaiah 61:1.)
4. This has all
along been His dealing with His flock; and He is “the same yesterday, and
to-day, and for ever.” Application--Will Christ gather the lambs with His arm,
and carry them in His bosom? What an inducement is this to come into His flock!
Be humbled, that you should be such weaklings as you are, so apt to wander, and
so unable to return; but yet remember the excellent properties of Christ as the
Shepherd of His flock. (D. Wilcox.)
Four attributes of Divine love
Isaiah tells us here of--
I. THE STRENGTH OF
THE DIVINE LOVE. “He shall gather with His arm.” The power to overtake and
elevate such an one as Saul of Tarsus is no power less than “the arm of the
Lord revealed.” “He shall carry in His bosom.” Even greater power is involved
in this than in first gathering in the arm. The power of endurance. Such power
was that of the Divine love in Christ towards Peter.
II. THE GENTLENESS
OF THE DIVINE LOVE. So with the Divine love that said to Mary, “Why weepest
thou?” or to Thomas, “Reach hither thy hand.”
III. THE
PROTECTIVENESS OF THE DIVINE LOVE. That may be the chief thought in these
words. He promises more than the intervention of His arm between soul and
dangers: He promises the intervention of His entire Being.
IV. THE ADAPTATIONS
OF THE DIVINE LOVE. (U. R. Thomas, B. A.)
I. We have to
examine A PORTRAIT OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
A Sabbath-school sermon
1. Men carry in
their bosoms their gems, their jewels, and so doth Christ carry the lambs of
the flock, regarding them as His peculiar treasure. He puts an estimate upon
them according to His own relationship to them. He knows, too, what the child
cost Him, for to redeem a little child from going down into the pit He must
needs bear the penalty due to justice, and suffer even unto death. Re
recollects, moreover, what that child will come to if He do not save it by
carrying it in His bosom. A soul is a precious thing to Christ, for He believes
in its immortality. And He knows, too, what may come of that little child if He
sayeth it, for the possibilities of blessing within one little saved child who
shall estimate but the Lord who knoweth all things? Jesus knows that a boy may
be the spiritual father of hundreds ere he dies. There may be in the
congregation a Chrysostom or an Augustine. Right among us may sit a little
Whitefield, or a young Luther.
II. We have AN
EXAMPLE FOR THE CHURCH. There are two great things which a Church ought always
to have, namely, an arm to gather with and a bosom to carry in.
III. A practical
word or two upon THE MODEL TEACHER. He who gathers the lambs with His arm and
carries them in His bosom is the model of a Sunday-school teacher. In what
points?
1. There should be
about the teacher attractiveness, in order that he may gather.
2. After you have
attracted, uplift. He carries the lambs in His bosom, and therefore He must
lift them up. Everything about a teacher should tend to raise the children.
3. When He lifted
up the lamb, He laid it on His heart. If you are to bless the little ones, they
must lie on your heart. You must make them feel the life of your religion.
4. Next, bear them
forward. The lamb is put into the shepherd’s bosom, not that he may stand still
with it all the day long, but because the sheep are going this way and the
lambs must go that way too, and therefore he carries it. You must be always
going forward yourself if the child is to go forward with you.
5. Guard the
children. Christ placed the lambs in His bosom to protect them.
6. The next word
is, cheer.
7. Delight in
them. That tenth verse has a great charm for me. “The Lord God will come with
strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him,
and His work before Him.” Well, what did He have before Him but the sheep that
He went forth to find, and the lambs which He gathered and carried in His
bosom? They were His work, but they were also His reward. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The lambs and their Shepherd
I. DESCRIBE THE
LAMBS.
1. They are truly
sheep. They are not sheep in maturity, but they are sheep to a certainty. The
sheep of God are harmless. They can bear, but they cannot revenge. The sheep
goes further than the non-inflicting of evil, it bears evil without complaint.
The extraordinary patience of the sheep is seen in God’s people, when they
joyously endure a weight of affliction, and pass through the valley of death
with composure. Sheep, again, are cleanly creatures; cleanly in their feeding--carrion
never tempts them; cleanly in their habits. Furthermore, the sheep is
guileless. You see the lion creeping through the thicket full of cunning; but
sheep have none. Again, sheep are tractable. When a man tames a lion so that he
may sport with it, he gets the name of lion-tamer; nobody is renowned for
taming a sheep, for it has a tractable disposition, and so all the elect of God
have an obedient and yielding spirit. Do not forget that the lambs are truly
Christ’s sheep. They are as dearly bought with His blood; they are as surely
objects of His care; they are as manifestly illustrations of His power; they
shall as certainly be proofs of His faithfulness as the strongest of the flock.
2. Why are they
lambs, and in what are they distinguished?
II. Let us come to
EXPRESS OUR FEARS CONCERNING THESE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK. We are afraid for them,
because of the howling wolves there are about. We are equally alarmed because
of their association with the goats. Then we are jealous over the lambs because
of the old lion. We are even more concerned when we think of the bear. A
flattering world hugs tightly. When we put all these dangers together, we add
to them the fact that lambs are subject to the same diseases which are incident
to all sheep. They, too, get the foot-rot of weariness in the ways of God. They
begin to be slothful in the cause of God. They suffer from coldness of heart,
have a tendency to wander, and catch the stiff neck of pride.
III. Let us REJOICE
IN THE GOOD SHEPHERD. “He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them
in His bosom.”
1. Who is He of
whom such gracious words are spoken? “Behold, the Lord God will come with
strong hand,” etc. But let us read on (Isaiah 40:12-18).
2. Why doth He
carry lambs in His bosom? Because He hath a tender heart, and any weakness at
once melts Him. But more, it is His office to consider the weak. For this it is
that He was made a faithful high priest--that He might have compassion on the
ignorant. He was a lamb Himself once. He purchased them with blood. Moreover,
He is responsible for that lamb. They are all a part of His glory.
3. What does He
say He will do? “Carry them.” Sometimes He carries them by not permitting them
to endure much trouble. At other times, by having some tender, loving person to
take care of them. He carries them instrumentally. At other times, such lambs
are carried by having an unusual degree of love given them, and consequently a
large amount of joy, so that they bear up and stand fast. Though their
knowledge may not be deep, they have great sweetness in what they do know.
4. How does He
carry them? He carries them in His bosom--not on His back--that is bow He
carries stray sheep.
IV. LET US HEAR THE
SHEPHERD’S VOICE. If you be the lambs, hear the Shepherd’s voice, which says,
“Follow Me.” You that are not lambs, hear His words, “Come unto Me.” Those of
us who are His sheep, let us hear the Shepherd’s voice, saying, “Feed My
lambs.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Greatness in league with gentleness
In the chapter before us our Saviour is described as Jehovah God.
Greatness in league with gentleness, and power linked with affection, now pass
before us. Heroes who have been most distinguished for fury in the fight, have
been tender of heart as little children; sharp were their swords to the foe,
but gentle their hands towards the weak. It is the index of a noble nature that
it can be majestic as a lion in the midst of the fray, and roar like a young
lion on the scene of conflict, and yet it has a dove’s eye and a maiden’s
heart. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Jesus and the lambs
I. WHO ARE THE
LAMBS WHICH OUR BLESSED LORD IS SAID TO GATHER AND TO CARRY IN HIS BOSOM?
1. In a certain
sense we may affirm that all His people are lambs. In so far as they exhibit
the Christian spirit, they are lamb-like.
2. Still, this is
not the precise meaning of the text. The word “lamb” frequently signifies the
young; and our Lord Jesus Christ graciously receives many young persons into
His bosom. The ancient teachers of the Jewish law invited no children to gather
around them. I suppose there was not a Rabbi in all Jerusalem who would have
desired a child to listen to him, and if it had been said of any one of the
Sanhedrin, “that man teaches so as to be understood by a child,” he would have
thought himself insulted. But not so our Master; He always had children among
His auditory. Some in our day mistrust youthful piety, but our Saviour lends no
countenance to such suspicions. Some cautiously whisper, “Let the pious youth
be tried awhile before we believe in his religion; let him be tempted; let him
bear the frosts of the world; perhaps the blossoms will drop away and
disappoint us.” Such was not my Master’s way.
3. But, again, by
lambs we may quite as properly understand young converts.
4. We shall not
strain the text if we say that the lambs in the flock are those who are
naturally of a weak, timid, trembling disposition.
5. The lambs are
those who know but little of the things of God.
II. HOW DOES JESUS
SHOW THIS SPECIAL CARE FOR THE WEAK ONES? He does this, according to the text,
in two ways--
1. By gathering
them. The shepherd’s kitchen fire is, for the time, the lambs’ own nursery.
When the flock is on the march, it will happen, unless the shepherd is very
watchful, that the lambs will lag behind. So it is in the progress of the great
Christian Church; persecuted often, always more or less molested by the outside
world, there are some who flag, they cannot keep up the pace; the spiritual
warfare is too severe for them. At other times the lambs do worse than this.
They are of a skittish nature, and, feeling the natural vigour of new-born
life, they are not content to keep within bounds, as the older sheep do, but
they betake themselves to wandering, so that at the close of the day the lambs
cost the shepherd much trouble. So are there many immature Christians whose
minds are hung loosely, and are unstable as water.
2. After He
gathers them, He carries them in His bosom. That is--
3. Our Lord shows
His care for His lambs in His teachings, which are very simple, mostly in
parables, full of winning illustrations, but always plain. He is pleased to
reveal His teachings gradually. His experimental teachings are all by degrees,
too.
4. In the solemn
curses with which He guarded the little ones (Matthew 18:6; Matthew 18:10).
5. How many of the
promises are made on purpose for the weak.
6. The Lord Jesus
Christ’s tenderness to His people is further shown in this, that what He
requires of them is easy.
7. He shows His
gentleness, moreover, in that He accepts the least service that these little
ones may offer.
III. WHEREFORE THIS
CARE OF CHRIST TOWARDS THE LAMBS OF THE FLOCK? Because they need it, and He
loves them, and therefore shall they receive according to their necessities.
But why is He so particularly anxious to succour them? Surely, if He lost a lamb
or two, it would be no loss among so many, and if one of the feeble minds
should perish, it would be no great consequence when a multitude that no man
can number shall be saved. The answer is plain.
1. The weak are as
much redeemed by the blood of Christ as the strong.
2. In the new-born
child of God there are peculiar beauties which are not so apparent in others.
3. Jesus has such
care for the weak ones, because they will become strong one day.
4. Our Lord Jesus
Christ’s suretyship engagements require that He should preserve the weakest as
well as the strongest.
5. Besides His
suretyship engagements, there are His promises.
6. Compassion
argues that if any should be watched it should be these.
IV. A PRACTICAL
CONCLUSION.
1. Let us gather
the lambs, for Christ..
2. Learn to carry
in our bosoms those who are gathered. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
“I like your Jesus”
A little Moslem child accounted for her preference for the
Christian religion by saying, “I like your Jesus, because He loves little
girls! Our Mohammed did not love little girls.” With unerring instinct she had
seized upon at least one of the greatest differences between the two religions.
Christ and children
Ruskin has observed that there are no children in Greek art, but
that they abound in Christian art--an unmistakable token that it was the eye of
Christ which first fully appreciated the attractiveness of childhood. (J.
Stalker, D. D.)
And carry them in His
bosom
The saints’ final perseverance secured by the tenderness of Christ
to the weak
I. BY THE “LAMBS”
WE ARE CLEARLY TO UNDERSTAND WEAK BELIEVERS. It has nothing to do with their
age, either natural or spiritual. Sometimes they are called “babes.” Sometimes
we are told of “the day of small things”; sometimes of “smoking flax.” They are
weak believers. We see it in their degree of spiritual knowledge. They little
know themselves. They little know the hard warfare they have to maintain. They
are surprised because they find the strong workings of nature and of the flesh
within them. These are they who live much upon their enjoyments when they have
them, and are exceedingly east down when they have them not. They are, for the
most part, persons Who are more affected by providences than by God’s promises.
They have indistinct views of Christ, of His great atonement. They live upon
their happy frames. They draw but very feeble distinction between a life of
faith and a life of sense. They love to discourage themselves. They think much
more of their bitters than of that Branch that can make the bitter waters
sweet. And too oft they think more of their own sacrifices than they think of
the great Sacrifice. They are weak in knowledge; weak in experience; weak in
courage. They fail too oft in the day of adversity. And yet they form a part of
the true flock of Christ. There are but few folds in which lambs do not appear
a large proportion to the whole.
II. THE GENTLE
CONDUCT THAT THEY MEET WITH. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall
gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom.”
1. Think who this
is (Isaiah 40:12). Observe how
He is set before us in the tenth verse: Jehovah, Elohim, “will come with strong
hand: He shall feed His flock like a shepherd,” etc. What! the great
Eternal--“the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity”--is this the Being
that “gathers the lambs with His arm and carries them in His bosom”?
2. The posture
contains in it much for our prayerful meditation; carrying these lambs, these
feeble ones, these ignorant ones, these weak ones, “in His bosom”! What doth it
imply?
And shall gently lead
those that are with young
The saints’ final perseverance secured by the gentleness of Christ
to the burdened
I. With regard to
THE PERSONS, they are clearly those who are weary and heavy-laden. They are
feeble as well as burdened. Various are the burdens that might be placed before
you.
1. I need not say
how heavy is the burden of sin, when the Spirit of God first unfolds it to us.
2. And even when
there is so much perception of Christ as to leave the spirit without any
acknowledged hope but in Christ, and yet with so much of self-righteousness
still cleaving as to think there must be something of a preparation necessary
in order to recommend the soul to God and His Christ--what a burden! The toil
of ploughing the rock--of counting the sands--of measuring the mighty
waters--of working in the fire, the fire burning our work as soon and as long
as we do!
3. But it applies,
too, to the established believer, who frequently in his pilgrimage acknowledges
himself and feels himself a burdened man.
4. The constant
conflict--“putting off the old man,” “putting on the new man”;
self-crucifixion, mortification of self, self-denial.
5. There is the
burden of a burdened conscience; when a man sees so much in his sin as not to
see enough in Christ to raise him above it.
6. The heavy
weight of afflictions, accompanied as they often are with great and sore
temptations.
7. Their very
bodies are a burden to them.
8. The constant
service of the Lord has a burden in it. “The burden and heat of the day.”
9. There is a
burden that we are but little prone to look into as we ought to do, and that
is--the burdens of others. For we are to bear their burdens.
II. THE LORD’S
CONDUCT TOWARD THEM. Infinite power is required to control the movements of
these burdened ones; so many thousands as He has. But the great truth that it
unfolds is His infinite tenderness. He does not drive--He leads. He does not
merely lead, but “gently leads.” Who can unfold thee wondrous tenderness,
patience, forbearance, compassion, and love with which He has led each one of
us! How doth He wait on His burdened ones! How doth He wait for them! How doth
He encourage them! Sometimes He encourages His burdened ones directly. By His
Word. How oftentimes do they find their hearts cheered, led onward by a word of
promise! He waiteth on them. He waiteth for them. And He suffereth no one to
harm them.
III. WHITHER DOES HE
LEAD THEM?
1. The first
object that our Lord has in His leading of His burdened ones, is to lead them
out of their own pasture. His great object is to lead them out of the creature
and out of themselves. “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”
2. Whither, then,
does He lead them? Into deeper discoveries of Divine truth. How little know we
of a truth till we have had experience of that truth!
3. Then cometh
more close communion with God.
4. And now, it may
be, He leads them into deeper afflictions than they have ever known. Oh! what a
blessedness to have such a Shepherd for such poor burdened souls! Remember, His
great end in leading is holiness. (J. H.Evans, M. A.)
Verses 12-16
Verses
12-28
Who
hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?
--
The grandeur of
God
The
prophet’s notions of God are diffused through all the verses of the text. The
prophet’s design in describing the Deity with so much magnificence is to
discountenance idolatry, of which there are two sorts.
1. Religious idolatry, which consists in rendering that religious
worship to a creature which is due to none but God.
2. Moral idolatry, which consists in distrusting the promises of God
in dangerous crises, and in expecting that assistance from men which cannot but
be expected from God. The portrait drawn by the prophet is infinitely inferior
to his original. Ye will be fully convinced of this if ye attend to the
following considerations of the grandeur of God.
I. THE SUBLIMITY OF HIS ESSENCE. The prophet’s mind was filled with
this object. It is owing to this that he repeats the grand title of Jehovah,
“the Lord,” which signifies “I am” by excellence, and which distinguisheth by
four grand characters the essence of God from the essence of creatures.
1. The essence of God is independent in its cause. God is a
self-existent being. We exist, but ours is only a borrowed existence, for
existence is foreign from us.
2. The essence of God is universal in its extent. God possesseth the
reality of every thing that exists. He is, as an ancient writer expresseth it,
a boundless ocean of existence. From this ocean of existence all created
beings, like so many rivulets, flow.
3. The essence of God is unchangeable in its exercise. Creatures only
pass from nothing to existence, and from existence to nothing. We love to-day
what we hated yesterday, and to-morrow we shall hate What to-day we love.
4. The Divine essence is eternal in its duration. “Hast thou not
known,” saith our prophet, “that He is the everlasting God, the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth?”
II. THE IMMENSITY OF HIS WORKS (Isaiah 40:22; Isaiah 40:26). A novice is frightened at hearing what astronomers assert. Over
all this universe God reigns.
III. THE EFFICIENCY OF HIS WILL. The idea of the real world conducts us
to that of the possible world. The idea of a creative Being includes the idea
of a Being whose will is efficient. But a Being whose will is self-efficient,
is a Being who, by a single act of His will, can create all possible beings:
that is, all, the existence of which implies no contradiction; there being no
reason for limiting the power of a will that hath been once efficient of
itself.
IV. THE MAGNIFICENCE OF SOME OF HIS MIGHTY ACTS, AT CERTAIN PERIODS,
IN FAVOUR OF HIS CHURCH. The prophet had two of these periods in view. The
first was the return of the Jews from that captivity in Babylon which he had
denounced; and the second, the coming of the Messiah, of which their return
from captivity was only a shadow. Such, then, are the grandeurs of God!
Application--We observed that the prophet’s design was to render two sorts of
idolatry odious: idolatry in religion, and idolatry in morals. Idolatry in
religion consists in rendering those religious homages to creatures which are
due to the Creator only. To discredit this kind of idolatry, the prophet
contents himself with describing it. He shames the idolater by reminding him of
the origin of idols, and of the pains taken to preserve them. A man is guilty
of moral idolatry when, in dangerous crises, he says, ‘My way is hid from the
Lord; my judgment is passed over from my God.’ God is the sole arbiter of
events. Whenever ye think that any more powerful being directs them to comfort
you, ye put the creature in the Creator s place; whether ye do it in a manner
more or less absurd; whether formidable armies, impregnable fortresses, and
well-stored magazines; or whether a small circle of friends, an easy income, or
a country house. The Jews were often guilty of the first sort of idolatry. The
captivity in Babylon was the last curb to that fatal propensity. Thanks be to
God that the light of the Gospel hath opened the eyes of a great number of
Christians in regard to idolatry in religion. Ye who, in order to avert public
calamities, satisfy yourselves with a few precautions of worldly prudence, and
take no pains to extirpate those horrible crimes which provoke the vengeance of
heaven to inflict punishments on public bodies; ye are guilty of this second
kind of idolatry. Were your confidence placed in God, ye would endeavour to
avert national judgments by purging the state of those wicked practices which
are the surest forerunners and the principal causes of famine, and pestilence,
and war. And thou, feeble mortal, lying on a sick-bed, already struggling with
the king of terrors; thou, who tremblingly complainest, I am undone!--thou art
guilty of this second kind of idolatry, that thou hast trusted in man and made
flesh thine arm. Were God the object of thy trust, thou wouldest believe that
though death is about to separate thee from man, it is about to unite thee to
God. (J. Saurin.)
The
incomparableness of the great God
“To
whom then will ye liken God?”
I. THAT THE GREATEST THINGS IN THE MATERIAL WORLD ARE NOTHING TO HIM.
The ocean is great, great in its depths, breadths, contents, occupying by far
the largest portion of this globe of ours. But He “hath measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand.” The heaven is great; its expanse is immeasurable, its
worlds and systems baffle all arithmetic, but He “meted out heaven with the
span.” The earth is great, great to us, though mere speck in the universe, and,
it may be, an atom to other intelligences; but “He comprehendeth the dust in a
measure,” etc. What is the universe to God? You may compare an atom to the
Andes, a raindrop to the Atlantic, a spark to the central fires of the
creation; but you cannot compare the universe, great as it is, to the Creator.
II. THAT THE GREATEST MINDS IN THE SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE ARE NOTHING TO
HIM. “Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor hath
taught Him?” etc. (Isaiah 40:13-14). The Bible gives us to understand that there is a spiritual
universe far greater than the material, of which the material is but the dim
mirror and feeble instrument--a universe containing intelligences innumerable
in multitude and incalculable in their gradations of strength and intelligence.
But what spirit or spirits at the head or hierarchy of these intelligences has
ever given Him counsel, instructed or influenced Him in any matter? He is
uninstructible: the only Being in the universe who is so. He knows all. Sooner
speak of a spark enlightening the sun, than speak of a universe of
intelligences adding aught to the knowledge of God. He is absolutely original:
the only Being in the universe who is so. We talk of original thinkers. Such
creatures are mere fictions. He being so independent of all minds--
1. His universe must be regarded as the expression of Himself. No
other being had a hand in it.
2. His laws are the revelation of Himself. No one counselled Him in
His legislation.
3. His conduct is absolutely irresponsible, and He alone can be
trusted with irresponsibility.
III. THAT THE GREATEST INSTITUTIONS IN HUMAN SOCIETY ARE NOTHING TO
HIM. Nations are the greatest things “in” human institutions. “But nations are
as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance.” What
were the greatest nations of the old world, or the most powerful of modem
times? What are the greatest nations that have ever been, or are, compared to
Him? Nothing, emptiness. Oh, ye magnates of the world, ye kings of the earth,
what are ye in the presence of God? Less than animalcula dancing in the sun.
IV. THAT THE GREATEST PRODUCTIONS OF HUMAN LABOUR ARE NOTHING TO HIM.
“There is,” said an eloquent French preacher, “nothing great but God.” (Homilist.)
The
transcendent One
The
grand object of this sublime chapter seems to be to inspirit and to comfort the
Jews in their Babylonian captivity. Their God in His transcendent greatness is
brought under their notice for this purpose--
I. IN THE EXACTITUDE OF HIS OPERATIONS. He is here represented as
“measuring” the waters, as “spanning” the heavens, as “comprehending” the very
dust of the earth in a measure, as “weighing” the mountains in scales. As the
physician adjusts in nicest proportions the elements in the medical dose, with
which he hopes to cure his patient; the engineer every crank and wheel and pin
in the machine which he has constructed for a certain purpose, so God--only in
an Infinite degree--arranges all the parts of the complicated universe. It is
seen in the atmosphere that surrounds this globe; were one of its constituent
elements more or less than it is the whole would be disturbed. This is seen in
the punctuality with which all the heavenly orbs perform their movements; they
are never out of time. It is seen, in fact, in the unbroken uniformity with
which all nature proceeds on its march.
1. This Divine exactitude should inspire us with unbounded confidence
in His procedure. Because God works with such infinite precision, His works
admit of no improvement.
2. This Divine exactitude should inspire us to imitate Him in this
respect. When we act from blind impulse, or from imperfect reflection, we risk
our wellbeing.
II. IN THE ALMIGHTINESS OF HIS POWER. He is here represented as
holding the waters in the “hollow of His hand.” In thinking of this power we
should remember--
1. That all this power is under the direction of intelligence. It is
not a blind force, like the force of the storm or the tornado, but it is a
force directed by the highest wisdom. Wisdom uses the whole as the smith uses
his hammer on the anvil, as the mariner the rudder in the tempest.
2. That all this power is inspired by benevolence. The infinite is
here portrayed.
III. IN THE INDEPENDENCY OF HIS MIND. “With whom took He counsel, and
who instructed Him?” From this absolute mental independency of God the
following things may be deduced--
1. That all His operations must originate in pure sovereignty. All
that exists must be traced to the counsels of His own will, for He had no
counsellor.
2. That all His laws must be a transcript of His mind. What they are
He is; they are the history of Himself. Conclusion--What an argument is” here
for an entire surrender to, and a thorough acquiescence in, the Divine will. (Homilist.)
The greatness
of Israel’s God
How
little the palm of a man takes, how little the space which the span of a man
can cover, how scanty the third of an ephah and for what insignificant measures
a balance suffices, whether a steelyard (statera), or a retail balance (libra)
consisting of two scales (lances). But what Jehovah measures with
His palm and regulates with His span is nothing less than the waters below and
the heavens above. He uses a shalish, in which the dust composing the
earth finds place, and a balance in which He weighs the colossus of the
mountains. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
God in relation
to earth and ocean
Put
two tablespoonfuls of water in the palm of your hand and it will overflow; but
Isaiah indicates that God puts the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Arctic and
the Antarctic and the Mediteranean and the Black Sea and all the waters of the
earth in the hollow of His hand. The fingers the beach on one side, the wrist
the beach on the other. “He holdeth the water in the hollow of His hand.” As
you take a pinch of salt or powder between your thumb and two fingers, so
Isaiah indicates God takes up the earth. He measures the dust of the earth. The
original there indicates that God takes all the dust of all the continents
between the thumb and two fingers. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The great God
in His relation to heaven and earth
There
was an engineer by the name of Strasicrates who was in the employ of Alexander
the Great, and he offered to hew a mountain in the shape of his master, the
Emperor, the enormous figure to hold in the left hand a city of 10,000
inhabitants, while with the right hand it was to hold a basin large enough to
collect all the mountain torrents. Alexander applauded his ingenuity, out
forbade the enterprise because of its costliness. Yet I have to tell you that
our King holds in His one hand all the cities of the earth, and with the other
all the oceans, while He has the stars of heaven for a tiara. (T. DeWitt
Talmage, D. D.)
God weighing
the mountains
What
are all the balances of earthly manipulation compared with the balances that
Isaiah saw suspended when he saw God putting into the scales the Alps and the
Apennines and Mount Washington and the Sierra Nevadas? You see the earth had to
be ballasted. It would not do to have too much weight in Europe, or too much
weight in Asia, or too much weight in Africa or in America; so when God made
the mountains He weighed them. God knows the weight of the great ranges that
cross the continents, the tons, the pounds avoirdupois, the ounces, the grains,
the milligrammes. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
“Why sayest
thou?”
The
devout thought of these paragraphs passes in survey, first the earth (Isaiah 40:12-20); then the heavens (21-26); finally, the experience of the
children of God in all ages (27-31).
I. THE TESTIMONY OF THE EARTH. It seems as though we are conducted to
the shores of the Mediterranean, and stationed somewhere near the site of
ancient Tyre. Before us spreads the Great Sea, as the Hebrews were wont to call
it. Far across the waters, calm and tranquil, or heaving in memory of recent
storms, sea and sky blend in the circle of the horizon. Now remember, says the
prophet, God’s hands are so strong and great that all that ocean and all other
oceans lie in them as a drop on a man’s palm And this God is our God for ever
and ever. All men may be in arms against thee: encircling thee with threats,
and plotting to swallow thee up. But the nations are to Him as the drop of a
bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Thou hast no reason,
therefore, to be afraid.
II. THE TESTIMONY OF THY HEAVENS. The scene shifts to the heavens, and
all that is therein. This is the antidote of fear. Sit in the heavenlies. Do
not look from earth towards heaven, but from heaven towards earth. Let God, not
man, be the standpoint of vision. But this is not all. To this inspired
thinker, it seemed as though the blue skies were curtains that God had
stretched out as a housewife gauze (see Revised Version, marg.), or the fabric
of a tent within which the pilgrim rests. If creation be His tent, which He
fills in all its parts, how puny are the greatest potentates of earth! The
child of God need not be abashed before the greatest of earthly rulers. And
even this is not all--day changes to night, and as the twilight deepens, the
stars come out in their hosts; and suddenly, to the imagination of this lofty
soul, the vault of heaven seems a pasture-land over which a vast flock is
following its Shepherd, who calls each by name. What a sublime conception!
Jehovah, the Shepherd of the stars, leading them through space; conducting them
with such care and might that none falls out of rank, or is lacking. And will
Jehovah do so much for stars, and nought for sons?
III. THE TESTIMONY OF THE SAINTS. “Hast thou not heard?” It has been a
commonplace with every generation of God’s people, that “the Lord fainteth not,
neither is weary.” He never takes up a case to drop it. He never begins to
build a character to leave it when it is half complete. He may seem to forsake
and to plunge the soul into needless trial; this, however, is no indication
that He has tired of His charge, but only that He could not fulfil the highest
blessedness of some soul He loved save by the sternest discipline. “There is no
searching of His understanding.” There is another point on which all the saints
are agreed, that neither weariness nor fainting are barriers to the
forth-putting of God’s might. On the contrary, they possess an infinite
attractiveness to His nature. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Nature
ministers to the suffering
Nature
has always been the resort of the suffering. Elijah to Horeb; Christ to Olivet.
And in these glowing paragraphs, which touch the high-water mark of sacred
eloquence, we are led forth to stand in the curtained tent of Jehovah, to
listen to the beat of the surf, and watch the march of the stars. (F. B.
Meyer, B. A.)
Verse 15
Behold, the nations are as
a drop of a bucket
The greatness of God and
His works
I.
THE
GREATNESS OF GOD AND HIS WORKS.
