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Isaiah Chapter
Fifty-eight
Isaiah 58
Chapter Contents
Hypocrisy reproved. (1,2) A counterfeit and a true fast,
with promises to real godliness, and, (3-12) to the keeping the sabbath.
(13,14)
Commentary on Isaiah 58:1,2
(Read Isaiah 58:1,2)
The Holy Spirit had hypocrites of every age in view.
Self-love and timid Christians may say, Spare thyself; dislike to the cross and
other motives will say, "Spare the rich and powerful;" but God says,
"Spare not:" and we must obey God, not men. We all need earnestly to
pray for God's assistance in examining ourselves. Men may go far toward heaven,
yet come short; and they may go to hell with a good reputation.
Commentary on Isaiah 58:3-12
(Read Isaiah 58:3-12)
A fast is a day to afflict the soul; if it does not
express true sorrow for sin, and does not promote the putting away of sin, it
is not a fast. These professors had shown sorrow on stated or occasioned fasts.
But they indulged pride, covetousness, and malignant passions. To be liberal and
merciful is more acceptable to God than mere fasting, which, without them, is
vain and hypocritical. Many who seem humble in God's house, are hard at home,
and harass their families. But no man's faith justifies, which does not work by
love. Yet persons, families, neighbourhoods, churches, or nations, show
repentance and sorrow for sin, by keeping a fast sincerely, and, from right
motives, repenting, and doing good works. The heavy yoke of sin and oppression
must be removed. As sin and sorrow dry the bones and weaken the strongest human
constitution; so the duties of kindness and charity strengthen and refresh both
body and mind. Those who do justly and love mercy, shall have the comfort, even
in this world. Good works will bring the blessing of God, provided they are
done from love to God and man, and wrought in the soul by the Holy Spirit.
Commentary on Isaiah 58:13,14
(Read Isaiah 58:13,14)
The sabbath is a sign between God and his professing
people; his appointing it is a sign of his favour to them; and their observing
it is a sign of their obedience to him. We must turn from travelling on that
day; from doing our pleasure on that holy day, without the control and
restraint of conscience; or from indulging in the pleasures of sense. On
sabbath days we must not follow our callings, or our pleasures. In all we say
and do, we must put a difference between this day and other days. Even in Old
Testament times the sabbath was called the Lord's day, and is fitly called so
still; and for a further reason, it is the Lord Christ's day, Revelation 1:10. If we thus remember the sabbath
day to keep it holy, we shall have the comfort and profit of it, and have
reason to say, It is good to draw near to God.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 58
Verse 2
[2] Yet
they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did
righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the
ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
Yet —
They cover all their wickedness with a profession of religion.
Delight —
There are many men who take some pleasure in knowing God's will and word, and
yet do not conform their lives to it.
As — As if they were a
righteous people.
Forsook — As
if they were not guilty of any apostacy from God, or disobedience to God's
precepts.
Ask — As
if they resolved to observe them.
In approaching — In
coming to my temple to hear my word, and to offer sacrifices.
Verse 3
[3] Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we
afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your
fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours.
Afflicted —
Defrauded our appetites with fasting, of which this phrase is used, Leviticus 16:29.
Ye find —
Either you indulge yourselves in sensuality, as they did, Isaiah 22:13. But this does not agree with that
afflicting of their souls which they now professed, and which God acknowledges;
or you pursue and satisfy your own desires: though you abstain from bodily
food, you do not mortify your sinful inclinations.
Exact —
Your money, got by your labour, and lent to others, either for their need or
your own advantage, which you require either with usury, or at least with
rigour, when either the general law of charity, or God's particular law,
commanded the release, or at least the forbearance of them.
Verse 4
[4]
Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of
wickedness: ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard
on high.
Behold —
Your fasting days, wherein you ought in a special manner to implore the mercy
of God, and to shew compassion to men, you employ in injuring or quarrelling
with your brethren, your servants or debtors, or in contriving mischief against
them.
Heard — In
strife and debate. By way of ostentation.
Verse 5
[5] Is
it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it
to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him?
wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Chosen —
Approve of, accept, or delight in, by a metonymy, because we delight in what we
freely chuse.
For a day —
This may be understood, either for a man to take a certain time to afflict his
soul in, and that either from even to even, Leviticus 23:32, or from morning to evening, or
for a little time.
Wilt thou call —
Canst thou suppose it to be so? A fast - It being such an one as has nothing in
it, but the dumb signs of a fast, nothing of deep humiliation appearing in it,
or, real reformation proceeding from it.
Acceptable day — A
day that God will approve of.
Verse 6
[6] Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break
every yoke?
The bands —
The cruel obligations of usury and oppression.
Verse 7
[7] Is
it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are
cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Cast out —
And thereby become wanderers, having no abiding place.
To thy house —
That thou be hospitable, and make thy house a shelter to them that have none of
their own left.
Hide not —
That seek no occasion to excuse thyself.
Thy own flesh —
Some confine this to our own kindred; but we can look on no man, but there we
contemplate our own flesh, and therefore it is barbarous, not only to tear, but
not to love and succour him. Therefore feed him as thou wouldest feed thyself,
or be fed; shelter him as thou wouldest shelter thyself, or be sheltered;
clothe him as thou wouldest clothe thyself, or be clothed; if in any of these
respects thou wert in his circumstances.
Verse 8
[8] Then
shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth
speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD
shall be thy rereward.
Thy light —
Happiness and prosperity.
Break forth — It
shall not only appear, but break forth, dart itself forth, notwithstanding all
difficulties, as the sun breaks, and pierces through a cloud.
Thy health —
Another metaphor to express the same thing.
Righteousness —
The reward of thy righteousness.
Before thee — As
the morning-star goes before the sun.
The glory —
His glorious power and providence.
Thy rereward —
Thus the angel of his presence secured the Israelites when they came up out of
Egypt.
Verse 9
[9] Then
shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say,
Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth
of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Answer — He
will give an effectual demonstration, that he hears thee.
Here l am — A
phrase that notes a person to be ready at hand to help.
Take away —
From among you.
The yoke —
All those pressures and grievances before mentioned.
Putting forth —
Done by way of scoff, or disdainful insulting.
Vanity —
Any kind of evil words.
Verse 10
[10] And
if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then
shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
Draw out —
Or, open, as when we open a store, to satisfy the wants of the needy.
Thy soul —
Thy affection, thy pity and compassion.
Thy darkness — In
the very darkness of the affliction itself thou shalt have comfort.
Verse 11
[11] And
the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring
of water, whose waters fail not.
Guide thee —
Like a shepherd. And he adds continually to shew that his conduct and blessing
shall not be momentary, or of a short continuance, but all along as it was to
Israel in the wilderness.
Satisfy —
Thou shalt have plenty, when others are in scarcity.
Make fat —
This may be spoken in opposition to the sad effects of famine, whereby the
flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen, and the bones that were not
seen, stick out.
A garden — If
thou relieve the poor, thou shalt never be poor, but as a well-watered garden,
always flourishing.
Fail not —
Heb. deceive not, a metaphor which farther notes also the continuance of this
flourishing state, which will not be like a land-flood, or brooks, that will
soon be dried up with drought. Thou shalt be fed with a spring of blessing,
that will never fail.
Verse 12
[12] And
they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise
up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer
of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
They shall be of thee — Thy posterity.
Waste places —
Cities which have lain long waste; that shall continue for many generations to
come.
The breach —
Breach is put for breaches, which was made by God's judgment breaking in upon
them in suffering the walls of their towns and cities to be demolished.
Paths —
Those paths that led from city to city, which being now laid desolate, and
uninhabited, were grown over with grass, and weeds.
To dwell in —
These accommodations being recovered, their ancient cities might be fit to be
re-inhabited.
Verse 13
[13] If
thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy
day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and
shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor
speaking thine own words:
If — If thou take no
unnecessary journeys, or do any servile works on the sabbath-day.
A delight —
Performing the duties of it with chearfulness, delighting in the ordinances of
it.
Holy —
Dedicated to God, consecrated to his service.
Verse 14
[14] Then
shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the
high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
In the Lord — In
his goodness and faithfulness to thee, and in the assurance of his love and
favour.
To ride —
Thou shalt be above the reach of danger.
Feed thee —
Thou shalt enjoy the good of the land of Canaan, which God promised as an
heritage to Jacob, and his seed, Genesis 35:12.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
58 Chapter 58
Verses 1-4
Cry aloud, spare not
“Cry aloud”
“Cry with the throat.
” Crying with the throat or from the lungs is here opposed to a simple motion
of the lips and tongue (1 Samuel 1:13). The common version,
“Cry aloud,” is therefore substantially correct, though somewhat vague. The LXX
in like manner paraphrases it ἐν
ἰσχύι. J.D. Michaelis reads, “as loud as thou canst.” The positive
command is enforced by the negative one, “spare not,” as in Is
54:2. The loudness of the call is intended to suggest the
importance of thesubject, and, perhaps, the insensibility of those to be
convinced. The prophet here seems to turn away from avowed apostates to
hypocritical professors of the truth. (J. A. Alexander.)
