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Isaiah Chapter
Forty-seven
Isaiah 47
Chapter Contents
God's judgments on Babylon. (1-6) Carelessness and
confidence shall not prevent the evil. (7-15)
Commentary on Isaiah 47:1-6
(Read Isaiah 47:1-6)
Babylon is represented under the emblem of a female in
deep distress. She was to be degraded and endure sufferings; and is represented
sitting on the ground, grinding at the handmill, the lowest and most laborious
service. God was righteous in his vengeance, and none should interpose. The
prophet exults in the Lord of hosts, as the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel.
God often permits wicked men to prevail against his people; but those who
cruelly oppress them will be punished.
Commentary on Isaiah 47:7-15
(Read Isaiah 47:7-15)
Let us beware of acting and speaking as Babylon did; of
trusting in tyranny and oppression; of boasting as to our abilities, relying on
ourselves, and ascribing success to our own prudence and wisdom; lest we
partake of her plagues. Those in the height of prosperity, are apt to fancy
themselves out of the reach of adversity. It is also common for sinners to
think they shall be safe, because they think to be secret in wicked ways. But
their security shall be their ruin. Let us draw from such passages as the
foregoing, those lessons of humility and trust in God which they convey. If we
believe the word of God, we may know how it will be with the righteous and the
wicked to all eternity. We may learn how to escape the wrath to come, to
glorify God, to have peace through life, hope in death, and everlasting
happiness. Let us then stand aloof from all delusions.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 47
Verse 1
[1] Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Down — From thy throne.
Virgin — So, called, because she was tender and delicate.
No throne — For thee. The empire is taken
from thee, and translated to the Persians.
Called — Be so.
Verse 2
[2] Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks,
make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
Millstones — Thou shalt be brought to the
basest slavery, which grinding at the mill was esteemed. For this work was not
performed by horses, as now it is, but by the labour of slaves and captives.
Grind — Grind bread-corn into meal for thy master's use.
Uncover — Take off the ornaments wherewith such women as were of
good quality, used to cover and dress their heads. These are predictions of
what they should be forced to do or suffer.
Thigh — Gird up thy garments close and short about thee, that
thou mayest be fit for travelling on foot, and for passing over those rivers,
through which thou wilt be constrained to wade, in the way to the land of thy
captivity.
Verse 3
[3] Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall
be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
Uncovered — Either for want of raiment to
cover it; or rather, by thine enemies in way of scorn and contumely.
As a man — With moderation and gentleness, as those men who have
not quite put off humanity use to do.
Verse 5
[5] Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter
of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
Silent — Thro' grief and shame, as mourners use to do.
The lady — The chief and glory of all kingdoms.
Verse 6
[6] I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine
inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy;
upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.
Polluted — I cast them away as an unclean thing.
Into thine hand — To punish them.
No mercy — Thou hast exceeded the bounds of thy commission.
The ancient — Who besides their common calamity
were afflicted with the miseries of old age, and therefore did require both
pity and reverence.
Verse 7
[7] And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that
thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter
end of it.
These things — Thy cruel usages of my people,
and the heavy judgments which thou hadst reason to expect for them.
Nor remember — Thou didst not consider what
might and was likely to befal thee afterward.
Verse 8
[8] Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to
pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none
else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of
children:
I am — Independent, and self-sufficient.
None — Which is not either subject to me, or far inferior to
me in power and glory.
Shall not sit — I shall never want either a king
or people to defend me.
Verse 9
[9] But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in
one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in
their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
abundance of thine enchantments.
Perfection — In the highest degree.
Verse 10
[10] For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said,
None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou
hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.
Trusted — Confidently expecting to preserve thyself by these and
other wicked arts.
None seeth — My counsels are so deeply laid.
Perverted — Hath misled thee into the way of
perdition.
None seeth — Which is repeated, to denote
their intolerable self-confidence.
Verse 11
[11] Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know
from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be
able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou
shalt not know.
Therefore — This agrees with the history.
Babylon being surprized by Cyrus, when they were in deep security.
Verse 12
[12] Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the
multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be
thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
Stand — Persist in these practices.
Laboured — From the beginning of thy kingdom. For the Chaldeans
in all ages were famous for the practice of these arts.
Verse 13
[13] Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let
now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and
save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
Wearied — Thou hast spent thy time and strength in going from
one to another, and all to no purpose.
Verse 15
[15] Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast
laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to
his quarter; none shall save thee.
Thus — Such comfortless and helpless creatures.
