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Isaiah Chapter
Nineteen
Isaiah 19
Chapter Contents
Judgments upon Egypt. (1-17) Its deliverance, and the
conversion of the people. (18-25)
Commentary on Isaiah 19:1-17
(Read Isaiah 19:1-17)
God shall come into Egypt with his judgments. He will
raise up the causes of their destruction from among themselves. When ungodly
men escape danger, they are apt to think themselves secure; but evil pursues
sinners, and will speedily overtake them, except they repent. The Egyptians
will be given over into the hand of one who shall rule them with rigour, as was
shortly after fulfilled. The Egyptians were renowned for wisdom and science;
yet the Lord would give them up to their own perverse schemes, and to quarrel,
till their land would be brought by their contests to become an object of
contempt and pity. He renders sinners afraid of those whom they have despised
and oppressed; and the Lord of hosts will make the workers of iniquity a terror
to themselves, and to each other; and every object around a terror to them.
Commentary on Isaiah 19:18-25
(Read Isaiah 19:18-25)
The words, "In that day," do not always refer
to the passage just before. At a time which was to come, the Egyptians shall
speak the holy language, the Scripture language; not only understand it, but
use it. Converting grace, by changing the heart, changes the language; for out
of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So many Jews shall come to
Egypt, that they shall soon fill five cities. Where the sun was worshipped, a place
infamous for idolatry, even there shall be a wonderful reformation. Christ, the
great Altar, who sanctifies every gift, shall be owned, and the gospel
sacrifices of prayer and praise shall be offered up. Let the broken-hearted and
afflicted, whom the Lord has wounded, and thus taught to return to, and call
upon him, take courage; for He will heal their souls, and turn their sorrowing
supplications into joyful praises. The Gentile nations shall not only unite
with each other in the gospel fold under Christ, the great Shepherd, but they
shall all be united with the Jews. They shall be owned together by him; they
shall all share in one and the same blessing. Meeting at the same throne of
grace, and serving with each other in the same business of religion, should end
all disputes, and unite the hearts of believers to each other in holy love.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 19
Verse 1
[1] The burden of Egypt. Behold, the LORD rideth upon a
swift cloud, and shall come into Egypt: and the idols of Egypt shall be moved
at his presence, and the heart of Egypt shall melt in the midst of it.
Rideth — As a general in the head of his army.
A swift cloud — This phrase shews that the
judgment should come speedily, unexpectedly, and unavoidably.
Shall be moved — So far shall they be from helping
the Egyptians, that they shall tremble for themselves.
Verse 2
[2] And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians: and
they shall fight every one against his brother, and every one against his
neighbour; city against city, and kingdom against kingdom.
I will set — Egypt was now one kingdom, but
not many years after this time it was divided into twelve kingdoms, between
whom there were many and cruel wars.
Verse 3
[3] And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof;
and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and
to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.
The spirit — Their courage.
Verse 4
[4] And the Egyptians will I give over into the hand of a
cruel lord; and a fierce king shall rule over them, saith the Lord, the LORD of
hosts.
A fierce king — Psammetichus, who being at first
one of those twelve kings, waged war with the rest, and subdued them, and
conquered all the land of Egypt and ruled it with rigour.
Verse 5
[5] And the waters shall fail from the sea, and the river
shall be wasted and dried up.
The waters — Which may be understood either,
1. Metaphorically, of the taking away of their dominion or commerce, etc. or
rather, 2. Properly, as may be gathered from the following words. For as the
river Nile, when it had a full stream, and free course, did pour forth a vast
quantity of waters by its seven famous mouths into the sea, so when that was
dried up, which is expressed in the next clause, those waters did truly and
properly fail from the sea. So there is no need of understanding by sea either
the river Nile, or the great lake of Maeris, which, after the manner of the
Hebrews, might be so called.
The river — Nile: upon whose fulness and
overflow both the safety and the wealth of the land depended; and therefore
this was a very terrible judgment.
Dried up — Not totally, but in a very great measure.
Verse 6
[6] And they shall turn the rivers far away; and the brooks
of defence shall be emptied and dried up: the reeds and flags shall wither.
Rivers — The rivers (those rivulets by which the waters of Nile
were distributed into several parts of the land) shall be turned far away, as
they must needs be, when the river which fed them was dried up.
Brooks — The several branches of the river Nile, which were a
great defence to Egypt.
Reeds — Which were useful to them for making their boats.