Conviction before comfort
When our Lord Jesus, promised to send the Comforter, He added,
“When He is come, He shall convince;” for conviction must prepare for comfort,
and must also separate between the precious and the vile, and mark out those to
whom comfort doth not belong. God had appointed this prophet to comfort His
people (Isaiah 40:1); here He appoints him to
convince them, and show them their sins. (M. Henry.)
The minister must be faithful
He must be vehement and in good earnest, must cry aloud, and not
spare. Not spare them, nor touch them with his reproofs as if he were afraid of
hurting them, but search the wound to the bottom; lay it bare to the bone; not
spare himself, or his own pains, but cry as loud as he can. Though he spend his
strength, and waste his spirits; though he get their ill-will by it, and get
himself into an ill-name; yet he must not spare. The trumpet doth not give an
uncertain sound, but, though loud and shrill, is intelligible. So must his
alarms be, giving them warning of the fatal consequences of sin (Ezekiel 33:3-4). (M. Henry.)
National sins protested against
I. TESTIFY AGAINST
SOME OF THE PREVAILING SINS AND CRYING ABOMINATIONS OF THIS LAND.
1. Pride.
2. Luxury.
3. Pleasure.
4. Gluttony.
5. Drunkenness.
6. Swearing.
7. Sabbath-breaking.
8. Lying.
9. Avarice.
10. Adultery and fornication.
11. Profane contempt of holy things.
12. The evil passions which agitate the bosoms of men, and which
receive the sanction of a large portion of the community--not as casual evils,
but as principles of action, and tests of what is called highmindedness and
honour. Some of the most prevailing of these, when stripped of their specious
coverings, and exhibited in their proper character, are--ambition, envy,
malice, and revenge.
13. Flagrant insincerity., and wicked abuse of professed acts of
public worship.
14. Hardened impenitence.
II. URGE WITH
FAITHFULNESS AND IMPARTIALITY THE SENTENCE OF GOD DENOUNCED UPON EACH. (R.
Shittier.)
Selfish piety
Selfish piety is the popular piety of this age and land.
I. IT IS VERY
EARNEST. The piety’, of Israel at this time seems to have been anything but a
dull and inactive power; it was very busy.
1. It was earnest in study. “They seek Me daily,” etc. (Isaiah 58:2).
2. It is earnest in prayer. “They ask of Me the ordinances of
justice,” etc.
3. It is earnest in its self-sacrifice. It endures lastings and
self-mortifications (Isaiah 58:3).
4. It is earnest in its churchism. “Ye fast for strife and debate,”
etc. It would seem that the Israelites were divided into religious parties or
factions, some professing to be more orthodox than others. There was a rivalry,
therefore, in their devotion; one tried to excel the other, and the competition
ran so high that they began to “smite each other with the fist.”
5. It is earnest in its professions. They made “their voice to be heard
on high.”
II. IT IS TERRIBLY
REPREHENSIBLE. The prophet is here called upon to “Cry aloud, spare not,” etc.
1. It is an insult to God. “He abhors the sacrifice where not the
heart is found.” This selfish piety is the most abhorrent of all impieties.
2. It is pernicious to souls. This selfish piety inflicts
incalculable injury upon its possessor: it warps the judgment, it deadens the
conscience, it awakens false hopes generates diseased affections and
dehumanizes the man. Nor is the injury confined to the possessor himself. (Homilist.)
Verses 1-14
Verse 2
Yet they seek Me daily
Hypocitical religion
When the prophet went about to show them their transgressions, they
pleaded they could see no transgressions they were guilty of; for they were
diligent in attending God’s worship, and what more would he have of them?
Now,
1. He owns the matter of fact to be true. As far as hypocrites do
that which is good, they shall not be denied the praise of it; let them make
their best of it. It is owned that they have the form of godliness.
2. He intimates that this was so far from being a cover or excuse for
their sin, that really it was an aggravation of it. Show them their sins that
they go on in, notwithstanding their knowledge of good and evil, sin and duty,
and the convictions of their consciences concerning it. (M. Henry.)
Religious, but unsaved
Men may go a great way towards heaven, and yet come short; nay,
may go to hell with a good reputation. (M. Henry.)
Two great problems
The prophet and the world may be considered as engaged in two
opposite problems. The problem which the world is ever seeking to discover is
to find out what is the least religion they may have, and yet be saved; the
problem which the prophet is here endeavoring to solve, is what is the most
religion you may have, and yet be lost. (D. Moore, M. A.)
Forms of religion
There are four distinct forms of Gospel service, all of which, if
accompanied by right affections towards God, afford just and scriptural
evidence of an accepted or reconciled state. These four forms of service
are--the habit of daily prayer, a love for the preached Word, an open
profession of Christ, and an apparent earnestness in inquiring after the ways
and will of God. These, however, are not in themselves decisive tests of
spiritual character; causes may operate to induce these outward observances,
wholly distinct from the love of God in its governing and ruling power.
Education may prompt a man to acts of daily worship; by local sympathies, or by
the power of fashion, a man may be induced to make a religious profession; and
he may with much apparent earnestness be inquiring which is the way to life
eternal, when he has a secret mental reservation to keep the joys, the
comforts, and the forbidden delights of the present world. (M. Henry.)
Formalism
I. WHY MEN GO SO
FAR.
1. It is a sentiment of moral uneasiness which makes the formalist of
every grade and character.
2. But in estimating the causes which induce men to go certain
lengths in a religious life, we should not entirely omit the expectation of a
considerable degree of credit in the world; a secret pride at being numbered
among the people of God--an indefinite notion of outward prosperity as usually
following on a bold religious profession.
II. WHY IT IS THAT
THEY WILL NOT GO FURTHER, For this I shall assign two reasons.
1. Defective knowledge--an imperfect acquaintance with the way of
salvation. Men know not the end of Christ’s work, they know not the jealousy
with which He regards any interference with that work.
2. Defective obedience--they stop short of some form of Gospel
requirement with which they should comply.
III. APPLY SOME
TESTS OF SPIRITUAL SINCERITY. (M. Henry.)
Verses 3-7
Wherefore have we fasted?
--
Fasts
Fasts were a common feature of the old Israelitish religion (1 Kings 21:9; 1 Kings 21:12; Jeremiah 36:9). In Zechariah 8:19 we learn expressly that
during the exile four days were observed annually as fasts, in commemoration of
dates connected with the fall of Jerusalem. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Fasting
I. CONSIDER IN
GENERAL THE DUTY OF FASTING, ITS NATURE, ENDS AND USES. As to the meaning of
the word, fasting is only an abstinence from food. Whether this abstinence
should be total or partial, and how long it should be continued, cannot be
determined by any general rule that can reach all persons; but the
constitutions and strength of particular persons must be considered, and such
abstinence used by them respectively as will best answer in each the ends and
uses of fasting. We are not to look upon fasting in itself as a thing that recommends
us to God. But there are good ends for which fasting is appointed, and which
are promoted by it, that make it acceptable to God regard, therefore, must ever
be had to those ends, and such measures taken as may be most conducive to them,
and they are chiefly these--
1. For subduing and mortifying the sinful appetites of the body.
2. For the better disposing the mind to prayer and other spiritual
exercises. The corruptible body is too apt to press down the immortal soul.
3. For the testifying our shame and sorrow; our anger at ourselves
for our sins. We have God’s express command for it to His people the Jews. The
prophet Joel frequently and earnestly presses them to this duty. Holy men of
old practised it, as we find in the instances of Ezra, David, Daniel, etc. And
that we may not think this to be such a Jewish rite, as concerned only those
that lived under their dispensation, we read that when the prophet Jonah
denounced God’s judgment against Nineveh, those Gentiles proclaimed a fast, and
observed it universally from the greatest to the least. And to put this matter
out of all doubt, the blessed Author of our holy roll,on, in His Sermon on the
Mount, though He does not directly command fasting yet supposes it a duty to be
practised by Christians, gives directions for the right performance of it, and
upon such a performance assures us of a blessing from our Father in heaven.
II. REFLECT UPON
THOSE FAULTS OF THE JEWS RECORDED IN MY TEXT, WHICH MADE THEIR FASTS
UNACCEPTABLE TO GOD.
1. Though they used great outward austerity, and severe discipline
towards the body, there was no inward change.
2. Their divisions and contentions. “Ye fast for strife and debate,”
etc.
3. Their want of compassion and charity to those that were in
affliction (verse 7). A like thread of hypocrisy ran through their fasts, and
prayers, and alms, and all their services in our Saviour’s time.
III. INQUIRE WHETHER
WE OF THIS NATION ARE NOT JUSTLY CHARGEABLE WITH THE SAME SINS WHICH THEY
COMMITTED, and so severely smarted for; and whether we have not too much reason
to fear that God may expostulate with us about our public fasts, as He did with
them, “ Are they such fasts as I have chosen?”
IV. PRESS YOU TO
THE PRACTICE OF SUCH THINGS AS MAY MAKE THIS DAY OF HUMILIATION AN ACCEPTABLE
DAY UNTO THE LORD. And what can do this but our careful avoiding those sins
which the Jews are here reproved for, and practising their contrary duties?
1. We must be sure to avoid that foolish and provoking sin of
hypocrisy.
