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Isaiah Chapter
Fifty-two
Isaiah 52
Chapter Contents
The welcome news of Christ's kingdom. (1-12) The
humiliation of the Messiah. (13-15)
Commentary on Isaiah 52:1-12
(Read Isaiah 52:1-12)
The gospel proclaims liberty to those bound with fears.
Let those weary and heavy laden under the burden of sin, find relief in Christ,
shake themselves from the dust of their doubts and fears, and loose themselves
from those bands. The price paid by the Redeemer for our salvation, was not
silver or gold, or corruptible things, but his own precious blood. Considering
the freeness of this salvation, and how hurtful to temporal comfort sins are,
we shall more value the redemption which is in Christ. Do we seek victory over
every sin, recollecting that the glory of God requires holiness in every
follower of Christ? The good news is, that the Lord Jesus reigns. Christ
himself brought these tidings first. His ministers proclaim these good tidings:
keeping themselves clean from the pollutions of the world, they are beautiful
to those to whom they are sent. Zion's watchmen could scarcely discern any
thing of God's favour through the dark cloud of their afflictions; but now the
cloud is scattered, they shall plainly see the performance. Zion's waste places
shall then rejoice; all the world will have the benefit. This is applied to our
salvation by Christ. Babylon is no place for Israelites. And it is a call to
all in the bondage of sin and Satan, to use the liberty Christ has proclaimed.
They were to go with diligent haste, not to lose time nor linger; but they were
not to go with distrustful haste. Those in the way of duty, are under God's
special protection; and he that believes this, will not hasten for fear.
Commentary on Isaiah 52:13-15
(Read Isaiah 52:13-15)
Here begins that wonderful, minute, and faithful
description of the office, character, and glory of the Messiah, which has
struck conviction to many of the most hardened unbelievers. Christ is Wisdom
itself; in the work of our redemption there appeared the wisdom of God in a
mystery. Those that saw him, said, Surely never man looked so miserable: never
was sorrow like unto his sorrow. But God highly exalted him. That shall be
discovered by the gospel of Christ, which could never be told in any other way.
And Christ having once shed his blood for sinners, its power still continues.
May all opposers see the wisdom of ceasing from their opposition, and be made
partakers of the blood of sprinkling, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost;
obeying him, and praising his salvation.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 52
Verse 1
[1]
Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O
Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the
uncircumcised and the unclean.
Awake —
This is a prediction and promise what she should do, that she should awake or
arise out of her low estate, and be strong and courageous.
Beautiful garments —
Thy sorrows shall be ended, and thou shalt be advanced into a glorious
condition.
O Zion — O
my church.
Come —
Either to molest thee, or defile thee.
The uncircumcised —
Heathens or infidels.
Unclean —
Nor any others, who are unholy.
Verse 2
[2] Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose
thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
The dust — In
which thou hast sat as a mourner.
The bands —
The yoke of thy captivity shall be taken off from thee.
Verse 3
[3] For
thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be
redeemed without money.
Sold yourselves — By
your sins, without any valuable consideration paid by them either to you, or to
your Lord and owner.
Without money —
Without paying any ransom.
Verse 4
[4] For
thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn
there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.
Egypt —
Where they had protection and sustenance, and therefore owed subjection to the
king of Egypt. And yet when he oppressed them, I punished him severely, and
delivered them out of his hands.
The Assyrian —
The king of Babylon, who is called the king of Assyria, 2 Kings 23:29, as also the Persian emperor is
called, Ezra 6:22, because it was one and the same
empire which was possessed, first by the Assyrians, then by the Babylonians,
and afterwards by the Persians.
Without cause —
Without any such ground or colour, by mere force invading their land, and carrying
them away into captivity.
Verse 5
[5] Now therefore, what have I here, saith the LORD, that my people is taken
away for nought? they that rule over them make them to howl, saith the LORD;
and my name continually every day is blasphemed.
What have I —
Why do I sit still here, and not go to Babylon to punish the Babylonians, and
to deliver my people? For nought - Without any provocation, or pretence of
right.
Howl — By
their unmerciful usage.
Blasphemed —
The Babylonians blasphemed me as if I wanted either power or good will to save
my people out of their hands.
Verse 6
[6]
Therefore my people shall know my name: therefore they shall know in that day
that I am he that doth speak: behold, it is I.
Shall know —
They shall experience my power and goodness in fighting for them.
In that day —
When I shall redeem my people: which work was begun by the return of the Jews
from Babylon, and perfected by the coming of the Messiah.
Behold —
That all these promises are the words of the omnipotent, unchangeable God.
Verse 7
[7] How
beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth
salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!
The mountains — Of
Judea, to which these glad tidings were brought, and from which they were
spread abroad into other countries.
Of him —
Or, of them; the singular number being put for the plural.
Returneth — In
the days of the Messiah, God did discover and exercise his dominion over the world
far more eminently than ever he had done from the beginning of the world until
that time.
Verse 8
[8] Thy
watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for
they shall see eye to eye, when the LORD shall bring again Zion.
Thy watchmen —
Thy ministers, who descry the approach of this heavenly king.
Lift up thy voice — To
give notice to all people of these glad tidings; and by way of exultation, to
sing forth the praises of God for this glorious day.
Eye —
Distinctly and familiarly, their eyes beholding the eyes of this king of glory.
They shall be eye and ear-witnesses of the words and works of Christ, and
therefore their testimony shall be more certain and valuable.
Bring again —
When God shall complete the work of bringing his church out of captivity.
Verse 11
[11]
Depart ye, depart ye, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out
of the midst of her; be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the LORD.
Depart —
Out of Babylon.
Touch —
Carry not along with you any of their superstitions or idolatries.
Ye — And especially your
priests and Levites, who minister in holy things, and carry the holy vessels of
the temple, keep yourselves from all pollution.
Verse 12
[12] For
ye shall not go out with haste, nor go by flight: for the LORD will go before
you; and the God of Israel will be your rereward.
Not by flight —
But securely, and in triumph, being conducted by your great captain the Lord of
hosts.
Rereward — So
that none shall be able either to oppose you in your march, or to fall upon you
in the rear.
Verse 13
[13]
Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and
be very high.
Behold —
This is the beginning of a new prophecy, which is continued from hence to the
end of the next chapter.
My servant —
That it is Christ who is here spoken of, is so evident, that the Chaldee
paraphrast, and other ancient, and some later Hebrew doctors, understand it
directly of him, and that divers Jews have been convinced and converted to the
Christian faith, by the evidence of this prophecy.
Prosper —
This is fitly put in the first place to prevent those scandals which otherwise
might arise from the succeeding passages, which describe his state of
humiliation.
Very high —
Here are three words signifying the same thing to express the height and glory
of his exaltation.
Verse 14
[14] As
many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his
form more than the sons of men:
Astonished — At
his humiliation.
Thee — At
thee, O my servant.
His form —
Christ, in respect of his birth, breeding, and manner of life, was most obscure
and contemptible. His countenance also was so marred with frequent watchings,
and fastings, and troubles, that he was thought to be near fifty years old when
he was but about thirty, John 8:57, and was farther spoiled with
buffetings, and crowning with thorns, and other cruel and despiteful usages.
Verse 15
[15] So
shall he sprinkle many nations; the kings shall shut their mouths at him: for
that which had not been told them shall they see; and that which they had not
heard shall they consider.
So — His exaltation shall
be answerable to his humiliation.
Sprinkle —
With his word or doctrine; which being often compared to rain or water, may be
said to be sprinkled, as it is said to be dropped, Deuteronomy 32:2; Ezekiel 20:46.
Kings —
Shall be silent before him out of profound humility, reverence, and admiration
of his wisdom.
For —
They shall hear from his mouth many excellent doctrines, which will be new and
strange to them. And particularly that comfortable doctrine of the salvation of
the Gentiles, which was not only new to them, but strange and incredible to the
Jews themselves.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
52 Chapter 52
Verses 1-6
Awake, awake
The essential elements of a Church’s strength
I.
THE
CONSTITUTIONAL ELEMENTS OF STRENGTH. I use the word constitution in a
legitimate sense, as including both the creed and the polity of a Church.
1. The creed. As a man’s life is the outcome of what he believes, or
does not believe, precisely so is the Church’s. But is not the Bible the
acknowledged creed of all the Churches? No; no more than the stars are
astronomy, or the flowers botany. The Bible is the source of the creed of all,
but it is the creed of none, for the simple reason that the Bible, like every
other writing, must be construed; and on many points it cannot be construed in
the same way by all.
2. The government. Hers also that which is true of man is true of the
Church. An army is stronger than a mob.
II. ADMINISTRATIVE
ELEMENTS. But a Church is not only obliged to have certain constitutional and
other laws, it is also obliged to administer them for the twofold purpose--
1. Of protecting itself against corruption and disintegration.
2. In order that it may efficiently fulfil its mission of witnessing
for Christ, whereunto it was Divinely called.
III. SPIRITUAL
ELEMENTS OF STRENGTH.
1. Peace. There must be battles with the common enemy, but no battles
with itself.
2. Unity.
3. Co-operation.
4. Purity.
5. The Holy Spirit. (R. V. Foster, D.D.)
God’s call to a sleeping Church
1. This chapter is a trumpet-call to holiness. Jerusalem is called
the holy city, and yet the passage is full of her sins. She was holy in the
intention of God. So we are called not to be famous or wealthy but to be holy.
2. Her condition was characterized by--
(1) Unhallowed intercourse with the world (Isaiah 52:1). The uncircumcised and
unclean in her midst.
(3) Utter helplessness and impotence. The figure of a “wild bull in a
net” means strength reduced to helplessness by little things. Satan forged
fetters of persecutions in early days, now he tries the “net business.” Many
Christians are worthless because caught in a net of little compromises with the
world and with conscience. The “fainting” (verse 20) points to the helplessness
of the Christian Church in the presence of the moral and social evils of the
day.
3. The man who called “Awake” to Zion, had previously cried “Awake”
to Isaiah 51:9).
4. To be awakened is not enough. If we go no further we shall go back
either into indifference, or into rebellion, or into despair. The call is “put
on thy strength, put on thy beautiful garments.” Garments of praise, cloth of
zeal, beautiful covering of humility. In this the Christian must be always
arrayed, for we are children of a King, and God wants us always to appear in
Court dress. (C. Inwood.)
Awake, O Zion
“O Zion!” This is a case in which a place is named for the
inhabitants. Leaving what is local and temporary and particular in the
reference of these words, we proceed to consider them as addressed by the
redeeming God to His Church now, and as calling upon.Christians to arouse
themselves and revive, to bestir themselves, and to rise into a state of
intelligent and Godlike activity. These words assume the presence of life in
the people addressed. Those called to awake are not dead, but they sleep; and
they sleep, so far as inactivity is concerned, as though they were dead.
I. CERTAIN OBJECTS
OF VISION ARE IMPORTANT TO THE CHURCH OF GOD, and that these may be kept in
view, God saith, “Awake awake!” Among the objects which we need to see are
things behind us; and things before us; such things as are presented by sacred
history and by inspired promise and prophecy. But the objects which I would now
emphatically name, are ever-existent and ever-present spiritual objects--God
our one Father, the Son of God our only Saviour, and the Comforter, who
proceedeth from the Father and the Son--especially the Son of God, as the
brightness of the Father’s glory, and as the propitiation which God has set
forth. The things we need to see are the wondrous things contained in God’s
Word, things of God and of man, things which accompany salvation, things of
angels and of devils, things of Christ, things of the world around us and above
us and beneath us. The Church of God maybe awake to lower and inferior things,
and may be asleep to these highest things, or, if not asleep, but half awake,
so that men seem like trees walking.
II. CERTAIN SOURCES
OF SUPPLY AND FOUNTAINS OF PLEASURE AND MEANS OF HELP ARE IMPORTANT TO THE
CHURCH OF GOD, and that these may be possessed and enjoyed and used, God saith,
“Awake, awake!”
III. THERE IS GOOD
AND GODLY WORK TO BE DONE BY ZION, therefore God saith, “Awake, awake.” Zion is
like a nursing mother, with her heart full of cares and her hands full of work.
Zion is a worshipper, and she has the incense of prayer and the sacrifices of
thanksgiving to provide and to offer; Zion is an intercessor, and it is
expected that in ceaseless prayer she will keep no silence, nor give the hearer
of prayer rest; Zion is an almoner, and it is expected that having freely
received she will freely give; Zion is a servant of the most high God, and she
is bound to do all that her hands find to do with all her might. Her work is so
various that Zion is as a husbandman, and as a builder, and as a vine-dresser.
For work and service Zion is Divinely endowed, taught of God that she may teach
godliness, consoled by God that she may comfort others, guided by God that she
may lift up her voice with strength, and cry to the bewildered and the lost,
“This is the way, walk ye in it.” There are two objects in the sphere of our
present thought, toward which the Church of God requires to be faithful and
therefore wakeful.
1. Her own endowments.
2. Her opportunities.
IV. THERE ARE
BATTLES WHICH ZION IS CALLED TO FIGHT, AND VICTORIES TO BE WON WHICH ZION ALONE
CAN WIN therefore God bids Zion awake. Having interpreted the voice, let us
note some of its features and characteristics--
1. The voice that would awaken us is Divine. It is the voice of a
Ruler to His subjects, of a Master to His servants, of a Parent to His sons, of
a Redeemer to His Redeemed.
2. The voice that would awaken us is powerful and full of majesty, a
voice therefore that stirs, and that strengthens while it stirs him who listens
to it.
S. The voice that would awaken us has in it a tone of reproach. It
seems tosay, “What! Zion asleep! Zion, already and recently quickened from the
death of sin? Zion, who can see God, and the things that are eternal? Zion, who
can possess the exceeding riches of God’s grace? Zion, who can handle as her
own the things which angels desire to look into? Zion asleep in the day of her
work, and in the hour of her conflict?”
4. Yet this is a gracious voice. It is a voice that woos and wins
while it stimulates and arouses.
5. The voice that cries, “Awake, awake,” is the voice of Zion’s God.
There are degrees of wakefulness; and regarding the text as calling us to the
most complete open-eyedness and watchfulness, let us arouse ourselves at God’s
bidding. (S. Martin.)
The Church asleep
Look at this solemn fact--the Church of the living God asleep!
Here are they who have been quickened from the death of sin into newness of
life, and who have been called to walk with the living God, asleep. The people
who are summoned to work in the field of the world, and to labour in the
vineyard of the kingdom of heaven, asleep. The only people who can reasonably
be expected to be awake and wide-awake, are asleep. Asleep, not in healthful,
seasonable, necessary slumber, but asleep in the slumber of the sluggard, or
the sleep of the drunkard, or the torpor of one smitten by atrophy or by
apoplexy, or of one in a fatal swoon. (S. Martin.)
What sends the Church to sleep?
The intoxicating draught of some sinful carnal pleasure, or the
opiate of some false doctrine, or the quietude of sinful inertness, or the
darkness of cherished ignorance, or the monotony of formality, or the syren
music of false teaching, hath sent Zion to sleep. (S. Martin.)
The sleeping Church
Thus sleeping, Zion doth not sympathize with the circumstances by
which she is surrounded, she does not see the objects within range of her
vision, she does not feel the influences which are moving and working around
her, she does not meet the claims made for exertion, she does not enjoy her
mercies, or take possession of her lawful inheritance. (S. Martin.)
The Church: its strength and its weakness
I. The text is a
forcible reminder of the fact that THE CHURCH OF GOD, IN ALL AGES, MAY HAVE ITS
TIMES OF WEAKNESS AS WELL AS ITS TIMES OF POWER. When the Church first went
forth from Jerusalem, a little flock, scattered hither and thither by the storm
of persecution, it was a time of power. It was then but an infant of days, but
it sprang into a giant of strength. It was a day of power when the Church of
Christ, as Paul Richter has said, “lifted empires off their hinges, and turned
the stream of centuries out of its channel. But a thousand years roll on, and a
time of weakness follows this era of power. The giant sleeps; his strength is
put off; he reposes amidst the scarlet trappings and gilded blazonry of the
Papacy, and seems to have wilted into a senile imbecility. But again there came
a time of power when, on the morning of the Reformation, the Church heard the
cry, “Awake, awake!” and, springing up with renewed youth, it put on its
strength. There was a time of weakness when the chill of formalism followed in
the track of the Reformation, and the Church sank into the coma of a widespread
paralysis; again, when a disguised Romanism riveted her fetters; and still
again when the Socinian apostasy spread its blight over Great Britain. But then
came times of power when the Church arose in quickened majesty to smite the
tyrant with the broken fetters which had eaten into its own soul; and still
again, times of wondrous spiritual revival, when the call sounded by Wesley and
Whitefield, like the voice of the prophet in the valley of vision, seemed to
awake the dead. Why these periods of weakness? The principle is plain: Divine
power and human strength must work together, each in its appropriate sphere. As
the terror of the iron chariots of the enemy paralyzed the strength of Judah,
so that, the human part being wanting, the victory was lost; so, in the Church,
if any cause supervenes to weaken, or render ineffective, the strength which
God expects us to put forth, He will not depart from His plan, or interpose to
save us from the results of our own weakness, or to hide us from the scorn and
derision of the world.