They — Merchants who came from several countries to trade
with Babylon. And the verse may be thus rendered; Thus (vain and unprofitable)
shall they (thy sorcerers) with whom thou hast laboured be unto thee: (So here
is only a transposition of words, than which nothing is more usual in scripture.
Then follows another matter:) also thy merchants, or they with whom thou hast
traded from thy youth, shall wander every one to his own quarter.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
47 Chapter 47
Verses 1-15
Verses 1-3
Come down, and sit in the dust
Dirge on the downfall of Babylon:
Babylon is pictured as a royal lady, dethroned, led in captivity
over the streams to a distant land, and there made the meanest slave behind the
millstones.
(A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Verse 3
Thy nakedness shall be uncovered
Mental and moral nakedness
Every person hath somewhat which may properly be called his
nakedness or shame, in a figurative sense--such as a weak judgment, imprudence,
inconsideration, injustice, cruelty, avarice, poverty, or contempt of religion.
Over that he studiously endeavours to throw a veil, that it may be preserved
from public observation. Now, when the covering is taken away by which any of
these things were concealed, then people’s nakedness or shame is laid open to
the inspection of those who possess penetration and discernment. (R.
Macculloch.)
A fearful meeting
I. “THY NAKEDNESS
SHALL BE UNCOVERED.” Man practises deceit. He imposes upon himself, and, as far
as possible, upon his fellows. He cloaks his sins, his motives, his evil ways.
He is not sincere in his professions, not open in his conduct, not honest in
his judgments. Sin itself is a monstrous deceit and lie. The author of sin is a
“liar.” And so with the children of the devil. There is nothing in them--in
their hearts, lives, characters--that will stand the light of the throne. The
truth will flash the sunlight into the chamber of the soul, and into every
transaction of life, and lay bare to the eye of God and the quest of the
universe the true real state and status of the moral man. Then “thy nakedness
shall be uncovered.” The awful sight of a rational and immortal soul, steeped
in guilt, lost to virtue and to God, and deceived to its eternal undoing, will
shock the very heavens.
II. “YEA, THY SHAME
SHALL BE SEEN.” The shame of wanton rebellion against the great God, our
Heavenly Father; the shame of sinning unto death against the Cross of the
loving and dying Christ; the shame of consummating a character of incorrigible
wickedness, and a doom more awful than that of sinning angels, under all the
light and influences of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. To look upon
such shame in the judgment day will shock and confound the sinner himself, and
fill all heaven with loathing and indignation.
III. “I WILL TAKE
VENGEANCE, AND I WILL NOT MEET THEE AS A MAN.” The vengeance of God! Who can
stand before it? The partial displays of it in this life, where wrath is
restrained and clemency bears rule, are fearful tokens of what is in store for
those who refuse offered mercy and exhaust God’s long-suffering goodness in the
world of retribution. It is awful to face an angry man whom we have grievously
wronged. It is more fearful still to confront a stern judge, who, as minister
of the law we have broken, makes inquisition upon us. But oh, to stand face to
face before the offended Majesty of heaven, now risen up to take “vengeance”
upon the despisers of His grace, is a thought that may well fill us with the
profoundest concern. (Homiletic Review.)
I will not meet thee as a
man
“I will not meet thee as a man”
The sense is very obscure. (Skinner.)
“I will run against no man,” namely, that I should need to give
way to him. (Stier.)
“I will not intervene as a man.” (Ruetschi.)
“I shall not meet a man, so depopulated will Babylon be.” (Hahn.)
“I shall encounter no one who can resist Me.” (Cheyne.)
It means to encounter, meet, hit upon one, not only in a hostile,
but also, as here and Isaiah 64:5, in a friendly sense; so I
will befriend no one, pardon no one. (Delitzsch.)
“Vengeance I take, and strike treaty with none.” (G. A. Smith.)
Possibly, “I will take vengeance, and will not spare, saith our
Redeemer.” (A. B.Davidson, D. D.)
Independently of these minuter questions, it is clear that the
whole clause is a laconic explanation of the figures which precede, and which
are summed up in the simple, but terrific notion of resistless and inexorable
vengeance. (J. A. Alexander.)