Whither — As they commonly do for want of water.
Verse 7
[7] The paper reeds by the brooks, by the mouth of the
brooks, and every thing sown by the brooks, shall wither, be driven away, and
be no more.
Paper-reeds — These by a needle, or other fit
instrument, were divided into thin and broad leaves, which being dried and
fitted, were used at that time for writing; and consequently was a very good
commodity.
By brooks — And much more what was sown in
more dry and unfruitful places.
Verse 8
[8] The fishers also shall mourn, and all they that cast
angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters
shall languish.
Mourn — Because they could catch no fish; which was a great
loss to the people, whose common diet this was.
Verse 9
[9] Moreover they that work in fine flax, and they that
weave networks, shall be confounded.
They — That make fine linen, which was one of their best
commodities.
Verse 10
[10] And they shall be broken in the purposes thereof, all
that make sluices and ponds for fish.
Thereof — Of Egypt, or of the Egyptians. They shall lose their
hopes; for the fishes in them shall die for want of water.
Verse 11
[11] Surely the princes of Zoan are fools, the counsel of the
wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am
the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings?
Zoan — The chief city, in which the king and court frequently
resided.
How — Why do you put such foolish words into Pharaoh's
mouth? I am the son - Wisdom is heredity and natural to me.
Verse 13
[13] The princes of Zoan are become fools, the princes of
Noph are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of
the tribes thereof.
Noph — Another chief city, and one of the kings seats, called
also Moph, and by latter authors, Memphis.
The stay — Their chief counsellors.
Tribes — Of the provinces, which he calls by a title borrowed
from the Hebrews, in whose language he spake and wrote this prophecy.
Verse 14
[14] The LORD hath mingled a perverse spirit in the midst
thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken
man staggereth in his vomit.
Mingled — Or, hath poured out or given them to drink.
To err — In all their designs and undertakings.
Staggereth — When he is so drunk, that he
reels to and fro, and vomits up his drink.
Verse 15
[15] Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head
or tail, branch or rush, may do.
Head, … — All people, both high and low, shall be at their wits
end.
Verse 16
[16] In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall
be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which
he shaketh over it.
Women — Feeble and fearful.
Because — Because they shall perceive that they do not fight
with men only, but with the Lord of hosts, who now lifts up his hand against
them, as he did against their forefathers.
Verse 17
[17] And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt,
every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of
the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it.
A terror — Because of their manifold injuries against Judah, for
which they now apprehend God is calling them to account.
Determined — Because God is now about to
execute his appointed judgments.
It — Against Egypt.
Verse 18
[18] In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak
the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called,
The city of destruction.
In that day — After that time. In the times of
the gospel.
Five — A considerable number of their chief cities: a certain
number being put for an uncertain.
Speak — Profess the Jewish religion, agree with them in the
same mind; which is fitly signified by speaking the same language.
Swear — This implies the dedication, and yielding up of a
person or thing to the Lord, by a solemn vow, or covenant.
One — Not one of the five, but another city, the sixth city.
As divers cities shall be converted and saved, so some other cities shall
continue in their impenitency, and be destroyed.
Verse 19
[19] In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the
midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
An altar — The altar is put for the worship of God, as it is in
many places both of the Old and New Testament. And nothing is more common in
the prophets than to speak of gospel-worship in the phrases of the law.
Pillar — A monument of the true religion. Here also he alludes
to the ancient custom of erecting pillars to God.
The border — As before, in the midst of it.
The meaning is, There shall be evidences of their piety in all places.
Verse 20
[20] And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the
LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of
the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall
deliver them.
It — The altar or pillar last mentioned.
A witness — To testify that they own the Lord
for their God.
Cry — Being sorely distressed, they shall turn unto the true
God.
A great one — A great or mighty Saviour, even
Christ.
Verse 21
[21] And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians
shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they
shall vow a vow unto the LORD, and perform it.
Shall sacrifice — Shall worship God spiritually;
which yet is signified by typical phrases.
Verse 22
[22] And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal
it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be intreated of them,
and shall heal them.
Smite — God will afflict them and by those afflictions will
convert and save them.
Verse 23
[23] In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to
Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria,
and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
Assyria — They who were implacable enemies one to another, and
both to the church of God, shall now be reconciled and united together in the
service of God, and love to his church.
Serve — The Lord.
Verse 24
[24] In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and
with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
The third — The third party, in that sacred
league, whereby all of them oblige themselves to serve God.