2. Also all strife and division. S. Let us take heed of
unmercifulness and hard-heartedness to those that are in want and misery; for,
with what face can we ask, with what reason can we expect from God, supplies
for our wants, or succour in our distress, if we refuse such help as we can
give to our poor brethren in their affliction? (Bp. Talbot.)
Incipient Pharisaism
There is an incipient Pharisaism in their evident expectation that
by external works of righteousness they would hasten the coming of the
Messianic salvation. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Ye fast for strife
J. D. Michaelis tells a story of a lady who was never known to
scold her servants so severely as on fast days, which he says agrees well with
physiological principles and facts! (J. A. Alexander.)
Verses 5-9
Is it such a fast that I have chosen?
--
The fast which God has chosen
I. GOD’S PURPOSE
IN COMMANDING MEN TO FAST.
1. To lead us to prayer (Isaiah 58:4), prayer so real that our
voices are “heard on high,” that God will hear and answer.
2. To aid us in realizing communion with Him (Isaiah 58:9); that His voice be heard by
us as truly as ours by Him; our voice to Him (Isaiah 58:8), His to us.
3. To aid in repressing self in all its forms. In John 3:30, we have thegeneral principle,
also in Philippians 2:8.
II. THE NATURE OR
CHARACTER OF TRUE ABSTINENCE.
1. To loose our bands (Luke 13:16), “whom Satan hath bound” Luke 11:21-22; Matthew 5:29-30).
2. To undo our burdens (Psalms 55:22; Matthew 11:28-30).
3. To break every yoke, every habit that enslaves (Romans 14:21; 1 Corinthians 6:12-18). “I will not
be brought under the power of any.”
4. To bring the flesh into subjection to the spirit (Galatians 5:17).
III. THE EFFECT OF
TRUE ABSTINENCE.
1. “Then” thy light shall break forth like morning (Philippians 2:15-16; Matthew 5:16).
2. “Thy righteousness shall go before thee ‘ as a leader to higher grace
and 2 Corinthians 3:18).
3. Thy prayer shall be heard (verse 9).
4. There shall be light from on high, and His guidance for ever
(verse 10; Psalms 32:8; Exodus 33:14).
Conclusion: To keep this season properly, we must be ourselves
“free” as now creatures in Him. We must act habitually in the spirit of freedom
Galatians 5:1). We must do what in us
lies to make others free Numbers 10:29). (H. Linton, M. A.)
Philanthropic piety
In these verses you have the religious instinct working, not
through selfishness, but through love, not in formal religious devotions, but
in earnest philanthropic services.
I. ITS RITUAL IS
PHILANTHROPIC SERVICE. “Pure religion and undefiled is this, to visit the widow
and fatherless,” etc.
II. ITS INFLUENCE
IS GLORIOUSLY BENEFICENT. What is it? “Light.” “Then shall thy light break
forth as the morning. Prosperity will come on them as the genial dawning of a
long and blessed day. “Health.” “Thine health shall spring forth speedily.’ All
weakness and disease will depart, and healthful vigour will come into the soul.
“Righteousness.” “Thy righteousness shall go before thee.” The eternal law of
rectitude--not expediency, not caprice, not passion, not morbid sentiment, will
guide the footsteps as a leader through the winding path of life.’ “Glory. “The
glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward” (margin, “shall gather thee up, that
ye shall bring up the rear’).
III. ITS SPIRIT IS ACCEPTABLE
TO GOD. “Then shalt thou call and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He
shall say, Here I am.” The idea is that if men would only be real in their
religion, show their love to Him by labouring earnestly for the good of
suffering humanity, then He would respond to their prayers, and grant them
their request. (Homilist.)
Verse 6-7
Is not this the fast that I have chosen?
--
Practical fasting
In reply to the question, how the acts here mentioned could be
described as fasting, J. D. Michaelis says that they are all to be considered
as involving acts of conscientious self-denial, which he illustrates by the
case of an American slaveholder brought by stress of conscience to emancipate
his slaves. (J. A. Alexander.)
Oppression
People may be oppressed in their reputation by unmerited
reproaches. (R. Macculloch.)
A foretokening of Gospel morality
This passage is one of those in which the holiness peculiar to the
Gospel seems to be foretokened in the morality of the prophetic canon. The
twilight clouds were red with the coming Sun.
1. Isaiah and his brother-prophets were holier and heavenlier and
richer in the works of love upon an anticipated Christ than we are in a Christ
already our crucified Example. These men of God knew no divorce between belief
and love, between living perpetually in the presence of a benevolent Lord and
imitating His benevolence to their “fellow-creatures. As it is the spirit of
truth that has solemnized the union of the principle of faith with the works of
charity, so it is, and in all ages has been, the master policy of the spirit of
evil to effect their separation.
2. The whole religious providence towards man in every age has been a
system operating by the combined influence of faith and love--both directed
towards His own perfect essence. In our existing condition, what is faith but
love relying on support? What is love but faith forgetting the support in the
Supporter? Every progressive step in attaining habits of compassion and
kindness upon earth must necessarily be a step towards estimating and loving
Him who is the essential Spirit of benevolence. The love of man is the type and
shadow of the love of God. The people of God are here engaged with the
rudiments and images of those affections which are to be the duty and happiness
of their eternity. (W. Archer Butler.)
Verse 7
Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry?
--
Almsgiving
Why there are so many evils in the world is a question that has
been agitated ever since man felt them. It becomes not us, with too
presumptuous a curiosity, to assign the causes of the Divine conduct, or, with
too daring a hand, to draw aside the veil which covers the councils of the
Almighty. But from this state of things we see many good effects arise. The
enjoyments of life are grafted upon its wants; from natural evil arises moral
good, and the sufferings of some contribute to the happiness of all. Such being
the state of human affairs, charity, or that disposition which leads us to
supply the wants, and alleviate the sufferings, of unhappy men, as well as bear
with their infirmities, must be a duty of capital importance. Accordingly, it
is enjoined in our holy religion as being the chief of the virtues. It is
assigned as the test and criterion by which we are to distinguish the disciples
of Jesus, and it will be selected at the great day as being that part of the
character which is most decisive of the life, and according to which the last
sentence is to turn. Charity, in its most, comprehensive sense, signifies that
disposition of mind which, from a regard and gratitude to God, leads to do all
the good in our power to man. But all that I intend at present is, to consider
that branch of charity which is called almsgiving.
I. WHAT IS THE
MOST PROPER METHOD OF BESTOWING CHARITY.
1. The best method of bestowing charity upon the healthy and strong
is to give them employment. One half of the vices of men take their orion from
idleness. To support the indolent, therefore, to keep those idle who are able
to work, is acting contrary to the intention of God; is doing an injury to
society, which claims a right to the services of all its members; is defrauding
real objects of charity of that which is their proper due,. and is fostering a
race of sluggards to prey upon the vitals of a State. But he is a valuable
member of society, and merits well of mankind, who, by devising means of
employment for the industrious, delivers the public from a useless incumbrance,
and makes those who would otherwise be the pests of society, useful subjects of
the Commonwealth.
2. Another act of charity, of equal importance, is to supply the
wants of the really indigent and necessitous. If the industrious, with all
their efforts, are not able to earn a competent livelihood; if the produce of
their labour be not proportionable to the demands of a numerous family; then
they arc proper objects of your charity.
3. Another class of men that demand our charity is the aged and
feeble, who, after a life of hard labour, are grown unfit for further business,
and who add poverty to the other miseries of old age.
4. Children also bereft of their parents, orphans cast upon the care
of Providence, are signal objects of compassion.
5. But there is a class of the unfortunate who are the greatest
objects of all; those who, after having been accustomed to ease and plenty, are
by some unavoidable reverse of fortune condemned to bear, what they are least
able to bear, the galling load of poverty; who, after having been perhaps
fathers to the fatherless in the day of their prosperity, are now become the
objects of that charity which they were wont so liberally to dispense.
II. EXHORTATIONS TO
THE PRACTICE OF THIS DUTY. This duty is so agreeable to the common notions of
mankind, that every one condemns the mean and sordid spirit of that wretch whom
God has blessed with abundance, and consequently with the power of blessing others,
and who is yet relentless to the cries of the poor and miserable. The practice
of this duty is incumbent upon all.
1. To the performance of it you are drawn by that pity and compassion
which are implanted in the heart.
2. Consider the pleasure derived from benevolence. (J. Logan, F.
R. S.)
Dealing bread to the hungry
Thine “own bread it must be, and that especially whereof thou hast
on the fast-day abridged thyself; for what the rich spare on such a day the
poor should spend. Hereby,
1. Men’s prayers shall speed the better (Acts 10:4).
2. They shall make God their debtor (Proverbs 19:17).
3. That is best and most pleasing alms to God that is given in Church
assemblies; for,
13 almsgiver (Luke 21:1-2), setting it down in His book
of remembrance (Malachi 3:16). (J. Trapp.)
“To break bread,”
“To break bread,” meaning to distribute, from the Oriental
practice of baking bread in thin flat cakes. (J. A. Alexander.)
Breaking bread to the hungry
Not only to give them that which is already broken meat, but break
bread on purpose for them; give them loaves and do not put them off with
scraps. (M. Henry.)