“I will not meet thee as a man”
“I will not meet thee as a man,” whose compassion may induce him
to show ill-judged forbearance and clemency, but thou shalt have judgment
without mercy, who hast showed no mercy: I will not meet thee with the justice
of a man, that may be perverted, but with that impartial equity which can
neither be corrupted nor evaded. I will not meet thee with the anger of a man,
which for certain reasons may be concealed or deferred, but with my fierce
wrath that shall inevitably consume thee. I will not meet thee with the
strength of a man, that may be opposed or vanquished, but clothed with
omnipotence that cannot be resisted, so that it shall appear that it is not the
vengeance of man, but of God. (R. Macculloch.)
God meeting sinners as a man
His threat is a threat of departure from His usual course. Thus,
the expression is resolvable into a statement, that there is a human character
about God’s dealings with men, and that it is an evidence of His not having
given them up to vengeance, that He continues to meet them “as a man.” Let us
consider the evidences which we have, that as a God of love, God meet us “as a
man.”
I. Let us begin
with those OPERATIONS OF THE HOLY GHOST, through which God may emphatically be
said to “meet” us, to come in contact with us. There is much of mystery around
these operations; we recognise them by their effects. Not only are these
operations hidden from others, but the very party himself, within whose breast
they are making themselves felt, can give little or no account whence they
come, or how they work. He resolves whatever he experiences into the
strugglings of his own mind, and the wrestlings of his own conscience. Would it
be for our advantage, that, in meeting us, God should meet us as a God, and not
“as a man”? We could not have borne that God should have spoken with us by
unearthly voices, and warned us by unearthly spectacles, and approached us
through unearthly avenues. Hence, the evidence that God has dealt lovingly with
us, when we observe the appointed method in which the Spirit operates it is,
that Divinity may be said to identify itself with humanity.
II. The mind turns
naturally to THE GREAT SCHEME OF REDEMPTION, and finds at once in that scheme
full material of demonstration. Does it not commend itself to us as an
arrangement beautifully indicative of the tenderness of God that the “great
High Priest of our profession,” who was essentially Divine,-was, at the same
time, “a man”? I the Divine nature had entered union with the angelic so that
God had met us, not “as a man,” but as a cherub or seraph, we should have had
no power, comparatively, of estimating what had been done on our behalf. We
have little or no knowledge of higher orders of being, and there could
consequently have been nothing which came home to the heart in the tidings of a
Mediator, who, though essentially God, had assumed, for our sake, the likeness
of one of those ranks. But when, in order to the meeting us in love in place of
vengeance, God has become man, we can judge, we can feel the stupendousness of
this humiliation.
III. WHEN CHRISTIANS
COME TO DIE, how are they accompanied through the dark valley and across the
dark waters? God still meets them “as a man.” “Thy rod and Thy staff” a
sheperd’s implements, a man’s implements--“they comfort me.”
IV. What shall we
say to THE JUDGMENT SEAT, occupied by One so terrible in His splendour that the
very earth and heavens flee away at His presence? This is the last great
display of the mercy of that appointment through which a man has been given as
a Mediator. How could an angel, with all his purity and his equity, make due
allowance for human infirmity, or place himself in our circumstances, so as to
decide with reference to our powers and opportunities, and thus throw into his
verdict that consideration for our trials and temptations, without which, if
there may be the strictness of justice, there can scarcely be the admixture of
mercy? But the Man who hath “borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” this is
the Being who is to gather all nations before Him, and determine the eternal
condition of each individual.
V. We may draw one
more striking illustration of the text from THE APPOINTED MEANS THROUGH WHICH
THE GOSPEL IS PROPAGATED. In the great work of gathering in the nations, and
shrining the religion of Christ in the households and hearts of the human
population, the Almighty makes not use of lofty angels, who have “kept their
first estate,” but of persons who are themselves in peril, themselves but
wrestlers for immortality. God, in the person of His ambassadors, might have
met us as an angel, and not “as a man.” You could not, as you listened to the
angel, or reflected on his preaching, put from you the feeling that he knew
nothing experimentally of your trials, nothing of your difficulties--that he
had no evil heart to struggle with, no mighty foes to withstand him in a course
of obedience; and very easy you would think it, for one pure as this exalted
creature to urge upon men the practice of righteousness, and to declaim with
lofty vehemence on the vanity and worthlessness of the best earthly pleasures;
very easy to recommend that to which he is prompted by his nature, and to
denounce that for which he has neither inclination nor capacity. And this
feeling would tell quickly and fatally on the moral hold which he might gain on
an audience; making them suspicious that he spake on a matter of which he was
no fair judge, and giving to the whole discourse the aspect of an airy
speculation. Therefore is it in love to you that God meets you “as a man.” (H.
