| Back to Home Page | Back to Book Index
|
Isaiah Chapter
Thirty-five
Isaiah 35
Chapter Contents
The flourishing state of Christ's kingdom. (1-4) The
privileges of his people. (5-10)
Commentary on Isaiah 35:1-4
(Read Isaiah 35:1-4)
Judea was prosperous in the days of Hezekiah, but the
kingdom of Christ is the great subject intended. Converting grace makes the
soul that was a wilderness, to rejoice with joy and singing, and to blossom
abundantly. The feeble and faint-hearted are encouraged. This is the design of
the gospel. Fear is weakening; the more we strive against it, the stronger we
are, both for doing and suffering; and he that says to us, Be strong, has laid
help for us upon One who is mighty. Assurance is given of the approach of
Messiah, to take vengeance on the powers of darkness, to recompense with
abundant comforts those that mourn in Zion; He will come and save. He will come
again at the end of time, to punish those who have troubled his people; and to
give those who were troubled such rest as will be a full reward for all their
troubles.
Commentary on Isaiah 35:5-10
(Read Isaiah 35:5-10)
When Christ shall come to set up his kingdom in the
world, then wonders, great wonders, shall be wrought on men's souls. By the
word and Spirit of Christ, the spiritually blind were enlightened; and those
deaf to the calls of God were made to hear them readily. Those unable to do any
thing good, by Divine grace were made active therein. Those that knew not how
to speak of God or to God, had their lips opened to show forth his praise. When
the Holy Ghost came upon the Gentiles that heard the word, then were the
fountains of life opened. Most of the earth is still a desert; neither means of
grace, spiritual worshippers, nor fruits of holiness, are to be found in it.
But the way of religion and godliness shall be laid open. The way of holiness
is the way of God's commandment; it is the good old way. And the way to heaven
is a plain way. Those knowing but little, and unlearned, shall be kept from
missing the road. It shall be a safe way; nothing can do them any real hurt.
Christ, the way to God, shall be clearly made known; and the way of a
believer's duty shall be plainly marked out. Let us then go forward cheerfully,
assured that the end of this way shall be everlasting joy, and rest for the
soul. Those who by faith are made citizens of the gospel Zion, rejoice in
Christ Jesus; and their sorrows and sighs are made to flee away by Divine
consolations. Thus these prophecies conclude. Our joyful hopes and prospects of
eternal life should swallow up all the sorrows and all the joys of this present
time. But of what avail is it to admire the excellence of God's word, unless we
can call its precious promises our own? Do we love God, not only as our
Creator, but because he gave his only Son to die for us? And are we walking in
the ways of holiness? Let us try ourselves by such plain questions, rather than
spend time on things that may be curious and amusing, but are unprofitable.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 35
Verse 1
[1] The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for
them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
The solitary place — Emmanuel's land, or
the seat of God's church and people, which formerly was despised like a
wilderness, and which the rage of their enemies had brought to desolation,
shall flourish exceedingly.
Verse 2
[2] It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy
and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of
Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of
our God.
The excellency — The wilderness shall be as
pleasant and fruitful as Lebanon, and Carmel, and Sharon.
They — The inhabitants of the wilderness aforesaid.
The glory — The glorious discoveries of God's
power and goodness.
Verse 3
[3] Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble
knees.
Strengthen — Ye ministers of God, comfort and
encourage God's people, who are now ready to faint.
Verse 4
[4] Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear
not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he
will come and save you.
Your God — Tho' he seems to be departed, he will come to you, and
abide with you. He will shortly come in the flesh, to execute vengeance upon the
enemies of God.
Verse 5
[5] Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears
of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then — The poor Gentiles, who before were blind and deaf,
shall now have the eyes and ears of their minds opened to see God's works, and
to hear and receive his word.
Verse 7
[7] And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay,
shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
Streams — The most dry and barren places shall be made moist and
fruitful; which is principally meant of the plentiful effusion of God's grace
upon such persons and nations, as had been wholly destitute of it.
Rushes — Those dry and parched deserts, in which dragons have
their abode, shall yield abundance of grass, and reeds, and rushes, which grow
only in moist ground.
Verse 8
[8] And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall
be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall
be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
A way — The high-way and the way are not to be taken for two
different ways, but for one and the same way, even a causey, which is raised
ground, and a way.
Holiness — The people (walking in it) shall be all righteous.
For those — But this way shall be
appropriated to those persons above-mentioned; the weak, and blind, and lame,
whom God will lead and save.
Though fools — The way shall be so plain and
strait, that even the most foolish travellers cannot easily mistake it.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
35 Chapter 35
Verses 1-10
The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them
The blessings of the Gospel
The thirty-fourth and the thirty-fifth chapters of Isaiah are by
the best scholars supposed to constitute one entire and complete prophecy, not
connected specially, or at least organically, with what goes before or follows.
It is a masterpiece of poetry. A single poem divided into two parts; in the
first part, the prophet sets forth in lurid colours the universal judgments of
God upon all the nations of the earth which have arrayed themselves against Him
and oppressed His people. As an instance of what shall come upon all, he
selects a single nation, that of the Edomites, and shows forth in them what
shall come upon all. This awful storm of wrath passes away; and we see in the
“clear shining after rain” the beautiful prospect which is opened up to both
earth and man, when God’s enemies cease from troubling and His people are
gathered unto Himself. The almost universal habit of spiritualising this, and
all like prophecies, and allegorising them into an exclusive application to
present Gospel blessings, has served to hide the chief significance of the
passage from the eyes of the ordinary reader. The promise of this glorious
chapter is without doubt primarily and chiefly to the Jews, referring to their
final restoration to their own land in the last days. That it has a preliminary
reference to the return from the Babylonian captivity is possible, but it looks
far beyond that time to the return from the dispersion which the Jews are now
suffering. Even the joy of that first return did not fulfil the glorious
promises of this vision. God’s day of vengeance, and the year of His redeemed,
are thus set side by side. (Compare with 61:2; and 63:4, with Matthew 24:27-31; Luke 21:25-28.)
I. THE REJOICING
CREATION. It is almost impossible not to associate the magnificent opening
words of this chapter with the hope held out to the “whole creation which
groaneth and travalleth in pain together until now, waiting for the
manifestation of the sons of God, when it shall also be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19-23). “The wilderness and the
solitary place shall be glad for them.” This is a beautiful picture of the
sympathy of the earth with man. Not only do the beautiful parts of the earth
rejoice with the home-coming of man from his wanderings from God, but the very
wilderness and solitary places rejoice and are glad for them, because also in
man’s redemption the creation which was cursed for man’s sake is set free from
that curse. The gladness which is here ascribed to the inanimate creation corresponds
with the songs and everlasting joy which crown the redeemed of the Lord on
their return. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto them and the excellency
of Carmel and Sharon. Two other things are ascribed to the creation. They are
represented as consciously participating in the great goodness of God to man.
They rejoice even with joy and singing; and they see the glory of the Lord and
the excellency of our God. It is the habit of our prophet thus to invest nature
with consciousness and intelligence. It is the habit of-all scriptural writers
to put man and nature into close sympathy with each other, declaring that God
is the maker of both. There is a great spiritual as well as poetic truth in
this. How powerfully are we affected by plastic nature! How responsive the
soil, the fruits of earth, and trees of the forest to the loving touch and
sympathy of man! Who does not know how wonderfully different all nature seemed
to us when we were first converted to God. What a world of beauty this will be
when the curse is removed and man and nature, so manifestly made for each
other, shall rejoice and be glad together!
II. THE BLESSINGS
OF SALVATION. The outline of blessing which the prophet sets before us is not
complete, but simply consists of a few bold strokes, serving to fill us with
the hope of perfect and complete recovery to God.
1. Men shall see God. The vision of God has already been ascribed in
a metaphorical sense to the inanimate creation. It is certainly true that,
among the chiefest blessings of salvation, is the vision of God When Jesus came
into the world, we are told that in Him we beheld the glory of God, full of
grace and truth We are also told that the first effect of the new birth is the
ability of the sinner to see God. The purification of the heart which comes
with the new life of God in the soul, carries with it the promise of seeing God
(John 1:14; John 3:3; Matthew 5:8; 2 Corinthians 3:18). But there is
manifestly something more than this meant. “They shall see the glory of Jehovah
and the excellency of our God.” This can refer to nothing else than that
beatific vision of God spoken of by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12; by John in the Revelation 22:4. Yet again, if we are to
include the saints of the Church in this prophecy, then we shall also have to
look for a more literal fulfilment still. When the Lord Himself shall descend
from heaven in power and great glory (Matthew 26:64; Daniel 7:13; John 1:51; 1 Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 1:7), then the scattered Jews
shall see their long-rejected Lord, as Saul of Tarsus saw Him on the way to
Damascus (Acts 9:3), and be instantly converted,
and start on their homeward way, greeted by all the smiling and rejoicing
flowers and trees and pools and newly fertilised wildernesses and waste places
of the earth. During all these dark centuries the veil has been over the eyes
of the Jews, but in this time the veil shall be taken away and they shall see the
face, the glory, the excellency of Jehovah-God.
2. They shall strengthen and encourage each other. This is most
probably a retrospective exhortation. In view of this promise and the certain
coming of Jehovah and their restoration, they are exhorted to strengthen and
encourage each other. There are those whose hands are weak, whose knees are
feeble. They cannot fight the good fight of faith with courage, they cannot run
with patience the race that is set before them. The long delays and afflictions
experienced during the time of waiting has taken not only the courage out of
many, but has filled them with despair. Therefore they were to say to those of
a fearful heart or of a hasty tendency to unbelief:
“Be strong, fear not; behold your God will come with vengeance;
even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Thus the prophet calls
upon the strong to impart theft strength to the weak and their faith and
courage to the faint-hearted. The new Testament writers transfer the spirit,
and in part, the very words of this exhortation to the saints of the Church of
God. “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak” Romans 15:1).
3. Infirmities shall be removed. Not only shall the earth be restored
to primitive beauty, clothed with redemption glory, and tided with an almost
conscious sympathy and joy, but all the infirmities which sin has entailed on
our poor sinful human nature shall be removed. In view of this entire
deliverance from all the consequences of sin, along with the people of Jehovah,
the sore spots of earth shad be healed too. Waters in the wilderness, streams
in the desert, pools covering the parched sand, and springs bursting out of
thirsty lands; no longer a mirage thrown up from a few turfs of dried herbage,
but veritable grass with reeds and rushes shall greet the returning and healed
pilgrims. The beginning of this marvel of redemption came when Jesus was first
here, opening blind eyes, healing lame limbs, unlocking deaf ears, and loosing
silent tongues. Surely, if we have the will to do the will of God, we shall
know of this doctrine whether it be of God.
III. THE WAY HOME.
Now follows a wondrous picture of the way of the return for the long absent wanderer.
The way of the transgressor is hard, and the world away from God is a barren
and thirsty land; but so soon as the face is set toward God and heaven,
heaven’s God makes the way of return easy and sure. The dispersion of the Jews
was a way of misery. In the return of the Jews to God and their own land we
behold the truth of the spiritual way which God has prepared for every sinner
to return to Him, and by Him to heaven.
1. It is a highway. “An highway shall be there.” A broad and open
way, cast up and distinguished from all ether roads and tracks. It has both
breadth and narrowness. Broad enough for all the world to travel over,--and He
will have all men to be saved,--and yet m the highway there is a “narrow way,”
in which every man must walk for himself, alone and yet not alone--alone in
that he must believe for himself; not alone, in that others are walking with
him on the same terms and surrounded by the same conditions.
2. It is a way of holiness. That is, it is a way clean in itself, and
only for the clean to traverse. “The unclean shall not pass over it.”
Drunkards, liars, adulterers, fornicators, covetous, idolaters, and
extortioners may not walk in that way. For none of these sins shall see or
enter into the kingdom of heaven. When the scoffer points to such characters in
the “visible” Church, the sufficient answer is that the Church is not the way,
but Jesus Himself is the Way, and all that are in Christ Jesus are new
creatures, old things having passed away and all things having become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
3. God is with them in the way. For such is the meaning of the
expression. “It shall be for those.” God’s children have in a sense to walk
alone, and entering this way, they have to break with many who in the days of
their flesh were their companions, but the presence and companionship of God
with them in the way will more than compensate. No man who knows the fellowship
of God and the saints ever misses the company of the world.
4. It is a way of perfect plainness. No one need fear getting lost in
this way. It is so simple and straightforward, so guarded and marked, that the
simple and unlearned need not err therein. “He that followeth Me,” said Jesus,
“shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” Besides, God
has promised to hold us by our right hand, and to keep us from falling Isaiah 41:13; Jude 1:24).
5. It is a safe way. No lion or any ravenous beast shall be there,
nor be permitted to go up thereon. God has cleared the way of enemies, so far
as their ability to harm us is concerned. It was only when” Christian” turned
out of the way that he met the devil and had to fight him, and even when the
lions fiercely growled at him, he discovered that, by keeping in the middle of
the path, they could not approach him, being chained.
IV. SAFE AT HOME.
What a picture is here presented to the poor outcasts of Israel! There had been
a dispersion and a home-coming from Babylon. There was to be yet another far
wider and more prolonged dispersion, and then at last a final homecoming. In
view of this the prophet bursts out with a triumphant exclamation of victory,
in which he sets all the redeemed singing for joy. He sees the wanderers and
outcasts gathering from every quarter of the earth (Isaiah 11:12; Isaiah 51:3). They come with songs of
everlasting joy on their lips, bursting from their glad and happy hearts. It
has been a long night to them, but joy has at last come with this thriceblessed
morning. Is not this a blessed picture, too, of the triumphant entrance into
the presence of God of those who have fought a good fight, kept the faith, and
finished their course? (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
Transformation
The prophecy before us is one of those in which the so-called
secondary meaning is, in truth, the primary. The spiritual takes precedence of
the natural.
I. THE SAD
CONDITION OF THE LOCALITIES ON WHICH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IS INTENDED TO
OPERATE. Let us gather into one cluster all that is said of them. “A
wilderness,” “a solitary place,” “parched ground,” “thirsty laud,” “a
habitation of dragons.” With the exception of the last-mentioned, all the
desolation seems to turn upon the absence of one element--water. What simile
could so vividly depict the moral barrenness and desolation, whether of the
individual, or of the world at large, apart from the glorious Gospel of the
blessed God? What a wilderness the heart is, that has not God dwelling in it!