Verses 8-14
Then shall thy light break forth
The secret of prosperity to nations, churches, and men
(Isaiah 58:8-10; Isaiah 58:14, “Then,” “then,” “then,”
“then “):--
I.
MEN
AND CHURCHES CHARGE GOD FOOLISHLY, AND COMPLAIN WITHOUT CAUSE OF THEIR OWN LOW
ESTATE.
II. GOD REBUTS
THEIR BLASPHEMOUS CHARGE, AND ASSERTS THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF HIS DEALINGS IN AN
APPEAL TO THEIR OWN CONSCIENCES AND COMMON-SENSE.
III. GOD RETURNS THE
CHARGE AGAINST HIMSELF ON THE SINNERS’ OWN HEADS, AND REVEALS HIS SECRET, IF
MEN WILL HAVE EARS TO HEAR. “Then” is the secret of light and darkness; of
health and sickness, or want of spiritual vigour and vitality; of covenant
righteousness in the enjoyment of covenant blessings, or apparent breach of
covenant in the withholding of what is good; of glory, such as that of Israel
in the wilderness, when the glory of the Lord was “their rereward,” when the
pillar of cloud and fire was in the midst of them by day and night, or shame,
as when the ark was in the hands of the Philistines, or the Assyrian or
Babylonian invaded God’s heritage and profaned His temple; of prayers answered,
or unanswered; of God’s presence manifested in undeniable! tokens, or denied,
undiscerned, apparently withdrawn; of power to be God’s witnesses and workmen
in doing good to others, or impotence, conscious inability to be
fellow-labourers with God and for God, want of spiritual life and energy. “Then”
is the secret--then, and not till then--then, and not otherwise--then
certainly-then according to the promise of the covenant, and in the way of the
covenant and kingdom. In further application of the text to ourselves learn
such lessons as the following--
1. The salvation of the Gospel is salvation from sin itself.
2. In the Gospel, accordingly, blessedness and righteousness go
together, and so also sin and misery.
3. There is under the Gospel no substitute for repentance.
4. Man, in all the work of salvation, from beginning to end, must
co-operate with God. (R. Paisley.)
God the rewarder
If a person, a family, a people be thus disposed to everything
that is good, let them know for their comfort that they shall find God their
bountiful rewarder.
1. God shall surprise them with the return of mercy after great
affliction, which shall be as welcome as the light of the morning after a long
and dark night (Isaiah 58:8; Isaiah 58:10). They that arc cheerful in
doing good, God will make them cheerful in enjoying good. They that have showed
mercy shall find mercy. Those that have helped others out of trouble, God will
help them when it is their turn.
2. God will put honour upon them. Good works shall be recompensed
with a good name. This is included in that light which riseth out of obscurity.
3. They shall always be safe under the Divine protection. “Thy righteousness
shall go before thee,” as the vanguard, to secure thee from enemies that charge
thee in the front; and “the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward,” the
gathering, host to bring up those of thee that are weary and are left behind,
and to secure thee from the enemies that, like Amalek, fall upon thy rear.
4. God will be always nigh unto them to hear their prayers (Isaiah 58:9). As, on the one hand, “he
that shuts his ears to the cry of the poor shall himself cry and God will not
hear him,” so on the other hand, he that is liberal to the poor, his prayers
shall come up, with his alms, for a memorial before God Acts 10:4).
5. God will direct them in all difficult and doubtful cases (verse
11).
6. God will give them abundance of satisfaction in their own minds
(verse 11).
7. They and their families shall be public blessings (verse 12). (M.
Henry.)
“Break forth as the dawn
“Break forth” is the verb used in IsaGe 7:11; Psalms 74:15, of the bursting of waters
through a fissure in the earth’s surface; by a vivid metaphor the dawn was
conceived as “splitting” the heavens and flooding the world with light The same
word occurs on the Moaite Stone in the phrase “from the splitting of the dawn.”
(Prof. J. Skinner,D. D.)
Thine health shall spring
forth speedily
A healthy Church
I. ESSENTIALS OF A
HEALTHY CHURCH.
1. A Scriptural constitution.
2. Nutritious food.
3. Pure air.
4. Regular exercise.
II. CHARACTERISTICS
OF A HEALTHY CHURCH
1. Health is sometimes known by outward appearances. The rosy cheeks,
the sparkling eyes, the sonorous voice, all testify to health. A healthy Church
may be known by its prayer-meetings, contributions, missionary spirit, etc.
2. Health is known by tastes. A sickly man’s taste is bad.
Unwholesome dainties are preferred to strong meat. So with regard to an
unhealthy Church. Silly anecdotes are preferred to good scriptural teaching.
Thinks much of forms and ceremonies.
3. Contentment of mind. An unhealthy man is querulous and difficult
to please. So an unhealthy Church. It is a fault-finding Church.
4. Work. Sickness disables a man for labour. Health stimulates to
work. A healthy Church may be known by its labour.
III. THE
DESIRABILITY OF A HEALTHY CHURCH. A healthy Church--
1. Is one of great comfort to itself.
2. Will survive through many trials. The healthy man is heedless of
east winds, etc. So a healthy Church survives persecutions, etc.
3. Is attractive. People shun unhealthy Churches as they do fever
dens.
4. Is one likely to live.
Lessons:
1. A morally sick Church is a great curse to a neighbourhood.
2. The sooner the better that many a Church should apply to the great
Physician for spiritual healing.
3. The Church will by and by become perfectly whole.
4. When perfectly whole, diseased persons will no longer be admitted
into its fellowship (Revelation 21:27). (J. Williams.)
Verses 9-11
Then shalt thou call
God’s wonderful response to His people’s prayers
When God calls to us by His Word, it becomes us to say, “Here we
are; what saith our Lord unto His servants?
” But that God should say to us, “Behold Me, here I am,” is strange. When we
cry to Him, as if He were at a distance, He will let us know that He is near,
even at our right hand, nearer than we thought He was. “It is I, be not
afraid.” When danger is near, our Protector is nearer, a very present help.
“Here I am,” ready to give you what you want, and do for you what you desire.
What have you to say to Me? God is attentive to the prayers of the upright (Psalms 130:2). No sooner do they call to
Him, but He answers, Ready, ready. Wherever they are praying, God saith, Here I
am hearing; I am in the midst of you, nigh unto them in all things (Deuteronomy 4:7). (M. Henry.)
If thou take away from the
midst of thee the yoke
One path to prosperity
In the figures implied the prophet represents extreme adversity;
and by metaphors which he distinctly puts forth he describes renewed
prosperity; and he connects the marvellous change from the deepest adversity to
the highest prosperity with the avoidance or laying aside of three sins which
then beset the people of God, and with the performance of two ordinary duties.
1. The besetting sins.
2. The duties.
Oppression
The oppression of others is an early sin, a sin which you often
see rampant among children--among very little children. Oppression is a
household sin, it will be found more or less in almost every family. There may
be some cases where it is not, but they are decided exceptions. And it is a sin
in connection with all family relations. The godly husband is charged to love
the wife even as himself, and even as Christ loveth the Church; but there are
many husbands--some: professing to be Christ’s disciples--who are the wretched
oppressors of wives. Oppression Is a household sin--seen in parents--seen in
brothers and sisters--seen in the husband. And it is a social sin--seen in all
the walks of life.
1. Especially where men employ each other, and take advantage of each
other’s skill, and of each other’s strength. It is a national sin--seen more or
less in all rulers; and an international sin--seen in the conduct of nations to
each other. Manifestly, therefore, a very common sin is this putting on of the
yoke--seen where men have no right to put on the yoke at all; and seen in a
heavy yoke where men have only the right to put on a light yoke, and they
impose a heavy yoke; and seen in thus keeping on of the yoke after the yoke
should be removed. (S. Martin.)
Creed and outward ordinances not the supreme things
1. Nothing is here said about this people having declined from
religious belief, or in this case from the observance of religious rites. God
had to find fault with them on these grounds, but what I want you to notice is,
that God is not speaking of such declension here. What does this show? It shows
that a man, so far as the creed on his lip is concerned, may maintain his
orthodoxy, and that a man, so far as religious ordinances are concerned, may
maintain his devoutness, and yet have a heart thoroughly declining from God’s
statutes.
2. There is an eternal connection between righteousness and
blessedness.
3. The true state of individual saints and of congregations of saints
is light, not obscurity; brightness, not dulness; happiness, not misery;
spiritual health, not moral sickness; usefulness, not sterility and barrenness;
continuance, not declension. (S. Martin.)
“Putting forth of the finger”
A gesture of derision. Hence the middle finger is called by
Persius, digitus infamis. (J. A. Alexander.)
Verse 10-11
And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry
The reflex influence Of missionary enterprise
I.
MISSIONARY
ENTERPRISE EXALTS CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. The whole life of the Christian after
his conversion is a discipline fitted to purify and exalt his character. What,
then, are the works and exercises that tend most to build up Christian
character to a lofty height? I know nothing equal to work that engages us
directly in seeking the conversion of our fellow-men, and especially of those
whose conversion seems naturally most difficult, such as we find in the mission
field.