Melvill, B. D.)
Verses 7-11
And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever
False security
I.
THE
CAUSE OF THEIR SECURITY. They did not lay this to heart (Isaiah 47:7), did not apply it to
themselves, and give it due consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in
ease and pleasure, and dreamed of nothing else but that “to-morrow shall be as
this day, and much more abundant.” They did not “remember the latter end of
it”--the latter end of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower and will
wither; the latter end of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness; that the
day will come when their injustice and oppression must be reckoned for and
punished.
II. THE GROUND OF
THEIR SECURITY. They trusted in their wickedness and in their wisdom (Isaiah 47:10).
1. Their power and wealth, which they had gotten by fraud and
oppression, was their confidence.
2. Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, was their
confidence.
III. THE EXPRESSIONS
OF THEIR SECURITY. Three things this haughty monarchy said in her security.
1. “I shall be a lady for ever.” She looked upon the patent of her
honour to be, not during the pleasure of the Sovereign Lord, the fountain of
honour, or during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual to the present
generation, and their heirs and successors for ever (Revelation 18:7).
2. “I shall not sit as a widow,” in solitude and sorrow; shall never
lose that power and wealth I am thus wedded to. The monarchy shall never want a
monarch to espouse and protect it, and to be a husband to the State; nor shall
I “know the loss of children.”
3. “None seeth me” when I do amiss, and therefore there shall be none
to call me to account. It is common for sinners to promise themselves impunity
because they promise themselves secrecy in their wicked ways.
IV. THE PUNISHMENT
OF THEIR SECURITY. It shall be their ruin.
1. A complete ruin; the ruin of all their comforts and confidences (Isaiah 47:9).
2. Sudden and surprising. The evil shall come in one day, nay in a
moment. “Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth,” and therefore shalt not
know where to stand upon thy guard. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and
knowledge, but with all her knowledge cannot possess, nor with all her wisdom
prevent, the ruin threatened.
3. Irresistible (Isaiah 47:11). (M. Henry.)
Earthly honour fleeting
Saints shall be saints for ever, but lords and ladies will not be
so for ever. (M. Henry.)
Afflictions in perfection
(Isaiah 47:9):--Afflictions to God’s
children are not afflictions in perfection; widowhood is not to them a calamity
in perfection, for they have this to comfort themselves with, that their Maker
is their husband. Loss of children is not, for He is better to them than ten
sons. But on His enemies they come in perfection. (M. Henry.)
Sinful boasting
The utterance of proud Babylon is identical with that of the vain
and self-confident in all ages. The delusion prosperity produces in such men or
nations is always of this sort. This expression suggests that lengthened
prosperity in the case of the ungodly leads to--
1. False security.
2. Presumption. “A lady for ever,” i.e in my own right; “no
contingency can arise to deprive me of any title and wealth.”
3. Boasting. The vernacular of pride--“a lady,” superior to others.
4. Self-satisfaction. “A lady.” “I am that now. None will dispute it”
Revelation 3:17).
5. Abandonment to luxury. “A lady for ever.” I mean to be at ease, to
enjoy life.
6. Spiritual blindness. Prosperity dazzles the eye; the future is
willfully disregarded. Conclusion--Remember the desolation of self-confident
Babylon-widowhood, childlessness, poverty, famine, shame, disease, insanity,
exile, death. (R. A. Griffin.)
Thou didst not lay these
things to thy heart
Neglected warnings
God warns before He strikes.
I. THE COURSE OF
CONDUCT CONDEMNED. “Thou didst not lay,” &c. This insensibility to the
threatened judgments of heaven is--
1. Very common.
2. Very sinful.
3. Very foolish.
4. Very dangerous.
II. THE FEARFUL
JUDGMENT DENOUNCED--a type on a large scale of the overthrow of sinners.
1. The certainty of it (Isaiah 47:8-9).
2. The suddenness of it. “In a moment” (Isaiah 47:9).
3. The retributory character of it.
An exact proportionment of the punishment to the crime. No undue
severity shown even to Babylon (Isaiah 47:6; James 2:13; Revelation 18:5-6). Nor even to the chief
of sinners. Always a just recompense of reward.
4. The utter hopelessness of those on whom it comes (Isaiah 47:12-15). (S. Thodey.)
Verse 10
Thou hast said, None seeth me
Omniscience ignored
I.