The idea of “solitariness” may seem to disappear when this word “habitation”
comes into view. But what a habitation it is! “A habitation of dragons.” That,
and that only, was wanting to complete the picture--the foul serpent brood,
with their huge encircling folds, prepared to crush the life out of every
creature that may cross their dreaded path. To a heart which has within it that
“well of water springing up into everlasting life,” there is no sadder scene
than the unutterable desolateness of these moral wastes presented by hearts
that are unchanged. What is true of the individual is equally true of the
aspect presented by the world at large. It may, perhaps, be imagined that the
one element which is wanting to turn all this desolation into smiling fertility
is Civilisation. That has been already weighed in the balances and found
wanting. What the wilderness, and the solitary place, and the desert, and the
parched ground, and the thirsty land require is--the Water of Life, gushing
from the smitten rock, Christ Jesus.
II. THE EFFECTS
PRODUCED BY THE KINGDOM OF JESUS. Even to us, in a country where water is
plentiful, the beauty and appropriateness of the image are at once apparent.
What a charm it adds to the landscape, whether in the form of the great ocean,
bearing on its bosom the treasures of the world, or of the river winding
through the pleasant meadows, which drink in fertility and beauty from the
living stream! The like with its mirror-like surface basking in the sun,
suggests, too, the theme of the prophet’s song. But it was with an appreciation
more intense that the inhabitants of these Eastern lands regarded this emblem
of the life that is in Jesus Christ. Water spoke to them of deliverance from
death. Hence, wherever this glad Gospel is spoken of, we find this emblem employed
to bring before the mind the joy-giving results of the kingdom of Christ. Note
the results as these are brought before us in our text.
1. Gladness. It requires no great effort of imagination to realise
the glad aspect of nature refreshed by copious rains, after a heat that has
scorched the grass, and dwarfed the corn. Fitting emblem, this, of the great
joy which the Gospel of Jesus brings with it to human hearts.
2. Fertility. “It shall blossom abundantly.” This fertility not only
stands connected with life, it is the outcome of its existence. The desert is
always barren. But the mighty power of the Gospel of Jesus converts this moral
wilderness into a fruit-bearing garden of the Lord.
3. Beauty. “It shall blossom as the rose.” One has only to picture to
himself a part of this earth’s surface, parched, desert, and barren, and to
think of the marvellous change which would be produced upon it were he, on
revisiting the scene, to find it covered with the fairest flowers that our
gardens know. The first and most striking impression made upon the mind would
be that of surpassing beauty. Even so is it with the marvellous moral
transformation which the prophecy before us contemplates. The glorious annals
of missionary effort render it unnecessary to draw on the imagination. What a
beauty is unfolded in a Christ-like life!
4. Glory and majesty. “The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,
the excellency of Carmel.” To live under the power of Jesus is the true secret
of a noble life. Whatever the sphere of life which the man occupies, he is in
closest alliance with the majesty of heaven, and in virtue of that alliance is
raised to regal dignity.
5. A vision that extends into the Holy of holies. “They shall see the
glory of Jehovah, and the excellency of our God. (J. Kay.)
The transformative field and force of the Gospel
I. THE SPHERE IN
WINCH THE GOSPEL OPERATES.
1. The condition of depraved humanity is that of solitude. It is in a
state of awful isolation. It is away from God and from fellowship with all holy
spirits. Between corrupt souls there is no true fellowship, and there cannot
be.
2. The condition of depraved humanity is that of wildness. It is a
wilderness. Depraved souls are productive, but it is the productiveness of the
wilderness.
II. THE TRANSFORMATION
WHICH THE GOSPEL EFFECTS.
1. The Gospel makes the sphere joyous. “The wilderness shall be
glad,” &c. What gladness the Gospel brings into the soul when received in
full faith, the gladness of gratitude, love, hope, communion with infinite goodness.
2. The Gospel makes this sphere beautiful. “It shall blossom as the
rose.” The Gospel imparts to the soul beauty of the highest kind--moral beauty,
the beauty of the Lord.
3. The Gospel makes the sphere grand. “The glory of Lebanon shall be
given unto it.” As Carmel and Lebanon tower above the plains of Palestine, so
the soul into which the Gospel enters is raised above its unconverted
contemporaries. Christliness makes man great in moral strength, elevation, and
majesty.
4. The Gospel makes the sphere glorious. “They shall see the glory of
the Lord.” (Homilist.)
Christianity finally triumphant
I. THE CERTAINTY
THAT THE NEEDED DIFFUSION OF TRUE RELIGION WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED. Man is always
animated to the performance of duty by the hope of success; and in the onerous
duties to which Christians are summoned, we must be animated by the assurance,
proceeding from the highest authority, that our efforts shall be crowned with
success. Before stating the grounds upon which the certainty as to the diffusion
of our religion is founded, we shall notice some matters which have appeared to
render it equivocal, but which do not really interfere with it.
1. The certainty of this diffusion is not interfered with by the
obstacles against which religion in its advancing progress has to contend. The
obstacles are numerous and formidable; arising from the long-indulged defects
of its own disciples; the varieties existing amongst men, of language, of
national character, and of social habits; the public jealousies and antipathies
which so often bar intercourse, and which have sometimes been kindled into
desolating wars; the inveterate depravity of the human heart, nursed into
rancorous maturity by the impostures, whether barbarous or refined, which have
so long prevailed, and by the malignant influence of the god of this world. To
many agencies such obstacles as these would be undoubtedly fatal. But our
religion possesses resources which elevate it far above and beyond them.
2. The certainty of which we speak is not interfered with by the
differences existing in the professing Church as to the mode in which the
anticipated diffusion shall come. Some aver that the diffusion is to take place
in consequence of the personal appearance of the Saviour upon the earth; others
hold that it is to come by the ordinary instrumentalities already existing in
the Christian system, rendered effectual by the abundant outpouring of the
Spirit. How can the ignorance of a private soldier in an immense army, as to
the plan of the great chieftain, argue against the fact that that plan when
developed and carried out shall secure a final and glorious victory?
3. The certainty is not interfered with by obscurity as to the time
at which the anticipated diffusion shall be effected. Obscurity resting over
the time when the desires of the Church shall be fulfilled and when the wants
of the world shall be supplied, is a direct appointment of God, not to be the
object of curiosity on the one hand, nor the source of scepticism on the other.
II. THE GROUNDS OR
EVIDENCE UPON WHICH WE MUST CONSIDER THAT CERTAINTY AS RESTING. It is to be
deduced--
1. From general principles as to the character and government of God.
Let it be admitted that God exists, that He is the moral Governor and Sovereign
of the universe, that He is supremely concerned for the maintenance of His own
honour, and that while powerful, and just, and holy, He is also kind and
benevolent, desiring and resolved upon the well-being of His creatures, and
then the conclusion which we now advocate appears to us reasonable and
unavoidable. If our religion be the instrument by which He will act upon the
hearts of men, so as to turn them “from darkness to light, and from the power
of Satan unto God,” then, that religion will advance and proceed until every
purpose of the Divine majesty and love shall have been conducted to delightful
accomplishment.
2. From the constitution and progress of our religion itself. The
religion of the Gospel is formed with capacities for, and with a direct view
to, universal diffusion. It does not admit of any ceremonial restrictions; it
takes no note of national preferences or peculiarities; it owns no distinction
of rank, clime, or co]our; it addresses men on grand, comprehensive principles,
dealing with them in the common wants and properties of their nature; it is
founded on a redeeming provision of boundless sufficiency--a propitiation for
the sins of the world; and its commission is universal as mankind. If, from the
constitution of our religion you pass to its history, you find that history
always bearing us onward to precisely the same conclusion. There is no class of
obstacles over which it has not achieved triumphs, no order of beings among
whom it has not acquired converts.
3. From the expressed testimony of the Sacred Volume.
III. THE RESULTS
WHICH FROM THE NEEDED DIFFUSION OF OUR RELIGION WILL ARISE.
1. Happiness in the world. “The wilderness and the solitary place
shall be glad for them,” &c. By the disciples of scepticism Christianity
has often been slandered as the cause of sorrow. But the true spiritual
religion of the Gospel can produce nothing but what is accordant with its
sublime and munificent nature. Christianity never spake a word but to utter a
promise, never took a step but to bring a boon, never struck a blow but to
emancipate a captive, never exerted an agency but to elevate and redeem a soul.
As Christianity advances, there will be the full development of results, of
which now we have instances. There will be happiness to individuals, to
families, and to communities or nations. Yet, what is this to the happiness of
the life which is to come?
2. Supreme honour to God. “They shall see the glory of the Lord, and
the excellency of our God.” In connection with the diffusion of our religion
God will display and magnify the majestic attributes of His nature. In
connection with the display and magnifying of the Divine perfections, God will
receive the homage and the highest praise of all created beings. The happiness
is the happiness of gratitude. Earth, with ten thousand times ten thousand
voices, will celebrate His praise; the angels of heaven and “the spirits of the
just made perfect” will join in the long and loud acclaim, and redemption will
constitute the noble theme of their noblest songs. (J. Parsons.)
Christmas blessings
I. THE WORLD
WITHOUT THE GOSPEL IS A WILDERNESS, a “desert,” a “solitary place.” What though
the bright promise of the spring, the warm glow of summer, the rich maturity of
autumn, the quiet rest of winter, are full of beauty! What though Nature’s
broad plains are watered by noble rivers, though her mountains rise with
majesty and grandeur, though her valleys “stand so thick with corn that they
laugh and sing,” and though a teeming population give animation to every
habitable spot; yet, to the spiritual eye and apart from the Gospel, all is but
a desert and a solitary place! And if it be so in our own fair land, which is
the glory of all lands, what of the heathen nations? Men have broken loose from
God. Sin has overspread the world. There is nothing to sustain the Divine life,
nothing to insure spiritual health, nothing to promote the soul’s eternal
welfare.
II. WHAT, THEN, IS
THE CHANGE WHICH THE GOSPEL PRODUCES? It is the same in one and all when it
comes with “demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” All things become new.
The “fruits of the Spirit” spring up, the solitary place is made glad, the
desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose. Conclusion--
1. Has my heart been made glad by the Gospel?
2. What am I doing to make the hearts of others glad? These are
questions which demand prompt answers, because--
3. The time is short. (Josiah Batsman, M. A.)
The wilderness made glad
I. A DESERT MAY BE
CONSIDERED AS BARREN AND UNCIVILISED. So, in general, are heathen countries.
But, instead of unfruitfulness and barbarism, Christianity would introduce
culture, civilisation, and everything which, in connection with these, tends to
promote the substantial comforts of life. The Bible and the plough go together.
II. A WILDERNESS
MAY BE CONSIDERED AS A PLACE OF DREARY SOLITUDE. But the Gospel would introduce
the endearments of society; or, at all events, sweeten solitude itself. Among
even the more numerous tribes of savages, social enjoyment is but small. They
have, indeed, their feasts; but these are seasons of diabolical, rather than of
human mirth. Their habitual character, undoubtedly, is retiredness, melancholy,
and taciturnity. On the other hand, true religion gives birth to those feelings
which prompt man with confidence to seek man; while, at the same time, it
enlarges the mind, and furnishes many rational and enlivening topics on which
men delight to speak out of the abundance of the heart.
III. A WILDERNESS
MAY BE CONSIDERED AS A PLACE OF INHUMANITY AND CRUELTY. And such are heathen
countries (Psalms 74:20).
IV. When we hear of
a wilderness we think of A PLACE OF COMFORTLESS SORROW. The heathen world
contains not within itself the means of soothing the sad distress with which it
is filled. But such a wilderness would be gladdened by the Gospel, which would
bring home to the afflicted and dying “the peace of God which passeth all
understanding.”
V. LIKE A
WILDERNESS, THE HEATHEN WORLD IS A PLACE OF AWFUL DANGER. “I was in perils,”
said the apostle Paul, “in the wilderness” (2 Corinthians 11:26). “Where there,
is no vision the people perish.” Proverbs 29:18). Improvement--
1. Let us improve the subject as furnishing ourselves with ground of
gratitude and admonition. How thankful ought we to be when we contrast our own
happy situation with the state of those who “sit in darkness, and in the region
and shadow of death”!
2. It becomes us to consider whether we have personally embraced the
Gospel.
3. Let us improve the subject in reference to the heathen.
4. According to God’s wise determination human instruments are
necessary (Romans 10:14-15).
5. The means of support must be furnished.
6. Already, He who is to be crowned Lord of all has gained some of
His most signal triumphs in modern times, through this instrumentality. (James
Foote, M. A.)
Nativity
Here are three things to be considered.
I. THE WILDERNESS
ITSELF. The world before the appearance of the Gospel was dry as a wilderness,
being destitute of God’s holy Spirit, which is the water of life, and the
immediate cause of all righteousness. The heathen were without the good Spirit,
they were exposed to the assaults of evil spirits, whose employment it is to go
“to and fro in the earth” as wild beasts in a wilderness, seeking whom they may
devour. And it has ever been the way of wicked men, agitated by those furious
passions implanted in their nature, to become beasts of prey to one another,
biting and devouring one another. But the beast which is noxious and cursed
above all others is the serpent, in which we have the most perfect
representation of the devil himself, and of all his children, who are called
the seed of the serpent. In a place infested with such inhabitants there could
be no real comfort; but on the contrary vexation, misery, disappointment, and
despair. The evil that prevails among men who live without God renders this
world a miserable place.
II. THE CHANGE THAT
WAS TO BE WROUGHT UPON IT. The knowledge of Christ engrafted in the hearts of
men, soon made them green and fruitful in righteousness, and they abounded in
good works, even to the astonishment of their enemies.
III. THE CAUSE OF
THIS BLESSED CHANGE. “They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency
of our God.” The glory of the natural world is the sun, whose presence it is
that makes the day so superior to the night. But above all, the change of the
winter into the spring, shows the power and excellency of this marvellous
instrument. Therefore Christ, who performs the same things in the kingdom of
grace as the sun doth in nature, is all respects the Sun of Righteousness. (W.
Jones, M. A.)
The desert blossoming
The desert shall blossom when Christ is in it, as the narcissus,
the meadow-saffron, the rose.
1. There is a desert of separation from ordinary means of grace. I
may be deprived, in God’s providence, of my Christian surroundings. I may have
to travel far from the homeland and the sound of the Sabbath bells. But Jesus
may dwell in my heart by faith. And then the wilderness will be a garden.