II. GOD
CONSTANTLY GOVERNETH THE WORLD WHICH HE HATH MADE. And as all creatures from
the highest to the lowest have their subsistence in the power of God, so they
are each of them noticed by His eye and governed by His providence; that is, by
the immediate energy of His own power, or by agents which are under His
direction, and who cannot act but by His power. That care of the Supreme Being,
by which this general order or stated course of things is preserved, may not
unfitly be called a general providence. Consider the great extent of it. It
taketh place not only in the frame of the universe, the regular motion of the
vast bodies which compose it, by which we have spring and harvest, summer and
winter, day and night; not only in the fruitfulness of the earth, and the state
of the several kinds of animals which inhabit it, and the manner in which the
kinds and the individuals are preserved; but in human affairs likewise. But it
is particularly pleasing to observe how minutely this providence of the Supreme
Being descendeth, even to the notice and direction of the smallest and most
inconsiderable things. Our Saviour, and this according to the justest
philosophy that ever appeared in the world, representeth His Heavenly Father as
clothing the lilies of the field, and as feeding the ravens; and argues from
this, that if He attends to these things, which are comparatively of the
smallest account, surely His providence will not neglect His creatures of a
nobler order (Luke
12:1-59.). Thus,
though God is so great, “He humbleth Himself to behold things which are done in
heaven and upon earth,” and takes notice even of the lowest orders of
creatures, and of every individual. For, besides that general order of causes
and effects which He hath established, and maintaineth from age to age, there
are plain footsteps of a particular providence regarding individual persons. By
the interpositions of providence things are so governed and conducted that His
purposes are pursued and carried into execution; and manifold are the means by
which this may be effected. How important the events which arise out of things
which appear to us purely accidental!
III. These
reflections naturally lead our thoughts to THE HAPPINESS OF THE SUPREME BEING
IN HIS PERFECTIONS AND WORKS, a subject, indeed, as little to be comprehended
by us, as we can find out the Almighty unto perfection. Yet we cannot avoid the
thought how high, and in all respects perfect, the felicity of the first cause
of all things must be; and love to God will make a right heart rejoice and
exult in it. Nor let it be objected, that in the universe there is much
irregularity, and many evils and sufferings. For what to us hath the appearance
of irregularity may be, nay, assuredly is, necessary to the harmony of the
whole; and part of a design which was the best and worthiest which could be
framed. As for those sufferings which the subjects of a moral government bring
upon themselves, they are as necessary as that government itself; which is
indeed the glory of God’s creation, and without which, and those orders of
creatures which are made to be the subjects of such a government, the universe
must have been nothing to what it is now. An universe without angels, without
men, without any such orders of intellectual and moral beings, what would it
have been? But the glorious Head and Regent of that vast body, which is all
harmony, all order and beauty, and in which no part of the grand design hath
failed, or ever can fail, what happiness must He taste! Concluding
reflections--
1. If
our minds are rightly impressed with a sense of the Divine greatness and
majesty, how little must what we are apt to call great upon earth appear in our
eye!
2. Let
us in all things meekly and affectionately submit to the supreme Ruler; in
humble obedience to His laws, and in unreserved resignation to His providence.
3. Let
us put our trust in God. (J. Duchals, D. D.)
Verse
16
And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn
God’s independence
He is not only independent of the power, but also of the goodwill
of His creatures.
This general allusion to oblation as an act of homage or of friendship suits
the connection better than a specific reference to expiation. The insufficiency
of these offerings is set forth, not in a formal proposition, but by means of a
striking individualisation. If Lebanon could not suffice, what could? (J. A.
Alexander.)
Verse 18
To whom then
will ye liken God?
--
The Trinity
I. THE CARNAL NOTIONS MEN ARE APT TO ENTERTAIN OF GOD.
1. We find that the knowledge of the true God soon faded from the
minds of Noah’s descendants. That patriarch had been favoured with a clear
revelation; and he had offered a pure worship. But even among his sons
depravity began to manifest itself. And in a generation or two very gross ideas
prevailed. Men were not satisfied with the fact of a Being, pure and spiritual,
dwelling in the highest heaven, apart from the mortal eye. And they chose to
represent Him by sensible figures. Some practices of this kind are described in
Isaiah 40:19-20.
2. We find the same temper at work in the Jews. They, too, imitated
the heathen in desiring idols, gods whom they might see. They were continually
prone to let their carnal reasonings interfere with their reception of the
Divine Word.
3. We may trace similar consequences even down to our times. There
have been men, of great natural parts too, who, because they never witnessed a
miracle, have boldly denied that miracles were ever performed. He who will
credit nothing that is not apparent to his senses, cripples himself with the
most enervating chains. He who does not allow that the Deity is
incomprehensible, is in truth the most irrational of reasoners: for he would
make out that this vast universe was created and is upheld and governed by one
whose mind he, a puny worm of the dust, is able to comprehend. And he that
would reject the truth of the Trinity because it is higher than his thoughts,
would compare the likeness of God to a finite creature. It is not intended to
say that Scripture asserts or that the Church maintains anything that is
contrary to reason. We are every day obliged to admit as truths things, the
reasons of which we are unable to explain or account for; and no one imagines
that this is irrational. Why should it appear so in spiritual things?
II. THERE IS THUS A WHOLESOME TRIAL OF OUR FAITH. God might, had He so
pleased, have revealed His will so plainly that men could no more be ignorant
of it than they can of the fact that the sun is shining in the heavens. To take
the case of our blessed Saviour, He might have been shown openly to the world,
and have been pointed out so evidently as the One of whom Moses and the
prophets wrote, that none even of the Pharisees or the Sadducees could have
denied it. Or, take the fact of His resurrection. It might have been performed
before multitudinous witnesses, and Christ might again have lived openly as He
did before His death, teaching and preaching. But where, in such a case, would
have been the trial of faith?
The whole
system of God’s dealings would have been changed; and we should have walked by
sight and not by faith. In regard to providential circumstances it might have
been the same. God might have disclosed to Abraham His purpose of providing a
ram for a sacrifice instead of Isaac. Had Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
learned at once that the fire would not kindle upon them, different indeed
would their emotions have been; but what trial would there then have been of
faith! God’s dealings are secret, because He would prove men, and make evident
what is in their hearts. In no other way, it is clear, could the graces of
humility and trust, of patience and faith and hope and long-suffering, of
self-denial and spiritual-mindedness, be wrought out. And so with regard to the
revelation of doctrines. The Scripture gives us this most remarkable
announcement 1 Peter 2:6-8). It is thus that God severs the precious from the vile: it is
for this reason that He has allowed difficulties in His sacred Word, at which
the worldly and the self-sufficient are offended; while they who with a humble
spirit wait patiently upon Him, and meekly seek His guidance, are admitted into
the secret place of the Most High. It is not that God throws difficulties into
men’s ways or delights to perplex them, but that in pursuing His great plan of
moral government He does find it needful to train and lead onward by degrees,
thus letting it be seen who will be teachable scholars in His school, and who
rebelliously refuse His gracious lessons. There is a point, too, which must not
be lost sight of. The revelation of the Gospel, such as we find it, is of
expanding character. As ages roll on, more and more light beams upon it; and
thus the Bible is seen to be the book not of untutored nations only, but of
those farthest advanced in civilisation; not merely of the world in its
infancy, but of the world come to matured age. Other books are soon exhausted.
But in all those things to which I have adverted, there is spiritual food for
the humble mind. The full development of God’s mysteries must patiently be
waited for. Herein are some of the good things which He has prepared for those
that love Him. Concluding reflections--
1. There is an unfair use made of human language by those who reject
the doctrine of the Trinity. Language is always imperfect; more especially so
when, by terms taken from human things, it is used to describe those that are
Divine.
2. But, after all, the best knowledge is a practical knowledge. And
this we should strive to attain, especially in respect to such deep things of
God. No one will stumble at the doctrine of the Trinity, who, enlightened and
quickened by the Spirit, comes to the Father by the Son. Vain speculations will
be cast aside as we become acquainted with what each blessed person in the
Godhead has done, and is doing, for us. In this way seek to know the Triune
God. The Father’s love, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship
of the Holy Ghost, experimentally known, will be sure to be the Christian’s
stable foundation and his richest joy. (J. Ayre, M. A.)
Verse 20
A graven image
“An image that will not totter”
If an idol leant over or fell that was the very worst of omens; cf
the case of Dagon.
(Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The absurdity of idolatry
A wooden image, planed smooth below and heavier than above, so as
not to upset at every push, is to be a god! (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The helplessness of graven images
When John Knox was a prisoner in France, “the officers brought to
him a painted board, which they called Our Lady, and commanded him to kiss it.
They violently thrust it into his face, and put it betwixt his hands, who,
seeing the extremity, took the idol, and advisedly looking about, he cast it
into the river and said, ‘Let Our Lady now save herself; she is light enough;
let her learn to swim!’ After that was no Scotsman urged with that idolatry.”
(Knox, History of the Reformation.)
Verse 21
Have
ye not known?
--
Isaiah’s
questions
His
sharp questions are as hooks to draw from his hearers’ hearts their timid and
starved convictions, that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of
nature and of history. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
Verse 22
It is He that sitteth upon
the circle of the earth
The circle
While yet people thought
that the world was fiat, and thousands of years before they found out that it
was round, Isaiah intimated the shape of it.
The most beautiful figure in all geometry is the circle. God made the universe
on the plan of a circle. There are in the natural world straight lines, angles,
parallelograms, diagonals, quadrangles; but these evidently are not God’s
favourites. Out of a great many figures God seems to have selected the circle
as the best. “It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth.” The stars in
a circle, the moon in a circle, the sun in a circle, the universe in a circle,
and the throne of God the centre of that circle.
1. The
history of the world goes in a circle. If the world stands long enough we may
have a city as large as they had in old times--Babylon, five times the size of
London. You go into the potteries at Burslem, England, and you will find them
making cups and vases after the style of the cups and vases exhumed from
Pompeii. The world is not going back. But it is swinging in a circle, and will
come back to the styles of pottery known so long ago as the days of Pompeii.
The world must keep on progressing until it makes the complete circuit.
2. What
is true in the material universe is true in God’s moral government and
spiritual arrangement. That is the meaning of Ezekiel’s wheel; the wheel means
God’s providence. But a wheel is of no use unless it turns around, and if it
turns around it moves in a circle. These bad or good actions may make the
circuit of many years, but come back to us they will, as certainly as that God
sits on the circle of the earth. Jezebel, the worst woman of the Bible, slew
Naboth because she wanted his vineyard. While the dogs were eating the body of
Naboth, Elijah the prophet put down his compass, and marked a circle from those
dogs clear around to the dogs that should eat the body of Jezebel the
murderess. But it is sometimes the case that this circle sweeps through a
century, or through many centuries. People got tired of a theocracy. They said--“We
don’t want God directly interfering with the affairs of the world; give us a
monarchy.” The world had a monarchy. From a monarchy it is going to have a
limited monarchy. After a while the limited monarchy will be given up, and the
republican form of government will be everywhere recognised. Then the world
will get tired of the republican form of government, and it will have an
anarchy, which is no government at all. And then, all nations, finding out that
man is not capable of righteously governing man, will cry out again for a
theocracy, and say, “Let God come back and conduct the affairs of the world.”
But do not become impatient because you cannot see the course of events, and
therefore conclude that God’s government is going to break down. History tells
us that in the making of the pyramids it took two thousand men two years to
drag one great stone from the quarry and put it into the pyramids. If men
short-lived can afford to work so slowly as that, cannot God, in the building
of the eternities, afford to wait? What though God should take ten thousand
years to draw a circle! But it is often the case that the rebound is much
quicker than that. The circle is sooner completed. You resolve that you will do
what good you can. In one week you put a word of counsel in the heart of a
Sabbath-school child. During that same week you give a letter of introduction
to a young man struggling in business. During the same week you make an
exhortation in a prayer- meeting. It is all gone; you will never hear of it, perhaps,
you think. A few years after a man comes up to you and says, “You don’t know
me, do you?” You say, “No, I don’t remember ever to have seen you.” “Why,” he
says, “I was in the Sabbath-school class over which you were the teacher; one
Sunday you invited me to Christ.” What is true of the good is just as true of
the bad. You utter a slander against your neighbour. It has gone forth from
your teeth; it will never come back, you think. You think it will never do you
any harm. But I am watching that word, and I see it beginning to curve, and it
curves around, and it is aiming at your heart. You maltreat an aged parent. You
begrudge him the room in your house. But God has an account to settle with you
on that subject. What are those rough words with which your children are
accosting you? They are the echo of the very words you used in the ear of your
old father forty years ago. Retribution in a circle! I would like to see Paul,
the invalid missionary, at the moment when his influence comes to full orb--his
influence rolling out through Antioch, Cyprus, Syria, Corinth, Athens, through
Asia, through Europe, through five centuries, through twenty centuries, through
all the succeeding centuries, through earth, through heaven, and at last, the
wave of influence, having made full circuit, strikes his great soul. I should
not want to see Voltaire when his influence comes to full orb. No one can tell
how that bad man’s influence girded the earth, save the One who is seated on
the circle of the earth. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers
Men as grasshoppers:--
1. So
little and inconsiderable.
2. Of
such small value.
3. Of
such little use.
4. So
easily crushed. Proud men’s lifting up themselves is but like the grasshopper’s
leap; in an instant they must down to the earth again. (M. Henry.)
Verse 23-24
That bringeth
the princes to nothing
Great men reduced to
nothing
Earth has its
great men.
Social distinctions grow out of the constitution of things, and are, therefore,
Divine in their foundation.
I. EARTH’S GREAT MEN GOD REDUCES TO NOTHING.
1. Death is the destruction of all mere worldly distinctions.
2. Death is effected by the agency of God. “He bringeth,” etc. Not
chance, fate, accident, etc.
II. Earth’s great men He reduces to nothing NOTWITHSTANDING THEIR
DETERMINED EFFORTS TO BE SOMETHING. “Their stock shall not take root in the
earth;”
1. The implied tendency of earth’s great men in relation to life.
They seek to “root” themselves here.
2. The manifest folly of earth’s great men. They are trying to do
what they cannot accomplish. Heaven’s decree is against it, and there is no
overcoming that decree. The roots of our earthly life, such as they are, are
only like those of certain marine plants, that spring up one floating wavelet
to be destroyed by the next; or rather like the roots of those atmospheric
plants that strike only into a wave of air; that roll swiftly on, Heaven only
knows where.
III. HE DOES THIS WITH THE GREATEST EASE. “He blows upon them and they
wither,” etc. (Homilist.)
Verse 26
Lift up your eyes on high
Looking up and pressing on
A man’s vision broadens as it lengthens.
Look straight down at your feet; what do you see? A few inches will measure the
diameter of the circle within which your sight has play. Look up at the blue
which spans the heavens, and what see you then? Your circle of vision takes a
sweep which demands astronomic computation. The circumference widens with the
distance. But that is not all. Within the near and narrow circle there is room
only for small details and severed parts--mere fractions and fragments, whose
drift is not clear. The distant and wide outlook shows great and harmonious
aggregates, shows their movement and drift, shows their obedience to the
time-beat of a sovereign purpose. Herein lies the explanation of our text. It
was a call to men to look at the stars, and to get therefrom a larger and more
inspiriting conception of God’s providence. The downward look throws an
exaggerated emphasis on local details and passing experiences. It shows a
complexity of events and movements whose design is not clear. The outlook is
too confined to reveal the great issues which give meaning and value to
details. Life sinks to a series of disjointed commonplaces. Man is robbed of
the vision which inspires creative thought and heroic endeavour. Hope, faith,
courage are the fruit of a loftier and far-reaching vision. The present finds
its interpretation in the eternal, the local in the infinite. The soul of the
seer expands with his vision. Narrow thought and hasty judgment become
impossible to him. Essentially, then, our text calls us to a broader outlook,
bids us to form our judgments and to feed our impulses on larger views of life
and providence. This is far enough from bidding us to become visionaries and
star-gazers in the sense usually associated with those terms. It is vision in
order to labour, not vision in place of labour, to which we are called. By
rising in vision above the present, we shall more adequately fill the present
with wise thought and toil.
I. THIS THOUGHT
GUIDES US TO THE PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF PROVIDENCE. God works on a large
scale. His purposes, like Himself, inhabit eternity. In His government there is
nothing small, arbitrary, merely local. Every passing movement is part of a big
design. And the man who would read even the plainer words of that purpose must
get his light from a wide study of God’s ways. Providence cannot be interpreted
by details. We get a glimpse of this truth when we engage in retrospect.
Looking back over a long stretch of years, we are enabled to perceive merciful
meanings in crises which at the time perplexed and burdened us. The same truth
impresses us when we take a panoramic view of nations and movements in history.
To the man of downward look and narrow view, few things are more perplexing
than the oftentimes apparent breach between moral worth and material progress.
He sometimes becomes cynical over it. He has been heard to say that
righteousness has nothing to do with prosperity. He looks down at the few facts
lying near his feet, and this is what he makes of them. Think you that the
resources of civilisation have banished for ever the dispensations of
righteous, all-controlling providence? Read history. You will find that virtue,
truth, honour, are more than mere sentiments--are vital elements of victorious
power. God works on a grand scale. We must look far if we would adequately see.
To this grandeur of purpose, which is the glory of providence, must be traced
our many perplexities. Higher intelligence and larger aims must ever work in a
manner ill understood and misunderstood by lower capacity. There will ever be
need for trust and patience, but there may be moments of insight and
realisation. But these can only come to the man who attains the broad outlook.
In this matter we multiply our inevitable perplexities by the persistence of
our downward look. Our thoughts and interests are so centred in the passing day
and the current event as to narrow both our views and our sympathies. The
things of to-day are what we are eager for; and on God’s relation to us through
them do we often misjudge His character and purpose. Give scope to your eyes.
The tree will then sink to small proportions. It will become a pleasing detail
on the broad expanse which stretches away to the horizon. The men to whom the
text was first spoken needed this exhortation. They had been trying to see the
landscape while placing their eyes upon the tree.
II. THIS THOUGHT
GUIDES US TO THE PROPER STANDPOINT FROM WHICH TO LOOK AT MAN. The downward look
tends to the denial of God. It tends equally, and as a consequence, to the
degradation of our thought of man. It is by enlarging our vision, by taking in
a wider view of facts, that we shall rightly see God, and through Him,
ourselves. In a word, as we must look at life’s facts in the light of God’s
great purposes, so must we look at man, not as he merely is, but as he is
ideally in the redeeming thought and design of the Father. Man, looked at only
from below, does not inspire great expectations or reverential regard. Before
us looms a being of measurable height, of weight and bulk definable, acting
under the impulse of appetites and desires which he holds in common with the
brutes, showing now and again the possession of genius and virtues clearly not
brutish, but for the most part failing to rise above sheer commonplace alike of
power or sympathy. The natural man of ordinary proportions is not impressive.
And the observer who looks downwards at him will soon lose all heroic
conceptions of life, all sense of man’s high origin and destiny. We become the
victims of a delusion. The eye tricks us into the belief that we see, and under
that belief we begin to cherish low views of man’s worth. Man, like providence,
to be seen aright must be looked at on high. Here we come under the tyranny of
his too obtrusive parts. It is “in Christ” that we must look at our life, judge
its possibilities and its worth, its character and destiny. Looking at man in
Him, we behold a being God-like in the proportions of power and quality. If
God, looking upon the very imperfect disciples of His Son, calls them “saints,”
while yet they are a long way from sanctity, I will be guided by the example.
III. THIS THOUGHT
GUIDES US TO THE PROPER INSPIRATION OF WORK. Never yet was great work done by
the man of mere downward look. The eye, to be sure, must look steadily at the
object and instrument of its toil, must look down and around at the place and
conditions of the work to be done; but nothing much will come of it till the
eye kindles the soul, and the soul rekindles the eye to wider vision. The
artist who painted for eternity had mastered the secret of most patient and
potent work for time and man. In the same spirit of lofty consecration did the
men work who planned and reared our great cathedrals. Not for pay, not for
fame, not by regulating rule of trade society did the chisels chip, and the
hammers ring, and the trowelsiply their busy task. The workmen consciously
worked for God. And nothing less than a renewal of this vision can redeem the
work of to-day from insignificance or degradation, or lift men into the
confidence and joy of patient well-doing. The busy housewife, engaged in an
endless round of detailed tasks, would surely fail through very weariness, did
not the large vision and love of home and family give great value to small activities
and lifelong significance to patient fidelity. It is when the preacher or the
Sunday-school teacher looks at his work from on high, and sees before him not
so many recognisable people about whom he knows everything, but a company of
immortal spirits whose life passes measurement or comprehension, that he is
strengthened for the drudgery attaching to his vocation, and rises to the
height of passionate enthusiasm. The commerce and industry of the day are to
some extent smitten with debility through the narrowing of their outlook,
consequent upon hot competition and vigorous clashing of rights and claims. The
downward look has resulted in the blight of worldliness. Only the broader
vision can raise the tone and quality of life. It is the business of the poet,
the preacher, the leader, to bring and keep these loftier inspirations within
the practical spheres of life. The tendency of work is always towards
absorption in its own immediate occupation.
IV. THE PROPER
EFFECT OF THIS UPWARD LOOK IS THE RENEWAL OF OUR FAITH AND RESOLVE. It is to
grace we must look for the secret of all that is beneficent in providence and
bright in the prospects of man. And as we recall these blessings, we do but
emphasise the work of Jesus, through whom man is crowned with favour and
immortality. We lift up our eyes on high, and there we behold Jesus crowned
with glory and honour, all dominion granted to Him, holding the reins of power
while bearing the marks of conflict. In Him we see the Father. (C. A. Berry,
D. D.)
The universe and man
These words remind us of an incident in the life of the first
Napoleon. On board the ship which carried him across the Mediterranean to him
campaign in Egypt, there were French savants who had convinced
themselves, and thought they could convince others, that there is no God. The
great commander found them discoursing boastfully on their favourite theme,
and, calling them upon deck, while the heavens above were bright with
innumerable stars, he said to them, “Tell me who made these.” Napoleon was no
philosopher, no metaphysician, no theologian. But he was a man of great common
sense. We are not content to be told conjecturally of any processes through
which things have passed into their present forms of existence. Nebular
hypotheses and atomic theories explain nothing. If assumed as true, we demand
to know whence the nebulae and whence the atoms came. Nor are we content to be
cheated out of an answer to the question, “Who made these?” by a metaphysics
which ends by leaving us in doubt as to whether these stars have any existence
except in our own thoughts and thought-processes. There was a time when the
children of men, lifting up their eyes on high, saw in the hosts of heaven not
creatures of God, but gods. And we scarcely wonder. The living God once
forsaken and forgotten, who or what so worthy of adoration as sun, moon, and
stars?
I. IT IS THIS
OLDER FAITH WE FIND IN OUR TEXT--not obscurely, but with the positiveness of
knowledge. And it is not in this text alone, but horn the beginning to the end
of our Bible. Its writers, in succession to one another, explicitly maintain
the faith of a living God, Maker and Ruler of all And in doing so, they stood
alone in the world. The wisdom of Egypt and the wisdom of Assyria gave them no
countenance. The teaching of these Hebrew writers, through all the ages, from
Moses to Christ, is like a pure crystal stream flowing through a vast desert,
unabsorbed by sand or sun, and undefiled by the ten thousand impurities on its
banks. The old Hebrew faith stands as firmly in the light of modern science as
it did when science in its modern sense was a thing almost unknown. Sir Isaac
Newton, in closing his exposition of the system of the universe, worshipped and
declared that its cause could not be mechanical; it must be intelligent, it
must be found in a voluntary agent infinitely wise and mighty. But while these
men of the old Hebrew race knew less of the vastness of the universe than we do
now, they did not feel it less. The man of science, with his telescope and
mathematical reckonings, must feel himself utterly bewildered when he attempts
to imagine the distances which his demonstrations reveal But it does not follow
that his impression of that vastness, or his awe in the contemplation of it, is
in proportion to his knowledge. A child, with a true child’s heart, may be more
deeply impressed with the glory of the over-hanging heavens, than a full-grown
man who exercises all his intellectual power in endeavouring to understand
them. The Hebrews knew enough and saw enough to produce the profoundest
feeling. Perhaps the chief explanation of the feeling with which the Hebrews
contemplated nature is that they saw God in everything.
II. THIS IS THE
SECOND POINT TO WHICH OUR TEXT INTRODUCES US. “He calleth them all by names by
the greatness of His might; for that He is strong in power not one faileth.”
But what of the laws of nature? The Hebrew Scriptures, instead of denying the
constancy of nature, seem to affirm it more consistently than some modern
scientists. Take, e.g., these primitive statements: “God said, Let the
earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so.
And God saw that it was good. But the Bible, While explicit in regard to the
constancy of nature, asserts with equal explicitness a continued Divine agency
in nature (Psalms 104:14; John 5:17).
III. ALL THIS IS
MADE THE FOUNDATION OF AN ARGUMENT OF COMFORT PRIMARILY TO THE ANCIENT ISRAEL
OF GOD, AND EQUALLY TO ALL THE SPIRITUAL ISRAEL. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel?” etc. Galileo approached this idea, whether he got it from
Isaiah or not, in a very significant form. “I would not that we should so
shorten the arm of God in the government of human affairs, but that we should
rest in this, that we are certain that God and nature are so occupied in the government
of human affairs, they could not more attend to us if they were charged with
the care of the human race alone.” The prophet goes a step beyond this, and
draws an argument from God’s care over the universe to assure us of His care
over us. Christ said, “Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither
do they reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are
ye not much better than they?” But the prophet seems to argue from God’s care
over the greater to His care over the less. As if he said, He watches over suns
and stars, therefore He will watch over you. More than this, the Bible story of
creation gives us the keynote of the Bible idea of man. Man is not merely one
of innumerable living creatures made to people the earth; the earth was made
for him. He was the end for which and towards which progressive changes, spread
over vast ages, were effected. Glorious as that star may be, and wonderingly as
I contemplate its brightness, I am more to God than it is; I am nearer of kin
to God than it is; and if God cares for it, much more will He care for me, His
own child. (J. Kennedy, D. D.)
The heavens testily of God
Cicero could ask, with unfailing constancy, “Can we doubt that
some present and efficient ruler is over them?” And Seneca says, “They all
continue, not because they are eternal, but because the watchfulness of their
Governor protects them: imperishable things need no guardian; but these are
preserved by their Maker, who, by His power, controls their natural tendency, to
decay.” And Hume, though his philosophy was irreligious in comparison with that
of either Roman, could raise his hands to the starry sky and show that he too
had a human heart, by exclaiming to Fergusson, “Oh, Adam, how can a man look at
that and not believe in a God!” (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Verses
27-31
Why
sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord?
--
The attributes
of God: a reply to unbelief
I. THE UNIVERSAL DISPOSITION TO UNBELIEF. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob,
and speakest, O Israel?” etc.
II. THE ACCOUNT WHICH GOD HIMSELF GIVES OF THE GREATNESS OF HIS
ATTRIBUTES. Well to Israel might the Almighty put the inquiry, “Hast thou not
known?” He spake to His peculiar people. In Jewry is God known; His praise is
great in Israel. How could they but know His attributes, to whom He had Himself
manifested His glory? And to us the same upbraiding queries might well be put.
III. HOW THE LORD EMPLOYS ALL HIS MIGHTY ATTRIBUTES FOR THE CONSOLATION
AND REFRESHMENT OF HIS PEOPLE WHO CALL UPON HIM. “He giveth power to the
faint,” etc.
1. Consider the case of those who are convinced of their own natural
sin and helplessness, but who have not as yet sought their Saviour.
2. The consolations of the text belong also to those who, after they
have found their Saviour, are mourning under peculiar sin, or walking in
peculiar darkness.
3. By temporal sorrows, too, He may sorely grieve thee, but much more
mayest thou trust Him in them. (T. Scott, B. A.)
When the way
seems hidden
I. THE WAY WHICH SEEMS HIDDEN. “My way is hid from the Lord”--what a
common cry! Samuel Taylor Coleridge said he was sure the Bible was the Word of
God because it found him at deeper depths than any other book. How surely and
how deeply does this cry, “My way is hid from the Lord,” “find” each of us in
many a mood!
1. It is into the future that the prophet is looking. Plainly, by the
vision-giving Spirit, he discerns the great catastrophe which is to afflict the
Jewish nation. The Babylonian captivity is to drag them into exile. By the
severe chastisement of the captivity the Jews are to be cured of an almost
uncheckable tendency towards idolatry. A human waywardness needs sometimes a
bitter medicine to compel it back to paths of loyalty to God. But the prophet
not only foresees the captivity, but also the way in which the exiled Hebrews
are enduring it. It is as though he heard them talking together there in
distant Babylon.
2. But that the way seems hidden from the Lord is not anything
peculiar to those ancient captives. How surely and how deeply does that ancient
cry” find” every one of us.
Lord.
II. A GREAT AND ENDURING TRUTH ABOUT OUR WAY WHICH SOMETIMES SEEMS TO
US HIDDEN FROM THE LORD. This is that our way is not and cannot be hidden from
Him. And there are reasons firm and towering as the mountain peaks for this.
1. Our way cannot be hidden from the Lord because He is
everlasting--His purpose cannot fail.
2. Because He is powerful--“the Creator of the ends of the earth.”
3. Because He is actively Lord “He fainteth not, neither is weary.”
4. Because He is actively wise--“there is no searching of His
understanding.”
5. Because He is beneficent--“He giveth power to the faint, and to
them that have no might He increaseth strength.”
