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Isaiah Chapter
Five
Isaiah 5
Chapter Contents
The state and conduct of the Jewish nation. (1-7) The
judgments which would come. (8-23) The executioners of these judgments. (24-30)
Commentary on Isaiah 5:1-7
(Read Isaiah 5:1-7)
Christ is God's beloved Son
and our beloved Saviour. The
care of the Lord over the church of Israel
is described by the management of a
vineyard. The advantages of our situation will be brought into the account
another day. He planted it with the choicest vines; gave them a most excellent
law
instituted proper ordinances. The temple was a tower
where God gave
tokens of his presence. He set up his altar
to which the sacrifices should be
brought; all the means of grace are denoted thereby. God expects fruit from
those that enjoy privileges. Good purposes and good beginnings are good things
but not enough; there must be vineyard fruit; thoughts and affections
words
and actions
agreeable to the Spirit. It brought forth bad fruit. Wild grapes
are the fruits of the corrupt nature. Where grace does not work
corruption
will. But the wickedness of those that profess religion
and enjoy the means of
grace
must be upon the sinners themselves. They shall no longer be a peculiar
people. When errors and vice go without check or control
the vineyard is
unpruned; then it will soon be grown over with thorns. This is often shown in
the departure of God's Spirit from those who have long striven against him
and
the removal of his gospel from places which have long been a reproach to it.
The explanation is given. It is sad with a soul
when
instead of the grapes of
humility
meekness
love
patience
and contempt of the world
for which God
looks
there are the wild grapes of pride
passion
discontent
and malice
and
contempt of God; instead of the grapes of praying and praising
the wild grapes
of cursing and swearing. Let us bring forth fruit with patience
that in the
end we may obtain everlasting life.
Commentary on Isaiah 5:8-23
(Read Isaiah 5:8-23)
Here is a woe to those who set their hearts on the wealth
of the world. Not that it is sinful for those who have a house and a field to
purchase another; but the fault is
that they never know when they have enough.
Covetousness is idolatry; and while many envy the prosperous
wretched man
the
Lord denounces awful woes upon him. How applicable to many among us! God has
many ways to empty the most populous cities. Those who set their hearts upon
the world
will justly be disappointed. Here is woe to those who dote upon the
pleasures and the delights of sense. The use of music is lawful; but when it
draws away the heart from God
then it becomes a sin to us. God's judgments
have seized them
but they will not disturb themselves in their pleasures. The
judgments are declared. Let a man be ever so high
death will bring him low;
ever so mean
death will bring him lower. The fruit of these judgments shall
be
that God will be glorified as a God of power. Also
as a God that is holy;
he shall be owned and declared to be so
in the righteous punishment of proud
men. Those are in a woful condition who set up sin
and who exert themselves to
gratify their base lusts. They are daring in sin
and walk after their own
lusts; it is in scorn that they call God the Holy One of Israel. They confound
and overthrow distinctions between good and evil. They prefer their own
reasonings to Divine revelations; their own devices to the counsels and
commands of God. They deem it prudent and politic to continue profitable sins
and to neglect self-denying duties. Also
how light soever men make of
drunkenness
it is a sin which lays open to the wrath and curse of God. Their
judges perverted justice. Every sin needs some other to conceal it.
Commentary on Isaiah 5:24-30
(Read Isaiah 5:24-30)
Let not any expect to live easily who live wickedly. Sin
weakens the strength
the root of a people; it defaces the beauty
the blossoms
of a people. When God's word is despised
and his law cast away
what can men
expect but that God should utterly abandon them? When God comes forth in wrath
the hills tremble
fear seizes even great men. When God designs the ruin of a
provoking people
he can find instruments to be employed in it
as he sent for
the Chaldeans
and afterwards the Romans
to destroy the Jews. Those who would
not hear the voice of God speaking by his prophets
shall hear the voice of
their enemies roaring against them. Let the distressed look which way they
will
all appears dismal. If God frowns upon us
how can any creature smile?
Let us diligently seek the well-grounded assurance
that when all earthly helps
and comforts shall fail
God himself will be the strength of our hearts
and
our portion for ever.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 5
Verse 1
[1] Now
will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My
wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
Now — I
will record it to he a witness for God
and against you
as Moses did his song
Deuteronomy 31:19; 32:1.
To — To the Lord of the
vineyard.
Of my beloved —
Not devised by me
but inspired by God.
Vineyard —
His church.
Hill —
Hills being places most commodious for vines.
Verse 2
[2] And he fenced it
and gathered out the stones thereof
and planted it with
the choicest vine
and built a tower in the midst of it
and also made a
winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes
and it
brought forth wild grapes.
He gathered — He
removed all hindrances
and gave them all the means of fruitfulness.
A tower —
For the residence of the keepers.
Verse 6
[6] And
I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned
nor digged; but there shall come
up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain
upon it.
Nor digged —
Vine-dressers use to dig up and open the earth about the roots of the vines.
The meaning is
I will remove my ministers
who used great care and diligence
to make you fruitful.
Thorns — I
will give you up to your own lusts.
No rain — I
will deprive you of all my blessings.
Verse 7
[7] For
the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel
and the men of Judah
his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment
but behold oppression; for
righteousness
but behold a cry.
Pleasant — In
whom God formerly delighted.
A cry —
From the oppressed
crying to men for help
and to God for vengeance.
Verse 8
[8] Woe unto them that join house to house
that lay field to field
till
there be no place
that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
Alone —
That they alone may be the lords and owners
and all others only their tenants
and servants.
Verse 9
[9] In
mine ears said the LORD of hosts
Of a truth many houses shall be desolate
even great and fair
without inhabitant.
In mine ears — I
heard God speak what I am about to utter.
Verse 10
[10] Yea
ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath
and the seed of an homer shall
yield an ephah.
One bath — Of
wine. The bath contained about eight gallons. Thus an acre did not yield one
gallon.
An ephah —
Which was of the same quantity with the bath
only the bath was the measure of
liquid things
the ephah of dry things; and a ephah was the tenth part of an
homer. So instead of the increase which that fruitful land commonly yielded
they should loose nine parts of their seed.
Verse 12
[12] And
the harp
and the viol
the tabret
and pipe
and wine
are in their feasts:
but they regard not the work of the LORD
neither consider the operation of his
hands.
The harp —
They give up themselves wholly to luxury.
The work —
What God hath lately done
and is yet doing
and about to do among them; his
grievous judgments
partly inflicted
and partly threatened
which required
another course of life.
Verse 13
[13]
Therefore my people are gone into captivity
because they have no knowledge:
and their honourable men are famished
and their multitude dried up with
thirst.
No knowledge — No
serious consideration of God's works
and of their own duty and danger.
Honourable men —
Who thought themselves quite out of the reach of famine.
Verse 14
[14]
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself
and opened her mouth without measure: and
their glory
and their multitude
and their pomp
and he that rejoiceth
shall
descend into it.
And he —
That spends all his days in mirth and jollity.
Verse 15
[15] And
the mean man shall be brought down
and the mighty man shall be humbled
and
the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
The mighty —
All of them
both high and low
shall be brought to destruction.
Verse 16
[16] But
the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment
and God that is holy shall be
sanctified in righteousness.
Exalted — By
the execution of this just judgment.
Sanctified —
Shall appear to be an holy God
by his righteous judgments.
Verse 17
[17] Then
shall the lambs feed after their manner
and the waste places of the fat ones
shall strangers eat.
Then —
When God shall have finished that work of judgment.
The lambs —
The poor and harmless people
who shall be left in the land when the rich are
carried into captivity.
Manner —
Or
by their fold
as this word is manifestly used
Micah 2:12
the only place of scripture
except
this
in which this word is found.
Waste places —
The lands left by their owners.
Fat ones — Of
the rich and great men.
Strangers —
The poor Israelites
who were left to be vine-dressers and husbandmen
2 Kings 25:12
who are called strangers
because
they were so
in reference to that hand
not being the proper owners of it.
Verse 18
[18] Woe
unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity
and sin as it were with a
cart rope:
That draw —
That are not only drawn to sin by the allurements of the world; but are active
and illustrious in drawing sin to themselves.
Cords —
Or
with cords of lying
as the last word frequently signifies
with vain and
deceitful arguments and pretences
whereby sinners generally draw themselves to
sin.
A rope —
With all their might
as beasts commonly do that draw carts with ropes.
Verse 19
[19] That
say
Let him make speed
and hasten his work
that we may see it: and let the
counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come
that we may know it!
Let him —
God
in whose name thou and other prophets are always threatening us. This was
the plain language of their actions; they lived as if they were of this
opinion.
The Holy One —
They scornfully repeated the title usually given by the prophets to God.
Verse 20
[20] Woe
unto them that call evil good
and good evil; that put darkness for light
and
light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
To them —
That take away the difference between good and evil; that justify wicked men
and things
and condemn piety
or righteous persons.
Verse 22
[22] Woe
unto them that are mighty to drink wine
and men of strength to mingle strong
drink:
To mingle — To
drink: the antecedent being put for the consequent: for they mingled it in
order to drinking.
Verse 23
[23]
Which justify the wicked for reward
and take away the righteousness of the
righteous from him!
Take away —
Pronounce sentence against him.
Verse 24
[24]
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble
and the flame consumeth the chaff
so their root shall be as rottenness
and their blossom shall go up as dust:
because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts
and despised the word
of the Holy One of Israel.
Rottenness —
They shall be like a tree which not only withers in its branches
but dies and
rots at the roots
therefore is past recovery.
Dust —
Shall be resolved into dust
and yield no fruit.
Verse 26
[26] And
he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far
and will hiss unto them from
the end of the earth: and
behold
they shall come with speed swiftly:
An ensign — To
call them together for his service.
From far — To
the Chaldeans; for even Babylon is called a far country
chap. 39:3. And he saith nations
because the Chaldean
army was made up of several nations.
Will hiss —
Or
will whistle unto
or for them: will gather them together by his word. as
shepherds gather their sheep. He intimates how easily and speedily God can do
this work.
From the ends —
Which is not to be understood strictly
but with a latitude
from very remote
places.
Verse 27
[27] None
shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither
shall the girdle of their loins be loosed
nor the latchet of their shoes be
broken:
Nor sleep —
They shall all be watchful and diligent to take all opportunities of executing
my judgments.
Nor latchet — I
will take all impediments out of their way.
Verse 28
[28]
Whose arrows are sharp
and all their bows bent
their horses' hoofs shall be
counted like flint
and their wheels like a whirlwind:
Bent —
Who are every way furnished and ready for my work
waiting only for my command.
Flint —
Because they shall not be broken or battered by the length or stonyness and
ruggedness of the way.
Whirlwind —
For the swiftness of their march
and for the force and violence of their
chariots in battle.
Verse 29
[29]
Their roaring shall be like a lion
they shall roar like young lions: yea
they
shall roar
and lay hold of the prey
and shall carry it away safe
and none
shall deliver it.
Roar —
Which signifies both their cruelty
and their eagerness to devour the prey.
Verse 30
[30] And
in that day they shall roar against them like the roaring of the sea: and if
one look unto the land
behold darkness and sorrow
and the light is darkened
in the heavens thereof.
Sorrow —
Darkness; that is
sorrow; the latter word explains the former.
The heavens —
When they look up to the heavens
as men in distress usually do
they see no
light there.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
05 Chapter 5
Verses 1-30
Verses 1-7
Now will I sing to my well-beloved
Hopes concerning the vineyard
The Lord’s hopes and disappointment with His vineyard.
(A. B. Davidson
LL. D.)
Truth to be presented in varied form
Aaron’s bells must be wisely rung. Sometimes the treble of mercy
sounds well
at other times the tenor of judgment
or counter tenor of reproof
sounds better: and it often happens that the mean of exhortation sounds best of
all. It is wisdom to observe circumstances
and know how to curse as well as
bless
chide as well as comfort
and speak war to a rebel as well as peace to a
friend. And herein
indeed
lies the wisdom and faithfulness of a teacher. (N.
Rogers.)
Who was the speaker?
It is an interesting question
and one to which the answer is not
altogether obvious. And who is the well-beloved to whom these words are
addressed? Only two answers seem possible. Either it must be the prophet who
speaks
and his God that he is addressing; or else it must be the eternal
Father that is addressing His co-eternal Son.
1. If we adopt
as most commentators seem to do
the former
explanation
we have to face two very serious difficulties
neither of which
can I meet.
2. Let us adopt the other explanation of the passage
and all at once
becomes straightforward and self-consistent
the only difficulty involved being
that we have here a marvellously explicit reference to a great theological
verity
that was not fully revealed to the world till the Christian epoch--the
doctrine of the distinction of Persons (as we are obliged to express it for
lack of better terms) in the Divine Unity. This great truth is
however
implied
in many other passages of Old Testament Scripture
and therefore its occurrence
here need not trouble us. According to this second interpretation
it is the
eternal Father that is here addressing His well-beloved Son
the Angel of the
Covenant
to whose tutelage the ancient Theocracy was delivered
just as at a
subsequent period He became
in the flesh
the Founder and Head of the
Christian Church. Here the expression used is just what might be expected
and
we are reminded of the voice which fell from heaven in New Testament times:
“This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased.” In this exegesis the
identity of the singer and the unity of the song is preserved throughout
There
is no abrupt transition from the utterance of one person to that of another;
for He who sings and He to whom the song is sung are one. The Father does
Himself that which He does through the Divine Word
and hence the passage from
the third person to the first in the third verse ceases to be embarrassing;
nay
additional force is added to the Divine expostulation; for the Father is
jealous with a holy jealousy for the Person and work of His Son. He knows how
well that work has been done
and has all the more reason to complain of its
having been denied its proper results and its merited reward. There is
something infinitely pathetic in the idea of this song of lamentation
poured
forth from the great Father’s heart of love into the sympathetic ear of His
well-beloved Son
and in this enumeration of all that He
the well-beloved of the
Father
had wrought for favoured Israel. When man was created
he was created
as the result of the decree of a Divine council: “Let us make man in our
own image.” And now when
after years of trial
man has proved himself a
miserable failure
the Divine Father and the co-eternal Son are represented as
conferring over the disastrous issue. (W. HayAitken
M. A.)
The vineyard song
There are plaintive songs
mournful songs
as well as songs
expressive of joy and delight.
I. THE APPELLATIVE
ADDRESS. “My well-beloved.” Can you call Jesus so? “If any man love not our
Lord Jesus Christ
let him be accursed at the coming of the Lord.”
II. THE SONG.
Observe
that whilst this vineyard is the choice of “my well-beloved
” and His
own hand plants it
He has a right to the fruits. Take care and do not rob Him.
Do not tell me anything about a sandy and barren Christianity. It is not worth
twopence an acre
if you go by the measurement. Do not tell me of a tree in the
Lord’s vineyard that brings forth no fruit; tell me rather of the post in the
street. I look for the fruits of the Spirit
that He may be glorified in and by
you.
III. THE KNOWLEDGE
WHICH IS REQUISITE FOR THE SINGERS. (J. Iron.)
Unfruitfulness reproved
1. It is natural to ask
Who is this that says
“I will sing a song
to my Beloved”! I take these words to be spoken
not in the person of Isaiah
but of God the Father to His Son our Lord
who in the evangelical style is
called
“the beloved Son of God
in whom He is well pleased.” But how can the
Church of those times be called the vineyard of the Son? I answer
Because as
the Father created all things by Him
so by Him He has always governed all
things
and more especially His Church.
2. The Church of God is styled a vineyard
which is a very pertinent
resemblance of it. For as a vineyard is a plot of ground separated from common
field and pasture
in order to be improved with such cultivation as that the
vines and grapes it produces may supply the owner with generous wines: so God’s
Church consists of a people chosen by Him out of the rest of the world
that
they may worship Him by the laws and rules of His own revealing
and so
exercise a purer religion
and abound in the fruits of good living
above other
men
who have not the light of the same revelation
nor direction of the same
laws. This similitude of a vine
or vineyard
for the justness of the
resemblance
is several times used to denote the Church. (Psalms 80:1-19.)
3. This vineyard is said to be situate in a very fruitful hill
alluding to the land of Canaan
which was a high-raised
and a very fertile
soil
agreeable to the character which Moses gives of it (Deuteronomy 32:13).
4. God made a fence round about it
i.e.
He distinguished His
people from all other nations by peculiar laws
statutes
and observances
not
only in religion
but even in civil life
in their very diet and conversation
so that it was impossible for them to remain Jews
and to accompany freely with
the rest of the world. He also fenced them with a miraculous protection from
the invasions of their adversaries
which bordered upon them on every side.
5. God cleared the soil of this vineyard from stones; not indeed in
the literal sense
for this country pretty much abounds with rocks and flints
which are so far from being always prejudicial
that they are serviceable
not
only for walls and buildings
but even for some parts of agriculture. But this
is a proper continuation of the allegory
that as stones should be cast out of
a vineyard
so God cast out the ancient inhabitants of Canaan
to make room for
the children of Israel. And with them He cast out their idols
made of wood and
stone
and demolished the temples dedicated to idolatry
that His own people
might have no stumbling blocks left in their way
but might be wholly turned to
His service.
6. He planted it with the choicest vine
the true religion
and form
of government both ecclesiastical and civil
which He had revealed from heaven.
He made excellent provision for the instruction of His people
and the
promulgation of His will and pleasure among them.
7. After much cultivation of His vineyard and choice of His vine
He
justly expected a plentiful product of the best kind of grapes; but was
recompensed for all His pains with no better than the fruits of wild
uncultivated nature; “grapes of Sodom and clusters of Gomorrah
” as He
complains (Deuteronomy 32:1-52). And He gives us a
sample and taste of them in some of the following words “He looked for
judgment
but behold oppression; for righteousness
but behold a cry.” The
great increase of their fields and flocks
wherewith He had blessed them
afforded them sufficient means of rendering those dues to religion
and loving
kindness to their neighbours
especially to the more indigent sort
which by
many sacred laws and serious exhortations He had enjoined. But instead of being
led by the Divine beneficence to works of liberality and charity
they only
studied how to sacrifice to their insatiable lusts and lewd affections.
8. Therefore with good reason God tells them and appeals to
themselves for the justice of it
that He would take away the hedge of His
vineyard
and my it open to be wasted and trodden under foot. The proper
application of all this to ourselves
is briefly hinted by St. Paul (Romans 11:21). “If God spared not the
natural branches
take heed lest He also spare not thee.” (W. Reading
M. A.)
Britain highly favoured of God
The natural advantages of Great Britain have been deemed extremely
great; an island (says an early historian) “whose valleys are as Eshcol
whose
forests are as Carmel
whose hills as Lebanon
and whose defence is the ocean.”