2. There is a desert of trial. Perhaps I lose my substance. Perhaps I
lose my health. Perhaps I lose my friend, the half of my own soul. How
desolating the affliction is! But Jesus can bless me through it. He makes the
sweetening tree grow beside Marsh.
3. There is a desert of apparent disaster to the cause of God. The
Church has its periods of adversity when all things seem to be against it. But
Jesus teaches it to be more serious then, more patient, more devout, stronger
in faith, richer in feeling, purer in aim.
4. There is a desert of death. To go out from the world which I know
so well into the world which is mysterious and strange--how my heart shrinks
from it v But Jesus shows me by His Word and His Spirit and His own experience,
that death is the road to glory and the path to fruitfulness and the gate into
life. The solitary place shall be glad. (A. Smellie, M. A.)
The rose
According to the old versions and many commentators “the
narcissus” or the autumn crocus is the plant intended. (W. Houghton,
M. A.)
The rose
The name points to a bulbous plant. (P. Delitzsch, D. D.)
Life out of death
The valley of Chambra, in India, is rich in its fertility and
beauty. The cause of all this fertility is a wonderful spring of water which
flows from a hillside, and furnishes water for the irrigation of the whole
valley, and for the use of the people who live there. Once, says the legend,
the valley was without water, and there was desolation everywhere. The plants
and trees were all withering, and the people were dying of thirst. The princess
of the place took the sorrows of her subjects much to heart. She consulted the
oracle to learn how the constant curse of drought could be removed. The oracle
said that if the princess of the land would die for the people, abundant water
would be given. She hastened to give her life. Her grave was made, and she was
buried alive. Then forth from her tomb came a river which flowed down into the
valley, restoring all languishing life in field and garden, and sending water
to every door for the famishing people to drink. Ever since, the streams have
continued to flow from the wonderful spring, carrying their precious
benediction to every home. This old heathen legend beautifully illustrates what
Christ did. The world was perishing for want of the water of life; Jesus died
and was buried, and from His Cross and broken grave poured out the river of the
water of life for the quenching of the world s thirst. Its streams run
everywhere, and wherever they flow the wilderness has been made to blossom like
a garden of roses. Beauty blooms wherever they run. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
Verse 3
Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.
Weak hands and feeble knees
I. I shall attempt
to show THE IMPORTANCE OF HANDS AND KNEES IN GOING TO HEAVEN. The hands and
knees are those parts of the body in which the effects of fear are the most
easily seen. Of course, the root of despondency and fear must lie in the heart;
it is that which is first moved with terror. But afterwards these extremities,
these limbs of action begin to feel the weakness also. Just so the prophet
means that wherever the Christian displays most his timidity and his dismay
there we must be careful to apply the remedy of comfort.
1. The hands and knees are of the first importance because they
represent active duty and supplication. Hence, if the knees be weak and the
hands be weak, it is little that we can do.
2. We may readily see what the prophet means by hands and knees if we
observe that a Christian, although his hopes are in heaven, stands upon the
earth. It is with the hand of faith that the Christian lays hold upon that
which is not seen, and endeavours to climb upwards to the skies; it is with his
foot that he spurns the earth and all that it calls good or great. Let the
Christian’s foot be weak, and he cannot then despise the things that are seen:
but he will be fixing his affection on things on earth and not on things above.
Let his hand of faith grow weak, and he cannot lay hold of the things that are
in heaven.
3. But you will remember also that there are certain parts of the
spiritual pilgrimage where hands and knees are absolutely required. John Bunyan
represents Christian as coming to the foot of the hill Difficulty, and he says.
“I looked then after Christian, to see him go up the hill, where I perceived he
fell from running to going, and from going to clambering upon his hands and
knees, because of the steepness of the place.” Every Christian who knows much
about Divine experience will understand what this means.
II. THE ILL EFFECT
OF WEAK HANDS AND KNEES.
1. We have already hinted that one ill fruit of a Christian having
weak hands and knees is this, that he will not himself be able to make much
progress in the Divine life. When I sit down and read the biographies of saints
who have gone to heaven, I am astonished at myself, and I can only weep to
think how far I am behind these men, and then how much further I must be behind
my Divine Master. Surely the examples of eminent saints should spur us onward.
But weak hands and feeble knees are the reasons why so few Christians attain to
any eminence in the ways and works of God.
2. Weak hands and feeble knees have another ill effect. They prevent
our doing any great wonder for the good of the world
3. Again, weak hands and feeble knees very much dishonour Christ.
Suppose you have a friend, and you say to him, “My friend, I have such
confidence in you, that I will trust you with the title-deeds of my estate, and
with all I have. Nay, more; I will trust you with my health, with my life. Do
what you will with me; I have such faith in your goodness and your wisdom that
I am sure you will not be unkind, and will not err. I trust you “There is
something honourable in faith to the object in whom it is reposed.” Now, if you
are able, with the strong hand of faith, to bring all you have and give it
entire unto God, then He is glorified; but if your hand is weak, and you are
hiding away some choice thing that you cannot give up to Him, if you do not
stand fully to the surrender, but keep back something from Him, then that weak
hand brings dishonour upon God. So also does the feeble knee. When the believer
goes to his closet and bows there with his feeble knee, and asks God to bless
him, and does not half believe that He will, he dishonours God. But, when a man
falls on his knees, and cries, “Lord, Thou knowest all things: Thou knowest
that such a thing is necessary to me; there is Thy promise; do as Thou hast said,
Lord; I know Thou wilt give it me:” and when he rises from his knees, goes down
and says to his friends, “The blessing will come; I have asked for it, and God
will hear me;” why, such a man honours God.
III. THE CAUSES OF
WEAK HANDS AND FEEBLE KNEES.
1. Some Christians have weak hands and feeble knees because they are
only infants. God’s family is like every other family; we do not expect the
new-born convert to run alone at first. God will not overdrive His lambs. He
does not expect long marches from feeble feet. As you are but weak, you shall
have lighter duties.
2. A more frequent cause of weak hands and feeble knees is
starvation.
3. But, again, fear is the great weakness of men’s knees; doubt and
distrust are the great relaxers of the strength of men’s hands.
4. Sloth may make a man weak in his hands and in his feet. Arms
become strong by using them. The blacksmith gets a brawny hand by constantly
using his hammer. He who climbs the mountain or walks many a mile a day,
becomes strong in his feet. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Weak knees
Earthly life should be a spiritual race or pilgrimage to Mount
Zion. We need strong knees to climb with ease steep and rugged hills; and as
our spiritual journey may be likened to climbing hills, we need spiritual
strength to enable us to do it with comfort to ourselves. If we have weak
knees, our journey will be a series of groans, and, perhaps, a succession of
grumbles; but when our weak knees are strengthened and our lungs expanded by
the delicious atmosphere of the hills, the journey can be done comfortably with
sacred songs and continual joy.
I. Weak knees are
often caused by MENTAL DEPRESSION. In these mental depressions, human aid is
not of much account; we need the presence and comfort of God. Prayer is the
best medicine; and if, at the same time, we can get away from the town to the
sweet, pure air of the country, and climb a hill, we shall return home with a
buoyant heart and an elastic tread.
1. God may allow depression to visit us to subdue our pride. It acts
like a “scotch” on a wheel, or a “brake,” which prevents the horses dragging
the carriage so swiftly downhill as to overbalance themselves. At such times,
we are taught that, after all, we must keep pace with our weak brethren.
2. Such times of spiritual depression give us a nature to sympathise
with the troubled. As the proverb says, “They are of a tender nature who have
been skinned themselves.”
3. Heaviness of spirit is also needed to give us time for meditation
and review of mercies. When you are climbing, you see nothing more than the
hill before you; but when you are weary and resting, you can see the glorious
landscape for miles. Ah, when weak knees are caused by toiling upwards to get
nearer to God, it is a sacred token, which shall result in everlasting
strength. When compelled to slacken speed, we see the goodness of God and learn
to trust His direction.
II. Our knees are
sometimes weakened by MANY AFFLICTIONS. But though we have afflictions which
make our knees bend in weakness, yet God has undertaken to give us strength
according to our day. If we bear our afflictions with patience, our knees shall
be strengthened to do great things for God.
III. Weakness of
spiritual knees may be caused by THE WEIGHT OF UNBELIEF. (W. Birch.)
Solicitude for the sorrowful
It as the duty of all men to be careful of the sons of sorrow.
There be some who from their very birth are marked by melancholy as her own.
The silent shades of sorrow are their congenial haunts; the glades of the
forest of grief are the only places where their leaf can flourish. Others there
are who through some crushing misfortune are brought so low that they never
hold up their heads again, but go from that time forth mourning to their
graves. Some there be, again, who, disappointed in their early youth, either in
some fond object of their affections, or else in some project of their young
ambition, never can dare to face the world, but shrink from contact with their
fellows, even as the sensitive plant curls up its tendrils at the touch. In all
flocks there must be lambs, and weak and wounded sheep; and among the flock of
men, it seems that there must necessarily be some who should more than others
prove the truth of Job’s declaration, “man is born to trouble even as the
sparks fly upwards.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 4
Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not
Comfort for the fearful
Presumption and fear are the Scylla and Charybdis of the Christian
life, and it requires Divine guidance, together with all our own watchfulness,
to steer safely between them.
My object is, to suit the case of those who are well entitled to hope for the
Divine mercy through Christ Jesus, but are disquieting themselves, or are
disquieted by the enemy with needless fears.
1. “I cannot indulge the hope that I am a Christian,” one will say,
“because I have never passed through the same religious exercises and
experiences that others profess to have felt and enjoyed; have known no such
deep convictions; have no such clear assurance of my acceptance with God.” God
has brought many sons to glory, but I do not suppose that any two of them have
been led thither in precisely the same way, or have been exercised with
precisely the same feelings. If in the main, our experiences correspond with
the Word of God, in the great points of faith and love, it need not disquiet us
though we never heard of another case exactly like our own.
2. But another desponding one says, “If I were truly a child of God,
sin would not prevail against me as I find it does.” So long as there is
determined war against sin, there is ground for hope.
3. Still one may be ready to reply, “I find that sin not only
prevails against me, but I seem to be worse than when I first strove against
it; my heart appears to grow more wicked; my corruptions, stronger, and my
strength to resist to be less.” To perceive more of our sin than usual, does
not always prove that we are more sinful, but often the reverse; just as when
one cleanses a room, though the air is filled with dust floating in the
sunbeams, there is no more of it actually there than before, and there will
soon be less of it as the operation goes on. We do not know the strength of our
evil passions until we begin to oppose them. When one is making a special
effort to lead a Christian life, then he is especially tempted and hindered.
4. Another class of disquieted ones affirm that they cannot hope they
are true Christians, because they seem to love everything else more than God;
If this were really true, we should have no encouragement to offer, for if God
be not loved supremely we cannot be His children. But, in estimating our love
to God, compared with our love to earthly things, we are not to conclude that
we love that most which most excites our affections. It has well been remarked,
“that a man may be more moved when he sees a friend that has long been absent,
and seem to regard him more for the moment than he does his own wife and
children, and yet none would think that the friend was loved the most”; so
neither must we conclude, because when we are abroad in the world we find our
affections vehemently stirred towards its various objects, that therefore they
are supreme in our hearts. We should judge of our comparative affection by
asking ourselves soberly, which of the two objects we should prefer to part
withy
5. Again, it is urged by some that there is great danger of
self-deception; that a person may, in appearance, be like a Christian, and yet
be really destitute of any true piety, and they fear lest they should fall into
the same error. The fear is usually the best remedy against the thing feared,
and none are farther from the danger of making a false profession than those
who are most afraid of it.
6. Some, again, have fears that they are not true Christians, because
they come so far short of the attainments of some eminent Christians of their
acquaintance. We reply, that the worst part of the character of those exalted
saints may not be known to us, or they may not have our hindrances, or they may
have been long in growing up to that state, while we are only babes in Christ.
7. Another class may say, that they cannot think any real Christian
ever was so tempted and distressed with evil thoughts as they are. We reply,
Job was tempted to curse God, and Christ Himself to worship Satan. We may have
very wicked thoughts entering our minds, but if we do not delight in them, if
we strive against them, and they are painful to us, they are no evidence
against us. The very fact that they grieve us and we resist them, is in our
favour.
8. Another class of the discouraged and fearful say, that they have
doctrinal difficulties, that certain things in the Bible do not appear clear to
them, and they fear to make any public confession of Christ till these are made
plain. The best way to solve doctrinal difficulties is to engage in practical
duties. But it would be endless to recount all the ways in which doubts and
fears assail us. Their name is Legion, and our prayer should be that Christ
would command them to come out of the man who is troubled with them, and to
enter no more into him. Many seem to think that they show a commendable spirit
by cherishing such fears. But there is no humility in doubting God’s promises. (W.
H. Lewis, D. D.)
The ministry of consolation
Let us consider the text--
I. AS A DISSUASIVE
AGAINST OUR SECRET FEARS. “Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Fear not.”
The language is not uncommon as addressed to God’s children. “Fear not, Abram,
I am thy shield and thine exceeding great reward.” “Thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel, fear not.” “Fear not,
for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God.” The language seems to
intimate that those who are truly seeking Christ are yet liable to be oppressed
by many fears. But the Lord says, you are not to be thus afraid.
1. Fear not on account of the greatness of your sins. Fathomless as
are the depths of your iniquity,” there is one depth,, which is deeper still.
“Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”
2. Fear not on account of remaining infirmities and indwelling
tendencies to evil. How many are deterred from taking any decisive step in
religion because they have not attained to a certain point of spiritual
advancement; forgetting that the act of taking the step is to be one of the
means for attaining to this point.
3. Be not of a fearful heart through anything adverse or disquieting
in your spiritual experience. Many form rash conclusions on this subject from
unsound and unworthy premises, and from only partial views of Scripture.
II. AS AN
ENCOURAGEMENT TO LAY HOLD UPON THE STRENGTH OF GOD. “Be strong.” The advice is
of frequent occurrence in Scripture. But what are we to be strong in?. Why.,
strong in the Lord, strong in His strength, safe through His holding up. Again,
by the exhortation, Be strong, we must understand an injunction to seek and
pray for the strengthening aids of God the Holy Spirit.