II. WHAT IS THE
STRENGTH OF THE CHURCH, AND WHEN IS IT PUT OFF? In other words, what causes may
supervene to weaken or render it ineffective?
1. The first element of power is the Gospel, the Word, the truth of
God. If the truth of God is the instrument of power, and the human part of the
work is simply its manifestation, then the strength of the Church must be
weakened whenever the Gospel is subordinated to human themes.
2. Let us pass to the second element of the Church s power--the
ministry. The Church is a giant; the Gospel is the instrument of his work--the
weapon of his warfare. But what wields the weapon? The giant’s arm--this is the
ministry. It is not an original power inherent in itself, but adelegated power.
This is the power that, beginning at Jerusalem, went forth upon its mission of
conquest--that made the heathen cry: “These men that have turned the world
upside down are come hither also!”
3. The third and principal element of the Church’s power is the Holy
Ghost. Since, then, the Spirit s power is the strength of the Church, the want
of the Spirit is the weakness of the Church. If the Church is not an effective,
aggressive power in the world, it is because it puts off or puts away the
strength of the Spirit. This is done when we subordinate the Divine Spirit to
human agency; when, by organization or by human eloquence, or by methods and
appliances, or by running the Church on business principles, we seek to effect
that which it is the special office of the Spirit to accomplish. It is greatly
to be feared that we put away the strength of the Spirit when the Church--the
whole Church, the ministry and the people, fail to realize our profound and
absolute dependence upon the power of the Spirit for success in all work.
III. Let us listen
to GOD’S CALL TO THE CHURCH TO PUT ON AND TO PUT FORTH HER STRENGTH. How shall
we put on this strength? Power with God, in its first element, is the sense of
our own weakness. How, then, shall we put on strength?
1. On our knees.
2. Let us put on the strength of the Word, as the apostle did, when
he shunned not to declare the whole counsel of God.
3. Let us put on the strength of the ministry, as Paul did when he
went forth in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace.
4. Let us put on the strength of the Spirit, as the early Church did
when it was endued with power from on high. Then shall our work be “mighty,
through God, to the pulling down of strongholds.” (W. M. Paxton, D. D.)
“Awake, Awake!”
Let us take the central paragraph first (Isaiah 51:17). There Jerusalem is
addressed as stupefied by some intoxicating potion. But her drunkenness is not
of wine, nor of strong drink; she has drunk at the hand of the Lord “the cup of
His fury.” Such imagery is often used by the prophets, of the cup of God’s
wrath drunk down by those on whom it descends, and inflicting on them the
insensibility and stupefaction with which we are but too familiar as the effect
of excessive drinking. The whole city has succumbed under the spell. Her sons
have fainted, and lie strewn in all the streets, like antelopes snared in the
hunters’ nets, from which their struggles have failed to extricate them. Amid
such circumstances, the servant of Jehovah is introduced, crying, “Awake,
awake! stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup
of His fury.” There are other soporifics than the wrath of God: the air of the
enchanted ground; the laudanum of evil companionship; the drugs of worldly pleasure,
of absorption in business, of carnal security. The army of the Lord is too apt
to put off the armour of light, and resign itself to heavy slumbers, till the
clarion voice warns it that it is high time to awake.
I. ZION S APPEAL
TO GOD. “Awake, awake! put on strength, O arm of the Lord.”
1. The first symptom of awaking is a cry. It is so with a child. It
is so with the soul. When Saul of Tarsus was converted, the heavenly watchers
said, “Behold, he prayeth.” It is so with the Church.
2. The cry in this case was founded on a mistake. If there are
variations in our inner life, it is because our rate of reception differs from
time to time. It is not God who sleeps, but we. It is not for God to awake, but
for us. It is not necessary for the Divine arm to gird on strength, but for the
human to take that which is within its easy reach.
3. The cry is short and earnest. Earnestness is good, even though at
first it may be in a wrong direction.
4. The best basis for our cry is memory of the past. “Art thou not it
that cut Rahab (i.e., Egypt)
in pieces, that pierced the dragon” (i.e., of the Nile)
? It is well to quote past experiences as arguments for faith.
5. The arm of God is strong (Isaiah 51:13).
6. The arm of God is far-reaching. However low we sink, underneath
are the everlasting arms.
7. The arm of God is tender (Isaiah 51:12).
II. THE APPEAL TO
ZION. It is blessed to be awaked out of sleep. Life is passing by so rapidly;
the radiant glory of the Saviour may be missed unless we are on the alert, or
we may fail to give Him the sympathy He needs, and an angel will be summoned to
do our work. Besides, the world needs the help of men who give no sleep to
their eyes nor slumber to their eyelids, but are always eager to help it in its
need. Being awake, we shall discover two sets of attire awaiting us. The first
is strength, the other beauty; and each has its counterpart in the New
Testament (Ephesians 6:1-24; Colossians 3:1-25). Put on the whole
armour of God. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ--His temper, spirit, and character.
1. We must put on our beautiful garments. We cannot weave these. We
are not able to spin such a cocoon out of our own nature, nor are we required
to do so. They are all prepared for us in Jesus; we have only to put them on,
by putting Him on. This can only be done when the heart is at leisure.
2. We must put on strength. We are not bidden to purchase strength,
or generate it by our resolutions, prayers, and agonizings: but to “put it on.”
It is already prepared, and only awaits appropriation.
3. We must expect to be delivered from the dominion of sin. Babylon
had been bidden to descend from her throne and sit in the dust; Jerusalem is
commanded to arise from the dust and sit on her throne. (F. B. Meyer,
B.A.)
A call to exertion
I. THE
CONSIDERATIONS WHICH JUSTIFY THIS APPEAL.
1. It is obvious that the passage assumes the possession of
sufficient strength for accomplishing the end designed. As to effectual agency,
all things are of God. With respect to our own province, that of instrumental
action--our strength is ample, though the conversion of the world be the object
of it. But wherein does our strength for the reconciliation of the world
consist? Strength, in all cases, is the possession of adapted and sufficient
means. Now the means of converting a sinner is the truth of the Gospel. Is
Divine truth adapted and sufficient to this end? To this point inspired
testimony is most direct and express. Matters of fact bring us to the same
point. If any attempt should be made to evade the argument, by referring to the
necessity of Divine influence, we reply that Divine influence is undoubtedly
necessary to give the Gospel success. But it is also necessary to give success
to the use of means in every other case. If there be in our hands adapted and
sufficient means for bringing about the universal triumphs of the Gospel, there
is manifest justice in the stirring appeal by which we are roused into action.
“Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion!” Persons who would reply to such a
call, “What is the use of telling me to labour?--it is God who must do
everything,” would merely subject themselves to a severe reproof, and a direct
charge of making their pretended want of power a pretext for their love of sloth.
2. The text assumes the existence of inadequate exertion. It is
appropriate only to a state of comparative indolence and slumber. The language
calls not for a partial, but for an entire employment of our resources. “Put on
thy strength.” The meaning cannot be less than this: The scenes which are in
prospect will require your utmost efforts; the victory will be quite as much as
you will be able to win; put into requisition, therefore, all your powers, and
exert your whole strength.
II. THE TOPICS BY WHICH
THIS CALL MAY BE ENFORCED.
1. Notice the interesting character of the object to be attained. The
end contemplated in the text was personally and directly interesting to the
parties addressed. Zion was called to exert herself for her own triumphs. It was
for their restoration to the land of their fathers that the slumbering exiles
were summoned to awake. We also should remember that the triumphs of
Christianity are our triumphs, and the increase of the Church is our
enlargement. Are we willing that the Church should continue to be small and
despised, or do we really wish to see her arrayed in celestial beauty, and the
joy of the whole earth? The interests of Zion are identified with those of a
guilty and perishing world. The advancement of Zion is identified with the
glory of her Lord.
2. The proximity of the most blessed results. Triumphs, and even our
ultimate triumphs are at hand. The prospect of success is one of the most
natural stimulants to exertion.
3. The necessity of exertion in order to the expected results.
4. The actual suspension of the issue upon our obedience. It suggests
the animating sentiment, that the final glories of the Church are waiting for
her awaking, and for that alone. (J. H. Hinton, M.A.)
The Church’s duty towards the world
In Isaiah 52:9, of the former chapter, the
Church prays God to interfere on her behalf, to exert His omnipotent arm. In
the seventeenth verse He calls upon the Church to do something to gain this
object. And in my text, which is connected with, that exhortation, He repeats
it: “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O Zion,” etc. If then, we would
have the arm of the Lord with us in anything we do for His cause, we must do
more than pray.
I. THE SPIRIT
WHICH GOD ENJOINS HIS CHURCH TO EVINCE. The language of the text is
metaphorical, and highly poetical; but it inculcates upon us, that we put on--
1. A spirit of wakefulness. Wakefulness is opposed to indifference
and sloth.
2. A spirit of agression. “Put on thy strength, O Zion.” For what
purpose? Certainly to oppose her foes; to make aggressions on the territory of
the master spirit of evil. And what is the Church’s “strength,” which she is to
put on! It consists in a large measure of Divine influences. The Church’s
“strength” consists in spiritual wisdom and spiritual courage. The “strength”
of the Church consists in the cheerful assurance of God’s love to us
individually--in having it “shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.” “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” And it consists in
daily communion with God. Come with me back to Pentecostal days, and see how
the Church acted when thus equipped. She “put on her strength,” anal went forth
in a spirit of aggression.
3. A spirit of piety. “Put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem,
the holy city.”
II. THE EFFECTS
WHICH WILL NECESSARILY AND CERTAINLY RESULT IF THE CHURCH OBEYS THE INJUNCTION
OF HER LORD.
1. The conversion of souls. “There shall no more come into thee the
uncircumcised and the unclean;” metaphors descriptive of pollution arising from
an unconverted state. Unregenerate souls shall not be found within her borders.
This has been the result everywhere.
2. The union of the ministers of the Gospel. “Thy watchmen shall lift
up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing.
3. The renovation of the world (Isaiah 52:10). (J. Sherman.)
The Church’s strength
Strength is that which resides in a man, but is not exhibited save
in so far as it is exercised and produces results. His garments, on the other
hand, are visible to those who look at him; they constitute his outward
appearance. So that this text refers both to the inward powers and capabilities
of Christ’s Church, and to the visible aspect which it presents to the world.
Zion has strength. The Church has sufficient means and power at its disposal to
effect the purposes for which the Lord founded it. Those purposes are various in
form, but perhaps they may be all summed up in the phrase--to impart to men the
knowledge of their Saviour.
I. Let me mention
one or two THINGS WHICH ARE GOOD AND USEFUL FOR THEIR PROPER WORK, BUT OF WHICH
IT CANNOT BE SAID THAT ZION’S STRENGTH LIES IN THEM.
1. The recognition of religion by the State and its establishment by
law. We find, as a matter of history, that in many cases when the favour of the
governing powers has been most decided, the efficacy of the Church in
converting sinners and spreading the Gospel has been feeble and languid; while,
on the other hand, some of Zion’s most energetic and successful efforts have
been made without any support at all from the secular authority, and even in
spite of its opposition.
2. An active ministry. There are two aspects of this activity--by
activity I understand diligence in preaching, in visiting the sick, in holding
services, and so on. If the clergy are active because the people are zealous,
then it is altogether well: it is a mark of strength. But if the clergy are
active because no one else is, then it is a mark of weakness.
3. The multiplication of religious societies and other machinery.
They are good, useful, necessary things. But they are too often made the excuse
for serving God by proxy. The strength of the Church lies in the zeal for
Christ of its individual members.
II. “Put on the
garments of thy dignity,” continues the prophet, “O Jerusalem, the Holy City.”
THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE OF THE CHURCH OUGHT TO BE SUCH AS TO COMMAND THE
ADMIRATION EVEN OF THOSE WHO DO NOT BELONG TO IT. We may instance--
1. The garment of righteousness. The people of God ought to present
unmistakably the aspect of a righteous people.
2. The garment of unity. It must be confessed that the servants of
God do not present to the world the aspect of a united people. It is not simply
difference of opinion that separates them: but there are slanders, mutual
recriminations, misrepresentations of motives and conduct, suspicions,
jealousies, party-spirit in all its hideous forms, combining to rend and ruin
the beautiful garment of brotherhood in which Jerusalem ought to be clad.
3. The garment of worship. The Church ought to appear before all men
as a city wherein the Lord is worshipped, where He receives the honour due unto
His name. The true beauty of holiness is the sincere devotion of the people,
and the natural result of such devotion, viz a really united offering of prayer
and praise ascending to the throne of the heavenly grace. (J.
C. Rust, M.A.)
Relapses in the history of the Church
Only two or three centuries after the death of the last of the
apostles, history informs us, Christians were scarcely distinguishable from
pagans. The golden-tongued and spiritually-minded Chrysostom would go home on
Sundays from his pulpit in Antioch in Syria only to weep bitterly over the
indifference of the Church and its defection from its first love. One has only
to glance at the history of the Church during the Middle Ages to see that,
through all those dark centuries, the Church was about as dark as the world,
and but little less corrupt. The common people universally were forbidden to
read the Bible, and would not have been able to read it had they been permitted
to do so. Popes and cardinals, archbishops and bishops and all the lower orders
of clergy had but little more hesitancy in committing murder, and all the sins
in the decalogue, than they had in attending mass. The Savonarolas who stood up
here and there and preached a better morality and a purer Gospel may be counted
on the fingers of one hand. And the Church manifested its gratitude to them by
burning them at the stake. (R. V. Foster, D.D.)
The Church tenacious of its life
The Church, by reason of the heavenly element in it, like a tree
of the forest--tenacious of its life; when the old trunk dies a fresh twig
springs from its roots; and when this decays another fresh twig aprils up in
its turn. So Luther and his collaborators, by the grace of God, evoked from the
dead Church of the Middle Ages a fresh and vigorous Protestantism. So Wesley
and his co-workers evoked from the deadness of the later Anglicanism a still
fresh and vigorous Methodism. The Presbyterian Church of John Knox also grew
old, and has had its athletic offshoots. “Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O
Zion”--and Zion after the awakening is never the Zion of the pro-awakening. (R.
V. Foster, D. D.)
Zion’s awakening
Is the injunction obsolete? By no means. And the Church-catholic
to-day is in the set of obeying it. Let us notice two or three significant
indications--
1. Never in any period of the world’s history has the Bible been more
universally and intensely studied than it is now. And the study of it is far,
very far, from being prevailingly hostile.
2. As another indication of this fact I quote the old saying, “In
union there is strength;” especially is it true when other essential elements
of strength are not wanting. In this day there is a visible tendency towards
union.
3. Another indication is the rapid progress in mission work. (R.
V. Foster, D. D.)
Put on thy strength, O
Zion
Zion’s strength
What is the strength of Zion? The strength of any community is
primarily in the individuals who constitute it; so that the strength of the
Church of God is, not entirely, but first of all, in the separate members of that
body. The strength of Zion is also the power of every religious principle. It
is the power of faith and hope and love; the power of patience and perseverance
and courage and meekness. There is strength in all life, and Zion lives with
the rich and full and eternal life of God within her. Knowledge is power, and
the Church of the living God has the highest kind of knowledge. A settled faith
is power, and Zion has a fixed and positive belief. Confidence and trust are
power, and the Church of God relies upon God. Hope is power, and the hope of
the Church is as an anchor sure and steadfast. Love is power, and godly charity
never faileth. Patience, perseverance and courage are powers, before which
obstacles yield and dangers flee away, and the Church of God is trained to be
patient and steadfast and brave. The strength of Zion is the power of certain
agencies and influences. The Church has power in her testimony to truth, in her
intercession before God, and in her character as the leaven of society and the salt
of the nations. Union is strength where alliance is wise and entire; where
heart sympathizes with heart and hand joins in hand. We proceed to state
reasons why God should thus speak to His Church.
I. GOD BIDS ZION
PUT ON HER STRENGTH FOR SELF-MANIFESTATION. Not for self-magnification.
Self-magnification is disloyal, traitorous and impious; self-manifestation is a
plain duty (Matthew 5:16). The Church of God can walk
and work and endure; then why appear impotent and helpless? Strong winds make
themselves heard. Strong sunshine makes itself felt. Strong life shows itself,
whether in the animal or vegetable kingdom. And the Church, to be heard and
seen and felt and known, must be strong.