III. SEIZE THE PRECIOUS PROMISE FOR YOUR HELP, even though your way may
seem hidden from the Lord. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew,” etc.
God is coming to your help. Even while the captive Jews were crying, “My way is
hidden,” etc., God was preparing Cyrus to be their deliverer. (Homiletic
Review.)
Spiritual
despondency
I. ISAIAH’S DESPONDENCY. It arose from a two-fold source.
1. The sense of a Divine desertion. “My way is hidden from the Lord.”
It was the necessary result of the prophet’s office that all the nation’s
sorrows must press home on his spirit, and must wound with their keenest
anguish his sensitive soul. Now, remembering this union of deep sympathy with
the people, observe the tremendous power with which, for fifty years, the
wickedness of the land, and God’s great judgment upon it, must have pressed on
his large and tender heart. It made his very office often seem a vanity. Many
men have had the same experience; perhaps all earnest men must undergo it.
2. The absence of Divine recompense. “My judgment is passed over from
my God.” The prophet unquestionably spoke these words as a cry uttered only by
himself. The people were buried in God-forgetting repose. The priests were dead
in formalism. The spiritual life of the land was decaying; and thunders of woe
were muttering in the nation’s future. What had his life been worth? Apparently
nothing! All great men think that they die in failure. Is it not hard for a man
who has given to God his all, and worn out his life in His service, to go out
into the eternal silence and see no reward?
II. THE TRUTH THAT REMOVED ISAIAH’S DESPONDENCY. In the verses
following our text we perceive that the double manifestation of God’s greatness
in Nature, and the tenderness of His revealed will, dispelled the gloom.
1. The greatness of God in Nature. He speaks not only of the
unsearchable Creator, but of the everlasting God. Thy recompense is sure--thy
work, and conflict, and toil are for eternity; then “why sayest thou, O Jacob,
that thy way is hidden from the Lord?”
2. The tenderness of the revealed will. “He giveth power to the
faint; and to them that have no might, He increaseth strength.” The revelation
of God’s tenderness is far more full for the Christian man, and has, therefore,
far greater power to remove our despondency. We know how the Great Shepherd
gave His life for the sheep.
III. THE RESULTS OF ITS REMOVAL.
1. Strength in weakness. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength.” Feebleness is transformed into power when God has taught His
great lesson of “glorying in infirmity.”
2. Immortal youth. “They shall mount up on wings as eagles.” You have
heard the old Jewish fable, that the eagle in dying recovered its youthful
power. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)
Faith in the
living God
I. Isaiah here reaches and rests upon THE VERY FOUNDATIONS OF THE
FAITH, TRUST, AND HOPE OF MANKIND--the living God. Creation rests on His hand;
man, the child of the higher creation, rests on His heart. What His power is to
the material universe His moral nature and character are to the spiritual
universe. “Have faith in God.” Creation lives by faith unconsciously, and all
her voices to our intelligent ear iterate and reiterate “Have faith in God.”
II. WHAT DO WE KNOW OF GOD THAT WE SHOULD TRUST HIM? What aspects does
He present to us? We have two sources of knowledge--what He has said to, and
what He has done for, man.
1. There is something unspeakably sublime in the appeal in verse 26.
It is heaven’s protest against man’s despair. Nor is Isaiah the only sacred
writer who utters it. There is something very strikingly parallel in Job (Job 38:1-41.). In both cases God’s appeal is to the grand and steadfast order
of the vast universe, which He sustains and assures. God tells us that all the
hosts of heaven are attendant on the fortunes of mankind. They all live that
God’s deep purpose concerning man may be accomplished.
2. God declares here that we are not only involved inextricably in
the fulfilment of His deepest and most cherished counsels, but that we are
needed to satisfy the yearnings of His Father’s heart.
III. WE MAY APPLY THESE PRINCIPLES to the seasons of our experience when
faith in the living God is the one thing which stands between us and the most
blank despair.
1. The deep waters of personal affliction.
2. The weary search of the intellect for truth, the struggle to
comprehend the incomprehensible, to know the inscrutable, to see the invisible,
which is part, and not the least heavy part, of the discipline of a man and of
mankind.
3. Dark crises of human history, when truth, virtue, and manhood seem
perishing from the world. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
The unbelief of
the Jews reproved
I. THE TITLES GOD HERE GIVES THEM WERE ENOUGH TO SHAME THEM OUT OF
THEIR DISTRUSTS. “O Jacob; O Israel!” Let them remember--
1. Whence they took those names--from one who had found God faithful
to him, and kind in all his straits.
2. Why they bore those names--as God’s professing people, a people in
covenant with Him.
II. THE WAY OF REPROVING THEM IS BY REASONING WITH THEM. “Why?”
Consider whether thou hast any ground to say so. Many of our foolish frets and
fears would vanish before a strict inquiry into the cause of them.
III. THAT WHICH THEY ARE REPROVED FOR IS AN ILL-NATURED, ILL-FAVOURED
WORD THEY SPOKE OF GOD, as if He had cast them off. There seems to he an
emphasis laid upon their saying it. It is bad to have evil thoughts rise in our
mind, but it is worse to put an imprimatur to them, and turn them into
evil words. David reflects with regret upon what he had said in his haste when
he was in distress.
IV. THE ILL WORD THEY SAID WAS A WORD OF DESPAIR CONCERNING THEIR
PRESENT CALAMITOUS CONDITION. They were ready to conclude--
1. That God would not heed them. “My way is hid from the Lord.”
2. That God could not help them. “My judgment is passed over from my
God, i.e., my case is so far past relief that God Himself cannot redress
the grievances of it. (M. Henry.)
A challenge to
despondent unbelief
“Why
sayest thou,” etc., that all the dispensations of providence and grace with
which you are connected appear so intricate and inexplicable that you cannot
attain any comfortable acquaintance with them; that God doth not seem to regard
your condition, and to manifest this tender care of you, but acts toward you as
if your forlorn circumstances were unknown to Him? This mournful complaint is
adopted by them that fear the Lord, on one or other of the three following
accounts--
I. When they do not perceive THE PROCURING CAUSES from whence their
troubles proceed. This perplexing circumstance greatly increases their
uneasiness, and induces them to request with Job that God would show them wherefore
He contendeth with them.
II. When they do not discover THE IMPORTANT PURPOSES to which they are
especially directed. Uncertainty as to the particular ends which afflictions
are sent to accomplish augments not a little the pressure of distress, and disposes
good people to bemoan themselves in the language of the dejected Church, “He
hath hedged me about that I cannot get out.” I can neither see the reason nor
the end of my affliction; my way seems to be hid from the Lord.
III. When they do not discern WHAT IS PRESENT DUTY. Notwithstanding the
blessed God hath clearly taught in His word what He requires, yet there are
particular situations wherein the best of men have been perplexed as to what
course they ought to follow. In such cases they have said with the good King of
Judah, we know not what to do; and have lamented that their way was hid from
the Lord. (R. Macculloch.)
Doubt and
encouragement
Israel
had suffered inexile so long that there were many who thought that their case
had escaped God’s eye, and that their “judgment” (i.e their cause)
had passed beyond His notice: the prophet replies, Jehovah is no local, limited
God, as you imagine; His power embraces Babylon not less than Palestine; His
strength is not exhausted; “there is no searching of His understanding”--some
inscrutable purpose must guide Him in delaying, if He do delay, the redemption
of His people; only continue to trust! (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
God the comfort
of His people
Sorrow
ever brings God nearer to us, if it do not bring us nearer to God; and whilst
Isaiah was pondering the greatness of his apparent failure, God was preparing
to chase away his darkness and to rekindle his hopes. Above him in the silent
vault of night God was bringing out His solemn stars. And from that heaven
where God numbered and named and watched over His stars, the eternal chorus
swept down into the prophet’s soul--“Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O
Israel?” etc. Now, from a like despondency of heart, not one of us is entirely
free. But some there are who dwell always in the region of gloom.
The
language of their whole life is, “My way is hid from the Lord and my judgment
is passed over from my God.” Or, perhaps, it is that the shadow of a long-past
grief is upon their life. Or, maybe, it is that they walk in a labyrinth of
difficulty. Or, like Isaiah, they mourn apparent failure; they see life’s
highest purpose ingloriously defeated.
I. GOD’S POWER THE COMFORT OF HIS PEOPLE. Certain it is that our only
true comfort is found in God. Life, when we can turn to God, is never cruel and
hard; however full of trial it may be it never seems unkind; for we know that a
hand of love appoints what a heart of love designs, and that all things must
work together for good. And God has surrounded us on every side with reminders
of what He is. When the heart is sad and low go out and be a witness of God’s
power; go out in the quiet evening when the gold and fire and purple of the
sunset have paled away, and see God bringing out His stars. And as you remember
that the infinite mind, your Father, knows their number, calls them all by
names, as the Eastern shepherd used to call his sheep, and so follows each with
His love, surrounds each by His care, so bathes each in His smile that “not one
faileth”--do they not with a loud shout of song pour down upon your soul the
same consolation? Not only God’s power as manifested in the sky, but His power
as seen on earth may be our hope. God is about you on every side. No star, no
bird, no flower is hid from Him. Never, then, can we say, “My way is hid from
the Lord,” etc.
II. But a further source of consolation is GOD’S TENDERNESS. “He
giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth
strength.” God’s tenderness is only rightly seen when viewed in conjunction
with His greatness. We see the tender in contrast with the mighty. And this is
real tenderness. Tenderness is strength in gentle action. When the power that
might crush heals, uplifts, and strengthens, then we see tenderness. Gentleness
is not weakness, but it is calm, quiet, loving strength. When the wind--which
might wrench the oak from its moorings, snap the cables it has thrown around
the rocks, and carry it away on its wings--lifts the hair and fans the cheek of
the dying child, it is gentle. When the sun--mighty in his strength, pouring
his scorching light on far-off worlds--shoots down a golden ray to cheer the
drooping plant, or to “increase strength” in the little seedling which a
raindrop would almost crush, it is gentle. And such is the God of whom we
speak. The great Father has also a mother’s tenderness. “He giveth power to the
faint.” He who Himself is never weary stoops to those who have no might, that
He may increase strength. The faint and weak, they are the children of the
strong and mighty! And to the faint He giveth “power”--power to suffer, to
endure. To the weak He giveth “strength”--strength to labour, to accomplish.
There is nothing in this world so mighty as the weakness which takes hold of
the Divine strength. Yonder the ocean is white with foam. Wave chases wave
across the dark surface of the deep as cloud chases cloud across tile blackened
sky. No ship could live in such a storm. The mightiest anchor ever forged could
give no safety in such an hour. But out, where the storm is fiercest, on those
dreadful rocks against which the waves dash themselves into clouds of spray, is
a tiny, helpless shell-fish. Its very strength is weakness. It clings simply by
its emptiness; but, clinging to that rock, not all the thunders of the ocean dislodge
it thence. It is weakness taking hold of strength. Tender and yet mighty is our
God, and His tenderness is His people’s comfort. Whilst we bow in reverence
before that power which holds untold worlds in their shining courses, we bow in
profounder reverence and love before that power when we behold it in gentle
exercise, giving power to the faint.
III. There is a further source of consolation open to us--GOD’S WISDOM.
“There is no searching of His understanding.” To say merely that man cannot
understand God is to say very little; but the language is the statement of an
eternal fact. There is no searching of His understanding; not by the brightest
intellects of earth nor by the grandest intelligences of heaven. And God’s
infinite wisdom is to us the needful complement of His infinite power. Power,
uncontrolled by wisdom, is rather to be feared than worshipped and loved. And
shall He who has conceived that mighty plan--that plan which embraces all
worlds in its grand conception--notunderstand the plan of our short life? Never
let us think “our way is hid from the Lord”; to Him every circumstance of our
life is known. (H. Wonnacott.)
Providence
I. THE DOCTRINE OF A GENERAL PROVIDENCE. The doctrine of Providence
in general is alike supported by reason and revelation.
1. It is necessary to creation. If the world were from eternity, then
might it go on self-sustained, as it had ever been: if it were of chance, it
might be supported by the same contingency which produced it. If a first cause
was necessary to the production of these things, He is also essential to their
preservation; and the same voice of nature which proclaims the being of a God,
declares His Providence.
2. We must take the testimony of Scripture on this subject.
3. From prophecy.
II. THE DOCTRINE OF A PARTICULAR PROVIDENCE.
1. As consistent with the Divine character. The grand objection
against a particular Providence has been, that it reduces the Deity to the
necessity of superintending such minute concerns as are beneath His
dignity--reduces the Deity to a necessity! What necessity can subsist but in
His will? The objection proceeds upon principles entirely erroneous. It is an
erroneous calculation to call anything great or little in such connection. All
affairs are not to us of equal importance--the bursting of a bubble and the
ruin of an empire. But, in reasoning thus, we are reducing the Deity to a
finite standard, and making Him altogether “such an one as ourselves.” With Him
the affairs of an empire and of individuals are equally manageable. The
reasoning is false, also, upon the principle of dignity. It deteriorates
nothing from the dignity of God to form a mite, with all the vessels and organs
adapted to its existence: mere minuteness of operation surely cannot be
deteriorating. What it was no degradation to God to create, it can be no
degradation to God to preserve and manage.
2. As necessary to the general arrangements of Providence. Here we
notice the operations of God, as demonstrating His government. The constitution
of nature is of parts: systems compose the universe--worlds compose systems--a
conglomeration of particles compose a world. Take the world of waters: seas
form oceans--rivers, seas--streamlets, rivers--drops, streamlets--and the atom
is infinitely divisible. Take the human frame; made up “of that which every
joint supplieth.” Apply this scale of operations to Providence, and then we
affirm that no concern can be so little as to be below the superintendence of
God; for none can be so small as not to form a part of the grand scheme of
Providence. Our ignorance on this subject can be no objection against its
reality. I cannot, indeed, trace the link which knits my little concerns with
the “ways of eternal Providence”; but neither can I trace the invisible chain
which holds all created things together in its remotest parts: some of the
larger links I discern, but more are invisible to me. He who admits the
doctrine of a general providence and denies that of a particular one, is a
being whose obliquity of intellect allows him to conceive of a whole, while he
denies the existence of the parts of which that whole is composed.
3. As demonstrated in the course of providential dispensations.
Review the circumstances of your separate lives. That life will furnish each of
you with the desired evidences on this part of the subject. How frequently have
the best concerted plans proved unavailing!
4. As harmonising with our prescribed duties, it is supposed, in the
prescription of prayer. Where would be the utility of prayer, or the propriety
of prescribing it, if the world was governed by a fate superior to the will of
the Supreme Being? The prescription of prayer supposes, on the part of the
Deity, a will as well as a power to govern. And this doctrine is reconcilable
with the use of means; nay, it requires them.
5. As revealed in the Scriptures.
6. As most consolatory. (W. Patten.)
Unbecoming
speech
It is
well in times when feeling is strong to say little, lest we speak unadvisedly
with our lips, murmuring at our lot, or complaining against God, as though He
had forgotten to be gracious, and had shut up His tender mercies in anger.
Speech often aggravates sorrow. We say more than we mean; we drown in the
torrent of our words the still small voice of the Holy Ghost whispering comfort;
we speak as though we had not known or heard. It is wise, therefore, not to
pass grief into words. Better let the troubled sea within rock itself to rest.
“Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel?” (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
“My way hid
from the Lord”
The
flower which follows the sun does so even in cloudy days: when it cloth not
shine forth, yet it follows the hidden course and motion of it. So the soul
that moves after God keeps that course when He hides His face; is content, yea,
is glad at His will in all estates, or conditions, or events. (T. Leighton.)
Verses 28-31
The Lord, the Creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not.
The unwearied God and
wearied men
For nations and for
individuals in view of political disasters or of private sorrows, the only
holdfast to which cheerful hope may cling, is the old conviction, “The Lord God
omnipotent reigneth.”
I. ISAIAH’S
APPEAL TO THE FAMILIAR THOUGHT OF AN UNCHANGEABLE GOD, AS THE ANTIDOTE TO ALL
DESPONDENCY, AND THE FOUNDATION OF ALL HOPE. “Hast thou not known; hast thou
not heard, that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator
of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? “To whom is he
speaking? The words of the previous verse tell us, in which he addresses
himself to Jacob, or Israel, who is represented as complaining: “My way is hid
from the Lord.” That is to say, he speaks to the believing, but despondent dent
part of the exiles in Babylon. There is wonder in the question, there is a
tinge of rebuke in it. The prophet takes his stand upon the most elementary
truth of religion. His appeal to them is: “What do you call God? You call Him
the Lord, do you not? What do you mean by calling Him that?” The life of men
and of creatures is like a river, with its source and its course and its end.
The life of God is like the ocean, with joyous movement of tides and currents
of life and energy and purpose, but ever the same, and ever returning upon
itself. “The everlasting God’s the Lord; and Jehovah, the unchanged,
unchangeable, inexhaustible Being, spends, and is unspent; gives, and is none
the poorer; works, and is never wearied; lives, and with no tendency to death
in His life; flames with no tendency to extinction in the blaze.” “He fainteth
not, neither is weary.” Here is a lesson for us to learn, of meditative
reflection upon the veriest commonplaces of our religion. There is a tendency
among us to forget the indubitable, and to let our religious thought be
occupied with the disputable and secondary parts of revelation. The
commonplaces of religion are the most important. Everybody needs air, light,
bread, and water. Meditate, then, upon the things most surely believed, and
ever meditate until the dry stick of the commonplace truth puts forth buds and
blossoms like Aaron’s rod. We all have times, depending on mood or
circumstances, when things seem black and we are weary. This great truth will
shine into our gloom like a star into a dungeon. Are our he.arts to tremble for
God’s truth to-day? Are we to share in the pessimist views of some
faint-hearted Christians? Surely as long as we can remember the name of the
Lord, and His unwearied arm, we have nothing to do with fear or sadness for
ourselves or for His Church or for His world.
II. THE
UNWEARIED GOD GIVING STRENGTH TO WEARIED MAN. “Even the youths shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.” Earth knows no independent
strength. All earthly power is limited in range and duration, and, by the very
law of its being, is steadily tending to weakness. But though that has a sad
side, it has also a grand and blessed one. Man’s needs are the open mouth into
which God puts His gifts. The low earth stretches, grey and sorrowful, fiat and
dreary, beneath the blue arched heaven, but the heaven stoops to encompass--ay!
to touch it. “He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He
increaseth strength.”
Notice the preceding,
words, “Lift up your eyes on high,” and behold who hath created these things,
etc. In the simple astronomy of those early times, there was no failure, nor
decay, nor change, in the calm heavens. The planets, year by year, returned
punctually to their place; and, unhasting and unresting, rolled upon their way.
Weakness and weariness had no place there, but, says Isaiah, God’s power does
not show itself so nobly up there as it does down here. It is not so much to
keep the strong in their strength as to give strength to the weak. It is much
to “preserve the stars from wrong,” it is more to restore and to break the
power into feeble men.
III. THE
WEARIED MAN LIFTED TO THE LEVEL OF THE UNWEARIED GOD, AND TO HIS LIKENESS.
“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” That phrase means,
of course, the continuous bestowment in unintermitting sequence of fresh gifts
of power, as each former gift becomes exhausted, and more is required. That
continuous communication leads to the “perpetual youth” of the Christian soul.
According to the law of physical life, decaying strength and advancing years
tame and sober and disenchant and often make weary because we become familiar
with all things and the edge is taken off everything. My text goes on to
portray the blessed consequences of this continuous communication of Divine
strength: “They shall run and not be weary.” That is to say: this strength of
God’s poured into our hearts, if we wait upon Him, shall fit us for the moments
of special hard effort, for the crises which require more than an ordinary
amount of energy to be put forth. It will fit us, too, for the long, dreary
hours which require nothing but keeping doggedly at monotonous duties--“They
shall walk and not faint.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Energy and wisdom
I. THE
DIVINE BEING AS POSSESSED OF INFINITE ENERGY. “He fainteth not, neither is
weary.” His most stupendous works are rather the “hidings of His power,” than
the manifestations of His might. The fact of God’s possessing infinite energy
supplies us with four guarantees--
1. A
guarantee of the regularity of the physical universe.
2. A
guarantee of ability to fulfil His promises. Of what avail are promises if
there be no executive energy?
3. A
guarantee of His power to realise His threatenings.
4. A
guarantee of Christ’s final enthronement. Feeble instrumentality is no argument
against this view. Nor is the guilty indifference of the Church.
II. THE
DIVINE BEING AS POSSESSED OF INFINITE MENTAL CAPACITY. “There is no searching
of His understanding.” In God, therefore, there is a combination of infinite
strength and infinite mind: power is under the government of intelligence! The
universe is an embodied idea. Its minutest members are parts of one glorious
thought. The infinite understanding of the Divine Being furnishes--
1. An
assurance that the darkest providences are under the direction of infinite
wisdom.
2. That
no plot against His government can succeed.
3. That
His plan of salvation is alone sufficient. Possessed of an understanding that
is infinite, God knew the exact necessities of the human race, and provided
that economy which alone could satisfy the cravings of human nature.
4. That
He understands the peculiarities of every case. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and
speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over
from my God?” These words rebuke the idea that anything can escape the Divine
notice. Christ knew all the springs of life, He saw the maladies which tainted
the blood and crippled the faculties of man, and at the issue of His fiat the
most malignant affection retreated as if in haste and shame!
5. An
assurance of eternal variety in the study of His nature. “There is no searching
of His understanding.” The eldest born in eternity may at this moment employ
this same language; for those who have seen most of the Divine glory, confess
most loudly the infinitude of His resources. Application--
The inexhaustibleness of
the Divine Power
Power is a faculty for
producing changes and performing works. There are three kinds or manifestations
of power--physical, intellectual, and moral. I go into St. Paul’s Cathedral
when some grand religious service is performed, the choral part is of the
highest order, the sermon is delivered by the grandest preacher of the day.
Here I receive an impression of three manifestations of power. The bringing
together and adjusting the stone, marble, iron, timber that compose the
enormous structure, impress me with physical power-power to act on material
bodies. In the architectural symmetry of the whole I am impressed with the
intellectual power--power of planning and contriving so as to give utility,
stability, and beauty to the whole. In the sacred music that floats around me
and the eloquent sermon that is addressed to me, my nature is brought under the
influence of moral power--power that rouses the conscience, that stirs the
deepest sentiments ofthe soul. Out in open Nature these three kinds of
manifestations of power appeal to man. God’s power is inexhaustible in all
these phases.
I. HIS
PHYSICAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. This will appear if we consider--
1. The
nature of His work in the material department. He is the Originator of all.
2. The
effect of His work in the material department.
3. The
constancy of His work in the material department.
II. HIS
INTELLECTUAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. Intellectual force is as visible in nature
to a thought ful eye as physical. Science shows that everything--the minute and
the vast, the proximate and the remote, is formed, sustained, and directed
according to plan. “In Thy book all my members were written.” Think of the
boundless variety amongst all the flowers and trees that have ever grown.
Amongst all the men of all the generations that are gone, have there been two
in face and figure exactly alike? Here is intellectual fertility! The little
intellectual force of contrivance possessed by the bee or the bird is very soon
exhausted, Man, too, soon reaches a culminating point in inventive skill. But
not so with God. But in the creations of the spiritual world the same
inexhaustibleness of intellectual energy is displayed. Each spirit involves
something of a new plan. On this little planet fresh souls appear every hour.
III. HIS
MORAL POWER IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.
1. Look
at His moral power in nature. Nature is brimful of the moral power of God;
power appealing to the souls of men.
2. Look
at His moral power in the Gospel. What is moral power? “Truth and grace.” (Homilist.)
The inexhaustible energy
of God
I. HIS
ENERGY IN THE SPHERE OF CONTRIVANCE IS INEXHAUSTIBLE.
1. Look
at His contrivance in relation to matter. The rushing currents, the surging
sea, the furious tempest, the revolution of planets, and the recurrence of the
seasons--all give us the impression of power. But to the thoughtful, the
intellectual force is as clearly developed in nature as the material, nay, is
implied in the material.
2. Look
at His contrivance in relation to spirit. Observe--
II. HIS
ENERGY IN THE SPHERE OF EXECUTION IS INEXHAUSTIBLE. His power of working out
His plans is equal to His power of invention.
1. It is
so in the material. In the material realm God seems to develop His plans in two
ways--directly and indirectly; without means and by means.
2. It is
so in the spiritual. Let us look at His power to save. What is moral power? It
is the power of truth. But the Gospel is the most powerful of any truth--
Example is stronger than
precept. The truths to be deduced from the whole are--
Profitable reflection in
dark hours
Was it a true thing these
exiles said? They suggested that they had worn out the Divine patience. They
were ready to admit that He had been the God of their fathers; but He had now
withdrawn from His covenant relationship, and would be favourable no more.
That, they said, was the reason why they were allowed to languish year after
year on the plains of Babylon. They spoke as though they had never known nor
heard some of the most rudimentary facts about the nature and ways of God.
“Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard?” In our dark hours we should revert
to considerations which have been familiar to us from childhood, but have of
late ceased to exert a definite impression. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God’s power the comfort of
His people
The terms by which God is
described are not what may be termed the gracious designations which are often
employed to describe Him; it is not the Father, the Redeemer, the Gentle One;
it is the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, as
if Divine comfort were not a sentiment only, as if Divine comfort did not come
only out of the Divine emotions, but poured itself down upon us from all that
is majestic, dominant, mighty, immeasurable, royal, and grand in the Divine
nature. (J. Parker, D. D.)
God’s moment the perfect
miniature of His everlasting day's
It is said to be the
property of a crystal to assume precisely the same form into however many
fragments it may be broken up. The infinitesimal particle, for the study of
which a magnifying glass must be used, is a precise facsimile of the parent
crystal from which it came. If we could take God’s eternity and break it up into
aeons, if we could take the aeons and break them up into ages, and the ages
into centuries, and the centuries into years, and the years into days, and the
days into hours, and the hours into moments, we should find each separate
moment of God’s life to be just as resplendent with benignity, compassion,
redeeming grace, and helpfulness, as His sublime eternity itself. (T. G.
Selby.)
God never grows weary
A story is told of a
little girl whose faith in God may teach us a lesson. The lamp had just been
put out, and the little girl was rather afraid of the dark. But presently she
saw the bright moon out of her window, and she asked her mother, “Is the moon
God’s light? Yes, Ethel,” the mother replied; “the moon and stars are all God’s
lights.” “Will God blow out His light and go to sleep too?” she asked again.
“No, my child,” replied the mother, “God’s lights are always burning.” “Well,
mamma,” said Ethel, “while God’s awake, I’m not afraid.”
There is no
searching of His understanding
Heartening conceptions of
God
How to reconcile the
approving verdict of creative wisdom, “God saw that it was good,” with that
condition of things of which St. Paul speaks as the whole creation groaning and
travailing in pain together; how to reconcile the idea of Almighty goodness
with the existence of universal and apparently aimless conflict and struggle
for destruction, is a question that, in itself, would seem incapable of
exaggerated statement. It is the old, old question, which we shall see solved
in the day, and not before the day, when He, the Son, the Creator, shall have
put all things under Him; the question between life and death. Still if wisdom
is to be justified of her children, we cannot bear as her children not to try
to justify her; and although we know that we shall not attain to the answer, we
cannot help hearing and thinking of the question. We look first at the
possibilities which lie in what God has not revealed, and secondly for the
particulars which, in developing His message and expanding our power of receiving
it, and in regulating our conduct under and in consequence of it, it has
pleased Him to make known to us about Himself. We may without presumption,
certainly with nothing short of the most timid tentativeness, approach such
mysteries as the travailing of creation, the gradual character of Divine
revelation, the delay of the consummation of the mediatorial work, the agency
of external and previous influences on the will, the conduct and the
responsibility of human beings. All these four matters are of vivid and
universal interest, ancient questions, older than Genesis, older than Socrates,
older than Archimedes, older than Enoch; questions that no new theories can
answer, problems that admit of constant new illustrations, but lie in the very incunabula
of human thought. Take them in order.
1. In
that beginning of which the first verse of the Bible speaks, the Creator,
Almighty and All good, called matter into being: the material world, in that
conformation which science reveals to us, may be the result, not only of
immensely long periods of energy, but of immensely varied methods of agency;
when it comes within our ken it is seen to be the result of operations into
which pain and death largely enter, and in which, so far as we can see, they
are still, with no traceable connection with mankind, actively at work. In our
contemplation of pain and death in human morals, we trace back both to the
effect of sin, and sin to the depravation of the free will at the fall of man.
What hinders us from conceiving that the existence and continuance of such
measures of pain and death as are found anterior to the existence of man, and
external to the operation of his moral agency, are the results of a freedom
granted to pre-existent, or continued, perverted, and fallen agencies, about
which we have no other knowledge? It may surely be as likely that the creation
or developing of man on earth, for the vanquishing of evil and the working out
of blessing in redemptive and restorative work, may, mixed as are its effects
now, be a step in a very gradual victory, by which pre-existent and continuing
evil, arising from a pre-existent and continuing perversion, is being brought
under the feet of the Only Begotten of the Father? Interminable cycles of the
years measured by the revolutions of the earth, by the working of our system,
and by the cosmic movements of the universe, might be required, but what
obstacle does such a calculation place in the way of such a possibility with an
Agent Infinite and Eternal? There is the evil, there is the slowness of the
working of law, but there is eternity before and behind. Who shall say to Him,
What doest Thou? There shall be no more pain: but it shall be when the former
things are passed away.