Egypt — These are named, because they were the most obstinate
enemies to God's church, but they are here put for all the Gentiles.
A blessing — This is peculiar to Israel, who
is not only a third party, but is the most eminent of the three, as being the
fountain, by which the blessing is conveyed to the other two; because Christ
was to be born of them, and the gospel-church and ordinances were first
established among them, and from them derived to the Gentiles.
The land — Or, of those lands, Egypt and Assyria, between which
Israel lay.
Verse 25
[25] Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be
Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
Whom — That is, which people, Israel, Egypt, and Assyria; of
whom he speaks as of one people, because they are all united into one church.
My people — This title, and those which
follow, that were peculiar to the people of Israel, shall now be given to these
and all other nations.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
19 Chapter 19
Verses 1-25
Verse 1
The burden of Egypt
The prophecies concerning Egypt
The kingdom to which all the three prophecies (chaps.
18, 19, 20) refer is the same, namely, the Egypto-Ethiopian kingdom; but it is
so dealt with that chap. 18 refers to the ruling people, chap. 19 to the ruled
people, and chap. 20 embraces them both together. (F. Delitzsch.)
Egypt interwoven with the history of the kingdom of God
The reason why the prophecy occupies itself so particularly with
Egypt is that no people of the earth was so closely interwoven with the history
of the kingdom of God from the patriarchal time as Egypt. (F. Delitzsch.)
The oracle concerning Egypt: promise as well as threatening
Because, as the Thora impresses it, Israel must never forget that
it long resided in Egypt, and there grew great, and enjoyed much good; so
prophecy, when it comes to speak to Egypt, is not less zealous in promising
than in threatening. Accordingly, the Isaianic oracle falls into two distinct
halves; one threatening, Isaiah 19:1-15, and one promising, Isaiah 19:18-25; and between judgment and
salvation there stands the terror in Isaiah 19:16-17, as the bridge from the former
to the latter. (F. Delitzsch.)
Behold, the Lord rideth
upon a swift cloud
The way of the Lord
Here is one way in which the Lord comes, namely, “upon a swift
cloud” (Isaiah 19:1). The intimation is one of
mystery. No man can tell which way the Lord will come today. Let us keep our
eyes upon every point of the horizon; let us distribute the watchmen wisely and
assign to each his sphere of observation; for by what door the Lord may enter
the field of vision no man can tell,--by a political event, by some new
movement in foreign policy, by the discovery of new riches in the earth, by
great shocks which try men’s strength, by grim sorrow, by cruel death, by
judgments that have no name, by mercies tender as the tenderest love, by
compassions all tears, by providences that are surprises of gladness: watch all
these doors, for by any one of them the Lord may come into the nation, the
family, the heart of the individual. This Divine policy, if it may be so named,
baffles the watchers who trust to their own sagacity. If men will say they will
circumvent God and know all the ways of His providence, behold God forsakes all
ways that are familiar and that lie within the calculation of the human mind;
and He startles those who watch with light from unexpected quarters with
shakings and tremblings never before felt in the vibrations of history. “Clouds
and darkness are round about Him”: the cloud that appears to be nothing but
vapour may enshrine the Deity; the bush, yesterday so common that any bird
might have alighted upon it, today burns with unseen, infinite energy. The Lord
will come by what way He pleases,--now as if from the depths of the earth, and
now as from the heights of heaven; blessed is that servant who is ready to
receive Him and to welcome Him to the heart’s hospitality of love. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Verse 2
And I will set the Egyptians against the Egyptians
Divine providence in civil strife
This method of administration, we say, obtains and prevails in all
ages.
This is the meaning of many a controversy, of many a quarrel, of many a
dissension, in cabinets, in families, in nations. Men are surprised that they
should turn upon their brothers with disdain, and even with cruel hatred. It is
indeed matter of surprise and great sorrow, and if looked at within narrow
limits it would seem to be a reflection upon Providence: but when does God ask
to be judged within the four comers of human imagination or criticism? He not
only does the deed, He does it within a field which He Himself has measured,
and within the range of declarations which have about them all the mystery and
graciousness of evangelical prophecies. We must, therefore, look not only at
the incident, but at all its surroundings and to all its issues. When we are
puzzled by household difficulties, by commercial perplexities, by unions that
only exist for a moment and then dissolve or are turned into sourness and
alienation, we must never forget that there is One who rules over all. (J.
Parker, D. D.)