II. GOD BIDS ZION
PUT ON HER STRENGTH THAT HE MAY BE GLORIFIED. A redeemed man is a new creation
and a Divine workmanship. A congregation of believing men, and the whole
visible Church, are of God s founding. Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God s
building. Now if the husbandry appear as the field of the slothful, and as the
vineyard of the man void of understanding; if it be all grown over with thorns,
and nettles cover the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof be broken down;
if the building appear to be defective in foundation, imperfect in
construction, and framed together with bad material--the name of God, instead
of being honoured, will be blasphemed (1 Peter 2:9-10; Isaiah 43:21).
III. GOD REQUIRES
ZION TO PUT OUT HER STRENGTH FOR THE SAKE OF HER OWN WELL-BEING. If the powers
of the Church be inactive, they will decline. The staff faith, if never used,
will decay, etc.
IV. ZION IS
REQUIRED TO PUT ON HER STRENGTH IN ORDER TO MEET THE CLAIMS OF A SINFUL AND
SUFFERING WORLD.
V. GOD DIRECTS
ZION TO PUT ON HER STRENGTH BECAUSE STRENGTH HAS BEEN GIVEN HER TO PUT ON.
VI. IS NOT THIS
PUTTING ON OF STRENGTH AS ESSENTIAL TO ZION’S PEACE AND JOY AS TO HER OUTWARD
PROSPERITY? (S. Martin.)
Thy strength of Zion
Thy strength of Zion is the strength of human nature. It is
masculine energy, feminine susceptibility, the vivacity of childhood, the
buoyancy of youth, and the force of maturity. It is the power of body, soul and
spirit, it is intellectual power, emotional force, and moral strength. It is
the strength of regenerated humanity, therefore spiritual and religious power;
the strength of man redeemed unto God, and as redeemed, allied to God, dwelt in
by God, and made strong by union with God. The strength of Zion is the strength
of all that redeemed humanity is, and of all that is within human nature when
regenerated and sanctified by the grace of God. (S. Martin.)
Strength put on by being put out
If a man put out his strength, he puts on strength, he appears
clothed with strength as with a garment. Virgil furnishes us with an
illustration: AEneas visits Drepanum in Sicily, and them by various games
celebrates the anniversary of his father’s death. The combatants with the
cestus are described. Dares first shows his face with strength prodigious, and
rears himself amid loud murmurs from the spectators. He uplifts his lofty head,
presents his broad shoulders, brandishes his arms and beats the air with his
fists. And Entellus accepted his challenge, flung from his shoulders his vest,
bared his huge limbs, his big bones and sinewy arms, and stood forth of mighty
frame in the middle of the field. Forthwith each on his tiptoes stood erect,
and undaunted raised his arms aloft in the air. Dares and Entellus, as they put
out strength, put on strength. A working-man and a trained athlete, when asleep
or otherwise in repose, appear clothed with weakness. All the muscles are relaxed,
and the limbs are motionless and apparently powerless, as the parts of a marble
statue. But when the athlete is engaged in some bodily exercise, or the
working-man is handling his tools and lifting his materials, his appearance is
that of one arrayed with power. As he puts out strength he puts on strength,
nor can he put it out without putting it on. Adapting the expression of the
idea to common utterance, we may read our text, “Put out thy strength, O Zion.”
(S. Martin.)
Injunctions to be strong
My text harmonizes with words frequently addressed to Zion and to
her sons (1 Kings 2:2; Isaiah 35:4; Isaiah 40:9; Isaiah 40:31; Haggai 2:4; Zechariah 8:9-13; 1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:10; 2 Timothy 2:1). (S. Martin.)
God’s call to be strong
It is interesting to observe by how many voices God speaks
as in our text. By the smarting of the conscience when the strength is
withheld, and by the glowing of the conscience when the strength is
consecrated; by the breadth of love which God’s law requires, and by the depth
of privilege which the Gospel provides; by the correction administered when we
are inactive and inert, and by the blessedness experienced when we abound in
the work of the Lord, God is continually saying, “Put on thy strength, O Zion.”
(S. Martin.)
Some elements of Church strength
1. Soundness in doctrine.
2. Purity of life among the members of the Church.
3. Thoroughness of organization for Church work.
4. Faithfulness in individual effort to do good.
5. Regularity of attendance upon the services of the Church.
6. Pecuniary liberality.
7. Unity among the members.
8. A prayerful spirit.
9. An abiding faith in the presence of God with the Church. Where
these are to be found the Church will be strong. (D. Winters.)
The elements of the Church’s strength
I. THE GREATNESS
OF HER AIMS. Great aims enthused great souls, and the Church proposed the
conquest of the world for Christ.
II. THE MATCHLESS
POWER OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH, which may be illustrated by the distinctively
Christian doctrines of our moral ruin, redemption through a Divine-human
Saviour, the possibility of a regenerate life, and the blessedness of an
immortal hope.
III. But these
doctrines needed a voice; hence another element of the Church’s strength is A
WITNESSING MEMBERSHIP. All Christians may witness for the truth by the
testimony of the lips, and also by the silent but potent ministry of the life.
IV. Another mighty
force in the service of the Church is A CO-OPERATIVE PROVIDENCE.
V. THE ENDOWMENT
OF THE HOLY GHOST. (Bp. W. X. Winde.)
The supreme point of energy
Men can rouse themselves to action. We cannot live continuously in
ecstasy; we must live under ourselves, so to speak, or life will become a pain
and a failure. We are, however, to have periods of special effort, hours of
rapture, times of inspiration and sense of mightiness beyond all that is
ordinary. There is more power in man than he may be aware of, and he should
inquire what objects and pursuits are worthy of his enthusiastic devotion.
Drive a horse from home, and in the course of the day he will show weariness
which you may regard as a sign of utter exhaustion; but turn his head homeward,
and see what a change takes place! How willingly he runs! How swiftly! He has
“put on his strength”! Work for a person who is not a favourite, and the hands
soon tire: every effort is a weariness to the flesh, every thought wears the
mind; on the other hand, serve a person who is beloved, etc. Undertake
any engagement which does not excite the interest of the heart, and how soon it
becomes irksome. The mother waits upon her sick child, and wonders how she can
endure so much. The mystery is in the love. We are strong when we work in the
direction of our will. Where the will is right, the strength will assert
itself. The question is not one of muscle but of purpose. What objects, then,
are worthy of “all our strength, all our mind, and all our heart”? We may get
at the answer negatively as well as positively.
I. NO OBJECT WHICH
BEARS UPON THIS WORLD ONLY IS WORTHY OF THE SUPREME ENERGY OF MAN. Even in
secular affairs we work by laws of proportion and adaptation. If a man employed
a steam-engine to draw a cork, we should justly accuse him of wasting power. If
a man spent his days and nights in carving cherry-stones, we should say he was
wasting his life. We have a common saving--“the game is not worth the
candle”--showing that in common affairs we do recognize the law of proportion,
and the law that results do determine the value of processes. If, then, in the
lower, how much more in the higher! Think of a being like man spending his
lifetime in writing his name in the dust! There is a success which is not worth
securing. Suppose a man should get all the money he can possibly accumulate;
all the fame; all the luxury--what does it amount to?
II. SPIRITUAL
OBJECTS ARE ALONE WORTHY OF THE SUPREME ENERGY OF MAN. “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart,” etc.
1. They are akin to his own nature.
2. They touch every point of his being.
3. They prepare him for the solemnity and service of the future.
Boundless are the prospects of the spiritual thinker! His library, the
universe! His companions, the angels! His Teacher, God! In view of such
prospects, how time dwindles, and how earth passes as a wreath of smoke! The
spiritual thinker is independent of all the influences which make up the small
world of the materialist--his citizenship is in heaven.
III. THE FACT THAT
SPIRITUAL OBJECTS ALONE ARE WORTHY OF THE SUPREME ENERGY OF MAN SHOULD IMPEL TO
DECISIVE ACTION. Put on thy strength--
1. For the time is short.
2. For the enemy is on the alert.
3. For the Master is worthy. The text addresses a call to the Church.
The call is to activity. He who gives the call will give the grace. The Church
is not to be feeble and tottering; it is to be strong, valiant, heroic. He who
can do without the help of the strongest is graciously pleased to accept the
service of the meanest. (J. Parker, D.D.)
Effort gives strength
I. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY WAKEFULNESS. A slumbering life results in moral death.
II. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY ACTIVITY. Activity imparts physical strength. We have only to look, at the
compact and knotted lump of muscle on the blacksmith s forearm. The rower s
chest is expanded by his exertions. The practised wrestler grips with an
ironlike grasp the limbs of his opponent. Even a Samson is divested of his
prowess by lolling in the lap of a Delilah. We put on intellectual strength by
keeping the brain forces constantly moving. But most of all the moral and
spiritual nature is strengthened by exercise. Great is the power of habit. It
is a kind of second nature, and is the grand resultant of repeated acts.
III. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY DEVELOPMENT. Art thou but a bruised reed, put on thy strength! Hast thou but
one talent, put it out to usury. Moral and spiritual strength may be developed
to the latest hour of a Methuselah’s life, and eternity will be but an ampler
sphere for the enlargement of the soul’s vast powers.
IV. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY JOYFULNESS. Joy begets strength, and strength increases joy.
V. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY HOPEFULNESS. The despairing are weak; but the hopeful are strong. I will
endeavour, is the inspiring language of the hopeful. The Church may well be
hopeful, for God’s promise is given for her encouragement.
VI. PUT ON STRENGTH
BY UNITED PRAYER. The Church’s prosperous times are the praying times. The
praying man is the strong man. (W. Burrows, B.A.)
Strength increased by use
A lady was watching a potter at his work, whose one foot was kept
with “never-slackening speed turning at swift wheel round,” while the other
rested patiently on the ground. When the lady said to him, in a sympathizing
tone, “How tired your foot must be!” the man raised his eyes and said, “No,
ma’am; it isn’t the foot that works that’s tired; it’s the foot that stands.
That s it.” If you want to keep your strength, use it; if you want to get
tired, do nothing. (Christian Budget.)
The danger of inaction
A magnet is sometimes seen in a chemist’s laboratory, suspended
against a wall, and loaded heavily with weights. We ask the reason, and the
scientist replies, “The magnet was losing power, because it had not been used
for some time. I am restoring its force by giving it something to do.” (Sunday
School Chronicle.)
Verse 2
Shake thyself from the dust
Sin as dust
It is very often what we call little sins which mar the beauty of
the Church.
They are like dust. Dust comes imperceptibly, it settles down so silently, that
not an insect hears it fall; it is caused by our ordinary avocations and not by
exceptional events; and if neglected long, becomes thicker and thicker, till
all that is fair and beautiful is lost. “Shake thyself from the dust,” etc. (A.
Rowland, LL.B.)
“Arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem”
Rather, Arise, sit up, O Jerusalem. When Vespasian had subdued
Judaea money was stamped with a woman sitting in the dust, with this
inscription, “Judaea subacta.” (J. Trapp.)
Verse 3
For thus saith the Lord, Ye have mold yourselves for nought
Sold for nought; redeemed without price
“Ye have sold yourselves for nought.
” You got nothing by it, nor did
I. God considers
that when they by sin had sold themselves, He Himself, who had the prior, nay,
the sole title to them, did not increase His wealth by the price (Psalms 44:12). They did not so much as
pay their debts to Him with it. The Babylonians gave Him no thanks for them,
but rather reproached and blasphemed His name upon that account; and therefore
they, having so long had you for nothing, shall at last restore you for
nothing; you shall be redeemed without price, as was promised (chap. 45:13). (M.
Henry.)
Selling oneself for nought
It appears to have been no unusual thing amongst the ancient Jews
for a man who was sunk in debt and difficulties, and reduced to the extreme of
poverty, to sell himself, or to be sold by his creditors, as a bondsman for a
certain term of years. There seems to be an allusion to this circumstance in the
text before us. In its strict and primary sense it relates peculiarly to the
nation of the Jews, who by a long course of wicked and rebellious conduct had
sold themselves, as it were, into the hands of their enemies; that is to say,
their wickedness had been the immediate cause of their being delivered up by
God into the hands of the Babylonians, who had reduced them into abject
slavery. And they are said to have sold themselves “for nought,” inasmuch as
there was nothing in the fruits and consequences of their sin to compensate for
the miserable state into which it had reduced them. (A. Roberts, M.
A.)
Redeemed without money
Did the Lord perform His word? Yes; for, after they had remained
in their bondage during the time God had appointed it to last, He stirred up
the spirit of Cyrus, a heathen king, to set them free. And on what terms?
Captive exiles commonly pay dear for their deliverance. But what sum did Cyrus
ask when he gave the Jews their liberty? Nothing whatsoever. He literally sent
them home without the smallest recompense; without requiring or expecting
anything at their hands. “They were redeemed without money.” (A. Roberts, M.
A.)
Accusation and promise
A redemption, far more precious than the temporal redemption of
Israel from their Babylonish bondage, is to be considered as here hinted at.
I. THE AWFUL
ACCUSATION. It is twofold.
1. That we have sold ourselves. The figure here employed is used in
other passages,of Scripture, to express the conduct of the sinner in abandoning
himself to Satan s service. Thus of Ahab it is said, “he did sell himself to
work wickedness in the sight of the Lord;” and of the people whom he governed,
“they sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to
anger.” St. Paul adopts a similar expression, in reference to himself, “The law
is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.” In all these places the idea
under which the conduct of sinners is described is that of a man selling
himself for a slave. And under this guilt we are every one of us included.
2. That we have sold ourselves “for nought.”
II. THE MOST
GRACIOUS PROMISE OR PROPOSAL. “Ye shall be redeemed,” etc. “As freely as
you have given yourselves up to ruin, so freely am I ready to deliver you from
that ruin.” Considered in this light, in what a striking manner does my text
present to us the riches of God’s grace towards a ruined world! But to
comprehend this matter more distinctly, look at the Cross of Jesus! (A.
Roberts, M. A.)
Self-selling
The whole world is an emporium; buying and selling are going on
everywhere. The text refers to the sale of self.
I. It is the most
COMMON SALE in the emporium of the world. What do I mean by self? Not the body,
not the mere bundle of intellectual faculties, but the conscience, the moral ego,
the “inner man,” that which works the faculties and which will live when
the body is dust. Now, men are selling this manhood for a variety of things.
1. For pleasure. The voluptuary and the debauchee have sold it, and
it is gone far into the mud of sensuality.
2. For wealth. The worldling has sold it, and it is gone into the
miserly grub.
3. For fame. The aspirant for worldly honours and distinctions has
sold it, and it is lost in the rolling current of fashion.
II. It is the most
FOOLISH SALE in the emporium of the world. “Sold yourselves for nought.” The
man who has sold it far pleasure, what has he got? “Nought.” What is sensual
pleasure but the pleasure of animals at best? and this wears out as animal life
decays. “Desire faileth.” The man who has sold it for wealth, what has he got?
That which will soon “take wings and fly away.” “What shall it profit a man?”
etc. The man who has sold it for fame, what has he got? That which, if
aromatic to-day, may be a stench to-morrow, and never at any time self-satisfying.
Charles Lamb had fame, and what did he say? “I walk up and down, thinking I am
happy, but knowing I am not.”
III. It is the most
UNRIGHTEOUS SALE in the emporium of the world. No man has a right to sell his
soul. “All souls are Mine,” saith God. Reason says you have no right to sell
your soul; you are not self-produced nor self-sustained. Conscience says you
have no right to sell your soul; as you barter it away, it groans damnation at
you. God made the soul to investigate His works, adore His character and serve
His will. (Homilist.)
Man unregenerate and regenerate
I. WHAT IS THE
CONDITION OF MANKIND WHEN UNREGENERATE? In a state of sin, the text hath
represented us as selling ourselves for nought; where each word is emphatical,
and carries a peculiar sting in it.
1. We take upon us to drive a bargain where we have no propriety in
what we expose to sale. What the prophet here charges us with exposing to sale
is ourselves; and this, in other words, implies our souls, with all the
interest which they have elsewhere depending upon our behaviour. Now in these
our propriety is strictly and truly derivative and borrowed; it was God who
made us, and not we ourselves; and every faculty and every power wherewith He
hath entrusted us are employed injuriously whenever they run counter to His
will and pleasure.
2. Let us consider what we are doing when we are selling ourselves.
Our souls which were made to be immortal are the things we are bartering in
this foolish bargain. And when once we have parted with them, what would we not
give in exchange for them, to have them again, and save them?
3. The folly is yet farther aggravated by the consideration
whhereupon we are induced to this wretched bargain. For the text hath charged
us with “selling ourselves for nought.”
II. WHAT WHEN
REGENERATE? What Christ hath done for us in the affair of our redemption, by
cancelling the handwriting which lay against us, was on His part free grace and
bounty. Our redemption being conditional, proceed we to consider the terms
whereunto it is limited.
1. Repentance from dead works.
2. Faith.
3. A sincere obedience will naturally follow. (N. Marshall,
D.D.)
The sinner’s ruin and recovery
I. THE SOLEMN
STATEMENT.
II. A JOYFUL
PROMISE. “And ye shall be redeemed without money.”