But our country has to enumerate advantages of a still higher order
--both of a
civil and of a religious nature. Our civil constitution is a fabric
which
on
account of its symmetry and grandeur
has even called forth the admiration of
foreigners. Respecting this invaluable constitution
the late Dr. Claudius
Buchanan asks
“Was it the peculiar wisdom of the Danes which constructed it?
or of the Saxons
or of the Normans
or of the natives of the island? What is
the name of the great legislator who conceived the mighty plan? Was it created
by chance
or by design?. . .We know well by whose counsel and providence our
happy government hath been begun and finished. Our constitution is the gift of
God
and we have to acknowledge His goodness for this blessing
as we thank Him
for life
and breath
and all things.” But should we be less grateful for the
benefits of a religious description
which have been conferred in past years
upon our ancestors
and so copiously upon ourselves? We have reason to believe
that the holy light of Christian truth was introduced amongst the Britons in
the apostolic age
and during the captivity of Caractacus; and that numerous
churches being gradually formed
the sanguinary rites of the Druids
practised
in the dark recesses of their forests
were exchanged for the pure worship of
the Gospel. In the sixth century
Christianity
though too much tinctured with
the superstition of the age
was introduced amongst the idolatrous Saxons. It
was a benefit to many of our ancestors that the dawn of a reformation also
appeared
when the doctrines of the Waldenses were brought from France; and
when the intrepid Wicliffe--whose writings were of no small advantage to the
revival of religion
both in his own country and in Bohemia--protested against
the reigning errors. This reformation
though soon crushed
was renewed within
about a century afterwards
and established under the auspices of a young
monarch whose name should be remembered with the warmest gratitude
--the sixth
Edward. The protestant Church was in the next reign greatly oppressed
and many
were added to the noble army of martyrs; but in the following reign it acquired
a stability unknown before; and notwithstanding the various difficulties with
which it has struggled has flourished to this day. (T. Sims
M. A.)
Man under the culturing care of Heaven
The Eternal employs fiction
as well as fact
in the revelation of
His grit thoughts to man. Hence we have in the Bible
fable
allegory
parable.
Fiction
used in the way which the Bible employs it
is a valuable servant of
truth. It is always pure
brief
attractive
and strikingly apt. The Divine
idea flashes from it at once
as the sunbeam from the diamond. The text is one
of the oldest parables
and is run in a poetic mould. It is fiction set to
music. “I will sing to my beloved a song touching his vineyard.” Isaiah’s
heart
as all hearts should be
is in loving transports with the absolutely
Good One
and by the law of strong affections he expresses himself in the
language of bold metaphor and the music of lofty verse. Love is evermore the
soul of poetry and song. This parabolic song is not only a song of love
but a
song of sadness
for it expresses in stirring imagery how the Almighty had
wrought in mercy to cultivate the Hebrew people into goodness
how unsuccessful
He had been in all His gracious endeavours
and how terrible the judgment that
would descend from His throne in consequence of their unfruitfulness. We have
man under Divine culture here set before us in three aspects.
I. RECEIVING THE
UTMOST ATTENTION. So much had the Eternal done for the Hebrew race in order to
make them good
that He appeals to the men of Jerusalem and Judah in these
remarkable words: “What could have been done more to My vineyard
that I have
not done in it?” What has the great moral Husbandman done towards our moral
culture?
1. Look at nature. There is an intelligence
a goodness
a calm
fatherly tenderness
animating
beautifying
and brightening all nature
which
is
in truth
its moral soul
that silently works evermore to fashion the heart
of humanity for God.
2. Look at history. There is running through all history
as its very
life
an Eternal Spirit of inexorable justice and compassionating mercy
whose
grand mission it is to turn the souls of men from the hideousness of crime to
the beauties of virtue
from confidence in man
“whose breath is in his
nostrils
” to trust in Him who liveth forever
from the temporary pleasures of
earth to the spiritual joys of immortality.
3. What are the events of our individual life? Why is our life
from
the cradle to the grave
one perpetual change of scene and state? Why the unceasing
alternation of adversity and prosperity
friendship and bereavement
sorrow and
joy? Rightly regarded
they are God’s implements of spiritual culture.
4. Look at mediation. Why did God send His only-begotten Son into the
world? We are expressly told that it “was to redeem men from all iniquity.”
5. Look at the Gospel ministry. Why does the great God ordain and
qualify men in every age to expound the doctrines
offer the provisions
and
enforce the precepts of the Gospel of His Son? Is it not to enlighten
renovate
purify
and morally save the souls of men?
II. BECOMING WORSE
THAN FRUITLESS. “He looked that it should bring forth grapes
and it brought
forth wild grapes.” The idea is that the Jewish people
under the culturing
care of God
produced instead of good fruit the foetid
noxious fruit of the
wild vine. And truly their history demonstrates this lamentable fact. From age
to age they grew more and more corrupt
morally offensive
and pernicious
Thus
they went on until the days of Christ. Unfruitfulness is bad enough
but
pernicious fruitfulness is worse. The history of the world shows that it is a
common thing for men to grow in evil under the culturing care of God. Pharaoh’s
heart was hardened under the ministry of Moses; Saul advanced in depravity
under the ministry of Samuel; and Judas became a devil under the ministry of
Christ Himself. Man growing in evil under the culturing agency of God indicates
two facts in human nature.
1. The spontaneity of man’s action. What stronger proof can there be
that our Maker has endowed us with a sovereign power of freedom than the fact
that we act contrary to His purpose regarding us
and neutralise His culturing
efforts?
2. The perversity of man’s heart. The disposition to run counter to
Heaven
which is coeval with unregenerate souls
is the root of the world’s
upas. How came it? It does not belong to human nature as a constitutional
element. It is our own creation
and for it eternal justice holds us
responsible.
III. SINKING INTO
UTTER DESOLATION (verses 5
6). These words threaten a three-fold curse.
1. The withdrawal of Divine protection. “I will take away the hedge
thereof
” etc. The meaning is
that He will withdraw His guardianship from the
Hebrew people. This threat was fulfilled in their experience. Heaven withdrew
its aegis
and the Romans entered and wrought their ruin. What thus occurred to
the Jew is only a faint symbol of what must inevitably occur in the experience
of all who continue to grow in evil under the culturing agency of God.
2. A cessation of culturing effort. “It shall not be pruned nor
digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns.” The idea is that He would
put forth no more effort to improve their condition
that He would cease to
send them visions and prophets. The time must come in the case of all the
unregenerate
when God will cease His endeavours to improve. His Spirit will
not “always strive with man.”
3. The withholding of fertilising elements. “I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” However protected the vineyard might
be
and however enriched the soil
and skilfully pruned the branches
if no
rain come
the whole will soon be ruined. What a terrible picture of a soul is
this!--here is a soul from which its great Father has withdrawn all protection
ceased all culturing efforts
and withholds all fertilising influences! Here is
hell. This subject starts many solemn reflections
and has many practical uses.
Great opportunities
I. AS ABUNDANTLY
POSSESSED. The vineyard here is represented--
1. As in a salubrious position. “In a very fruitful hill.”
2. As subject to culturing care. Canaan was the fruitful hill; the
theocratic government was the fence built around it. What rare opportunities
has every man amongst us! Bibles in our houses
churches near our dwellings
preachers of every type of mind
class of thought
and oratorio power.
II. AS SHAMEFULLY
ABUSED. “When I looked that it should bring forth grapes
it brought forth wild
grapes.”
III. AS UTTERLY
LOST. (Homilist.)
A history of the Jews
We have in this parable a summing up of the history of God’s
chosen people.
I. GOD’S CARE FOR
THEM--their privileges.
II. GOD’S GRIEF
OVER THEM--their Sin and unfaithfulness.
III. GOD’S SENTENCE
UPON THEM--their punishment. (C. J. Ridgeway.)
Human life in parable
I. Here is human
life PLACED IN A GOOD SITUATION. “In a very fruitful hill.”
II. Here is human
life AS THE SUBJECT OF DETAILED CARE (Isaiah 5:2). He stood back and waited
like a husbandman. The vineyard was upon a hill
and therefore could not be
ploughed. How blessed are those vineyards that are cultivated by the hand!
There is a magnetism in the hand of love that you cannot have in an iron
plough. He gathered out the stones thereof one by one . . . He fenced . . . He
built . . . He made a wine press. It is hand made. There is a peculiar delight
in rightly accepting the handling of God. We are not cultivated by the great
ploughs of the constellations and the laws of nature; we are handled by the
Living One
our names are engraven on the palms of His hands: “The right hand
of the Lord doeth gloriously.” Human life
then
is the subject of detailed
care; everything
how minute soever
is done as if it were the only thing to be
done; every man feels that there is a care directed to him which might belong
to an only son.
III. Human life is
next regarded AS THE OBJECT OF A JUST EXPECTATION. “He looked that it should
bring forth grapes.” Had
He not a right to do so? Is there not a sequence of
events? When men sow certain seed
have they not a right to look for a certain
crop? When they pass through certain processes in education
or in commerce
or
in statesmanship
have they not a right to expect that the end should
correspond with the beginning? Who likes to lose all his care?
IV. Human life AS
THE OCCASION OF A BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. “It brought forth wild grapes.” (Joseph
Parker
D. D.)
Life given for culture
It is not the best at the first; it has to be fenced
and the
stones are to be taken out
and the choice vine is to be planted
and the tower
is to be set in the midst of it
and the wine press is to be built therein. The
child is but the beginning; the man should be the cultivated result. Culture is
bestowed for fruit. Culture is not given for mere decoration
ornamentation
or
for the purpose of exciting attention
and invoking and securing applause; the
meaning of culture
ploughing
digging
sowing is--fruit
good fruit
usable
fruit
fruit for the healing of the nations. The fruit for which culture is
bestowed is moral. God looked for judgment and for righteousness. (Joseph
Parker
D. D.)
God’s expectation of fruit
I. THE MOTIVES OR
REASONS INDUCING US TO FRUITFULNESS.
1. Every creature in its kind is fruitful. The poorest creature God
hath made is enabled
with some gift
to imitate the goodness and bounty of the
Creator
and to yield something from itself to the use and benefit of others
Shall not every creature be a witness against man
and rise up in judgment to condemn
him
if he be fruitless?
2. The fruitfulness of a Christian is the groundwork of all true
prosperity.
3. If we be fruitful
bringing forth the fruits of the Spirit
there
is no law against us (Galatians 5:22-23).
4. The circumstance of time calls upon us to bring forth the fruits
of obedience. Forasmuch as the Lord hath year by year
for so long succession
of years
sought for fruit of us and found none
it is now high time to bring
forth plenty.
5. If all this will not serve to make us fruitful
that which our
Saviour saith John 15:2; John 15:6
should awaken us.
II. SOME PROFITABLE
MEANS THAT MUST BE USED TO MAKE US GROW MORE FRUITFUL.
1. See thou be removed out of thy natural soil
and be engrafted into
another stock.
2. See thou plant thyself by the running brooks.
3. See thou labour for humility and tenderness of heart. The ground
which is hard and strong is unfit for fruit.
4. Beware of overshadowing thy heart by any sinful lust
whereby the
warm beams of the Sun of Righteousness are kept from it.
5. A special care must be had to the root that that grow well Faith
is the radical grace.
6. We must be earnest with the Lord
that He would make us fruitful.
III. THE NATURE AND
QUALITY OF THAT FRUIT WHICH WE MUST BRING FORTH.
1. Proper. It must be thy own.
2. Kindly
resembling the Author
who is the Spirit of grace.
3. Timely and seasonable (Psalms 1:3).
4. Ripe.
5. A fifth property of good fruit is universalities. Fruits of the
first and second table
of holiness towards God and righteousness towards man.
Fruits inward and outward.
6. Constant. (N. Rogers.)
Verse 2
It brought forth wild grapes
Wild grapes
The history of the Jewish nation is written for our warning
and
the lessons taught by this parable are sadly needed by the England of today.
There is not one word of this description of the vineyard at its best which is
not true of this highly favoured land. This
too
is a very fruitful hill.
Under the soil
what unheard of mineral riches
mines of wealth! Above the soil
and in it what fertility
what productive power! Around us
from port and bay
and harbour
our merchant fleets take and fetch and gather the riches of the
earth! Here
too
is planted a chosen and favoured vine. Here God has planted
the Anglo-Saxon race
so blended with some other tribal blood that
even our
enemies being judges
we have been unequalled in hardy daring
conquering
energy
splendid enterprise
and universal stretch of power. We
too
have been
strangely “fenced in” by the providence of God. Our iron coasts
compassed by
the inviolate sea
have largely made and kept us separate and safe. Out of this
land have also been gathered the stones of idolatry
barbarism
despotism
bigotry
slavery. Here
too
the Husbandman hath built His tower and made His
wine press. “The temples of His grace
how beautiful they stand!” Surely the
Lord hath not dealt so with any people! To us He says
as well as to Israel of
old
“What more could I do to My vineyard
that I have not done? Why
then
when I looked for grapes
brought it forth wild grapes?” Is not this indictment
true? Wild grapes
offensive to God
mischievous to others
and ruinous to us
are being produced on every hand. The Husbandman describes some of them.
1. The excessive greed of gain (Isaiah 5:8). The sin lies not in the mere
addition of house to house
by fair and lawful means
or a moderate gathering
together of earthly good; but in that mad rush and scramble
that strife and
struggle to lay hold of all the hand can grasp. Never was Nebuchadnezzar’s
golden god worshipped with half the eager frenzy of today. Utterly reckless of
Naboth’s honest claim to his little vineyard--regardless of the right of poorer
neighbours to gain a livelihood
a powerful purse shall buy them out; huge
estates shall be enclosed in an ever-expanding ring fence; rampant speculators
shall starve the spinner and weaver by the cunning of a “cotton corner.” It is
a moral wrong; it is a national calamity; it is a wild grape which wins a “woe”
from God. The one gleam of hope lies in the fact that the monster will be its
own destroyer. “Of a truth
many such houses
great and fair
shall be without
inhabitant.”
2. Another wild grape is the crying sin of intemperance (Isaiah 5:11).
3. Another wild grape is the headstrong rush after pleasure; the
follies and frivolities of the tens of thousands whose whole time and tastes
and talents are wickedly laid on the shrine of sensual delights. A perpetual
round of feasting
junketing
dancing
sightseeing
and sensational enjoyments
is the be-all and end-all of their existence (Isaiah 5:12).
4. Another wild grape is sensuality in its grosser and fouler shapes.
“Woe unto them which draw iniquity with cords
and sin as with a cart rope.” In
this ease the silken threads which bound them to the gilded chariot of pleasure
have been woven by the force of habit into strong cords and cables
and they
are drawn by the baser passions into bestial sensuality
and within the veil of
secrecy
and under the curtains of night
uncleanness reigns.
5. Another wild grape is infidelity. “Woe unto them that regard not
the work of the Lord
neither consider the operations of His hands.” They deny
His creating power
they question His existence
and as for the operation of
His providence
not God but law and nature is the cause of all! And all this in
England!
6. Another wild grape here mentioned is fraud and falsehood: and
still another is dishonesty. “Woe to them who put bitter for sweet
and sweet
for bitter
” and so on. Again
“Woe unto them which justify wickedness for
reward!” Tricks of trade
scamped handiwork
adulterated goods
lying puffs and
advertisements
commercial frauds
haphazard speculations--oh
‘tis a sickening
list! What shall be the end of it? Must England
like Israel
perish
forsaken
of her God? No nation that forgets God shall prosper: look on the ruins of
Babylon
of Greece
of Israel
of Rome. No city that forgets God shall prosper:
read the sad records of Nineveh
of Tyre
of Jerusalem
of Sardis
of Laodicea.
No man that forgets God shall prosper: look at the graves of Pharaoh
of Ahab
of Saul
of Herod
of Napoleon. If England lives on
and grows in lustre as she
lives
it must be because the King Emmanuel is undisputed Monarch of the
national heart
uncontrolled Director of the national policy and the national
will. (J. J.Wray
M. A.)
Isaiah an embodied conscience
Isaiah was speaking in the first years of the reign of Ahaz
who
by his luxury and effeminacy
was beginning to imperil the splendid results of
the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham. Like most men who are embodied consciences
the prophet was looked upon as a busybody. Those are usually most hated who do
that which is most needed. Having attracted attention by his parable of the
vineyard and the grapes
Isaiah became a remorseless and terrible voice. The
man seemed to have disappeared
while the voice spoke the retributions of the
Almighty. This embodied conscience was terribly faithful. It is useless to attempt
argument with a conscience. It can never be argued with--it must be heard. It
utters its imperative
and you are heedless at your peril. Some things may be
reasoned about; a matter of conscience
never. Furthermore
conscience is
always and of necessity prophetic. Whenever conscience tells you that you are
wrong
it tells you more than that--it tells you that you must turn or you will
be punished. That is what makes it a terror. Not only does it point the finger
of shame; it also points the finger of doom. So is it with the national
conscience; it
too
is prophetic
and always speaks of judgment. Isaiah was
the conscience of Judah speaking its imperative
as Wendell Phillips and
William Lloyd Garrison were our national conscience in the days when the Republic
protected slavery. Judah had grown rich; she was getting careless; she was
trusting in her riches. Judah had been sadly disciplined. There had been
earthquakes
loss of territory
defeat
and now there was approaching the
spectre of an Assyrian invasion. For all this she boasted of her riches and
neglected God. (Amory H. Bradford
D. D.)
Old foes with new faces
1. As soon as a people become rich
they usually begin to subvert the
natural and Divine order to their own selfishness. The tendency of riches is to
lead people to do wrong. That may be why it is so hard for a rich man to get
into heaven. He makes the mistake of thinking he can buy his way anywhere
and
finds at last that character
not gold
is the currency he needs.
2. The sternness of the prophet continues. Those who have grown rich
have also grown luxurious. They have learned the pleasures of the wine cup;
they tarry long at the wine. The land question is an old one; the liquor
question is equally old. Again I ask
Who shall tell why
as soon as men begin
to prosper
they begin to do what is worst for themselves and worst for the
world? Read that fifth chapter from Isaiah 5:12-17. How true to life! “The
mean man is bowed down
and the great man is humbled.” The low-bred fellow
drinks his fiery liquor and wallows in the gutter; the high-bred and rich say
that they can mind their own business
and go to the same disgusting squalor.
But Isaiah was speaking of the nation rather than to individuals It was a
national shame that such things were tolerated then; it is a disgrace that such
things are tolerated now. If Isaiah were alive today
or
better
if Jesus
Christ could have your attention for a moment
He would say
How can you
justify yourselves in giving so much time to purely economic questions and so
little to the devising of means for the abolition of what ruins the finest of
our boys
blights homes that would otherwise be beautiful and full of love
and
makes so many of our rulers more like swine than the sovereigns they were
intended to be? These two old foes are still alive
with new faces--the land
question and the liquor question. The lesson which we have to learn is the one
which the prophet sought to impress in his time--that both individuals and
nations are responsible to God; that responsibility is real; and that there is
a judgment seat before which men and nations must stand. “For all this His
anger is not turned away
but His hand is stretched out still.” Let us not
forget that we--our community
our state
our nation--are in the moral order of
God; that everything we do is making ourselves and all others better or worse;
that we are all called to fellowship with the prophets and apostles and
faithful souls in all ages
to do something toward bringing in the time when
the good things of the world shall belong to all people. (Amory H. Bradford
D. D.)
A reasonable expectation
God expects vineyard fruit from those that enjoy vineyard
privileges. (M. Henry.)
Verse 3
Judge
I pray you
betwixt Me and My vineyard
The unfruitful vineyard
I.