1. There is the strength of preventing grace in the hour of
temptation, when not permitted to come upon us; when some power we know not of
keeps us out of harm’s way; when the dominion of our besetting sin appears for
the time to be got under, and without a struggle or a blow we conquer in the might
of God.
2. Then, there is the strength of supporting grace when the struggle
does come, when we have to do battle with hard thoughts in adversity, or
rebellious thoughts in disappointment, with sinful thoughts in solitude, with
proud and envious thoughts in the world, with unbelief and impatience, and a
little willingness for prayer, and we cannot shake off these things.
3. And then there is the strength of enlightening and sanctifying
grace. We grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ at the same time; and all this is through the imparted strength of the
Comforter.
4. But I must not omit to notice the chief thing we are to be strong
in, that which gave the prayer of Jacob power to prevail with God, namely, that
we be as Jacob was, strong in faith, giving glory to God. Guard against all
confused and imperfect notions of the offering of the Gospel plan, or of the
power and willingness of Christ to save. Remember there is virtue enough in His
blood, power enough in His arm, and grace enough at His disposal to sanctify
and save a whole world of sinners. Apply to Him by faith and prayer. Place no
limits where God has placed none. “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all
sin,” and if from all, why not yours? (D. Moore, M. A.)
An old malady and an old remedy
I. A COMMON
TROUBLE. “A fearful heart.” Think of some of the causes.
1. Life itself is a cause. A little child does not fear. But the
little child has not yet reached into the consciousness of its own
personality--has not been awed by the mystery of its own existence. Wrapped in
such consciousness there is always a certain fear.
2. Sin is another source of a fearful heart. The ideal relation
between God and the soul is that of utmost intimacy, but sin breaks this relation.
3. The sad things emerging in life are causes of a fearful heart.
4. The difficulties of duty.
5. The monotony of duty. Sometimes when dreary stretches of duty, the
same thing day in, day out, fill the vision, a real fear comes lest one fail in
duty because of its uninteresting routine.
6. The revelation of man’s own nature under some great surprise or
disappointment is a cause of a fearful heart. The strength one fancied himself
to have, turns out under some great strain to be but weakness after all. The
heart in Scripture stands for the whole man--intellect, affection, will. The
thing needed is that a man see clearly, love wisely, will strongly; but when
fear wraps one about with mists, this is the outcome; a weak heart--no strength
for doing; feeble knees--no power of purpose.
II. THE OLD AND YET
NEW REMEDY for this common trouble.
1. A personal God. “Behold your God.”
2. A God appropriated--your God.
3. A God active. “He will come.” God is not an inert passiveness,
having no hand in things. Our Scripture is prophecy; God has come in the
Incarnation.
4. A God for your help. “He will come and save you.”
5. A rewarding God. “He will come with recompense.” Think more of God
than of the causes of your fearfulness, and also appropriate God. (Homiletic
Review.)
Fears
1. These words brings before us very delightful thoughts concerning
God’s nature and purposes. We gather from them His compassion He graciously
sends the message unsolicited. His mercy. He does not desire His people to
suffer needless trouble or anxiety. His power and care, for He is able to save
them from danger and so guarantee the needlessness of their fear.
2. But they remind us of a very painful condition of man, which is
his tendency to fear amid the discouragements of life. These consist in many
things.
I. FEARS WITH
RELATION TO EXTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. Men dread that which is greater or more powerful than themselves.
Hence they fear the material forces of nature, the mighty convulsions of
creation, the strength of their fellow-man, and the power of God.
2. Men dread that which to them is mysterious and unknown. Thus there
is an innate fear of darkness, of death, of the future.
3. Men dread that which is more evil than themselves. Evil men, evil
combinations of men, evil spirits, and the machinations of Satan.
4. Men dread those circumstances which can adversely affect their
interests. That which can bring them material loss, that which checks their
external advancement, that which spoils their amusement or gratification.
II. FEARS WITH
REGARD TO INTERNAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
1. There is our relationship to God. As an all seeing observer, as a
just Judge, as an avenging King. We stand before Him as an Almighty Jehovah,
who knows our thoughts, sins, and desires.
2. There is our future state of existence. Guilt makes cowards of us
all.
3. There are our domestic relationships. The broken cord of
affection, the ruptured friendship, and the lost treasures.
4. There is the mental, moral, and bodily anguish and suffering.
Great and terrible do they appear as they enshroud our existence and threaten
our future.
Now, as these things brood over the soul, and darken the horizon
of life, there is heard speaking to the soul of the faithful, earnest believer
in Christ the trumpet word of our text--“Fear not.” There are many reasons why
we should not fear.
1. There is the fact of our Father’s love. He does not willingly
afflict the children of men.
2. There is the fact of our Father’s power. He is able to support and
to overrule all adverse circumstances.
3. There is the fact of our Father’s presence. He is always near. The
true antidote to fear is faith. (Homilist.)
He will come and save you
It is no abstract salvation that we hope and wait for, but a
Saviour--a Saviour before whom no enemy can stand. His coming will be the
deliverance. Danger, bondage, weakness, and sorrow shall be done away, and in
the consciousness of the grand release, “The eyes of the blind shall be
opened,” &c. (W. Hubbard.)
Verse 5-6
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened
Good hope for the afflicted
I.
This
joyful prediction was literally fulfilled in the MIRACULOUS CURES WHICH OUR
LORD PERFORMED IN THE DAYS OF HIS FLESH.
II. The cheering
prediction is spiritually fulfilled, in THE EXPERIENCE OF SINNERS, IN THE DAY
OF CONVERSION.
III. This pleasing
prediction is also accomplished, in a spiritual sense, in THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
CHRISTIAN, IN THE DAY OF GRACIOUS REVIVAL, AFTER A SEASON OF DECLENSION.
IV. The delightful
prediction is gloriously fulfilled in THE DAY OF THE CHRISTIAN’S DEATH, AND AT
THE RESURRECTION OF THE JUST. (D. Fraser, D. D.)
Verse 6
Then shall the lame man leap as an hart
A threefold promise
1.
Banished
crutch.
2. Accentuation of speechless tongue.
3. Irrigated Sahara. (T. De Wilt Talmage, D. D.)
And the tongue of the dumb
sing
Dumb singers
I. NOTE THE
PERSONS WHOM GOD HAS CHOSEN TO SING HIS SONGS FOR EVER. “The tongue of the dumb
shall sing.” Their singing does not come naturally from themselves; they were
not born songsters. No, they were dumb. How this ought to give you
encouragement in seeking to do good to others! If you have neighbours who are
profaners of the Sabbath, haters of God, unwilling to come to the house of God,
despising Christ; if you find them as far gone as you can find them, recollect
He maketh the dumb sing, and therefore He can make them live.
II. Now I am to
enter into some rather more lucid DESCRIPTION OF THESE DUMB PEOPLE. Who are
they? Sometimes I get a good thought out of Cruden’s Concordance. As I
opened it at this passage, I found Master Cruden describing different kinds of
dumb people. He says there are four or five different sorts, but I shall name
only four of them.
1. Those who cannot speak--that is the usual acceptation of the word
dumb--the others are, of course, only figurative applications of the term. Now,
spiritually, the man who is still in his trespasses and sins is dumb. He is
dead, and there is none so dumb as a dead man. “Shall the dead arise and praise
Thee? Shall Thy loving-kindness be declared in the grave, or Thy faithfulness
in destruction?” As “no man can call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Ghost,”
these people cannot do so truly. But, all hail sovereign grace! They are dumb
by nature, but He will not leave them so; they cannot now sing His praises, but
they shall do it; they will not now confess their sins, but He will bring them
on their knees yet, and make them pour out their hearts before Him.
2. But there is a sort of dumb people that will not speak. They are
mentioned by Isaiah. He said of preachers in his day, they were “dumb dogs that
would not bark.”
3. I will now introduce you to a third sort of dumb people. They are
dumb because they dare not speak; and they are good people. Here is one of
them: “I was dumb with silence; I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.”
And it is so blessed to be dumb in that fashion. The Lord’s servant will often
have to be dumb under trials and troubles. You are, it may be, in the deepest
trouble now, and obliged to be silent; well, you shall sing yet for all that.
If you cannot cheer the darkness with “songs in the night,” yet He shall
“compass you about with songs of deliverance.” We are not always to be silent
with affliction. The saints have known joy, unspeakably great, in the midst of
trial intolerably hot. Their murmuring has been silenced, and their
thanks-giving has become vocal. An old Puritan said, “God’s people are like
birds; they sing best in cages.”
4. We have one more kind of dumb people--those who have nothing to
say. I will give you an instance; Solomon says in the Proverbs--“Open thy mouth
for the dumb”; and he means those who in the court of judgment have nothing to
plead for themselves, and have to stand dumb before the bar. Like that man of
old, who, when the king came in to see the guests, had not on a wedding
garment; and when the king said, “Friend, how earnest thou in hither?” he stood
speechless; speechless, not because he could not speak, but because he had
nothing to say. Have not you and I been dumb, and are we not now, when we
attempt to stand on law terms with God, when we forget that Jesus Christ and His
blood and righteousness are our full acquittal? We can now sing this anthem:
“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” Not God, for “He hath
justified.” “Who is he that condemneth?” Not Christ, “He hath died, yea rather,
hath risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, and maketh intercession
for us.”
III. THE OCCASIONS
WHEN THE TONGUE OF THESE DUMB PEOPLE SINGS THE BEST. I think it sings always,
little or much. If it is once set at liberty, it will never leave off staging.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
In the wilderness shall
waters break out
The figure of the wilderness
The lovely poetry of this passage is almost thrown away upon us
who have had no actual experience of the wilderness. Our imagination has been
largely helped by the vivid and pathetic descriptions from travellers who have
been through it; but the most powerful imagination cannot enable us to feel its
awful reality. The interminable expanse, the distressing sameness, the horizon
for leagues on leagues unbroken by a solitary tree or shrub. The burning sand
blinding our eyes and scorching our feet. The very pathway, confused and often
obliterated by the blast of the burning wind, is strewn with the bleached bones
of the poor creatures who have fallen victims to the heat and drought. Not a
bird flying over our heads, nor a harmless animal to be seen browsing a scanty
pasture. The night is made terrible and the gloom is deepened by the roarings
of the lion and the howlings of the jackal and the hyaena. Not a scrap of food
of fruit or root to be obtained, and, worst of all, not a drop of water to
quench the fiery thirst. Our parched lips can scarcely close. And this dreadful
place is so interminable that it takes days and weeks to traverse; only here
and there at long intervals does the exhausted and almost demented traveller
come upon the green oasis and the priceless well of water. In the Old Testament
the horrors of the desert are often used to figure the miserable aspect of
life, and the privations of the human soul. “My soul is athirst for Thee, in a
barren and dry land where no water is.” “As the hart panteth after the water
brooks, so longeth my soul after Thee, O God.” “My soul is athirst for God, yea
even for the living” God; when shall I come to appear before the presence of
God?” “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry
ground.” And here Isaiah, wishing to show the glory and beauty of a true vision
of God, compares the change out of the darkness and misery or soul to the
transformation of the wilderness into a garden. (C. Voysey, M. A.)
The wilderness of existence
The heart of man is the real wilderness, where dearth and drought
and quenchless thirst torment and destroy him until he get the vision of the
glory of God, which is His love. When man sees that, the waters break forth m
the wilderness of his soul, and streams in the desert. His heart shall blossom
as the rose and blossom abundantly; and not only flowers but fruit shall he
bear for the healing of the nations. When man learns how God loves us all, then
shall he find joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. That is
the essence of the poem. But it teaches yet a great deal more. When man’s heart
is turned from a wilderness into a garden by the knowledge of God’s love, he is
not only happy in himself, but he is a fountain and stream of happiness to
others. “Then the eye of the blind are opened and the ears of the deaf
unstopped. Then doth the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb
can sing.” His love for others is kindled and set aglow by the sight of the
love of God. So we get three distinct ideas out of the poetry before us. The
knowledge of the love of God as the source of all blessedness--first, to bring
joy and gladness into individual souls, and then to make them fruitful in
bringing joy and gladness into the hearts of their fellow-men. (C. Voysey,
M. A.)
God alone the satisfaction of humanity
If we would only believe it, we should see that in proportion as
we regard our surroundings as a desert, we are giving proof that we belong to a
higher order of existence than those who can be satisfied with the common
pleasures, the bread and water of merely animal life. If we belong to that
higher order, if our true realm is not of this world, we shall not be able to
satisfy ourselves with all that this world can possibly furnish. Our thirst
will only be inflamed and not quenched by every effort to allay it with earthly
gratification. And I do not think it unreasonable to ask you to take the next
step--which is more like a leap than a step--and to admit that God never
intended us to be perfectly happy here on earth, in and through only the
satisfaction of our earthly desires. He has so made us that the world and human
life, lovely and delicious as these are, shall yet be to us a very wilderness
full of weariness and hunger and thirst, until we have found our true
satisfaction in Him and His love. (C. Voysey, M. A.)
The joys of the godly
The whole secret of our happiness lies in this knowledge of the
love of God.
1. It adds enormously to every lawful pleasure and indulgence. We
take our joys in company with God. In our recreation, in our games, in our
mirth and laughter, we revel all the more freely and heartily because we never
forget that He is there, never forget that it is from Him that have come our
varied powers of enjoyment and the numberless resources which minister to it.
We set God always before us, and therefore in all the so-called blessings and
comforts of life we are free from sin in the using. We will not enjoy any
pleasure for which we cannot give Him thanks. And it is amazing what a large
extra number of pleasures we is in consequence.
2. A still greater wealth is poured upon us by the sight of the love
of God. It turns all our pains and sorrows into joy. It gives us perfect
contentment with our lot. We know it could not have come against His will. We
know it has come, then, to do us good. If we will only be patient and bear it
like a man, we shall soon see the blessing which God had wrapped up in it; when
our God comes to us in the wilderness of our woe, the water breaks forth and we
are satisfied and refreshed. He is our living fountain of peace and hope and
joy unspeakable; His love touches the strong rock of our heart’s rebellion, and
lo! the streams of gladness flow forth and we are like a well-watered garden.
Then our poor blind eyes are opened to see only good, where we thought there
was only evil. Then our deaf ears are unstopped, and we listen joyfully and
thankfully to His soothing and cheering whisper of peace. Then our palsied
limbs leap up at His call and we do the duty that lies nearest to us; we begin
to make the best of our altered conditions and tread cheerfully the path of
thorns in which His hand is leading us. And the tongue of the dumb shall sing.