1. This redemption could not be effected by human means.
2. Nor is this redemption provided by the law which the sinner has
transgressed.
3. It must be effected in a way that will secure the honour of the
Divine law, as well as the salvation of the sinner. There is redemption by
price, and redemption by power, and each is suited to our state.
4. The redemption of man was effected by Christ at a great price. “Ye
shall be redeemed without money.” As the misery to which the sinner was exposed
was infinite, so his deliverance required infinite means.
5. The effect of these sufferings is our redemption from captivity,
and deliverance from the curse of the law. By faith, therefore, in the
sacrifice of the Saviour deliverance is to be obtained. (Helps for the
Pulpit.)
Ye shall be redeemed
without money
The cheapness of moral redemption
Redemptions, social, commercial, and political, are generally very
costly things. Millions of lives have been sacrificed, and untold treasures of
gold expended in order to redeem from temporal bondage. But true moral
redemption--the redemption of the soul from error to truth, from selfishness to
benevolence, from the devil to God--is cheap. “Without money.”
I. THE MEANS OF
MORAL REDEMPTION COST NOTHING.
1. You have Christ for nothing, He has given Himself.
2. You have the Bible for nothing.
3. You have the Spirit for nothing. No man can excuse himself for his
moral bondage on the ground that he is too poor to obtain the means of
redemption.
II. THE LABOUR
INVOLVES NO SACRIFICE. Every moral bondsman must labour if he would be free,
there is no moral emancipation irrespective of individual effort. Each captive
must strike some hearty strokes ere his chains can be broken. But in this work
there is no effort involving secular sacrifice. It need not prevent a man
pursuing his ordinary avocations. He can be working out his freedom as well, if
not better, when cultivating his farm, plying his handicraft, pursuing his
merchandise, as alone in his chamber on his knees.
III. THE STRUGGLES
CONDUCE TO TEMPORAL PROSPERITY (Mt 1 Timothy 4:8). (Homilist.)
Verse 5
My name continually every day is blasphemed.
--
God pitiful, yet indignant
1. The captives are so dispirited that they cannot praise Him; but,
instead of that, they are continually howling, which grieves Him, and moves His
pity.
2. The natives are so insolent that they will not praise Him; but,
instead of that, they are continually blaspheming, which affronts Him and moves
His anger. (M. Henry.)
Blasphemy
I. ITS NATURE.
II. ITS GUILT.
III. ITS AWFUL
PREVALENCE.
IV. ITS CERTAIN
PUNISHMENT. (J. Lyre, D. D.)
Blaspheming God’s name
I. WHAT IS MEANT
BY THE NAME OF THE LORD? His perfections, titles, etc.
II. THE VARIOUS
WAYS IN WHICH IT IS BLASPHEMED.
1. By denying His existence (Psalms 10:4; Psalms 14:1; Psalms 53:1).
2. By denying His sovereignty (Job 21:14-15; Exodus 5:2).
3. By denying His truth (Genesis 3:4; Isaiah 36:15; 2 Peter 3:3-4).
4. By denying His power (2 Kings 7:2; 2 Kings 18:30; 2 Kings 18:32-35; Psalms 78:19-20).
5. By denying His omnipotence and omniscience (Job 22:13-14; Psalms 10:11; Psalms 73:11; Psalms 94:7; Isaiah 29:15; Ezekiel 8:12).
6. By accusing Him of injustice (Jeremiah 12:1; Ezekiel 18:25; Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3:15).
7. By murmuring against His dispensations (Isaiah 45:9; Exodus 14:11-12).
8. By false swearing, oaths and curses, etc.
III. THE EXCUSES
USUALLY MADE FOR IT. Ignorance, custom, example, surprise, passion,
confirmation of what is said, meaning no harm, inconsistencies of professors,
etc. (2 Samuel 12:14; Ezekiel 36:20; Romans 2:24; 2 Peter 2:2).
IV. THE EVIL
CONSEQUENCES OF IT. Destroys the little remains of the fear of God. Leads to
the disobedience of all His commands. Sets a horrid example to others,
especially to the young.
V. THE POWERFUL
ARGUMENTS AGAINST IT. The Lord is our glorious and lawful Sovereign, who sees
and hears all things. He is a holy and jealous God, before whose bar we must
appear, He is fully able to punish, and has assured us that He will (2 Kings 19:22; 2 Kings 19:28, Isaiah 37:23; Isaiah 37:36-38;Ezekiel 20:27; Ezekiel 20:33; Ezekiel 35:12-14). (A. Tucker.)
Verse 7
How beautiful upon the mountains
Messengers of redemption
Messengers coming over the mountains announce to Jerusalem the
people’s redemption from Babylon, and the advent of Jehovah’s eternal kingdom.
(A. B. Davidson, D.D.)
Beautiful feet
The exclamation does not refer to the pretty sound of their
footsteps, but their feet are as if they were winged, because it is a joyful
message which they bring. (F. Delitzsch, D.D.)
The Gospel of the swift-footed messengers
The Gospel of the swift-footed messengers is the Gospel of the
kingdom of God which is at hand. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Good tidings of good
I. THE PRIMARY
MEANING. The passage is supposed to refer to the sending forth the heralds of
the conquering Persian to proclaim liberty to the Jews that groaned under
captivity in Babylon (Ezra 1:2-3.) In order fully to understand
the joy and gladness which such a proclamation as this must necessarily bring
to the poor Jew mourning in captivity, we must have some conception of their
condition, and the feelings that swelled in their hearts during that period of
degradation and suffering. Of this, some idea may be formed from the
lamentations of Jeremiah, which speak the language of the believing Israelite,
mourning over the fall of Zion; and again, in Psalms 137:1-9, we find the captive Jews
describing their bitter sorrows. Even as the prophet Isaiah foretold, this
deliverance came to the people of God, great and sudden; but God had promised,
and He surely brought it to pass. In vain the might and power of Babylon interposed;
the dominion and empire of Babylon fell for ever, even in one hour, because the
day for the redemption of Israel was fully come.
II. This passage
has A SECONDARY FULFILMENT far more glorious and extensive, in the sending
forth those who shall preach good tidings of salvation to all the ends of the
earth; and the message thus conveyed has an analogy with that proclaimed by the
heralds of Cyrus; for it bears to man--fallen and degraded, the captive of sin,
fast bound in slavish chains--the tidings of deliverance. The blowing of the
trumpet of the Gospel tells of restoration to the forfeited inheritance. It
proclaims a full and yet the only mode of deliverance to enslaved man; the only
mode of reconciliation with an offended God. The state, then, of the multitude
of the heathen should excite our earnest attention, and rouse our warmest
sympathies.
III. THE MODE WHICH
GOD HAS BEEN PLEASED TO APPOINT FOR MAKING THE JOYFUL SOUND KNOWN TO MAN. The
preaching of the Word of God by his fellow man. The message must be received by
faith.
IV. THE CHARACTER
OF THE PREACHER SHOULD CORRESPOND WITH HIS MESSAGE, that he should show forth
in his life and conversation, that the glorious tidings he was commissioned to
convey to others had been received by himself. Pray that the feet of the
missionaries in foreign lands may be beautiful in holiness and love.
V. THE AUTHORITY
ON WHICH THIS PROCLAMATION IS MADE. It was the conqueror of Babylon, the
victorious Persian, that gave liberty to the captive Jew; it is the Conqueror
of death and hell, the risen and triumphant Saviour, who gave commandment that
the Gospel should be proclaimed to all people. (C. Caulfield, M.A.)
The annunciation of peace
1. The tidings of the deliverance from Babylon were joyful. But the
prophet sees more joyful tidings than these, and a mightier deliverance from a
more terrible bondage than even that of Babylon.
2. It is not said, “How lovely are the messengers! but “How beautiful
are their feet!” Not what they are in themselves, but what they bring, as sent
from God, and running in obedience to Him, is here presented to the view.
3. Observe how the message is dwelt upon! as if it was so full of
everything joyful and good that words fail to express it. It is “good tidings,”
“peace,” “good tidings-of good,” “salvation.” What a mine is there here for him
who has eyes to see, a mind to understand, a soul to love, and a heart to
overflow with gratitude!
4. Observe how the message ends. It is a glorious note of jubilee. It
is a veritable shout of joy. It is a summing up in very deed of the glorious
news. It is a pledge of peace and of salvation with which the good news is
concluded: “Thy God reigneth.” (R. W. Close, M.A.)
The peace of the Gospel
1. The rich blessing, to which the text refers in such emphatic
language, is conveyed in that single, but comprehensive word, “Peace.”
2. To whom, then, is the word of this salvation sent? To whom is the
minister of the Gospel commissioned to preach the message of peace? The very
mission implies the existence of previous enmity. With whom has God this
controversy? Who stand in need of so free an amnesty? Where are the objects of
His unmerited grace?
3. Whose heart should not burn within him at the thoughts of his
privilege in being employed on such a ministration of love?
4. Let me add one word on the responsibility of those to whom the
message of reconciliation is sent. (C. R. Sumner, D.D.)
Advent
I. THE STATE
IMPLIED in the words before us is to be collected from the view of their
primary meaning. They originally refer to the Jews captive in Babylon, banished
from their country, and deprived of the ordinances of Divine worship, under the
displeasure of the Almighty, and oppressed by a haughty and idolatrous enemy.
But this is only a faint emblem of that spiritual captivity in which mankind
are naturally involved, and from which the Son of God came to deliver us.
II. IN WHAT MANNER
IS THIS GRACIOUS DISPENSATION DESCRIBED? As the proclamation of good tidings,
as the message of reconciliation and peace, as the publication of deliverance
and salvation.
III. We are now, in
some measure, prepared to enter into the spirit of THE EXCLAMATION and to
participate in the joyful reception of the message which it announces.
Practical remarks:
1. The true nature of the Gospel. It is not, as some would represent
it, a mere system of morality. It comprises this, but infinitely more. It
contains, first and principally, the offer of parson to the guilty, of
deliverance to the oppressed, of salvation to the lost.
2. If such, however, be the nature of the Gospel, how highly should
we value it, and how anxious should we be to profit by it!
3. While we rejoice in the good tidings which have been proclaimed to
ourselves, let us pray that the multitudes of our fellow-creatures, to whom
they have not yet been announced, may speedily hear the same delightful sound;
and may exult in the joyful message of the Gospel, until “all flesh” shall at
length “see the salvation of God,” and “the whole earth be filled with His
glory!” (Hugh Pearson, D.D.)
The best news
When bad news is abroad, this is good news; and when good news is
abroad, this is the best news: that Zion’s God reigns. (M. Henry.)
The joy of the Christian ministry
I. THE MINISTER OF
CHRIST IS HELD IN COMMUNION WITH THE GREATEST REALITIES IN THE UNIVERSE. The
Hebrew prophets were strenuous men, living in the coils of battle, wrestling
with great serpents, struggling up bare cliffs, and giving their lives for the
ransom of the people; but we cannot doubt that they were happy men as well,
because of the intellectual and spiritual glories in which their lives were
set, and, their cheering and inspiring comradeship with the wonderful words of
God. The “Hymn to the Sun” and the “Sermon to the Birds” of St. Francis of
Assisi bear witness to a soul that was enriched, ennobled, purified,
simplified, magnified, and made to ripple with gladness and to sing the songs
of victory and peace because of perpetual communion with the high and holy
thoughts of its heavenly Father. The artist whose soul is seeing visions of the
great creations of Raphael and Angelo, the general on the eve of a campaign for
the emancipation of a people, the philanthropist pouring out his tears upon the
miseries and sins of the world, will sleep on planks and find them soft as
down, will eat coarse food and get good blood out of it, and so far forget
themselves in their sublime consecrations and so populate with their holiest
passions the thought-world and spirit-world within them as to realize
Hawthorne’s parable of “the Great Stone Face,” and grow into the image of the
mountain on which their gaze is fixed. So it is with the preacher, and more so.
He is surrounded by an imperial guard of holiest inspirations.
II. THE CHRISTIAN
MINISTRY IS BOUND TO WIN.
III. THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
HAS THE BULK OF GOOD MEN IN THE WORLD BEHIND IT, CHEERING IT ON. (W.
J. McKittrick, D.D.)
The missionary theme
Dr. Judson when at home on a visit, addressed a large meeting, his
theme being “The Preciousness of Christ,” and sat down, deeply affected. On his
way home a friend said to him, “The people are much disappointed; they wonder
you did not talk of something else.” “Why, what did they want?” said the
missionary. “I presented to the best of my ability the most interesting subject
in the world.” “But,” said the man, “they have heard that before; they wanted
something new from a man who has just come from the antipodes.” “Then,” said
the great man, kindling, “I am glad to have it to say that a man from the
antipodes had nothing better to tell them than the wondrous story of the dying
love of Christ.” (The Wellspring.)
Verses 8-12
Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice
The return from exile
From the glowing periods of this paragraph we can reconstruct the
picture of the return from exile, as it presented itself to the seer.
It was notably the return of the Lord to Zion (Isaiah 52:8, R.V.). The stately
procession moves slowly and fearlessly. It is not the escape of a band of
fugitive slaves, dreading pursuit and recapture: “Ye shall not go out in haste,
neither shall ye go by flight.” Before it speed the messengers, appearing on
the sky-line of the mountains of Zion, with good tidings of good, publishing
peace, and publishing salvation. The main body is composed of white-robed
priests, bearing with reverent care the holy vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar
carried from the temple, which Belshazzar introduced with mockery into his
feast, but which Cyrus restored. Their number and weight are carefully
specified, 5, 400 in all (Ezra 1:7-11). As the procession emerges
from its four months of wilderness march on the mountains which were about
Jerusalem, her watchmen, who had long waited for the happy moment, lift up
their voice; with the voice together do they sing. They see eye to eye. And the
waste places of Jerusalem, with their charred wood and scorched stones, break
forth into joy and sing together. The valleys and hills become vocal,
constituting an orchestra of praise; and the nations of the world are depicted
as coming to behold, and acknowledge that the Lord had made bare His holy arm.
But they do not see--what is hidden from all but anointed eyes--that the Lord
goes before His people, and comes behind as their rearward; so that their
difficulties are surmounted by Him before they reach them, and no foe can
attack them from behind. The literal fulfilment of this splendid prevision is
described in the Book of Ezra. There we find the story of the return of a
little band of Jews, 1,700 only in number. They halted at the River Ahava, the
last station before they entered the desert, for three days, to put themselves
with fasting and prayer into God’s hand. They had no experience of desert
marching. Their caravan was rendered unwieldy by the number of women and
children in it. They had to thread a district infested by wild bands of robbers.
But they scorned to ask for an escort of soldiers and horsemen to protect them,
so sure were they that their God went before them to open up the way, and came
behind to defend against attack. In the midst of the march were priests and
Levites, with their sacred charge of which Ezra had said, “Watch and keep them,
until ye weigh them in the chambers of the house of the Lord.” (F. B.
Meyer, B.A.)
Expectation and accomplishment
In several respects there seems a falling short between the
radiant expectations of the prophet, and the actual accomplishment in the story
of Ezra: but we must remember that it is the business of the historian to
record the facts, rather than the emotions that coloured them, as the warm
colours of the sun colour the hard, grey rocks. And is it not always so, that
through our want of faith and obedience we come short of the fulness of
blessing which our God has prepared for us? (F. B.Meyer, B. A. )
Eye to eye
“Eye to eye do they behold the Lord’ s return to Zion.” “Eye to
eye” is face to face with the event. (A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Eye to eye
The expression plainly intimates the clear and satisfying
manifestations of the presence and glory of Jehovah to be enjoyed by His
servants at the period wherein the foundations of the Messiah’s kingdom were to
be laid. (R. Macculloch.)
Verse 9-10
Break forth into joy
The return of the Jewish nation
I.
CONSIDER
CERTAIN CHANGES WHICH SHALL HAVE TAKEN PLACE AMONG THE GENTILES OF CHRISTENDOM,
AT, OR ABOUT, THE ESTABLISHMENT OF
THE JEWISH NATION IN THEIR OWN LAND (Matthew 13:24-30). The signal destruction
of all false, hypocritical, unbelieving professors of religion, here called
“the children of the wicked one” or “the tares;” and, secondly, the gathering
in of the elect members of Christ’s mystical body, or the gathering of “the
wheat into the barn.”
II. THE BLESSING
WHICH THE JEWISH NATION WILL PROVE TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH. It appears
that the plan and purpose of God, as revealed in His Word, is, after having
finished the dispensation of the Gentiles as He finished the dispensation of
the Jews, and having “concluded all in unbelief,” the period will then arrive
when, according to the language of Paul, “He will have mercy upon all.”
III. THE NATURE AND
DURATION OF THIS BLESSING.
1. As to the nature of the blessing. This is nothing more nor less
than a true and saving conversion, terminating in salvation. Not a bringing of
them back to the state in which Adam was before his fall; not a grafting them
into the mystical body of Christ; but a true, a sound conversion from all that
is evil, and the full enjoyment of God s great salvation.