The
way in which the inspired penman is guided to put the question in the text
seems to lead us to ONE OF WE SUBTLEST WEAKNESSES OF HUMAN NATURE
--I mean the
power which men possess of perceiving general truth without at the same time
perceiving its particular bearing on themselves. Often and often are we
all
unconsciously
judging between God and His vineyard
and we know it not. There
is no general denunciation of the Bible which does not meet with our full
assent; but we are too often unable to see that we ourselves come under its
terms. And this is one of the dangers attendant on listening to preaching.
II. The portion of
Scripture under consideration has A MOST DIRECT REFERENCE TO OUR OWN PROBATION.
1. As members of the Church.
2. As individual souls. (W. Alexander.)
Verses 4-6
What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done
in it?
--
Human responsibility and Divine grace
I. In any attempt
at the interpretation of the story and the exhibition of its moral and
religions uses
its NATIONAL APPLICATION should be considered first. (Isaiah 5:7.)
1. There is a sense in which it may almost be said that Israel was
Jehovah’s vineyard as no other race or nation has ever been. Selected from an
ancient stock which certainly does not seem to have greatly distinguished
itself before
it had been preserved and cherished century after century; and
in its most marvellous history are to be found the purest revelations of God in
antiquity
leading up to the “unspeakable gift” in which men have life. That
history proves that the nation had enjoyed every condition of blessedness
every opportunity of fruitfulness and service.
2. The kind of career it chose is sufficiently indicated in this
fifth chapter
in the latter part of which the vices seem almost to run riot.
But it is even more significant of the state of the nation
that these lurid
paragraphs are not perhaps quite an adequate representation. For
threatened
with an attack from an alliance of the neighbouring tribes
Ahaz sought the aid
of the King of Assyria; and to secure it
he actually consented to govern his
country as an Assyrian province. Then followed one of the most dismal periods
of Jewish history. The weak king became infatuated with his oppressor
and
nothing would satisfy him except the introduction of Assyrian manners and
morals and worship into Jerusalem. The example of the court infected the nobles
and the priests; and at length
in the beautiful valley of Hinnom
amongst the
groves that were kept green by the fountains of Siloah
an altar to Moloch was
erected. That was the sort of “wild grape” this choice vine was
yielding
--idolatry of the most cruel and savage kind
varied with sensuality
and the oppression of the poor.
3. That such a result should disappoint the Owner of the vineyard was
only natural; and accordingly this little story represents Him next as trying
to find out the cause
or rather
as appearing to the men of Judah to
acknowledge what He and they well knew. He sets them up for the moment as
judges
and confronts reason and conscience with the question
“What could have
been done more to My vineyard
that I have not done in it?” Everything that
could be done and yet leave them free to sin and capable of righteousness had
been done.
4. A nation convicted and self-convicted of the most gross offences
against God and against morals
offences the entire responsibility of which
rests upon itself--what will become of that nation? There are other parts of
the Bible
not quite so stern as this
which indicate that further
opportunities may be given it
and the final punishment withheld for a time.
But it is also true that
in regard of nations as well as of men
the patience
of God may be exhausted. We have accordingly
in this song and story
the
outline of the history of Judah. God’s consideration
first of all
with every
kind of gracious help and opportunity
--all wasted through the neglect or
wilfulness of the nation itself
until it became fruitless and hopelessly
corrupt; and then the fulfilment of the Divine words: “Go to; I will tell you
what I will do to My vineyard: I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned nor
digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” Judah
in its origins and early career
is a sufficient illustration of the preliminary stages: Judah
in its
dispersion and miseries
is a standing witness to the certainty with which
national calamity overtakes national contempt of God. A nation that ignores its
past
and just surrenders itself to sin
is manifestly good for nothing
filling no worthy function
but cumbering the earth.
II. BUT NO NATIONAL
INTERPRETATION OF THIS PARABLE SEEMS QUITE SUFFICIENT. The way in which the
Bible insists upon the truth that national responsibility does not obliterate
but only gathers together and
as it were
organises personal responsibility
has some important bearings upon current modes of speech and thought. There is
a disposition sometimes to speak of the conscience of a nation
to imagine that
the phrase stands for something that is entirely separate and apart from
ourselves
and to regard it as a power outside of a man
to which he may add or
from which he may withhold his own influence. At times it has proved a
convenient generalisation; but it is well that an exact meaning should be given
it. It must denote
not something apart from any man
but either the average
personal conscience
or the aggregate of all the consciences; and an average or
an aggregate is a figure upon which every unit tells. All morality
indeed
must always be
in its essence and in its appeals
personal
lifting up a
nation by lifting up the individuals that constitute it; exposing it to the
wrath of God because the individuals expose themselves. The most effective
social movements are found to be accordingly those which address themselves in
the name of God to individuals
and persuade them one by one to aim more
resolutely at the fulfilment of righteousness.
1. If then this passage be taken personally
no one who recalls his
past life
and remembers the way in which God has dealt with him
is likely to
object to its symbolism. Every one of us has been and is a vineyard of the
Lord; and He does for us all that a God can do.
2. What has been the result of it all? Wild grapes in
abundance--weakness and bad temper and almost every kind of fault we can show
but little else.
3. The reason of such failure is not far to seek. That God can be
blamed for it
is impossible; for there has been no defect of grace or help on
His part. Temperament and circumstance might be pleaded
aptitudes we have
inherited
and hindrances amidst which we have found ourselves
but for the
obvious reply that
whilst these things may involve effort and strain
they
never involve defeat. The man who is most embarrassed by his own disposition
and surroundings
but for his own fault might be a better man than he is.
4. The consequences of continuing in fruitlessness are shown by the
passage to be fatal and hopeless. To waste Divine grace is to run the risk of
losing it altogether. That point
however
has not been reached by anyone who
retains any aspiration after God
or any desire to be a better man. In Christ
there is power for all to shake off every habit of sin
to reverse tendencies
to neglect and waste
to evolve in righteousness and peace. (R. Waddy Moss.)
God and men
I. THE DEALINGS OF
GOD WITH US.
II. OUR CONDUCT
TOWARDS HIM. (A. Roberts
M. A.)
Divine disappointment
It may seem irreverent to speak of a Divine disappointment
but
this is by no means the only passage of Scripture which in its obvious meaning
conveys this idea
Perhaps we may have to leave the explanation of such words
till we obtain fuller light in higher worlds upon the great mystery of the
relation of Divine foreknowledge to human freedom; but clearly such words are
spoken to us after the manner of men
in order that we may the better discern
the intensity of desire and the warmth of loving interest with which the God
from whom we all proceed seeks to raise us to our true functions and our proper
place in His universe
and the sorrow and regret with which He witnesses the
failure of His gracious purposes concerning us. (W. Hay Aitken
M. A.)
The moral limits of the Divine resources
1. Perhaps it may occur to you to object
this lamentation and
apparent disappointment? Surely
this is a confession of impotence on the part
of the Omnipotent. If God be really what we call Him--Almighty--why should He
waste words in futile expostulations! Surely
He who makes the vine put forth
her tender grapes and prepares the autumn vintage the wide world over
could
if He pleased
by the mere exercise of His superior power
constrain men to
bring forth the fruit that He desires to see brought forth. Why did He not
increase the pressure of His power on Israel until He had constrained the
disobedient nation to become obedient
and had practically forced them to bring
forth their fruit? Our answer to this very natural difficulty is simply
this--that the suggestion involves a contradiction. This will be sufficiently
obvious as soon as we begin to ask
What is the special fruit that God seeks at the hand of man? The
proper fruit of humanity
the fruit that God seeks in human character and life
is the reproduction of the Divine nature. God’s purpose in man is answered when
He sees in man His own moral likeness formed. But now
inasmuch as God is a
free agent
it is only by the possession of a similar moral faculty
and of the
capacity of exercising it
and only by its exercise in the highest and best
manner
that man can ever be conformed into the Divine image; for no two things
are more essentially unlike than an automaton and a free agent. Indeed. I think
we might venture to say that even a free agent who uses his freedom badly is
morally more like God
just because he is free
than the most perfect
automaton--perfect
I mean
in every other particular you can name--could ever
hope to become
seeing that he is not
and can never hope to be
free. No doubt
God could have arranged that man should be a very different being
and bring
forth very different fruit; but then in doing so He would have had to abandon
the specific purpose emphatically announced when man was just about to be
called into existence--“Let us make man in our image
after our own likeness.”
St. Paul teaches us that the “gifts and calling of God are without repentance
”
and we see this illustrated all through the natural world. God does not alter
the functions of particular organisms
and make them produce something totally
distinct from their own proper type. Were He to do so He would be admitting
failure and inconsistency. And as in the material so in the spiritual world.
Man has been originally designed to occupy a certain unique position there
and
to exercise certain definite functions
and to bring forth a particular kind of
fruit to the glory of God
and therefore we may be quite sure that God will not
transform him into a being of another order altogether
just to make him do and
be what he in his free manhood wills not to do or to be.
2. But it might still be urged
Would not God be acting a kinder part
if He withdrew this faculty of free will which has caused us so much trouble
and sin and sorrow--if He were so completely to override it by His own superior
power
and so control it that it should be able to exercise no appreciable
influence incur conduct
but that He Himself should always have His way? To
this we answer
God loves man too much to do anything of the kind. Man’s
capacity of rising to his proper destiny is involved in his possession and
exercise of this faculty of volition. Take it away
and we must needs turn our
backs forever upon the thought of rising to the prize of our high calling in
Christ Jesus; for it is by the use of these wills of ours
and by their
voluntary subordination
that we are to be trained
and developed
and
educated
and fitted for enjoying that wondrous relation to the Son of God
which is spoken of as the spiritual Bridal and Union of Christ and His Church.
No; man must remain free
or else his own proper fruit can never be brought
forth; and hence there is really and actually moral limit to the Divine
resources.
3. Bearing in mind
then
these necessary limitations of the Divine
resources
let us each face the inquiry
What more would we have God do for us
than He has actually done! I do not my that all are equally privileged
and I
can believe that some
in answer to such a challenge
might demand the
enjoyment of higher privileges such as others possess. But don’t you see that
whatever privileges might thus be secured
the necessity for the action of the
will would not and could not be evaded! And so long as this were so
what
guarantee would you have that your increased privileges might not mean only
enhanced condemnation! Others
who occupy the very position of privilege that
you might demand
have only turned their privileges into a curse by sinning
against them; and who shall say that it would not be the same with you? Nay
is
it not even more than probable that it would be so; for does not our Lord
Himself teach us that “he that is faithful in a very little is faithful also in
much: and he that is unrighteous in a very little is unrighteous also in much”!
Here we have laid down one of the great laws of the moral world. (W. Hay
Aitken
M. A.)
God employs various means in dealing with men
He does not exhaust all the means that He is capable of employing
without any inconsistency all at once. Just as He dealt in different ways with
Israel of old
sometimes sending a miracle-working prophet like Elijah
and
sometimes a man of mighty eloquence such as Isaiah; sometimes raising up a
saintly hierarch like Samuel
and sometimes a philosophic moralist like
Solomon; sometimes speaking in pestilence
defeat
disaster
and sometimes in
prosperity and deliverance
even so He employs first one means and then another
in dealing with us. But each of these
when it fails to bring about the end for
which it was designed
represents the exhaustion of yet another resource; and
when the last which the Holy Ghost can righteously and consistently have
recourse to has been exhausted
the soul is lost. (W. HayAitken
M. A.)
Thankfulness for past mercies the way to obtain future blessings
I. THE FORM AND
MANNER OF THE COMPLAINT. It runs in a pathetic
interrogatory exclamation;
which way of expression naturally and amongst men importing in it surprise and
a kind of confusion in the thoughts of him who utters it
must needs be
grounded upon that which is the foundation of all surprise
which I conceive is
reducible to these two heads--
1. The strangeness;
2. The indignity of anything
when it first occurs to our
apprehensions.
II. THE COMPLAINT
ITSELF for which there are these things to be considered.
1. The Person complaining
who was God Himself.
2. The persons complained of
which were His peculiar Church and
people.
3. The ground of this complaint; which was their unworthy and
unsuitable returns made to the dealings of God with them.
4. The issue and consequent of it; which was the confusion and
destruction of the persons so graciously dealt with and so justly complained
of. (R. South
D. D.)
God’s vineyard
With ill men nothing is more common than to accuse Almighty God of
partiality and injustice
as if it were in His nature to be austere and cruel
and expect more than can reasonably be done by them in their circumstances.
When the earth is unprofitable
and its productions are fit only to be burned
in the fire
the fault is neither in the sun nor yet in the clouds
but in
those whose business it is to prepare the earth for the influences of the
heavens. In like manner
and with equal justice
may God appeal to His people:
and this is the purport of the question
“What could have been done more for My
vineyard
that I have not none in it?”
1. The vineyard
with all the circumstances relating to it
is thus
described by the prophet (Isaiah 5:1-4).
2. If Christians should at last fall away
the justice of God may
then appeal to them
“What could have been done more for My vineyard
that I
have not done in it?”
3. As true religion brings with it the blessing of God upon any
nation
and this blessing is the source of inward peace
wisdom
health
plenty
and prosperity; so the decay of Christianity must bring such evils upon
us as were brought on the impenitent Jews. (W. Jones
M. A.)
The impenitent inexcusable
There is something very affecting
very startling
in the
assertion that as much had been done as could be done in order to produce from
the ancient Church the “fruits of righteousness.” And
if you only ponder the
arrangements of the Gospel
you will feel forced to assent to the reproachful
truth which is conveyed in the question of the text. There is a wonderful
variety in the arguments and appeals which are addressed in Scripture to the
thoughtless and obdurate. At one time they are attacked with terrors
at
another acted upon by the loving kindness of God
and allured by the free
mercies of the Gospel. In our text there is nothing alleged but the greatness
of what God has done for us--a greatness such that nothing more can be done
consistently
at least
with that moral accountableness which must regulate the
amount of influence which God brings to bear upon man. Of course
if this be
so
then
if we are not convinced and renewed under the existing
instrumentality
there is nothing that can avert from us utter destruction.
I. This is the
first way of vindicating the question of our text--atheism has a far better
apology for resisting the evidences of a God which are spread over creation
than worldly-mindedness for manifesting insensibility to redemption through
Christ. It is not
we think
too bold a thing to say
that in redeeming us
God
exhausted Himself. He gave Himself; what greater gift could remain unbestowed!
Therefore it is the fact that nothing more could have been done for the
vineyard
which proves the utter ruin which must follow neglect of the
proffered salvation. Having shown yourselves too hard to be softened by that
into which Deity has thrown all His strength
too proud to be humbled by that
which involved the humiliation of God
too grovelling to be attracted by that
which unites the human and the Divine
too cold to be warmed by that which
burns with all the compassions of that Infinite One
whose very essence is
love
--may we not argue that you thus prove to yourselves that there is no
possible arrangement by which you could be saved?
II. Consider more
in detail what has been done for the vineyard
in order to bring out
in all
its reproachfulness
the question before us.
1. As much has been done as could have been done because of the
agency through which redemption was effected. The Author of our redemption was
none other than the eternal Son of God
who had covenanted from all eternity to
become the surety and substitute for the fallen. So far as we have the power of
ascertaining
no being but a Divine taking to Himself flesh
could have
satisfied justice in the stead of fallen man. But this is precisely the
arrangement which has been made on our behalf.
2. As much has been done as could have been done for the “vineyard
”
regard being had to the completeness and fullness of the work as well as to the
greatness of its Author. The sins of the whole race were laid upon Christ; and
such was the value which the Divinity gave to the endurances of the humanity
that the whole race might be pardoned if the whole race would put faith in the
Mediator as punished in their stead. The scheme of redemption not only provides
for our pardon
so that punishment may be avoided; it provides also for our
acceptance
so that happiness may be obtained. Not only is there full provision
for every want
but there is the Holy Spirit to apply the provision
and make
it effectual in the individual case.
3. There is yet one more method of showing that so much has been done
for the “vineyard” that there remains nothing more which the Owner can do. In
the teachings of the Redeemer we have such clear information as to our living
under a retributive government
--a government whose recompenses shall be
accurately dealt out in another state of being
--that ignorance can be no man’s
excuse if he live as though God took no note of human actions. And we reckon
that much of what has been done for the “vineyard” consists in the greatness of
the reward which the Gospel proposes to righteousness
and the greatness of the
punishment which it denounces on impenitence. (H. Melvill
B. D.)
The Lord’s vineyard
I. THE ADVANTAGES.
II. THE SINS.
III. THE PUNISHMENT
of the elder Church. (G. J. Cornish
M. A.)
Christmas thoughts
I. The solemnity
of the present season calls upon us to commemorate in an especial manner THE
MERCIES OF GOD IN THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD
the last and most gracious of
all His dispensations. The preceding vouchsafements were preparatory to this
which is therefore to be considered as the completion of the others. Wherefore
if those other dispensations had so much grace in them as to warrant the
prophet’s expostulation in the text and context
the argument will be so much
the stronger
and our obligation so much the greater
as the grace in which we
stand is more abounding and the advantage of our situation more favourable and
auspicious to us. This whole matter will appear in a stronger light to us if we
turn our thoughts to those three great periods of religion under one or other
of which the Church of God and His Christ hath all along subsisted. In each of
these we shall have occasion to reflect upon the merciful care of providence
and the shameful negligence and ingratitude of mankind in their returns to it.
1. The patriarchal;
2. The Jewish;
3. The Christian
marked by the personal appearance of Christ
our
blessed Mediator
who had all along transacted the great affairs of the Church
under the two preceding economies.
The two main ends which were here consulted were--
II. THE RETURNS
WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE to all this tender indulgence of our merciful Father. (N.
Marshall
D. D.)
National wickedness in danger of provoking national judgments
I. WHAT GOD HATH
DONE FOR US AND WHAT RETURNS WE HAVE MADE.
1. In early ages
when we were overrun with heathenism and idolatry
it pleased God to plant the Christian religion among us; a religion every way
worthy of the Divine dispensation
and suited to the exigencies of mankind.
When this religion had flourished many centuries in its unalloyed purity
in a
very dark age it became adulterated with impure doctrines
and quite overgrown
with a heap of monstrous absurdities: but it pleased God
by the ministry of
His faithful servants
to re-enlighten this land with the beams of truth; to
restore Christianity to its original simplicity and sincerity.
2. A thorough disregard to Christianity has prevailed.
II. WHAT WE MAY
EXPECT AS THE CONSEQUENCE OF OUR INGRATITUDE AND IMPIETY. Vice
when diffused
through a kingdom
must have a fatal influence over the whole community
and at
last accomplish the destruction of it. In its universal progress it must be
attended with idleness and immoderate expense
the natural parents of poverty.
Honest poverty would cast about for honest and unthought of expedients for
supporting itself and bettering its condition
but poverty
contracted by the
profligate courses of drunkenness
lewdness
and debauchery
takes quite
another turn
and preys upon the little industry that is left to the nation
and thereby gives a check to that very industry; for the less secure men grow
in their properties the less will they labour to improve them. Hence will it
come to pass that among those of higher condition
self-interest will be made
the ruling principle. And among the meanest of the people what power can we
suppose will the voice of human laws have against the louder calls of poverty
set free from the barrier of conscience
and thereby at liberty to relieve
itself by all the methods that wickedness can suggest! In proportion as the
hands of the government grow weak will the hearts of its enemies he
strengthened
and greater force must still be provided for its support
and the
maintenance of that must again fall on the public; and general burdens of that
kind
should they ever he felt
would be followed by a general discontent. And
this will give a great temptation to our foreign enemies to take the advantage
of such fatal opportunities and try to make us no more a nation. In the
ordinary course of things then
vice
when it becomes epidemical
is not only
the reproach
but bids fair for the ruin of any people. National wickedness never
failed
sooner or later
to provoke the Almighty to a national vengeance.