Our stubborn lips fast closed in anger and resentment, our tongue cleaving to
the roof of our mouth in distress and despair, shall now move in harmony with
the gladness awakened by the sight of His love. We shall glorify Him in the
fires of tribulation; we shall sing of His great salvation. (C. Voysey, M.
A.)
The desire to bless others
And yet more and more comes out of that inexhaustible fountain of
goodness and joy. The sight of the love of God not only transfigures the life
of each individual, but makes us do our best to convert the wilderness around
us into a garden. Atheists have confessed to me how barren of any practical
good atheism is, how absolutely deficient in any inspiring motive for kindly
endeavour to help others. But we know, by our own experience, that the sight of
God’s love which has turned our own wilderness into a garden, has likewise
stirred us up into an enthusiasm of brotherly love and has borne fruit in
practical endeavours to bring streams into the desert of lives not our own. (C.
Voysey, M. A.)
Streams in the desert
The streams are spiritual, and refer to the diffusion of the
Gospel and the manifold blessings of salvation over the world.
I. A FEW OF THE
BLESSINGS WHICH THESE STREAMS IMPART. They are a source of--
1. Spiritual fertility. No other streams are possessed of the same
fertilising power. Modern writers show a tendency to ascribe to the influence
of civilisation and knowledge all our social, moral, and religious blessings.
But how do they reconcile their theories with the comparatively barren effects
of Egyptian science and civilisation, Greek philosophy and art, and Roman law
and discipline? Be the influence of these latter what they might, they wrought
no radical change on man’s moral and spiritual character.
2. Spiritual beauty. Wherever streams flow in such lands as Judaea,
there luxuriance waves, but in an endless variety of appearance. Not less
diversified is the influence of Divine grace on the character. Religion does
not obliterate nature, but works in harmony with it, preserving all its
innocent idiosyncrasies, so that as in the natural world are to be seen the
cedar, the palm; the fir, and the rose, so in the Church, along the streams of
Divine grace, are to be seen a John and a Peter, a Martha and a Mary.
3. Spiritual joy. Every one has experienced the refreshing influence
of water. This is an image of the deep satisfaction and joy which true religion
is fitted to impart. No other streams convey the same joy.
II. SOME OF THE
DISTINGUISHING EXCELLENCES BY WHICH THE STREAMS ARE CHARACTERISED.
1. They are full and abundant.
2. They are free to all. Men have tried to fence round these streams,
and to reduce them to the limits of their own selfish hearts and narrow creed;
but God’s thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor His ways as ours. While this is
cheering, it is also a solemnising, thought, laying the responsibility of our
own ruin on ourselves.
3. They are near and accessible. If a visit to such rivers as the
Ganges or the Nile were requisite to our salvation, how many would be unable to
comply with the condition. But these streams flow wherever the Gospel comes.
4. They are ever spreading in their influence. What is the garden of
the Lord compared with the desert of this world? It is seen blooming in little
oases here and’ there. But these streams are destined to spread and multiply,
and to cover the whole earth with spiritual verdure and beauty.
Conclusion--
1. These streams are at present accessible, but may not be so long.
Come to them now.
2. Remember that Jesus is the only channel through which they can
reach us. (W. Johnston.)
Verse 7
And the parched ground shall become a pool
The mirage of the desert
We must understand these words as they would be understood in the
East.
The parched ground is rich in what is known as mirage--the image of water, a
sheen that cheats the eye, and so successfully cheats it that the thirsty
traveller says, I see rivers! It is the mirage--(from mirari, to wonder
at)--a beautiful thing: water on every hand: presently we shall drink and be
glad. The traveller moves, the mirage recedes; the traveller would seize the
blessing, but the blessing was only in clouds: an optical delusion; the eye has
deceived the appetite. In the reign of Jesus Christ the parched ground shall
become a pool of real water, and the thirsty land springs, fountains: the
period of mirage has vanished, the period of reality has set in. (J. Parker,
D. D.)
The mirage and the pool
The mirage--what is that! In place of an enticing lake, the
traveller finds only ground “dry as a bone,” as my Arab guide expressed it. So
the mirage stands as the emblem of the sham, the pretence. And the pool--what
is that? It is the patch of real water found in the desert; an oasis, around
which may be found palms, shade, and refreshment. The pool is the real thing;
it offers refreshment and contentment. To an Oriental the mirage becoming a
pool meant a transformation from illusion to reality. The entire picture is a
permanent mirror of human life.
I. Let us look at
THE MIRAGE. It appeals to a need of our nature. To the thirsty traveller the
mirage offers water and fruit. Our nature is full of needs. We are not
self-contained; we must continually receive help from without. Our senses, our
minds, and our hearts cry out for their food, and their cry is natural In reply
to their cry, both the real food of our nature and the mirage present
themselves. The real and the sham are before us, and we have to choose between
them. Alas! too many follow the mirage. In vain old travellers warn the younger
ones.
II. Let us look at
THE POOL. No one would go after the mirage if they knew it was the mirage. Men
want reality, and they think they seek it until a humiliation reveals the fact
that they have been chasing an illusion all the time. Now, the message of the
Gospel is a message of reality. The Gospel offers to transform our illusions
into realities, by offering to transform us. Bring God into life, and the
traveller sees reality everywhere. The reality touches every part of his
nature.
1. His senses. He is neither ascetic nor libertine, but remembers
ever that his body is the temple of the Holy Ghost. Because God’s temple he
will seek, by proper exercise, to preserve its beauty. The senses, being the
transitory and lower part of our nature, will never be allowed to occupy the
dominant place in life.
2. His mind. He to whom God is the supreme reality will take care
that he never allows a partial knowledge of any subject to interpose itself as
a thick veil between his soul and God.
3. His heart. When a man finds God he finds Him who is love, and when
he rests in that love he experiences no shock of disappointment. And the other
loves that are permitted to us, when exercised within the circle of the larger
love, are harmonious with it, and so bring us peace and joy without ahoy. (F.
C.Spurr.)
The mirage a reality
The real translation of these words is not “The parched ground
shall become a pool,” but “The mirage shall become, a pool.” The thing that you
believed, would be the satisfaction of your life, the sight of which had
brought new vigour to your limbs and strengthened your mind for the onward
journey of the pilgrimage, that, says the prophet, shall become true. The mirage,
the illusion of your life, shall become a reality. What has been the mirage
that humanity has seen in its journey? The prophet enters into certain details
that we might glance at for our profit. The first thing that such men would
want would be the slaking of their thirst, the satisfaction of some desire.
Might we not go back to the beginning of the history of man, and see that it
has been a series of efforts succeeded by failure to gain satisfaction? We have
all of us, as humanity at large, been struggling from the beginning to be
satisfied. And the soul has said to itself, If I can once lay hold upon that
particular thing, then I shall be satisfied. It may be wealth, it may be
honour, it may be physical strength, it may be popularity. And we have reached
it, but we were not satisfied. We found that the same want began all over
again; year after year, men have seen a mirage, and said to themselves, If I
could reach that, my soul would be satisfied. Many a man, grown old and weary
with repeated failure, has said to his soul, in the secret communion of his own
heart, “What is it that thou dost desire, O my soul? I have made a home. I have
gathered about me those I love. I have increased knowledge. I have widened the
circle of my friendships. But I am not satisfied. Still there is something that
does not slake the thirst of my soul.” And while these men so long ago thought
as we do now, one man stood up in the midst of them all, and shouted aloud, as
if it were a great discovery, “My soul is athirst for God.” That is the trouble
with humanity. It is athirst for God, and it has supposed that it could satisfy
its longings with the things that are touched and seen. And the prophet,
knowing the long struggle and the repeated failure, looked in the faces of
these men, and said, “The mirage shall become a pool,” your satisfaction shall
be met. But such a prophecy as that called men’s minds away from themselves to
the thought of others. Individual salvation, if it could be brought to any one
of us here to-day, would not be enough. The woman who knows that she stands in
the light of the love of God, but that her husband is in the outer darkness,
the man who knows that he has led an upright and true life, but that his son is
turning away to wickedness, cannot be satisfied. We are bound one to another.
Hear the word of the prophet: “And a highway shall be there, and a way, and the
wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein.” There shall come, says
the prophet, a day when in the desert a highway shall be built, and men shall
know that they are not wandering in this trackless waste, with no knowledge of
the home from which they have come, and no understanding of the end and object
of the pilgrimage. But their feet shall stand on the way that others have
travelled before them, and they shall hear the voice of the past saying to
them, This is the way, walk ye in it. And walking in that path, united with the
great company of pilgrims who have been through the same experiences, known the
same sorrows, been beckoned on by the same mirage, they shall have strength and
hope and comfort in the consciousness of this great companionship of the
redeemed who walk on the highway of their God. Again, we look back over the
long history of the race, and we find that something else is needed. If we
could see to-day the camp in which the earliest forms of civilisation were
gathered, before cities were built, or roads were laid, or empires dreamed of,
we should find that the camp encircled itself at night with fire, while without
were the beasts roaring for their prey, causing the little children to nestle
close to the father who could protect them, causing the women to shudder, and
even strong men to ask themselves, May the fiery barrier be broken down, and
the beasts that are outside the camp invade us and destroy what we love? Oh the
illusion, the mirage, as it must have seemed to them, of stately cities and
strong walls, and beasts for ever banished from the land! But the prophet said,
“No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast; they shall not be found there,
but the redeemed shall walk there.” The day will come when the people shall
know that they are protected, when fear shall be taken away from them. The fear
of what? Of beasts? Not that alone, for when the beasts were banished from the
land, there was man to be afraid of. And the children said, Who will protect us
from the enemy? And the father said, I will. And then the father came to die.
And he rolled despairing eyes and cried, Ay, but who will protect me now? I
must go into the unseen land, and face the shadows that I now behold. Who will
protect me now? Who will protect me,--not from the beast, not from men, not
from the spirits that may haunt me, not from hell, but from sin? Who will keep
me from the corruption of sin,--worse than any evil that the world has ever
seen or dreamed of? The prophet said, The mirage shall become a pool. That
which seems impossible shall surely come to pass. Once more. On the journey
much was lost, much was suffered, much endured. And the pilgrim who stepped out
so blithely at the beginning of the march was found at the end to be an old man
with the hope deferred that maketh the heart sick, the disappointment and
weariness and sorrow, the hatred of those whom he had tried to help along the
journey, the fear in his own heart that it was all an illusion. So at the last
there was something more needed for these weary men. Was all that had been
dropped on the journey to be gathered up again? Was all that had been suffered
to have its reward? The prophet said, The mirage shall become a pool. What you
have dreamed of joy and peace and glory shall be your portion. For “the
ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads.” The mirage, the illusion, shall become a reality. These
words were spoken thousands of years ago. What I would like to ask you is, How
shall we read them to-day? Is it true that the thirsty soul has been satisfied?
Is it true that there is a highway in the desert, and that the wayfaring man need
not err therein? Is it true that no lion is there, nor any ravenous beast, but
that in the consciousness of safety men are making their journey? Is it true
that the redeemed do return and come to Zion with everlasting joy upon their
heads,, and that sorrow, and sighing flee away? Are these things true? Why,
look into your own experiences, and think for a moment, not of your sorrows nor
trials nor temptations, not of the weariness and disappointment of life, but of
its glory, and see if what the prophet said be not true. See if it is not true
that things that in that day seemed an illusion are to-day the realities of
life. Why, multitudes of men and women know what it is to have the satisfaction
of the soul, God with us; the knowledge that our sins have been pardoned, that
they shall never rise up in judgment to meet us; the assurance of God’s undying
love; the knowledge of the sympathy of Him who was crucified for us; the
consciousness that God is about us and by us and in us,--is the pool at which
our thirsty souls do drink. And the way. Have we not that way? There are men
and women who are lost, men and women who are wandering through this world, not
knowing where they came from nor whither they are going. But is it true of
those who have been drawn to the company of Jesus Christ? Are their feet not
upon the way that leads to eternal life? Who would give it up? Those who do not
know it think that it is a mirage. You know that your feet are on the highway,
and though you may be a fool in many things, yet you shall not err from the way
of salvation. It is the way that comes from God and leads to God, the way of
Jesus Christ the Saviour. And protection. It is hard for us to picture to
ourselves what it must have been for the camp to hear the roar of the beasts.
We are not afraid of death, for Jesus died. We are not afraid of hell, for He
descended into hell. We are not afraid of God nor of God’s judgment, for it is
the judgment of a father. We are not afraid of anything but sin, and says the
apostle, “Sin shall not have dominion over you. You are not under the law; you
are under grace.” Christ is personally helping every one of us. Nothing shall
separate us from His love. We have no cause for fear. “No lion shall be there,
nor any ravenous beast, but the redeemed shall walk there.” The promise and
prophecy of joy,--have we not known it? It is not true that sorrow and sighing
have left the world, but has not the sorrow and has not the sighing fled away
from you, as you have entered into the communion of your God? Have you not come
to Zion with everlasting joy upon your head, as you have remembered, not the
special things for which you ought to be thankful, but as it has been borne in
upon you that you belong to God and God to you, and that the glory and beauty of
life is not in doing God’s will as a hard law, but in doing God’s will because
you have come to love God’s will? The prophecy is not to come true; the
prophecy has come true. What the prophet said was that these things should
come,--the satisfaction of human want, the consciousness that the feet were on
the everlasting way, the protection from all evil, and the everlasting joy of
Zion in the days of the Messiah. And now if you ask me whether this prophecy
rests upon any principle, and whether its fulfilment has got anything back of
it but the individual hope that may be true, I answer you, Yes, it has. It has
the revelation of God in the incarnation of Jesus Christ that man and God are
one. And because man and God are one, therefore the mirage that humanity has
beheld is the reflection of the refracted rays of the will of God passing
through the medium of human life. And every man who has purified himself is, in
his own day and according to his capacity, some sort of revelation, not of his
own will, but of God’s will revealed through him. “The mirage shall become a
pool.” The satisfaction of your soul you shall know, because you are God’s and
God is yours. Is not that what St. John meant, when he wrote, in that wonderful
fifth chapter of his First Epistle, “And this is the confidence that we have in
Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we
know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
that we desired of Him”? Because your will, your prayer, purified from
selfishness, is no longer your will or your prayer. “The Spirit helpeth our
infirmities,” and “maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.” The prophecy has come true, and yet it is as nothing compared with
that which shall be in the day when we know Him more than we know Him now. What
should be our attitude? One of unbounded thankfulness that He has seen fit to
reveal Himself to us as our Father, and ourselves as His sons. One of
unflinching courage, one of undying hope; for every glorious vision that
humanity has had upon its pilgrimage of personal joy, of larger truth, of
nobler civilisation, of human glory, shall, in God’s good time, be fulfilled,
because it is not the will of man, it is the will of God. (Leighton Parks.)