1. The first test I set before you is the tendency of this work to
exercise the Christian graces. Whatever exercises these most, must produce the
highest Christian result; for Christian character is just the Christian graces
consolidated and fixed in the soul by cultivation. Take, then, a grace like
faith. I confidently ask if home chanty--needful and precious as it is--be as
lofty a kind of charity as that which deals with want and woe, enforced by the
naked claim of humanity in distress. Is it not an exalted feature of British
commerce that every great calamity strikes to its heart, so that immediately a
subscription is opened on every stock-exchange? But why should missions be less
expansive, and the soul be less provided for than the body?
2. Our second test shall be resemblance to God. From beginning to
end, God takes a missionary attitude. He sends the Son; He sends the Spirit;
apart even from grace, He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. As the true
God delights in mercy, truth, and righteousness, we claim for the works that
foster these in the soul, as the most God-like, the highest stamp of worth and
sacredness l
3. Our third test shall be the example of Jesus Christ. What was He
if not a missionary--the missionary that travelled the farthest, stooped the
lowest, gave up the most, suffered the worst? The very world has learned new
ideas of greatness and goodness from Jesus Christ; and this central idea of
self-sacrificing love, as the very element of moral grandeur, stands out like a
new revelation.
4. I mention a fourth test, which is, our imitation of the greatest
Christians. Can one be mentioned that has not sympathized with the spread and
diffusion of the Gospel?
II. The second way
in which missionary enterprise reacts beneficially on the Church is in
INCREASING CHRISTIAN JOY. This, of course, would follow from improving
Christian character. But I take another line of illustration.
1. Missions remove hindrances to Christian joy. It is a great
hindrance to think that the world is still in so backward a state. But the
faithful Christian can say, “Well, this is not my fault. I am doing something
to remedy it; and the more that we all do, the sooner will the evil be cured.”
It is also a great hindrance to Christian joy that the Church is so divided.
But here, generally, in the mission field, matters are at their best. I will
only mention another hindrance to joy which missions remove--the sceptical
doubts and questionings as to the truth of Christianity. Now the visible living
power of the Gospel, as seen on the mission field, is not only an evidence of
divinity, but meets some current objections and difficulties. Objections are
taken to the unity of the human race. But here, in point of fact, the race is
shown to be one. And this casts indirect light on the question as to the
antiquity of man. A book that casts more light on the history of the human race
than any other, that goes more to the depths of human nature, and that works
more stupendous and blessed changes on man in every country and clime, is not
likely to be mistaken as to his age, and the conviction, which every day’s
experience of missions deepens, that the Bible is the God-given book for the
race, may help us to wait calmly and hopefully as, occasional difficulties
arise, till time and study clear them away.
2. While missions thus remove hindrances to Christian joy, they also
give positive occasions to it. The triumphs of me Gospel in these new scenes
must delight every Christian heart. The Christian, as it were, lives over again
his own Christian experience in coming to the Saviour and tasting the riches of
His grace. He enters into the gladness of the missionary who, after many a hard
and sore struggle, rejoices that he has not run in vain, neither laboured in
vain. He rises even to the joy of angels, as fellow-helpers to conversion, and
as assuming the guardianship of unlooked-for heirs of salvation to whom they
minister. Nay, the Christian’s joy is not complete, till he thinks of his God
and Saviour, who for this hour came to the Cross, with all its shame and
sorrow, and now, in looking back on it all, sees here of the travail of His
soul and is satisfied.
III. The third way in
which I shall show that missionary enterprise reacts beneficially on the Church
is IN ENLARGING ITS REWARD. I might have dwelt on the impulse to usefulness and
success in all other directions which, with the foregoing enhancements of
character and joy, constitute reward in this life. But I point rather hero to
“the recompense of the reward” hereafter. Our term of labour is bounded. Ought
we not, then, to take home the truth that heaven, with its rewards, is
dependent for its degrees on the effects of time? The missionary field thus
holds out a glorious opportunity of brightening heaven. It will be brightened
by the very results of our labours in peopling it with ransomed souls; but over
and above, there are glorious rewards and honours of which we can only speak
here like men that dream. (J. Cairns, D. D.)
Verse 11
And the Lord shall guide thee continually
Our Guide
Our earthly existence is a pilgrimage which none can successfully
perform without Divine aid.
I. ALL MEN NEED A
GUIDE. There are many who have been determined to have their own way; and when
that way has led them rote” the path of sin and ended, in,, shame and
unhappiness, they have said, “Ah, I wish I had known this in time! Many persons
often wish, “O that I could begin my life again with my present knowledge of
what is best for me!” In the pilgrimage of earthly existence there are many
perils. There is often the uncertainty of darkness. We are beset by the peril
of false leaders. There are spiritual robbers who meet us on every hand. There
are snares of sinful pleasure and selfish indulgence. There is the intoxication
of prosperity. Some allow themselves to be broken down by adversity. We are in
peril from flatterers.
II. THE LORD IS OUR
GUIDE.
1. He is a compassionate guide.
2. A faithful guide.
3. A perfect guide.
4. He knows your life at the end as well as the beginning.
III. TO WHAT WILL
THE LORD GUIDE US?
1. To truth.
2. To success in life. True success is to be able to do the will of
God.
3. The Lord will guide the burdened to the arms of strength. (W.
Birch.)
The promised guidance
I. IT IS A
NECESSARY PROMISE. “What could the children of Israel have done in the
wilderness, without the cloudy fiery pillar to lead them over its trackless
wastes? This world is just such a wilderness to us.
II. IT IS A
REASONABLE PROMISE. I do not mean that it is reasonable for us to expect it.
No, indeed, we have no right to look for a blessing so great and so gracious. I
mean it is a reasonable promise so far as God is concerned. It is what He can
easily fulfil.
III. IT IS A
COMFORTING PROMISE. It meets our wants as the children of God, and meets them
fully. If we are depending on our fellow-creatures for help, there are always
two difficulties in our way. One is that our friends may not know just what
help we are needing; or if they know it, they may not be able to reach us with
the help we need. But God is able to concentrate His power, His presence, and
His sufficiency in the case of each of His people, as thoroughly and as
effectually as though that single case were the only one existing to claim His
attention or to enlist His power. (R. Newton, D. D.)
A happy Christian
Observe in what connection this sunny sketch of prosperity occurs.
It is set in a frame that excites the strong prejudice of some professing
Christians. The setting is a framework of duties. The blessings are not
promised to every Christian unconditionally,” “but are fenced in with terms: If
thou doest this, and if thou doest that, then shall such-and-such blessings be
thine.” Though salvation is of grace, the happiness of the Christian does
depend upon his obedience.
I. These people,
who are thus full of God’s Spirit, are described as possessing CONTINUAL
GUIDANCE. “The Lord shall guide thee continually.”
1. There come to them, as to other men, dilemmas in providence. He
goes not amiss who goes in the company of God.
2. The path of doctrine, also, is sometimes difficult. The Holy Ghost
will lead us into all truth. So shall it be, likewise, in matters of spiritual
experience.
3. Our experience often seems to be as though it had no rule. If we
are enabled by grace to seek close and vital union with Christ, and to live
upon Him continually, we may rest assured that whether our experience be gloomy
or delightful, and whether our inward conflicts or joys be paramount, He will
still be at the helm, and will guide us continually.
II. The second
blessing promised in the text is INWARD SATISFACTION. “And satisfy thy soul in
drought.” It is a blessed thing to have the soul satisfied, for the soul is of
great capacity. The Christian has got what his soul wants. He has a removal of
all that which marred his peace, blighted his prospects, and made his soul empty
and hungry. His sin is pardoned; he is reconciled to God. He is satisfied with
God’s dispensation. He is satisfied with God’s love. He is satisfied with
promises that can never be broken, with covenants that can never be violated,
with oaths that stand fast like mountains, and with the words of God which are
great as the fathomless sea. He is satisfied with his God. The consequence of
such a satisfaction as this is that the Christian is as well satisfied at one
time as at another, if his soul be right. He shall be satisfied in times of
drought. In the vast times of distress the Christian is still satisfied.
III. The next
blessing is, SPIRITUAL HEALTH AND HAPPINESS. “And make fat thy bones.” Note the
figure. It is not “make fat thy flesh.” When Jeshurun waxed fat he kicked.
Sometimes abundance in earthly things makes poverty in heavenly things. But
fatness here is to be upon the man’s hardest and most necessary part of his
frame. A man is really built up when his bones, the solid pillars of the house
of his manhood, have been strengthened. Vigour has been put into his
constitution where it was most required. The figure seems to me to indicate two
or three things in one. There is health here, the soul purged from its vices,
sicknesses, and unbelief, pride, sloth, and such like. There is vigour here, no
lukewarmness. There is growth, the man is not stunted. Christian joy is, after
all, Christian strength.
IV. The fourth
blessing is this, “AND THOU SHALT BE LIKE A WATERED GARDEN.” This figure of a
garden is a very sweet and attractive one. Our fancy is soon at work to invent
a picture of flower-beds, and fruit-trees, shady walks, and pleasant fountains,
laid out close to some grand mansion, and opening its fairest views to the best
apartments of the palace. Such a garden needs constant care, and then, although
it may be more beautiful at one season than another, it will never be like a
wild heath, or totally bereft of charms. But, alas! some professors of religion
are not like this: there is little evidence of diligent cultivation in their
character.