III. THE PROPER
MEANS WHEREBY WE MAY HOPE TO AVERT GOD’S DISPLEASURE. (Jeremiah 18:7-8.) As we make a
part of the nation
our sins must make a part of the national guilt; and
consequently none of us can think ourselves unconcerned in the important work
of a national reformation. (J. Seed
M. A.)
Verses 8-10
Woe unto them that join house to house
that lay field to field
The selfish landowner
Selfishness
or the making self the centre to which all things are
to tend
is the great sin in all ages and peoples.
As soon as national institutions have awakened the sense of personality and the
feeling of self-respect
the desire of accumulating wealth grows with them. And
in no form is it more liable to abuse than in connection with the possession of
land. Men desire
by an almost universal instinct
to possess property in land
with its healthy occupations and interests
so varied and multiplied by the
living powers of nature
and with its important political and social rights
which grow up with the duties which are specially connected with it; for this
kind of property demands the fulfilment of more
and more obvious duties than
any other
while it confers corresponding rights and powers by bringing a man
into more complete personal relationship with his neighbours than is possible
in the crowd of cities and the whirl of city trades. Yet
since the land cannot
be increased in quantity
its possession by one man is the exclusion of
another
and the Hebrew laws endeavoured to meet this difficulty by special
provisions
the breach or evasion of which the prophet now denounces in his
first “woe” on the selfish landowner. He who can join house to house and lay
field to field when he knows
and long has known
face to face
the very man
wife and child whom he has dispossessed
and can drive out by his own simple
act his fellow men to be desolate in their poverty
in order that he may be
alone in his riches
may expect a punishment proportioned to his crime. (Sir
E. Strachey
Bart.)
Nemesis
The prophet heard
ringing in his ears
the declaration of
Jehovah
the King of the land
that the great and fair palaces should become as
desolate as the peasants and yeomen’s cottages which had made place for
them--the vineyard of ten acres yield but eight gallons of wine
and the
cornfield shall give back but a tenth part of the seed sown in it. (Sir E.
Strachey
Bart.)
The Mosaic legislation
Moses directed as equal a division of the land as possible
in the
first instance
among the 600
000 families who originally formed the nation;
and provided against the permanent alienation of any estate by giving a right
of repurchase to the seller and his relations
and of repossession without
purchase at the Jubilee. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
Land laws
In the Channel Islands the acreage to be owned by one individual
is limited. In Norway the law provides that the heirs of anyone who has parted
with his property may buy that property back at sale price within a term of
five years. (F. Sessions.)
Hebrew land laws
The Hebrew legislation further prevented the exhaustion of the
soil and the fruit trees
by enforcing fallow and rest during every seventh
year. The offerings of first fruits really constituted a kind of land tax
payable to Jehovah as Over-Lord
and tending to prevent the conversion of folk
land into “thane’s land
” or king’s land. The legislation placed Jehovah’s
tenants under a poor law
which compelled cultivators to leave the gleanings of
the crops
and all that the fallows of the seventh year Sabbaths produced
spontaneously in those prolific fields
for the support of the needy. By the
limitations of the right of private ownership
--a right that was not denied
and was frequently exercised
--every man was taught his responsibilities to his
fellows. The theory was
as someone has written: “Brotherhood in the enjoyment
of a Father’s bounty.” (F. Sessions.)
“Land grabbing”
“Land grabbing”and “evictions” may be new terms
but they are
century-old sins. (F. Sessions.)
The land question
The land question is as old as history. The Hebrews were hardly
out of the wilderness before laws were enacted to prevent the strong from
getting more land than anyone ought to possess. The land laws of Moses occupy a
large place in his legislation. The prevention of monopoly in land was clearly
in the mind of the Hebrew lawgiver. In Isaiah’s time the nation had recovered
from poverty and grown rich
and the wealthy and ruling classes had begun to
grasp the earth. They would have tried to fence in the air and pack the
sunlight in barrels
if they could have done so. The spirit that would
monopolise land would monopolise light if it could. Against this awful wrong
the voice of the Lord rings its condemnation. Four things belong to man as man
and anyone who tries to prevent their being used for the service of humanity is
a sinner against the universe and against God. Those four things are: the
earth
the air
the water
and the light. Every man has a right to live
and no
one can live as he ought without free access to earth
air
water
and light.
Isaiah brought the people to this one point--this land belongs to God
and you
are using it as if it were yours to do with as you please. And that is all that
need be said today. The land
like the air
belongs to God; and if to God
then
to humanity; and it is our business to find out
as all easily can if they
will
how the great Owner of all the earth would have men use that which must
be the home of all His creatures. Of one thing
however
we may be sure. He
never intended that a few big lions should get possession of all the forests
so that there should be no comfortable places left for the rabbits
the sheep
and the cattle
except in holes in the ground; and He never intended that a few
strong men should get possession of all the fertile
healthful
and beautiful
]portions of earth
so that the rest of humanity--the artists
the artisans
the literary men
and those who work with their hands--should be obliged to
live in cellars and attics and hardly know what is meant by that great and dear
word home. (Amory H. Bradford
D. D.)
A woe on monopolists
I. THE SIN. Their
fault is--
1. That they are inordinate in their desires to enrich themselves
and make it their whole care and business to raise an estate
as if they had
nothing to mind
nothing to seek
nothing to do in this world but that. They
never know when they have enough
but the more they have the more they would
have. They cannot enjoy what they have
nor do good with it
for contriving and
studying to make it more. They must have variety of houses
a winter house and
a summer house; and if another man’s house or field lie convenient to theirs
as Naboth’s vineyard to Ahab’s
they must have that too
or they cannot be
easy.
2. They are herein careless of others; nay
and injurious to them.
They would live so as to let nobody live but themselves. They would swell so
big as to fill all space and yet are still unsatisfied (Ecclesiastes 5:10).
II. THE PUNISHMENT.
That which is threatened as the punishment of this sin is--
1. That the houses they were so fond of should be untenanted
should
stand long empty
and so should yield them no rent
and go out of repair. Men’s
projects are often frustrated
and what they frame answers not the intention.
2. That the fields they were so fond of should be unfruitful. (M.
Henry.)
Unpatriotic monopolies
In 1650
while Cromwell was prosecuting his campaign against
Charles II in Scotland
he wrote the Speaker of the Parliament
urging the
reformation of many abuses and added
“If there be anyone that makes many poor
to make a few rich
that suits not a commonwealth.” (C. Knight’s
England.)
Greed pauperises the soul
A farmer said “he should like to have all the land that joined his
own.” Bonaparte
who had the same appetite
endeavoured to make the
Mediterranean a French lake. Czar Alexander was more expansive
and wished to
call the Pacific “my ocean”; and the Americans were obliged to resist his
attempts to make it a close sea. But if he had the earth for his pasture
and the
sea for his pond
he would be a pauper still. He only is rich who owns the day.
(R. W. Emerson.)
Covetous persons are
Covetous persons are like sponges
which greedily drink in water
but return very little
until they are squeezed. A covetous person wants what
he has
as well as what he has not
because he is never satisfied with it. (G.
S. Bowes.)
Folly of covetousness
If you should see a man that had a large pond of water yet living
in continual thirst
not suffering himself to drink half a draught for fear of
lessening his pond; if you should see him wasting his time and strength in
fetching more water to his pond
always thirsty
yet always carrying a bucket
of water in his hand
watching early and late to catch the drops of rain
gaping after every cloud
and running greedily into every mire and mud in hopes
of water
and always studying how to make every ditch empty itself into the
pond; if you should see him grow grey in these anxious labours
and at last end
a careful thirsty life by falling into his own pond
would you not say that
such a one was not only the author of his own disquiet
but was foolish enough
to be reckoned among madmen? But foolish and absurd as this character is
it
does not represent half the follies and absurd disquiets of the covetous man. (Law’s
Serious Call.)
Verse 9
Many houses shall be desolate
even great and fair
without
inhabitant
Empty houses
(To children):--Empty houses! We all know what they look like.
From afar we can see the bills in the windows--“This house to let
” or “To be
let
” or
still more curtly
“To let”; and when we come nearer
the black
windows
without blinds or curtains
gape and yawn at us. In the garden the
long matted grass has overrun the lawn
and covered nearly all the beds. The
door creaks on its hinges as we enter
as though it had been asleep and did not
wish to be wakened. There are other houses that are not quite empty. They are
comfortably furnished; but the family has gone to the seaside. A servant or an
old lady has been kept in the house as caretaker
and as she usually lives in
the back part of the house she is often not seen from one week’s end to the
other.
I. This world is
like a house comfortably and beautifully furnished
and in which we men and
women have been placed “to dress it and to keep it.” But THE WORLD WITHOUT GOD
IS LIKE AN EMPTY HOUSE. God is the builder of this house; and He is the tenant
too. Cowper
in his “Task
” speaks of some men who “untenant the Creator of His
universe.” There are some who say that God made this house
and put us in it as
caretakers
and then went to live in His own grand mansion in heaven; and there
He sits
receiving our letters
which are our prayers
and sending His servants
to do His commands. But we believe that God always lives in this house. He is
in every room
in England
and in the Continent
and in Africa
and in America.
It is God’s name that is woven into the beautiful carpet of grass and flowers
that
is carved into the rocks
and worked into the mossy couches
and painted in the
beautiful landscape pictures
and reflected in the mirror-like lakes and ponds
and rivers. If God were not in the world it would be like a desolate house
though great and fair.
II.
But there is another kind
of house that is sometimes found to be empty.
Life is like a house. Its
length
however
is measured
not by feet and yards
but by days and
months and years. Some lives are long and some are very short. Its breadth is measured
by its sympathy and influence. Sometimes the tenant is not a good one. A
selfish purpose takes possession
and then the house is like the house of a
miser
long
and narrow
and low. And sometimes the house is like a house of
feasting
from which there comes the sound of music and dancing
and the clink
of glasses and of plates. That is when the desire for pleasure becomes a
tenant. But there are some of these houses that are without an inhabitant. For
A LIFE WITHOUT A PURPOSE IS LIKE AN EMPTY HOUSE. Some people do not know why
they live. They eat and drink and sleep; but they have no great aims
no noble
purposes. Their lives are like empty houses. Take Christ with you into your
life. And then your life will grow up like a grand temple
upon which there
will be inscribed: “Holiness unto the Lord”; in which there will be perpetual
peace and happiness; and from which there will ever come the sound of holy
chant and psalm.
III. And then there
is another house of which I thought. It was a small house
but large enough to
accommodate one man. It was built in the face of a rock
and a great stone door
was placed before it. It belonged to a man named Joseph; but another tenant was
put in. He did not remain there long: it was too dark
and cold
and dreary. That
house was the tomb of Jesus. And A TOMB WITHOUT A SAVIOUR IS LIKE AN EMPTY
HOUSE. There are many houses of that kind built in these days; and they are all
full. But a time is coming when a trumpet shall sound
and the doors of these
dreary houses shall be opened
and the tenants shall all come out. And then
their houses shall be empty like the tomb of Jesus. (W. V. Robinson
B. A.)
Verse 11-12
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning
that they may
follow strong drink
The fruits of drunkenness
I.
In
reference to THE INDIVIDUAL HIMSELF
who is its victim. It may
perhaps
be
made a question by some
When may a man be regarded as intoxicated
and what
may be the number of offences which would entitle him to the character and name
of drunkard? Intoxication essentially consists in the obscuration of the light
of reason
so that it is no longer able fully to exercise its functions; and
therefore
the moment this light has become even partially eclipsed
and the
moment
perhaps
that that exhilaration begins
which always urges onwards and
craves for more--at that moment we may say
that as the individual is in a
state of alarming danger
so the process of intoxication has commenced; and
therefore
many a man may be strictly and truly said to be intoxicated
though
he does not “reel and stagger like a drunken man.” No man ever became a
drunkard all at once
i.e.
in ordinary cases; for some have become so
instantaneously through the pressure of affliction
and from the impulse of
despair. It is not the intoxicating beverage that allures at first (for
in
general
the natural taste rejects it)
but the “harp and the viol
and the
tabret and the pipe
” that are in the drunkard’s feasts--that hilarity which
innocent perhaps in itself
brings at that time a snare
and that good
companionship which
while it dispenses its joys
spits its venom. By and by
however
they come to like the beverage
not on account of the company it
brings together
but for itself; and remembering its exciting and exhilarating
qualities
have recourse to it at other seasons
first along with others
and
then in private by themselves--finding on each occasion some excuse to silence
conscience
and to keep themselves up in their self-esteem; till
at last
going on in their downward career
their drink becomes as necessary as their
daily food
and they live with an appetite always craving
and an intellect
seldom clear. And what are the invariable accompaniments and consequences?
1. The intemperate man is brought into contact with the most
worthless companions
who have no fear of God before their eyes
and who lead
him on
step by step
till they plunge him into irremediable ruin.
2. Indulgence in strong drink tends to the eclipse of intellect. This
effect may not be exhibited at first. On the contrary
in the first stages of
the sin
the opposite result may appear. Have you never seen these same
faculties
which the exhilarating draught awakened for more powerful efforts
by the very same influence
deprived of all their wakeful energy
and steeped
in an oblivion the most complete and the most melancholy; so that far from
being capable of bursting forth with more than common brilliancy
they become
incapacitated for the performance even of their common functions?
3. Look at the effects resulting
when the orb of reason has
undergone this dread eclipse. Then is an inlet afforded for all wickedness
and
every crime may free a perpetrator. The strong man of the house being bound
the passions arise like robbers
and rifle his goods. The lust of the flesh
and the lust of the eye
are all permitted to riot in unchecked fury. The
monarch of the soul being
for the time
dethroned
the subjects spend
themselves in the work of anarchy.
4. No one can sin with impunity; and even in this life
we often see
transgression closely tracked by its attendant punishment. But of all sins
that of drunkenness seems to be peculiarly visited with retribution here; for
the loss of reputation invariably follows indulgence in the habits of
intemperance.
II. Glance at its
results as far as THE DRUNKARD’S FAMILY is concerned. No ruin can be conceived
more tremendous than when the roof tree of a man’s domestic happiness falls in
and leaves him a home
but without its joys. He is an enemy indeed who casts a
brand into that temple
and envelops that altar in destructive flames. But this
intemperance does. No one can express the hopes or the joys of a mother
when
she sees her son walking in the ways of virtue. But
in proportion is her
sorrow
when she sees the son that she has borne and nursed
becoming a
worthless profligate
an outcast
and a drunkard. Intemperance is silently but
too surely sapping the very foundations of society. Who
then
that has any
regard either for the glory of God
or for the welfare of his country
would
not gird on his armour to meet the enemy in the gate? (P. M’Morland.)
The degradation and ruin of intemperance
I. THE SIN
WITH
ITS CONCOMITANTS AND CONNECTIONS
DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT.
1. The prophet refers to intemperance and its associate habits of
festivity and dissipation. The corrupt condition of social life
springing from
the depravity of the heart
has in every age encouraged those stimulants to
evil adverted to in this passage
and which are alike felt by the high and the
low. The wine mentioned is the date or palm wine
which possessed an
inebriating quality; but
whatever be the particular drink--the wine of the
wealthy or the beer of the poor--the accompaniments of the festival
metropolitan or rural
are frequently similar both in kind and effect
and tend
to evil. Our Lord
it is true
was at a feast of Cana in Galilee; and music
“the harp and the viol
the tabret and pipe
” may minister to an innocent
recreation or gratify judicious taste; but we need scarcely adduce the trite
distinction between the use and abuse of a thing
to show wherein lies
in the
present case
the moral danger. The sin of excess
both in eating and drinking
in the forms of gluttony and intoxication
is peculiarly odious.
2. The prophet points out the connection between intemperance and
unhallowed festivity
and an infidel disregard of the works and ways of Deity.
Thus are body and soul at once degraded and ruined. Under the influence of
intemperance men are led to disregard “the operations of His hands
” not only
undervaluing the works of God
but unmindful of His providential and gracious
dispensations. His judgments do not alarm
His mercies do not conciliate them;
they despise the one
and disown the other.
II. THE WOE
DENOUNCED BY THE PROPHET UPON THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF INTEMPERANCE. The “woe”
is to be plainly traced in the conscious unhappiness of the delinquent
even
though he seem gay and smiling--in the general and almost certain loss of
health
that first of earthly blessings--in the diminution and probable loss of
property
and of every resource--in the dereliction of friends worth having in
the terrors of an unprepared for death
or the even more horrible condition of
a moral death unfelt
and a natural death unheeded--and
lastly
in the
quenchless burnings of the bottomless pit. Habits of intemperance are
progressively formed
and therefore require the exercise of extreme
carefulness
self-discipline
and prayer. Beware of the first step--of the
first temptation--of the first immoderate indulgence. I conclude by presenting
you with three short maxims of human wisdom
and one precept of Divine
inspiration. He that will not fear
shall feel the wrath of heaven. He that
lives in the kingdom of sense
shall die into the kingdom of sorrow. He shall
never truly enjoy his present hour
who never thinks on his last. “Be not
filled with wine wherein is excess
but be filled with the Spirit.” (F.
A.Cox
D. D.
LL. D.)
Following strong drink
1. The Almighty has set His face solemnly and strongly against the
sin denounced in the text.
2. Unquestionably
the surest way of stopping the ravages of strong
drink will be by means of total abstinence. The fear of ridicule
the force of
habit
the consideration of health
the charge of inhospitality
or the
appearance of unsociableness
one or other of these arguments prevail with the
vast multitude to induce them to stand aloof from the total abstinence movement.
3. Certain precautions which are within the compass of those who are
not prepared to give their adhesion to total abstinence.
The drunkard’s doom
I. THE SIGN OF THE
DRUNKARD’S CAPTIVITY. In every vice there is a stage beyond which
humanly
speaking
recovery is impossible. A time comes when the jaws of the trap snap
together and the victim is caught. In intemperance this point is reached
imperceptibly
and the victim is ignorant long after others see his danger.
II. THE
HELPLESSNESS OF THE CAPTIVE DRUNKARD. Isaiah describes him as following strong
drink. As the obedient dog at his master’s heels
or as the moth after the
light
so the drunkard follows strong drink. At first he thinks he does so for
the pleasure he derives from it
but he soon recognises that he is helpless in
so doing. As a man swept down towards the rapids looks longingly towards those
on the bank who can render no help
so the drinker yearns after virtues and
peace which can never more be his. No tyrant was ever more exacting. Though he be
prostrate in the morning
yet he must rise at his captor’s bidding
and by
forced marches hasten to his doom.
III. THE DOOM THAT
AWAITS THE DRUNKARD.