2. Then,
the slowness of revelation and its gradual character? We can either account for
that by the reason of law that works so, or by the absolute necessity, the
terms and conditions of the situation being such that it should be so; that is,
we may either assume the law or justify the law. We have no more right to lay
it down, as an axiom, that the perfect God could or would reveal Himself
entirely by one act of revelation, than that He would give men free will and
always keep it in conformity with His own will. The revelation, to be a part of
the victory, must be a revelation that would expand with the expansion of the
receiving minds, giving them the choice between light and darkness, and
suffering and enabling them to rejoice in the light rather than the darkness.
It must have a beginning: the words of revelation must be spoken in the
language that the receiver can comprehend; must be weighted with elements that
will hold them fast in his mind; must be seasoned with a stimulus that shall
provoke his appetite for knowledge. And now that, in the fulness of time, grace
and truth are come by Jesus Christ, and in Him, the brightness of His Father’s
glory and the express image of His Person, we recognise the perfection of the
revelation by which He guides many sons unto glory, we yet are warned that the
guide of our life is faith; and heaven itself, in which we trust to know more,
and love more, and be conformed to the likeness more, in wonderful growths of
the finite into the knowledge, love, and likeness of the Infinite, shall be a
perfection of revelation, but even so a revelation of new vistas of perfection,
of knowledge, love, and likeness. But glorious as this prospect is, and humble,
prostrate, as we lie now on the threshold of the vision, we know that we have
not come so far as we have come, but by a long series of dispensations and
disciplines; a method, a law of enlightenment, that ages and generations,
rising and falling nations, tested and discarded philosophies, have
exemplified. God could have revealed the plan of Redemption, could have
redeemed the world as soon as Adam fell, as He might have kept him from
falling, or stayed the propagation of evil in the first generation: but He
would overcome evil with good, and bring out the victory in His own way,
preparing the world by the experience of vanity, disciplining the world by the
struggle against the causes of misery, and at the last sending His Son.
3. How
about the twilight, and those who wandered in it to their fall, before the
Daystar arose? How about those who are sitting still in darkness? Does not He
care? Are they not safer in His contemplation than in our perplexed hearts? But
now that grace and truth are come;--eighteen hundred years ago He founded His
Church, and for all that time she has been working; with some drawbacks that
she might have overcome, but still working; and three-quarters of the globe are
full of heathendom still, and seventy generations of souls have passed away
under the cloud of darkness. Is not this strange? Is it all the effect of a
neglect that, if it be unmodified by other causes, must be accounted nothing
less than a failure of a purpose that assumes to be Divine? Here again we come
upon a trace of law that is not to be broken. For fifteen hundred out of the
eighteen hundred years of Christianity, one-half of the inhabited world was
unknown to the other half; no revelation of God opened up the new world; it was
left for discovery to human enterprise, under a guidance, active, certain, but
by no means exceptional to the recognised movements of society; and when
discovered it was full of strange languages, and of people so framed and
disciplined as to have none of the special training by which the old world has
been broken up for the reception of the seed of the Word; and when it had been
claimed and appropriated and made intelligible and opened up, no part of the
process seemed to be overruled for the rapid progress of Gospel light; no new
miracles, no new manifestations; all had to be done line upon line, precept
upon precept, with lisping voice and stammering tongue. If that ancient strange
darkness is indeed evil--and who shall say it is not in the face of the true
light?--surely there is some secret in the hand of the Lord that shall justify
the delay, and shall vindicate the means in the day of victory.
4. But
once more. We are told, and we know it in its measure to be true, that in the
course of this world causes and consequences, multiplying and intensifying from
generation to generation, do so mould the minds and thoughts of men as
seriously to endanger the sense of personal responsibility, and practically to
limit anything like free moral agency. We are told, in fact, that we are what
our forefathers, our circumstances, our manners and customs, our teaching and
religion make us, and scarcely anything more; and so, if we are vicious it is
something over which we have no control that makes us so; or, if we are
virtuous it is something for which we have no credit; and if we are betwixt and
between, we are as God, if there be a God, let circumstances, heredity, the
accidents of life, and the stream of family history make us. There is much
truth in the statement of facts. There are at least two considerations to
modify it: first, the influence of circumstance and cause is not unmixed; there
is good as well as evil in the force that impels us; secondly, there is in
every one of us, weak, wavering, as we may be, enough of freedom to determine
our choice between the good and evil of the circumstance. Each man who has ever
lived, and each action of his life, has contributed something; something that
of course only the Divine knowledge can discriminate or appreciate, but which
is a contribution to the course of this world for good or for evil, and so we
have to do the same. God has great purposes to serve, and blesses what little we
can consciously do towards the victory of His Son. When we look at the chart of
human history, even for the six thousand years that the old chronology delimits
for us, and see how great the expanse of ages, in which we know that there were
human lives, making experience and influence, and yet whose experience and
influence had, so far as we know, nothing to do with the existing conditions of
modern society, and see how all that consciously constitutes what we know as
modern society falls into a comparatively insignificant section of the chart;
and if we take the map of the earth and stretch our compasses across the
breadth and length of Christendom, and then look at the heavens, the work of
His fingers, and the stars that measure His times and seasons for us, and
beyond all that into eternity and infinity of energy; surely we must feel that
we cannot limit possibilities or impossibilities, the measure of Goodness and
Almightiness, by the line and plummet of our own intelligence. What is man that
Thou visitest him? Yet Thou hast visited him, and made him lower than the
angels to crown him with glory and power. (Bishop of Chester.)
Verses
29-31
He giveth power to the faint
The Divine Helper
I.
OUR
SPIRITUAL CONDITION IS INTIMATELY KNOWN TO THE DIVINE FATHER. He knows the
strong and the faint alike. As a wise Shepherd, He is acquainted with the state
of His entire flock.
1. There is our inherent antagonism to evangelical truth. Man is
prone to self-leaning. When we leave the Cross we faint; while we glory in its
Sufferer we are armed with irresistible might!
2. There is the seductive influence of worldly association.
3. There is the fierce battle for daily bread.
4. There is our ever-recurring unbelief.
II. MORAL FAINTNESS DOES NOT
INVALIDATE CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. Were all the “faint” to be excluded, how many
of you would remain as children of God? Does the parent cast off the crippled
child? It will be necessary, however, to guard this assurance with two
explanations--
1. It contains no encouragement to moral indolence. You are not to
exonerate yourselves from the stern duties oF life on the plea that you are
“faint.” The toiler grows strong; exercise develops muscle.
2. It affords no palliation for inconsistency. We are never allowed
to plead weakness as a reason for sin.
III. INFINITE POWER IS
ACCESSIBLE TO THE MORALLY FEEBLE.
1. God never communicates surplus power. “As thy days so shall thy
strength be.”
2. God’s method of communicating power teaches the dependence of
humanity. God’s alone is original; but it is enough for man if he can shine
with radiance borrowed from the Fount of uncreated light.
3. God’s willingness to communicate power fearfully increases the
responsibility of the Church. What power we might have! I regard the
declaration in the following aspects
Almighty God helps the weak
The arguments which demonstrate the folly and guilt of worshipping
false gods, and of confiding in them, equally demonstrate the duty and
obligation of worshipping the true and living God, and of placing our
confidence in Him. Indeed, to remove our adoration from an idol is doing but
little, unless at the same time it be given to the Holy and Great Jehovah; it
is but renouncing polytheism--a grievous and horrible delusion--for atheism, a
delusion still more horrible and grievous.
I. JEHOVAH, THE TRUE GOD, IS
A BEING OF UNLIMITED POWER (Isaiah 40:26).
II. THE POWER OF JEHOVAH, THE
TRUE GOD, IS LIKE HIMSELF, UNDIMINISHABLE AND ETERNAL. “He fainteth not,
neither is weary.” That the power of Jehovah, the true God, is undiminishable
and eternal, is proved by the conservation of nature, as the existence of that
power is proved by nature’s production. Were the hand which framed the universe
utterly withdrawn, the universe would return to its original nothing. The
motion, order, and safety of all things depend upon God. What a contrast does
this perfection of undiminishable and eternal power form to the weakness of the
creature--of fallen and helpless man especially! Weakness is the attribute of
the human body. Man is no less weak as it relates to his mind. Sublime
therefore in the highest degree is this account of Jehovah. He never lets fall
the reins of dominion; He never retires, overcharged, by attention to His
friends, resistance to His enemies, or the superintendence of all!
III. THE POWER OF JEHOVAH THE
TRUE GOD IS CONDESCENDINGLY EMPLOYED IN BEHALF OF FALLEN, HELPLESS MAN. “He
giveth power to the faint,” etc. Let us attend to some instances in which this
truth is illustrated.
1. In His providential interpositions in favour of the more helpless
of men. Some persons constitutionally feeble in body, or perhaps made so by
disease, are often mysteriously succoured. The victim of oppression also ever
finds a Friend in heaven.
2. In the work of our redemption by Christ Jesus. “When we were yet
without strength Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6). One of the most
afflictive circumstances attending man’s fallen state is that of utter
helplessness. When sin entered into the world it not only erased from the soul
of man the image of his Creator; it also annihilated, as far as man was
concerned, all the means of his recovery. The nerves of obedience were cut, and
the spirit of reverence and love utterly blasted.
3. In that invigorating peace communicated to the heart of man, when
he believes to the salvation of his soul. Perhaps we are never fully prepared
for the mercy of God, through the sacrificial merits of our Lord Jesus Christ,
until we see that there is mercy in no other way.
4. In that successful resistance which is made by the faithful
Christian, to the assaults of our great spiritual adversary, the devil.
5. In the season of personal affliction.
6. In the case of every one who dies in the Lord. (J. Bromley.)
The aid of the Holy Spirit
No words can do justice to the feelings of joy and gratitude which
this gift should excite in all those who partake in its inestimable benefit.
When the heathen sage had sketched out virtue in her goodliest forms; when he
had pointed to the steep and arduous path which must be trodden by her successful
votaries; when he had urged his disciples to enter upon it by the most
stimulating motives with which the light of nature could supply him, what could
he do more? What words of cheering import could he address to them, when
sinking with dismay under a sense of their own infirmity, when trembling with
apprehensions of failure, from a comparison between their strength and the task
allotted to them? He had no authority to refer them to one who “giveth power to
the faint, and increaseth strength to them that have no might.” What he could
not, the Christian philosopher can say. (J. Marriot, M. A.)
A spiritual tonic
I. THE SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF
THE HEBREW CHURCH HAD FALLEN BELOW PAR.
1. They felt they had lost the favour of God. Their way was hidden
from Him, and they walked in darkness, as if they were the sport of chance or
the victims of fate.
2. They felt they were left to the mercy of man. It appeared as if
judgment upon them and their way was transferred to caprice of men.
II. THE IMPAIRED SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH OF THE HEBREW CHURCH MIGHT BE RESTORED. The people needed--
1. Faith in the power of God.
2. Hope in the pity of God. He does not crush the feeble and the
faint, but increases their power.
3. Love for the service of God. As the hearts of the people became
enthusiastic for the worship of Jehovah, and longed to get back to Zion to
restore the temple and rebuild the city, their energies would revive as an
incoming tide; revived spirit would bring revived strength.
III. WITH RESTORED SPIRITUAL
HEALTH THE HEBREW CHURCH WOULD RESUME ITS WONTED ACTIVITIES. The people are
promised--
1. Renewed vigour. Strength would come from waiting upon God.
2. Renewed vivacity. The people are told they shall “mount,” “walk,”
“run,” without weariness or sense of exhaustion.
3. Renewed vitality. Though the body may grow old, and physical life
decline, the soul shall remain young. (F. W. Brown.)
God’s power in the heavens and on earth
(with Isaiah 40:26):--These two verses set
forth two widely different operations of the Divine power as exercised in two
sadly different fields, the starry heavens and this weary world. The one verse
says, “He is strong in power”; the other, “He giveth power.” In the former
verse, “the greatness of His might” sustains the stars; in the latter verse, a
still greater operation is set forth in that “to them that have no might He
increaseth strength.” Thus there are three contrasts suggested; that between
unfailing stars, and men that faint; that between the unwearied God and wearied
men; and that between the sustaining power that is exercised in the heavens and
the restoring power that is manifested on earth. There is another interlocking
between the latter of these two texts and its context, which is indicated by a
similar recurrence of epithets. In my second text we read of the “faint,” and
in the verse that follows it again we find the expression “faint” and “weary,”
while in the verse before my text we read that “the Lord fainteth not, neither
is weary.” So again the contrast between Him and us is set forth, but in the
verse that closes the chapter we read how that contrast merges into likeness,
inasmuch as the unfainting and unwearied God makes even the men that wait upon
Him unwearied and unfainting. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Unfailing stars and fainting men
(with Isaiah 40:26):--
I. A SAD CONTRAST. The
prophet in the former of these verses seems to be expanding the thoughts that
lie in the name, “the Lord of hosts,” in so far as that name expresses the
Divine relation to the starry universe. The image that underlies both it and
the words of my text is that of a commander who summons his soldiers, and they
come. Discipline and plan array them in their ranks. The plain prose of which
is that night by night, above the horizon, rise the bright orbs, and roll on
their path obedient to the Sovereign will; “because He is strong in might, not
one” is lacking. Scripture bids us think of God, not as a creative energy that
set the universe in motion, and leaves it to roll or spin, but as of a Divine
Presence. But in our second text we drop from the illumination of the heavens
to the shadowed plain of this low earth. It is as if a man looking up into the
violet sky, with all its shining orbs, should then turn to some reeking alley,
with its tumult and its squalor. Just because man is greater than the stars,
man “fails,” whilst they shine on unwearied. For what the prophet has in view
as the clinging curse that cleaves to our greatness is not merely the bodily
fatigue which is necessarily involved in the very fact of bodily existence,
since energy cannot be put forth without waste and weariness, but it is far
more the weary heart, the heart that is weary of itself, weary of toil, weary
of the momentary crises that demand effort, and wearier still of the effortless
monotony of our daily lives. It is ever to be remembered that the faintness and
the ebbing away of might, which is the truly tragic thing in humanity, does not
depend upon physical constitution, but upon separation from the Source of all
strength.
II. ANOTHER SAD CONTRAST,
MELTING INTO A BLESSED LIKENESS. “He fainteth not, neither is weary.” “He
giveth power to the faint.” Is that not a higher exercise of power than to
“preserve the stars from wrong”? What are the consequences that the prophet
traces to this restoring power? “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,”
etc.
III. THE WAY BY WHICH THESE
CONTRASTS CAN BE RECONCILED, AND THIS LIKENESS SECURED. “They that wait upon
the Lord”--that is the whole secret. What does waiting on the Lord include?
Keep near Him; keep still: expect. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Two operations of God’s power
(with Isaiah 40:26):--
1. The strength that restores is greater than the power that
preserves.
2. The power that is given to the faint is greater than the strength
that keeps the stars from falling, because there is in it an actual
communication of actual Divine strength. God keeps the planet in its course by
an act (for we must not speak about “effort” in regard to Him) of power brought
to bear upon it. But He brings strength to us, not by ministration from
without, but by impartation within.
3. Once more, this mirror gives us back the reflection of a power
which is not only restoration and communication, but multiplication. “To those
that have no might He increaseth strength.”
4. The power that redeems, ministers not only restoration and
communication and multiplication, but assimilation. There is in the context a
very remarkable play upon words. “Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard,
that the ever lasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth,
fainteth not, neither is weary?” He stoops to the faint, and gives them
strength, and what is the result in them? “They shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint.” What God is, God’s child in his measure
becomes, unfainting and unwearied like his Father in the heavens. God gives,
not omnipotence, but something that is a kind of shadowy likeness of it. “All
things are possible to him that believeth.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Encouragement to the weary
I. THE LORD SPEAKS OF HIS
PEOPLE AS BEING SOMETIMES “FAINT.” The expression is very significant; it
implies that there is life, yet life for a time dormant, inactive, powerless
either for defence, service, or enjoyment. There is one, for instance, who has
watched long by the bedside of a beloved sick one. Others, again, are sorely
tried by anxieties connected with their business; by the difficulty of
providing daily bread. There, again, is another deeply vexed and grieved with
the plague of his own heart. Of such as these the Lord seems to be speaking.
“He giveth power to the faint.” His people are further described as having “no
might.” Self-sufficiency is one of the plainest marks of the ungodly. And thus
are they led truly into the third mark of His people, which the Lord here
mentions, “They that wait upon the Lord.”
II. HOW HE DEALS WITH THEM.
Three expressions are employed to describe this.
1. To the faint “giving” strength, because, under their sore trials
and afflictions, they have utterly fainted; their strength has for a time entirely
departed--to them the Lord “gives” strength.
2. Then observe the other word describing His dealings--“He
increaseth strength.” That is a very suitable word. It is the experience of
every gracious soul, that his own strength decreaseth. He learns more fully
that he hath in himself no strength. Wherever the Lord removes any of the props
of the believer’s earthly pride and self-sufficiency, there He reveals Himself
as the believer’s strength. So that growth in humility is necessarily connected
with growth in spiritual strength.
3. They that wait on the Lord shall “renew” their strength. They
renew their strength because the Lord renews it. He manifests Himself to them
just at those times and in that manner in which they are led to see their need
of Him.
III. THE BLESSED RESULTS OF THE
LORD’S DEALINGS WITH HIS PEOPLE. These also are described as three-fold--
1. “They shall mount up,” borne aloft heavenward, with a power in
comparison with which the eagle’s mighty wings are powerless. And why? Because
they are borne aloft by omnipotent grace. This is one blessed result to those
who wait upon the Lord--heavenward tendency.
2. There is also promised zeal and rapid progress in their heavenly
course. “They shall run and not be weary.” Waiting upon the Lord, they shall be
so renewed in strength, that not only their affections, desires, and hopes
shall be lifted up to heaven, but they shall also be carried forward swiftly
and mightily in their gracious course. They shall run in the way of God’s
commandments, and not be weary. Look at all mere human strength; how soon it
fails, how quickly it is exhausted.
3. This is the third blessed result--a steady perseverance in the way
to Zion. Whilst their progress is “running” for zeal and success, it is
“walking” for steady persistency unto the end. It is harder sometimes to walk
than to run. There are many who would gain heaven if it were to be won by a
hasty run; but when the heavenly course requires not merely a short, quick,
impulsive run, but the slow, weary, painful walk, they soon grow tired, and
ready to give all up. (G. W. Hills.)
The influence of the Holy Ghost: the doctrine abused by neglecting
means
The grand subject here is, “waiting upon the Lord.” The term is of
frequent occurrence in God’s Word. It sometimes means nothing more than a
quiet, restful frame of soul; and sometimes it will be found to set forth a
waiting for the Lord, a patient waiting on Him in expectation of deliverance.
But “waiting on Him” seems to imply more than this; it implies a diligent use
of those means that He has appointed for the communication of His
grace--waiting on Him in the use of those means. It is not an indolent waiting.
I. GOD’S GRACIOUS
COMMUNICATION OF NEEDFUL HELP TO HIS POOR, TRIED, WEAK, AND HELPLESS PEOPLE.
1. Every creature is of necessity weak; it is not his fault--it is
his nature. When Adam left his hold on God he necessarily fell; as necessarily
as any branch would fall if cut off from the parent stem. The creature has no
power to sustain himself, nor to help himself; and it was never intended that
he should have.
2. If man as an unfallen creature is weak; well may we say, that as a
fallen creature, he is altogether weakness.
3. But even as a renewed creature he is weak, and if left to himself,
unable to cope with one enemy, or to maintain his own standing for one single
moment. “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
4. Besides this, there are certain periods in which the believer is
more than ordinarily faint and weak. There are many things that try him.
5. Oftentimes too, through want of watchful, prayerful, holy seeking
and turning over the page of conscience, he weakens his little strength. But it
is to these very souls that the Lord communicates strength. “He giveth power to
the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength.” The
necessities of God’s people seem to touch the very heart of God. But there is
something in the very glory of God that constrains Him to grant them
His help in their hours of need. This was David’s plea: “pardon
mine iniquity, for it is great,” but “for Thy name’s sake,” he says.
II. OBSERVE THROUGH WHAT
CHANNEL IT COMES. It is not a natural channel; it is not the strength of
nature, but it is in the way of waiting dependence on Himself. There is a
wondrous analogy between the operations of God in grace and in nature. God has
given to us the promise that “seed-time and harvest shall never fail” while the
world remains; but does this hinder the necessity of casting in the seed? Does
it hinder the necessity of ploughing the land before it, and of harrowing it
in, and protecting it? The more I look at this appointment of God, the more I
see of infinite wisdom in it. I am in great distress, in great need, no one
knows of my pressure. Perhaps I tell my friend, but I find no relief at all.
And now I cast myself on the Lord--God reveals Himself to me as my Father-it
quiets me, it comforts me. See how the Lord makes one step preparatory to
another, and makes one thing the means of obtaining another. Prayerfulness
leads to strength; that leads to courage; that leads to submission; that leads
to patience, and that leads to praise. Observe the same, too, of all other
means of grace. Talk we of the Bible, or hearing the Word unfolded? In prayer
we speak to God; in His Word He speaks to us by His Spirit. Look at the very
means of grace themselves: there is the unfolding of the same wisdom in the
means appointed. What a suitable and reasonable ordainment it is!
III. THE ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY OF
THIS CHANNEL OF COMMUNICATION. “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their
strength.” When God puts forth His promise He pledges all that is in Himself to
fulfil that promise. This is God’s appointed way. Perhaps we can say there are
no instances upon record in which it was otherwise, but I dare not say that God
may not in one moment so break in upon a man’s soul, by the holy anointing of
the Spirit, as to give him the most perfect conviction that he is a child of
God. See the greatness of the communication. They shall “run”; they shall
“walk”; and they shall “mount up.” Concluding remarks--
1. Would that the saints of God did more deeply feel that they are
fainting and full of weakness!
2. Though it is no small mercy to be deeply conscious of our utter
weakness before God, take heed how you abuse this glorious doctrine of the
blessed Spirit by living a life of ceaseless and useless complaint. There is an
observation, I think in Owen, that the religion of some consists in little more
than in going from house to house, from friend to friend, from saint to saint,
telling one’s nothingness, sinfulness, and wretchedness. They make a sort of
secret balm of it.
3. What vast encouragement is here! (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
Causes and cure of fainting
I. WHAT MAKES US FAINT?
1. We will consider the case of the awakened sinner.
2. I pass on to another character, namely, the child of God in his
fainting fits. There is a degree of sinfulness about some of those faintings
which is not found in others.
II. HOW THE LORD DEALS WITH
HIS FAINTING PEOPLE. “He giveth power,” etc.
1. See how tenderly the Lord deals with His fainting people. He does
not desert them, saying, They are no longer any use to Me; they can do nothing
for Me; I will leave them where they are. He gives them power.
2. What sort of power?
3. Why is it that He gives power to the faint?
Conclusion--
1. If God gives power to the faint, let us be thankful if we have
fainted and have been revived by Him.
2. Let us have done with fainting in the future, because we ought to
have no more fainting now that we have received God’s power. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Strength attracted by weakness
We have seen a little weakling child draw to its cot some strong
and burly man, the champion athlete of the country-side. Such a spell can
weakness exert over might, and helplessness over helpfulness. It is the burden
of Scripture that the strong should bear the infirmities of the weak, and not
please themselves. Such is the law of God’s existence. All that He is and has
He holds in trust for us, and most for those who need most. (F. B. Meyer, B.
A.)
God’s strength for the weak
Many of us are too strong, self-reliant, and resourceful to get
the best that God can do. Jacob must halt on his thigh ere he can prevail with
God and man. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God’s untiring patience
God is ever blotting out sins from His remembrance--never tiring.
I will tell you what it is like. It is like the infinite, tireless patience of
the sea. The children ply their spades upon the sands, to make work for the
sea. They heap the sand up, they dig deep into it. Hundreds of them disfigure
the hard, golden surface, and leave their scars upon it; and then quietly the
old sea turns upon its course, and rolls its waves across the sands, and every
trace of scar is obliterated, becomes as if it had never been; when the tide
ebbs again there is no trace upon the smooth, shining surface of the sand to
show that it had ever known disturbance. Day after day, day after day, the
scene is repeated, and the sea is never tired of putting things to rights; it
never complains, it never resents the new work imposed upon it. And the secret
is that there is such infinite reserve of power that all that man can do frets
it no whir. It is only a question of time, and it will put all things to rights
again. Again and again, as I have stood by the sea, this sense of its
tirelessness has come over me. It fainteth not, neither is weary. And it has
seemed to me an emblem, as the stars are emblems, moving on their courses, as
the world is an emblem, swinging through space, as nature is an emblem,
pursuing so patiently and unweariedly her age-long business--of that mighty God
whose glorious characteristic it is that He fainteth not, neither is weary; but
He giveth power to the faint, and increaseth strength to him that hath no
might. (C. Silvester Home, M. A.)
Verse 30-31
Even the youths shall
faint
The unfainting spirit
The Hebrew tendency to
lean upon the most muscular arm accessible, to buy up horses from Egypt in
imitation of the warriors of the plains, to form alliances with neighbouring
peoples in a neighbourly, instead of acting in the true Israelite spirit--was a
tendency not confined to Hebrew blood.
It is in human nature to live by eyesight, and to go on doing so even although
everything should go to wreck under our very eyes. The true Israelite spirit
felt--wherever that spirit prevailed--that God’s assuring word had more muscle
in it than an army ofPhilistines; that Egyptian cavalry was an encumbrance;
that Assyrian spears might be turned into withered blades of grass in a night’s
time; and that the only solid ground that never quaked was the Rock that faith
stood upon. For the unseen is harder, stronger--has more vitality and power of
renewal in it--than the youngest, freshest, fairest, and most select powers
that are seen. Our desire is to show wherein lies the power of renewed life and
force in a soul and in a Church, so that the vigour shall be real and elastic,
being the very strength of God.
I. THE PROPHET
EXPECTS THE NATURAL FAINTING AND FALLING OF THE SELECT MEN. “Young men” reads
literally “the select men,”--those picked out for an enterprise on account of
their youthful vigour.
II. A SPIRITUAL
EMPOWERING OF ALL MEN IS PROVIDED THROUGH WAITING ON GOD. Panic seized our
Lord’s disciples on the arrest of their Master, and their flight revealed their
lack of power. They were converted men, but they fainted and failed. They were
young and select, but they fled. When about to part from them, Jesus bade them
remain where they were, and not attempt the discipling of the world until they
should receive power. The word “renew” in this place signifies “change.” The
strength sufficient for one day, and its duty, may need to be exchanged for
something larger, deeper, swifter for the next day and its severer trials. The
same Spirit works, changing the force and form of His working. How is the
Spirit of God working in the renewal of strength to-day? What are the best
people feeling the need of, but a closer union among themselves through an
intenser, completer fellowship with God?
III. ISAIAH
DESCRIBES THE MANIFESTATIONS OF A NEW AND STRONG LIFE IN GOD. A cheering
succession of Saxon sentences, precious powers, most desirable energies.
1. There is heavenly elevation. “They shall mount up with wings as
eagles.” Theodore Monod says: “If you want to do something, do not try to be
somebody.” Certainly, self-exaltation is not heavenly. It ensures your poor
wings being clipped or broken very soon. We speak exclusively of the spiritual
realm. Live looking unto Jesus, and He “will ere long set you with Him” upon
His throne.
2. There is quickened activity. “They shall run and not be weary.”
3. There is the unfainting every-day walk. “They shall walk and not
faint.” The unfainting walk, the steady march from hour to hour, is the
sharpest, truest, final test of a strong life. It is in trifles that character
is revealed. It is in small, monotonous duties that we oftenest break down. (G.
H. Dick.)
The secret of immortal
youth
I. THE DREARY
CERTAINTY OF WEARINESS AND DECAY.
1. The words point to the plain fact that all created and physical
life, by the very law of its being, in the act of living tends to death; and by
the very operation of its strength tends to exhaustion. There are three stages
in every creature’s life--that of growth, that of equilibrium, that of decay.
You are in the first. If you live you will come to the second and the third.
2. The text points also to another fact, that, long before your
natural life shall have begun to tend towards decay, hard work and occasional
sorrows and responsibilities and burdens of all sorts will very often make you
wearied and ready to faint. In your early days you dream of life as a kind of
enchanted garden. Ah! long before you have traversed the length of one of its
walks you will often have been tired of the whole thing, and weary of what is
laid upon you.
3. My text points to another fact, as certain as gravitation, that
the faintness and weariness and decay of the bodily strength will be
accompanied with a parallel change in your feelings. We are drawn onward by
hopes, and when we get them fulfilled we find that they are disappointing. Do
you not think that, if that is so, it would be as well to face it? Do you not
think that a wise man would take account of all the elements in forecasting his
life, and would shape his conduct accordingly?
II. THE BLESSED
OPPOSITE POSSIBILITY OF INEXHAUSTIBLE AND IMMORTAL STRENGTH. “They that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength,” etc. The life of nature tends
inevitably downward, but there may be another life within the life of nature
which shall have the opposite motion, and tend as certainly upwards. Look on
this possibility a little more closely.
1. Note, how to get at it. “They that wait upon the Lord” is Old
Testament dialect for what in New Testament phraseology is meant by “Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ.” For the motion expressed here by “waiting” is that of
expectant dependence, and the New Testament “faith” is the very same in its
attitude of expectant dependence. The condition of the inflow of this unwearied
life into our poor, fainting humanity is simply the trust in Jesus Christ the
Redeemer of our souls. True, the revelation has advanced, the contents of that
which we grasp are more developed. No matter where we stand on the course of
life, there may come into our hearts a Divine Indweller, who laughs at
weariness and knows nothing of decay.