THIS
NOTION HAS GREAT INFLUENCE UPON THE CONDUCT OF MAN. Such a notion is
convenient. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. It is not necessary that this
be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question
whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. THIS NOTION IS
UTTERLY UNTRUTHFUL AND DELUSIVE.
III. GOD HAS OFTEN,
IN HUMAN EXPERIENCE, SHOWN THE DELUSIVENESS OF THIS NOTION, AND THE TIME IS
FIXED FOR THE COMPLETE DEMONSTRATION OF ITS DELUSIVENESS.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world.
3. The future state will show what God saw. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Practical atheism and genuine piety
(with Genesis 16:13):--
I. PRACTICAL
ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e. God is indifferent to our
conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine omniscience. This haughty
language suggests a sad tendency in human nature. The causes of this tendency
are--
1. Dislike of God.
2. Dread of God.
II. GENUINE PIETY.
“Thou God seest me.”
1. The very nature of God implies this.
2. The Bible teaches it.
III. GENERAL
INSTRUCTIONS which this subject conveys.
1. It warns the wicked.
2. It should restrain from evil.
3. It should incite to a beautiful and useful life.
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties
and conflicts and trials of life. (A. Tucker.)
“None seeth me”
Graceless men, having hid God from themselves, think also to hide
themselves from God. (J. Trapp.)
Thy wisdom and thy
knowledge, it hath perverted thee
Pernicious knowledge
I. EXAMINE AND
VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human
wisdom and science in the highest perfection! To this Babylon even the sages of
Greece came as learners.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge
of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion (text; Ezekiel 28:3-7; 1 Corinthians 1:21-27; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Romans 1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scriptural account of the fall of
man. Intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational
faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except
they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the
intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or
spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the
increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that
secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a
curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics
and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue, but a moral and
religious people it never has produced, and never can.
II. THE REMEDY
WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
1. The supreme need is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which
are of God, above those which are of men.
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted by those means which
God has appointed. The Bible. Preaching. The instruction of children in Divine
truth. (F. Close, M. A.)
Verses 11-15
Therefore shall evil come upon thee
Sudden destruction
The predicted calamity is represented as a great storm, which
suddenly arises in eastern countries, and blows with such violence as to Spread
devastation and ruin wherever its fury extends.
(R. Macculloch)
False securities: an exposure and a challenge
Can you find a solitary instance in which God approved iniquity?
Was ever His sword sheathed in presence of evil? This constancy of judgment
upon corrupt ways is itself an argument. One act of moral hesitation would have
destroyed God! Time cannot modify Divine judgments. What was wrong in Babylon
is wrong here: what was right in the most ancient time will be right on the
world’s last day. We should remind ourselves of these elementary principles;
for their very simplicity may cause us to neglect their claims. We shall regard
the solemn denunciations as if spoken to our own city.
I. LOOK AT THIS
PICTURE OF UTTER AND MOST PAINFUL BEWILDERMENT. “Evil shall come upon thee;
thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and desolation shall come upon thee
suddenly, which thou shalt not know.” There are times when the wind seems to be
blowing from all quarters at once. There are times when all things seem to have
a controversy with us. We set down our feet, and, lo, they are fastened to the
ground: we put forth our hand, and an invisible weapon smites it: we look round,
and behold the path is ploughed up, so that there is no way of retreat. We lose
our own sagacity. Our wit fails us. Once our mind was quick, now it is dead or
helpless. We lose confidence in ourselves; substances become shadows; the
strongest of our fortresses melt away; and in our friend’s face there are
discovered lines of suspicion or of mortal hate. This is the necessary and
inevitable result of sin.
1. We have been warned of it.
2. A way of escape has been made.
II. HEAR THE DIVINE
CHALLENGE ADDRESSED TO THE FALSE POWERS IN WHICH WE HAVE TRUSTED. “Stand now
with thine enchantments,” &c. (Isaiah 47:12). Think that we are now
called upon to set out in order the false securities in which we have trusted!
There is one,--Money; there is two,--Chance; there is three,--Self-confidence;
there is four--Atheisticspeculation. Now let them do for us all they can. God
has challenged them!
1. They ought to be most useful when most needed.
2. They should show their sufficiency by their fearlessness. It is a
challenge. I hear the whirlwind coming,--get out your money. You thought
something would happen--something is happening,--God’s judgment is descending;
where is your God Chance? You have confidence in yourself; be it so; make bare
your arm,--see, it is but lightning,--it is but flood upon flood,--it is but
world dashing against world, &c. “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers,
the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that
shall come upon thee.” There is to be a great collision. In that collision only
the true can stand.