1. Moral insensibility. They regard not the work of the Lord. They
call good
evil; and evil
good. Drink so blunts the sensibilities that the
victim under its influence can commit crimes from which at other times he would
shrink. More crimes are committed “in drink” than out of it.
2. Shamelessness. After obliterating the distinction between right
and wrong he turns and defies God and glories in sin. When the prophet warns
him that God will visit him
he dares Him to do His worst. “Let Him make speed
and hasten His work
that we may see it.”
3. Hell. The drinker tempts the devil
for even hell has to enlarge
its appetite to receive him. When the destroyer would be satisfied
the drinker
stimulates his satiated desire
determining to be lost. So he ends his course
with the drunkard’s grave and the drunkard’s hell. (R. C. Ford
M. A.)
Isaiah’s testimony to the licentiousness and degeneracy of his age
1. Contrary to modern and superficial notions
which confine
intemperance to northern climes
and exclude it from vine-growing countries
the people of Israel
following the example of their chief men
were addicted
to the grossest indulgence in intoxicating liquors. The juice of the grape (yayin)
and the juice of other fruits (shakar) were drunk in their fermented
state; and probably both
certainly the latter
were mixed with pungent and
heavy drugs (verse 22) in order to gratify a base and insatiable appetite. Men
rose up early and sat up late to prosecute these vicious indulgences
and they
boasted of themselves as “mighty” and “valiant” (verse 22) in proportion as
they were able to gulp down large quantities of these compounds and to “carry
their drink well.”
2. The attendant and in no small measure the consequential evils were
of the most aggravated kind. The Divine works were disregarded (verse 12)
ignorance reigned (verse 13)
sin abounded (verse 18)
men’s moral conceptions
were the opposite of the truth (verse 20)
self-conceit grew luxuriantly (verse
21)
bribery and injustice were rampant (verse 23). The vengeance of God was
awakening against them and would take the triple form of famine
pestilence
and invasion
so that their supplies of drink would be cut off (verses 6
7
10)
the pest-stricken would lie in the streets (verse 25)
and hostile nations
would ravage the land (verses 26-30). (Temperance Bible Commentary.)
Musical merriment silencing conscience
“And the harp
” etc. Better
And guitar and harp
tambourine and
flute
and wine constitute their banquet;--as if to drown the voice of
conscience and destroy the sense of Jehovah’s presence and working in their
midst. (Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
Edison’s testimony to the value of abstinence
I once asked the greatest of inventors
Thomas A. Edison
if he
were a total abstainer; and when he told me that he was
I said
“May I inquire
whether it was home influence that made you so?” and he replied
“No
I think
it was because I always felt that I had a better use for my head.” Who can
measure the loss to the world if that wonderful instrument of thought that has
given us so much of light and leading in the practical mechanism of life had
become sodden with drink
instead of electric with original ideas? (Frances
E. Willard.)
Verse 12
They regard not the work of the Lord
The providence of God
A neglect of God
and a disregard of His wonder-working
providence
constitutes the character of man under the influence of his natural
corruption of heart.
It formed the character of the Jewish Church
notwithstanding its outward
privileges and its appointed means of religious improvement. It forms the
character of nominal Christians. Covetousness and sensuality are the two great
causes of man’s neglect of God (Isaiah 5:8; Isaiah 5:11-12).
I. TAKE A
CHRISTIAN VIEW OF THE PROVIDENCE OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER. God’s “never-failing
providence ordereth all things both in heaven and in earth.” This providence
is--
1. Divine.
2. Universal
3. Tender.
4. Watchful.
II. Points of
practical instruction.
1. This doctrine is quite consistent with your free agency.
2. Think not that your Lord forgets you in the immensity of His
works. “Sanctified afflictions
” says an old writer
“are good promotions.”
3. Pray that God would by His providence “put away from you all
hurtful things
” and “give you those things which be profitable for you
” and
remember that the welfare of your souls is concerned in all the actions and
undertakings of every day and hour. (W. M. Harte.)
Sensuality essentially atheistic
The sensual reveller simply disregards God’s constitution and
government of society. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
Verse 13
My people are gone into captivity
because they have no knowledge
A sermon for Trinity Sunday
1.
“My
people.” The Almighty has a people of His own; a people with special privileges
and a special work to do. In the Old Testament and the New this is clearly
written. “My people
” says Isaiah; “My flock
” says Jesus Christ. That is the
method of grace. God acts upon some of us that they may act upon the rest. In
the days of a school the young influence one another. In a town
in a nation
it is the same. And a whole country has its mission for the world as the
Hebrews had. Now
in the text that nation is complained of. Why? Because they
had no knowledge.
2. “My people” is a term which shows us God’s character. The
inferences which arise from it should be dear to Christians. God will not be
without a people
because He is a God of love. He must have around Him children
to love. But it is a quality inherent in love to love its like. Children may be
helpless
or wayward: we can bear with them
love them
not less
perhaps more
for their weakness and dependence; but they must not be reprobate. There must
be some affinity of feeling
something lovable in them
or at last we shall not
love
or at any rate love will be in abeyance. God
we believe
has not
and
never will
disinherit Israel finally. Why did he go so wrong and choose so
badly? “Therefore My people are gone into captivity
because they have no
knowledge.” They had knowledge enough in their head no doubt
but they had not
taken it to their heart.
3. Now
as regards ourselves
we are God’s people--not exclusively
but among other Christian nations of this later time. God has given us great
knowledge of His truth. He has even revealed to us deep secrets of His own
nature: even the mystery of the Holy Trinity itself. Since God has given
knowledge to us
it should be kept by us not in a passive but in a living
active state. (2 Timothy 1:13; Titus 1:13; Titus 2:1; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Jude 1:3.) And this knowledge is
so efficient and operative a force that it is all-important to keep it “whole
and undefiled.” This “doctrine” of the Holy Trinity is no speculative thing
but it is closely interwoven with the principles of Christian life. (T. F.
Crosse
D. C. L.)
“They have no knowledge”
How should they
when by their excessive drinking they make sots
and fools of themselves? They set up for wits; but because they regard not
God’s controversy with them
nor take any care as to their peace with Him
they
may truly be said to have no knowledge; and the reason is
because they will
have none; inconsiderate and wilful
and therefore “destroyed for lack of
knowledge.” (M. Henry.)
Inconsideration and ignorance
1. Ignorance is the certain consequence of inconsideration.
2. Inconsideration is the natural effect of luxury and dissipation
which arise from gratified avarice and ambition. (R. Macculloch.)
Records of the past
The great stone book of nature reveals many strange records of the
past. In the red sandstone there are found in some places marks which are
clearly the impressions of showers of rein
and these so perfect that it can
even be determined in which direction the shower inclined
and from what
quarter it proceeded; and this ages ago! So sin leaves its track behind it
and
God keeps a faithful record of all our sins. (G. H. Morrison
M. A.)
Verses 14-16
Hell hath enlarged herself . . . the Lord of hosts shall be
exalted in Judgment
The grave
“Hell
” here
stands not for future punishment.
The word “Sheol” in Hebrew
“Hades” in Greek
and “Hell” in this verse
represent the place of the dead--the grave. This place of the dead is spoken of
in the Bible as a very deep place (Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 11:8; Psalms 139:7-8). As a very dark place (Job 10:21-22). And as a place having
gates into it (Isaiah 38:10).
I. THE GROWING
POWER OF THE GRAVE. The grave is here represented as having “enlarged herself
and opened her mouth without measure.” The words refer
undoubtedly
to a
period when
through famine
pestilence
or war
mortality was on the increase.
This increase of mortality teaches us--
1. The fruitlessness of all human efforts to avert death. Men have
been struggling against death for six thousand years
and his dominion is wider
today than ever.
2. How soon we shall be in the grave world. The mouth is opening for
us; it is yawning at our feet.
II. THE LEVELLING
POWER OF THE GRAVE. “And their glory
and their multitude
and their pomp
and
he that rejoiceth
shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought
down
and the mighty man shall be humbled
and the eyes of the lofty shall be
humbled.” Learn from this--
1. How foolish it is to be proud of adventitious distinctions. They
are only as flowers of the field
evanescent forms
and hues that variegate the
common grass.
2. How important to seek an alliance with the eternally great and
good. Seek “a city which hath foundations
” a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
III. THE ETERNAL
SOVEREIGN OF THE GRAVE. “But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment
and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.”
1. He survives all dissolutions.
2. He will be increasingly honoured. “The Lord of hosts shall be
exalted in judgment.” (Homilist.)
God’s judgments on the Jews
This judgment began to come upon the men whom Isaiah addressed
in
the reign of Ahaz
soon after the delivery of the warning; but in order fully
to understand it
we must (as in the case of all other prophecies) look at it
in the light of the whole subsequent history of the Jews and of Christendom. In
the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans
Christ and His apostles saw
the selfish and carnal nation brought to its last trial and righteously
condemned
and the sentence carried into execution by that Man whom God had
appointed to judge the world. They declared
and the event
spread over
successive centuries
has proved the truth of the declaration
that God was
bringing down the mean man and the mighty man alike throughout the world and
exalting Himself and His Son
setting His name up in the world
and causing it
to triumph over all opposition. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
God the righteous Judge
Though men may slavishly dread an arbitrary will
they can never
feel for it that salutary tear which is the beginning of wisdom; and unless we
believe that God’s judgments are righteous--that they are a part of the steady
administration of a polity--as well as good in their effects
it will be
impossible for us to keep long from superstition
or its opposite
scepticism.
And
therefore
we may see the germ of a true historical and political
philosophy in the prophet’s repeated assertion
that God is exalted in
executing justice and sanctified in righteousness. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
Verse 18-19
Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of vanity.
Frivolity and profanity
Frivolity
he says
is the herald and handmaid of guilt. The cords
are cords of vanity bound about us in mere thoughtlessness in the unguarded
hours of recreation
in the giddy whirl of society
when talk is gay and free
and no man weighs his words; the cords of vanity bind us on subtly but surely
to the calamitous burden of sin. I submit to you that the prophet in thus
linking together frivolity and iniquity
commends himself to us as a close and
just observer of human society. Profanity is the last term of a series; it is a
stage we reach by the unmarked way of frivolous habit
and that unmarked way is
the broad way of the general life. Society itself is unfavourable to thought
and gravity and depth of character. It makes us of necessity superficial
light
shallow. At best it ministers to the gracious externals of a man’s
conduct
and too often it does this at the cost of his character; for the
philosopher said truly that custom is the principal magistrate of a man’s life;
and if
by the ceaseless iteration of frivolous speech and action
we bind upon
ourselves the chain of frivolous habit
be sure the mischief penetrates into the
very citadel of character. (Canon H. Hensley Henson
B. D.)
God’s woes
God’s woes are better than the devil’s welcomes. When we get a woe
in this book of blessings it is sent as a warning
that we may escape from woe.
(C. H.Spurgeon.)
Disguises and defiances
Society
for its self-preservation and well-being
provides that
virtue should be in the ascendant
should sit on the throne
should hold the
empire and make the laws of the world. There have been times when vice has
ostentatiously unmasked itself in high places
and with a triumphant audacity
has made itself the fashion and the social law. Such was the epoch of the
decadence of the old Roman civilisation. Such were the times of the restoration
of the English monarchy under Charles II.
The moral collapse at the Restoration was the inevitable unbending
of the bow after the rigours of the Puritan regime. England was tired of
unmelodious psalm singing and endless homilies on the sin of eating Christmas
pies and dancing around May poles. It welcomed with a strange alacrity and a
strange forgetfulness the exiled prince
whose morals
none too good to begin
with
had been debauched in foreign courts
and who brought back to the palace
of his fathers nothing of royalty
except enchanting manners
graceful wit
and
an insatiable thirst for pleasure. But the enthronement of vice was only for a
day. Men on the morrow smote it on the face
and hurled it from the seat which
gave it power and lustre. This is the history of fashionable and jewelled vice
in every age. When those who inherit wealth and polite culture and the
accumulated embellishments of life conspicuously trample on the laws of
righteousness the insulted world calls them to account
and in self-defence
consigns them to social outlawry. So plainly is Virtue the eldest born and the
fairest of the daughters of God. If our Lord uttered woe on the heartless and
pretentious morality of His day
the prophet uttered woe on the confessed and
ostentatious immorality of his time. Isaiah’s words
as well as Christ’s
have
a bearing on our modern life: “Woe unto them that draw iniquity with cords of
vanity
and sin as it were with a cart rope.” Men hate hypocrisy. A profitable
virtue that is not real
or a formal virtue that is not large and loving
moves
us to scorn or pity. But
strange to say
the hatred of hypocrisy is not always
in the interests of virtue “I will not be a hypocrite
” says one
and in his
horror of hypocrisy he rushes into an open and shameless evil life. This is
what the prophet means in his graphic picture
“Woe unto them that draw
iniquity
” etc. He depicts a class of men who have deliberately harnessed
themselves to evil
as a horse or mule is harnessed
to a loaded waggon. There
are forms of iniquity which are difficult and laborious. Those who get over any
ground with them must pull them with a cart rope. It is grievous business
but
some men choose it
and take more trouble to be bad than actually is necessary
to be good. And they prosecute ostentatiously the business that they have
chosen. They take no care to conceal the evil industry of their life. It is the
instinct of sin to disguise itself. It usually skulks behind an assumed
goodness. It takes to itself virtuous names. It puts on masks to hide itself
not only from the eyes of men
but also from the eyes of conscience. But the
man who drags sin with a cart rope boasts only one virtue
and that is a real
one: he is no hypocrite. He has thrown appearances to the winds. He drags his
iniquity conspicuously on the highway
in the daylight. He does not care to
conceal the coat of arms on the carriage
or the livery of the driver who holds
the reins and snaps over him the whip. Perhaps no one ever fully commits
himself to this sort of life until he has
or thinks that he has
arrived at
the conclusion that all goodness in the world is a sham; that the virtue to
which men sing praises is simply a convenient fiction
which they affect to
believe
and pretend to possess; that
as there is no real righteousness on the
earth
so there is no sovereign righteousness in the heavens; that God is
simply a dumb force
without moral quality
and indifferent to the moral
quality of His creatures. Hence the prophet makes such a one say
in
presumptuous taunt and irony: “Let Him make speed
” etc. Is this rude picture
culled from the page of the old Hebrew prophet
unsuited to these smooth times
and this Christianised civilisation? Do none of you ever say: “I know it is
wrong. It is an offence against God
against myself
against my neighbour. It
is an unquestionable violation of what is pure and honest. I can See the harm
that it works; but I do not disguise it. I do not pretend to be other than I
am. I am at least frank. I do not affect a virtue which I do not possess”?
Well
this is one alternative to hypocrisy. Did you ever think that there is
another
--to recognise the evil in your nature and the sin in your life; to
look at it with keen
brave eyes
illumined by the study of God’s law to guard
against it day by day and moment by moment; and resolutely to fight it
in its
first impulses
in its fiercest assaults
by the help of God’s grace? Is not
this a possible alternative? It is not demanded of you that you be sinless; but
you need not be the liveried slave of sin. It is not required of you that you
be perfect; but you can enlist and do battle on the side of right. (W. W.
Battershall
D. D.)
Cords and cart-ropes
I. Explain the
singular description. Here are persons harnessed to the waggon of
sin--harnessed to it by many cords
all light as vanity and yet strong as cart
ropes.
1. Let me give you a picture. Here is a man who
as a young man
heard the Gospel and grew up under the influence of it. He is an intelligent
man
a Bible reader
and somewhat of a theologian. He attended a Bible class
was an apt pupil
and could explain much of Scripture
but he took to lightness
and frothiness. He made an amusement of religion and a sport of serious things.
He came under the bond of this religious trifling
but it was a cord of vanity
small as a packthread. Years ago he began to be bound to his sin by this kind
of trifling
and at the present moment I am not sure that he ever cares to go
and hear the Gospel or to read the Word of God
for he has grown to despise
that which he sported with. The wanton witling has degenerated into a malicious
scoffer: his cord has become a cart rope. His life is all trifling now.
2. I have seen the same thing take another shape
and then it
appeared as captious questioning. How can he believe in Christ when he requires
Him
first of all
to be put through a catechism and to be made to answer
cavils? Oh
take heed of tying up your soul with cart ropes of scepticism.
3. Some have a natural dislike to religious things and cannot be
brought to attend to them. Let me qualify the statement. They are quite
prepared to attend a place of worship and to hear sermons
and occasionally to
read the Scriptures
and to give their money to help on some benevolent cause;
but this is the point at which they draw the line--they do not want to think
to pray
to repent
to believe
or to make heart work of the matter. If you
indulge in demurs and delays and prejudices in the first days of your
conviction
the time may come when those little packthreads will be so
intertwisted with each other that they will make a great cart rope
and you
will become an opposer of everything that is good
determined to abide forever
harnessed to the great Juggernaut car of your iniquities
and so to perish.
4. I have known some men get harnessed to that ear in another way
and that is by deference to companions. There is no doubt that many people go
to hell for the love of being respectable. It is not to be doubted that
multitudes pawn their souls
and lose their God and heaven
merely for the sake
of standing well in the estimation of a profligate. He that would be free
forever must break the cords ere yet they harden into chains.
5. Some men are getting into bondage in another way; they are forming
gradual habits of evil.
6. I fear that not a few are under the delusive notion that they are
safe as they are. Carnal security is made up of cords of vanity.
II. THERE IS A WOE
ABOUT REMAINING HARNESSED TO THE CART OF SIN
and that woe is expressed in our
text.
1. It has been hard work already to tug at sin’s load.
2. But
if you remain harnessed to this car of sin
the weight
increases. You are like a horse that has to go a journey
and pick up parcels
at every quarter of a mile: you are increasing the heavy luggage and baggage
that you have to drag behind you.
3. Further
I want you to notice that as the load grows heavier
so
the road becomes worse
the ruts are deeper
the hills are steeper
and the
sloughs are more full of mire. An old man with his bones filled with the sin of
his youth is a dreadful sight to look upon; he is a curse to others
and a
burden to himself.
4. The day will come when the load will crush the horse.
5. I am sure that there is nobody here who desires to be eternally a
sinner: let him then beware
for each hour of sin brings its hardness and its
difficulty of change. When the moral brakes are taken off
and the engine is on
the downgrade
and must run on at a perpetually quickening rate forever
then
is the soul lost indeed.
III. Now I want to
offer some ENCOURAGEMENT FOR BREAKING LOOSE.
1. There is hope for every harnessed slave of Satan. Jesus Christ has
come into the world to rescue those who are bound with chains.
2. You are bound with the cords of sin
and in order that all this
sin of yours might effectually be put away
the Lord Jesus
the Son of the
Highest
was Himself bound.
3. There is in this world a mysterious Being whom thou knowest not
but whom some of us know
who is able to work thy liberty. Wherever there is a
soul that would be free from sin this free Spirit waits to help him.
4. Our experience should be a great encouragement to you. (C.
H.Spurgeon.)
Spiritual cart ropes
Cart ropes are composed of several small cords firmly twisted
together
which serve to connect the beasts of burden with the draught they
pull after them. These represent a complication of means closely united
whereby a people here described continue to join them selves to the most
wearisome of all burdens. They consist of false reasonings
foolish pretexts
and corrupt maxims
by which obstinate transgressors become firmly united to
their sins
and persist in dragging after them their iniquities. Of this sort
the following are a few specimens: God is merciful
and His goodness will not
suffer any of His creatures to be completely and everlastingly miserable.