Verses 8-10
And an highway shall be there
Highways
Highways are among the characteristic features of civilisation in
a country, since they are the means of regular and easy communication between
the opposite parts, and especially of all with the capital; but in times of
foreign invasion they fall first into the power of the enemy, and are most
completely deserted by the inhabitants ( 5:6); and in Judaea, or any other
country where wild beasts still exist, these keep aloof from the roads as long
as they are kept open by traffic, but reappear in them if unfrequented, as in
the story of the old prophet who met the lion on the way from Bethel.
And this highroad shall not only be so well marked and made that the most
ignorant and inexperienced shall keep his way there without difficulty, but
neither shall it be appropriated by the unclean heathens, nor stopped by any
roaring lion,--any Sennacherib, or spiritual archetype of Sennacherib. It shall
be called, for it shall really be, “the holy way,” the road set apart for the
use of Jehovah’s own chosen and consecrated people, whom He has redeemed and brought
back from bondage; it shall be entirely for those. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)
The way to heaven
In describing the happiness of the Christian pilgrim, the prophet
looks to the natural inconveniences of a wilderness, which are chiefly
three--the want of water, the want of proper roads, and exposure to danger,
particularly from beasts of prey; and he meets these with corresponding
promises of abundance of water, an excellent highway, and complete protection.
I. THE NATURE AND
PROPERTIES OF THIS WAY PREPARED FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD, in their journey
heavenward.
1. It is a way of Divine appointment, being like the king’s highway,
established by authority.
2. Like a highway, this path is designed for general use.
3. This way is denominated, “The way of holiness,” or, the separated
way. “Enter ye in at the strait gate, for wide is the gate,” &c. The path
of Christians is not merely a new path, among the many with which the broad way
is filled. They have not changed one mode of sinning for another--they have
chosen the way of holiness.
4. The prophet says, further, of the way to Zion, “the unclean shall
not pass over it.” When the Israelites left Egypt, a mixed multitude went with
them Exodus 12:38). This mixed multitude a
great snare to Israel.
5. This is a way remarkable for its plainness, and there is also the
privilege of a guide (verse 8, marg.)
II. THE REFRESHMENT
AND COMFORTS PROVIDED FOR CHRISTIANS BY THE WAY. “And the parched ground shall
become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water,” &c. Give a thirsty
man what you may, if you do not give him what will assuage his thirst, you have
not relieved him. There must be a suitableness in the object to his state, else
it cannot profit him.
III. THE COMPLETE
PROTECTION AFFORDED THEM. Is not the pilgrimage of Christians a journey of
danger? But though the highway to Zion is through the habitation of the most
ferocious of animals, yet those beasts of prey, though on the right hand and on
the left, shall not enter on this highway. While the redeemed keep this way,
they are safe: it is only when they leave it, that they are in danger. We have
no example in Scripture of the Lord forsaking His people while they kept this
way. The history of the people of Israel furnishes an illustration of this
subject. Their males were required to go up to Jerusalem three times a year, to
observe the great festivals of the law. Now, on such occasions, they had to
leave their frontiers, their wives and children, and all their property,
exposed to surrounding enemies. But God gave them a promise, that no man should
desire their land, when they went up to appear before Him thrice in the year (Exodus 34:24). Accordingly, though they
were surrounded by the most hostile nations, not a man of them felt the least
inclination to touch a thing that belonged to Israel, so long as the law of God
was observed. But when Israel forsook the law of their God, and had recourse to
the help of idols and of men for their security, then the restraint which had
been put upon their enemies was removed, and their land became the prey of
invaders. (David Russell.)
The road to the city
I. This road of
the text is THE KING’S HIGHWAY. In the diligence you dash on over the Bernard
Pass of the Alps, mile after mile, and there is not so much as a pebble to jar
the wheels. You go over bridges which cross chasms that make you hold your
breath; under projecting rock; along by dangerous precipices; through tunnels
adrip with the meltings of the glaciers, and, perhaps for the first time, learn
the majesty of a road built and supported by governmental authority. Well, my
Lord the King decided to build a highway from earth to heaven. It should span
all the chasms of human wretchedness; it should tunnel all the mountains of
earthly difficulty; it should be wide enough and strong enough to hold fifty
thousand millions of the human race, if so many of them should ever be born. It
should be blasted out of the “Rock of Ages,” and cemented with the blood of the
Cross, and be lifted amid the shouting of angels and the execration of devils.
The King sent His Son to build that road. He put head and hand and heart to it,
and after the road was completed, waved His blistered hand over the way,
crying, It is finished.
II. This road
spoken of is A CLEAN ROAD. Many a fine road has become miry and foul because it
has not been properly cared for; but the unclean shall not walk on this one.
III. The road spoken
of is A PLAIN ROAD. “The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
That is, if a man is three-fourths an idiot, he can find this road just as well
as if he were a philosopher. The pardon is plain. The peace is plain.
Everything is plain.
IV. The road to
heaven is A SAFE ROAD. “No lion shall be there.”
V. The road spoken
of is A PLEASANT ROAD. God gives a bond of indemnity against all evil to every
man that treads it. “All things work together for good to those who love God.”
No weapon formed against them can prosper.
VI. THIS WAY ENDS
IN GLORY. I do not care how fine a road you may put me on, I want to know where
it comes out. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion,” &c.
(T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
The way to heaven
I. THE WAY ITSELF.
There is only one way that leads to heaven.
1. Jesus Christ is the way.
2. It is by faith that we enter into, and make progress in this way.
II. THE EXCELLENCY
OF THIS WAY. Christ is divinely, infinitely excellent.
III. THE CHARACTER
OF THOSE WHO ARE WALKING IN THIS WAY.
1. They are all, by nature, in the same circumstances with the rest
of mankind.
2. From this situation they are redeemed by the obedience and death
of the Son of God.
3. They are all holy persons.
4. They are constant, regular, and progressive in the way of
holiness--they walk there.
5. They are all happy persons. They “come to Zion with songs,”
&c. (W. S. Smart.)
The King’s highway
I. THE FEATURES OF
THE WAY.
1. An open way though narrow.
2. A holy way though gladsome.
3. A safe way though simple.
II. ITS TRAVELLERS.
1. The Lord of the way Himself (see margin).
2. His ransomed ones. Good company, sympathetic, pilgrim songs and
converse.
3. Angel-escort. Jacob. “He shall give His angels charge . . . to keep
thee in all thy ways.”
III. ITS
TERMINATION. Path of just brighter to “completion of day.” Heavenly Jerusalem
Zion’s templed hill. Farewell to pilgrim’s staff and worn sandals. Welcome
endless rest, wide open gates, greetings of the glorified, the bosom of God,
and coronation of joy. (Homiletic Review.)
The way to Zion
Viewed as a description of the way of salvation through Christ,
this prophecy calls upon us to consider--
I. THE TRAVELLERS
of whom it speaks.
1. They were once journeying along a very different path. They are
called “the redeemed,” and the term implies that they were once in bondage.
This is the natural condition of us all.
2. But these travellers have been delivered from this state of
bondage.
3. There are three ways of redeeming a captive--by exchange, by a
forcible rescue, or by ransom. It is by the last of these that the people of
God are here said to have been liberated.
II. THE WAY along
which they are journeying.
III. THE HOME to
which it is leading them. To return to Zion implies, in the first instance, to
be admitted into the visible Church of God, and to a full participation of all
its privileges. But it implies also much more. It directs our eyes upward to
that holy hill on which the heavenly Jerusalem is built, the city of the living
God.’ Of this unseen residence of the just, the earthly Zion was a type; and we
may find it a profitable subject of meditation to trace--
1. The hill of Zion was the peculiar residence of God. There His
temple was erected, and there the mercy-seat, the visible symbol of His
presence, stood. In heaven also Jehovah has a temple, and “the way of holiness”
leads to it.
2. The Jews were taught to regard their sacred mountain as the source
of all their blessings. When salvation was promised them, it was to come “out
of Zion”; when they were to be strengthened and blessed, “the Lord out of
Zion” was to strengthen and bless them. Hence we find Daniel
turning towards Jerusalem when he prayed in Babylon, and Jonah looked towards
the holy temple of his God when he cried amidst the waves for deliverance. And
what real happiness is there, which comes not from above?
3. Zion also was the place in which the people of the Lord assembled.
And who can describe the blessedness which will flow from the fellowship of
heaven?
4. The earthly Jerusalem was a splendid city; “beautiful for
situation, and the joy of the whole earth, was mount Zion”; but even in the
height of her greatness, when the glory of the Lord rested on her tabernacle,
she afforded but a poor emblem of the heavenly city. At the time, however, to
which the words of the prophet primarily relate, the contrast was peculiarly
striking. The Zion to which the liberated Jews so joyfully returned, was “a
wilderness, and Jerusalem a desolation.” And where is Jerusalem now? Where is
its temple? The heavenly Zion, however, knows no destruction and fears no
change. It is “a city which hath foundations”; an abiding city. (C. Bradley,
M. A.)
The King’s highway
I. THE KING’S
HIGHWAY IS A PLAINLY MARKED ROAD. In the Bible we have an accurate map of the
country and all its roads. From first page to last, one name is
conspicuous--Jesus Christ.
1. There is the great Patriarchal road; travelled by Adam; in bad
repair in Noah’s time; a broad way of promises to Abram, who travelled along it
out of Ur; broader still to his children.
2. Then there is the great Mosaic road. Great pains taken to make it
a good road; scores of workmen, called laws, upon it; hedges of immense height
to keep people from the dangerous jungles of heathendom. Sign-posts everywhere.
Most people murmured at it as rough or steep. But some, like Moses and Aaron,
and Caleb and Joshua, saw “Christ” written up all along the way; upon their
sacred buildings and altars; upon their religious teachers; even upon the
garments of the people.
3. By and by the road widened into the great Prophetical road. David
and Solomon, Isaiah and Jeremiah, and others, repaired the road. But after
their time the road was sadly neglected. Few were found upon it. The fences
were broken, and the people wandered in by-paths, until things became so bad
that it seemed as though the road would be shut up altogether.
4. But “suddenly” (Malachi 3:1) the King sent and put it
into a thorough state of repair, so that it was like a new road, and it was
called “the new and living way”; and though very rugged and narrow at times, it
has always,, been kept open until this day.
II. THIS HIGHWAY IS
“THE WAY OF HOLINESS.” It leads to God. They who travel along it bear His
image. Dwelt in, and led by the Holy Ghost, they exercise themselves to have
always a conscience void of offence, so that men can see that they walk holily,
justly, and unblameably.
III. THIS HIGHWAY IS
A SAFE WAY. “The wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.”
IV. THIS HIGHWAY IS
A WAY OF JOY. “The ransomed of the Lord shall return,” &c. The captives of
Babylon, concerning whom this was primarily written, rejoiced because they had
passed through the wilderness, and had survived the dangers of that journey;
because they were re-instated in their former home, and the smile of God once
more rested upon them. And we,--delivered from wrath, cleansed from sin,
returned from banishment,restored to our proper home in the heart of God,
dwelling in peace and safety as members of His household, the church,--have not
we abundant cause for rejoicing? (W. J. Chapman, M. A.)
Holiness, under the old dispensation and under the new
We can hardly make a greater mistake in our theology than to
suppose that the gospel dispensation has been designed by God in order to bring
down the standard of the divine claims to the level of human infirmity: So far
from this being the case the gospel dispensation has been inaugurated and
designed specially in order that human infirmity may be raised to the level of
the divine claims. The prophet was looking forward, as it would seem, to the
glories of the Christian dispensation, and this was the characteristic of this
new era that he contemplated with the most complete satisfaction: “An highway
shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness.” But it
may occur to some to ask, “Had there been no knowledge of the ‘way of holiness’
under previous dispensations? Does holiness of life belong only to the gospel
age?” I reply, Undoubtedly there were holy and humble men of heart before the
Incarnation--men who lived in advance of their age. These were the bold
pioneers of spiritual progress, who made their way through the pathless forest
and the trackless wastes ere the King’s great highway was opened for our feet.
It was with them as with the pioneers of civilisation in our own days. Hardy
travellers have made their way right across the continent of Central Africa,
exploring in almost all directions the vast and unknown region; but there is no
highway across the continent of Africa: and those, therefore, who have crossed
it, or attempted to do so, have had to face great and untold difficulties, and
endure a vast amount of hardship and privation. By and by, if the world lasts
long enough, and civilisation progresses, there may be a grand trunk road right
across that continent, and by and by perhaps railways may be laid, and easy
communication established, with that remote and barbarous region. It is even so
with regard to the highway of holiness. Before the Christian dispensation
earnest and devoted men attained to various degrees of holiness, but the King’s
highway to holiness was not yet open. It was not yet revealed to the world what
true and perfect holiness was, nor how we are to rise to it. “Righteousness”
rather than holiness was set forth in the law. It needed the Incarnation of the
Son of God to reveal it to man. And not until the Word of the Father was
clothed in human form, and lived among His fellow-men in fashion as a man, did
human eyes contemplate the true ideal of holiness, the standard and type of
absolute perfection. In the life and conduct of Christ that standard was
embodied and revealed; by the death and resurrection of Christ the spiritual
power was secured to us by which it becomes possible for us to rise to the
level of conduct so indicated. The highway of holiness was thus opened; and it
now becomes possible for “the wayfaring men, though fools,” to walk therein.
There are two thoughts, then, specially suggested to our minds in this
connection.
1. In order to open the high way of holiness it was necessary that a
perfect example should be given to mankind, so that men could understand what
perfect holiness means; and that has been presented to us in the human life of
Jesus.
2. Christ also imparts to us the secret of all true spiritual power
by bringing us into close and blessed connection with God. The same power which
rendered it possible for Jesus Christ as a man to be perfectly holy is thus
brought within our reach by the Incarnation, and death and resurrection, of
Jesus Christ. Thus we may say, not only have we the map and the chart of the
highway of holiness placed in our hands, but also the highway itself opened up
to us by the communication of a spiritual ability to tread therein. But if
those advantages are real, they carry with them enhanced responsibilities. (W.