III. SEE THE DOOM OF
FALSE SECURITIES. “Behold, they shall be as stubble,” &c. (Isaiah 47:14).
1. Let no man complain of want of opportunity of observing the value
of his moral securities.
2. Let no man complain of having been allowed to live unwarned.
3. Think of so living that at last a man shall be left without a coal
at which to warm himself! This is the end of sin,--this is the worthlessness of
false gods! So far as we have had experience of life, we have seen the terrible
failure of all false things. We have seen the judgment of God in parts. It is
not all left to be revealed. We are entitled to reason from the past to the
future; and when our own experience has, as a matter of fact, confirmed the
revelation of God, we may know that future to be a terrible one to the servants
of unrighteousness. What is the duty of man as dictated by mere common sense?
It is to seek and trust that which is true.
Monthly prognosticators
(Isaiah 47:13):--The special reference is
to the preparation of monthly almanacs (based on astrological calculations) in
which coming (disasters were foretold, lucky and unlucky days pointed out,
&c. A specimen of these almanacs is translated by Sayce in Transactions
of the Society of Biblical Archeology. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Verse 14
Behold, they shall be as stubble
God’s judgment as consuming fire
The flame is no comfortable fire for warmth, no hearth-fire (Isaiah 44:16) to sit in front of; but, on
thecontrary, consuming, eternal, i.annihilating flames (Isaiah 33:14). (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The portion of the ungodly
I. With reference
to the FIRST SENTENCE.
1. One of the most striking thoughts which it conveys to the mind is
this, that the punishment of the wicked will be easily inflicted. “They shall
be as stubble.” Nothing can be more easy than to kindle stubble when it is
fully dry. Oh, ungodly and impenitent man, there is that in thyself to-day
which, let alone and permitted to ripen, will bring a hell upon thee. Thou hast
in thyself the power of memory, and that power shall become a vehicle of sorrow
to thee. Thou hast, beside thy memory, a conscience; a con science which thou
hast striven to silence; but, even drugged and gagged as it is, it sometimes
makes thee feel unhappy. You will then find that you cannot palliate the guilt
of sin. Thy memory and thy conscience shall be as two great millstones grinding
thee to powder. Then, added to thy memory and to thy conscience, there shall
come thy increased knowledge. Thou knowest enough now to leave thee without
excuse, but then thy knowledge shall increase so as to leave thee without
pretence of apology. Thou shalt then perceive the craft of the tempter who
deluded thee. Thou shalt then see the blackness and the filthiness of sin as
thou dost not see it now. Then shalt thou understand the greatness and the
goodness of the God whom thou hast despised; thou shalt then discern the glory
of the heaven which thou hast lost; thou shalt then begin to get an idea of
that eternity which shall roll over thy head for ever. Beside, think of thy
companions. Shut up fifty drunkards and profane men together, and would they
not soon make a hell for themselves without any interposition of Divine power?
What will it be when they are bound up in bundles; when the tens of thousands
of those who obey not Christ shall find themselves in their own place?
2. This punishment shall be most searching and terrible. The metaphor
of fire is used in Scripture because it is that which of all things causeth the
most pain, and is the most searching and trying. As fire consumes, and so
reaches to the very essence of things, so shall the wrath to come reach to the
very essence and subsistence of the soul.
3. This destruction will be most inevitable. “They shall not deliver
themselves from the power of the flame.” There is hope now; there shall be no
hope then. The Lord Jesus, though the most loving of spirits, was the most
awful of preachers; and in His sermons, while there is everything that could
melt and woo, there is no lack of the great and terrible thunderbolt, and the sounding
forth of wrath to come, and the judgment which must await the impenitent.
II. BUT OUR TEXT
NOW CHANGES ITS FIGURE. “Thus saith the Lord, There shall not be a coal to warm
at, nor fire to sit before it”; by which is meant that there shall be nothing
in hell that can give the sinner a moment’s comfort; nothing.
III. And now our
text bids us “BEHOLD,” therefore I pray ye turn not away your eyes from this
meditation.
1. Children of God, behold it; it will make you grateful. Does not
the thought of the misery from which you have escaped make you love your
Saviour? And oh, will it not make you love poor sinners too?
2. But specially, you that are unconverted, the text says, “Behold.”
It is a gloomy subject for you to think upon, but better to think of it now
than to think of it for ever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》