2. As to the duration of this blessing. With reference to converted
individuals the effect will be eternal: but there will be a limit to this state
of things as to the nations of the earth. (H. McNeile, M. A.)
Matter for joy and praise
Those that share in mercies ought to join in praises. Here is
matter for joy and praise.
I. GOD’S PEOPLE
WILL HAVE THE COMFORT OF THIS SALVATION and what is the matter of our rejoicing
ought to be the matter of our thanksgiving.
II. GOD WILL HAVE
THE GLORY OF IT (Isaiah 52:10).
III. ALL THE WORLD
WILL HAVE THE BENEFIT OF IT. “All the ends of the earth,” etc. (M.
Henry.)
Verse 10
The Lord hath made bare His holy arm
God’s arm made bare
When the heroes of old prepared for the fight they put on their
armour; but when God prepares for battle He makes bare His arm.
Man has to look two ways--to his own defence, as well as to the offence of his
enemy; God hath but one direction in which to cast His eye--the overthrow of
His foeman; and He disregards all measures of defence, and scorns all armour.
He “makes bare” His arm in the sight of all the people. When men would do their
work in earnest, too, they sometimes strip themselves, like that warrior of
old, who, when he went to battle with the Turks, would never fight them except
with the bare arm. “Such things as they,” said he, “I need not fear; they have
more reason to fear my bare arm than I their scimitar.” Men feel that they are
prepared for a work when they have cast away their cumbrous garments. And so
the prophet represents the Lord as laying aside for awhile the garments of His
dignity, and making bare His arm, that He may do His work in earnest, and
accomplish His purpose for the establishment of His Church. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
The great revival
I. THE CAUSE OF A
TRUE REVIVAL. The Holy Spirit. While this is the only actual cause, yet there
are instrumental causes; and the main instrumental cause of a great revival
must be the bold, faithful, fearless preaching of the truth as it is in Jesus.
Added to this, there must be the earnest prayers of the Church.
II. THE
CONSEQUENCES OF A REVIVAL OF RELIGION. The minister begins to be warmed. The
members of the Church grow more serious. Family duties are better attended to;
the home circle is brought under better culture. There is an inquirers’ meeting
held. The revival of the Church then touches the rest of society.
III. A CAUTION. “Let
all things be done decently, and in order.” Distinguish between man and man.
While, during a revival of religion, a very large number of people will be
really converted, there will be a very considerable portion who will be merely
excited with animal excitement, and whose conversion will not he genuine. Take
care, ye that are officers in the Church, when ye see the people stirred up,
that ye exercise still a holy caution, lest the Church become lowered in its
standard of piety by the admission of persons not truly saved.
IV. With these
words of caution, I shall now STIR YOU UP TO SEEK OF GOD A GREAT REVIVAL OF
RELIGION throughout the length and breadth of this land. The Lord God hath sent
us a blessing. One blessing is the earnest of many. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
All the ends of the earth
shall see the salvation of our God
Tidings of salvation to the ends of the earth
I. THE SALVATION
OF GOD. “Salvation” carries our meditations direct unto the names and the
offices of Him, of whom it hath been said, “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for
He shall save His people from their sins.” And in this connection the whole
scheme of mercy and eternal life bursts at once upon our view.
1. It is a great salvation.
2. An everlasting salvation.
3. A complete salvations.
4. A salvation all of God and of grace.
II. THE CERTAINTY
OF THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THIS PROMISE, as an encouragement to us to do our
duty. If “all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God,” an
imperious necessity is laid upon us to favour every opportunity which offers of
sending the report of this salvation to all parts of the earth. The truth of
the promise, and the certainty of its accomplishment, might be argued--
1. From the Divine purposes taken in connection with the first
promise.
2. From the settlement with Abraham respecting the coming of his
promised seed.
3. From the style of the prophets, and the expectations which they
excite.
4. From the progress of Christianity through the world, in defiance
of all the opposition which has been combined against it. (W. Taylor.)
Verse 11-12
Depart ye
A peremptory, yet encouraging call
1.
Thus
peremptorily were the Jewish exiles called home. Nearly three generations had
fled since their fathers had been forcibly settled on the plains of Shinar; but
during that period the temporal lot of the Jews had been gradually bettering.
Time had healed many wounds, a milder administration had weakened the memory of
many sorrows. In “the strange land,” strange no longer, homes had been
gathered, wealth accumulated, honours won. The land of their fathers was far
away, was personally known to few, and lay on the other side of a pathless
wilderness. To men so circumstanced, the call to depart was far from welcome.
Many ties must be severed if that call were obeyed; many sacrifices made, much
travail endured. The present good seemed far better than the future. Besides,
who did not know, at least by report, something of the perils of that barren
waste over which their march must be made? Who could ensure them, during the
progress of that march, against serious harm and loss? Who could demonstrate
the certain gain to the majority of exchanging Babylon for Jerusalem, the level
land of Shinar for the hill country of Judah? Thus, excuses for remaining
sprung readily to their lips; difficulties in obeying the summons grew palpably
before their eyes. It was an unwelcome demand, and therefore seemed impossible.
2. But if the prophet s call were peremptory, it was not unsupported
by arguments of the weightiest kind. However difficult, the separation must be
made, the departure undertaken; but there need be no hurry in their flight, as
when Israel went forth from Egypt. The preparation might be deliberate and
careful, but one end must be kept steadily in view--return to Palestine. Make
all just allowances, meet all just claims, settle all needful matters of
business; but still, Prepare to depart. Be ready to leave behind all taint of
idolatry. And yet, Take heart, ye fearful ones, and be of good courage. The
desert may be trackless, but God shall lead you. The perils of the journey may
be numerous, but God shall defend you. The nomadic tribes may harass your
hindmost companies, but God shall be your rearward. Such is the interpretation
of the original purpose of the prophet s stirring words. (J. J. Goadby.)
Spiritual progress
Let us take these words as helping to illustrate some of the
broader features of spiritual progress.
I. SPIRITUAL
PROGRESS DEMANDS SEPARATION AND SACRIFICE. What are some of these things from
which we must separate ourselves, even at the cost of sacrifice, if spiritual
progress is to be made?
1. It is no uncommon thing to find an easy contentment with the truth
already attained. The conceit begotten of little knowledge is a fatal bar to
progress. The voice of truth may call loudly at our door, “Depart ye; go ye out
from thence;” but to heed that voice sacrifice is inevitable. There is no other
method of attaining large spiritual advantage than the destruction of our
ignorant self-complacency.
2. Spiritual progress largely depends upon the renunciation of the
idea of the present perfection of our character. Many would start back at the
notion of laying to claim “being already perfect” who virtually live as though
it were the first article of their belief. They merely dream over the
possibility of improvement. In some cases the error is traceable to the
mistakes committed at the very beginning of their spiritual life. Conversion is
made “the be-all and the end-all” of their religion. Life seems to travel
upward until it reaches that point, and to travel downward ever afterward.
3. But them is another form in which error crops out in older men.
For example, when all the inspiration of life is drawn from the past, not with
a view of further advancement, but rather as an apology for present repose.
“Our best inspiration is not gained from what is behind, but from what is
before, and what is above.”
4. Still further, no spiritual progress is possible unless we are
willing to give up our personal indolence.
II. SPIRITUAL
PROGRESS TOLERATES NO DELAY BUT THAT WHICH IS SPENT IN PREPARATION. It would
have been a strange perversion of the prophet’s words if the Jews had regarded
the assurance that “they should not go out with haste, neither by flight,” as
teaching that they were to protract their preparations indefinitely, protract
them so as ultimately to relinquish their journey. They rather encourage them,
while not neglecting the judicious settlement of their affairs, to make
suitable provision for their march across the wilderness. There need be neither
bustle nor confusion, since their exodus will not be either sudden or stealthy.
It is Cyrus who reigns, not Pharaoh. But still, it is a journey for which they
are to prepare, not a lengthened residence in Babylon. The bearing of all this,
as an illustration of spiritual progress, it is not very difficult to see. The
delay which is spent in preparation is progress. This may spring, for example,
from a careful acquisition of Divine truth. The same thing holds good in regard
to character. We cannot force maturity, but we can prepare for it; and all such
preparation hastens the desired consummation. Before the Jew reached the land
of promise, every stage between Babylon and Jerusalem had to be faithfully
traversed. There are stages, also, in the development of character, no one of
which can be omitted without subsequent loss. Seasons of suffering of enforced
idleness, of dark and apparently irreparable bereavement, are some of the
necessary elements out of which real character is born. The time consumed by
such discipline is not delay, but progress. All systems, therefore, which
attempt to force maturity are as delusive as they are mischievous. Christian
work furnishes another illustration of the same general truth. Bracing
ourselves up for present duty, and mastering it, is the best qualification for
future success.
III. SPIRITUAL
PROGRESS IS UNDER DIVINE DIRECTION. “The Lord will go before you.” Here was
encouragement for the timid Jew. As a general leads his army, and a shepherd
his flock, so will Jehovah “go before” the returning exile. Nay more: He shall
lead them as a conqueror and a king. But observe more particularly--
1. God has a perfect knowledge of our journey.
2. God is ever near. Whatever the stage, and whatever the necessities
of the march, He was nigh at hand, even to the ancient Jew. Much closer has He
now come to us, He is Immanuel. Here, then, is most powerful stimulus to the
flagging Christian.
3. He never leads us where He has not Himself already been. Are we
severely tested? “He was tempted in all points like as we are.” Are we finding
that maturity can only come through travail of soul? “He was made perfect
through sufferings.” He asks us to undertake no difficult service without first
showing us His own obedience. When, therefore, murmurs arise within us, and
rebellious feelings agitate and disturb, let this be the sufficient check of
them all--“It is enough for the disciple to be as his Master.”
4. He is ever before us. We have One in advance of us who knows the
possibilities of our nature; and while never overtaxing us, He expects no
relaxation of our effort. Let us, therefore, forget the things that are behind,
and reach forth unto those that are before, “looking unto Jesus, the Leader and
Perfecter of our faith.”
IV. SPIRITUAL
PROGRESS IS ASSURED OF DIVINE PROTECTION. “The God of Israel shall be your
rereward.” The “rereward” is the hindmost part of the army, where the reserves
are stationed. By this arrangement various important ends are served. For one
thing, the stragglers who drop out of the line during a long and toilsome march
are effectually gathered up and saved. For another, the army is better prepared
to meet unexpected attack by being able rapidly to change its front. “The God
of Israel shall be your rereward.” Here was the pledge of security for their
march across that desert which swarmed, as it swarms now, with scores of robber
tribes who have this in common, that they are all equally agile, all equally
thirsty for plunder, and all equally unscrupulous. Here, also, lies our truest
security in spiritual progress. “The God of Israel is our rereward.”
1. There will, therefore, be no surprises which we are not able to
meet, no sudden attack from which He will not prove a sufficient Defender. Our
sharpest vigilance will not always serve us; and while sweeping the horizon in
one direction, our present danger may approach from another.
2. Then protection is afforded against permanent relapse. If we look
forward, our Defender is there. If we look backward, behold, He is there.
3. Then there is a reserve of power and of available help which no
saint has ever fully tested. (J. J. Goadby.)
The march through, the desert-world to the city of God
We may learn some of those qualities which should characterize us
in this march.
I. THERE SHOULD BE
PERPETUAL EXODUS. In all lives there are Babylons, which have no claim on the
redeemed of Jehovah. We may have entered them, not without qualms of
conscience; but, as time has passed, our reluctance has been overcome. A
comradeship has grown up between us and one from whose language and ways we
once shrank in horror. An amusement now fascinates us, which we regarded with
suspicion and conscientious scruple. A habit of life dominates us from which we
once shrank as from infection. A method of winning money now engrosses us; but
we can well remember how difficult it was to coax conscience to engage in it. These
are Babylons, which cast their fatal spell aver the soul, and against which the
voice of God urgently proteste: “Depart ye, depart ye! go ye out from thence.”
When stepping out from Babylon to an unwonted freedom, we naturally shrink back
before the desert march, the sandy wastes, the ruined remnants of happier days.
But we shall receive more than we renounce.
II. IT SHOULD BE
WITHOUT HASTE. “Ye shall not go out in haste.” There are many English proverbs
which sum up the observation of former days and tell how foolish it is to be in
a hurry. But, outside of God, there is small chance of obeying these wise
maxims. The age is so feverish. No great picture was ever painted in a hurry.
No great book was ever written against time. No great discovery was ever
granted to the student who could not watch in Nature’s antechamber for the
gentle opening of her door. The greatest naturalist of our time devoted eight
whole years almost entirely to barnacles. Well might John Foster long for the
power of touching mankind with the spell of “Be quiet, be quiet.” In this our
Lord is our best exemplar. This hastelessness was possible to Israel so long as
the people believed that God was ordering, preceding, and following their
march.
III. WE MUST BE AT
PEACE ABOUT THE WAY. In early life our path seems clearly defined. We must
follow the steps of others, depend on their maxims, act on their advice. It is
only when the years grow upon us that this sense of “waylessness,” as it has
been termed, oppresses us. So the exiles must have felt when they left Ahava
and started on the desert march. At such times the lips of Christ answer, “I am
the Way.” His temper, His way of looking at things, His will, resolves all
perplexities. All this was set forth in the figure before us. “The Lord will go
before yon.” When the people came out of Egypt, Jehovah preceded the march in
the Shechinah cloud that moved softly above the ark. There was nothing of this
sort when Ezra led the first detachment of exiles to Zion; but, though unseen,
the Divine Leader was equally in the forefront of the march. Thus it is also in
daily experience. Jesus is ever going before us in every call to duty, every
prompting to self-sacrifice, every summons to comfort, help and save.
IV. WE MUST BE
PURE. “Touch no unclean thing. Be ye clean,” etc. Those vessels were
very precious. The enumeration is made with minute accuracy Ezra 8:26). But they were above all
things holy unto the Lord. Thus they passed across the desert, holy men bearing
the holy vessels. Through this world, unseen by mortal eye, a procession is
passing, treading its way across continents of time. It bears holy vessels.
Testimony to God’s truth, the affirmation of things unseen and eternal, the
announcement of the facts of redemption--such are our sacred charge. What
manner of persons ought we not to be, to whom so high a ministry is entrusted!
Before that procession we are told that waste places would break forth into
song. It is a fair conception, as though their feet changed the aspect of the
territories through which they passed. What was desert when they came to it,
was paradise as they left it! What were ruins, became walls! Where there had
been hostility, suspicion and misunderstanding, there came concord and peace,
the watchmen seeing eye to eye. This is a true portraiture of the influence of
the religion of Jesus over the hearts and lives of men. But let us never forget
the importance of prayer, as a necessary link in the achieving of these
marvels. (F. B. Meyer, B.A.)
Marching orders
We have here, under highly metaphorical forms, the grand ideal of
the Christian life.
I. We have it set
forth as A MARCH OF WARRIOR PRIESTS. Note that phrase, “Ye that bear the
vessels of the Lord.” The returning exiles as a whole are so addressed, but the
significance of the expression, and the precise metaphor which it is meant to
convey, may be questionable. The word rendered “vessels” is a wide expression,
meaning any kind of equipment, and in other places of the Old Testament the
phrase rendered is translated “armour-bearers.” Such an image would be quite
congruous with the context here, in which warlike figures abound. And if so,
the picture would be that of an army on the march, each man carrying some of
the weapons of the great Captain and Leader. But perhaps the other explanation
is more likely, which regards “the vessels of the Lord”as being an allusion to
the sacrificial and other implements of worship, which, in the first Exodus,
the Levites carried on the march. And if that be the meaning, then the figure
here is that of a company of priests. I venture to throw the two ideas
together, and to say that we may here find an ideal of the Christian community
as being a great company of warrior priests on the march, guarding a sacred
deposit which has been committed to their charge.
1. Look, then, at that combination in the true Christian character of
the two apparently opposite ideas of warrior and priest. It suggests that all
the life is to be conflict, and that all the conflict is to be worship. It
suggests, too, that the warfare is worship, that the office of the priest and
of the warrior are one and the same thing, and both consist in their mediating
between man and God, bringing God in His Gospel to men, and bringing men
through their faith to God. The combination suggests, likewise, how, in the
true Christian character, there ought ever to be blended, in strange harmony,
the virtues of the soldier and the qualities of the priest; compassion for the
ignorant and them that are out of the way with courage; meekness with strength;
a quiet placable heart, hating strife, joined to a spirit that cheerily fronts
every danger and is eager for the conflict, in which evil is the foe and God
the helper.
2. Note, further, that in this phrase we have the old, old metaphor
of life as a march, but so modified as to lose all its melancholy and weariness
and to turn into an elevating hope.