Verse 11
How say ye . . . I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient
kings?
--
On the pride of birth
The charge which the prophet makes upon the Egyptian nobles may,
with some justice, be extended to those in modern times who are perpetually
reminding the world, directly or indirectly, of the dignity of their ancestors;
and who, because they have no living merit to boast of, are ever shrining
themselves in the glories of the dead.
1. Not only does the world set a high value upon illustrious birth,
but it commonly obtains the preference over talents and virtues. There must be
a certain rule of precedence in society, an arrangement of those pretensions we
all exhibit for public notice and respect; and those causes which confer
superiority must be obvious and not liable to be mistaken; not chemical
distinctions, discoverable upon analysis, but natural marks, perceptible to the
eye. Such, in some degree, are wealth and birth, the notoriety of which is much
greater than that of talents and virtues.
2. But how comes birth to be respected at all? History teaches us to
connect courage to one name, and counsel to another; to connect them even to an
eye or a look; and it is difficult to behold the son or the descendant of an
eminent man without deluding ourselves into an idea that some share of the
virtues as well as some trait of the features has been transmitted from one to
the other. A person placed in a liberal situation of life, above the necessity
of increasing his fortune, is supposed to have derived from education a
cultivated understanding and correct moral taste; to be careful of reputation
and worthy of trust; and, when a family has been long in this situation, we
associate these qualities to them much more strongly, and are apt to conceive
that a certain propriety of sentiment has been transmitted, with hereditaments
and lands, from one generation to another. It is therefore well to recollect
that the reverence mankind pay to birth is founded upon its supposed connection
with great and amiable qualities; that it is unjust to inhale the incense
without possessing the attributes to which it is offered up; and that no
disapprobation is so complete as that which succeeds to detected imposture and
misplaced regard.
3. Pride of birth, in common with every other species of pride, is
utterly incompatible with the Christian character, the very essence of which is
lowliness of spirit, and, in common with every other species of pride, is
marked by narrow and erroneous views of human nature. The peculiar objections
to it are, that birth may frequently prove a source of the most serious
misfortunes; that, at a certain period of depravity, it gives splendour to
shame, and inflames the contempt of mankind; that it justifies the painful
suspicion of being beloved from name, and not from nature; that, considered
singly by itself, without the virtues which sometimes do, and are always
expected to, accompany it, it is of all causes of self-approbation the least
rational and just.
4. Though pride be the excess of self-approbation, it can only rest
ultimately upon the approbation of others. It is always upon the esteem of
others, present and future, or upon a title to it, conceived to be extremely
strong, that pride is founded. A proud man may not possess esteem, but he must
believe that he does possess it, or shall possess it, during life, or after
death, or that he deserves to possess it; for, if he conceives himself justly
contemptible, he must cease to be proud. Now, all pride proceeds from a wrong,
notion of the method by which the approbation of others is secured; from a
misappreciation of ourselves, and of the sagacity of mankind, who are so far
from adopting a man’s standard of himself as their own, that they commonly
value a human being inversely as he values himself. It proceeds from an
ignorance of that captivating modesty which lulls rivalry to sleep, and gives
all the benevolent affections their free influence upon the judgment. Pride,
then, is only another name for ignorance, because it takes the most
shortsighted and inefficacious means to effect its object.
5. Travellers tell us that there is a tree, the roots of which afford
bread or poison, according as they are managed and prepared. Such is the
doubtful nature of illustrious birth: it may be a blessing or a curse, the
source of virtue or the cradle of shame; eminence it must ever give, eminence
of infamy or eminence of good. God forbid we should not think of ancient days,
if thus doing we can add virtue or happiness; forbid us to stifle that solemn
pleasure which we feel in gazing at the dead, if that solemn pleasure teach us to
live aright. If you will look upon nobleness of birth as a promise to be
fulfilled and a debt to be paid to society; if you will recompense mankind, by
your personal merit, for their fervent love to your name and fathers, and think
exalted birth a solemn pledge for exalted virtue, a covenant for honourable
labour and unspotted faith, an oath taken to the shades of the dead, never to
pollute their blood or sully their fame; if you hasten to fix this admiration
of words and sounds upon some more solid foundation, to reflect more lustre on
your race than you take from it, and to be the chief of the people in thought
and action as well as by chance and law--then think forever on the greatness of
your name, and the splendour of your father’s fathers; and when a prophet shall
ask you, yea, when more than a prophet, when God shall ask you, “How have ye
said upon earth, I am the son of wise counsellors and ancient kings?” ye may
answer, “We have so said, not ignorant that all things on earth are the shadows
of a shadow, and the dust of the dust; but hoping like them to walk in the pure
and perfect law of Him who made us, and to do the good and righteous things
which our fathers have done of old time, that we may draw down upon us Thy
blessings, and finally partake of that dear and unknown world which Thy blessed
Son has promised us in Thy name.” (Sydney Smith, M. A.)