V. There is the
blessing of CONTINUED STRENGTH, CONTINUED FRESHNESS, CONTINUED SUPPLY. “As a
well of water whose waters fail not.” There are many wells in the East which do
fail, and many apparent springs which deceive the traveller. I observe that the
margin has it, “whose waters deceive not, or lie not. And how many a man who
has appeared like a Christian has been but a mere deceiver! Not so God’s true
people. They shall have so much grace that when a Christian friend expects to
find grace in them, he shall not be disappointed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Thou shalt be like a
watered garden
A watered garden
Cannot a garden water itself? No. That is the answer, definite,
cold--discouraging, encouraging, as we may take the term. Is it not enough to
be a garden? what matter about the sunshine? who cares about the rain or the
dew? Is it not enough to be a garden, a geometric form, pearled and diamonded
with many a flower? The king’s gardens cannot do without rain; Solomon’s parterres
wither away but for the morning dew and the summer shower. We need something
from without. Cannot a man sustain himself by his own resources? He cannot.
What do you mean by being a man? A figure is not a man; a corpse is not a man;
a mere personality, if it could be detached from all other personalities, would
not be a man. We cannot live upon stature or figure or aught that our hand can
hold. Life is deeper; there is a sanctuary of life, a well far away, where
spring water bubbles and gurgles and flashes out in the sunlight like a great
gospel preached to the thirst of man. Self-sustenance is not the law of the
body; why should it he the law of the mind? The mind is not sustained by
itself. You have books; lay them down, be your own book. You cannot. What do
you want with all these libraries, and museums, and academies, and colleges,
and schools of every name and degree? These are the wheatfields which the soul
reaps, and it needs them every one, for the soul is bigger than literature. The
soul lives by friction with some other soul. God is fire. To come into happy
attrition with Him, or contact, or friction, who can tell what may come out of
that soul touching soul, man praying to God? We are continually undergoing a
process of education. What hast thou that thou hast not received? Have you ever
seen a garden that has been left to itself? What do you think of it? God waits
to give us every one more water, more sustenance, more sunshine. What we might
be if we would enjoy our privileges! (J. Parker, D. D.)
The garden of God
1. The Church is appropriately compared to a garden because it is the
place--
I. OF CHOICE
FLOWERS. Christ comes to His garden, and plants there some of the brightest
spirits that ever flowered upon the world. Some of them are violets,
inconspicuous, but sweet. You have to search and find them. You do not see them
very often, perhaps, but you find where they have been by the brightened face
of the invalid, and the sprig of geranium on the stand, and the new
window-curtains keeping out the glare of the sunlight. These flowers in
Christ’s garden are not like the sunflower, gaudy in the light, but wherever
darkness hovers over a soul that needs to be comforted, there they stand,
night-blooming cereuses.
2. But in Christ’s garden there are plants that may be better
compared to the Mexican cactus--thorns without, loveliness within; men with
sharp points of character. They wound almost every one that touches them. They
arc hard to handle. Men pronounce them nothing but thorns, but Christ loves
them notwithstanding all their sharpnesses. Many a man has had a very hard
ground to cultivate, and it has only been through severe trial he has raised
even the smallest crop of grace. A very harsh minister was talking to a very
placid elder, and the elder said, “Doctor, I do wish you would control your
temper.” “Ah,” said the minister, “I control more temper in five minutes than
you do-in five years:”
3. There are others planted in Christ’s garden who are always
radiant, always impressive--more like the roses of deep hue that we
occasionally find; the Martin Luthers, St. Pauls, Chrysostoms, Wyckliffes,
Latimers, and Samuel Rutherfords. What in other men is a spark, in them is a
conflagration. When they sweat, they sweat great drops of blood. When they pray,
their prayer takes fire. When they preach, it is a Pentecost. When they fight,
it is a Thermopylae. When they die, it is a martyrdom.
4. In this garden of the Church I also find the snowdrop, beautiful
but cold-looking, seemingly another phase of winter. I mean those Christians
who are precise in their tastes, unimpassioned, pure as snowdrops and as cold.
5. But I have not told you of the most beautiful flower of all this
garden. If you see a century plant your emotions are started. You say, “Why,
this flower has been a hundred years gathering up for one bloom, and it will be
a hundred years more before other petals will come out. But I have to tell you
of a plant that was Gathering up from all eternity, and that nineteen hundred
years ago put forth its bloom never to wither. It is the passion plant of the
Cross!
II. The Church is a
place OF SELECT FRUITS. The coarser fruits are planted in the orchard or they
are set out on the sunny hillside; but the choicest fruits are kept in the
garden. So in the world outside the Church, Christ has planted a great many
beautiful things--patience, charity, generosity, integrity; but He intends the
choicest fruits to be in the garden, and, if they are not there, then shame on
the Church. Religion is not a mere sentimentality. It is a practical,
life-giving, healthful fruit--not posies, but apples. The Church of Christ is a
glorious garden and it is full of fruit. I know there is some poor fruit in it;
but are you going to destroy the whole garden because of a little gnarled
fruit? There is no grander, nobler collection in all the earth than the
collection of Christians.
III. The Church is
the place of THOROUGH IRRIGATION. No garden could prosper long without plenty
of water. I have seen a garden in the midst of a desert, yet blooming and
luxuriant. All around was dearth and barrenness; but there were pipes,
aqueducts, reaching from this garden up to the mountains, and through those
aqueducts the water came streaming down and tossing up into beautiful
fountains, until every root and leaf and flower was saturated. That is like the
Church. The Church is a garden in the midst of a great desert of sin and
suffering; but it is well irrigated. From the mountains of God’s strength there
flow down rivers of gladness. Preaching the Gospel is one of the aqueducts. The
Bible is another. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are aqueducts. Everything comes
from above; pardon, joy, adoption, sanctification. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
Verse 13-14
If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath
Sabbath observance a Godward duty
If the true fast (Isaiah 58:3-7) typifies the Israelite’s
duties towards his neighbour, the Sabbath represents his duties towards God.
(Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)
Turning the foot from the Sabbath
“If thou turnest thy foot away from the Sabbath” is equivalent to
saying, “ If thou dost not tread its holy ground with the foot of week-day
work.” (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The Sabbath day
We shall consider the words of the text--
I. WITH REGARD TO
THE JEWS. With that view we shall state--
1. The reasons for the institution of the Sabbath.
2. The manner in which the prophet required it to be celebrated.
3. The promises made to those who worthily hallow the Sabbath day.
II. WITH REGARD TO
CHRISTIANS.
1. Are Christians obliged to observe a day of rest?
2. Is that day celebrated with all the sanctity it requires? (J.
Saurin.)
The institution of the Sabbath
Four considerations gave occasion for the institution of the
Sabbath day.
1. God was wishful to perpetuate two original truths on which the
whole evidence of religion devolves; the first is, that the world had a
beginning; the second, that God is its Author.
2. The second reason was to prevent idolatry. This remark claims
peculiar attention, many of the Mosaic precepts being founded on the situation
in which the Jews were placed. Let this general remark be applied to the subject
in hand. The people, on leaving Egypt, “were separated, from a nation that
worshipped” the sun, the moon, and the stars. The ancient
Egyptians,’ says Diodorus of Sicily, “struck with the beauty of
the universe, thought it owed its origin to two eternal dignities, that
presided over all the others: the one was the sun, to whom they gave the name
of Osiris; the other was the moon, to whom they gave the name of Isis.” Cod, to
preserve His people from these errors, instituted a festival which sapped the whole
system, and which avowedly contemplated every creature of the universe as the
production of the Supreme Being. And this may be the reason why Moses remarked
to the Jews, on leaving Egypt, that God renewed the institution of the Sabbath
(Deuteronomy 5:15).
3. God was wishful to promote humanity.
4. In a word, the design of God, in the institution of the Sabbath,
was to recall to the minds of men the recollection of their original equality:
he requires masters and servants alike to abstain from labour, so as in some
sort to confound the diversity of their conditions, and to abate that pride, of
which superior rank is so common a source. (J. Saurin.)
Sabbath observance
I. THE DUTY is
thus stated: “ If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath,” etc.
1. This, then, is the first point to be noticed with respect to the
observance of the Sabbath. It is, says God, “My holy day,” the day which I have
hallowed for Myself, which I have reserved for My own. We are no more at
liberty to determine for ourselves how we will employ the Sabbath, than the
Israelites were at liberty to determine for themselves to what uses they would
put the tabernacle, or the temple, which had been built and sanctified for God,
according to His direction and for His own peculiar service; and, by regarding
any of the Sabbath hours as being at our own disposal, we are guilty of the
same profanation with which the Jews would have been chargeable, had they
determined to do their pleasure with respect to the uses which they would make
of God’s holy habitation, respecting which He had said, “This is My rest for
ever: here will I dwell.”