2. What is this strength that we thus get, if we will, by faith? It
is the true entrance into our souls of a Divine life. We who have Christ in our
hearts by faith shall share, in some fashion and degree, in His wondrous
prerogative of unwearied strength. So here is the promise. God will give
Himself to you, and in the very heart of your decaying nature will plant the
seed of an immortal being which shall, like His own, shake off fatigue from the
limbs, and never tend to dissolution. The life of nature dies by living; the
life of grace, which may belong to us all, lives by living, and lives evermore
thereby. The oldest angels are the youngest. The longer men live in fellowship
with Christ the stronger do they grow. And though our lives, whether we be
Christians or no, are necessarily subject to the common laws of mortality, we
may carry all that is worth preserving of the earliest stages into the latest;
and when grey hairs are upon us, and we are living next door to our graves, we
may still have the enthusiasm, the energy, and above all, the boundless
hopefulness that made the gladness and the spring of our long-buried youth.
“They shall still bring forth fruit in old age.”
3. The manner in which this immortal strength is exercised. There is
strength to soar. Old men generally shed their wings, and can only manage to
crawl. They have done with romance. Enthusiasms are dead. For the most part
they are content, unless they have got Christ in their hearts, to keep along
the low levels, and their soaring days are done. But if you and I have Jesus
Christ for the life of our spirits, as certainly as fire sends its shooting
tongues upwards, so certainly shall we rise above the sorrows and sins and
cares of this “dim spot which men call earth,” and find ampler field for
buoyant motion high up in communion with God. Strength to soar means the
gracious power of bringing all heaven into our grasp, and setting our
affections on things above. Life on earth were too wretched unless it were
possible to “mount up with wings as eagles.” Again, you may have strength to
run--that is to say, there is power waiting for you for all the great crises of
your lives which call for special, though it may be brief, exertion. Such
crises will come to each of you, in sorrow, work, difficulty, hard conflicts.
And there is only one way to be ready for such times as these, and that is to
live waiting on the Lord, near Christ, with Him in your hearts, and then
nothing will come that will be too big for you. Strength to walk may be yours, i.e.,
patient power for persistent pursuit of weary, monotonous duty. (A. Maclaren,
D. D.)
How to grow strong
I. We have here
UNAIDED NATURE AT ITS BEST PROVING A DISMAL FAILURE. Youths and young men are
the personification of activity, agility, vigour, and “go.” Their eye is not
dim, nor their natural force abated. Moreover, the word here employed signifies
the pick of the people, the flower of the youth, the very first and foremost.
These are the strongest of the strong, the bravest of the brave. But what
happens to them? Even these shall faint and be weary; even these shall fail and
fall. It is in spiritual things that this disappointment is most to be
deplored.
1. This is a picture of those who, starting in their own strength,
are presently disillusioned. Here, then, is a picture of ourselves in our
unregenerate condition.
2. This is a picture, too, of how we were when, having been convicted
of sin, we began to try to cleave our own way to heaven, and to pave it too;
when from self-complacency we turned to self-righteousness.
3. I see here, also, an all too accurate picture of some true
Christians. The boastful Christian is represented here, the man who fancies
that his native courage will carry him through, who imagines that his wide
experience will suffice in his extremity, who supposes his rigid orthodoxy is
enough.
4. There are some well-nigh prayerless Christians, too, who seem to
imagine that since they are already converted to God, and have had great
experience of His dealings, they need no longer be as fervent and as frequent
at the mercy-seat as in early days.
II. PRAYERFUL
DEPENDENCE UPON GOD MEANS UNQUALIFIED SUCCESS. “They that wait,” etc.
1. What is this waiting upon God?
2. What is the result of waiting upon God?
Verse 31
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength--
Strength for the returning exiles
There was a real climax in the prophet’s statement.
And its application, in his thought, was to the return of the exiles from
Babylon to Jerusalem. God’s helpfulness would be adequate to their needs in all
the stages of their return. In the first flush of joy, and in the first flights
of eager anticipation, “on which we see them rising in the psalms of redemption
as on the wings of an eagle”; again, in the rush and excitement of their
hurried departure, the running to and fro in hasty and exhausting preparation;
but finally, when they wanted it most, in the long tramp, tramp, tramp of those
seven hundred weary miles, day after day, week after week, when their pace must
be adapted to those of the heavily-laden beasts of burden, and of the little
ones whose strength would often fail and who would need to be lifted up and
carried in the father’s arms. How often on that tiresome journey would the
sweet music of the prophet’s words return to their memory, “they shall walk and
not faint.” Then it was that their trust in Jehovah would be put fully to the
proof. It was in the walking and not in the flying that their faith would
triumph. (J. Halsey.)
The Gospel of the Exile
I. This is THE
GOSPEL OF THE EXILE the “Gospel before the Gospel” (Cheyne); the good news of
the swift accession of power and deliverance to the Jewish people, humiliated,
dispirited, and tired out by monotonously waiting in their Babylonian captivity
for a long-delayed good.
II. Like all
Gospels, THIS GOSPEL OF THE EXILE IS GOD’S. Every true prophet’s great appeal
is, “Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard” of God! The whole air rings with
His name. The universe is lit up with His glory. The stars speak His power. In
His ceaseless activity, fatherly solicitude, and unsleeping watchfulness for
His people, He fainteth not, nor is weary. The Exile is not a mistake. You are
not in the wrong school. He knows what He is doing. There is no searching of
His understanding. Believe in Him, wait on Him, wait for Him, and you will
become younger and stronger than ever. So God in His loving care for, and
constant education of souls, is the Alpha and Omega of this whole Gospel for
captive Israel. We cannot have any good news for any age, or for any people, or
for any soul, without Him. All flesh is aa grass. The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, but the revelation of the inexhaustible God liveth and abideth
for ever. The strength of God is the salvation of men.
III. Like all Divine
evangels, THIS GOOD NEWS FOR THE CAPTIVES OF BABYLON IS ADDRESSED IMMEDIATELY
TO A SPECIAL NEED, AND ADAPTED BY ITS FORM TO EFFECT A PARTICULAR RESULT,
namely, that of patient endurance of acute affliction. The Gospel is for men
and women who have lost their strength in living, and are losing it more and
more, day by day, till they fear its utter extinction by the presence of
thickening despairs, and the ceaseless gnawing of spiritual fibre by silent
misery and unutterable grief. Nothing tires like hopelessness. Nothing makes
the heart sick like long delays. Unto them, therefore, is the word of this
salvation sent. “Wait for God.” “Wait upon the Lord.” “Trust in Him at all
times.” He will come. He cannot help coming, His nature urges Him towards you
with all the tenderness of His love, and all the helpfulness of His
omnipotence. Faith in God takes multitudinous forms in the long story of the
soul’s life with God. It is a Divine law on which this direction rests. God
must be waited for. We cannot anticipate Him. While the soil is frozen and hard
we cannot compel the crop; we wait for the spring. The farmer of the Nile waits
till the waters rise and then casts his bread upon them, hoping to see his
harvest after many days. There is a time for growth, and we must take facts
according to God’s plan. Even young men faint in the conflict because they will
not wait for God. Defeated and overwhelmed with despair you say, “It avails
nothing, I am no forwarder to-day than I was last week, I am as far from the
kingdom of God as ever; my passions are as wild, my mind as untameable as it
was when I started for a better and manlier life.” Recall Moses. Did he not in
his impatience lift up the standard of freedom forty years too soon? But is not
waiting for God cowardly indolence and fatalistic apathy? Cowardly indolence,
indeed! Nothing will more test any fibre you’ve got!
IV. Like all
Gospels from the heavens, THIS ONE FOR THE HEBREW EXILES OBTAINED ITS FULL AND
COMPLETE VERIFICATION FROM THE UNCONTRADICTED FACTS OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE. The
captive people waited for God and on God, and they did not wait in vain. The
ransomed of the Lord returned: but the return was the least good they received,
and deliverance their smallest boon. Grace and strength came by the prophets
and by prayer in unbroken continuity, and fresh gifts of power and light and
zeal and joy enlarged and enriched their lives. They were born again. They
renewed their youth, and became a regenerated, pure, missionary people; found
Babylon a better school than Jerusalem, and the severities and perils of
captivity a healthier discipline than the luxuries and security of freedom. The
sevenfold blessing of the Exile stands written in the unimpeachable Chronicles
of Israel, and the world.
1. First and most distinctive of the gains of the Jews from their
captivity, stands their advanced and perfected knowledge of God. The Divine
idea was lifted above all the restrictions of race and locality to the throne
of the universe; the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob was recognised as the
Saviour of the ends of the earth. We fret and chafe in our sufferings and under
our chastisements, when to patience and meekness the God of all comfort comes
with His sweetest and most refreshing revelations.
2. Next comes up out of the Exile the more definitely shaped and
clearly conceived image of the Anointed of the Lord, the Daysman or Mediator,
the Lord our Righteousness, the Herald of a New Covenant, the suffering and
conquering Servant of God, who is to realise the ideal Jerusalem, and bring a
new heaven and a new earth.
3. Fired by this hope of a personal Redeemer, and controlled by a
spiritual conception of Jehovah, the worship of God entered on that final
spiritual phase which has never been wholly eclipsed, though it has suffered,
and still suffers, many painful obscurations.
4. Bound up with this we see the generation of a higher ethic; the
birth of a nobler conception of life, as the sphere for rightness of aim and
righteousness of character. Through this gate of tribulation Israel enters into
the kingdom of holiness.
5. The temporary limitations and restrictions of Israel being
annulled, it is forthwith lifted into the stream of universal history, never to
be taken out again. It is proved that Hebraism can exist without a temple and
without a priest, without an altar and without a land, without anything or
anybody save the soul and God.
6. With glowing ardour and intense enthusiasm these elect souls go
forth on this service, seeking to establish a knowledge of the true God, urging
the heathen to accept the light they enjoy, and sharing with them as proselytes
the peace and prosperity, brought by truth and righteousness. The missionary
spirit, as well as the missionary idea, glows and throbs in the oracles and
songs which represent the highest thought and the purest emotion of this time.
7. This was completed by the enlargement and recension of that unique
and marvellous missionary agent, the Old Testament literature, so splendidly
enriched with some of its most pathetic and consolatory contributions, so
carefully transcribed and sacredly guarded by the “Scribes,” who started into
existence in these days; and so diligently pondered by those choice spirits who
had learnt to sigh for God as their exceeding joy, and to serve Him as their
chief delight. It was the Great Missionary Book. “Salvation is of the Jews.”
Believe it, then; exhausted men get fresh strength by trustful longing for God;
renew their spiritual energy, their faith in goodness, their power for selfsacrificing
work, for fleet-footed missions of mercy, by waiting on God and for God. It is
history, and actual experience.
V. This GOSPEL,
LIKE ALL ITS FELLOWS, NEVER DIES. It endures for ever and ever as a living
message, not effete though old, not wasted though abundantly used, but
partaking of the unwearied energy and eternal reproductiveness of its infinite
source. Man’s wants are too diverse to be met by any one messenger. God speaks
at sundry times, and by different voices; but no voice ever dies out, no message
is ever wholly lost, and if not for one soul, yet for another and another, it
is quick and powerful, renewing faith, and hope, and zeal. (J. Clifford, D.
D.)
Waiting upon God
I. A DUTY
SUGGESTED.
1. We are reminded of the solemn and formal acts of devotion, as
implied in the words--“wait upon the Lord.”
2. The words of the text are descriptive of the state and exercises
of the mind; of the feelings and aspirations of the heart in Divine worship.
They imply--
II. WE ARE ASSURED
OF THE BENEFIT RESULTING FROM THE DISCHARGE OF THIS DUTY. “They that wait upon
the Lord shall renew their strength,” or change their strength; its measure
shall be adapted to their different claims.
1. The Christian’s strength may fail amid the many trials and
temptations of life, and its revival become necessary. The soul may lose its
energy, its decision of purpose, its promptitude of action, its confidence in
God, and become weak, irresolute, and fearful.
2. Our situation may demand additional strength. We may be summoned to
a post of great responsibility, to the performance of arduous duty.
3. Where are we to obtain this power,--this reviving of strength?
4. With pleasure contemplate the animating result of this renewal of
strength. In conclusion, our text suggests
Waiting upon the Lord
I. WHAT IT IS TO
WAIT UPON THE LORD. Three things make it: service, expectation, patience. We
must be as those Eastern maidens, who as they ply their needle or their
distaff, look to the eye and wait upon the hand of their mistress, as their
guide which is to teach them, or their model which they are to copy. Our best
lessons are always found in a Father’s eye. “Therefore if you would wait upon
the Lord, you must be always looking out for voices--those still small voices
of the soul,--and you must expect them, and you must command them.” But
service, however devoted, or expectation, however intense, will not be waiting
without patience. Here is where so many fail.
II. THE ACTION.
Elevation, rapid progress, a steady course--soar, run, walk. Is it not just
what we want--to get higher, to go faster, and to be more calmly consistent?
1. Elevation. What are the wings? Beyond a doubt, faith, prayer; or,
if you will, humility and confidence in a beautiful equipoise, balancing one
another on either side, so that the soul sustains itself in mid-air and flies
upward.
2. The servants of God in the Bible--from Abraham and David to Philip
in the Acts--whenever they were told to do anything, always ran. It is the only
way to do anything well. A thousand irksome duties become easy and pleasant if
we do them with a ready mind, an affectionate zeal, and a happy alacrity.
3. To maintain a quiet sustained walk, day by day, in the common
things of life, in the house and out of the house, not impulsive, not capricious,
not changeable,--that is the hardest thing to do. Let me give four rules for
this walk:
Communion with God
I. THE SECRET OF
LIFE’S POWER.
II. THE SUPPORT OF
LIFE’S JOURNEY. “They shall run,” etc.
III. THE BASIS OF
LIFE’S EXALTATION. They shall “mount up,” etc. (J. T.Harwood.)
Waiting upon the Lord
I. THE DUTY HERE
RECOMMENDED. “Waiting upon the Lord.” This expression may include many acts of
the mind, but the connection of the words shows that here it principally refers
to prayer. Waiting on the Lord implies--
1. A sense of our own weakness, and our need of Divine help.
2. A persuasion of the power and goodness of God; His readiness to
stretch out His almighty hand to help us, amidst the difficulties, infirmities,
and temptations to which we are exposed.
3. That Divine help is to be sought by prayer.
4. If we hope for His interposition, we are to be diligent in the use
of those means which He hath appointed, and to which He hath promised His
blessing.
II. THE
ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN. Such devout, humble souls shall “renew their strength.”
They shall grow more steady and established in religion. They shall find a
supply of Divine help proportioned to their trials. As their work and their
difficulty are renewed, so shall the vigour of their souls be renewed. How far
this strength shall operate, and what noble effects it shall produce, may be
seen by the following words.
III. WAITING UPON
GOD HATH IN ITSELF A NATURAL TENDENCY TO ESTABLISH AND STRENGTHEN THE SOUL. It
promoteth that humility which is our greatest security, and restrains that
pride which goeth before a fall. It will also lead us to exert our best
endeavours, and put forth all our own strength, as we would not be chargeable
with the guilt of affronting God by asking His help without them. The nature of
the blessed God strengthens this encouragement. Therefore the prophet had
suggested to Israel this thought, that “the everlasting God, the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary.” His power is
vast and unbounded, and nothing is too hard for Him. His understanding is
infinite; there is no searching it. Therefore He can never be puzzled with any
difficulties, but must know how in every possible case to deliver the godly out
of their temptations. Consider also His promises and His covenant. (Job
Orton.)
The encouragement of true worshippers
Nothing can give a better conception of the strength and the
weakness of human nature, than by comparing what man has done in subduing the
material powers by which God has surrounded him, and in providing for his own
temporal comfort, and his utter helplessness in those things which relate to
the life of the soul. When he has to contend with the powers of nature, he is
strong and victorious; but when he has to contend with the powers of spiritual
wickedness, and with his own ungodly desires, he is helpless. The lord of
nature, he is the slave of sin. The helplessness of man in spiritual things is
a disease for which no remedy has been discovered, and for which no remedy ever
will be discovered but that which the Word of God points out.
I. WHAT IS MEANT
BY WAITING UPON THE LORD? Waiting upon God is a duty very frequently enforced
in Scripture, and to which the highest blessings are annexed. “Because of His
strength,” says the Psalmist, “I will wait upon Him, for God is my defence.”
“Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart.”
“Our soul waiteth for the Lord; He is our help and shield.” “Wait on the Lord,”
says Solomon, “and He shall save thee.” “Keep mercy and judgment,” says the
prophet Hosea, “and wait on thy God continually.” It is an expression peculiar
to the Old Testament; but in the New Testament the same duty is repeatedly
inculcated, though in different language. The precept is the same in substance
with the exhortation of St. Paul, “Be ye followers of God, as dear children”;
or with that of St. James, “Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.”
The expression denotes a feeling of need, and a sense of dependence upon the
Almighty, without whom nothing is strong or holy. For one to wait upon another
implies inferiority, and a desire of protection and assistance. In many
circumstances we require the protection and assistance of our fellow-creatures,
but in all circumstances we require the protection and assistance of our
Creator. He is ever ready to extend to us that protection and help without
which we are powerless and defenceless. But He requires, as the condition of
our receiving His grace, that we sincerely feel and humbly acknowledge our need
of it; and that, ceasing from our own wisdom, and confessing from the heart our
own weakness, we throw ourselves unreservedly upon His wisdom and strength.
This sense of entire dependence upon the grace of God will naturally express
itself in prayer, and in a devout and regular use of the appointed means of
grace. Not only in the immediate exercises of religion, but at all times the
Christian will be animated by a spirit of devotion. He will keep himself
constantly near to God. But waiting upon God not only implies worship, it also
implies obedience. In short, to wait upon God is to be a religious man.
II. THE NATURE OF
THIS GREAT BLESSING WHICH GOD HAS ASSURED TO ALL THAT WAIT UPON HIM. In the
weary pilgrimage which they have to finish, in the sore warfare in which they
are engaged, He will strengthen and uphold them. Not merely is help found for
the weakness of believers, but a provision is also made for relieving and
substituting for it a buoyancy and joyful exaltation of spirit, so that he is enabled
to hold on his way with gladness as well as with constancy. The pious man is
compared in Scripture to the sun--“his soul is as the shining light, which
shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” The Gospel is a message of joy. (W.
Ramsay.)
Soul-growth
What are some of the methods by which men, in the Divine economy,
advance in spiritual impulse, and rise permanently higher?
1. We must not be biassed by any theory of Church or ordinances, nor
by any preaching, to suppose that we are shut up to the dealings of God with us
through these channels. The Church is a very powerful instrument, and will be
indispensable through ages. Does not the village common school work upon the
human soul? Do not books? Do not newspapers? Do not men in all the ten thousand
struggles of business? Do not all the influences which go to make up the
ever-teeming society? Is there anything which God does not use in operating
upon the reason, the affections, and the moral sentiments of men?
2. It pleases God to make the spiritual development of men depend on
time-growth. We know how it is with children. We know that they develop first
by the body. Then come the social affections, with the elementary forms of the
intellect. Nor can you force things in a normal and healthy child. You must
take it in the hour of God’s appointment. Third in the order of time, and last,
is the spiritual nature. We rejoice in the earliest flower because it is the
earliest, and we rejoice in the latest flower because it is the latest; but do
what you will, you cannot make the aster blossom in spring. You must wait until
the time for it to blossom arrives. Now, among men the same thing happens.
There are those who have a premature development of spiritual impulses.. But
because the higher nature of some people is unfolded early, are we to make them
the criterion for other people? It is better not to seek to produce ecstatic
experiences in anticipation of the normal methods.
3. Then there are many persons who renew their strength, who develop
into a higher spiritual life, into more fevour, more joy, and more stability by
reason of the removal of false or imperfect views of truth.
4. There are many persons who fail to come to the light of truth, and
to the inspiration of the higher views of religion, by reason of worldly
prosperity, which tends to satisfy their lower nature. Under such circumstances
it is that, in the Divine ordering of things, what are called distresses,
infirmities, and even great sorrows, are blessed of God to the opening of their
nature and to the renewing of their spiritual strength. Men never could see the
corona of the sun--the red flame that surrounds that orb--until the sun was
eclipsed; and the corona, the light, the glory of God is seen when men are
under eclipse and in darkness. There are revelations made to men then, which
prosperity never brings to them. We are rich and strong, not by the things
which we possess, but by the amount of true manhood which is developed in us.
5. It pleases God, also, to employ the companionship of friends and
neighbours in developing men in the direction of their higher manhood. There is
nothing that is so helpful to a soul as the contact of another soul.
6. When, by the use of these various instrumentalities our souls have
grown, and have come into the possibility of a higher spiritual disclosure,
then there is a further soul-growth in us. We come to a state in which there is
a direct influence of the soul of God exerted upon us--as direct as sight and
voice are to the bodily senses. The Divine Spirit comes into the hearts of men
in ways that are inexplicable to the lower understanding, and that, therefore,
men who are on the lower plane of life do not comprehend. When men come to a
higher Christian life they have days of spiritual insight; and those days grow
longer and longer, like the days of the coming summer, when the sun goes down
later and later, and rises earlier and earlier. As the result of a whole life
of education and practice in Divine duties men may come, at last, into that
state in which the Spirit of God shines with a steadfast lustre upon them. Then
there is the triumph of grace in the soul. Then intuitions become truths--not
fitful, nor irregular, not based upon inchoate and undigested knowledge, but
constant, regular, and founded on sound judgment. (H. Ward Beecher.)
The strength of believers, and the renewing of it
I. GOOD MEN ARE
POSSESSED OF SPIRITUAL STRENGTH.
1. It is that spiritual vigour of mind by which sin is overcome.
2. And by which the world is overcome.
3. By this strength, spiritual duties are acceptably performed.
4. This strength is that qualification of mind by which the followers
of Christ are enabled to endure trials and bear the cross.
5. “A deathbed is a detector of the heart.” But death does not “make
cowards of us all.” He who said this, knew but little of the courage which the
grace of God communicates to the minds of the most timid of the disciples of
Jesus.
II. THIS STRENGTH
REQUIRES TO BE RENEWED.
1. It is possible for the best of men to lose much of the influence
of religion from the heart, and for a time to be very unconscious of it.
2. The corroding cares of the world should excite them to obtain the
renewal of their strength.
3. Their strength requires to be renewed, because it is not innate,
but communicated.
4. And because the servants of God have gone awfully wrong when it
has not been renewed.
5. Good men have done wonders when their strength has been renewed.
III. THE RENEWAL OF
STRENGTH IS TO BE OBTAINED BY WAITING UPON THE LORD.
1. Prayer is the waiting posture of the soul.
2. Waiting upon the Lord includes expectation. “My eyes are unto
Thee; my expectation is from Thee.”
3. Watchfulness is implied in waiting upon the Lord.
IV. THE BLESSEDNESS
OF WAITING UPON THE LORD. “They shall mount up with wings as eagles,” etc. This
is expressive of--
1. Steady attachment to the ways of God. “Walk without fainting.”
2. Rapid progress. “Run without weariness.”
3. Elevated devotion. “Mount up with wings as eagles.” “They shall
put forth fresh feathers as the moulting eagle.” No doubt the allusion is to
the velocity with which the eagle soars towards the sun, after the renewal of
his feathers. (W. Jones.)
The waiting Christian strengthened
I. THE DUTY
ENJOINED. To wait upon God. This implies the recognition of God as the supreme
Arbiter and Disposer of all human events. It is the posture of expectancy for
every blessing of which we stand in need, temporal and spiritual.
II. THE MANNER IN
WHICH WE ARE TO WAIT UPON GOD.
1. The way of public ordinances.
2. The sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.
3. The exercise of domestic worship and private prayer.
4. Seeking to become wise unto salvation out of His written Word, and
in meditation on its soul-inspiring contents.
III. THE TEMPER AND
FRAME OF MIND INVOLVED IN THE EXPRESSION, WAITING UPON GOD.
1. It implies the existence of an invincible faith, which nothing can
destroy, although for a moment it may be disturbed.
2. This calls into action another principle closely connected with
faith, and emanating from it,--the principle of patience and Christian
resignation to the will of God.
3. Obedience.
IV. THE
ENCOURAGEMENT HERE BESTOWED ON THE FULFILMENT OF THE DUTY REQUIRED,--renewed
strength shall be imparted. This implies a declension of strength, fainting,
and fatigue; to all of which the Christian pilgrim is more or less exposed.
1. In consequence of the exhausted spirits of the weary traveller
never being renewed, some who did run well are hindered, and halt in their
career; while others adopt altogether a retrograde movement, return to the path
of their former delights, apostatise from the faith, and become worse than
infidels.
2. But here we have a direct promise from a covenant-keeping God,
that our strength shall be renewed adequate to all the demands which a perilous
enterprise can render necessary.
3. We must speak in the language of reproof to all those who are
strangers to this operation in the soul; who never do humbly wait upon God, but
when chastised and rebuked of the Lord are disposed to resist His authority, to
impugn His character as merciful and gracious; who give utterance to all the
outbreaks of a rebellious, unsanctified heart. They are both to be censured and
pitied.
4. But we speak encouragement to those who have already assumed the
waiting position, and are thus tarrying the Lord’s leisure. Endeavour in every
possible way to cultivate this holy, humble, dependent spirit. (H.
S.Plumptre, M. A.)
Exhaustion and renewal, in nature and in grace
As it is the same God who works in nature and in grace, so a most
interesting analogy may be traced between His operations in both. When the
earth is parched with the heat of summer, and its productions begin to languish
from excessive drought, it is watered and refreshed by the showers of heaven, and
its various plants and fruits not only resume their former health and vigour,
but spring up and flourish with greater luxuriance than before. The flower,
too, that had drooped and withered at the close of day, is revived by the cool
and the dews of night, and in the morning puts forth its buds, and expands its
leaves anew, delighting the eye with the beauty of its colours, or perfuming
the air with the sweets of its fragrance. For every degree of exhaustion in
nature, indeed, the wisest and most adequate provision is made by its
all-pervading and beneficent Author. When, in like manner, the spiritual
strength of the Christian is impaired, and he is ready to sink under.the
pressure of temptation or distress; when his consolations appear to be nearly
exhausted; or when, through the prevalence of remaining unbelief and
corruption, he becomes languid in duty, or faint under affliction--his decays
of strength are recruited from above; new fountains are opened for his comfort;
he rises as from the ground, on which he was sitting in feebleness and sorrow,
and no longer with faltering, but with firm and steady steps, pursues the
course of active duty, or of patient suffering, in which he is appointed to
move. The stores of Divine grace provided for him are inexhaustible, and the
communications of this grace imparted to him are most suitably proportioned to
his need of them (Philippians 4:19). (D. Dickson, D. D.)
Waiting on God
I. THE CHARACTER
OF THOSE CONCERNING WHOM THE DECLARATION OR PROMISE IN THE TEXT IS MADE,
considered as “waiting on the Lord.”
1. They earnestly desire the enjoyment of His favour.
2. They diligently attend to, and take peculiar delight in, all His
service and will.
II. THE IMPORT OF
THE DECLARATION, that they who thus wait on the Lord shall renew their
strength; or, as the words might be translated, shall be renewed in strength.
1. That the principles of the spiritual life within them shall be
gradually strengthened and increased.
2. That increased communications of Divine grace shall be made to
them.
III. THE INTERESTING
EFFECTS OF ITS BRING SO RENOVATED OR INCREASED. “They shall mount up with wings
as eagles,” etc. This may intimate--
1. That their devotions shall become more elevated and intense.
2. By that renovation and increase of spiritual strength which is the
effect of waiting on the Lord, His people acquire greater alacrity and
perseverance in doing His will. They shall run, or march on, and not be weary.
Here the metaphor is varied, and changed into one that is more common in the
sacred writings, as expressive of Christian duty, which is frequently compared
to running or marching. “I will run in the way of Thy commandments, when Thou
shalt enlarge my heart.”
3. Fortitude and patience under affliction is also the effect of that
renewing and increase of spiritual strength, which is received from waiting on
the Lord. They shall walk, and not faint.” Even when incapable of being active
in the service of God, grace is promised for enabling them to move forward
without fainting in the path of submission and suffering. (D. Dickson, D. D.)
Strength by patience
“New strength” is often our deepest need. The machinery of the
steamship, the locomotive, or the factory may be perfect in itself, its parts
exquisitely adjusted, and all ready for action; yet it is inoperative until the
steam is generated and applied. So, what a human being often needs is
just--motive power. Not new faculties of body or of mind; not new opportunities
for action, or new fields of enterprise; not so much new knowledge either; not
even new desires and affections; but “new strength”--fresh inspiration. It is
painful to be in that condition in which we feel that we can, and yet cannot;
that we have faculty, yet lack inspiration; that we have wings of heavenward
desire, with but little power to use them. The prophet here points us to the
source of all true inspiration: “He giveth power to the faint.” He points us
also to the condition on which this Divine energy is to be recovered: “They
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.”
1. What, then, is meant by this “waiting upon the Lord”? We use the
word “wait” with reference to service: a servant “waits” upon his master or his
master’s guests. We use it, too, with reference to the holding of an interview
with a superior: a deputation “waits” upon the Prime Minister; the Prime
Minister “waits” upon His Majesty. We use the word also with reference to a
state of expectation, more or less prolonged: as when we say that we are
“waiting” for some friend. It is in this last sense--the sense of continuous
expectancy--that the word is used in the Bible. To “wait” is more than to pray.