Verse 18
The language of Canaan
Converting grace
Converting grace by changing the heart, changeth the language; for
out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
(M. Henry.)
The language of Canaan
1. To speak the language of Canaan is to discourse on sacred subjects
in a manner peculiar to those who enjoy Divine revelation, and are taught of
God.
2. It is to treat of spiritual matters in that dialect which is best
suited to their nature and importance, and which hath been employed for this
purpose by patriarchs and prophets, by Jesus Christ Himself, His apostles and
disciples in all ages.
3. This language of the people of God hath in it somewhat peculiar,
whereby it may be distinguished from all other kinds of speech. It is quite
free from vanity, detraction, falsehood, impurity, and folly, with which all
other conversation is more or less tinctured; whilst much is said concerning
the only true God, the great Messiah, the promises, ordinances, and
commandments of Jehovah, with many other such delightful topics. (R.
Macculloch.)
Verse 20
He shall send them a Saviour and a great one
A Saviour and a great one
The literal coincidences between the promise of a “saviour” and a
“great one,” and the titles of Alexander the Great and Ptolemy the Saviour are
noticeable and interesting.
(Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
Alexander the Great
Alexander the Great delivered them from the grievous Persian yoke,
and he and his successors greatly favoured the people and improved the country.
He settled a great many Jews in Alexandria, giving them equal privileges with
the Macedonians; and this Hebrew immigration was still further promoted by
Ptolemy Soter, so that Philo reckoned that in his time there were a million
Jews in the country. The temple of Onias, the LXX version of the Bible, the
books of the Apocrypha, the philosophy and theology of Philo, indicate not only
what these Jews were in themselves, but enable us to infer with certainty how
great must have been their example and influence in humanising the Egyptians,
and bringing them to the knowledge and worship of the true God. And still more
were these results apparent, still more amply was this prophecy fulfilled, when
Alexandria became one of the great centres of the Christian Church. (Sir E.
Strachey, Bart.)
Who was the great Saviour promised to Egypt?
Even if the language of this verse by itself might seem to point
to a particular deliverer, the comprehensive language of the context would
forbid its reference to any such exclusively. If the chapter is a prophecy not
of a single went but of a great progressive change to be wrought in the
condition of Egypt by the introduction of the true religion, the promise of the
verse before us must be, that when they cried God would send them a deliverer,
a promise verified not once but often, not by Ptolemy or Alexander only, but by
others, and in the highest sense by Christ Himself. (J. A. Alexander.)
The Messiah a great Saviour
I. GREAT IN HIS
PERSON. “God over all, blessed forever:--
II. GREAT IN THE
CHARACTER HE SUSTAINS.
III. GREAT IN THIS
WORKS HE PERFORMS.
IV. GREAT IN THE
SALVATION HE BESTOWS.
V. GREAT IN THE
GLORY TO WHICH HE IS NOW EXALTED. (R. Macculloch.)
A great Saviour provided
An old Mexican monk, in his dingy cell, once painted an allegorical
picture, representing a beautiful maiden standing on an island, with only room
for her feet to rest upon, while all around dashed and surged a lake of fire.
The angry flames almost touched her, and yet she smiled, all unconscious of
danger. More dreadful still, on each billow’s crest rides a malignant fiend,
and they are closing around the seemingly defenceless girl, seeking to fasten
chains about her limbs, that they may drag her into the burning lake. The
maiden still smiles serenely, for she sees them not. A golden cord of grace,
descending from above, is twined amidst her sunny hair, but death appears ready
to cut the slender thread. A hand of help is reaching down to her, which she
must take, or be lost in the fiery abyss. A company of attending angels
anxiously await her decision, and this group completes the picture. This is no
fancy sketch of the old painter’s brain, but it is your condition unless you
have laid hold on Christ Jesus to deliver you. (J. N. Norton.)