Hay Aitken, M. A.)
The highway of holiness
Let us consider some of the characteristics of the life of
holiness to which the prophet here calls our attention, and the conditions
which are attached to the right of way.
I. It is the WAY
OF THE PURIFIED. “The unclean shall not pass over it.” Until we are cleansed
from our “old sins” we are not in a position to pass over the King’s highway of
holiness. Some people who desire to live holy lives are no better than
legalists. They cannot love much, because they have not had much forgiven them;
thus they lose the true motive of a Christian life, while they are crippled in
their efforts to attain to the proper standard of holiness, both by the weight
of unforgiven sin and by absence of that spiritual power which flows to us
through reconciliation. We must pass through the gate before we can pass along the
way, and that gate is the Cross, where the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from
all sin. Nor is it difficult to find a mason for this necessity. Indeed, this
passage gives us a sufficient reason if we are to accept the marginal
rendering--“For He shall be with them.” It is quite true that Jesus Christ was
the Friend of publicans and sinners; but He was their Friend because He saved
them from their sins. And it is so now; those only who hate their sins, and who
come to Christ to be delivered from their sins, can walk along the highway of
holiness, because He is sojourning with those who sojourn there, and He cannot
walk with the unclean. But having called attention to this statement as a
reason for the necessity of cleansing, let us now dwell upon it as a characteristic
of the way of holiness, and of the experience of those who pass along it.
II. The highway of
holiness is THE PATH OF FELLOWSHIP WITH THE DIVINE. When Christ was here on
earth He ever moved along this way, and He is still to be found there by those
who pass along it. Indeed, so closely is His presence and our fellowship with
Him connected with true spiritual holiness, that we can scarcely say whether
the holiness is the fruit of the fellowship, or the fellowship the effect of
the holiness. It is only while we walk in the light, as He is in the light,
that we have fellowship with the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.
These two elements in our experience act and react upon each other.
III. It is THE WAY
OF RIGHT DIRECTION. “Wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” Here
is a promise that may well comfort us in the perplexities of life. The reason
why we make such great mistakes as we sometimes do is surely that we get off
the King’s highway of holiness. We begin to pursue our own pleasure, or to
gratify our ambition, or, we seek to please other people, and to avoid the
cross. But when the wayfaring man is on the highway of holiness this promise
will be fulfilled. He may seem to make mistakes, but God will overrule what
appears to be a blunder to His own glory. There is yet another thought
suggested by this clause which may serve to explain some of our errors. The
prophet here speaks of those who are fools as being assured of right doctrines.
May not one cause of mistakes sometimes be that we are not content to take the
place of fools? We feel too much confidence in our own sound judgment and
commonsense, and so we scarcely regard it necessary to inquire of the Lord. I
do not mean to say that we ought not to use our natural faculties. They are a
trust from God, and we are bound to use them. But we are warned not to lean to
our own understanding, and he who gives us this advice would have been a much
happier man and made much fewer practical mistakes if he had only taken it
himself. But there is yet another reason why we sometimes err, suggested to us
by this clause. And this other reason brings before our minds the fourth
characteristic of the way of holiness.
IV. It is only THE
WAY OF RIGHT DIRECTION TO THOSE WHO ARE WAYFARING MEN. Do we not sometimes err
because we have so little of the wayfaring man about us? Living as we do in a
luxurious age, how many of us surround ourselves with luxury, and lay ourselves
out for self-indulgence! We are called to use the world as not abusing it;
surely it is the abuse of the world when we allow it to take the place of
heaven. There is a quaint old Latin proverb which tells us, “The penniless
travellers shall sing before the robbers.” No wonder; for what can the robbers
take from them? And many a Christian might sing defiance of all enemies--even
of the great robber himself, if only we made over our all to its proper Owner,
and regarded it as a sacred trust to be used for Him.
V. It is THE WAY
OF SAFETY. “No lion shall be there,” &c. Is Satan, then, really to lose his
power to do us harm? He may come to the hedge which fences in the highway from
the rest of the world; he may growl and roar, and do his best to terrify you,
but so long as your eye is single, and you are moving on the King’s great highway
of holiness, the lion cannot lay a paw upon you or inflict a single wound.
VI. It is THE WAY
OF JOY. VII. It is THE WAY THAT LEADS HOME. (W. HayAitken, M. A.)
The highway of the King of kings
I. Isaiah
proclaims that this way shall be A HIGHWAY. Not a way confined, as the Old
Testament way was, to one particular people. Not a way confined to any
particular class of persons, rich in preference to poor, learned in preference
to unlearned. Not a way confined to any particular sect, or any particular communion
of persons. But a way open and public to all Then, woe to the man who presumes
to set up a turnpike upon this highway. And yet this is what is done. Some
would even have us believe that we cannot set our feet upon this way except
through the help and invocation of saints and angels. Others tell us that we
must have a priest at our elbow. Others say that we must belong to some
particular sect of Christians. And others say that we must belong to some
particular class of persons, such for instance as the learned. Such are the
turnpikes, such are the barriers, which men presume to set up upon the highway
of the King of kings.
II. Though it is
clear that this way is accessible to all sects, classes, and conditions of men,
yet THERE IS ONE EXCEPTION, and that one exception is not due to God, but to
man himself. “It shall be called the way of holiness: the unclean shall not
pass over it; but it shall be for those,” viz., for the holy.
III. Here is A
SPECIAL INVITATION TO THE WAYFARING MEN--men who have not the advantage of
learning, education, and accomplishments. It is the guidance of God’s Holy
Spirit, without which even the best acquirements are nothing, which makes up to
wayfaring men for the absence of all the advantages of learning, education,
station, and leisure, which are the privileges of those who occupy the higher
grades of life.
IV. On this
Christmas Day WE CELEBRATE THE OPENING OF THAT WAY which Isaiah describes.
V. AT THE VERY END
OF THIS GREAT VIADUCT IS HEAVEN. (E. Girdlestone, M. A.)
Simplicity of the religion of Jesus
It is impossible to transport ourselves back to a time when the
New Testament was not, and when the civilisation which has come forth from the
New Testament had not even been hinted at.
1. In that old time the choicest wisdom of the world did little else
than puzzle itself over problems which are now known in their solution to the
children in our schools. Whether man was anything more than an animal; whether
with the death of his body a man did not cease to be, was an undecided
question. But the mystery touching fife was almost as great as the mystery
touching death. The best impulses of men to do that which was wise and good had
no direction. A hundred teachers taught a hundred different ways of living. The
interrogation of ages was: What is truth? Men sought it with a patience that
would appal a modem disciple; sought it until they died, and died with the
infinite sadness of knowing that all their seeking had been in vain--that they
were no wiser than they were when they started their career of investigation.
2. The duty of all men that teach or can teach is to make things
plain, simple, easily discerned by the popular perception, readily felt by the
popular conscience, and easily appropriated by the popular emotion. It was largely
because the language of Jesus was easily understood, and hence sympathetic,
that the common people heard Him so gladly.
3. Well, the old prophet, looking along the fine of his craving, in
which he represented the craving of humanity, the craving for light as to what
death meant and of instruction in human duties, saw a happy day ahead. He saw a
day when ignorance should give place to understanding, and the fear born of it,
and the torment born of the fear, should harass men no more. He saw a day when
the way of holiness should be so plain that the wayfaring man, though a fool,
should not err therein; that is, when not only the wise should find it readily,
but when those whose intellects were unassisted by education, and whose
abilities to discern between right and wrong were not extraordinary, should
easily distinguish between good and evil. When Christ was born, the sun arose;
when Christ came up from the grave and brought life and immortality to light in
His resurrection, the clock of ages struck the hour of mid-day, and the Sun of
Righteousness stood full-orbed, armed on all sides with beams, in the spiritual
zenith of the world.
4. If you desire to see the fulfilment of the old prophet’s
prediction, look at your own age, and you behold it. In the fact that the Bible
lies waiting perusal in your own homes, see and recognise that the day has come
in which all that any man can long for in the way of knowledge as to his duty
of life, in the way of the destiny of his soul after death, is realised.
5. The way to judge a system of instruction is not by listening to
what men say about it, but by studying what the author of it said and did. If
you wish to know what the system of salvation is, as included in the coming of
the Christ, go to your New Testament record and ascertain from His own lips
what it is.
6. Do not go expecting that His system is mysterious, for we often
fail to see the simplicity of a thing, by having a previous impression that it
is profoundly complex. This is the old blunder which both Jew and Greek made
centuries ago. The ritualists of our day match the Jew, and the man of supreme
culture types the aesthetic Greek. If you will go to the Master Himself, and
not to His disciples, past or present, you will be struck as much by what is not
in His system, as by what is in it.
7. One of the proofs of the fine wisdom of the Saviour is seen in His
studiously keeping out of sight whatever would lead the minds of His followers
in speculative directions. All questions of casuistry, such as the scribes and
lawyers were continually tempting Him to discuss, He brushed aside as
incompatible with the object of His mission. He came simply to establish divine
connections with men, to teach the race virtues, and implant in their souls the
germ of simple piety. (W. H. H. Murray.)
The holy road
I. THE WAY to the
heavenly Zion, the dwelling-place of God. Zion of old was the place of the one
altar of sacrifice and the one mercy-seat, where the Lord in manifest glory
communed with His covenant people. Pilgrimage to the holy place was an
important part of Israel’s religious fife. During the invasions of the land,
and especially during the captivity, the solemn festivals were neglected, and
there seemed to be no way up to the house of God. Then godly men sighed for the
tabernacles of God. How much they longed for a highway by which they could
march to Zion! We speak of another Jerusalem which is above.
1. There is a way to God and heaven. It is noteworthy that this road
is one, a highway and a way. Many roads lead to ruin, but only one to
salvation. Years at the University of Utrecht, several Christian students met
together from various nations, and on one occasion it was agreed that four
persons, representing Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, should describe the
work of grace upon their hearts. The earnest brother from New England, and the
friend from the Cape of Good Hope, and the missionary student from India, all
found that their stories agreed with that of a young nobleman of Holland.
Scenes and circumstances widely differed, but the joys and sorrows, the
struggles and the victories of each, were the same, and one hope filled every
heart. We differ in the pace with which we traverse the way, but the way itself
is one. Jesus saith, “I am the way.” He is not only way, but end to all who put
their trust in Him. This way is made through the wilderness: “a highway shall
be there”--where the sand is always shifting, where if the traveller once loses
his bearings he is doomed to certain death, with the vulture’s maw as his only
sepulchre. A way is made for us through the deserts of sin, and the
wildernesses of sorrow, over hills of doubt and mountains of fear. That way
runs close at thy feet, poor wanderer! This way was cast up at great expense;
for road-making over a long and rugged country is a costly business. Who could
make a way over the mountains of our iniquities but Almighty God? It cost the
great God the Jewel of heaven. This road has lasted now these thousands of
years; it is still in good travelling condition, nor will it ever be closed
till all the chosen wayfarers shall have reached the many mansions of the
Father’s house. This way, being made by Divine power, is appointed by Divine
authority to be the King’s highway. Whosoever travels by this road is under the
protection of the King of kings. This highway has conducted already to God. It
is said to be “a highway and a way”: it is not only a highway by appointment,
but it is a way by use and traffic.
2. The name of this way. The way of faith is not contrary to
holiness, but it is “the way of holiness.” If you are ever in a doubt about
which is the right path, remember those words of the Saviour: “Strait is the
gate, and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.” Prefer strictness
to laxity. God’s way is the way of holiness, for He has founded it upon holy
truth. He is not unholy in the saving of any sinner. Those who follow that road
do so by a holy trust. We must not believe that Christ will save us in our
sins--that would be unholy faith; but we must look to Him to save us from our
sins; for that is holy faith. It is also the way of holy living.
3. This way is a select way. “The unclean shall not pass over it, but
it shall be for those.” Literally this may mean, “The uncircumcised and the
unclean.” These were excluded from the house of the Lord, and here they are
excluded from the sacred way of Israel: of this the spiritual meaning is that
unless we are washed in the blood of Christ, and renewed in the spirit of our
minds by the Holy Spirit, we are not in the way of God. It is a select way, for
it is reserved for a select people “it shall be for those.” Who are they? Look
backward, and you will read of memo who make the wilderness and the solitary
place to be glad: of some whoso blind eyes were opened, whose deaf ears were
unstopped. You read of the lame men who were made to leap as an hart, and of
dumb men who began to sing.
This highway is reserved for those upon whom a miracle of grace
has been performed. This way is for the ransomed. “The redeemed of the Lord
shall walk there.” Another fact makes it very select. “He shall be with them”
(marg.).
4. It is a plain way. The true Gospel is as plain as a pikestaff.
5. It is a safe way. “No lion shall be there.” There is one lion
which those who make Jesus their way need never be afraid of: that is, the lion
of unpardoned sin. Another lion also roars upon us, but cannot devour us,
namely, temptation: you shall not be tempted above what you are able to bear.
As for that grim lion of death of which some speak, it does not exist.
II. OUR DUTY IN
CONNECTION WITH THIS WAY OF HOLINESS.
1. The first thing is carefully to discriminate between road and
road. When you see a road which looks broad, smooth, pleasant, and
well-bordered with flowers, say to yourself, “There are many ways, but since
only one of them leads to eternal life, I must be careful. I will pray, ‘Lord,
be my guide, even unto death.’” Do not believe that sincerity is enough; you
need truth as well.
2. When you know the road, you should scrupulously keep in it, for
many ways branch from it.
3. Are we in the way? Then let us be very earnest in telling other
people of it. Travelling the other day by a country road the traveller wished
to know the way to a certain spot. He inquired of one who sat by the roadside,
but all the answer he got from him was a vacant stare, and a shake of the head.
A little time after he found that the poor man was deaf and dumb. I am afraid
there are many such Christians nowadays: they are spiritually deaf to the woes
of others, and dumb as to giving them either instruction or encouragement. All
they seem to do is to shake their wise heads, as if they knew a great deal more
than they meant to tell. I asked a person, the other day, the road to a certain
place, and in the politest possible manner he answered, “I beg your pardon, but
I am quite a stranger in these parts.” That was a very sufficient reason for
not directing me. He could not tell what he did not know. If any of you do not
know the way, and are strangers in these parts, do not tell anybody; bat let
this mournful reflection go home to your consciences: “I cannot tell another
the way to heaven because I am a stranger in these parts.” God grant that we
may never stretch the arm of our testimony beyond the sleeve of our experience!