Others
as well as they
are transgressors. Repentance will be time enough upon
a death bed or in old age. The greatest of sinners often pass unpunished. A
future state of retribution is uncertain. Unite these
and such like cords
and
I suppose
you have the cart ropes whereby the persons mentioned draw
after them much sin and iniquity. All these pretexts
however
are light as
vanity. (R. Macculloch.)
The cord of sin
These words are at all times
and among every people
of especial
interest
were it only on two accounts--
I. THE FIGURE
under which the sinner is represented in the former of these verses is that of
a rope-maker. He begins with a slight slender thread of flax or hemp
which he
can break almost with as much ease as a spider’s web; but the end of his work
is a cart rope
thick and strong enough to bind the strongest man or beast upon
earth. So a man begins and ends with sin. He begins with drawing iniquity with
cords of vanity. The iniquity upon which he is tempted to enter seems to him a
mere trifle at first
to which
if not good
he thinks that he gives a hard
name to call it downright had; and if it even do smite his conscience with some
evil signs of its real nature
which he can hardly mistake
he is vain enough
in the notion of his own strength
to think
that when he has gone into it he
can as easily come out of it again. It is but as flax or tow (he says); it is
but a cord of vanity and not of substance. He needs not to go on spinning and
drawing it out (he thinks); but he will stop short as soon as he has gone as
far as he wants
and that is not far. Alas! how many can fix the beginning of
their ruin in this world
and imminent peril of the judgment of the next
on
the day when they said in foolish security
and in face of a warning conscience
“It is but for this once!” Alas! they never said so again. It proved to them to
be “now and forever.”
II. The text
informs us in the next verse that these men
who
beginning with drawing
iniquity with cords of vanity
had ended with drawing sin
as it were
with a
cart rope
WENT ON TO MOCK AT JUDGMENT TO COME. The thoughts of judgment to
come re
of course
very unpleasant to him who knows that he shall have to
suffer from it when it does come. His sin
therefore
hardens him into a
disbelief of it. (R. W. Evans
B.D.)
The growth of sin
Sin grows as naturally and as fast as the fire
which lays a city
in ruins
comes out of a single spark in some solitary obscure corner; as
surely as the rains
which bury a whole country in a flood
begin with a few
sprinkled drops
which were not worth talking about; as surely as the river
which must be crossed with ships
begins with a well which you might empty
almost with the scoop of your hand; as certainly as the strong thick cart rope
begins with a few weak flaxen or hempen threads. (R. W.Evans
B. D.)
Strength of habit
The surgeon of a regiment in India relates the following incident:
“A soldier rushed into the tent
to inform me that one of his comrades was
drowning in a pond close by
and nobody could attempt to save him in
consequence of the dense weeds which covered the surface. On repairing to the
spot
we found the poor fellow in his last struggle
manfully attempting to
extricate himself from the meshes of rope-like grass that encircled his body;
but
to all appearance
the more he laboured to escape
the more firmly they
became coiled round his limbs. At last he sank
and the floating plants closed
in
and left not a trace of the disaster. After some delay
a raft was made
and we put off to the spot
and sinking a pole some twelve feet
a native
dived
holding on by the stake
and brought the body to the surface. I shall
never forget the expression of the dead man’s face--the clenched teeth
and
fearful distortion of the countenance
while coils of long trailing weeds clung
round his body and limbs
the muscles of which stood out stiff and rigid
whilst his hands grasped thick masses
showing how bravely he had struggled for
life.” This heart-rending picture is a terribly accurate representation era man
with a conscience alarmed by remorse
struggling with his sinful habits
but
finding them too strong for him. Divine grace can save the wretch from his
unhappy condition
but if he be destitute of that
his remorseful agonies will
but make him more hopelessly the slave of his passions. Laocoon
in vain
endeavouring to tear off the serpents’ coils from himself and children
aptly
portrays the long-enslaved sinner contending with sin in his own strength. (C.
H.Spurgeon.)
Insidious nature of sin
In the gardens of Hampton Court you will see many trees entirely
vanquished and well-nigh strangled by huge coils of ivy
which are wound about
them like the snakes around the unhappy Laocoon: there is no untwisting the
folds
they are too giant-like
and fast fixed
and every hour the rootlets of
the climber are sucking the life out of the unhappy tree. Yet there was a day
when the ivy was a tiny aspirant
only asking a little aid in climbing; had it
been denied then
the tree had never become its victim
but by degrees the humble
weakling grew in strength and arrogance
and at last it assumed the mastery
and the tall tree became the prey of the creeping
insinuating destroyer. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Moral slavery
James II on his death bed thus addressed his son
“There is no slavery
like sin and no liberty like God’s service.” (H. Melvill
B. D.)
Verse 20
Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil
Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil
There is a customary mode of talking
in which familiar formulas
of praise and censure
as to moral objects
are employed as if by rote
revolving the admission of important principles
and recognising in its full
extent the grand distinction between moral good and evil.
Such men will speak familiarly of other men and of their acts as right or
wrong
as virtuous or vicious
in a manner which implies not only preference of
judgment
but of inclination; so that if we draw conclusions from their
language merely
we should certainly infer that they not only understood the
principles of sound morality
but loved them and obeyed them. The latter
conclusion would
in too many instances
be found to be erroneous
not because
the person
in his talk
was guilty of deliberate hypocrisy
or even intended
to deceive at all
but because his words conveyed more than he meant
especially when phrases used of course
and by a sort of habit
came to be
subjected to the rules of a strict interpretation. In all such cases it will
soon be found
upon a little observation
that the dialect in question
however
near it may approach to that of evangelical morality
is still distinguished
from it by indubitable marks.
1. Any one who thus indulges in the use of such conventional
expressions as imply a recognition of those principles of morals which are laid
down in the Bible
but whose conduct repudiates and nullifies them
avoids
as
if instinctively
those terms of censure and of approbation which belong
distinctively to Scripture
and conches himself to those which are common to
the Bible and the heathen moralists
to Christian ethics and the code of
honour. He will speak of an act
or a course of acts
as wrong
perhaps as
vicious
--it may even be as wicked
but not as sinful. The difference between
the terms
as viewed by such a person
seems to be that vice and crime are
referable merely to an abstract standard
and perhaps a variable one; while sin
brings into view the legislative and judicial character of God. Sin
too
is
associated most minds with the humiliating doctrine of a natural depravity
while vice and crime suggest the idea of a voluntary aberration on the part of
one by nature free from taint
and abundantly able to stand fast in his own
strength. By tracing such diversities
however slight and trivial they seem to
be when in themselves considered
we may soon learn to distinguish the
characteristic dialect of worldly moralists from that of evangelical religion.
2. It will also be found that in the use of terms employed by both
there is a difference of sense
it may be unintentional
denoting no small
difference in point of principle. Especially is this the case in reference to
those important principles of morals which bear most directly upon the ordinary
business of life
and come most frequently into collision with the selfish
interests and inclinations of ungodly men. Two men
for instance
shall
converse together upon truth and falsehood
upon honesty and fraud
employing
the same words and phrases
and
perhaps
aware of no diversity of meaning in
their application. And yet
when you come to ascertain the sense in which they
severally use the terms employed by both
you shall find that while the one
adopts the rigorous and simple rule of truth and falsehood which is laid down
in the Bible and by common sense
the other holds it with so many
qualifications and exceptions
as almost to render it a rule more honoured in
the breach than the observance. There can be no doubt that this diversity in
the use of language exerts a constant and extensive influence on human
intercourse
and leads to many of those misconceptions which are tending daily
to increase the mutual distrust of men in one another’s candour and sincerity.
3. Who pretends to think that men are often
I might almost say ever
better in the bent of their affections and their moral dispositions than in the
general drift of their discourse? Who does not know that they are often worse
and that where any marked diversity exists
the difference is commonly in
favour of his words at the expense of his thoughts and feelings? Nothing
however
could be more unjust or utterly subversive of impartial judgment in
this matter
than to choose as tests or symptoms mere occasional expressions.
4. It must not be forgotten that a rational nature is incapable of
loving evil
simply viewed as evil
or of hating good
when simply viewed as
good. Whatever thing you love
you thereby recognise as good; and what you
abhor
you thereby recognise as evil. When
therefore
men profess to look upon
that as excellent which in their hearts and lives they treat as hateful
and to
regard as evil that which they are seeking after
and which they delight in
they are not expressing their own feelings
but assenting to the judgment of others.
They are measuring the object by a borrowed standard
while their own is wholly
different. And if they are really so far enlightened as to think sincerely that
the objects of their passionate attachment are evil
this is only admitting
that their own affections are disordered and at variance with reason. So the
sinner may believe on God’s authority or man’s that sin is evil and that
holiness is good
but as a matter of affection and of inclination
his
corrupted taste will still reject the sweet as bitter
and receive the bitter
as sweet; his diseased eye will still confound light with darkness
and his
lips
whenever they express the feelings of his heart
will continue to call
good evil and evil good.
5. The text does not teach us merely that punishment awaits those who
choose evil in preference to good
but that an outward mark of those who hate
God
and whom God designs to punish
is their confounding moral distinctions in
their conversation.
6. When one who admits in words the great first principles of morals
takes away so much on one hand and grants so much on the other
as to
obliterate the practical distinction between right and wrong; when with one
breath he asserts the inviolable sanctity of truth
but with the next makes
provision for benevolent
professional
jocose
or thoughtless falsehood; when
he admits the paramount importance of religious duties in general
but in
detail dissects away the vital parts as superstition
sanctimony
or
fanaticism
and leaves a mere abstraction or an outward form behind; when he
approves the requisitions of the law and the provisions of the Gospel in so far
as they apply to other people
but repudiates them as applying to himself;--I
ask
whatever his professions or his creed may be
whether he does not virtually
actually
call evil good and good evil?
7. Again
I ask
whether he who in the general admits the turpitude
of fraud
impurity
intemperance
malignity
and other vicious dispositions
with their practical effects
and thus appears to be an advocate for purity of
morals
but when insulated cases or specific acts of vice are made the subjects
of discussion
treats them all as peccadilloes
inadvertencies
absurdities
indiscretions
or
perhaps
as virtues modestly disguised
can be protected by the
mere assertion of a few general principles from the fatal charge of calling
evil good? And
as the counterpart of this
I ask whether he who praises and
admires all goodness
not embodied in the life of living men or women
but
detests it when thus realised in concrete excellence
does not really and
practically call good evil?
8. And I ask
lastly
whether he who
in relation to the self-same
acts
performed by men of opposite descriptions
has a judgment suited to the
case of each
but who is all compassion to the wilful transgressions of the
wicked
and all inexorable sternness to the innocent infirmities of godly men;
he who strains at a gnat in the behaviour of the meek and conscientious
Christian
but can swallow a camel in the conduct of the self-indulgent votary
of pleasure; he who lauds religion as exhibited in those who give him no
uneasiness by their example
but maligns and disparages it when
from its
peculiar strength and brightness
it reflects a glare of painful and
intolerable light upon his own corruptions
--let his maxims of moral philosophy
be what they will
--does not
to all intents and purposes
incur the woe
pronounced on those who call evil good and good evil
who put darkness for
light and light for darkness
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? (J.
A. Alexander
D. D.)
The guilt of establishing unscriptural principles of conduct
I. Among the most
prominent illustrations of the present subject we may produce THOSE PERSONS
WHO REPRESENT ENTHUSIASM AS RELIGION. By enthusiasm
as applied with a
reference to religion
I understand the subjection of the judgment
in points
of religious faith or practice
to the influence of the imagination.
II. Let us now turn
our eyes to the opposite quarter; to MEN WHO DENOMINATE RELIGION ENTHUSIASM.
Enthusiasm is on principle busy and loquacious. Lukewarmness
though capable of
being roused to a turbulent defence of forms and of its own conduct
is by
nature silent and supine. Hence enthusiasm
in proportion to the relative
number of its adherents
raises a much louder stir
and attracts far more
extensive notice
than lukewarmness. But let the torpid conviction of the
lukewarm be contrasted with the illusion of the enthusiast
and the former will
prove itself not less dangerous
and generally more deliberately criminal
than
the latter.
III. Another
illustration of the text is furnished by PERSONS WHO REPRESENT A PARTIAL
CONFORMITY TO THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AS MERITING THE APPELLATION OF RELIGION:
and thus also by implication STIGMATISE THE TRUE CHRISTIAN AS “RIGHTEOUS OVER
MUCH.”
IV. We may in the
next place produce as illustrative of the general proposition WITH THE
CHARACTER OF CENSORIOUSNESS ALL OPINIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS OF GUILT CONFORMABLE
TO THE SCRIPTURES. From the mouth of these apologisers no sin receives its
appropriate denomination. Some lighter phrase is ever on the lips to cloke its
enormity
perhaps to transform it into a virtue. Is profaneness noticed? It is
an idle habit by which nothing is intended. Is extravagance named? It is a
generous disregard of money. Is luxury mentioned? It is a hospitable desire to
see our friends happy. What is worldly-mindedness? It is prudence. What is
pride? It is proper spirit
a due attention to our own dignity. What is
ambition? A laudable desire of distinction and preeminence; a just sense of our
own excellence and desert. What is servility? It is skill in making our way to
advancement. What are intemperance and sins of impurity? They are indecorums
irregularities
human frailties
customary indiscretions
the natural and
venial consequences of cheerfulness
company
and temptation; the unguarded
ebullitions of youth
which in a little time will satiate and cure themselves.
Now all this is candour: all this is charity. If a reference be made to
religion
these men immediately enlarge on the mercy of God.
V. There yet
remains to be specified an exemplification of the guilt menaced with vengeance
by the prophet: A PERVERSION OF PRINCIPLE which
while the lower ranks are
happily too little refined to be infected with it
taints with a greater or a
less degree of its deceitful influence the bulk of the middle and higher
classes of the community. By what criterion are applause and censure
apportioned? By the rule of honour. “Honour” reigns
because multitudes “love
the praise of men more than the praise of God.” It reigns
because “they
receive honour one of another; and seek not that honour which cometh from God
only.” What is this idol
which men worship in the place of the living God? The
votary of honour may delude himself with the idea that
whatever be the
ordinary expressions of his lips
his heart is dedicated to religion. But his
heart is fixed on his idol
human applause. In the place of the love and the
fear of God he substitutes the love of praise and the fear of shame. In the
place of conscience he substitutes pride. For the dread of guilt he substitutes
the apprehension of disgrace. (T. Gisborne
M. A.)
The unchangeable difference of good and evil
Moral good and evil are as truly and as widely different in their
own nature as the perceptions of the outward senses; and God has endued us with
faculties of the soul as well fitted to distinguish them
as the bodily senses
are to discern corporeal objects. If any man
notwithstanding this
will
obstinately call evil good and good evil
and will deny all distinctions
between virtue and vice
he must as much have laid aside the use of his natural
reason and understanding as he that would conferred light and darkness must
contradict his senses and deny the evidence of his clearest sight. And when
such a person falls finally into the just punishment of sin
he will no more
deserve pity than one who falls down a precipice because he would not open his
eyes to discern that light which should have guided him in his way.
I. THERE IS
ORIGINALLY IN THE VERY NATURE OF THINGS A NECESSARY AND ETERNAL DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL
BETWEEN VIRTUE AND VICE
WHICH THE REASON OF THINGS DOES
ITSELF OBLIGE MEN TO HAVE CONSTANT REGARD TO. This is supposed in the text by
the prophet’s comparing the difference between good and evil to that most
obvious and sensible difference of light and darkness.
II. GOD HAS
MOREOVER
BY HIS SUPREME AND ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY
AND BY EXPRESS DECLARATION OF
HIS WILL IN HOLY SCRIPTURE
ESTABLISHED AND CONFIRMED THIS ORIGINAL DIFFERENCE
OF THINGS
AND WILL SUPPORT AND MAINTAIN IT BY HIS IMMEDIATE POWER AND
GOVERNMENT IN THE WORLD. “Woe unto them
” etc.
III. OBSERVATIONS
WHICH MAY BE OF USE TO US IN PRACTICE.
1. Religion and virtue are truly most agreeable to nature
and vice
and wickedness are of all things the most contrary to it.
2. Knowledge of the most important and fundamental doctrines of
religion must be very easy to be attained
and gross ignorance of our duty can
by no means be innocent or excusable
our minds being as naturally fitted to
understand the most necessary parts of it as our eyes are to judge of colours
or our palate of tastes.
3. The judgments of God upon impenitent sinners
who obstinately
disobey the most reasonable and necessary laws in the world
are true and just
and righteous judgments.
4. Whatever doctrine is contrary to the nature and attributes
of
God
whatever is plainly unwise or wicked
whatever tends to confound the
essential and eternal differences of good and evil
must necessarily be false.
5. Every person or doctrine which would separate religion from a holy
life
and make it to consist merely in such speculative opinions as may be
defended by an ill liver
or in such outward solemnities of worship as may be
performed by a vicious and corrupt man
does greatly corrupt religion. (S.
Clarke
D. D.)
Good and evil
The difference of good and evil is a subject of the highest
concern
since upon it is founded the truth of religion
the obligation to virtue
and the peace and satisfaction of our minds. Upon it is founded the knowledge
which we can attain of God’s moral perfections; for we cannot prove that God is
good
unless we have antecedent notions of goodness considered in itself
and
separated from all law
will
or appointment
Divine or human. I shall
therefore
now proceed to prove the different natures of our actions as to
moral good and evil--
I. FROM THE
HISTORY OF THE MOST ANCIENT TIMES AS RECORDED IN THE SACRED BOOKS. From the
whole dispensation of providence
as set forth in the Old Testament
it may be
collected that the distinctions of right and wrong
good and evil
just and
unjust
might always have been evident to those who would make a proper use of
their senses and faculties. But that we may not carry this point too far
it is
to be observed
that men being frail and fallible
surrounded with temptations
and having passions as well as reason
God did not totally leave them to
discover their duty by their own natural abilities. Certain religious
traditions were
without question
delivered down by Adam and his sons
and
some prophets and pious teachers were raised up in the earliest ages from time
to time by the Divine Providence to instruct and correct the world
and to
enforce the laws of nature and the moral duties
by declaring that God required
the observance of them
and that He would be the rewarder of the good and the
punisher of the wicked. Such an one was Enoch
and such was Noah
prophets and
righteous men
and preachers of righteousness in their generations.
II. FROM OUR
RELATION TO GOD. That there is a Maker and Governor of the world
who is endued
with all perfections
is evident from His works. Without any instructor
besides our own understanding
we know that we are and that we did not make
ourselves
and that we owe our being to a superior cause; and then we proceed
to the discovery of a First Cause of us and of all other things; and thence we
also discern our duty towards Him. It is absurd to suppose that God should have
supreme power
and we not be bound to revere Him; that He should have perfect
goodness
and we not be bound to love Him. He who gives life and the comforts
of life to His creatures
hath a right to their gratitude and to their best
services: and if it be absurd not to think ourselves obliged to obey Him
it is
right and fit to obey Him
and to conform our will to His. So that
with
respect to God
there must be moral good or moral evil in our behaviour. As the
foundations of religion are thus fixed and unchangeable
so the continual
practice of religion is necessary through the whole course of our lives. They
who seem to have little or no value for religion yet will often tell you that
they have a great regard for virtue
for honour
for justice
and for gratitude
to friends and benefactors. If they would reason consistently
they would find
the same obligations in a higher manner to serve God
who is both their Master
and their Father.