It is to keep looking for the answer to our prayers. It is the opposite,
therefore, both of despair and of impatience. Hence the Psalmist says, “Rest in
the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” And again, “I wait for the Lord, my soul
doth wait, and in His word do I hope,” etc. So here the prophet does not mean
to say that if we would “renew our strength,” we have simply to seek an
interview with God and lay our request before Him; but that if we keep looking
to God with a believing and patient expectation, new vigour will come to us,
our very patience will be a source of strength, and the God in whom we hope
will not disappoint us.
2. “Waiting is often the only means of receiving fresh energy.” Man
goeth forth to his work and to his labour until the evening. But when the
evening comes, he is exhausted. All the organs are there, but they want new
strength. The man lies down on his bed, and “waits.” Sleep comes upon him; and
through its influence the waiting body recovers all its vigour, so that the man
rises again in the morning ready for his toil. Often, too, the very best prescription
which a physician can give is, “Rest and cheerful society.” A godly patience,
then, is the grand secret of spiritual might. For such patience not only
carries within itself the germs of strength, but also places the soul in that
condition in which it is most susceptible of quickening influences and can most
readily take advantage of fresh opportunities. Power is hidden in patience, as
the subtle force of the lightning slumbers in the brooding cloud. Despair
paralyses. Impatience, too, weakens. Magnetise a needle, and it becomes much
more sensitive to the force of the magnet. And so a human heart which is
constantly looking to God will be much more susceptible of all influences that
come from God. The soil is ready for the vitalising shower. The sails are
unfurled to catch the heavenly breeze. The ear is listening for the whispers of
the Divine voice. Whereas the man who has worn himself out by impatience, or
yielded himself up to despair, is too inert or too distracted to take adequate
advantage of the fresh opportunities which may come at last. On the other hand,
the blended eagerness and calm of the soul that is “waiting upon the Lord” make
it the more receptive of all Divine influences, and keep it at least strong
enough to take advantage of fresh sources of strength.
The renewed of strength
I. THE MEANS OF
RENEWING OUR STRENGTH, as expressed in the phrase, “they that wait on the
Lord.”
1. There must be approach to God.
2. Expectation.
3. A patient continuance in an expecting attitude, until we actually
receive the fulfilment of the Divine promise. This phrase is descriptive, not
merely of an occasional exercise, but of what is, or ought at least to be, the
constant temper and frame of the believer’s mind.
II. To those who
live in this spirit is given AN EXCEEDING GREAT AND PRECIOUS PROMISE. They
“shall renew their strength.” Our spiritual strength seems to include chiefly
three things--
1. Clear and comprehensive views of the truth of God. We often say
that “knowledge is power”: certainly, ignorance of.the truth of God is
weakness.
2. A correspondence between our will and affections and the truth
existing in our minds.
3. Divine consolation. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”
III. THE HAPPY
RESULT OF THIS RENEWAL OF STRENGTH. (J. Entwisle.)
The blessedness of Divine service
There are three blessings suggested as consequent upon this
waiting--
I. RENEWED VIGOUR.
“They shall renew their strength.” This is not arbitrary, but necessary.
1. The intellect is strengthened by holy exercises upon Divine
themes.
2. The affections are strengthened by holy exercises on right
objects.
3. The will is strengthened by holy exercises in godly purposes. The
whole soul gets strength by such exercise.
II. SOUL ELEVATION.
“Mount up with wings as eagles.”
1. Holy gratitude is a wing that will bear the soul aloft to its
Benefactor.
2. Holy love is a wing that will bear the soul upward to its object.
3. Holy hope is a wing that will bear the soul above to its
anticipated possessions.
III. INTERESTING
PROGRESS. “Run, and be weary,” etc.
1. Godliness is progress. It is not a stationary state. It is a
running and a walking. Forgetting the things that are behind, etc.
2. Godliness is progress without fatigue. There is no weariness in
love. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The highest strength derived from the highest service
I. THE HIGHEST
STRENGTH IS DERIVED FROM THE HIGHEST SERVICE.
1. The highest strength is not physical nor intellectual, but moral.
Strength to resist the wrong, to pursue the right, to honour God and bless humanity.
2. What is the highest service? Waiting upon the Lord. To wait upon
Him implies a practical recognition of His existence, personal superintendence,
and absolute authority. This service must be--
II. THE HIGHEST
STRENGTH IS DEVELOPED IN THE HIGHEST ACTIVITY. What is this activity?
1. Soul devotion.
2. Soul progress. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
Waiting on God
The Lord’s people must wait--
1. In simplicity of intention. On Him only (Psalms 62:5).
2. In faith. They “wait for the Lord, and in His word do they hope” Psalms 130:5). Even when He hides His
face (Isaiah 8:17). Their faith at one time is
supported only by the promises,,-at other times by their own experience (Psalms 27:14; Lamentations 3:25-26; Isaiah 30:18; Isaiah 49:23).
3. They wait with patient perseverance. It is not only an act, but a
gracious habit of mind (Psalms 25:5).
4. They wait with humility and self-denial. They wait on God, asking
counsel, seeking strength, and imploring pardon and peace. This posture of mind
becomes the ignorance and guilt and unworthiness of the creature; the
perfection, the wisdom and love of such a Being.
5. They wait with submission and resignation. They wait His time,
acquiesce in His methods. (J. Cooke.)
Waiting upon the Lord
These consolations are suited to men in all ages, and in all
countries. We are precisely in the same position in which the Jews were
found--we are equally apt to faint when under God’s rod; and He seeks to
inspire us with hope and confidence.
I. Let us notice:
THIS WAITING UPON THE LORD. And the first thing that strikes us is the language
used by the prophet--language so far removed from mere formal expression. There
is no mention here of the use of many words, or of certain external marks of
devotion; it is simply, “Waiting upon the Lord!” Evidently the prophet uses it
as representing an act of devotion, looking to God for help in the time of
need. True waiting upon the Lord seems to have three features, which we suppose
to be contained in the words here used.
1. Desire.
2. A collected frame of mind.
3. Trust in the Lord.
II. “They that wait
upon the Lord SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH.” We are altogether dependent upon God
for our natural, as well as for our spiritual strength. God seems to observe in
spiritual things a similar order to that which exists in natural things. Our
natural strength requires constant renovation by the food that is convenient
for us. So it is in the spiritual life: we can make no provision of grace for
the future; we are called to depend upon God day by day. There are various
reasons why we should constantly apply to God for a renewal of our spiritual
strength. There are conflicts to be endured with our spiritual foes, within our
own hearts; we live in a world that is lying in wickedness; we have to do with
matters concerning the present life that are often very trying and perplexing
in their nature, and often is our courage likely to fail. In an indirect
manner, then, this encouraging passage of Scripture reminds us of the cause of
our spiritual declensions. It is because we do not constantly wait upon the
Lord. (J. Hocart.)
Waiting upon the Lord
1. THE GENERAL PROPOSITION. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength.”
II. THE DEMONSTRATION
OR CONFIRMATION OF THIS. “They shall mount up,” etc. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Waiting in patience
Profane and desperate persons fly off in a discontent and
impatience, like Jehoram (2 Kings 6:33). The more willing we
are to wait upon God the better it is for us; for He pays for time and gives us
the more because we have waited. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Strength for strength
“Change their strength” (marg.). This seems to be the proper sense
and meaning. There is a double kind of change to be observed.
1. In quality. They shall have a new kind of strength bestowed upon
them, over what they had before conversion, as Caleb had another spirit, and
Saul another heart. For even before conversion there is a kind of strength
which does appear, and that also in reference to religion, and the duties of
it, but it is not such a strength as any are to rest themselves contented with.
There is the strength of temper, and natural constitution, and a man may be
able both to do and suffer very much by it. This is that which does for the
most part extend itself to the outside and form of religion. The strength of
wit, and reason, and understanding, and memory, and the like, while their heart
and will and affections have no saving work at all upon them. There is the
strength of custom, and religious education. There is the strength of civility
and moral principles. This was the strength which was in Paul before his
conversion. They that wait upon the Lord shall “change,” that is, they shall
have another strength bestowed upon them, and such as will be more useful to
them. Instead of this natural, and moral, and customary strength, they shall
have a supernatural and spiritual given unto them. This is different, and
surpassing the other.
2. In quantity and degree. Good Christians shall through God’s grace
grow stronger and stronger.
The strength of a Christian
The strength of a Christian is amplified by a resemblance to a
threefold motion.
1. Flying.
2. Running.
(a) Because he has a great way to go, much ground to be despatched;
therefore there is need of speed for the passing over it.
(b) But a little time, and much time lost already.
(c) The vehemency of desire to the thing itself which we run for. It is
a 1 Corinthians 9:25).
3. Walking. Walking is less than running, and fainting is more than
weariness. If then those who run are not weary, the same when they walk shall
not faint. There are divers things which we are liable to faint at, which yet
the Scripture takes us off from fainting at.
Renewing strength
This it nearly concerns us to do upon these considerations.
1. In point of honour, and that especially with God Himself. Spiritual
weakness is a disparagement, especially as a relapse, and after some former
degrees of strength. The excellency of dignity and the excellency of strength
go both together, and he that falls from the one does, with Reuben, fall also
from the other. Becoming weak as water, he shall not Genesis 49:4).
2. In point of ease. A weak Christian is a burden to himself as
meeting with many difficulties which he cannot grapple with, but which prove
too hard to him. There are many temptations to resist, and many afflictions to
endure, and many duties to perform.
3. In point of comfort. A weak Christian will be an uncomfortable
Christian. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Waiting upon the Lord
I. “THEY THAT WAIT
UPON THE LORD SHALL RENEW THEIR STRENGTH.”
1. This sounds as if they were in danger of becoming weary and faint
in their minds. Is this really so? What do you say, Christian tradesman--you
upon whom God hath laid the responsibilities of home and family--you Christian
citizen-you whom the arrows of affliction have wounded--you proclaimer of the
Lord’s message?
2. The least that.it can mean is they shall stand their ground.
3. But the margin speaks of this renewal as a change of strength, as
if it would remind us of the mansidedness of the grace of God, and its perfect
adaptability to our everchanging needs.
II. “THEY SHALL
MOUNT UP WITH WINGS AS EAGLES.” This seems to say that the life of communion
with God is not a long series of vapid and unemotional hours, a dead level of
mechanical and spiritless employments, but a life that has rare and glorious
experiences, holy aspirations, ennobling thoughts, ecstatic emotions,
spirit-stirring hopes.
1. Purer air.
2. Clearer vision.
3. Untroubled quiet.
4. Rare landscape.
5. Unclouded sunshine.
III. “THEY SHALL RUN
AND NOT BE WEARY.” Capacity for the most strenuous exertion.
IV. “THEY SHALL
WALK AND NOT FAINT.” Is this the same as saying that we shall have the power of
steady perseverance, of patient endurance under protracted trial? Did the
prophet put this last in his brief summary because patience is one of those
Christian graces that has its perfect work the latest? (J. H. Anderson.)
The strong in danger of exhaustion
It is a great mistake to suppose that only the puny are liable to
downfalls. The truth lies the other way! The more alert and bold a youth will
be, the more certainly he will at some time overtask his strength. The boy who
never knew what it was to be fagged out at school is not worth much. The young
man who never overdid himself and felt utterly exhausted through some strenuous
exertion in a great contest will never do much in the world--he is not worth
much-Not the tame, slow idlers, but the forceful men, the men who rejoice in
their strength and to use their strength, the men who would rather drop than
give in while another yard can be run, or another step be made, or another blow
be struck for victory--these are the men who will assuredly be carried on in
the great enterprise until they are weary, and when weary will be carried on by
their indomitable spirit, while others are seeking rest, until at last they
reel and stagger and collapse. Hence it is for these that the prophet chiefly
writes. For the old, for the young, for the sick and infirm, and even for such
as may be tottering into the grave, he writes for them, and all he says is true
and needful for their case. But more than all, in view of the great work to
which he is calling his countrymen, he writes for those who feel called upon to
do something in the world, for those who are conscious of high powers, and are
in the purest sense of the word ambitious. (T. V. Tymms.)
Waiting upon God
I. WHAT IS THIS
WAITING?
1. It means prayer--much more than an occasional supplication, however
real; it means persistent, persevering, continual prayer; it means an abiding
attitude of trustful dependence upon God; it means all that is wrapped up in
those beautiful words, “Oh, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him”; it
means trust in the Lord and do good; it means trust in the Lord at all times,
for with Him is everlasting strength, and have no confidence in self.
2. But the prophet has a deeper thought than this. There are many
things for which we can only ask and then wait in quiet stillness, things which
we cannot help God to give us, things which God Himself bestows without our
aid, if we are ever to possess them. Renewal often comes to men in their
extremity like this.
3. But while we cannot pass over such times and such experiences, it
would be unhealthy to be dwelling upon them as if they were the whole of life.
They are not. We are not always faint. Usually we have, at any rate, just a
little strength, and then waiting upon Him means not only prayer and uplooking,
but doing His commandments like the angels, who because they do them excel in
strength.
II. WHAT IS THE
ISSUE OF SUCH WAITING UPON GOD? The prophet’s imagery is startling, and some
critics would presume to call his figures somewhat mixed; but the thought
conveyed is clear. The older Jewish commentators imagined they discovered here
a reference to an ancient belief that at a certain time the eagle plunged into
the sea and bathed off his worn-out plumage, and that afterwards new feathers
grew. The Septuagint translators of the Old Testament were so sure of this bit
of false science that in order to square their Hebrew Scriptures with the
fashion of thought in Alexandria, they ventured to alter the words of our text,
and to read, “They shall put forth new feathers like eagles,” and so the old
Greek version reads to-day. But we have good reason to believe that the prophet
drew his imagery from familiar objects in the land of exile. There could be
little doubt but that from childhood he had often looked upon some of those
carved tablets on which men with wings of eagles fastened to their shoulders
were common, that he had often looked on those colossal images of winged bulls
and lions and men such as may be seen in our British Museum to-day. Now those
composite figures had subtle meanings. They could not suggest to the prophet
his religious thought, but his inspired genius laid them under tribute to
assist the utterance of a thought of higher inspiration. At any rate he found
in the matchless wing-power of the eagle a sublime image of an inspiring and
God-seeking man. The figure of one flying through the heavens, coupled
strangely with the promise of running without being wearied, represents the
godly man as ever having courage to entertain great hopes. Never failing to
seek and obtain fellowship with God in the highest, always daring to attempt
great actions, this heavenly minded man has thoughts and yearnings which raise
his mode of life above the level of common things. This man, however, has this
double life. There is the soaring Godward, and there is the common drudgery of
daily walk and conversation, the practical common life. (T. V. Tymms.)
Renewal of strength
As we look back on history we can see positive evidence that the
promise of this text was historically fulfilled, and in the eases of the men to
whom the message came first. The national life was restored, and that
restoration of national life in the Jews is unique in the history of mankind;
you cannot point to anything like it since man walked this earth, but it took
place. It seemed impossible that these few exiles could escape from those
nations, and go back to their own land and restore their institutions, but they
did. And who did it? The men who were making themselves rich in those days in
Eastern cities stayed there. The men who led the remnant back were God-fearing
men like Ezra and Zerubbabel, men who waited on God. The wall of Jerusalem, of
the second temple, would never have been built but for men like Nehemiah and
Haggai, men who had their times of fear and depression and weakness, hut who
went to God and came back not only strengthened themselves, but able to
strengthen their brethren, so that the great work was done. So to-day in every
Christian Church, in every Christian enterprise, in every modern fight for righteousness
and truth, there are some men who never know when they are defeated; there are
some men who, because of this, are invulnerable men; and the men who, when cast
down always say there is lifting up, the men who can live and die for Divine
ideas, the men who to-day are converting savage races into Christian peoples
and working out in painful and prosaic details, and with much danger to their
lives in some cases, the glowing dreams of ancient seers respecting the
transformation of mankind, these are they who wait in secret on their God. (T.
V. Tymms.)
Exhaustion and recovery
1. If anything were needed to teach men the necessity for connecting
their own spirits with the Divine, it is the quick exhaustion of individual
resources. Even “as the stream of brooks they pass away.” Faith and hope and
love itself, so dewy fresh in the morning, spend themselves in noonday’s
scorching heat, and run low at eventide. Sometimes, indeed, long before the
shadows are stretched out, in manhood’s very prime the wasting is manifest. I
can strive no more, says the tired heart. Who does not know the temptations of
reaction, and the days when the lights burn low?
2. In such moods we need to look away from the crowds, and from the
glaring lights of the city, to the calm glories of the moon, and the stars
above our heads. All these evils, so full of fierce and destructive energies,
will soon be as the dust beneath our feet. Truth and holiness and right abide
for ever. To “look off” unto the eternal, to get behind the veil into the realm
of true being is the need of the fevered and exhausted soul. Hidden in that
secret pavilion we see things as they really are. Wrong may prosper for a time.
Greed, unrighteousness, sensuality, may appear to be more stable than granite.
But they are only painted cloud. We see the years move on, and the everlasting
truth subdue all to itself. Maybe in revolutions and bloodshed, for the wheels
of God grind inexorably and small. But at the last, evil is found to be in its
nature only decay. “Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the
kingdom of their Father.” Such a vision restores the heart of faith. To think
that we are labouring in vain is the thought that paralyses. But whatever is
done for right is done for God and endures eternally.
3. But there are other thoughts that come to us in the quietude of
the Divine fellowship. We are shown the infinite powers that He concealed in
the heart of a solitary man of faith. Faith is like a spark. Though it seems
tiny, it is real fire, and it can set the world ablaze. Faith can work
miracles. Our Lord trusted to faith to subdue humanity. It has already
conquered half the world, and controls the whole. Luther changed the course of
the centuries by faith. Wesley fashioned modern England by faith. Booth by
faith has changed the drunkard and the sensualist into saints. All things are
possible to him that believeth. If, then, truth is eternal, and faith is
omnipotent, why should any difficulties, however stupendous, or failures,
however extensive, lead us to despair? (Sunday School Chronicle.)
The source and design of spiritual strength
I. SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH, HOW IS IT TO BE OBTAINED? There was a time when our human nature
seemed to possess much spiritual strength, but there came a time when it was
all lost; and from that time, in the experience of every human being, it has
had to be renewed. This renewing influence must come from God; surely that is a
statement in harmony both with reason and with Scripture. To speak of a man as
able to strengthen himself, so as to dispense with Divine aid, is as
unreasonable as it is unscriptural As well might you talk of a leafless tree
clothing itself with verdure without the vernal sun--as well of an enfeebled
body recovering tone and energy without the reviving air of heaven. Who can
bring strength out of weakness? who can bring life out of decay? How is this
renewing influence, then, to be obtained? By waiting upon the Lord. You see the
progression of ideas; it is strength that has to be renewed, and it has to be
renewed by God, and God gives it when we wait upon Him. Some who like to trace
the analogy between the works of nature and the works of grace, may perhaps
have seen a flower which the storms of night have severely shaken, towards the
morning turn wistfully to the dawn, and seem to be waiting for the coming day.
Nor does it wait in vain. Beneath that bright beam the moisture that encumbered
it is exhaled; its bent stalk raises itself again, its shrivelled petals expand
into beauty, and it diffuses around a cheering fragrance in gratitude to the
power that has renewed its strength. Your stalk may be a broken one, and your
petals may be shrivelled, but by waiting upon the Lord you shall renew your
strength.
II. HOW SHOULD
SPIRITUAL STRENGTH BE EXHIBITED?
1. In rapturous contemplation of the things of God. The eagle is a
bird that soars upwards towards heaven: so is the Christian to mount upwards in
holy contemplation. He has powers adapted to this exercise--powers with which
he can glorify his Maker; and he must not point those eagle faculties to the
dust, but let them take wing and rise. The most vigorous pinion will never
reach the sun, but yet it may reach so high that earth-bound creatures shall
fail to track its flight, and lose it in the glare of the excellent glory.
2. In untiring activity in the direct service of God. In common daily
duty we are to run in the ways of God’s commandments; but the word is more
frequently employed to denote some direct obedience to some special command. We
are not to spend all our time in rapturous contemplation. We are not to devote
all our lives to lonely musing. It is well to rise up on wings of eagles, but
now and then we must come to the level of our fellow-creatures, and in their
service we are to run and not be weary. I may be very busy in connection with
the Church of Christ and the advancement of the knowledge of Christ. But who is
not weary, sometimes, in well-doing! It is one thing to begin, and another
thing to go on.
3. They shall walk and not faint--words which seem to denote
consistency in common daily life. In vain all my lonely musing, in vain all my
bustle in the kingdom of Christ, if consistency of daily life does not
accompany the whole. The world expects it of me; Christ demands it of me. This
is the religion of the Bible: is it not a noble thing? There is many a young
man who thinks, “I find plenty of occupation for my energy in the service of
the world, but if I become a religious man, then I am sure to become a poor,
lifeless, morose character.” Not so; for the religion of the Bible is this:
mounting up with wings of eagles, running and not wearying, walking and not
fainting. All your youthful energy will be useful in the service of religion,
and you will find it much more happily employed than in the service of the
world and of Satan. (F. Tucker, B. A.)
The privileges of those who wait upon God
I. WHAT IS IMPLIED
IN WAITING UPON GOD?
1. Waiting, in Scripture language, is a term used to denote
dependence. “These wait all upon Thee; that Thou mayest give them their meat in
due season.” The meaning is obviously, They, all depend upon Thee; men and
beasts alike.
2. Another sense in which the word “waiting” occurs in Scripture is,
a willingness to be directed by the person waited upon. Thus Job says, unto me
men gave ear, they waited, and kept silence at my counsel”: which is as if he
had said, “I had only to speak, and they were ready to obey my directions.” And
when a contrary disposition is charged upon Israel, the Psalmist expresses it
by saying, “They waited not for His counsel”: that is, they wanted it not, nor
meant to follow it, and therefore would not wait to receive it. This sense of
the word gives us another part of the character of those that wait upon the
Lord. They are willing to receive direction and instruction from Him.
3. Waiting, in the Scriptures, sometimes includes the idea which we
affix to it in common life; namely, that of attendance or service.
II. THE SEVERAL
BRANCHES OF THE PROMISE. (S. Knight, M. A.)
Despondency and hopefulness
I. The despondent
are unhappy and weak, and they shrink from effort; but the hopeful are joyous
and strong, and they delight to put forth their strength in action. The
inertness of the despondent continually deepens their despondency, increases
their weakness, and aggravates their misery. But hope feeds upon every act to
which it prompts, and it grows thereby.
2. There are various kinds of hopefulness, which differ greatly in
their nature and their effects. The nature of each man’s hopes will be in
accordance with his ruling desires, and the amount of his hopefulness will
depend on that to which he trusts for the fulfilment of his desires. One man’s
desires, and therefore his hopes, will go forth in the direction of the
pleasures of sense. What has he to trust in for the continuance of the hope
that these desires shall be gratified? But, for the most part, these exhaustive
pleasures rapidly fret away that on which they depend. Health, hope, and desire
pass quickly away together, and a loaded table becomes an object of revulsion.
If, however, his desires are set on the more refined pleasures of sense, such
as the enjoyment of works of art, his hopes depend on the retention of the
delicate sensibility of the organs by which he receives his impressions. But in
time the eye becomes dim, and the subtle beauties of a fine painting cannot be
seen; the ear becomes dull, and the sweetest music charms no more. When, again,
we think of those whose pleasures are more purely intellectual, we know that an
enfeebled memory puts an effectual check on the acquisition of knowledge.
3. The slight and shifting nature of the foundations on which worldly
hopes are built makes it evident that they can do but little towards giving
abiding and progressive strength to character, while frequent failures and
disappointments depress and enfeeble. Let us, therefore, see what there is in
reserve for us in the large world into which Isaiah is prepared to conduct us
We are at once made aware of its vastness, to the expanding and refreshing of
our spirits, for we are brought face to face with God in all the majesty of His
perfections: the infinite Greatness, to which the nations are as the small dust
of the balance. This large world, the spiritual, into which Isaiah has ushered
us, includes all worlds, for it is as limitless as its Ruler.
We all, therefore, belong to it in one sense or another, and
cannot pass out of it. (W. Howells.)
Strength of soul made perfect by hope in God
I. THE HOPES THAT
ARE BASED ON FAITH IN GOD GIVE STRENGTH ENOUGH TO APPROACH HIM. This is the
highest of all exercises of spiritual strength, and effectually prepares for
all the rest. This is a mounting up on wings, as compared with which the rest
are but running and walking. Who, then, shall give wings to a heavy laden
sinner, strong enough to sustain him in his upward flight? We have not far to
search for the answer.
1. He receives strength to confess his sins to the God of truth from
the hope of pardon founded on God’s merciful promise.
2. Hope and strength rapidly grow when faith clearly sees and
steadfastly rests on the firm ground of forgiveness in the death of Christ.
3. The justified believer derives strength to advance to closest
fellowship with God from the hope that he may meet Him in likeness of
character.
4. Who can measure the unfailing strength which inspires the
Christian when he feels that he is safe in the threefold grasp of the Triune
God?
II. THE HOPES THAT
ARE BASED ON FAITH GIVE STRENGTH TO LIVE FOR GOD. If we take the running of the
text to mean the rendering of active public service to God, and the walking to
mean steadfast advance in character, the Christian requires the strength needed
for both in the approach to God. He comes down from the mount made ready, like
Moses, for work in the camp at large, or in the retirement of his tent. In so
far as the spiritual life is one, it is a life in God. The energy of this life
manifests itself in various ways. It puts forth its utmost strength in rising
towards its Source when the Christian enters into fellowship with the Father
and the Son.
1. The Christian makes a hopeful start in his course of service when
he clearly realises the spiritual security of his own position.
2. All the motives which the Gospel presents before him feed his
hopefulness and increase his working power. “I can do all things,” said Paul,
“through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Our deepest affections are stirred
when we are told that redemption was made in love. Once more, the Christian is
prompted to strenuous and persevering action by the appeal made to his desires.
The highest point in his destiny is to be conformed to the image of the Son of
God. “Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is
pure.”
Mounting up; running; walking
Mount up with wings as eagles, run, walk. That is a very lame
finish. Surely there must be some mistake. The man with so keen an eye for
rhetorical effect as this writer shows could not have ended this matchless
oration so tamely. It is quite clear that the order in which the prophet wrote
was, “They that wait upon the Lord shall walk and not faint, shall run and not
be weary, shall mount up with wings as eagles.” That is the way to finish. It’s
a sorry thing to begin with the eagle’s flight and come down to four miles an
hour! “So I saw in my dream that he went from running to going, and from going
to scrambling on his hands and knees, because of the steepness of the place.”
You know who wrote that, and how true to the experience of a Christian is his
picture. Perhaps that is the commentary on this verse. The order, then, may be
the correct one, after all--not so good as a rhetorical finish, but true to
life. And, at any cost, let him who speaks from the mouth of the true God
himself be true. And this is true to life” “They shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run; they shall walk.” The flash of inspiration brings eager
enthusiasm; you actively pursue your ideal for a time, and then, because of the
steepness of the place, you come down to a painful walk. Is not that the
history in a nutshell of what is called the progress of nearly every society or
opinion that you know? Whether it be philanthropic, political, social, or
religious, that seems to be tram. “Mount up with wings as eagles, run, walk,”
and one might almost dare to add a fourth--“stand still!” (F. L.Wiseman, B.
A.)
Untiring progress
But is the prophet translated rightly? Our revisers have left this
text exactly as, it stands in the A.V., “Mount up with wings as eagles, they
shall run, and walk,” and yet I do not think it is what the prophet meant. As
we read his words the image they call up is of three modes of motion, three
rates of progression--the flight of the eagle, the swift foot of the deer, and
the ordinary pace of man. But the idea in his mind is not one of comparative
motions. Let me translate that last word again, translate it by a word that is
about as wide in its English significance as the word used by the prophet in
his own time, “They shall mount up, they shall run, they shall go.” The word
does not say anything about the rate at which they go, and is used of the
flight of the arrow through the air, or of the way of the ship driven before
the wind, or of the gait of a swift-footed animal, or of the ordinary pace of
man. The prophet is not speaking of three rates of motion, but he is rather
speaking of the active motion and then onward continuance. “They shall mount up
with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall go on and
on and not faint.” This is the truth on which he is insisting before these
downhearted and enfeebled Babylonian captives whose hands hang down, whose
knees are feeble. The man of God, the man who waits on God, is equal to any
emergency, is equal to any strength. If you want the flash of a new inspiration
the man of God will receive it; if you want swift progress the man of God is
equal to it; if you want steady perseverance you shall find it in the man of
God also. With a stronger stroke than the eagle’s wing will he be able to beat
the air and penetrate to the third heaven; he will run before the chariot of
the king and get to the city sooner than the fleetest horses of which even the
king of Israel can boast; like Asahell he shall be lissom of limb and light of
foot; and when far in the trackless desert even the endurance of the camel
gives out, shall the man of God hold on his way. The man who waits upon God has
three cardinal qualities which above all others will tend to the conquest of
the world--buoyancy of spirits, activity, and perseverance; the man who can
command these is the man who will win. (F. L. Wiseman, B. A.)