4. If you are not in the road, may the Lord help you to get into it
this morning. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Appian Way and the highway to heaven
You have heard of the Appian Way. It was three hundred and fifty
miles long. It was twenty-four feet wide, and on either side the road was apath
for foot passengers. It was made out of rocks cut in hexagonal shape and fitted
together. What a road it must have been! Made of smooth, hard rock, three
hundred and fifty miles long. No wonder that in the construction of it the
treasures of a whole empire were exhausted. Because of invaders, and the
elements, and Time--the old conqueror who tears up a road as he goes over it
there is nothing left of that structure excepting a ruin. But I have to tell
you of a road built before the Appian Way and yet it is as good as when first
constructed. Millions of souls have gone over it. Millions more will come. (T.
DeWitt Talmage, D. D.)
The pilgrim and his destination
Dean Alford’s grave is shaded by an old yew tree in St. Martin s
churchyard, and these words are recorded on the headstone: “The Inn of a
traveller on his way to Jerusalem.” (J. N. Norton.)
The way of salvation plain
I remember the story of s Swedish king in years gone by who, when
he was ill, was greatly concerned about his eternal state. There chanced to
come to the palace an old farmer, known to his majesty for his piety; the king
called him to his bedside, and said, “Tell me, what is the faith that saves the
soul?” The peasant explained it out of his heart in plain language, much to the
king’s comfort. The king remained ill for months, and again fell into doubt and
fear. Those about him urged him to send for the Archbishop of Upsala, as a
learned prelate who could allay his fears. The bishop came to the royal couch,
and gave his majesty a logical and theological definition of faith in most
proper terms. When he was gone the king said, “It was very learned, no doubt,
and very ingenious, but there was no comfort in it for me; the peasant’s faith
is the faith that can save my soul.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Holiness can be understood by the unlettered
A minister was speaking to a disciple of Jesus, not much versed in
the terminology of the schools, on the subject of entire holiness. At last she
turned to him and said, “I don’t know what you mean in the way in which you
speak of it, but if you mean constant readiness for heaven, I’ve got that.” She
was a Christian woman, who habitually rested on Jesus for full salvation, and
into whose heart there was poured the comfort of conscious readiness to do or
suffer God’s will, as He might direct. (W. G. Pascoe.)
The highway of holiness
The highway of holiness is along the commonest road of life--along
your very way. In wind and rain, no matter how it beats--it is only going hand
in hand with Him. (M. G. Pearse.)
Verse 9
No lion shall be there
Human animalness
I.
MAY
NATURALLY POSSESSES SOMETHING OF THE ANIMAL NATURE. That man by nature has animal
desires and passions is no fault of his own, nor is it a misfortune to the
possessor if these are inherited in harmonious proportion with the mental and
spiritual propensities. They are all from the Divine Creator. They are all
essential to man’s enjoyment, and symmetrical development. The Creator wastes
no material. As the watch contains no unnecessary spring, wheel, cog, or screw,
so every passion, emotion, affection, from the lowest to the highest, as coming
from God, is of account.
II. When the animal
nature is fed and strengthened to the neglect and at the expense of the other
and higher faculties and tendencies of the human make-up, then the animal
appears in a great variety of forms.
III. MAN IS
RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS TREATMENT OF HIS ANIMAL NATURE. It is not to be crucified,
or wholly exterminated, but kept in subordination, subject to the ruling of the
mental and spiritual. Some by nature have a great deal more to contend with on
this line than others. The first nature, the animal, can be transformed into
the “second nature,” the man; and if made “a new creature in Christ Jesus,”
such must necessarily be the result. (W. G. Thrall.)
Verse 10
And the ransomed of the Lord shall return
Marching to music
My object will be to give the text its highest practical
appropriation as setting forth in glowing language the return of God’s
spiritual Israel, His ransomed ones, from every land.
I. WHO THEY ARE.
1. “The ransomed of the Lord.” To ransom signifies to redeem or free
from captivity or punishment by paying down an equivalent, to rescue from
danger and death, to deliver from the possession of an enemy either by/exploits
of warfare or purchase by gold. The Lord’s ransomed people are, therefore,
those who have been spiritually rescued, emancipated, delivered. They are the
purchased property of God by the precious blood of Christ.
2. The ransomed of the Lord are the regenerate of the Holy Ghost.
They have been quickened into new life as well as redeemed.
3. The ransomed of the Lord are the adopted into the family of God.
What a unique and beautiful sequence we have here. Life purchased, life
begotten, life ennobled.
II. WHITHER ARE
THEY JOURNEYING? “To Zion.” The old-time Zion was typical of the “city which
hath foundations, whose maker and builder is God.” Let us glance at the
parallelism.
1. Zion of old was the seat and scene of worship. The ransomed of the
Lord in returning are going to Zion above, to join the immortal worshippers in
the “temple not made with hands.” We shall worship, but we shall also serve in
multifold ministries of good.
2. Zion of old was the seat of royalty. “There were set,” we are
told, “thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” Jerusalem was
the metropolis of the nation--the centre of monarchy, authority, power, and
splendour. Heaven is the city of the Great King. On its sapphire throne, belted
as with a rainbow of mercy and grace, sits the Mediator-King of the New
Covenant, crowned with many crowns, holding the sceptre of righteousness. To
His ransomed ones He says, “Verily, I say unto you, that ye which follow Me in
the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye
shall also sit upon, thrones.” “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with
Me on My, throne. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown
of life.”
3. Zion of old was the seat of rest. It was the terminus of the
pilgrim-worshippers’ journey. With the ransomed of the Lord it is now the
pilgrimage; but daily they pitch their moving tents a day’s march nearer home,
heaven, rest. What a magic word is “rest.” What volumes of meaning it holds!
Rest from conflict, rest from sorrow, rest from suffering, rest from self and
sin, rest from all the ills of the time-life! Rest in the Lord in holy
contemplation, holy worship, holy service, holy visions, holy companionships,
holy pleasures for evermore!
III. WHAT IS THE
SPIRIT IN WHICH THEY JOURNEY? “With songs and everlasting joy upon their
heads.” They march to music made in the sanctuary of the soul. Undoubtedly the
allusion is to the Songs of Degrees or of the Ascents, which the rejoicing
tribes sung on their way to the great festive celebrations at Jerusalem, or to
the paeans of deliverance the emancipated exiles rang out as onward they
pressed to the laud of their fathers and God. Thus the homeward-bound hosts of
God on the highway of holiness are urging their way. They are like soldiers
returning from the scene and spoils of a great victory, with heart and step
keeping time to jubilant melody. But the ransomed not only sing on the way
home, they also “Come to Zion with songs.” It is a jubilant arrival.
IV. WHAT DO THE
RANSOMED OF THE LORD REALISE ON THEIR ARRIVAL HOME? “Joy and gladness”--i.e outward
and inward joy. The joy of holy retrospect; the gladness of present possession
of glory; the joy of fulfilled hope, perfected manhood, satisfied life,
prospective progression, intellectually and morally, for ever and ever. It is
the “joy and gladness”--
1. Of heavenly reunions.
2. Of perfected knowledge.
3. Of the beatific vision.
This “joy and gladness” will mean the exclusion of “sorrow and
sighing.” As light expels darkness, and day excludes the night, so the rapture
of joy prevents the sighings of sorrow. (J. O. Keen, D. D.)
Deliverance from the burdens of life
1. What are the real sources of that deep power of sorrow which
broods so heavily over life? There is, first, over our bodily life and the
world of nature which subserves it, the continual blight of pain and suffering.
In nature’s highest beauty, even to our power of imagination, there is always
some imperfection. But it is no mere pious imagination to declare that its
burden is absolutely as nothing in comparison with the burden of the spiritual
evil, the blindness, the weakness, and the sin of man. These are the two great
burdens which are so heavy upon our human life, and they are worst in
this--that they seem to separate us from our Father in heaven, alike by themist
of doubt and by the gloom of fear.
2. Need I remind you how the Gospel meets both these things and
scatters them to the winds? That law of suffering and of death it hallows
doubly by the revelation of the Cross, because, it overrules it to our own
good, because it makes it a condition of our saving others. The Gospel deals
still more decisively with the burden of sin. In it lies the very essence of
redemption. But you will ask me, “Is that promise realised after all?”
Remember, that by the very nature of the case the kingdom of Christ here is
seen only in the first stages of its conflict against the power of evil. What
it can offer us is only a true but an imperfect earnest of a perfect future.
Has it given us, and does it give us now, that which it thus professes to give?
I answer unhesitatingly, Yes. These things are no dream. They are a present and
blessed reality, and we feel sometimes as if they were the only reality in a
very fleeting and unsubstantial world. But the reality is yet imperfect. Joy
and gladness may be ours, but sorrow and sighing have not yet fled away. There
is a heaven hereafter in which alone all these promises shall be quite
fulfilled. (A. Barry, D. D.)
“Everlasting joy upon their heads”
This expression may allude to the ancient custom of wearing crowns
in seasons of mirth and festivity, which were considered as marks of honour and
dignity; or, it may refer to the practice of anointing the head on joyous,
festive occasions, which probably gave rise to the phrase used by the royal
poet of “the oil of gladness” Psalms 45:7). (R. Macculloch.)
Sorrow and sighing shall
flee away
The flight of sorrow
I. WHAT IS
INVOLVED IN THE STATEMENT that sorrow and sighing shall flee away? The
susceptibility of sorrow and the power of expressing sorrow will not be
destroyed; but there shall be no appeal to the susceptibility, and no use for
the power of sorrowful expression.
1. The sorrow of bodily disease shall pass away with the pain, the
languor, the weakness which disease imposes, the nervous excitement which it
often sets up, and the debility which it so frequently creates. Disease shall
pass away, with all its interruptions of domestic and social intercourse, with
all its power to mar our enjoyment, and to interfere with our work. It will
flee before a new constitution, before the health and vigour and young rich
life of a body, raised in incorruption--raised in glory--raised in
power--raised in Christ-like spirituality.
2. The sorrow of dying will pass away. The fear of death--the pains
of death--the separations of death--the material consequences of death--the
abasement of death.
3. The sorrow of bereavement will pass away. And with it widowhood,
orphanage, the loss of wife and children, and every painful farewell which
death so often and so rigorously exacts.
4. The sorrow of poverty will flee away, with its hunger and thirst,
its nakedness and cold, its homelessness and wretchedness, and all the neglect
and contempt, the painful dependence, the degradation and dishonour, which it
too often brings.
5. The sorrows caused by the sins of others will flee away. The
wicked, whatever now may be their power, through relationship or through
position, shall cease to trouble. Slavery, oppression, and persecution will
utterly cease. The sorrows caused by the hell-fired tongue, by the fist of
wickedness, by the feet swift in running to do mischief, shall flee away.
Nothing shall enter the sorrowless world that defileth, that worketh abomination
or maketh a lie.
6. The sorrows produced by the fear of evil, by dark imaginations,
and by blighted hopes, shall flee away. The flat, “Peace, be still,” shall be
spoken to every soul.
7. The sorrows of this life’s illusions and delusions shall pass away.
Everything shall, by and by, far exceed your hopes.
8. The sorrows of sin will pass away. The smart of the conscience,
remorse, dread, discord between the passions and the sanctified will,
chastisement, even temporary Divine desertion.
9. Every “heart knoweth its own bitterness.” The own bitterness of
the heart shall flee away. Secret sorrow--sorrow that you hardly admit to
yourselves--sorrow upon which you have never put the raiment of speech--the
sorrow that you have never groaned out to the nearest friend you have--nameless
sorrow, “my sorrow”--sorrow in all its roots, in all its branches, sorrow in
all its blossomings and fruits, in all its depths, and in all its
manifestations, shall flee away. And this fleeing away of sorrow will leave the
channels of the emotions open only to the streams of enjoyment. What a mighty
effect this will have upon the character and the entire life! The flight of
sorrow will enlarge the love of the heart: for suffering often makes us
self-enclosed and self-engrossed; it will help, moreover, to secure
uninterrupted intercourse and unbroken activity; it will be the departure of
correction no longer needed--the withdrawment of discipline not further
required--it will be like the fleeing away of winter when the time of the singing
of birds has come.
II. WHEN SHALL THIS
BE? The text points to Hezekiah’s reign--to that portion of his reign through
which God blessed the people whom he governed with remarkable prosperity. But
does this exhaust the text? We think not. I you think it does, there are other
words from the mouth of God on this subject (Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 7:17). When shall this be? It
shall be to the individual saint when his earthly career terminates. To the
saints as a body, this will be realised at the times of restitution of all
things.
III. BY WHAT SIGNS
MAY WE BE ASSURED THAT OUR SORROWS WILL FLEE AWAY? There are five sure signs.
1. Personal faith--not in King Hezekiah, but in King Jesus.
2. Acknowledged and avowed citizenship in the kingdom of the Saviour.
We lay stress upon avowal, because where there is no avowal there must always
be reason for doubting and suspicion.
3. The fleeing away of sin--the being cleansed from sin.
4. The present effect of sorrow. If sorrow bends the will and subdues
the affections, then it is sanctified, and herein is a sign that sorrow will
flee away.
5. A living hope--hope born of faith--hope the child of God’s
promises--the hope which is the anchor of the soul. Write on your hearts this
onesentence concerning your sorrows and sighs, they shall flee away. The love
of God, like the sun upon the snow-drift, which melts the snow, raises it in
vapour and then disperses it, shall make sorrow flee away. The power of God,
like the north wind, which driveth away the rain, shall constrain sorrow to
flee away. (S. Martin.)
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away
There is consolation in this very form of expression--“flee away.”
It shows an instability as characterising sorrow in the case we contemplate.
Sorrow to the redeemed man is not the sea which is found in its appointed bed
in summer and in winter; but it is the crested wave which is here to-day and
gone to-morrow. It is not the mountain which stands in its place year after
year, and century after century; but it is the clouds which rise rein the
valley, and travel up the sides of the mountain, and sometimes cap and
completely hide it, but which from their very nature must flee away. The
sorrows of the saints are sorrows which from their very character must pass
away. (S. Martin.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》