2. Let us suppose, then, that we have turned away our foot from
trampling upon God’s day, by consulting our own will and inclination as to the
way in which we employ it, and are wishing and waiting to know what is the will
of God concerning it. The text thus proceeds: “And call the Sabbath a delight,
the holy of the Lord, honourable.” To call anything is to give it a name
corresponding with its nature, or to describe it by its qualities. We are to
call the Sabbath “a delight;” or are to call “the holy of the Lord,” i.e the
holy day of the Lord, “honourable.” Here, then, are two properties of the
Sabbath, two points of view in which we are to regard it. It should be so
distinguished from other days by the peculiar delight which it affords, as well
as by the pre-eminent dignity with which it is invested.
3. The honour to be paid to the Sabbath is our part: the delight to
be found in the Sabbath is God’s part. And the text proceeds to show that if we
honour His day, God will surely keep His promise of making it a delight. Let
us, then, carefully consider the way in which we should “honour the Sabbath.
What is said to be “ore” own is evidently distinguished from what belongs to
the Sabbath. It comprehends whatever we have to do, or to delight in, which
appertains to the six days’ work from which God ceased, and which He had ended
on the seventh day, in contradistinction to what appertains to the seventh day
which God set apart and sanctified and blessed. There is, therefore, no
reference in these words to sinful ways, or to unlawful pleasures; but to the
appointed duties and allowed delights of the six days which God has given to us
for these purposes. Heaven--the rest which remaineth for the people of God--is
described in the Epistle to the Hebrews as a Sabbath-keeping, a Sabbath-rest.
The Sabbath is a figure of that blessed and holy state. “Our own ways and
pleasures,” then, are those which belong to this lower creation; and which we
shall have done with when we depart out of the world; and for these things six
days are given to us. The things of the Sabbath are all such things as shall be
perfected and enjoyed for ever in that city of Cod, in those courts above,
where Sabbaths never end. These remarks will furnish us with a practical rule
for determining what may be done and what may not be done on the Sabbath day.
Where there is the “single eye,” that is, the simple aim, to do the will of
God, all doubts will be readily solved and difficulties disappear, and the duty
he made plain by asking such questions as these: Is this secular work necessary
for the supply of our daily wants, for the relief of suffering nature, for the
accomplishing the will and service of God? Is it indispensable to these ends
that it should be done, and done on the Sabbath day? If, in the conscientious
exercise of an enlightened judgment, we decide in the affirmative, then we may
do such necessary things with confidence and comfort. But, even in these
things, care must be exercised that they do not interfere, beyond the just and
reasonable limits of necessity, and charity, with the appropriate “duties” and
employments of the day. Not finding their own pleasure. Pleasure is here
evidently contrasted with business, God has given to us not only our six days
labour and work, but also our six days gratifications and sources of enjoyment.
There are the delights of earth, as well as the duties of earth. There is
Nature, with all her various works. There are also the pleasures of literature,
in all their vast and various extent. There is, further, the enjoyment of
social intercourse, and an almost countless number of modes of refreshment, for
both body and mind, which God would have us to use, as opportunity is given and
need may be, to invigorate us for the more serious employments of the head or
the hands. But these are “our own pleasure;” and this we are not to find on
God’s holy day. Mark the expression, “not finding thine own pleasure.” In order
to “find,” we seek. “Our own pleasure “ may casually come in our way; but we
must not look for it, endeavour after it, or pursue it as our object, in any
manner or measure upon the Sabbath. The pleasures which we must endeavour on
this day to “find must be such as are not of earthly origin or of man’s
invention, but such as will endure when the world shall be no more, and will
furnish a part of the business and the bliss of the Christian’s happy and
eternal home. Further, “not speaking (thine own) words.” “Thine own,” here, is
in italics; it is inserted by the translators, and only encumbers the passage.
The meaning is, not doing thine own ways, not finding thine own pleasure, “nor
speaking words;” that is, not speaking words concerning thine own ways and
thine own pleasure.
II. To such AN
OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH A SPECIAL PROMISE IS MADE. “Then shalt thou delight
thyself in the Lord.” If we make the Sabbath a holy day, God will make it a
happy day. In the application of this promise to ourselves, we must suppose and
take it for granted that we are reconciled to God. Then, in the very measure in
which we honour the Sabbath, God will make the duties and employments of the
day channels of joy and peace and sacred pleasure to the soul. And I will cause
thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, etc. This is a promise of
national prosperity and temporal advancement, with a confirmation of the
blessing pronounced by Isaac upon Jacob and his posterity. And, although these
were shadows of better things to the Christian Church, and the fulfilment of
this promise is now to be looked for in spiritual and eternal blessings, yet it
has frequently been testified, on observation and experience, that a holy
Sabbath has been followed by a happy week; and, when we honour God’s holy day,
we shall not fail to find that His blessing still rests upon it. (T. Best,
M. A.)
Early English law an the Sabbath
In almost the earliest, if not the earliest, code of English law--the
laws of Enach, King of Wessex--there was a provision made for the observance of
Sunday. According to these laws if a slave was forced by his master to work
upon Sunday, he was by that very fact set free, and the lord had to pay a fine.
If the slave worked by his own will and without the direction of his lord, he
was subjected to corporal chastisement, and if a freeman worked on the Holy Day
he became a slave. He lost his freedom, or else he had to pay what, at that
time, was the almost impossible fine of sixty shillings. Now that law at the
very beginning of English legislation may have had very much to do with the
position that the Anglo-Saxon race has taken in the world. According to the
promise of this old prophet the word of the Lord has said, “I will make thee to
ride upon the high places of the earth if thou keepest the Sabbath day.” (R.
F. Horton.)
The Sabbath a rest form self
I suppose the essence of this Christian Sabbath was never more
perfectly described than in the words of the prophet.
1. The first principle of the Christian Sabbath is that there should
be one day in the week on which we are not doing our own ways, nor finding our
own pleasure, nor speaking our own words, that is to say, the Christian Sabbath
is not to be, like the civic Sunday, rest from work, important as that may be,
but it is a rest from self, which is all-important, and is, indeed, the
creation and the preservation of the spiritual in man. It is a rest from self,
not to speak our own words on that day, not to take our own pleasures, not to
adopt our own way. I think we see what is meant if we put it in this way. Our
life as men is literally rooted in God, and its health depends on our knowing
it and recognizing it.
2. Now, when we have recognized that this is the purpose of the day
we still have to consider how that purpose is best accomplished. According to
the practice of the Old Testament, and, apparently according to the intention
of the New, the sanctuary, the place of public worship, is the means by which
that can be accomplished.
3. I think we ought to honestly face the question which is often
raised at the present time, whether the life I am describing cannot be
maintained without the sanctuary. Men say frequently to-day that they find they
can really worship better in their own homes, and still more in the open
country, than in the assembly of the house of God. Now, the only danger I see
in that position is that by the very necessity of the ease it violates the
first requirement of the Sabbath as it is here stated. You stay at home in your
house or you go out into the country on Sunday. In doing that you are going
your own way, you are seeking your own pleasure, you are following your own
bent--that is to say, you are violating the very principle on which this Sabbath
rests. And it does not seem very improbable that when you have violated the
very principle at the beginning you will succeed in recovering it at the end. (R.
F. Horton.)
A Sabbath-week
Common-sense must tell us that no man who is going his own way,
finding his own pleasure, and speaking his own words, for six days in the week,
will abstain from them on the seventh. The devotion, the obedience, and
forgetfulness of self which should mark the devout worshipper on Sunday, must
be his companions all the week through. And the exercise of those graces
through the week must be our habitual preparation for the Lord’s Day. So that,
in fact, the teaching of the prophet amounts to this--that the true servant of
God will at no time do his own ways, find his own pleasure, or speak his own
words, where ways, pleasure, or words will not be such as God would love to
look upon. The Christian will seek God’s grace, that in all things he may
follow the example of his Lord, who declared, “I came not to do Mine own will, but
the will of Him that sent Me.” I appeal to your own hearts and consciences, to
what you know of yourselves or have seen in others, whether any good has ever
come to any of us, from going our own way, finding our own pleasure, speaking
our own words? (R. E. Paget, D. D.)
“Thine own ways”
His supposed that Isaiah required the Jews to keep what has been
called a Puritanical Sabbath. I believe that this is a complete misconception
of the prophet’s meaning. Their “own ways,” which the people were forbidden to
follow on the Sabbath, were the common secular labours of the week. Doing their
own pleasure” has no reference to recreation or amusement. Some translators
render it doing their “own business;” but it probably means here, as it
constantly means elsewhere, doing “what they liked.” Luther translates it
admirably, doing their “own will.” They were to spend the Sabbath, as God had
commanded them, in rest; they were not at liberty to follow their own
inclination by carrying on their ordinary trade. Their “own words, which they
were not to speak on the Sabbath, were the words in which their business was
transacted; words which, like the business itself, belonged to the other days
of the week. What the prophet forbids on the seventh day is what the
Commandment forbids--not pleasure, but work. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Rabbinical prohibitions
The stricter Rabbinical schools built upon this general
prohibition of all work innumerable minute precepts, many of which are so
grotesque that to quote them would be to answer no other purpose than to amuse.