Verses 23-25
In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria
Israel, Egypt, and Assyria
Israel is no longer alone God’s people, God’s creation, God’s
inheritance, but Egypt and Assyria are each a third sharer with Israel.
In order to express this, Israel’s three names of honour are mixed together,
and each of three peoples receives one of the precious names, of which
“inheritance” is assigned to Israel as pointing back to the beginning of its
history. This essential equalisation of the heathen peoples with Israel is no
degradation to the latter; for although henceforth there exists no essential
distinction of the peoples in their relation to God, it is nevertheless always
Israel’s God who attains recognition, and Israel is the people which, according
to the promise, has become the medium of blessing to the earth. (F.
Delitzsch.)
The significance of the prophecy
These nations represent to the prophet the heathen world which was
“eventually to be incorporated in the kingdom of God. The prediction can never
be realised for those nations, because they have ceased to exist; but it will
yet be realised in that great peace of the world, which is the hope of all the
nations of mankind.” (C. A. Briggs, D. D.)
A forecast of the triumph of Christianity
Never had the faith of the prophet soared so high or approached so
near to the conception of a universal religion. (Prof. Robertson Smith.)
The holy triple alliance
The two great powers which have hitherto met only as foes are to
meet in the worship of Jehovah. And in consequence of this there is to be
fellowship between them. And this is brought about by the little central state.
Israel has reached the grand end of its calling; it becomes a blessing to the
whole circuit of the earth. It is a grand prophecy destined to find its full
accomplishment in the latter days.
I. IT IS GOD’S
PURPOSE TO PERFECT THE RACE THROUGH INTERNATIONAL INTERCOURSE AND FRIENDSHIP.
Chronic national antagonism is not Heaven’s design. Neither is the design of
God respecting the various peoples that they should dwell in a state of
isolation. The Divine purpose is manifestly that the several nations shall
complete each other through sympathy and reciprocity.
1. Geography indicates this. The good things of nature are not all
found in any one land; reciprocity is designed and necessitated by the very
dispositions of soil and climate.
2. Ethnology also gives a reason for national sympathy and
intercourse. No one national type includes all perfections. The nations need
one another. History shows us the solidarity of the race and how wonderfully
any one people is enriched by the contributions of the rest. Take our own
nation. In our gardens are the flowers and fruits of all climates. In a
thousand ways our neighbours have contributed to make us what we are. The
Italians and French taught us silk weaving. The Flemings taught us our fine
woollen trade. The Venetians showed us how to make glass. A German erected our
first paper mill. A Dutchman began our potteries. The Genoese taught us to
build ships. And so history reveals that through successive generations the
several nations have enriched each other in art, industry, literature,
jurisprudence, language, philosophy, government, and religion. The thought of
God is the brotherhood of man, and all things prove it.
II. THE GOSPEL OF
CHRIST IS THE SUPREME UNIFYING POWER OF THE RACE. In the fulness of its meaning
this is what our text signifies. The lesson here for us is that the marriage of
nations will take place where other marriages are celebrated--at the altar of
God. In other words, the unifying power of the race is the highest religious
faith--the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1. Some suppose that the ameliorative reconciling influence will be
found in commerce. But there are malign influences which defeat the benign
influences of trade.
2. Others think that the principle of unity will be found in the
cultivation of cosmopolitan literature. The influence of great literature is pacifying,
but it must also be remembered that such literature feeds patriotism, which is
a peril.
3. Many build great hopes on science. Science reveals the unity of
nature, but it teaches also that all nature is full of strife, and civilisation
itself is built on antagonism. It is only as a great faith changes the spirit
of man that discords will resolve themselves into harmonies.
III. GOD HAS IN A
VERY SPECIAL MEASURE COMMITTED UNTO US THE VERY EDIFYING GOSPEL OF OUR LORD
JESUS CHRIST. To a large extent England in this age occupies the position that
Israel occupied of old--it is our special calling to bring all nations to the
obedience of the faith. As Palestine came between Egypt and Assyria so this
island comes in a wonderful manner between the Old World and the New. God gave
spiritual gifts in a remarkable degree to Israel, and God has given us richly
the treasure of His Gospel. God has also given to us special powers for the
diffusion of the Gospel. (W. L. Watkinson.)
The missionary religion
This was the glorious vision of the statesman prophet, a new world
arising out of the confusions and struggles of the old, a redeemed humanity, of
which these now extinct peoples are the symbol, united by the benediction of
God.