III. Another way to
find out the differences of good and evil is FROM THE CONSIDERATION OF THE
PECULIAR FRAME OF HUMAN NATURE. The beasts
though so much our inferiors
fulfil the designs of providence by pursuing the ends for which they were made.
But they are no patterns for us whom God hath endued with faculties above sense
and who are able to control and subdue the inclinations which we have in common
with brutes. Nature hath limited and determined their appetites within certain
bounds
which they have no desire to transgress. Nature hath not so dealt with
mankind; for our desires are impetuous and boundless: but then God hath
implanted in us understanding and reason to direct them
and to judge what is
right and wrong. And thus
as man by the help of reason and reflection
and by
moral motives
becomes vastly superior to the brutes; so by vice
and
particularly by intemperance and sensuality
he sinks as much beneath them
and
runs into excesses which are not to be found in them. Hence the real and moral
differences of good and evil may be proved; for the superior faculties in man
must have a superior good agreeable to them. And as the inferior faculties
namely
the bodily senses
have always external objects suitable to them
or
unsuitable; so it is with those nobler powers of the mind
thinking
reflecting
inquiring
judging
refusing
and choosing. The proper objects of
these powers are moral or religious good and evil. No faculty creates its own
object
but only discerns it. In like manner
truth and falsehood
right and
wrong
are the objects of the understanding; and no man surely is so absurd or
stupid as to think that we can make a thing true by believing it
or false by
disbelieving it. So virtue or goodness is the proper object of our unprejudiced
and reasonable desires. Everyone would infallibly choose it
if he acted
according to his nature
to pure and undefiled reason
and were not seduced by
sensual motives and temporary views.
IV. We may also
judge of good and evil BY THE COMMON INTEREST AND SENSE OF MANKIND. And here we
are not to be determined so much by the opinion of this or that person
though
eminent perhaps in some respects
as by the general consent of men in approving
things praiseworthy and conducing to the common advantage. Some things are so
universally esteemed
that even they who do not practise them must approve
them; and this shows their intrinsic and invariable excellence. For men are
very partial to their own conduct
and therefore when they approve virtue in
others
though themselves be vicious
there must be an overbearing evidence in
favour of it. The common and public interest cannot be supported by any
measures contrary to virtue and goodness.
V. FROM THE WILL
OF GOD AS DISCOVERABLE BY REASON AND AS DISCOVERED TO US BY REVELATION. (J.
Jortin
D. D.)
Confusion in men’s notions of good and evil
Whence comes it to pass that men should lose the notions of good
and evil so far as to stand in need of a Divine law to reinforce them
whilst
yet they never lose the notion of things pleasing or hurtful to their senses?
We may answer--
1. That sense hath usually nothing to corrupt its judgment; but it is
not so with the determinations which the mind passeth upon well-doing and
evil-doing; for there is often an inclination one way more than another
and
this inclination is towards the wrong way
arising from various causes internal
and external; so that serious consideration and caution are necessary to go
before the judgment.
2. The reasons of good and evil are not usually understood in their
whole extent by the bulk of mankind. It is generally agreed that there are some
right and some wrong actions; but accurate notions of right and wrong have
seldom been found where revelation hath not been received; which should teach
us to set a just value upon the Gospel.
3. Great examples have greatly tended to corrupt men’s notions of
good and evil. Many there are who judge not for themselves
but take up with
the judgment of others; and seeing men of knowledge
rank
and figure
practising iniquity without fear or remorse
they think they may do the same
and
follow their leaders.
4. The prevalence of any vice in any country or society takes away
men’s apprehensions of the evil of it. When a wee is uncommon
men stare at it
as at a monster; but when it is generally practised
they are insensibly
reconciled to it. (J. Jortin
D. D.)
Good and evil
1. Give some general account of the nature of good and evil
and of
the reasons upon which they are founded.
2. Show that the way by which good and evil commonly operate upon the
mind of man
is by those respective names and appellations
by which they are
notified and conveyed to the mind.
3. Show the mischief which directly
naturally
and unavoidably
follows
from the misapplication and confusion of these names.
4. Show the grand and principal instances in which the abuse or
misapplication of those names has such a fatal and pernicious effect. (R.
South
D. D.)
The misapplication of words and names
I. IN RELIGION.
Religion is certainly in itself the best thing in the world; and it is as
certain that
as it has been managed by some
it has had the worst effects:
such being the nature
or rather the fate of the best things
to be
transcendently the worst upon corruption.
II. IN CIVIL
GOVERNMENT
or polities.
III. TO THE PRIVATE
INTERESTS OF INDIVIDUALS.
1. An outrageous
ungoverned insolence and revenge
frequently passes
by the name of sense of honour.
2. Bodily abstinence
joined with a demure
affected countenance
is
often called piety and mortification.
3. Some have found a way to smooth over an implacable
unalterable
spleen and malice
by dignifying it with the name of constancy.
4. A staunch
resolved temper of mind
not suffering a man to sneak
fawn
cringe
and accommodate himself to all humours
though never so absurd
and unreasonable
as commonly branded with and exposed under the character of
pride
morosity and ill-nature.
5. Some would needs have a pragmatical prying into and meddling with
other men’s matters
a fitness for business
forsooth
and accordingly call and
account none but such persons men of business. (R. South
D. D.)
An espied difference between virtue and vice in the nature of
things
I. I shall first
EXPLAIN THE MEANING
AND THEN CONFIRM THE TRUTH OF THIS OBSERVATION. Every
thing has a nature which is peculiar to itself
and which is essential to its
very existence. Light has a nature by which it is distinguished from darkness.
Sweet has a nature by which it is distinguished from bitter. Animals have a
nature by which they are distinguished from men. Men have a nature by which
they are distinguished from angels. Angels have a nature by which they are
distinguished from God. And God has a nature by which He is distinguished from
all other beings. Now such different natures lay a foundation for different
obligations; and different obligations lay a foundation for virtue and vice in
all their different degrees. As virtue and vice
therefore
take their origin
from the nature of things
so the difference between moral good and moral evil
is as immutable as the nature of things from which it results. The truth of
this assertion will appear if we consider--
1. That the essential difference between virtue and vice may be known
by those who are wholly ignorant of God. The barbarians
who saw the viper on
Paul’s hand
knew the nature and ill-desert of murder. The pagans
who were in
the ship with Jonah
knew the difference between natural and moral evil
and
considered the former as a proper and just punishment of the latter. And even
little children know the nature of virtue and vice. But how would children and
heathens discover the essential difference between moral good and evil
if this
difference were not founded in the nature of things?
2. Men are capable of judging what is right or wrong in respect to
the Divine character and conduct. This God implicitly allows
by appealing to
their own judgment
whether He has not treated them according to perfect
rectitude. In the context
He solemnly cells upon His people to judge of the
propriety and benignity of His conduct towards them (verses 3
4; also Jeremiah 2:5; Ezekiel 18:25; Ezekiel 18:29; Micah 6:1-5). In these solemn appeals to
the consciences of men
God does not require them to believe that His character
is good because it is His character; nor that His laws are good because they
are His laws; nor that His conduct is good because it is His conduct. But He
allows them to judge of His character
His laws and His conduct
according to
the immutable difference between right and wrong
in the nature of things;
which is the infallible rule by which to judge of the moral conduct of all
moral beings.
3. God cannot destroy this difference without destroying the nature
of things.
4. The Deity cannot alter the nature of things so as to destroy the
essential distinction between virtue and vice. We can conceive that God should
make great alterations in us
and in the objects about us; but we cannot
conceive that He should make any alterations in us
and in the objects about
us
which should transform virtue into vice
or vice into virtue
or which
should destroy their essential difference.
II. TAKE NOTICE OF
ONE OR TWO OBJECTIONS which may be made against what has been said.
1. To suppose that the difference between virtue and vice results
from the nature of things
is derogatory and injurious to the character of God.
For
on this supposition
there is a standard of right and wrong superior to
the will of the Deity
to which He is absolutely bound to submit. To say that
the difference between right and wrong does not depend upon the will of God
but upon the nature of things
is no more injurious to His character than to
say that it does not depend upon His will whether two and two shall be equal to
four; whether a circle and square shall be different figures; whether the whole
shall be greater than a part; or whether a thing shall exist and not exist at
the same time. These things do not depend upon the will of God
because they
cannot depend upon His will. So the difference between virtue and vice does not
depend upon the will of God
because His will cannot make or destroy this
immutable difference. And it is more to the honour of God to suppose that He
cannot
than that He can
perform impossibilities. But if the eternal rule of
right must necessarily result from the nature of things
then it is no reproach
to the Deity to suppose that He is morally obliged to conform to it. To set God
above the law of rectitude
is not to exalt
but to debase His character. It is
the glory of any moral agent to conform to moral obligation. The supreme
excellency of the Deity consists
not in always doing what He pleases
but in
always pleasing to do what is fit and proper in the nature of things.
2. There is no other difference between virtue and vice than what
arises from custom
education
or caprice. Different nations judge differently
upon moral subjects. This objection is more specious than solid. For--
III. It now remains
to MAKE A NUMBER OF DEDUCTIONS FROM THE IMPORTANT TRUTH WHICH WE HAVE EXPLAINED
AND ESTABLISHED.
1. If there be an immutable difference between virtue and vice
right
and wrong
then there is a propriety in every man’s judging for himself in
matters of morality and religion.
2. If there be a standard of right and wrong in the nature of things
then it is not impossible to arrive at absolute certainty in our moral and
religious sentiments.
3. If right and wrong are founded in the nature of things
then it is
impossible for any man to become a thorough sceptic in morality and religion.
4. If right and wrong
truth and falsehood
be founded in the nature
of things
then it is not a matter of indifference what moral and religious
sentiments mankind imbibe and maintain.
5. If right and wrong
truth and falsehood
be founded in the nature
of things
then there appears to be a great propriety in God’s appointing a day
of judgment.
6. All who go to heaven will go there by the unanimous voice of the
whole universe.
7. All who are excluded from heaven will be excluded from it by the
unanimous voice of all moral beings. It will appear clearly to the view of the
universe
that all who are condemned ought to be condemned and punished
forever. (N. Emmons
D. D.)
Perverting the right ways of the Lord
I. NATURE OF THE
PRACTICE.
1. Not a mere error or defect of judgment
but a habit
practice or
system of perverting right and wrong.
2. Examples of “calling evil good
and good evil” (Psalms 10:3; Malachi 2:17; Malachi 3:15; Luke 16:15; 2 Peter 2:19). Putting bondage to
sin for liberty
and counting Christian freedom to be servitude.
3. Examples of “putting darkness for light
and light for darkness.”
The traditions of men for doctrines of God. Oppositions of science
falsely so
called
for truths of Holy Writ.
4. Examples of “putting bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.”
“Pleasures of sin” counted sweet; the joy of the Lord despised. (Proverbs 9:17) “Stolen waters (i.e.
sins)
are sweet.” (Proverbs 5:4.) “Her end is bitter as
wormwood.” (Proverbs 20:17.)
II. ORIGIN OF THE
PRACTICE.
1. Satan the first on record who thus acted. (Genesis 3:1-5.) It is an old
device.
2. As he did
so do his children and dupes (John 8:44; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15).
3. Men perverted become perverters
“deceiving and being deceived.”
4. The practice is easy
and seems to be a source of malicious
pleasure to those who so do.
III. EFFECTS OF THE
PRACTICE.
1. The practice is
to a mournful extent
successful
because of our
weak and perverted fallen nature.
2. It discredits God’s words and ways.
3. It distresses the righteous (Ezekiel 13:22).
4. It deceives the young and unstable.
5. It destroys both the perverters and the perverted.
IV. JUDGMENT ON
THESE PERVERTERS. “Woe unto them” (Proverbs 17:15).
1. By these perversions the perverters become such as described in Ephesians 4:18-19; 1 Timothy 4:2.
2. It is too true that men may come at length to say
“Evil
be thou
my good.”
3. They who have done the works of the devil in perverting and
confusing right and wrong
will share the devil’s judgment.
V. PRESERVATION
FROM PERVERSION.
1. How to be kept from sharing with such perverters
and from being
seduced or deceived by them; most important to know this.
2. See the example of Jesus in His temptation. Prayer and keeping
close to Holy Scripture.
3. Copy His example.
4. Gospel “light
” “good
” “sweet
” here set forth
showing the way
of salvation by faith in Christ.
5. Pray that the Spirit may “guide you into all the truth
” and “give
you a right judgment in all things.”
6. Hereafter good and evil
light and darkness
sweet and bitter
will be known
seen
and tasted
without the confusion and perversion which now
prevail. (Flavel Cook
B. A.)
Sinful nomenclature
Reproof and denunciation
distasteful as they ever must be
have
their office. The Word of God is something more than a pleasant song. It is
sometimes a fire to scathe
a hammer to dash in pieces
a sword to divide the
soul and spirit
the joints and marrow; and therefore it is a great sin to try
to blunt the edge of the sword of the Spirit by calling evil good and good
evil.
I. IT IS A GREAT
SIN to disregard or even to underrate in the least degree the eternal
distinctions of right and wrong
to view things in their wrong aspects and to
call things by their wrong names. “He that saith to the wicked
‘Thou art
righteous
’” says Solomon
“him shall the people curse.” And Paul tells us
there are some things that ought not to be so much as named among those who
live holy lives. The evil word is a long step beyond the evil thought. Speak of
sin in its true terms and you strip it of its seductiveness. Call a vice by its
real name and you rob it of half its danger by exposing its grossness. The very
guiltiest of sinners is he who paints the gates of hell with the colours of
Paradise
and gives names of clear disparagement and dislike to scrupulous
honour and stainless purity.
II. THE CAUSE OF
THIS SIN is due to a fading appreciation of moral evil
to a tampering with it
and to a destruction of that healthy instinct which revolts at it. This is
illustrated in the third chapter of Genesis. Light words and careless thoughts
are not indifferent things. Character is not cut in marble; it may become
diseased as our bodies do. Abhor that which is evil
cleave to that which is
good.
III. THE PUNISHMENT
OF THIS SIN is the failure of all life
the waste
the loss
the shipwreck of
the human soul. The rose is a glorious flower
but it withers sometimes and
produces nothing but mouldering and loathly buds
because there is some poison
in the sap or some canker at the root. Careers that might have been prosperous
and happy are sometimes cut short
blighted with disgrace
the conscience
seared
the distinction between right and wrong lost. They are mortified to
painlessness
and this is death. This is the worst woe that can befall those
who miscall things which God has stamped with His own signet. (Dean Farrar
D. D.)
The sin of confounding good and evil
I. Consider the
particular species of crime against which we have the warning of the text AS IT
RELATES TO THE INDIVIDUAL WHO IS GUILTY OF IT.
1. There is scarcely one of us who does not think himself
sufficiently religious; and yet
to what does the religion of many a man
amount?
2. If we can be successful enough to persuade men to believe that the
slight notion which they have of religion is insufficient
we then find them
flying to another subterfuge to screen them from its duties
by affixing the
name of evil to what we pronounce to be good
and calling our representation of
religion morose and gloomy.
3. Religion being once rendered so slight in the mind
once esteemed
so gloomy and unworthy a pursuit
its restraints are neglected
its principles
evaded
and the wavering deceitfulness of men’s hearts made the standard of
men’s actions.
4. To these notions of indifference concerning religion
we may add
those arising from misguided zeal in it. Divisions
persecutions
etc.
II. Consider those
who are not imposing on themselves by believing things to be good
which are
really evil
but WHO WILFULLY AND MALICIOUSLY ENDEAVOUR TO DESTROY A TRUE
BELIEF IN OTHERS
BY FALSE REPRESENTATIONS OF SIN DUTY.
1. How artfully and speciously vice is often portrayed in those
numerous works which find the easiest admission to the closets of the young!
Into the character of the frail and guilty is thrown a variety of qualities of
seeming liberality
honour
and the like; the reader
with an ingenuous
tenderness
without deliberation
pities and forgives; and begins to think the
crime no indiscretion
or at least no crime at all!
2. You have witnessed the effect of similar principles conveyed
not
in books
but conversation.
3. We find many a villain pouring forth his artful tale of constancy
and honour
calling all good evil
and all evil good
ridiculing marriage as a
useless human ceremony
decrying religion as an idle state invention
painting
human nature
its passions and the indulgence of them
in every glowing colour
till he has broken a parent’s heart
and brought his child to ruin in time and
in eternity! (G. Mathews
M. A.)
The perversion of right and wrong
Nothing tends more to remove the just distinctions of virtue and
vice
or to blend the nature of good and evil
than the giving plausible and
specious names to what are really great and substantial crimes.
1. The boldest attacks of infidelity are often couched under the
plausible name of “a spirit of free inquiry.”
2. An indifference to all religious worship is often concealed under
the specious term of “a truly religious spirit of universal toleration.”
3. The duel is converted into an “honourable deed.”
4. Shameless and lawless adultery is denominated gallantry.
5. Is not a certain profusion and expense
which causes a breach of
common justice in squandering what men are not able to pay
often described as
an enlarged and generous mode of living?
6. If the libertine who indulges in every sensual appetite without
control
happen to possess a certain share of vivacity and good humour
or be a
man of boundless profusion and indiscriminate liberality
his vices are
swallowed up in the sup posed good qualities of his heart; and the worst title
perhaps that is bestowed on his worst actions
is that of a thoughtless ease
and good nature
which is too apt to be led astray by the example and vices of
others. (C. Moore
M. A.)
Calling evil good and good evil
The real horror of this passage consists in the fact that we have
here one of the greatest sins that can be conceived
and
at the same time
one
of the most common. To call evil good is practical atheism. To call good evil
is practical blasphemy. The words of the passage supply a certain vision of the
order of the process.
1. To “call evil good” is the sin especially of the young and
careless--the giddy and wanton in their way.
2. The calling good evil is the sin especially of the earnest and
professedly religious--whether or not their religion be of the kind called
Christian. This was the great crime of the Pharisees against Christ. This has
been the crime of all the persecutors of the Church of Christ from the Roman
emperors to the Romish priests. Also
of many theologians of all sides in
controversy; and of politicians.
3. Before our eyes the evil and the good are mingled
in characters
and acts and institutions
till it is often beyond our power to extricate. And
what are we to do? Let us call on the name of the Lord
confessing we are
helpless often in the matter
remembering also this
that although it be in
ignorance
our error may be great
like the crucifying of Christ. Let the Church
be improved from within
seeking rather the resources of the heavenly grace to
replenish her heart with charity--its native and original virtue. Let her turn
from all the tumult without to Him who is “the glory in the midst of her.” Let
her learn her liberality at the feet of Jesus. For evil rolls into the light of
Christ and is detected and abhorred. The good that is in evil is caught by that
light and gladly hailed. The love of Christ is the best of teaching here. (J.