One ingenious commentator, who happily appears to have had only a very few
disciples, insisted that as it was a duty to rest from the beginning to the end
of the Sabbath, all muscular exertion was sinful; and that, therefore, strict
fidelity to the Commandment required that a man should remain during all the
twenty-four hours of the Sabbath in exactly the same position, without moving a
limb or a finger, a kind of “rest which must have been very much more
exhausting than hard work.” (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
The Sabbath compared to the best room of the house
1. Every house of any consideration has in it a best room. It is
usually the largest in the house, and the most comely. It usually is furnished
with the choicest things which the owner can afford, and represents the best
outward estate of his household. Here is the best carpet. Here are the best
colours. Here is the best furniture. Here are hung the best pictures. Here are
the chairs burnished and covered. And here, it may be, is the sofa, luxurious
with extra springs. The few choice treasures are put upon the mantelpiece, or
on some corner shelf. Whatever there is that stands apart from common uses by
being a little better the parlour receives. And this room is scrupulously kept--too
scrupulously, often. All festive occasions are celebrated in it. It is the room
of honour. It is here that we devote ourselves to our company when we would
show them hospitality. It stands in the house as a perpetual reminder of
beauty--what little beauty we can command; of hospitality--so much as we are
able to exercise of it; of superiority. A best room is not simply an emblem of
vanity, as cynics would say. To have a room which has in it choice things, is
rather the unconscious inspiration of ideality, it is a desire to maintain it
in the household; and it is a silent but real influence for refinement and for
higher living.
2. It is a sad thing to see a person or a family that makes one day
just like another; that does not care to make one day better than any of the
others; that regards all things as good enough. On a low level, it is a moral
influence that leads one to desire to dress better on some occasions than on
others, and to spread a better table on some occasions than on others. It is
aspiration in one of its lower forms. How, what the parlour is to the house,
the Jewish Sabbath and its substitute, the Christian’s Lord’s Day, were meant
to be to the week. The week is a house, and Sunday is the best room in it, and
it ought to have the best things put into it, and it ought to be kept
religiously; and it is to exercise upon all our time just the same unconscious
influence, or conscious influence, as the case may be, which a well-prepared
and well-kept parlour does invariably exercise upon all the occupants of the
house. Every week was to have its parlour day. It was to be a day that should
be looked up to by the young and the old as the best day of the week. In other
words, it was to be “a delight.” It was to be “honourable,” and so, memorable. (H.
W. Beecher.)
And call the Sabbath a
delight
The luxury of the Sabbath
The word is a strong one, Delight, Delicacy, Luxury. (Prof. G.
A. Smith, D. D.)
The Sabbath a delight
I. POINT OUT A FEW
PARTICULARS “WILL THE TRUE BELIEVER ESTEEMS AND CALLS THE SABBATH A DELIGHT
shewing at the same time why the natural man should find no delight, at least
no holy delight, in that day.
1. Because it brings with it a cessation and rest from worldly cares.
2. Because on that day he hopes to learn much in the school of Christ.
3. Because of that holy communion which it allows with the people of
God.
4. Because of the remembrances which that day brings with it. On the
Sabbath God rested from His work. On the Sabbath, how many of our Saviour’s
gracious miracles were wrought! On the Sabbath, how many spiritual miracles
doth He still work! On our Sabbath day it was that our Lord burst the bonds of
death. Is not here matter of pleasurable meditation? Salvation is finished; and
man restored to the favour and presence and image of God I
5. Because it is a type and foretaste of the heavenly rest--of the
eternal Sabbath.
II. SHOW HOW WE MAY
EMPLOY IT SO AS TO MAKE IT MOST DELIGHTFUL. By giving the whole day to God, so
far as possibly can be done, in spiritual exercises. (C. Neale, M. A.)
The brightest of days
We are to find in this day--
1. The joy of healthy repose.
2. The joy of domestic reunion and consecration.
3. The joy of eternal Sabbatism. (T. De W, Talmage, D. D.)
The Sabbath a delight
The day of worship should be a day of gladness.
1. It brings rest from the toils and cares of the week. From the
dust; and the sweat, the grime and the languor, I shake myself free for a
while. I reach an oasis, with palm-trees and a well, in my pilgrimage through
the deserts. I sit down under God’s shadow.
2. It invites to the noblest exercises and employments. Mind and
heart, lips and soul and all my nature, unite in prayer, in praise, in the
study and contemplation of the things which are unseen and eternal. There is no
work on earth to compare with it.
3. It introduces to the communion of souls. I go up to God’s house in
company with many others. I realize that I am not alone, that I am a member of
a brotherhood and family, that all around me are kindred souls. It is a thought
that brings me strength, and that satisfies my love.
4. It lifts me into the presence of my Lord--Father, and Son, and
Spirit. I dwell in His sanctuary. I hearken to His voice. I feel His quickening
and invigorating touch. I receive afresh His baptism and unction. Behold, God
is in this place, and it is for me the gate of heaven. (A. Smellie, M. A.)
The Sabbath a delight
“If thou tallest the Sabbath a delight,” because it leads thee to
God; not “a burden,” because it leads thee from thine everyday life (Amos 8:5). (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
The Sabbath a festive time
“It is a festival time for man’s higher nature in communion with
the unseen. As the tired eye, which has been strained by long and close
application to some work near at hand, rests itself by gazing on the far
horizons or the stars, so there is a rest in lifting thought from the near and
the lower objects which too often engross us, and fixing it upon the unseen and
eternal. This is, perhaps, the grand reason for our Saviour’s own comment: “The
Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)
Honourable
The Sabbath made “honourable”
When do we make the Sabbath an “honourable,” glorious day?
1. When we make honourable preparation for it.
2. When we give it honourable entertainment.
3. When we have a precious esteem of every moment of Sabbath time,
and are jealous lest any drop of it should run waste.
4. When we have a singular esteem of all the institutions and
ordinances of the day.
5. When it is the grief of our souls that we can keep Sabbaths no
better, and we strive cordially and conscientiously to keep the next better
than we did the last. (T. Case, M. A.)
Nor speaking thine own
words
Sabbath-speaking
“Nor speaking thine own words.” “Talking talk.” (J. A.
Alexander.)
Useless words,
Useless words, void of meaning, and of needless number: the
phrase, as in Hosea 10:4, is here applied to
unspiritual gossip and bombast. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Speech rest on Sunday
Hitzig on this passage remarks that “the law regarding the Sabbath
has here already received the Jewish addition, that ‘speaking is work. “ But
from the promise that God’s Sabbath-rest was a rest from His speaking the
creative words (Psalms 33:6), the only conclusion drawn
was that one must rest on the Sabbath, in a certain measure, from speaking as
well as working; and when Rabbi Simon ben Jochai called to his talkative old
mother on the Sabbath, “Sabbath-keeping is called silence,” this was not meant
to be understood as if speaking in itself were working, and all speaking on the
Sabbath was therefore forbidden. The Rabbinical explanation of the present
passage is as follows: “Let not thy speaking on the Sabbath be the same as that
on working days. (F. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Better for the Sunday rest
Scientists say that telegraph wires are better conductors on Monday
than on Saturday, on account of their Sunday rest. The well-proved fact that
human beings profit by a weekly rest-day emphasizes the protest of Christian
people against the secularization of the Sabbath. (Christian Budget.)
Verse 14
Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord
Delighting in God
I.
WHAT
IS IMPLIED IN DELIGHTING OURSELVES IN THE LORD.
1. A contemplation of His infinite and adorable perfections; such a contemplation
as to derive the highest satisfaction from them; to see in them all that is
amiable and lovely.
2. A well-grounded hope of interest in Him; for though this is not
the primary, it is a subordinate ground of the believer’s joy, and one of unspeakable
importance.
3. Communion with God in holy duties.
4. A sanctified use of all our common mercies, receiving them as His
gift, and esteeming them on that account.
5. Contentment in Him, even in the absence of every other good.
6. Delighting in God is accompanied with the cheering prospect of
being for ever with Him.
II. VIEW SOME OF
THE ADVANTAGES ARISING FROM THIS HEAVENLY STATE OF MIND. Delighting ourselves
in the Lord will weaken the influence of sin, and strengthen all the Christian
graces. It will be an antidote against fretfulness and discontent, carnality
and worldly-mindedness, presumption and self-confidence. It will confirm our
faith, inflame our love, and brighten our hopes and prospects. Communion with
God disarms our spiritual enemies, or secures us from their attack. It is of
eminent use in all the parts of practical religion. It makes active in doing,
and steadfast in suffering the will of God; it infuses life into our prayers
and praises, and causes us to come with boldness and cheerfulness to the house
and table of the Lord. Sorrow and dejection enfeeble the mind; but the joy of
the Lord is our strength. The joys of religion will convert this miserable
world into a little heaven, and make the Church militant resemble the Church
triumphant above, where there are do mourning garments, no dejected
countenances, or hearts consumed with grief. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
Duty the road to prosperity
I. DELIGHT IN THE
LORD IS CONNECTED WITH THE OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH.
II. TRUE PROSPERITY
DEPENDS UPON OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE COMMAND.
III. THERE CAN BE NO
PERMANENT PROSPERITY APART FROM MORALITY. (Homiletic Review.)
Riding over the heights
The meaning is, “I will carry thee triumphantly over all
obstacles” (Deuteronomy 32:11). (Prof. J. Skinner,
D. D.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》