I. WE MUST NOT
READ INTO THESE WORDS ANY COMPROMISE WITH THE RELIGION OF EGYPT AND ASSYRIA. He
did not mean that the faith of Israel was the third with the faiths of the Nile
and the Euphrates. Perhaps the most insidious foe of the missionary spirit is
the suggestion that Christianity is only one among many religions and rival
creeds. It is contradicted by all the facts of Scripture and of human
experience. The study of comparative religion so far from blinding us to the
gleams of truth and the broken lights of heathenism, enables us to feel more
deeply how faint and broken they are. The stars are invisible to us in the
glory of the noon. Yet if we descend into some deep pit we lose the daylight
and we see the stars. So in all ages some elect souls, sunk in the deep and
horrible pit of heathenism, have seen shining far above them the pure, peaceful
stars of God. Their faint light has not been enough to live by, not enough for
guidance or hope, only enough to reach the remoteness of heaven and God, enough
for aspiration and to keep alive the great questions of human existence and
destiny. Some of our modern teachers have gone down into the deep pit, and they
have forgotten that they themselves are the children of the day. We solemnly
deny that any religion is suited to any people, either East or West, which
cannot give cleansing to the conscience, or power to the will, or peace to the
heart, which is silent where it should speak most clearly, which can cast no
light beyond the grave, which does not honour womanhood and protect childhood.
Heathenism is man seeking God. The Gospel is God coming down to seek man. In
its essence the Gospel is unchangeable, yet there is much in our religion which
is capable of adaptation to the conditions, tastes, and temperaments of
different races.
II. We see in our text
THE WIPING OUT OF NATIONAL PREJUDICES AND RACIAL ANIMOSITIES IN A COMMON
SALVATION. Egypt was the ancient foe and oppressor of Israel. The pages of
Isaiah are full of warnings against the broken reed of Egypt. The prophet saw
the gathering storm and knew that Assyria should scatter the nation and destroy
the city and the temple. Yet he spoke of both as resting with Israel under the
blessing of God. But, more than that, the known world of Isaiah’s day was
bounded on the west by Egypt and on the east by Assyria. They stand for the
world, because they were then the confines of the world. Six centuries later
the world of St. Paul was larger still Our world is the whole world, but it has
not outgrown the love or the promise or the duty. This larger outlook rests
upon three chief grounds.
1. The brotherhood of man.
2. All the great redemptive facts are toy humanity.
3. The purposes of God are for mankind.
III. It only remains
to ask whether this promise of a redeemed humanity is only a dream, and a
glowing but unsubstantial vision, or IS IT A DIVINE REALITY? If it rested upon
an obscure word in an ancient prophecy we might fear to press it. But it is the
burden of Scripture. It was the vision of Christ as He rejoiced in spirit and
cried, “And if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto Me.” But it is the
method of God to use human instruments. He accepts the tribute of His people’s
love, and He makes the wrath of man to praise Him. (J. H. Shakespeare, M. A.)
God’s purposes worked out
1. God intends that each single nation of the earth shall make the
most of itself for the good of all other nations.
2. God is ruling over all the nations, and is working out His great
and glorious purposes through them. (D. Gregg, LL. D.)
God’s converting grace
These are mysterious words, which certainly have not been
fulfilled. There was a partial fulfilment of them on the day of Pentecost, when
we learn that Medea, Parthians, Elamites, together with dwellers in
Mesopotamia, joined with those of Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, and Judea, in
acknowledging the power of the exalted Saviour, and the mighty baptism of the
Holy Spirit. But just beyond the veil which hides the immediate future, we are
doubtless destined to see greater things than these. In any case, we may take
the prophet’s words as illustrating the truth, that none are beyond the pale of
Divine mercy; that God can change persecutors into apostles, and that the
elements that make men bad will, beneath converting grace, be the constituents
of strong and holy lives. God rejoices to take those who have been strong in
the service of Satan, and make them lowly and devoted servants of the Cross.
(F. B. Meyer, B. A.)
Isaiah’s wide outlook and cosmopolitan sympathies
We shall never do the Jewish religion justice till we pay
attention to what its greatest prophets thought of the outside world, how they
sympathised with this, and in what way they proposed to make it subject to
their own faith.