Cunningham
M. A.)
The danger of depraving the moral sense
1. The current conventional standard of society around them is even
in this Christian land the main principle by which the great mass of the better
sort of people regulate their conduct. For one who refers truly to the law of God
hundreds maybe found who act upon the common maxims of society. This
therefore
it becomes us especially to bear in mind: never can we live for
ourselves alone.
2. It is one especial part of their punishment who are thus engaged
in lowering the moral standard of society around them
that they must be
in a
still greater measure
injuring themselves. How “shall a man touch pitch and
not be defiled”? We have no other way of transmitting moral evil than by
contagion; we must
in the first place
be our selves the victims of that which
we convey to others.
A shameful doctrine
Bellarmine
in his 4 th Book and fifth chapter
De Pontifice
Romano
has this monstrous passage: That if the Pope should through error
or mistake command vices and prohibit virtues
the Church would be bound in
conscience to believe vice to be good and virtue evil. (R. South
D. D.)
Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel
A Neapolitan shepherd came in anguish to his priest
saying
“Father
have mercy on a miserable sinner. It is the holy season of Lent; and
while I was busy at work
some whey spirting from the cheese press flew into my
mouth
and
--wretched man!--I swallowed it. Free my distressed conscience from
its agonies by absolving me from my guilt!” “Have you no other sins to
confess?” said his spiritual guide. “No; I do not know that I have committed
any other.” “There are
” said the priest
“many robberies and murders from time
to time committed on your mountains
and I have reason to believe that you are
one of the persons concerned in them.” “Yes
” he replied
“I am
but these are
never accounted as a crime; it is a thing practised by us all and there needs
no confession on that account.” (K. Arvine.)
Defective moral sense
It is no exaggeration to assert that Napoleon I--strangely called
the Great--had no moral sense. Carlyle tells the storyof a German emperor who
when corrected for a mistake he made in Latin
replied
“I am King of the
Romans and above grammar!” Napoleon’s arrogance was infinitely greater. He
thought himself above morality and really seems to have believed that he had a
perfect right to commit any crime
political or personal
that would advance
his interests by an iota: and
in truth
he did commit so many it is almost
impossible to recount them. (H. O. Mackey.)
Little evils making way for greater
The carpenter’s gimblet makes but a small hole
but it enables him
to drive a great nail. May we not here see a representation of those minor
departures from the truth which prepare the minds of men for grievous errors
and of those thoughts of sin which open a way for the worst of crimes! Beware
then
of Satan’s gimblet. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Verse 21
Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes
A false estimate of human wisdom
The sin reproved (as Calvin well observes) is not mere frivolous
self-conceit
but that delusive estimate of human wisdom which may co-exist
with modesty of manners and a high degree of real intellectual merit
but which
must be abjured
not only on account of its effects
but also as involving the
worst form of pride.
(J. A. Alexander.)
Wisdom and prudence: true and false
1. Persons are accounted wise and prudent who keep in view the most
excellent dramas
who govern their potions with moderation
who conduct their
affairs with discretion
and proportion their application to their several
interests according to the dictates of well-informed minds
and the maxims of
sound wisdom. They belong to this description who are possessed of a sound
judgment
a quick penetration and extensive knowledge
and improve these
accomplishments for attaining the most valuable purposes. The wisdom and
prudence of which such persons are possessed cometh down from the Father of lights
with whom is no variableness
neither shadow of turning. According to the
apostle James’ description
it is pure
free from the corruptions of sin and
error; it is peaceable
disposing those who act under its influence to live in
harmony and concord; it is gentle
bearing with meekness the infirmities and
injuries of others; it is easy to be entreated by the persuasion of sound
reason and good counsel; it is full of mercy toward the offending and the
afflicted; it is without partiality in its operations
and without hypocrisy
and dissimulation
being sincere in all its exertions.
2. Persons are said in Scripture to have those qualifications in
their own eyes or sight
which they vainly reckon they have acquired. People
are said to be wise or prudent in their own sight who flatter themselves that
these characters indeed belong to them
until the hatefulness of their iniquity
is discovered. Though they know but little
they were never sensible of their
ignorance; though
in the view of God
and men of understanding
they are
foolish
they never were convinced of their folly. Elated with their supposed
excellence on every occasion
and even when there is no occasion
they proclaim
their own praises
and applaud their own performance. (R. Macculloch.)
Self-conceit
I. ITS SIGNS.
Dogmatism; contempt of others; scepticism.
II. ITS CAUSES.
Ignorance; vanity.
III. ITS FOLLY. It
makes a man ridiculous; leads him into error.
IV. ITS
OFFENSIVENESS TO GOD--in spirit; principle; action.
V. ITS CERTAIN
HUMILIATION. (J. Lyth
D. D.)
Prayer for Divine enlightenment
In Dr. Samuel Johnson’s diary the following prayer was found
offered in view of his becoming a politician: “Enlighten my understanding with
the knowledge of right
and govern my will by Thy laws
that no deceit may
mislead me
nor temptation corrupt me; that I may always endeavour to do good
and hinder evil.”
Verse 22-23
Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine . . . which justify
the wicked for reward
Wine-loving lawyers and judges
Among the men whom Isaiah denounces as the corrupters and
destroyers of the society of which they are the leaders
are the unjust lawyers
and judges: he mentions as characteristic of them
that they are heroes at
drinking
and spice their wine to make it stronger; by which
perhaps
we are
to understand
not that their heads and senses were overcome with wine like the
drunkards spoken of above
but that the effect on their hearts and consciences
was such as to harden them in their criminal perversion of the law.
Perhaps the passage might be illustrated by instances of the professional
character of hard-drinking but strong-headed judges of other times. (Sir E.
Strachey
Bart.)
Aromatites
The Romans called this spiced wine “Aromatites.” (Sir E.
Strachey
Bart.)
Drunkenness
The woe denounced in the text against those notorious for
drunkenness is made up of the unavoidable effects it produces
and these
effects are too dear a price to be paid by a reasonable creature for all the
sensual pleasures of this life
did they even accompany this single sin.
I. THE DRUNKARD’S
EXCUSES.
1. His first excuse is charged to the account of good fellowship. But
surely
friendship can never be founded on anything else than an amiable and
affectionate disposition
a likeness of temper
and true honesty of heart on
both sides. Will strong drink bestow these on us? Can mutual love and
confidence be built on vice? And how doth drunkenness pro mote the gaiety of conversation?
Does it not rather destroy all conversation
for what is conversation
but the
communication of rational and agreeable thoughts?
2. The next excuse for drinking to excess is
that it stupefies the
cares and troubles of the drunkard
which arise from three different
quarters
--his ill state of health
the unfortunate posture of his worldly
affairs
or the stings of his guilty conscience.
3. The drunkard hath other more common and accidental excuses for his
vice. He says he is so exposed to company and business
that it is impossible
for him to avoid drinking to excess. Then
he is of so easy and flexible a
temper
that he cannot resist the importunities of his friends
as he calls
them. Thus
he is for softening his vice into a sort of virtue
and calling
that mere good nature
which his creditor calls villainy
and his family
cruelty.
II. THE WOE
DENOUNCED BY ALMIGHTY GOD or
in other words
the miserable effects
as well
temporal as spiritual
of his favourite vice.
1. Poverty.
2. Universal contempt.
3. Ill health and an untimely death.
4. These evils are as nothing compared to the spiritual evils that
spring from drunkenness. In destroying his health he shortens his life
and so
far is guilty of self-murder. In impairing his reason he makes his life useless
and burdensome to the world. (J. Skelton.)
Mighty to drink wine
Strength is a great blessing
but if it is used in the service of
sin it becomes a curse.
I. THE GREAT
DRINKERS of that day were just the same sort of men as they are now here in our
country.
1. They are grasping and selfish (Isaiah 5:8). They are often willing to
take bribes if they are magistrates (Isaiah 5:23)
and to condemn the innocent
rather than lose their money or credit.
2. They are dull of understanding of the things of God (Isaiah 5:12).
3. They are greedy of sire Drink makes men pull destruction upon
themselves (Isaiah 5:18).
4. They are liars (Isaiah 5:20). It would be difficult to
find one lover of drink who was truthful. However kind and generous a sot may
be
his word can never be depended upon. “Deceiving and being deceived” is his
exact portrait.
5. Clever in their own eyes (Isaiah 5:21).
II. THE WOES the
prophet declares are sure to come on these men mighty to drink wine.
1. Poverty (Isaiah 5:9-10). The great and beautiful
houses will soon be vacant
and the neglected fields will soon be like the
sluggard’s garden. More than half the empty houses and the farms that are given
up in this country represent the doings of drink.
2. Degradation (Isaiah 5:13). Captivity to a Jew meant
more than poverty--loss of honour
of position
of hope
grinding toil
pollution
horrid slavery. What can degrade body and mind like drink? (Isaiah 5:15.)
3. Death (Isaiah 5:14). There is a sin unto death.
More than 60
000 drunkards go down to their dishonoured graves every year in
Britain. Think of death and hell “gaping” to take in these hosts of slain. (Josiah
Mee.)
The bane and antidote
(with Habakkuk 2:15):--
I. THE EVIL.
1. As affecting the individual. It is no trivial result to demoralise
the human spirit.
2. As it ramifies itself throughout the framework of society.
II. THE CURE.
1. Total abstinence.
2. Legislative prohibition. (J. Guthrie
M. A.)
The unworthy glorying of the intemperate
They gloried in it as a great accomplishment
that they were able
to bear a great deal of strong liquor
without being overcome by it. Let
drunkards know from this Scripture that--
1. They ungratefully abuse their bodily strength
which God hath
given them for good purposes
and by degrees cannot but weaken it.
2. It will not excuse them from the guilt of drunkenness that they
can drink hard
and yet keep their feet.
3. Those that boast of their drinking down others glory in their
shame.
4. How light soever men make of their drunkenness
it is a sin which
will certainly lay them open to the wrath and curse of God. (M. Henry.)
Intemperance a fine art
Cyrus
writing the Lacedaemonians for assistance
spoke in very
high terms of himself
telling them he had a greater and more prince y heart
than his brother; that he was the better philosopher
being instructed in the
doctrines of the Magi
and that he could drink and bear more wine than his
brother. (Plutarch’s Artaxerxes.)
Mighty to drink wine
When Bonosus the drunken Roman had hanged himself
it went for a
byword that a tun or tankard hung there and not a man. And when one was
commended to King Alphonsus for a great drinker
and able to bear it
he
answered that that was a good praise in a sponge but not in a prince. (J.
Trapp.)
Darius
King of Persia
caused it to be engraved upon his tomb
“I
could drink much wine
and bear it bravely.” Perhaps he was proud of it
but it
was his shame. (J. Mee.)
Intemperance destroys character
The title of “Rois faineants”--“do-nothing kings”--expresses very
aptly the character of the last descendants of the house of Clovis. At the
moment when circumstances demanded from the occupants of the Frankish throne a
more than ordinary share of talent and force of character
they lapsed into a
state of imbecility and insignificance
both bodily and mental. Intemperance
and debauchery entailed on them premature decrepitude; few attained the mature
age of manhood; they rarely appeared in public
except at the annual pageant of
the Champ de Mars. (Student’s France.)
A Japanese proverb
The Japanese have a true proverb which describes millions of sad
cases: “A man took a drink
then the drink took a drink
then the drink took
the man.” Effects of wine drinking:--Whilst the drunkard swallows wine
wine swallows him. God disregards him
angels despise him; men deride him
virtue declines him
the devil destroys him. (Augustine.)
Verses 24-30
Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble
Sin brings judgment in its train
Let not those expect to live easily that live thus wickedly
for
the righteous God wilt take vengeance.
Observe--
I. HOW COMPLETE
this ruin will be
and how necessarily and unavoidably it will follow upon
their sins. The prophet had compared this people to a vine (Isaiah 5:7)
well fixed and which it was
hoped would be flourishing and fruitful. But the grace of God towards it was
received in vain
and then the root became rottenness
being dried up from
beneath
and the blossom would of course blow off as dust
as a light and
worthless thing (Job 18:16). Sin weakens the strength the
root of a people
so that they are easily rooted up; it defaceth the beauty
the blossoms of a people
and takes away the hopes of fruit. Sinners make
themselves as stubble and chaff
combustible matter
proper fuel to the fire of
God’s wrath.
II. How Just the
ruin will be. “Because they have cast away the law
” etc. God doth not reject
men for every transgression of His law and word
but when His word is despised
and His law cast away
what can they expect but that God should utterly abandon
them?
III. WHENCE this
ruin should come (Isaiah 5:25). It is destruction from the
Almighty.
1. The justice of God appoints it.
2. The power of God effects it. “He hath stretched forth His hand
against them.
IV. The
CONSEQUENCES AND CONTINUANCE of this ruin. When God comes forth in wrath
against a people
“the hills tremble”; fear seizeth even their great men
that
are strong and high; the earth shakes under men
and is ready to sink; and as
this feels dreadful (what doth more so than an earthquake?) so what sight can
be more frightful than the carcasses of men torn with dogs
or thrown “as dung”
(margin) “in the midst of the streets”? This intimates that great multitudes
should be slain
not only soldiers in the field of battle
but the inhabitants
of their cities put to the sword in cold blood
and that the survivors should
neither have hands nor hearts to bury them.
V. The INSTRUMENTS
that should be employed in bringing this ruin upon them. It should be done by
the incursions of a foreign enemy. When God designs the rum of a provoking
people--
1. He can send a great way off for instruments to be employed in it.
“From the end of the earth” (Isaiah 5:26). If God set up His standard
He can incline men’s hearts to enlist themselves under it
though
perhaps
themselves know not why or wherefore.
2. He can make them come into the service with incredible expedition.
“With speed swiftly” (Isaiah 5:26). Those that defy God’s
judgments will be ashamed of their insolence when it is too late; they
scornfully said (Isaiah 5:19)
“Let Him make speed
let
Him hasten His work
” and they shall find to their terror and confusion that so
He will.
3. He can carry them on in the service with amazing forwardness and
fury (Isaiah 5:27-30).
Divine judgments as fire and flame
They cannot be resisted
their direction cannot be altered
their
force abated
nor can the flame be extinguished by human efforts. As threatened
calamities cannot be averted
so inflicted judgments cannot be removed
unless
by true repentance and earnest supplication to the supreme Disposer of all
events. (R. Macculloch.)
Root and blossom
The posterity of Israel are here compared to a fruit-bearing tree
whose root gives it strength and stability
conveys to it nourishment
and
preserves it firm amidst the storms to which it may be exposed. By their root
may be meant everything whereby they thought to secure and establish
themselves
such as their secret counsels
their deep-laid designs
their
strength and riches
their friends and connections
from all which they derived
support
and expected to keep their station. Viewing them in their social
capacity
by their root we may understand parents
heads of families
judges
governors and princes
who give stability and support to the state and preserve
it in a flourishing condition . . . The blossoms denote the beautiful promising
appearances among that people
which seemed to presage plenty of fruit; such as
their religion
their children
their magnificence and influence as a nation;
in short
everything which constituted their excellence
and displayed their
glory was to be consumed. (R. Macculloch.)
Universal judgment
The judgment here foretold was to prove universal; for what
remains of a tree when its roots and branches are destroyed! (R. Macculloch.)
Sin and judgment
Sin doth as naturally draw and suck judgments to it as the
loadstone doth iron
as dry stubble and light chaff doth fire. (J.
Trapp.)
The “law” and the “word”
The “law” of Jehovah was given by Moses and embodied in
institutions and a code; the “word” was that exposition of the meaning and life
of these which the prophets were
from time to time
declaring in the ears of
the people. The nation had cast away this law and despised this word. (Sir
E. Strachey
Bart.)
Withered roots
When all heart and morality are gone from a nation
its roots
below ground are rotten
and its flourishing appearance is ready to turn to
dust. There is no substance in such a people
nothing which can stand calamity
of any kind. It will sweep them away as the fire licks up the stubble which men
burn when the crop of corn or hay has been gathered in. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
Unfruitfulness: cause and effect
The sin of unfruitfulness is punished with the plague of
unfruitfulness. (M. Henry.)
Verses 25-30
Therefore is the anger of the Lord kindled against His people
The prophecy explained
Jehovah is about to bring foreign armies as the instruments of His
judgment; the vision of the worst of human calamities--the invasion of a rich
civilised
luxurious nation by overwhelming hordes of barbarians--rises before
the prophet: he speaks of them as present
and his words have a terrible force
to him who reads them now
while he thinks of their fearful import then.
Jehovah has set up a standard to which He is gathering the nations under the
Assyrian rule
and the prophet sees them steadily though swiftly coming on in
war-like array--bowmen
horses and chariots: they rush to battle with the roar
of lions
they seize and hold down their prisoners and their booty with the
growl which marks the lion’s refusal to give up his prey; they come on like the
sea in its rage; and when the helpless in
habitant of Judah turns from this
rising tide to the land--his own land--he sees only the darkness of woe; and
when he turns again from the earth to look upward he sees only the thick clouds
gathering over the heavens above him. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
Prophecy perpetually fulfilled
This is such a picture of “the life of things” that it is equally
the description of the same judgment of God in whatever age or to whatever
nation occurring. In successive ages it told the Jew of the Assyrian
the
Babylonian
the Greek and the Roman; to the subject of the Roman Empire it
spoke no less clearly of the Goth and the Vandal; the British monk must have
recalled it in the days when Gildas learnt its truth from the Dane and the
Norman and the Spaniard from the Mohammedan; the Byzantine from Timour “the
incarnate wrath of God”; the continental nations from the revolutionary armies
and Napoleon; and
in our own day
the people of France from the Germans. (Sir
E. Strachey
Bart.)
God’s anger and its manifestation
I. IN GOD’S
INFINITE NATURE THERE IS THE QUALITY OF ANGER. It is not a stormy passion
like
wrath in sinful man
but the settled
intense
burning antagonism to moral evil
which must necessarily exist in one who is infinitely perfect. The man who most
nearly resembles God will be “angry and sin not?”
II. GOD’S ANGER MAY
BE KINDLED BY THE SPIRIT AND CONDUCT OF HIS PEOPLE. “Therefore is the anger of
the Lord kindled against His people.” Guilt is in proportion to the light and
privilege abused.
III. GOD’S ANGER MAY
MANIFEST ITSELF IN ACTUAL AND FEARFUL PUNISHMENT. It is an active antagonism to
moral evil. “He hath stretched forth His hand against them
” etc. The hand of
God is the symbol of His mighty power. “It is a fearful thing to fall
” etc. (H.
M. Booth.)
Hills trembling
(Isaiah 5:25):--The words seem to allude
to the tremor occasioned by the stroke of the workman’s hammer upon some hard
body. (R. Macculloch.)
Horses’ hoofs as flint
(Isaiah 5:28):--Therefore he will not
shrink from riding them on the rocky soil of Palestine
which was extremely
unfavourable to the use of horses (Amos 6:12). Similar allusions are
frequent in ancient literature
the shoeing of horses being unknown in
antiquity. (Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
A darkened heaven
(Isaiah 5:30):--It is our wisdom
by
keeping a good conscience
to keep all clear between us and heaven
that we may
have light from above
when clouds and darkness are round about us. (M.
Henry.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》