Recuperative power
But it is said the prophet gives us the natural order. Then I have
a question to ask. What did your man of the natural order stop running for? He
stopped running because he was tired. It is precisely because he is not tired
that the man of God does not stop. “They shall run, and not be weary.” The
whole point is there. He walks and does not faint, and he will not have to stop
and take rest and food because he is faint, but goes on and on. There is no
need for the word of inspiration to tell us that you can begin with a big
inspiration and go on fast for a time, and then slow down to the ordinary
tramp. You have learnt that to your sorrow by the bitter teaching of
experience. But the message of the recuperative power, that you shall mount up
with wings as eagles, run and not be weary, and go on and on knowing neither
weariness nor faintness, this is the word of inspiration alone. It is a power
that is not your own, a power that comes from no earthly source, a supernatural
power, power from on high which the prophet is here offering. (F. L.
Wiseman, B. A.)
Strength helping weakness
At a certain junction the train by which I was travelling was
divided into two parts. One part was taken on by the engine to the higher end
of the platform, the other and hinder remained where it was. Some carriages
standing on the middle line of rails were to be attached to our train. An
engine came down and gave them a push, sending them towards the stationary carriages
at such a rate that it seemed as though they would crash into the train with
violence. But as they came round the curve from one line to the other friction
and gravitation asserted their power. Every moment the speed was reduced, and
finally the carriages came to a standstill a foot away from those to which they
were to be attached. Then the engine and carriages of the detached front part
of the train came back and all were coupled up. And away went those weary,
dilatory carriages as fast as the rest. They were now coupled up to the source
of the power, and the effect of every pulse of the engine was communicated to
them, and had it run one hundred miles an hour so would they have done. That is
the teaching of the prophet. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength,” they are coupled up to the source of power without, and being
coupled to the power without, the effect of every throb of the engine is
communicated to the carriages, and the love of every beat of the heart of God
comes down to the Church of the living God. (F. L. Wiseman, B. A.)
The power to realise ideals
We are constantly being exhorted to-day by good and earnest men to
set a high ideal before us. But I believe that the preaching of the high ideal,
divorced from the preaching of its attainment by the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ, is the reason for more than one-half the cynicism that you find amongst
men from thirty-five to forty at the present day. The fact is, men are led to
think they are going to conquer the whole land in five minutes, and imagine
they are going to realise their ideal before they are five-and-twenty; and when
they find that the nearer they ought to be getting to their ideal the farther
it recedes into the distance, they are discouraged, and, out of sheer despair
of ever reaching their ideal, they give it up, and laugh at those who try to
pursue it. I do not say “Do not pursue your ideal,” but what I say is this, “If
you ever really want to make your ideal, you must be endued with the power from
on high.” (F. L.Wiseman, B. A.)
Godly optimism
The knapsack that galls and oppresses the novice at mountain
climbing is borne without fatigue by the guide who is accustomed to it. There
are amateur and spasmodic philanthropists who dabble occasionally with the great
social problems, and they feel their weight and cry out in despair. But the
Christian has had that care upon his heart daffy, and he knows how to bear it,
and before whom to lay it. But, further. He who has only seen the sorrow, the
grief, the sin of the world has not penetrated to the depth of the problem. He
sees the clouds and mist around the planet, but not the world itself. Who, of
all men who ever lived upon the earth, was the One who had the sorrow of the
world nearest to His heart? But you picture the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
from the wrong angle, if you picture Him only as “the Man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief.” He was that, but that is not the last analysis of the
character of the Lord Jesus Christ. None had such joy as Christ. Do you
remember after His statement of great intellectual and moral truths that make
the brain weary and the heart of the uninitiated faint, it is recorded that the
Lord Jesus Christ’s spirit leapt for joy, and He said, “Father, I thank Thee
that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them
unto babes”! He mounted up on eagle’s wings to meet the down-coming Spirit of
the Father. And look at that time when He has the burden of the world upon Him.
He is making His will. What has the Lord Jesus Christ to leave? His Cross. That
is His great legacy to the Church. But how does He leave it? In the power to
endure it. “My peace I give unto you,” that is the legacy. And when He Calls us
home, He who sits upon the circle of the heavens, and sees all the sorrow of
this world as you and I can never see it, bids us “Enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord.” He who looks only at the burden of the world, and only sees its
sorrow and shame, has not got to the last analysis of its meaning; he has not
touched the Rock, is floundering in the mud. You must get deeper and deeper
yet, and when you touch the Rock--the pillars of the earth--you will come to
the fact that under all there is the eternal blessedness. And the man who waits
upon God enters into that eternal calm and blessedness. (F. L. Wiseman, B.
A.)
Strength renewed by waiting on the Lord
I. WHEREIN
CONSISTS THE STRENGTH SPOKEN OF BY THE PROPHET?
1. The Philistines were utterly unable to find out in what the
amazing strength of Samson consisted, until he revealed it to his espoused
wife. It was his religious observance of the laws of the Nazarite which
occasioned his extraordinary power. His uncommon bodily strength, therefore,
was from the Lord; and when He departed from him, he became weak as another man.
2. But the strength spoken of in our text is evidently not corporeal
strength; it is a power seated in the mind; but neither is it intellectual
vigour. It is often found in persons of weak understanding, and in minds not
highly cultivated by refined education.
3. The strength spoken of is a moral, or more properly a spiritual
quality. As bodily health is only found in a well-balanced and healthy state of
the corporeal functions, so spiritual strength can only be found in souls into
which new life has been infused, and is in vigorous exercise. The elements of
this strength are--
II. HOW SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH MAY BE ACQUIRED AND HOW RENEWED, WHEN IT HAS BEEN IMPAIRED. We are not
exhorted to be strong in ourselves, but “in the Lord, and in the power of His might.”
But, in order to obtain aid from on high, we must make use of the appointed and
appropriate means. These are all comprehended in one expression, “waiting on
the Lord.”
III. WHAT BENEFITS
AND AIDS THEY RECEIVE WHO WAIT UPON THE LORD. They are said, in our text, “to
mount up on wings as eagles.” The soul of fallen man naturally grovels on the
earth; his face instead of being raised to heaven, is prone toward the ground.
But when the Holy Spirit enters into any man, his thoughts and affections are
raised to those things which are above. By the indwelling of the Holy Ghost,
faith, love, and hope are brought into lively exercise; and these are as
pinions to the soul. When by faith the regenerated soul draws near to God, the
earth appears to recede; all its objects are seen to be diminutive; and the
realities of the heavenly state are perceived, and operate with power on the
susceptible mind. But such seasons of elevated devotion and delightful
contemplation are not constant. Our text speaks not only of flying, but of
running and walking. Reflections--
1. “The men of this world are wiser in their generation than the
children of light.” When the body is debilitated and needs to be strengthened,
they spare no pains or expense to recover impaired health. If they hear of a
medicinal spring far off in the mountains they hesitate not to undertake the
journey, and undergo the hardships of the rugged way, that they may test the
efficacy of the mineral waters. And this is done commonly, in the greatest
uncertainty whether the means will prove effectual.
2. As our natural life requires to be nourished by suitable food from
day to day, without which it would decline and death would ensue, so the
spiritual life of the Christian needs to be recruited continually, with the
nutriment which is suited to its growth and strength.
3. Although every degree of spiritual strength is a precious
possession, and we are not permitted “to despise the day of small things,” yet
it is the duty and privilege of every believer to aim at high attainments in
the Divine life, and to encourage and aid others in doing the same. (A.
Alexander, D. D.)
Condition and conduct
Every river needs a channel; and the wider and deeper the channel
the fuller and more copious the stream, provided the waters are inexhaustible.
The river is God’s infinite power; the channel is our conscious weakness. By
waiting on the Lord the stream flows into its appointed bed. Let the stream
flow on uninterruptedly, and all your need in the way of weakness,
helplessness, ignorance, emptiness will be met moment by moment. The result
will be as it is figuratively expressed: We shall mount up; we shall run; we
shall walk.
I. THE PROMISE.
“They that wait,” etc. “Renew” means to “change your strength.”
1. A change from one kind of strength to another. Here is a
Christian, bewildered, not quite knowing why he has so perpetually failed. Now
when he ceases from self and takes God as his strength, he changes his
strength.
2. A change from one measure of strength to another. It is like a
river or a stream--always passing away, and yet the power is always present;
the power moving the mill-wheel, not by jerks, but by a continuous stream,
always passing away, and yet ever flowing in; one measure of strength
succeeding that which has been expended. Our whole future is mapped out with
tests and trials, but we need not be afraid of these things if we are in the
stream of the Divine supply. You see the eagle mounting up by a power that God
has given it. But it is possible to rise by another kind of power. By a sudden
impetus or effort. You throw a stone into the air. Watch it a bit and down it
comes again; the power has spent itself. So it is possible for the Christian to
be moving on by a power that very soon expends itself, and by a process of
exhaustion he falls back again under the gravitating influence of his evil
tendencies. This is not the strength spoken of here. Our Lord refers to a
similar thought in John 4:14, “The water that I shall give
him shall become in him.” That word “become,” in the new version, is full of
deep meaning in this connection. It puts before us the thought, not of a new
gift, but of a new experience of an old gift. As long as you rest, in the place
of power and blessing the stream will flow through you unceasingly.
II. THE CONDITION
of all this. “Waiting upon the Lord.” What is it to wait? There must be
stillness of soul, dependence, expectation.
III. THE RESULT.
Heavenly-mindedness. “He shall mount up.” There are two wings in our spiritual
ascent--faith and obedience. If we try to rise by means of faith alone we shall
be like a bird with one wing. If we trust and obey, obey and trust, we rise
into a purer atmosphere, and have a clearer vision--we live in the very
presence of God. This threefold description of mounting up, running and
walking, presents three aspects of the same character. If I am to run and walk
I must be in close communion with God; I must know what it is to mount up. Then
there is the “running,” that is ready obedience--a mark of the true servant.
The “walking” is the most important part after all. It is far easier for some
of us to run than to walk. We like a little bit of excitement or emotion. To
walk we want something like continuous, sustained evenness of conduct,
progressing quietly and steadily day by day in the common round of life; not
impulsive, not capricious, not changeable; without show, humble, and always the
same. For this we need power. And that power God has provided. (Evan H.
Hopkins, B. A.)
Waiting upon God
One brother in the ministry asked me, “Is there not a danger of
too great passivity?” I said “Oh yes, my brother, as long as we think it is our
activity that must do it, then passivity robs us of time and strength. But once
we understand that it is God that must work it in us, then I understand that my
highest passivity will be my highest activity, for when I give myself entirely
away to God, God can work in me, and then I will work as they that wait upon the
Lord.”
1. If you are to wait aright upon the Lord, you must learn to know
Him, you must turn away your thoughts and eyes and heart and trust from
everything, and set them upon God alone, My conduct in waiting for a man, or
waiting on him, will depend entirely upon what I think of him. One who waits
upon the king behaves in a different way from one who waits upon an ordinary
person. And all our waiting upon God will depend upon one thing--the knowledge
that we have of Him. But how does God reveal Himself when He calls upon us to
wait upon Him? (Isaiah 40:25-29). He never is weary. He
has kept the world going all these ages; and my short life of sixty, seventy,
or eighty years--will my God not care for and maintain that? When I look at
what He does for the stars, I realise that His work is done every moment. And
God, in His omnipotence and faithfulness, is willing to work in my heart every
moment of the day.
2. The second great thing is to know ourselves, to be willing and
determined to accept what God reveals about us. And what does God reveal in
contrast with His great omnipotence? Our utter impotence. If a number of ships
of war were sent out to sea, and were ready to start at any moment, and if the
question were asked, what are they waiting for?, the answer would likely be one
of two things: either that they were waiting for supplies, or waiting for
orders. Child of God, that is to be your position. You are to wait for supplies.
Wait for the power of the Holy Spirit every day. Cultivate also the habit of
waiting for orders. Study and love your Bible, but remember it is God who must
give the orders, and you will fail if you take them from a book. Love your
Bible and fill your heart with it, but let God apply it in your daily life.
3. Once more, if I am to wait upon the Lord aright I must study well
what this word “wait” in itself implies. It implies patience. The Bible speaks
about waiting patiently, and also about waiting quietly. You must cultivate
that habit. How can you do it? When you go into your closet for your morning
devotions, do not, as is very often done, read the Bible and think about it and
pray about it, and then get up and go. But do something else in between. Before
you read, set yourself still that your soul may realise, I am waiting for God
to come in and take possession of me for to-day. That is your great need. And
then, before you pray, sit still, and shut your eyes and say, Will God now
listen to me for certain? Learn to come into blessed fellowship with God. Then
wait continually--not one or two days, not one moment, but all the day (Psalms 25:5). (Andrew Murray.)
Life’s order and the Divine sufficiency
We find here the true order of experience in life.
1. First comes the “flying” stage. The period of fresh, wild
enthusiasms; the season of zeal without discretion, when all sorts of
impossibilities are dreamed, all sorts of vain things attempted. This mood
comes at the beginning, and not at the end of our career. It is in the period
of youth that we have our ambitious dreams, and take our higher flights. Thank
God for the flying stage while it lasts, for we do get visions in those flights
that abide with us long after our wings have dropped off, and we have learned
that the ether is not our element; visions whose memory helps to cheer us as
hereafter we trudge along the monotonous and dusty ways of life’s hard routine.
Youth is full of impulses, full of excesses, full of exaggerations. Let us not
be impatient of them. It is a grand thing that there is one time in our lives
when we have wings. Too soon the wings, like those of Icarus, melt, and we drop
to mother earth again. Too soon a hard and cynical world converts our ingenuous
confidence into self-mistrust. In religious experience youth is the time of
wings. Its faith is romantic, the thrill of its devotion is exquisite. The
spiritual is so real. God is so near. Doubt seems so impossible, and elements
of character are forming then that we should be poor indeed without in future
time. But the period comes when these youthful impulsions give place to the
more restrained and disciplined energies of life, like those of the runner who
has trained himself to maintain his pace, and to maintain it by not exceeding
it. But running is harder than flying. Watch the bird in the air. Nothing looks
less like effort.
2. When we have done flying, we go on running. We have found that
after all we have to live on terra firma. But there is immense energy in
us still. Thank God, too, for the running stage. That is the time when we are
spiritually aggressive, when we count as an active force in the world.
3. But that stage, too, passes. And then we come to the quiet,
steady, persistent “walk.” And it is this that tries our mettle most of all.
For we have lost the exhilaration of youth and the stimulus of strong emotions.
We traverse the solid unromantic ground of principle, while the ghost of many a
shattered illusion haunts our path. It is the period of disenchantment; when we
discover the bounds of the practical, and when we have a stronger sense of
life’s limitations than of its possibilities. To do this makes greater demands
upon our moral steadfastness than to do either of the before-mentioned stages
in our life experience. Patiently to endure, persistently to press on--whatever
the burdens we must carry, whatever the inequalities and roughnesses of the
way, whatever the obstacles that lie and the enemies that lurk in our path,
whatever the tempests that beat overhead--requires a strength of character and
a heroism of soul that are the last achievement and the highest triumph of the
spiritual life. (J. Halsey.)
The Christian’s walk
We find the same idea also in the New Testament with spiritual
applications. There, throughout, we find the Divine life in man described as a
“walk.” To “walk worthy of his high vocation” is the supreme exploit of the
Christian’s faith. Other images are used; those of the runner in the stadium,
and the wrestler in the arena; but it is always on the walking that stress is
laid. It is the daily walk along the beaten path that reveals the depth and
sincerity of our religion. Paul had had his eagle “flights,” but he did not
make much of them. “Caught up into the third heaven” he had seen “visions and
revelations”; but he does not appeal to them as any sign of special grace. He
had “run” swiftly to and fro on many an errand of evangelisation; but he does
not dwell on these as having called forth any remarkable manifestations of the
Divine helpfulness. It was as he pursued the ordinary routine of his ministry
along the common ways, with the humbling “thorn” ever rankling in his flesh,
that he felt the need of and received special succour. It was in this greater
exigency that his inner ear caught the promise, “My grace is sufficient for
thee.” (J. Halsey.)
Standing still
But, you say, if this progression of ideas is a true climax,
flying, running, walking--why stay there? Why not logically carry the idea
further, and say that standing still is the sublimest consummation of the
Divine life in many Even so. That is precisely what Paul does say. “Having done
all, to stand!” It is when all the romance is past, when all the effervescence
of youth has subsided, when all incitements from without and all excitements
from within are over, when life has settled into its groove, and, surrounded by
the monotonous and the sordid, we find our horizon limited by “the daily round”
and “the common task”--it is then that faith rises to its true heroism,
enabling us to maintain our spiritual level and hold our ground against the
deadening inroads of formality and in differentism. (J. Halsey.)
Renewing strength
Human strength is of many kinds--physical, mental, spiritual; but
every form of human strength must of necessity spend itself. All strength apart
from God is derived strength, and is consequently measurable, and must come to
an end. On the other hand, Divine strength never fails. These two things seem
very far away: man with his faintness, God with His eternity and inexhaustible
omnipotence. If we can bring these two together, what a wondrous thing will
happen! Then the sacred words of the text will be fulfilled.
I. WE SEE HOW A
TRUE CHURCH MAY BE DESCRIBED. “They that wait upon the Lord.”
II. WE SEE WHAT THE
LORD’S WAITING PEOPLE NEED. To “renew their strength.”
1. Because they are human.
2. Because they are imperfect.
3. We must renew our strength, for it is for our honour, comfort, and
safety.
4. It is for God’s glory and our own usefulness.
III. HOW ARE WE TO
RENEW OUR STRENGTH? By continually waiting upon God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The continued renewal of strength
No man is as strong as he desires to be. Many things he desires to
do but cannot. He would exhaust his strength if he continued working. God has
provided hours for rest and refreshment.
I. SPIRITUAL LIFE
DEMANDS RENEWAL. Strength for to-day does not insure strength for to-morrow.
Full provision has been made to supply this need of the soul. The bread of life
for the hungry, the water of life for the thirsty.
II. ALL RENEWAL OF
STRENGTH SHOULD BE REGULAR. Spasmodic efforts are dangerous. There must be a
regular feeding on God’s Word and promises.
III. RENEWAL OF
STRENGTH MEANS A RENEWAL OF ACTIVITY. Use all strength as a gift of God. When
exhausted renew your power. (R. M.Donaldson, D. D.)
Waiting on God
This passage has the ring of an Alpine horn. It is very easy to
misunderstand this word “wait,” and regard it as meaning inactive passivity.
There is a vast deal of verve in the original Hebrew; it signifies to be strong
enough to hold out. It expresses a solid endurability such as belongs to a
stiff piece of oak that never bends and never breaks under heavy pressure.
Thence the word came to signify patience as opposed to worry and despondency.
“Waiting” denotes a habit of mind-a devout habit that loves to call on God, a
submissive habit that is ready to receive just what God sees fit to send, an
obedient habit that is glad to do just what God commands, a stalwart habit of
carrying such loads as duty lays upon our backs. It is a religion of
conscience, and not a mere effervescence of pious emotion. In short, it is a
grace, just as much as the grace of faith, or love, or humility. If you and I
have this grace, and if we practise it, what may we expect?
1. That God will “renew our strength.” For every new occasion, every
new trial, every new labour, we shall get new power. If we have failed, or have
been foiled, God will put us on our feet again. I have often gone to Saratoga,
in the heat of the early summer, quite run down, and my vitality burned out as
coal gets exhausted in the bunkers of a steamer. Then I repaired to one of the
tonic springs and “waited” on its bubbling waters, trusting them and taking
them into my system. Presently a new appetite for food was awakened, and a new
life crept into my ten fingers; walking became a delight, and preaching as easy
as for a lark to sing. All this renewal of vitality was the result of waiting
on one of those wonderful healthfountains. I brought but little there. I took a
great deal away. Just such a well of spiritual force is the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the men and women of power are men and women of prayer. “Waiting on the
Lord” by prayer has the same effect on them that it has on an empty bucket to
set it under a rain-spout. They get filled. When I have heard C. H. Spurgeon
pray I have not been so astonished at some of his discourses.
2. Waiting on God not only gives strength, it gives inspiration.
“They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” God means that every soul which
waits on Him shall not creep in the muck and the mire, nor crouch in abject
slavery to men or devils. When a soul has its inner life hid with Christ and
lives a life of true consecration it is enabled to take wing, and its
“citizenship is in heaven.” He gains wide outlooks; he breathes a clear and
crystalline atmosphere. He outflies many of the petty vexations and grovelling
desires that drag a worldling down into the mire. What cares the eagle, as he
bathes his wings in the translucent gold of the upper sky, for all the turmoil,
the dust, or even the murky clouds that drift far beneath him? He flies in
company with the sun. So a heaven-bound soul flies in company with God. (T.
L. Cuyler, D. D.)
Waiting on the Lord
I. One of the
oldest and best tried rules of religion is THE SACRED DUTY OF COMMUNION WITH
GOD. The expression “wait upon” is a most felicitous one, because while it
includes prayer it means and covers so much more.
1. To wait on the Lord is the drawing nigh unto Him, to pour out our
wants before Him, though He knows them so well, to plead the necessities
arising out of our own ignorance, waywardness, and poverty of soul, to ask for
His light to shine in our darkness, to clear our minds of the mists and fogs of
native prejudice and of traditional error, to make plain before us our path of
duty, and to keep our feet steadfast therein, to take into His loving hands the
discipline and correction of our hearts, and to make us willing to undergo it,
to keep us from all vanity and lies, and from every form of subtle
self-deception, so that we may ever be true to Him and to ourselves. But
waiting on the Lord implies much more than this. Although we have a perfect
right to go to God and pour out every wish and longing of our hearts, worthy
and unworthy alike, yet this is not by any means the whole or the highest part
of communion with Him. Poor and barren and diseased must that heart be which
has no song of praise to sing, no gratitude to pour forth for past deliverances
and for present mercies, which has no emotion of adoring love for a goodness so
infinite and untiring. To make our religion a delight and a glory we must
surely wait on the Lord with songs of gladness and joy, praising Him more for
what He is, and for what He has taught us to know and believe Him to be, than
for the good gifts which His bounty hath bestowed.
2. Yet, further, there is a waiting on the Lord which is neither
prayer nor praise, but silent and serene contemplation, when the mind muses
upon His wondrous works and ponders over the stupendous fact that the infinite
and eternal God can and will and does come near to the soul of His finite and
imperfect creature man, and permits the ineffable solace and privilege of communion
with Himself.
3. But all forms of waiting on the Lord involve the personal,
conscious, voluntary act of the mind or soul within us, for which no mere
ceremony or ritual can be a substitute. All outward observances, whether
private or public, have no meaning, and can have no avail without that
conscious voluntary movement of the soul towards God. If public worship helps
you to this direct personal communion with God, I need not say you are bound to
attend it; you are sure to do so of your own free will without any pressure.
Experience has proved that, to a great many souls, public worship is the
greatest help they ever get, that it gives wings to their holiest prayers and
brightness to their gladdest songs of praise, and that it does bring them
nearer to God than any other external agency that they know of. But this is not
true of all. And I am bound to say that those who find the least pleasure and
the least benefit from public worship are those who do not wait on the Lord in
private. They do not know by experience the blessings of communion, and
therefore these outward aids in public worship are of little use to them. It is
like a banquet spread before one who has no appetite or whose habitual food is
altogether different, or like a rich and perfect performance of music to one
who is altogether destitute of any musical sense.
II. I turn now to
dwell on THE NATURAL EFFECTS OF WAITING ON THE LORD, as stated by the prophet,
and vouched for by myriads of the faithful and devout in all ages.
1. “They shall renew their strength.” This is what we all need in
this weary world, whose toils and cares and temptations perpetually remind us
of our weakness and the need of invigorating grace. We renew our strength in
the battle with our besetting sin, in the conquest of fierce passions and
unruly tempers, and in the maintenance and steadfastness of high resolve. We
renew our strength to meet misfortunes and to carry our load of grief or
bereavement, to keep a cheerful heart under the depression of disease, and when
chilled by the cold shadow of death. And we renew our strength for all
enterprise which makes demand on our courage and truthfulness.
2. This leads us to notice the three degrees of moral and spiritual
activity presented to us in the figurative language of the prophet:. “They
shall mount up on wings as eagles: they shall run and not be weary, they shall
walk and not faint.
Running and walking
Any racehorse will start at full speed; but how few have staying
power! The tyro in cycling will go at full pelt; but only the experienced rider
can walk or stand. To pursue the common track of daily duty--not faltering nor
growing weary--to do so when novelty has worn off, when the elasticity of youth
has vanished, when the applause of the crowd has become dim and faint--this is
the greatest achievement of the Christian life. For this, earthly and human
strength will not avail. But God is all-sufficient. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
God’s grace sufficient for all life’s stages
The spiritual teaching of this verse is, that for all the stages
and moods of our life-pilgrimage Heaven’s grace is available and sufficient. (J.
Halsey.)
They shall mount up with
wings as eagles--
God’s eagles
I. The eagle is
built for FLIGHT.
1. His structure marvellously combines strength, lightness, and
muscular power. The anatomy of the bird shows feathers, bones, muscles, and
sinews to be designed by the Creator for the purpose of flying; and a master
specimen of perfect adaptation e.g., the cylindrical structure of bones
and feathers makes each virtually a balloon, so that when the wings are spread
for flight, the tendency is upward instead of downward, and no effort is needed
to support the body upon the air, which rather buoys it up.
2. Built for high flights, capable of mounting above all other birds,
no other being capable of rising to such elevations, or being so at home in the
upper atmosphere. In fact, as the air becomes more ratified, the bird seems to
soar with greater ease and rapidity, and finds it the more natural to ascend.
3. Built for sustained and tireless flights, maintaining himself
without exhaustion for any length of time, and resting on the wing. Those who
have watched the eagle’s flight have observed that there is no apparent effort;
he rather finds in it rest and recreation than a struggle to maintain himself.
4. Built for fearless flight. The eagle soars above the abyss without
even a trace of timidity, a stranger to all fear. What to us is danger, is to
him delight, challenging and provoking his flight.
II. The eagle is
built for REPOSE. No bird can be so still and motionless when he rests. When
the eagle perches on the crag, and grasps it with his talons, the more he
settles down, the firmer and more immovable his clutch. The anatomy of his legs
exhibits the adaptation of his whole structure to the purposes of perching. The
weight of the body, resting upon the lower portion of the legs, increases the
tenacity of the hold upon whatever is chosen as a resting-place. His sleep,
therefore, is secure, for h,.’s grasp can only relax as he rises upon his feet
and so releases all the sinews by which his talons grip the rock. He goes to
sleep, therefore, without a doubt that he will find himself there in the
morning.
III. The eagle is
built for the STORM. He perceives it afar off and is not afraid. This king of
birds detects the approach of the storm-cloud, not only with eyes and ears, but
with mysterious senses to which we are strangers; and, when as yet there is no
appearance of the coming tempest above the horizon, he scents its approach,
lifts up his majestic head, looks toward the coming storm, and prepares himself
for a gigantic grapple with the forces of nature. He welcomes tempests before
which wild beasts flee to their dens in terror. He preens his feathers, shakes
himself as tornado and tempest approach, actually takes the very front and
leads the storm, outflying it at its most rapid pace, rejoicing in its
violence, and, when he will, rising far above it into the clear heights of
cloudless day, whence he looks down upon it.
IV. The eagle LIVES
A SOLITARY LIFE. There is no bird so alone. Other birds go in flocks; the
eagle, never; if two are seen together, they are mates. Its majesty consists
partly in its solitariness. It lives apart because other birds cannot live
where and as it lives, and follow where it leads.
V. The eagle is
TRAINED BY DISCIPLINE. The parent bird trains the young to fly; and, if need
be, the mother pushes the young bird off the edge of the cliff, and lets it
fall over into the abyss, and tumble screaming and screeching, apparently
doomed to be dashed in pieces; but the mother bird watching, drops like a
plummet, with incredible rapidity, beneath the young bird, and receives it on
her broad maternal wings and bears it up to the heights only to let it drop again;
until, by and by, the fledgling is prepared, as the mother bird swoops down to
arrest its fall, to take the wing and follow the parent on her majestic flight.
VI. The healthy
eagle IMPARTS STRENGTH. A sick eagle, whose vitality had been reduced by long
confinement, was set loose and placed on the heather, but only drooped and
seemed ready to die. Then another eagle, that from the heights saw the feeble
bird, swept down and touched and fanned it with his great wings. This was
repeated until the sick bird, gradually feeling the inspiration of the other’s
vitality, preened itself, expanded its wings, and ultimately followed in the
upward flight. We seldom get an upward look, aspiration, or ascent, unless
someone from the heights sweeps down add touches us.
VII. The eagle, thus
built for the heights, is NOT CONTENT TO DWELL ON EARTH. (W. P. Ray.)
Life with wings
Waiting is not so much a transient action as a permanent attitude.
It is not the restless vagrant calling at the door for relief, it is rather the
intimacy of the babe at the breast. They who thus wait upon the Lord shall
obtain a marvellous addition to their resources. They shall obtain wings. We do
well in picturing the angel presences to endow them with wings. At the best it
is a clumsy symbolism. What do we mean by wings? We mean that life has gained
new powers, extra ordinary capacity; the old self has received heavenly
addition, endowing it with nimbleness, buoyancy, strength. What are some of the
characteristics of life with wings?
1. It is life characterised by buoyancy. We become endowed with power
to rise above things! How often we give the counsel one to another, “You should
rise above it!” If, when we give the counsel, we could give the wings, the
things that bind to the low plains of life might be left behind. How frequently
we are held in bondage by grovelling to the mean and trifling. Some small
grievance enters into our life and keeps us from the heights. Some
disappointment holds us in depressing servitude. Some ingratitude paralyses our
service and chills our delight in unselfish toil. Or some discourtesy is done
to us, we cannot get away from it. Or, perhaps, it is “the murmur of
self-will,” or “the storm of passion” which prevents our emancipation. When we
get the wings we have the power to rise above these trifles, and even above the
things that may be larger than trifles and may appear like gigantic hills. The
life with wing-power is not the victim of “the spirit of heaviness.”