3. Again, this metaphor suggests that this company of marching,
priests have in charge a sacred, deposit. Paul speaks of the “glorious Gospel
which was committed to my trust.” And, in like manner, to us Christians is
given the charge of God’s great weapons of warfare, with which He contends with
the wickedness of the world--viz, that great message of salvation through, and
in, the Cross of Jesus Christ. And there are committed to us, further, to guard
sedulously, and to keep bright and untarnished and undiminished in weight and
worth, the precious treasures of the Christian life of communion with Him. And
we may give another application to the figure and think of the solemn trust
which is put into our hands, in the gift of our own selves, which we ourselves
can either waste, and stain, and lose, or can guard and polish into vessels
meet for the Master’s use. Gathering, then, these ideas together, we take this
as the ideal of the Christian community--a company of priests on the march,
with a sacred deposit committed to their trust.
II. THE SEPARATION
THAT BEFITS THE MARCHING COMPANY. “Depart ye, depart ye! go ye out from
thence,” etc. In the historical fulfilment of my text, separation from
Babylon was the preliminary of the march. Our task is not so simple; our
separation from Babylon must be the constant accompaniment of our march. The
order in the midst of which we live is not organized-on the fundamental laws of
Christ’s kingdom. And wheresoever there are men that seek to order their lives
as Christ would have them to be ordered, the first necessity for them is, “Come
out from amongst them, and be ye separate.” This separation will not only be
the result of union with Jesus Christ, but it is the condition of all progress
in our union with Him. They that are to travel far and fast have to travel
light. Many a caravan has broken down in African exploration for no other
reason than because it was too well provided with equipments, and so collapsed
of its own,, weight. Therefore, our prophet, in the context, says, “Touch no
unclean thing.” There is one of the differences between the new Exodus and the
old. When Israel came out of Egypt they spoiled the Egyptians, and came away
laden with gold and jewels; but it is dangerous work bringing anything away
from Babylon with us. Its treasure has to be left if we would march close
behind our Lord and Master. We must touch “no unclean thing,” because our hands
are to be filled with the “vessels of the Lord.” It is man’s world that we have
to leave, but the loftiest sanctity requires no abstention from anything that
God has ordained.
III. THE PURITY
WHICH BECOMES THE BEARERS OF THE VESSELS OF THE LORD. “Be ye clean.” The
priest’s hands must be pure, which figure, being translated, is, transparent
purity of conduct and character is demanded from all Christian men who profess
to carry God’s sacred deposit. You cannot carry it unless your hands are clean,
for all the gifts that God gives us glide from our grasp if our hands be
stained. Monkish legends tell of sacred pictures and vessels which, when an
impure touch was laid upon them, refused to be lifted from the place, and grew
there, as rooted, in spite of all efforts to move them. Whosoever seeks to hold
the gifts of God in His Gospel in dirty hands will fail miserably, in the
attempt; and all the joy and peace of communion, the assurance of God’s love,
and the calm hope of immortal life, will vanish as a soap bubble, grasped by a
child, turns into a drop of foul water on its palm, if we try to hold them in
foul hands. And, further, remember no priestly service and no successful
warfare for Jesus Christ is possible, except on the same condition. One sin, as
well as one sinner, destroys much good, and a little inconsistency on the part
of us professing Christians neutralizes all the efforts that we may ever try to
put forth for Him.
IV. THE LEISURELY
CONFIDENCE WHICH SHOULD MARK THE MARCH THAT IS GUARDED BY GOD. “Ye shall not go
out with haste, nor go by flight,” etc. This is partly an analogy and
partly a contrast with the story of the first Exodus. The unusual word
translated “with haste” is employed in the Pentateuch to describe the hurry and
bustle, not altogether due to the urgency of the Egyptians, but partly also due
to the terror of Israel with which that first flight was conducted. And, says
my text, in this new coming out of bondage there shall be no need for tremor or
perturbation, lending wings to any man’s feet; but, with quiet deliberation,
like that with which Peter was brought out of his dungeon, because God knew
that He could bring him out safely, the new Exodus shall be carried on. “He
that believeth shall not make haste.” There is a very good reason why we need
not be in any haste due to alarm. For, as in the first Exodus, the guiding
pillar led the march, and sometimes, when there were foes behind, as at the Red
Sea, shifted its place to the rear, so “the Lord will go before you, and the
God of Israel will be your rereward.” (A Maclaren, D.D.)
All the life for God
I have seen in a shop window, “The bulk of our goods are of
English manufacture.” Not the bulk only, but all our life must be given over to
God. (E. E. Marsh.)
Verse 12
For ye shall not go out with haste
Seemly and unseemly haste
They were to go with a diligent haste, not to lose time nor linger
as Lot in Sodom; but they were not to go with a diffident, distrustful haste,
as if they were afraid of being pursued, as when they came out of Egypt, or of
having the orders for their release recalled and countermanded.
(M. Henry.)
The Lord shall go before you
No beaten rout of fugitives, but a band of kingly conquerors,
robed and crowned, will assemble in heaven.
I. THE ESSENTIALLY
SYMBOLIC CHARACTER OF THE CAPTIVITIES AND DELIVERANCES OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE.
The history of Israel is the Divine key to the history of man. Through all the
confusion of human society, its wars, its movements, its industries, its woes,
that history, rightly read, will guide us. There is no crisis, no confusion, no
sad experience of society, of which we have not the pattern and the explanation
in the Word of God. The history of their captivities is the history of man’s
captivity. There were two great captivities and two great deliverances. The
people were born in the one captivity--it was the dark accident of nature; the
other they earned by sin. These represent our natural bondage, and the
self-earned serfdom of the soul. There is one Deliverer and one deliverance
from both. The method of His deliverance was the same out of both captivities;
a glorious manifestation of the might of the redeeming arm of God. But at first
sight there is a contrast here as well as a likeness. Taking a superficial view
of the Exodus, we should say that they did go out with haste and go forth by
flight; and this visible contrast was before the prophet’s mind when he wrote
the words of our text (Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:31-39). But from Babylon they
went forth in orderly array, with the king’s good-will, by his royal command (Ezra 1:1-11). Yet under the surface the
grand features were identical. In neither case did they steal away. They went
because God would have them go; the Angel of His presence guided them, and His
shattering judgments were on all who sought to withstand their march to their
promised land. If the contrast occurred to the prophet as he wrote the first clause,
surely the likeness stands out in the last, “The Lord shall go before you, and
the God of Israel shall be your rereward” Exodus 13:21-22; Exodus 14:19-20).
II. WE HAVE THE
IMAGE HERE OF THE GREAT DELIVERANCE WHICH IS FREELY OFFERED IN THE GOSPEL,
wrought for us by His redeeming hand who “rules in righteousness, mighty to
save.”
1. The reason of our protracted discipline. God will not have us “Go
out with haste, nor go forth by flight.” I dare say there are few Christians of
any earnestness who do not look back to some past season in their experience,
and say, Would God that I had then been taken home. The soul was then full of a
Divine serenity, with the clear heaven of God’s love above it, and a clear
assurance that the Rock was beneath it. It seemed to be attuned to heavenly
fellowship. But it had been a young and immature deliverance, had God caught you
then in the first freshness of your joy and hope to His home in heaven; not by
the short, straight way, but by the long, weary, desert path God led His
pilgrims; a band of trained veterans they entered at length into Canaan; able
to hold it, and to hold to the national unity, through the stormy, struggling
ages in which, but for their desert nurture and discipline, they must have been
shattered to fragments, and lost to history for ever. It is this experience
which at sore cost of pain God is laying up within us.
2. The Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your
rereward. The Lord has gone before us. It is this which makes our progress a
triumph. He has gone before us
(1) In bearing to the uttermost the penalty of sin.
For the Lord will go
before you
The vanguard and rereward of the Church
The Church of Christ is continually represented under the figure
of an army; yet its Captain is the Prince of Peace; its object is the
establishment of peace, and its soldiers are men of a peaceful disposition.
Nevertheless, the Church on earth has, and until the second advent must be, the
Church militant, the Church armed, the Church warring, the Church conquering.
It is in the very order of things that so it must be. Truth could not be truth
in this world if it were not a warring thing. How comforting is this text to
the believer who recognizes himself as a soldier, and the whole Church as an
army! The Church has its vanguard: “Jehovah will go before you.” The Church is
also in danger behind; enemies may attack her m her hinder part, and the God of
Israel shall be her rereward.”
I. Consider THE
WHOLE CHURCH OF GOD AS AN ARMY. Remember that a large part of the army are
standing this day upon the hills of glory; having overcome and triumphed. As
for the rear, it stretches far into the future; some portions are as yet
uncreated. Now, cast your eyes forward to the front of the great army of God’s
elect, and you see this great truth coming up with great brilliance before you:
“Jehovah shall go before you.” Is not this true? Have you never heard of the
eternal counsel and the everlasting covenant? Did that not go before the
Church?. Has Jehovah not gone before His Church in act and deed? Perilous has
been the journey of the Church from the day when first it left Paradise even
until now. Why need I go through all the pages of the history of the Church of
God in the days of the old dispensation? Hath it not been true from the days of
John the Baptist until now? How can ye account for the glorious triumphs of the
Church if ye deny the fact that God has gone before her! God had gone
beforehand with his Church, and provided stores of grace for stores of trouble,
shelter and mercy for tempests and persecution, abundance of strength for a
superfluity of trial. “And the God of Israel shall be the rereward.” The
original Hebrew is, “God of Israel shall gather you up.” Armies in the time of
war diminish by reason of stragglers, some of whom desert, and others of whom
are overcome by fatigue; but the army of God is “gathered up;” none desert from
it if they be real soldiers of the Cross, and none drop down upon the road. The
Church of Christ has been frequently attacked in the rear. It often happens
that the enemy, tired of opposing the onward march by open persecution, attempts
to malign the Church concerning something that has either been taught, or
revealed, or done in past ages. Now, the God of Israel is our rereward. I am
never at trouble about the attacks of infidels or heretics, however vigorously
they may assault the doctrines of the Gospel. If they look to be resisted by
mere reason, they look in vain. If they must attack the rear let them fight
with Jehovah Himself. But I am thinking that perhaps the later trials of the
Church may represent the rereward. There are to come, perhaps, to the Church,
fiercer persecutions than she has ever known. But however fierce those troubles
shall be, God, who has gone before His Church in olden times, will gather up
the rear, and she who has been Ecclesia victrix--the Church, the conqueror,
will still be the same, and her rear shall constitute at last a part of the
Church triumphant, even as already glorified. Can you now conceive the last
great day when Jehovah, the rereward, shall gather up His people?
II. AS IT RESPECTS
US, AS INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS. Two troubles present themselves, the future and
the past. Remember, you are not a child of chance.
1. Stop and realize the idea that God has gone before, mapping the
way.
2. I hear one say, “The future seldom troubles me; it is the past--what
I have done and what I have not done--the years that are gone--how I have
sinned, and how I have not served my Master as I ought. The God of Israel shall
be your rereward. Notice the different titles. The first is “Jehovah”--“Jehovah
will go before you.” That is the I AM, full of omniscience and omnipotence. The
second is “God of Israel,” that is to say, the God of the Covenant. We want the
God of the Covenant behind, because it is not in the capacity of the I AM, the
omnipotent, that we require Him. Let me always think, that I have God behind me
as well as before me. Let not the memories of the past, though they cause me
grief, cause me despair. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God our Guard and Guide
I. THE GOOD MAN’S
PATH IS BESET WITH PERIL.
1. There are perils that come up from behind. The deadliest foes are
those that attack us in the rear. The traveller may be overtaken by pestilence
and death, that lay all unsuspected in the very places he passed in laughter
and in song. Man never gets away from his past.
2. There are perils ahead. Happily no man can see very far ahead.
II. THE GOOD MAN’S
PATH IS ALSO BESET WITH GOD. The Lord is in the rear to protect, and in the van
to guide.
1. God stands between us and our past.
2. God goes before us in all the way of the future. We don’t know the
way, but He does--every inch of it. For he prepared and appointed it. And more
than that. He has trodden and tested it before our feet touch it. He knows.
That is enough. He leads. I follow. We tread the same path. We share the same
road. Why should I fear? He goes before us in all our service for Him. Philip
found the eunuch already prepared for his message. And Ananias found Saul
waiting to receive his ministrations. So as we go to our service we shall find
the Lord has been there before us preparing our way. The Divine movement is
always forward. God is behind, but He never turns back. He goes before, and the
whole host moves forward. Our only safety is in progress. (S. Chadwick.)
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently
The humiliation and exaltation of Christ
I.
THE
STATE OF CHRIST’S HUMILIATION. “As many were astonied at Thee,” etc.
1. Consider His outward or bodily sufferings.
2. His inward sorrows, the agonies of His mind, have no parallel.
II. OUR SAVIOUR’S EXALTATION.
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, etc. The exaltation of Christ
may be considered under four particulars.
1. His resurrection from the dead.
2. His ascension into heaven.
3. His glorification at the Father’s right hand.
4. His coming again to judgment.
Practical improvement:
1. What hath been said on the subject of the Redeemer s sufferings,
should excite all our gratitude and love to Him, who readily entered upon, and
went through, all this scene of sorrow for our sake.
2. Let this excite us to greater zeal and diligence in His service;
as the best expression of our gratitude and love.
3. The consideration of Christ’s love and sufferings for us should
inspire us with the firmest fortitude and fidelity, in defending His cause and
the honour of His Gospel against all opposition, and in suffering for it.
4. Under every affliction of life let us turn our eyes to our
suffering Redeemer, as a perfect pattern of patience.
5. Let us triumph in the faith and views of a triumphant Saviour. (A.
Mason, M.A.)
The sure triumph of the crucified One
I. THE CHARACTER OF OUR
LORD’S DEALINGS. He is called “My Servant,” a title as honourable as it is condescending,
and it is said that He deals prudently. He who took upon Him the form of a
servant acts as a wise servant in everything; and indeed it could not be
otherwise, for “in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
1. This prudence was manifest in the days of His flesh, from His
childhood among the doctors in the temple on to His confession before Pontius
Pilate. Our Lord was enthusiastic; but that enthusiasm never carried Him into
rashness. Our Saviour was full of love, and that love made Him frank and
open-hearted; but for all that He was ,ever prudent, and “committed Himself
unto no man, for He knew what was in man.” Too many who aspire to be leaders of
the people study policy, craft and diplomacy. The Friend of sinners had not a fraction
of that about Him; and yet He was wiser than if diplomacy had been His study
from His youth up.
2. He who on earth became obedient unto death has now gone into the
glory, but He is still over the house of God, conducting its affairs; He deals
prudently still. Our fears lead us to judge that the affairs of Christ’s
kingdom are going amiss, but we may rest assured that all is well, for the Lord
hath put all things under the feet of Jesus. All along through the history of
the Church the dealings of the Lord Jesus with His people have been very
remarkable. The wisdom in them is often deep, and only discoverable by those
who seek it out, and yet frequently it sparkles upon the surface like gold in
certain lands across the sea. Note how the Lord has made His Church learn truth
by degrees, and purified her first of one error and then of another. The wise
physician tolerates disease until it shall have reached the point at which he
can grapple with it, so as to eradicate it from the system, so has the good Lord
allowed some ills to fester in the midst of His Church, that He may ultimately
exterminate them. Study the pages of ecclesiastical history, and you will see
how Jesus Christ has dealt wisely in the raising up of fitting men for all
times. I could not suppose a better man for Luther’s age than Luther, yet
Luther alone would have been very incomplete for the full service needed had it
not been for Calvin, whose calm intellect was the complement of Luther’s fiery
soul.
3. Another translation of the passage is, “My Servant shall have
prosperous success.” Let us append that meaning to the other. Prosperity will
grow out of our Lord prudent dealings.
4. In consequence of this the Lord shall he exalted and extolled.
II. THE STUMBLING-BLOCK IN THE
WAY OF OUR LORD. It is His Cross, which to Jew and Greek is ever a hindrance.
As if the prophet saw Him in vision, he cries out, “As many were astonied at
Thee,” etc.
1. He has risen from the grave and gone into His glory, but the
offence of the Cross has not ceased, for upon His Gospel there remains the
image of His marred visage, and therefore men despise it. The preaching of the
Cross is foolishness to many.
2. The practical part of the Gospel is equally a stumbling-block to
ungodly men, for when men inquire what they must do to be saved, they are told
that they must receive the Gospel as little children, that they must repent of
sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very humbling precepts for human
self-sufficiency! And after they are saved, if they inquire what they should
do, the precepts are not those which commend themselves to proud human
nature--for they are such as these--“Be ye kindly affectioned one to another,”
“forbearing one another and forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake
has forgiven you.” To the world which loves conquerors, and blasts of trumpets,
and chaplets of laurel, this kind of teaching has a marred visage, and an
uncomely form.
3. Then, what seems even more humbling, the Lord Jesus Christ in His
prudent dealing sends this Gospel among us by men who are neither great nor
noble, nor even among the wise of this world.