1. There is something in the very manner of Isaiah’s treatment of
foreign nations which causes the old charges of exclusiveness to sink in our
throats. Isaiah treats these foreigners at least as men. Take his prophecies on
Egypt or on Tyre or on Babylon--nations which were the hereditary enemies of
his nation--and you find him speaking of their natural misfortunes, their
social decays, their national follies and disasters, with the same pity and
with the same purely moral considerations, with which he has treated his own
land. When news of those far away sorrows comes to Jerusalem, it moves this
large-hearted prophet to mourning and tears. He breathes out to distant lands
elegies as beautiful as he has poured upon Jerusalem. He shows as intelligent
an interest in their social evolutions as he does in those of the Jewish State.
He gives a picture of the industry and politics of Egypt as careful as his
pictures of the fashions and statecraft of Judah. In short, as you read his
prophecies upon foreign nations, you perceive that before the eyes of this man
humanity, broken and scattered in his days as it was, rose up one great whole,
every part of which was subject to the same laws of righteousness, and deserved
from the prophet of God the same love and pity. To some few tribes he says
decisively that they shall certainly be wiped out, but even them he does not
address in contempt or in hatred. The large empire of Egypt, the great
commercial power of Tyre, he speaks of in language of respect and admiration;
but that does not prevent him from putting the plain issue to them which he put
to his own countrymen: If you are unrighteous, intemperate, impure--lying
diplomats and dishonest rulers, you shall certainly perish before Assyria. If
you are righteous, temperate, pure, if you do trust in truth and God, nothing
can move you.
2. But he who thus treated all nations with the same strict measures
of justice and the same fulness of pity with which he treated his own, was
surely not far from extending to the world the religious privileges which he so
frequently identified with Jerusalem. In his old age, at least, Isaiah looked
forward to the time when the particular religious opportunities of the Jew
should be the inheritance of humanity. (Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D.)
The dominating influence of national righteousness
The moral is this: When the leading nation of the world is true to
God and His principles, knowing no compromise and no hesitation; when it lives
these principles, incorporates them into its laws and institutions, builds them
into the code by which it governs its international relations, makes them part
of its foreign policy, and, so far as it has it in its power, insists upon
other nations honouring them and administering their affairs by them kit is
always sure to win the day, and to rule as a mighty influence among all the
nations of the world, and to lift them up toward the level of its own high
civilisation. (D. Gregg, LL. D.)
A transformed world
No one who has seen the lovely Bay of Naples can ever forget it.
The magnificent stretch of waters, the twenty or thirty miles of memorable
coast that girdle it, the vast city with its painted palaces, its domes and
spires, Vesuvius with nodding plume of fire and vapour, and over all the sky
blue as Aaron’s mantle. Now, geologists tell us that that lovely bay is really
the crater of an extinct volcano. In primitive ages it was a vast and awful
abyss of flame and fury, but the fires died down, the lava ceased to flow, the
smoke rolled away, the glorious sea overflowed the crater, and now the lovely
waters sleep and dream, reflecting the lights and colours of the sky. This
world, for ages, has been a veritable mouth of hell. But its fires are
slackening, its wrath abates, its darkness is less dense, its desolations and
miseries come to a perpetual end, and truth and justice, mercy and kindness,
are covering it as the great deep profound. (W. L. Watkinson.)
One Gospel for all
God’s Gospel is made not for Englishmen, but for all men. Many
think the Gospel is a very beautiful thing--if you would only keep it at home;
but the moment you try to apply it to anybody else, it will not suit them. Try
it upon the negro; he is too low. Try it upon the Hindoo; he is too high. Each
of these must have a religion of his own; one would not suit them all. The rice
that forms a suitable food for the natives of hot climates is not suitable for
the bleak north. The food that is suitable for the north, the clothing and
house suitable for the north, are not suitable for the tropics, and so with
religion. “A man looked into the eye of an Anglo-Saxon,” says William Arthur,
“and found it blue, and into the eye of a negro and found it black, and he
said, ‘These are different organisations; you are not so bewildered as to think
you can enlighten both these eyes with the same sun. You must have a sun for
each of them; you must have different suns, you see, because the eyes are
differently organised.’” Very well, that is exceedingly fine in theory, but try
it--try whether the sun which God put in the heaven will not illuminate the
pale eye of the northerner and the dark eye of the southerner. (Sunday
School Chronicle.)
The universal language
When Haydn was prevailed upon to visit England for the first time,
Mozart said to him, “You have no training for the great world, and you speak
too few languages.” Haydn replied, “My language is understood by all the
world.” The power of the name of Jesus is, however, more universal in its
appeal than the power of great music. (Sunday School Chronicle.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》