2. Life with wing-power is characterised by loftiness. “Mount up!” We
speak of a “lofty character” as opposed to one who is low or mean. There is no
feature that the Bible loves more to proclaim than this “aboveness.” “Seek the
things that are above”; “Set your mind on things above.” It speaks also of
dwelling” with Christ in the heavenly places.”
3. The wing-life is characterised by comprehensiveness. High soaring
gives wide seeing. Loftiness gives comprehension. One man offers his opinion on
some weighty matter and he is answered by the charge, “That is very low ground
to take.” “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others.” It is well when we get so high that our vision comprehends
our town, better still when it includes the country, better still when it
encircles other countries, best of all when it engirdles the world. It is well
when we are interested in home missions; better still when home and foreign
work are comprehended in our view. “Lord, we saw one casting out devils in Thy
name and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us.” How narrow the
outlook! One day the vision of the disciples will be immeasurably enlarged.
4. The wing-life is characterised by proportion. To see things aright
we must get away from them. We never see a thing truly until we see it in its
relationships. We must see a moment in relation to a week, a week in relation
to a year, a year in relation to eternity. Wing-power gives us the gift of
soaring, and we see how things are related one to another. An affliction looked
at from the lowlands may be stupendous; looked at from the heights it may
appear little or nothing. “This light affliction which is but for a moment
worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” What a
breadth of view! (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
The happy effects of waiting upon God
They that wait upon the Lord mount up.
I. WITH THE VIGOUR
OF EAGLES. In all true Christians there must be a considerable attention to
heavenly things. They are all exhorted to “set their affections on things which
are above, and not on things, which are on the earth.” Therefore, they cannot
be true believers whose minds are not under the influence of spiritual and
heavenly objects. But, among true Christians there is a great difference. Some
have their minds much more in heaven than others. This difference arises from
their difference in waiting upon God. Waiting upon God their faith becomes
strong and lively; their love pure and fervent; their hope joyful and blessed.
These graces, like the wings of an eagle, lift their souls above worldly
things. Their flight is sustained so long as these wings of the renewed soul
continue unwearied; and when, like all things belonging to the human soul, they
wax feeble, their strength is renewed by waiting upon God. They who do not wait
upon God are weighed down to the earth, and find the concerns of this world,
like the fogs and mists of a darkened atmosphere, clouding their prospects and
obstructing their progress.
II. WITH THE EASE
OF THE EAGLE. There is not only a strength of character, but a simplicity, an
ease belonging to them who wait upon God with diligence and constancy to which
others who are deficient in this duty can never attain. Now religion is eminent
and exalted in proportion as it is easy and unconstrained.
III. WITH THE
ELEVATION OF EAGLES. With what majesty does the eagle soar through the heavens
and pursue his lofty course, unmoved by those little persecutions of the
feathered race which equally bespeak their fear, and their conscious
inferiority! Here you behold a fit emblem of the man who, by waiting upon God,
mounts up with wings; and, nobly disregarding the censures of the world, which
originate in a consciousness of its own inferior excellence, and in a hatred of
those qualities it can never reach, pursues his heavenly flight without one
retaliating stroke, without one malignant feeling. And see how, even in his
sublimest course, his eagle eye surveys with interest the concerns of this
lower world. By waiting upon God he is enabled to unite the benevolence, the
magnanimity, and the heavenliness of the saint, with the sobriety, the wisdom,
and the activity of the citizen of the world. (M. Jackson.)
Mounting as on eagle’s wings
This is the disposition of good Christians to be heavenly in their
meditations and desires. This they are upon these grounds--
1. Out of respect to Christ who is their Head, and is in heaven
already Colossians 3:1).
2. The new nature which is in Christians inclines them hereunto likewise.
What makes fire to go upward? It has a principle in it which does so dispose
it. Everything acts suitably to its principles, and so it is here. Believers
are born from above, and therefore it is that they are carried up thither.
3. The end they are ordained to. They are “begotten to a lively
hope,” and to a “heavenly inheritance.” Now where should the minds of great
heirs be but where their estates lie? (1 Peter 1:3-4.) (T. Horton, D. D.)
Wings
1. The real marrow of life is in its higher experiences. We manage to
endure a great deal that is disagreeable and depressing, if now and then come
seasons of spiritual uplifting, moments of soul glow and sunrise. “They shall
mount up on wings as eagles.” This is our privilege. The soul is free. It has
wings in the joy of pure emotion, in the upspringing might of faith, in the
ardour of heavenly aspiration, in the swift flight of love, in the liberty of
exultant hope.
2. With some these wings are often folded. They droop often through
sheer weariness. They trail frequently in the dust. Making ample allowance for
differences in temperament and scope of thought in individuals, the devout
nature is not ignorant of blessed experiences that impel the soul
onward--sympathies, insights, ardours--refreshing and enriching to the hidden
life.
3. A few hints will awaken precious memories. You remember how the
spring odours of the tender-leaved woods seized your finer sense as you came
forth from the place of prayer, and wafted your thought to the trees of
Paradise. More than once, in the solitude and by the sea, amid the noon’s
delicious peacefulness, and when the fresh winds blew health and music out of
the west, over leagues of prairie, starred with unnumbered flowers, your heart
overran with sacred emotion, and expanded to embrace the beautiful repose!
Wings were yours. Then, too, after a season of spiritual depression, where you
had gone mournfully with a sense of barrenness and burden, the painful spell
was finally broken, and you seemed set in “a large place.” Your soul bounded
outward into blessed light. Great freedom was yours, and you wondered why such
doubt could have fettered the faith that now exults in the joyful confidence of
a son beloved. You remember how, before now, you have come into the church
heavy, gloomy, discouraged, an evil world shadowing your hope, and life looking
sepulchral and poor amid earth’s losses and changes and delusions, and how hymn
and psalm and confession and prayer have little by little stolen away your
unrest, and then how the Word of grace uttered from the depths of a prophetic
soul flowed with healing, and light, and comfort, to your heart, and how, on
the wings of its benediction, you rose up stronger and clearer visioned, and
went forth as on the landscape of a better world.
But it is in the closet, if you live nobly, that your strength is
most graciously renewed.
4. We give grudgingly, we labour in heaviness, we minister painfully,
we worship coldly, we live meanly, until the higher life is begotten within
us--until the soul gets a glow, and an earnestness, and a breadth of sympathy,
and an impulse of high and pure aspirations that make it a joy to do good. Love
is always winged. If you would conquer your besetments, rise to a more gracious
benevolence, enjoy a livelier consciousness of eternal things, and have your
Christian duties delightful; get the ardent, unselfish, consecrated heart of
love, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Inspirer and Comforter. (H.
N. Powers.)
As eagles
I. THE
ILLUSTRATION.
1. Eagles’ wings are connected with strength. God spoke by Moses to
the children of Israel on this wise--“Ye have seen what I did unto the
Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself.”
Here God’s almighty power, displayed in the deliverance from Egypt, and with
all the varied privileges of Israel, is compared to the strength of eagles’
wings. In Deuteronomy 32:11, it is said, “As an
eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her
wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him.”
Here the eagle’s wings are brought before us in connection with the support of
the young, but at the same time with the purpose which the parent bird has in
disturbing her nest and her young, namely, to teach them to provide and to fly.
All this is more than verified in the experience of those who wait upon the
Lord. They are strong, and their strength is continually being renewed--which
no circumstances can exhaust, and which in no emergency will be allowed to fail
them. Wherein does the strength of the believer rest, then? The apostle John
describes this strength when he says, “I have written unto you, young men,
because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you; and ye have overcome
the wicked one.” In other words, the strength of the believer is manifested in
opposition to moral and spiritual evil--in opposition to all that is erroneous
and contrary to the will and mind of God. Error is very attractive to some
minds, but he who waits upon the Lord obtains that spiritual vigour of mind
which enables him to throw off the poisonous influence of error, and to abide
in the truth. True manliness consists in refusing to do what is wrong, whoever
be the tempter, or whatever inducements there be to give way to the temptation.
True Christian manliness fears God, and fears no one besides. The promise of
the text, then, is that such true energy of mind shall belong to those who wait
upon the Lord. It is strength which St. Paul describes as connected with the
power of God’s might. It is strength which is manifested oftentimes in
connection with human weakness, and with the changes that are incident to our
human and worldly condition. Observe the expression, “shall renew their
strength”; for the eagle, although noted for its strength, is not always
strong. There is a season when it loses the feathers of its wings, and sits
solitary, drooping, and sad, unable to seize upon its prey, and no longer the
terror of the smaller birds; but it is noted that during that season, though
the eagle cannot rise to the sun as she was wont to do, she shows herself to
the sun, and basking in the sunshine, her feathers grow again, her strength
comes back, and she mounts up and meets the sun as of old. And what a striking
indication this is of the experiences of those who are “strong in the Lord, and
in the power of His might”! It is not strength which is liable to no
variableness. There are seasons of depression for those who are strong in the
Lord.
2. But the Bible speaks of the eagle, and of eagle’s wings, in
connection with swiftness. If you refer to Deuteronomy 28:49, you will find it said,
in reference to the judgment which the Lord would bring upon Israel if they
persevered in sin, “The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from
the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou
shalt not understand.” We may see the fulfilment of this by referring to the
Lamentations of Jeremiah (Lamentations 4:19). The eagle’s wings are
used for the swiftness with which they propel the eagle in his Right. The
believer, waiting upon God, is one whose experience is described in the sacred
song in this remarkable language--“Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like
the chariots of Ammi-nadib”--chariots noted for swiftness.
3. The eagle is noted for its peculiarity of flight. It is said that
it is furnished with two pairs of eyelids, and that the inner one is
transparent, and is drawn over the eye because its flight is always directly
towards the sun. Whereas other birds see other objects in the light of the sun,
it is the eagle’s peculiarity of flight that its eye seems to be fixed upon the
sun, and the eyelid of which I speak seems to be for the purpose of pro tecting
the eye from the scorching brilliancy of the sunlight. Now, in this respect
there is a similarity to the experience of those who wait upon the Lord. The
believer in Jesus Christ is one whose tendency is directly to the Sun of
Righteousness. And what a consolation it is, that in the humanity
of Jesus the believer finds protection from all that is awful in contemplation
of Deity!
4. The flight of the eagle is the flight of life. Think of the
contrast between the flight of an arrow and the flight of an eagle. The flight
of the arrow is only as high as it is propelled by the impulse that is given to
it from the bow; when that impulse ceases, down comes the arrow again. It is
not the flight of life, but of impulse. The flight of the arrow may be likened
to those impulses for good which some who profess and call themselves
Christians have.
II. WHO ARE THEY
THAT WAIT UPON THE LORD? And when is it that they are experiencing this blessed
promise? The eagle is flying highest when she sees the world the least. The
eagle rejoices in light. When she mounts up with her strongest wings it is in
the sunlight, contrasting this respect with the flight of the bird of night. It
is always a good sign, when we want the light thrown upon everything that we
have to do with--when we want to bring all our motives, and all our actions,
and all our plans into the light of God’s truth. On the other hand, “He that
doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds be
reproved.” (W. Cadman, M. A.)
The wings of surrender and trust
We might name our wings the wings of surrender and trust. If we
will only surrender ourselves utterly to the Lord, and will trust Him
perfectly, we shall find our souls “mounting up with wings as eagles” to the
heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, where earthly annoyances or sorrows have no
power to disturb us. (Mrs. Pearsall Smith.)
Crawling and soaring
The caterpillar, as it creeps along the ground, must have a widely
different, view of the world around it, from that which the same caterpillar
will have when its wings are developed, and it soars in the air above the very
places where once it crawled. And similarly the crawling soul must necessarily
see things in a very different aspect from the soul that has “mounted up with
wings.” (Mrs. Pearsall Smith.)
Overcoming
This is what the soul on wings does. It overcomes the world
through faith. To overcome means to “come over,” not to be crushed under; and
the soul on wings flies over this world and the things of it. (Mrs. Pearsall
Smith.)
Spiritual difficulties
A friend once illustrated to me the difference between three of
her friends in the following way. She said, if they should all three come to a
spiritual mountain which had to be crossed, the first one would tunnel through
it with hard and wearisome labour; the second would meander around it in an
indefinite fashion, hardly knowing where she was going, and yet because her aim
was right, getting around it at last; but the third, she said would just flap
her wings and fly right over. (Mrs. Pearsall Smith.)
Wings must be used
Not the largest wings ever known can lift a bird one inch upward
unless they are used. (Mrs. Pearsall Smith.)
Weights holding the soul to earth
As well might an eagle try to fly with a hundred-ton weight tied
fast to its feet, as the soul try to “mount up with wings” while a weight of
earthly cares and anxieties is holding it down to earth. (Mrs. Pearsall
Smith.)
“With wings as eagles”
Once when I was in Switzerland I saw an eagle, a splendid bird,
but it was chained to a rock. It had some twenty or thirty feet of chain
attached to its legs, and to an iron bolt in the rock. There was the king of
birds, meant to soar into heaven, chained down to earth. That is the life of
multitudes of believers. Are you allowing business, are you allowing the cares
of the world, are you allowing the flesh to chain you down, so that you cannot
rise up?
1. You ask me, How can I get these eagle wings? I answer, How did the
eagle get its wings? By its birth. It was born a royal eagle; it had a royal
descent. And every child of God is born with eagle wings. God means you to live
a heavenly life.
2. How does God teach His eaglet children to use their wings? He
comes and stirs up their nest. Sometimes with a trying providence, with a
death, with sickness, with loss, with some tribulation, with temptation. Why?
Just as those eaglets, ready to sink, find the mother coming under them and
carrying them, so the everlasting arms are stretched out underneath the soul
that feels itself ready to perish, and God calls upon the soul to trust Him. As
the eaglet trusts the mother to carry it, God asks me to trust Him, that He
will bear me. And God longs to teach His children to mount on eagle wings. But
how can they do it? “They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as
eagles.” God often comes to the Christian worker and stirs up the nest, because
He sees the eagle wings are not being used.
3. What is the characteristic of the eagle wings? To be able to mount
up to heaven, the wings of the eagle must have greater strength than the wings
of any other bird. And God wants His children to be so strong that they can
live above the world. The great mark of the disciple of Christ that Christ
spoke of in His prayer to the Father was, “They are not of the world, as I am
not of the world.” They belong to heaven, their life and heart are there. This
idea of strength is the great idea of our text, and you have it in the words
that precede (Isaiah 40:28-31). You find that word
“faint” four times in the passage. First, it is God “fainteth not”; and then it
is, He giveth power to the “faint”; and then it is, the young men shall
“faint.” All human strength shall faint--the very strongest shall faint and be
of no avail. Then, “They shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and
not ‘faint.’” (Andrew Murray.)
The glory of the common life
This movement from the wing of the eagle to the foot of man is no
descending path, no record of decaying spiritual vigour, but rather the
ascending line of life.
1. Religion is not some highly wrought emotional experience--rare,
ecstatic, lifting us into the seventh heaven; but an accession of permanent
spiritual power to enable us to do the work of our everyday life and grow in
the grace of a normal Christian character. In the common experience of man all
true religion begins on the soaring wing of some strong emotion, some wave of
feeling that comes over the heart for mercies received. It was as Moses when
God met him in the desert of Horeb and showed him the burning bush, a rare
sight, a moment of vision of heavenly things from which all future experiences
were to be dated. The common lot of man falls upon the believer; the moment of
thrill and ecstasy passes away. Moses has to go down to Egypt among the
politicians and do the hard work and drudgery of life. Is, then, the ecstasy a
waste of force? Moses, as he turned to the worrying work of rounding up the
Israelites for the long journey over seas and across the desert, may frequently
have thought that God s service had not procured for him either the ease or the
honour that the ecstatic experiences of the burning bush had promised. But when
we look back on the life and work of the great statesman we can see that the
burning bush was but an ancillary incident in a great moral career; and that
the patient, daily labour, the unflinching loyalty to duty, which for forty
years had to be pursued in all weathers and in all moods, are the facts that
loom large like mountain peaks in this great life. It was to warm his heart and
inspire his spirit for those days of toil and nights devoid of ease that the
vision was given. It was precisely the same truth that we find illustrated in
the religious experience of the apostle Paul. His spiritual life began with a
celestial vision; and in its upward development he came, not to more and
clearer visions, but to the perception of a sanctity and nobility which lay in
the common work of life. The Christian man as father and priest in his own
household hallows his home by the benediction of his morning prayers. You do
not regard your morning prayer as false and futile because during the day you
cannot live up to all your own high ideals. The aspiration to be better is
itself the accession of power to do better. This truth, so full of the poetry
of passion and the deepest philosophy of life, is brought to us with wonderful
force and tenderness in Hogg’s “Skylark.” The wild abandon of feeling that
carried the songster so far into the sky was not frenzy nor foolishness because
he had to come back and gather worms for the nestlings. On the contrary, there
had been no nestlings but for the emotion that produced that song. And the song
of rapture found its crowning glory in the lowly service of the obscure nest.
2. The intellectual man is in danger of disparaging the emotions and
of setting aside the mysticism and ecstasy of the soul as mere fancies and
dreams. But the emotional man is in still greater danger of regarding them as
the only kind of religious experiences worth seeking after, the only evidence
of true religion in the heart, and certainly the glory of the Christian life.
In a word, the emotional man regards the glory and crown of life to be the
rapture and ecstasy of the love and faith, and not the works and character
which these feelings should produce. He mistakes the means for the end. In the
effort to correct this mistake we must go the length of saying that love to and
trust in Christ are not religion at all; just as seeds are not trees. They
become religion only as they are transmuted into Christian character in the
daily work and warfare of the common life. It is of vital importance that
people should understand the laws of life in regard to the relation of emotions
to acts. Pleasure is not an end, but the servant of higher and nobler ways of
living. Nature provides that eating and drinking shall be a pleasure to man;
but what is the man called who cares merely for the pleasure of eating; who
lives to gratify his appetites and never does an honest day’s work for the food
he consumes? No deeper stain, no more deadly practice can come into our life
than the pursuit of pleasure for its own sake. The moment you love the
excitement more than the work, so that you come soon to steal the excitement
and shirk the work, nature revenges herself on you by making all such work as
you are forced to do a drudgery instead of a pleasure. I have heard
hard-working wives and mothers say, “I have lost my religion! I have so many
little children to care for, so many duties in the home that I cannot get to
church.” Is not this mother’s care and self-sacrifice for her children her
religion? What did she love and trust Christ for? That she might gad about at
religious meetings, or that she might bring up her little ones m the fear of
God? She and her child, with the sense of the presence of the
Father-God, make that nursery the holiest of shrines. If a youth should learn
mathematics and mensuration in school for the purpose of making him a surveyor,
and then be sent out into the prairies or the Rocky Mountains for six months to
apply his theoretical knowledge to the practical work of his profession, you
would pronounce him crazy if, when he came back with a successful survey of the
region, he should say, “Yes, that is good work, but I have lost my mathematics;
I was not in a school all those six months.” The mathematics were a means to an
end. If faith and love to God are spiritual things, then their glory lies just
in this--that they are not dependent outlines and places, on churches, on moods
or sentiments. It is not the state of “feeling good” that makes a man a humble,
true Christian, but the act of doing good. Faith and prayer and the emotional
exaltation of the church service are only the raw material out of which religion
is made. Religion is life, and the deepest and grandest of all the realities of
life. Life is known and expressed only as we test and try the religious
emotions in all those various phases of business and social activity. The
eagle’s wing can carry me far, but it is in danger of leaving me remote, and so
out of touch with common men and common interests. I want to be able to walk
without weariness, to sympathise with plain people, to enter into the lowly
door of pity, to keep company with the plodding man on the highway, and the
toilers in the field. (D. Beaton, D. D.)
The ecstasies and commonplaces of love
Nature makes no mistakes in the manner in which it moves its
creatures in those elemental feelings which have the perpetuation of life as
their object. She is far-sighted, she has purposes in view. The lover is to
become a husband; the husband is a protector and provider: the duties incident
to that lot are prosaic and often dull. In a word, the common lot is soon to
fall upon those two souls now transported into the seventh heaven by the
ecstasies of love. They will have to discuss ways and means of domestic
economy. Salaries and savings, the price of meat and babies’ clothes, not to
speak of new gowns for this paragon of beauty herself, will all be serious
questions that cannot be effectually settled without a good deal of the
tenderness that still warms their hearts from the old ecstasy. (D. Beaton,
D. D.)
The Christian’s air-ship
I. NOTE CERTAIN
FACTS OF AERIAL FLIGHT to illustrate some experience of a soul elevated to
fellowship with God.
1. As with the aeronaut so with the Christian, the higher he rises
from earth the smaller the world appears. Afflictions seem “light” and “but for
a moment.” Honour, wealth, and all material things seem mere earth toys.
2. As with the air navigator, so with the Christian rising from the
earth, impurities and discord are left below. The soul that waits upon God and
rises to the high privileges tendered by the grace of God, rises above the
nauseating vices and conquering swarms of poisonous temptations, and the
annoying, stinging adversities incident to sinful human life.
3. As with the sailor of the air in his realm, so with the Christian
in his, each gets a better, broader view and a truer perspective as he rises.
To the aeronaut the horizon is widened. True experimental religion is
exceedingly broad, sane, and tolerant. It holds truest ideas as well as
loftiest ideals. Not he who comes close and stays close to some little wall of
prejudice, some river of personal preference, some mountain of hereditary
impulse, or some self-constructed village of creeds, but he who on wings of
faith rises to higher altitudes for observation and sees all and each in its
relation to all others--such hold opinions most in accord with truth.
4. As with the navigator of the air in his realm, so with the
Christian in the spiritual realm, each is inspired with healthful vigour as he
rises, the one on the wings of the wind and the other on the wings of an
intelligent, rational faith and the exercise of his soul in prayer. Dr. Naiger,
at a meeting of the Academy of Medicine in France, tells us that ascension into
the air acts as a powerful tonic; that the red corpuscles of blood are
multiplied in a remarkable degree and with astonishing rapidity; further, that
the recuperated condition remains for some time after the navigator returns to
the ground. He gives it as his professional opinion that five brief air-ship
trips are of more value to a consumptive than would be a summer in the
mountains. As Christians, we cannot get permanently away from the world of sin
any more than the air navigator can get permanently away from terra firma. We
go like the disciples of old with Jesus to the Mount of Transfiguration, to our
public and private devotions, to gather strength for the duties that will
appear in the valley.
II. NOTE SOME OF
THE PRINCIPLES UPON WHICH SUCCESSFUL AERIAL NAVIGATION DEPENDS, as typical of
the principles of true spiritual life.
1. One principle which has been quite lately discovered, and which is
held by at least one school of aerial scientists, is that the elevating power
and the propelling power must be from the same source, and all are agreed that
they must be in harmony, and so arranged that they will in no way conflict. The
balloon idea as an elevating power is constantly lifting straight upward, while
a propelling power of some kind of enginery drawing horizontally is constantly
in conflict with the elevating power. Prof. Thomas May, in The Aeronautical
Journal, declares that before there can be successful navigation of the
air, the propelling power and the elevating power must be in exact harmony, if
not produced by the same appliance Some very successful experiments have been
made with “gliding-machines,” the balloon idea having been abandoned in these
appliances. And with this principle the Wright brothers have been enabled to
move their machines near the earth or far away as they choose, sometimes
gliding only a few inches from the surface. For the Christian to make progress
in his spiritual flight, whether near to or far from the earth, this principle
must be rigidly enforced and carefully observed. God’s Spirit is the elevating
power. Our own wills and purposes constitute the propelling power of the soul.
These must be in harmony with the will of God, be submerged into His will, so
that the elevating power and the propelling power are one in every essential,
though some way God needs the modifying elements of our own consecrated
purposes. For while “we can do nothing without Him,” it is equally true that in
practical, spiritual grace He has so arranged His plans that He does nothing
without us.
2. Note one more principle of aerodynamics, which is called the
Langley law because it was discovered and applied by Prof. S.P. Langley,
secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and the inventor of an air-ship device
known as Langley’s aeridrome. The law is that as the speed of a flying-machine
increases, the power necessary to propel it decreases in definite proportions.
Theoretically, this is true indefinitely; but, practically, only to a certain
limit. Just why, when the working hypothesis is tried, the experiment fits the
theory only to a certain limit, has not yet been fully explained; but the
theory has been demonstrated so that it is worthy of a place among scientific
principles. The law certainly prevails within the limit of natural and acquired
ability, and modified by opportunity, in the human soul in its operations in
the spiritual realm. The more decidedly and persistently, determinedly and
vigorously, the Christian prosecutes his spiritual movements, the easier it
becomes for him to do so, and he finds by practical experiment that as he
advances he is able to accomplish more and more with less and less of
propelling power. More and more he speeds along with less of emotional feeling
and persistent determination. (F. W.Luce, D. D.)
The eagle’s strength
The swiftness of its flight shows its strength. The eagle is often
known to fly at the rate of between forty and fifty miles an hour. Then, the
great height to which it flies shows its strength. Then, in the food which it
carries to its nest for its young ones to eat, we see the strength of the
eagle. It carries geese, and turkeys, and kids, and lambs, and even little
children for its young ones to feed on. In one of the cantons of Switzerland,
two little girls were playing together in a meadow; one of them was about three
years old, and the other five. While they were busy in their play, an eagle
came and swooped down upon them. He seized hold of the elder child, and carried
her away to his nest, which was about the distance of a mile and a half from
where he found the child. And there the remains of the poor child were found by
a hunter some time afterwards. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Living above the world
Observatories used to be erected in the heart of cities, but it
was found that these were the worst places for them. The atmosphere is
obscured, the instruments do not act properly, and now they are built thousands
of feet above the sea. We must rise into God’s own climate if we would see
things in God’s own light, and correct our consciences by the eternal. Just as
man lives on a high level he is safe from moral contamination and hurt. I have
read that when the eagle flies in the depth of blue the bullet of the sportsman
merely brushes his feathers. Its force is all spent before it reaches him. The
eagle shakes it disdainfully from his wings, and soars away into the heavenly
places. Travellers tell us that in the Australian forests it is almost
impossible to bring down a cockatoo, because the bird seeks refuge in the
highest branches of the gigantic trees. It is no use fighting temptation on a
low level. Fly high, and its bullets will be spent before they reach you. (W.
L. Watkinson.)
They shall run, and not be
weary
The unwearied runner
I. THE RUNNING.
There are different paces among the Lord’s servants: Ahimaaz is swifter than
Cushi, and John outruns Peter, but he who by faith has truly entered upon the
road to heaven, though his march be slow and limping, shall nevertheless
ultimately reach his journey’s end. Scores of timid believers creep towards
heaven as the snail crept into the ark. However, there is no reason why you
should imitate these slowly moving pilgrims; if Mephibosheth be lame in both
his feet, it is not desirable that you should imitate his limp.
1. Running is the pace of energy. Be it yours and mine to outstrip
the energy of this world, and so to run in our Master’s ways as to prove that
the servants of Christ can render Him more loyal and devoted service than
princes win from their favourites and flatterers.
2. Running is a pace which indicates fulness of alacrity. Mark often
uses about our Lord the words “straightway” and “immediately.” Mark’s is the
Gospel descriptive of Christ as a servant, and it is one of the attributes of a
good servant that he is prompt at once to do his lord’s bidding.
3. To run is to be diligent.
4. Running indicates thorough-going hearty zeal.
II. I shall COMMEND
THE RUNNING.
1. Running is most commendable, because it is a warming pace.
2. Running is a pace that clears the ground.
3. It is a cheering pace.
4. It is the winning pace.
5. It is a fitting pace for a believer.
III. THE RUNNER’S
GIRDLE. “They that wait upon the Lord shall run, and not be weary.” What is it
to “wait upon the Lord”? Singleness of eye in serving God, simplicity of
dependence upon the Divine power, and constant expectation that the power will
be given.
IV. THE RUNNER’S
STAFF. The runner’s consolation lies in this promise, that “he shall not be
weary.” How is it that running Christians do not become weary?
1. Because they have daily strength given them for all their daily
needs.
2. As the Christian advances he finds fresh matter to interest him.
3. Above all, there is one fact that keeps the Christian from
weariness, namely, that he looks to the end, to the recompense of the reward. (C.
H.Spurgeon.)
They shall walk, and not
faint
They shall walk, and not faint
When [the prophet] says last, and most impressively, of his
people’s fortunes, that “they shall walk, and not faint,” he has, perhaps, just
those long centuries in view, when, instead of a nation of enthusiasts taking
humanity by storm, we see small bands of pioneers pushing their way from city
to city by the slow methods of ancient travel,--Damascus, Antioch, Tarsus,
Iconium, Ephesus, Thessalonica, Athens, Corinth, and Rome--everywhere that Paul
and the missionaries of the Cross found a pulpit and a congregation ready for
the Gospel; toiling from day to day at their own trades, serving the alien for
wages, here and there founding a synagogue, now and then completing a version
of their Scriptures, often times achieving martyrdom, but ever living a pure
and a testifying life in face of the heathen, with the passion of these
prophecies at their hearts. It was certainly for such centuries and such men
that the word was written, “they shall walk, and not faint.” (Prof. G. A.
Smith, D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》