4. Worse still, if worse can be, the people who become converted and
follow the Saviour are generally of the poorer sort, and lightly esteemed.
III. THE CERTAINTY OF THE
REMOVAL OF THIS STUMBLING-BLOCK and the spread of Christ’s kingdom. As His face
was marred, so surely “shall He sprinkle many nations;” by which we understand,
first, that the doctrines of the Gospel are to fall in a copious shower over
all lands. This sprinkling we must interpret according to the Mosaic
ceremonies. There was a sprinkling with blood, to set forth pardon of sin, and
a sprinkling with water to set forth purification from the power of sin. The
influence of His grace and the power of His work shall be extended not over the
common people only, but over their leaders and rulers. “The kings shall shut
their mouths at Him;” they shall have no word to say against Him; they shall be
so subdued by the majesty of His power that they shall silently pay Him
reverence, and prostrate themselves before His throne.
IV. THE MANNER OF ITS
ACCOMPLISHMENT. How will it come to pass? Will there be a new machinery? Will
the world be converted, and the kings be made to shut their mouths by some new
mode of operation? I do not think so. Will the saints take the sword one day?
No, the way which has been from the beginning of the dispensation will last to
its close. It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.
1. According to this passage, these kings and nations are first of
all to hear. “Faith coming by hearing.” If they are to hear, we must preach and
teach, so that our clear line of duty is to go on spreading the Gospel.
2. These people appear not only to have heard, but to have seen.
“That which had not been told them shall they see.” This seeing is not with
their bodily eyes but by the perceptions of their minds. Faith comes by the
soul perceiving what the Gospel means.
3. After they had seen, it appears from the text that they
considered. “That which they had not heard shall they consider.” This is how
men are saved: they hear the Gospel, they catch the meaning of it, and then
they consider it. When they had seen and considered silently, they accepted the
Lord as their Lord, for they shut their mouths at Him; they ceased from all
opposition; they quietly resigned their wills, and paid allegiance to the great
King of kings. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The character and work of the Messiah
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF
CHRISTIANITY INTO THE WORLD, BY THE MYSTERIOUS SUFFERINGS OF ITS DIVINE
FOUNDER. “Behold, My Servant!” The “astonishment of many” evidently refers to
the inconsistency apparent between the high pretensions and the depressed
condition of this Servant of God. In truth, the plan of Christianity, with its
introduction into the world, is far above the calculations of human sagacity.
II. THE DECLARATION OF THE
PROPHET WITH REGARD TO THE UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION OF THE RELIGION OF CHRIST ON THE
EARTH. “My Servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted, and extolled, and
be very high.”
1. The expression, “He shall deal prudently,” is, in the margin,
translated, “He shall prosper;” and thus the whole clause is declarative of the
same truth--the triumph and success of the Son of God. If many were astonished
at His humiliation, a far greater number shall be astonished at His exaltation.
2. This grand and glorious achievement He effected by means that came
not within the range of mortal discernment. It was by death that He conquered
death. It was by a perfect obedience in action and in suffering, that He became
the second Adam--the spiritual Head of a new and happier race. He planted His
religion in the earth, opposed by hostile scorn and relentless malice and
despotic power. The cause of Christ achieved its victories by its own inherent
power. Its adherents were, indeed, strong; but it was in faith, and purity, and
charity. Thus the Servant of God prospered, and was extolled, and became very
high.
3. But His reign on the earth is yet very limited, and His conquests
incomplete.
III. WHAT WE MAY GATHER FROM
THIS PROPHETIC ACCOUNT RESPECTING THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE KINGDOM OF THE
MESSIAH SHALL THUS BE FULLY AND FINALLY ESTABLISHED. “As many were astonied at
Thee: so shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings,” etc. We are led to
infer--
1. That there shall be a wide dispersion of Divine knowledge over
heathen and Mohammedan nations; for men cannot see or consider that which is
not first presented to their notice.
2. The nations shall fix their anxious attention on the truths
declared to them.
3. Impressed with holy awe, they shall assume the attitude of
abasement and submission. I apprehend that the expression, the “kings shall
shut their mouths at Him,” implies the submission of whole nations, here
represented by kings; for, as the reception of Christianity on the part of the
rulers of a country requires the overthrow of every system of religious polity
previously established, such a reception publicly made, implies, more or less,
the submission of the mass of the people.
4. He shall forgive their iniquities and sanctify their hearts. “He
shall sprinkle many nations;” that is, in allusion to the aspersions under the
law, by which the people were sanctified, the Son of God shall apply to the
souls of regenerated multitudes the blood of His great atonement, and the
sacred influences of His Holy Spirit. Then, “a nation shall be born in a day.”
(G. T. Noel, M. A.)
A threefold view of the Person and work of Jesus Christ
1. HIS WORK BELOW. He is called the “Servant” of the Lord. “As many
were astonied at Thee,” etc. The disciples saw Him on the Cross; they
gazed on Him with amazement, and scarcely recovered themselves by the third
day. The women who followed Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, stood afar off, and
smote their breasts as they killed Him; and the thousands of men whom He had
healed and cured, looked with astonishment at the ignominious termination of
such a life. Even the elements seemed to join in the universal consternation;
the sun refused to shine, and hid himself in darkness; the light of the moon
was clouded.
II. THINK OF HIM SITTING IN
GLORY UPON HIS THRONE. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”
1. He shall be exalted. This relates to His authority and power.
Verily, a name is written in His vesture and on His thigh, and that name is
“KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
2. He shall be extolled. It has been the delight of every apostle, of
every evangelist, of every missionary, of every minister, of every Christian,
to extol Him; and when we have done our best, it is our grief and shame and
humility that we cannot extol Him more.
3. “He shall be very high,” or, if you prefer the language of the
apostle, “In all things He shall have the pre-eminence.”
III. The works of mercy which
the Saviour is accomplishing IN HIS EXALTED STATE. He sets forth His Gospel
according to His promise. “He shall sprinkle many nations.” This denotes the
office of Christ. “The kings shall stop their mouths at Him. This text is best
explained by quoting, a passage in which Job, speaking of himself as the chief
magistrate, says, “When I went out to the gate through the city, when I
prepared my seat in the street! the young men saw me,” etc. (Job 29:7-10). Such was the respect
for the dignity of this man of God, that in his presence the nobles and the
elders spake not, but imposed silence on their lips; so shall it be with the
potentates and monarchs of the earth in the presence of Him “who is greater
than all.” (J. Stratten.)
The face of Christ
Our Lord Jesus Christ bore from of old the name of “Wonderful,”
and the word seems all too poor to set forth His marvellous person and
character. It is an astonishing thing that there should have been a Christ at
all; the Incarnation is the miracle of miracles; that He who is the Infinite
should become an infant.
I. HE WAS A GREAT WONDER IN
HIS GRIEFS.
II. HE WAS A GREAT WONDER IN
HIS GLORY. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He shall be exalted and
extolled, and be very high
The Saviour’s exaltation
We obtain the following series of thoughts, “He will rise, He will
be still more exalted, He will stand high.” The three verbs thus signify
beginning, progress and result, or the climax of the exaltation. (F. Delitzsch,
D.D.)
Verses
13-15
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently
The humiliation and exaltation of Christ
I.
THE
STATE OF CHRIST’S HUMILIATION. “As many were astonied at Thee,” etc.
1. Consider His outward or bodily sufferings.
2. His inward sorrows, the agonies of His mind, have no parallel.
II. OUR SAVIOUR’S EXALTATION.
Behold, My Servant shall deal prudently, etc. The exaltation of Christ
may be considered under four particulars.
1. His resurrection from the dead.
2. His ascension into heaven.
3. His glorification at the Father’s right hand.
4. His coming again to judgment.
Practical improvement:
1. What hath been said on the subject of the Redeemer s sufferings,
should excite all our gratitude and love to Him, who readily entered upon, and
went through, all this scene of sorrow for our sake.
2. Let this excite us to greater zeal and diligence in His service;
as the best expression of our gratitude and love.
3. The consideration of Christ’s love and sufferings for us should
inspire us with the firmest fortitude and fidelity, in defending His cause and
the honour of His Gospel against all opposition, and in suffering for it.
4. Under every affliction of life let us turn our eyes to our
suffering Redeemer, as a perfect pattern of patience.
5. Let us triumph in the faith and views of a triumphant Saviour. (A.
Mason, M.A.)
The sure triumph of the crucified One
I. THE CHARACTER OF OUR
LORD’S DEALINGS. He is called “My Servant,” a title as honourable as it is
condescending, and it is said that He deals prudently. He who took upon Him the
form of a servant acts as a wise servant in everything; and indeed it could not
be otherwise, for “in Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”
1. This prudence was manifest in the days of His flesh, from His
childhood among the doctors in the temple on to His confession before Pontius
Pilate. Our Lord was enthusiastic; but that enthusiasm never carried Him into
rashness. Our Saviour was full of love, and that love made Him frank and
open-hearted; but for all that He was ,ever prudent, and “committed Himself
unto no man, for He knew what was in man.” Too many who aspire to be leaders of
the people study policy, craft and diplomacy. The Friend of sinners had not a
fraction of that about Him; and yet He was wiser than if diplomacy had been His
study from His youth up.
2. He who on earth became obedient unto death has now gone into the
glory, but He is still over the house of God, conducting its affairs; He deals
prudently still. Our fears lead us to judge that the affairs of Christ’s
kingdom are going amiss, but we may rest assured that all is well, for the Lord
hath put all things under the feet of Jesus. All along through the history of
the Church the dealings of the Lord Jesus with His people have been very
remarkable. The wisdom in them is often deep, and only discoverable by those
who seek it out, and yet frequently it sparkles upon the surface like gold in certain
lands across the sea. Note how the Lord has made His Church learn truth by
degrees, and purified her first of one error and then of another. The wise
physician tolerates disease until it shall have reached the point at which he
can grapple with it, so as to eradicate it from the system, so has the good
Lord allowed some ills to fester in the midst of His Church, that He may
ultimately exterminate them. Study the pages of ecclesiastical history, and you
will see how Jesus Christ has dealt wisely in the raising up of fitting men for
all times. I could not suppose a better man for Luther’s age than Luther, yet
Luther alone would have been very incomplete for the full service needed had it
not been for Calvin, whose calm intellect was the complement of Luther’s fiery
soul.
3. Another translation of the passage is, “My Servant shall have
prosperous success.” Let us append that meaning to the other. Prosperity will
grow out of our Lord prudent dealings.
4. In consequence of this the Lord shall he exalted and extolled.
II. THE STUMBLING-BLOCK IN THE
WAY OF OUR LORD. It is His Cross, which to Jew and Greek is ever a hindrance.
As if the prophet saw Him in vision, he cries out, “As many were astonied at
Thee,” etc.
1. He has risen from the grave and gone into His glory, but the
offence of the Cross has not ceased, for upon His Gospel there remains the
image of His marred visage, and therefore men despise it. The preaching of the
Cross is foolishness to many.
2. The practical part of the Gospel is equally a stumbling-block to
ungodly men, for when men inquire what they must do to be saved, they are told
that they must receive the Gospel as little children, that they must repent of
sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Very humbling precepts for human self-sufficiency!
And after they are saved, if they inquire what they should do, the precepts are
not those which commend themselves to proud human nature--for they are such as
these--“Be ye kindly affectioned one to another,” “forbearing one another and
forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.” To the
world which loves conquerors, and blasts of trumpets, and chaplets of laurel,
this kind of teaching has a marred visage, and an uncomely form.
3. Then, what seems even more humbling, the Lord Jesus Christ in His
prudent dealing sends this Gospel among us by men who are neither great nor
noble, nor even among the wise of this world.
4. Worse still, if worse can be, the people who become converted and
follow the Saviour are generally of the poorer sort, and lightly esteemed.
III. THE CERTAINTY OF THE
REMOVAL OF THIS STUMBLING-BLOCK and the spread of Christ’s kingdom. As His face
was marred, so surely “shall He sprinkle many nations;” by which we understand,
first, that the doctrines of the Gospel are to fall in a copious shower over
all lands. This sprinkling we must interpret according to the Mosaic
ceremonies. There was a sprinkling with blood, to set forth pardon of sin, and
a sprinkling with water to set forth purification from the power of sin. The
influence of His grace and the power of His work shall be extended not over the
common people only, but over their leaders and rulers. “The kings shall shut
their mouths at Him;” they shall have no word to say against Him; they shall be
so subdued by the majesty of His power that they shall silently pay Him
reverence, and prostrate themselves before His throne.
IV. THE MANNER OF ITS
ACCOMPLISHMENT. How will it come to pass? Will there be a new machinery? Will
the world be converted, and the kings be made to shut their mouths by some new
mode of operation? I do not think so. Will the saints take the sword one day?
No, the way which has been from the beginning of the dispensation will last to
its close. It pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe.
1. According to this passage, these kings and nations are first of
all to hear. “Faith coming by hearing.” If they are to hear, we must preach and
teach, so that our clear line of duty is to go on spreading the Gospel.
2. These people appear not only to have heard, but to have seen.
“That which had not been told them shall they see.” This seeing is not with
their bodily eyes but by the perceptions of their minds. Faith comes by the
soul perceiving what the Gospel means.
3. After they had seen, it appears from the text that they
considered. “That which they had not heard shall they consider.” This is how
men are saved: they hear the Gospel, they catch the meaning of it, and then
they consider it. When they had seen and considered silently, they accepted the
Lord as their Lord, for they shut their mouths at Him; they ceased from all
opposition; they quietly resigned their wills, and paid allegiance to the great
King of kings. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The character and work of the Messiah
I. THE INTRODUCTION OF
CHRISTIANITY INTO THE WORLD, BY THE MYSTERIOUS SUFFERINGS OF ITS DIVINE
FOUNDER. “Behold, My Servant!” The “astonishment of many” evidently refers to
the inconsistency apparent between the high pretensions and the depressed
condition of this Servant of God. In truth, the plan of Christianity, with its
introduction into the world, is far above the calculations of human sagacity.
II. THE DECLARATION OF THE
PROPHET WITH REGARD TO THE UNIVERSAL DIFFUSION OF THE RELIGION OF CHRIST ON THE
EARTH. “My Servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted, and extolled, and
be very high.”
1. The expression, “He shall deal prudently,” is, in the margin,
translated, “He shall prosper;” and thus the whole clause is declarative of the
same truth--the triumph and success of the Son of God. If many were astonished
at His humiliation, a far greater number shall be astonished at His exaltation.
2. This grand and glorious achievement He effected by means that came
not within the range of mortal discernment. It was by death that He conquered
death. It was by a perfect obedience in action and in suffering, that He became
the second Adam--the spiritual Head of a new and happier race. He planted His
religion in the earth, opposed by hostile scorn and relentless malice and
despotic power. The cause of Christ achieved its victories by its own inherent
power. Its adherents were, indeed, strong; but it was in faith, and purity, and
charity. Thus the Servant of God prospered, and was extolled, and became very
high.
3. But His reign on the earth is yet very limited, and His conquests
incomplete.
III. WHAT WE MAY GATHER FROM
THIS PROPHETIC ACCOUNT RESPECTING THE PROCESS BY WHICH THE KINGDOM OF THE
MESSIAH SHALL THUS BE FULLY AND FINALLY ESTABLISHED. “As many were astonied at
Thee: so shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings,” etc. We are led to
infer--
1. That there shall be a wide dispersion of Divine knowledge over
heathen and Mohammedan nations; for men cannot see or consider that which is
not first presented to their notice.
2. The nations shall fix their anxious attention on the truths
declared to them.
3. Impressed with holy awe, they shall assume the attitude of
abasement and submission. I apprehend that the expression, the “kings shall
shut their mouths at Him,” implies the submission of whole nations, here
represented by kings; for, as the reception of Christianity on the part of the
rulers of a country requires the overthrow of every system of religious polity
previously established, such a reception publicly made, implies, more or less,
the submission of the mass of the people.
4. He shall forgive their iniquities and sanctify their hearts. “He
shall sprinkle many nations;” that is, in allusion to the aspersions under the
law, by which the people were sanctified, the Son of God shall apply to the
souls of regenerated multitudes the blood of His great atonement, and the
sacred influences of His Holy Spirit. Then, “a nation shall be born in a day.”
(G. T. Noel, M. A.)
A threefold view of the Person and work of Jesus Christ
1. HIS WORK BELOW. He is called the “Servant” of the Lord. “As many
were astonied at Thee,” etc. The disciples saw Him on the Cross; they
gazed on Him with amazement, and scarcely recovered themselves by the third
day. The women who followed Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, stood afar off, and
smote their breasts as they killed Him; and the thousands of men whom He had
healed and cured, looked with astonishment at the ignominious termination of
such a life. Even the elements seemed to join in the universal consternation;
the sun refused to shine, and hid himself in darkness; the light of the moon
was clouded.
II. THINK OF HIM SITTING IN
GLORY UPON HIS THRONE. “He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.”
1. He shall be exalted. This relates to His authority and power.
Verily, a name is written in His vesture and on His thigh, and that name is
“KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”
2. He shall be extolled. It has been the delight of every apostle, of
every evangelist, of every missionary, of every minister, of every Christian,
to extol Him; and when we have done our best, it is our grief and shame and
humility that we cannot extol Him more.
3. “He shall be very high,” or, if you prefer the language of the
apostle, “In all things He shall have the pre-eminence.”
III. The works of mercy which
the Saviour is accomplishing IN HIS EXALTED STATE. He sets forth His Gospel
according to His promise. “He shall sprinkle many nations.” This denotes the
office of Christ. “The kings shall stop their mouths at Him. This text is best
explained by quoting, a passage in which Job, speaking of himself as the chief
magistrate, says, “When I went out to the gate through the city, when I
prepared my seat in the street! the young men saw me,” etc. (Job 29:7-10). Such was the respect
for the dignity of this man of God, that in his presence the nobles and the
elders spake not, but imposed silence on their lips; so shall it be with the
potentates and monarchs of the earth in the presence of Him “who is greater
than all.” (J. Stratten.)
The face of Christ
Our Lord Jesus Christ bore from of old the name of “Wonderful,”
and the word seems all too poor to set forth His marvellous person and
character. It is an astonishing thing that there should have been a Christ at
all; the Incarnation is the miracle of miracles; that He who is the Infinite
should become an infant.
I. HE WAS A GREAT WONDER IN
HIS GRIEFS.
II. HE WAS A GREAT WONDER IN HIS
GLORY. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
He shall be exalted and
extolled, and be very high
The Saviour’s exaltation
We obtain the following series of thoughts, “He will rise, He will
be still more exalted, He will stand high.” The three verbs thus signify
beginning, progress and result, or the climax of the exaltation. (F. Delitzsch,
D.D.)
Verse 14-15
As many were astonied at
Thee
The abasement of Christ
and its consequences
I.
THE UNEQUALLED ABASEMENT
AND SORROW OF THE MESSIAH. Unequalled--
1. Because of the previous dignity from which He descended.
2. If we trace the various stages of His humiliation. Was He born? It
was of no opulent parents. As He grew up he became the object of envy. When He
sprang into youth, it was not to sway a sceptre or to govern millions, but to
work with His reputed father. As He went on in His course He was exposed to the
scoffs and malice of Jews and Gentiles, etc. Eye the Saviour’s
sufferings in what light you please, and you will find His sufferings were
various as well as intense. He suffered as a man; from want--from fatigue--from
poverty--from the crown of thorns placed onHis head, etc. He suffered
civilly, as a member of society. An insurrectionist and a murderer was
preferred before Him. He suffered spiritually--from the thick volleys of fiery
darts which were showered at Him, and from the hidings of His Father’s
countenance. And observe the associations which were likely to aggravate His sufferings.
“They all forsook Him and fled.”
3. Our Saviour’s sufferings and woes derived additional poignancy and
exquisiteness from the very character which He bare. “Many were astonied at
Thee.” The spectators were so, who smote upon their breasts, and returned,
after having seen these things. Devils were astonished, when they saw how all
the shafts of their malice recoiled. Angels were astonished as they ministered
unto Him. So He is still a wonder unto many; and if He be not so to us, it is
because of our criminal insensibility and indifference.
II. THE MOMENTOUS
CONSEQUENCES BY WHICH HIS SUFFERINGS AND SORROWS WERE TO BE FOLLOWED. “So shall
He sprinkle many nations.” There is a direct reference to the various
aspersions and ablutions under the law of Moses. These were of three kinds--
1. An aspersion of the blood of atonement once a year.
2. An aspersion of water on the unclean person, called the water of
separation, by which a person was separated to a holy purpose.
3. An aspersion both of water and of blood on the leper, by which he
was pronounced clean, and needed no longer to remain without the camp.
Combine these ideas, and
they will give the two grand designs of our Saviour’s death--a propitiation,
and a purification. And recollect that these two great and important ends of
our Saviour’s death must always be associated. Here we see their superiority
over the legal aspersions. (J. Clayton, ,M.A.)
A twofold wonder
I. THE
ASTONISHMENT PRODUCED BY OUR SAVIOUR’S HUMILIATION.
1. “Many were astonied at Thee”--astonished, doubtless, at the
disappointment of their expectations. They had looked for a second Joshua, who
should march at their head, and lead them forth from victory to victory till
all their enemies should have fallen beneath their feet. They had expected
another son of Jesse, who should make the name of Israel terrible to
surrounding nations. And when they saw the world’s Redeemer, and found Him
possessed of none of those external attributes which they deemed essential to
His character, they were offended at Him, and their astonishment was that of
indignation and bitter disappointment. “Is not this the carpenter’s son?”
2. But our text goes on to describe some special causes of this
astonishment. “His visage was so marred, more than any man, and His form more
than the sons of men.” Whilst further on the prophet adds, “He hath no form nor
comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire
Him.” I do not believe that such expressions as these are intended to represent
the person of the Saviour as naturally defective in comeliness or dignity,
though they have been oftentimes so understood, for we may reasonably conclude
that the form which God gave His own Son was one of the best and the most
perfect, and that the features of His countenance were as expressive as human
features could be of intelligence, of dignity, and of love. Yet there was a
marvellous mixture of meekness with this intelligence, of abasement with this
dignity, and of sorrow with this love. Never was there a countenance which so
beamed with holiness; yet never was there one so deeply furrowed with the lines
the curse had made. Unrepenting sinners, like the Jews of old, are to this day
astonished “without” being benefited at the sight, of the Redeemer’s sufferings.
II. The text says,
alluding to the ceremonial law, He shall sprinkle many nations,” etc. We
here perceive THE DIFFERENCE OF EFFECT produced by that astonishment which
flows from contempt, and that which is produced by reverential regard for an object
of infinite worth and dignity. The first opens the lips, and the latter seals
them. The first accumulates epithets of scorn. But very different shall be the
result of that wonder which shall fill the breast when the Saviour begins to
give convincing proof of the greatness, and universality of His triumph..
“Kings shall then shut their mouths at Him.” “Seeing the progress of His
kingdom,” says Vitrings, “they shall revoke their edicts against it, and thus
shut their mouths at Him.” The wonder shall then become too great for
expression. Again, “That which had not been told them shall they see.” The
general ignorance which prevails amongst men, even the most noble and the most
educated, on religious subjects, is oftentimes most astounding. To cleanse the
heart, to sanctify the soul, there is no power but of God; and so, whenever a
sinner is converted from the error of his ways, he is brought to acknowledge,
“this is the Lord’s doing.” But the true accomplishment of the prediction
before us requires greater things than these. There shall be a time when high
and low, rich and poor, kings and subjects, shall all stand in amazement at the
triumphs of the Cross of Christ. “What they had not heard shall they consider.”
They shall lay to heart those things which shall arrest their attention. It
will not be enough for them to be mere spectators of the Saviour’s triumph;
they shall become deeply interested in it; all their thoughts, affections,
efforts, shall tend towards it. (S. Bridge, M.A.)
Christ’s endurance and
success
I. THE SAVIOUR’S
ENDURANCE.
II. THE SAVIOUR’S
SUCCESS. (S. Bridge, M. A.)
His visage was so marred more than any man
The marred face
I. CHRIST’S FACE
BEING SO BEAUTIFUL WAS EASILY MARRED. The perfect beauty of God was the
reflected loveliness of Christ. Perfection is easily blemished; the more
beautiful anything is, the more easily it is injured.
II. CHRIST’S FACE
WAS AN INDEX OF HIS LIFE AND WORK. His face told the story of His inner life.
This was the chief reason for the loveliness of Jesus’ face. His heart was full
of pure, white thoughts, and consequently rays of beauty shot out through His
gentle eyes. There burned within Him the light of tranquillity, which found
expression in His calm, peaceful countenance. All the grandest virtues of this
life could be seen in Jesus’ face. And yet this beauty was marred, the light
from His inner light suffered a black eclipse.
His face was also an index
of His work. When you see a man in the street you can often tell whether he is
student, artist or working-man. The employment makes a certain impression upon
the face. Christ s employment must have told upon His countenance. In His
compassion for souls “He sighed deeply in spirit,” “He groaned and was
troubled.” Words such as these convey some idea of the wear and tear Jesus had
to endure.
III. THERE ARE
SPECIAL INSTANCES GIVEN OF THE MARRING OF HIS FACE. At the grave of Lazarus,
when the sisters were lamenting for their dead brother, Christ joined in the
sorrow and wept, His face being stained with tears. On the brow of Olivet as He
stood looking at the beloved city He began to weep, and in the garden of
Gethsemane as the sweat dropped from Him in drops like blood, He fell on His
face and prayed; in the judgment-hall when standing in the presence of His accusers,
we read, “And some began to spit on Him and to cover His face, and to buffet
Him, and to say unto Him, Prophesy, and the servants did strike Him with the
palms of their hands.” They degraded Jesus as much as possible, directing their
blows and insults to His face; such treatment would tell heavily upon His
appearance.
IV. THERE MUST HAVE
BEEN SOMETHING ATTRACTIVE IN THE FACE OF JESUS. The average man could see no
beauty in Jesus; still, the children were attracted by Him, and children as a
rule are either repelled or won by a look. It was by a look that Jesus won
Peter from a state of backsliding. In conclusion, we like to think of God as
having a face the same as that of Jesus. Scientists talk of “an essence,” “a
great first cause,” “something in the abstract,” but with such definitions we
wander and cannot understand God. By faith, as Dr. Saphir says, “we see the
face of our dear God and seek Him as a friend” or, like one of old, we say,
“Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” We look forward to one day seeing the face of
Jesus. (W. K. Bryce.)
Verse 15
So shall He sprinkle many nation
Sprinkling the nations
“Sprinkle;” possibly “startle,” cause to rise up in wonder and reverence.
The nations were familiar with the afflictions and abjectness of the Servant;
suddenly, and without intimation of it, they see His elevation and stand up in
reverential silence, before Him. (A.B. Davidson, D.D.)
The peculiar doctrines of Christianity the subject of ancient
prophecy
I. THE
ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THIS PROPHECY IN GENERAL. This prophecy hath been in part
already accomplished, in the diffusive spread of the Gospel throughout the
world: many nations whereof have been plentifully sprinkled with its Divine
doctrines, and made nominal Christians; and many individuals in those nations
been made real converts, by virtue of that “blood of sprinkling which speaketh
better things than the blood of Abel.”
II. SOME OF THOSE
PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF CHRISTIANITY WHICH WE MAY SUPPOSE TO BE HERE REFEREED TO,
most of which were in a great measure, and some of them altogether, unknown to
the world, before the Messiah came.
1. The doctrine of man’s apostacy, and the way wherein moral evil
made its first entrance into the world.
2. The method of man’s recovery from the miseries of his apostate
state, by the mediation and redemption of Christ.
3. The renovation of our natures by the gracious operations of the
Holy Spirit.
4. The doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity.
5. The incarnation of the Son of God.
6. The doctrine of grace.
7. The gracious and effectual operations of the Holy Spirit on the
heart of man.
8. The resurrection of the body.
9. Several particular circumstances relating to the final judgment
are the peculiar discoveries of the Christian revelation, that Christ will be
the Judge, etc.
10. The undoubted certainty of a future state of rewards and
punishments. (A. Mason, M.A.)
The risen Christ winning the nations
Bishop George Augustus Selwyn was a splendid type of the muscular
Christian. As a missionary he was a mighty force, and as a friend he was
universally beloved. An incident in his career as Missionary Bishop of New
Zealand well shows what manner of man he was. Governor Grey and Bishop Selwyn
were out together on a walking expedition, and it was Easter Sunday. “Christ
has risen!” Selwyn reverently welcomed the day, and his companion joined, “He
has risen indeed!” They were communing in that spirit when a bundle of letters
was brought into the tent. One to Selwyn the news of the death of Siapo, a
Loyalty Islander, who had become a Christian under his teaching, and who was
being educated with other natives at his seminary in Auckland. The Bishop,
overcome with grief, burst into tears; then he broke some moments of silence
with the words, “Why, you have not shed a single tear! “No,” said the Governor,
“I have been so wrapped in thought that I could not weep. I have been thinking
of the prophecy that men of every race were to be assembled in the kingdom of
heaven. I have tried to imagine the wonder and joy prevailing there at the
coming of Siapo, the first Christian of his race. He would be glad evidence
that another people of the world had been added to the teaching of Christ.”
“Yes, yes,” said Selwyn, drying his tears, “that is the true idea to entertain,
and I shall not weep any more.” (Christian Age.)
The kings shall shut their
mouths at Him
The wondrous monarchy
I. THE UNIQUE
SPECTACLE WHICH CHRIST PRESENTS. All that is great in this spectacle gathers
round what this Servant is to be and do. We observe five distinguishing
features--
1. Wondrous wisdom. “My Servant shall deal prudently.” Jesus was
filled with the spirit of Wisdom and understanding; with a keen and piercing
glance He saw men through and through. But it was not only in confounding His
enemies that His superhuman wisdom was shown; it was also in the means He used
for establishing that kingdom which He came to found. Means on which the world
would have relied He forbade and abjured. Means never tried before were the
only ones He would use. He would have no sword employed either to defend
Himself, or to, extend His sway, but equipped His warriors only with “power
from on high” !
2. Wondrous sorrow (Isaiah 52:14). He was “a man of sorrows “
3. Wondrous elevation. “He shall arise, and be lifted up, and be
glorified exceedingly.” These words exactly indicate the resurrection, the
ascension and the exaltation to mediatorial glory.
4. Wondrous redeeming efficacy. “So shall He sprinkle many nations.”
As His sorrow was intense, so shall His redeeming power be large, as if the one
were a recompense for the other. There were (among others) two kinds of
sprinkling enjoined by the Mosaic law, to either or to both of which a
reference may be intended here. The sprinkling of blood, being towards and on
the mercy-seat, was God-wards; the sprinkling of water, as on the Levite or
leper, was on the person, manwards. So the work of Christ has this double
aspect. The blood-shedding was God’s own atoning act in Him, for us; the
cleansing grace is God’s purifying act, through Him, in us.
5. Wondrous uniting power. “So shall He sprinkle many nations.” He
would absolve and sanctify, not the Jew only, but also the Greek, “and thus
abolish the wall of partition between Israel and the heathen, and gather into
one holy Church with Israel, those who had hitherto been pronounced unclean.
How vividly is the fulfilment of this portrayed in Acts 10:1-48.
II. WHAT IS THERE
HERE THAT SHOULD LEAD KINGS, IN PARTICULAR, TO DO THIS? Is it that though kings
and princes know all that earth has to give of luxury and splendour, they see
here a pomp that outshines all beside? That may be so, but we think the mason
lies deeper still. It is evidently on account of something before unknown that
they are to “shut their mouths,” for the text goes on to say, “That which had
not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they
consider. Around what do the thoughts and associations of kings gather? Do they
not gather round the sceptre, crown and empire? Do they not naturally weigh in
the balance one monarchy against another? Surely. Well, here is such a monarchy
as earth had never known before, and one that will ever stand absolutely alone.
1. In this monarchy alone right and might are entirely equal.
2. This monarchy is based on the King s own self-sacrifice.
3. How did He set up this kingdom? A few poor fishermen undertook to
instruct and convert the world. The success was prodigious.
4. This monarchy was based on the King’s own priesthood.
5. The power of love is the only power that gathers men round the
Cross
6. This monarchy was inaugurated by the issue of a royal pardon
offered to the worst of sinners, “beginning at Jerusalem.”
7. This is a monarchy that, uniting men under its sceptre, creating a
new power of love towards itself, creates also a new power of love for man
towards man, as well as of man for Jesus; and, strange as it may seem, in
gathering men of every tribe and tongue under its sceptre, it makes them forget
their diversity, and brings them to feel their oneness in one common God and
Father; and by the pulse-beat of a common life in all the nations, solves the
long-vexed problem of the unity of the human race! Nor is this all.
8. Everywhere the one force which holds together the subjects of this
Monarch is love!--not fear, not constraint, but love. Is there nothing in such
a monarchy as this to give a clue to the meaning of the expression, “Kings
shall shut their mouths at Him”? The expression evidently denotes the effect
which the report or the sight of such a monarchy should produce upon them. Some
take it as meaning that they should shut their mouths in silent fear. Others,
that they should withdraw the edicts against Christianity. We rather, with Mr.
Urwick, take it as indicating “the awe-inspiring power” of Christ. There may be
yet a deeper meaning in the expression, “shall shut their mouths”--a meaning
which applies only to Christian kings, and not to them simply as kings, but
rather as Christians in common with others. The words may indicate the silence
induced by deep emotion. (J. Culross, D.D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》