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Isaiah Chapter
Nine
Isaiah 9
Chapter Contents
The Son that should be born
and his kingdom. (1-7) The
judgments to come upon Israel
and on the enemies of the kingdom of Christ.
(8-21)
Commentary on Isaiah 9:1-7
(Read Isaiah 9:1-7)
The Syrians and Assyrians first ravaged the countries
here mentioned
and that region was first favoured by the preaching of Christ.
Those that want the gospel
walk in darkness
and in the utmost danger. But
when the gospel comes to any place
to any soul
light comes. Let us earnestly
pray that it may shine into our hearts
and make us wise unto salvation. The
gospel brings joy with it. Those who would have joy
must expect to go through
hard work
as the husbandman
before he has the joy of harvest; and hard
conflict
as the soldier
before he divides the spoil. The Jews were delivered
from the yoke of many oppressors; this was a shadow of the believer's
deliverance from the yoke of Satan. The cleansing the souls of believers from
the power and pollution of sin
would be by the influence of the Holy Spirit
as purifying fire. These great things for the church
shall be done by the
Messiah
Emmanuel. The Child is born; it was certain; and the church
before
Christ came in the flesh
benefitted by his undertaking. It is a prophecy of
him and of his kingdom
which those that waited for the Consolation of Israel
read with pleasure. This Child was born for the benefit of us men
of us
sinners
of all believers
from the beginning to the end of the world. Justly
is he called Wonderful
for he is both God and man. His love is the wonder of
angels and glorified saints. He is the Counsellor
for he knew the counsels of
God from eternity; and he gives counsel to men
in which he consults our
welfare. He is the Wonderful Counsellor; none teaches like him. He is God
the
mighty One. Such is the work of the Mediator
that no less power than that of
the mighty God could bring it to pass. He is God
one with the Father. As the
Prince of Peace
he reconciles us to God; he is the Giver of peace in the heart
and conscience; and when his kingdom is fully established
men shall learn war
no more. The government shall be upon him; he shall bear the burden of it.
Glorious things are spoken of Christ's government. There is no end to the
increase of its peace
for the happiness of its subjects shall last for ever.
The exact agreement of this prophecy with the doctrine of the New Testament
shows that Jewish prophets and Christian teachers had the same view of the
person and salvation of the Messiah. To what earthly king or kingdom can these
words apply? Give then
O Lord
to thy people to know thee by every endearing
name
and in every glorious character. Give increase of grace in every heart of
thy redeemed upon earth.
Commentary on Isaiah 9:8-21
(Read Isaiah 9:8-21)
Those are ripening apace for ruin
whose hearts are
unhumbled under humbling providences. For that which God designs
in smiting
us
is
to turn us to himself; and if this point be not gained by lesser
judgments
greater may be expected. The leaders of the people misled them. We
have reason to be afraid of those that speak well of us
when we do ill.
Wickedness was universal
all were infected with it. They shall be in trouble
and see no way out; and when men's ways displease the Lord
he makes even their
friends to be at war with them. God would take away those they thought to have
help from. Their rulers were the head. Their false prophets were the tail and
the rush
the most despicable. In these civil contests
men preyed on near
relations who were as their own flesh. The people turn not to Him who smites
them
therefore he continues to smite: for when God judges
he will overcome;
and the proudest
stoutest sinner shall either bend or break.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Isaiah》
Isaiah 9
Verse 1
[1]
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation
when at the
first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali
and
afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea
beyond Jordan
in Galilee of the nations.
Nevertheless —
The calamity of this land and its inhabitants shall be great
yet not such as
that which was brought upon it by the king of Assyria
who at first indeed
dealt more gently with them
but afterwards rooted them out.
He — God.
Zebulun —
These parts are particularly mentioned
because this storm fell most heavily
upon them; but under them the other parts of the land are understood.
Afterward — By
Shalmaneser
who took Samaria
and carried Israel into captivity
2 Kings 17:5
6. Of which calamity
though yet to
come
he speaks as if it were past
as the manner of the prophet is.
The sea — In
that part of the land which borders upon the sea
the lake Genesareth
upon
which the portions of Zebulun and Naphtali bordered.
Galilee —
Or
Galilee of the Gentiles
namely
the upper Galilee
so called because it
bordered upon the Gentiles.
Verse 2
[2] The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death
upon them hath the light shined.
The people —
Israel and Judah.
Darkness —
The expression is general and so may well comprehend both calamity and ignorance
idolatry and profaneness
in which those parts were eminently involved.
Have seen —
Shall see at the coming of the Messiah.
Verse 3
[3] Thou
hast multiplied the nation
and not increased the joy: they joy before thee
according to the joy in harvest
and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.
Thou hast —
Thou hast made good thy promise to Abraham concerning the multiplication of his
seed
by gathering in the Gentiles to the Jews.
Before thee — In
thy presence
and in the place of thy worship.
Verse 4
[4] For
thou hast broken the yoke of his burden
and the staff of his shoulder
the rod
of his oppressor
as in the day of Midian.
The yoke —
His burdensome yoke.
The staff —
The staff or staves by which he was forced to carry burdens upon his shoulders.
The rod —
Wherewith he beat him.
Oppressor — Of
all his oppressors
but especially of sin and the devil.
As — When God destroyed
the Midianites in so admirable a manner by three hundred men.
Verse 5
[5] For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise
and garments
rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
Noise —
With the triumphant exclamations of the conqueror
and the bitter lamentations
of the conquered
and the different cries of the same persons
sometimes
conquering
and sometimes conquered.
Blood —
With great difficulty and slaughter.
But —
But this victory which God's people shall have over all their enemies
shall be
more terrible to their adversaries
whom God will utterly consume
as it were
by fire.
Verse 6
[6] For
unto us a child is born
unto us a son is given: and the government shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counsellor
The
mighty God
The everlasting Father
The Prince of Peace.
For —
Having spoken of the glorious light
and joy
and victory of God's people
he
now proceeds to shew the ground of it.
Us — Unto us Jews
of whom
Christ was born
and to whom he was primarily sent.
A child —
The Messiah by the consent of interpreters
not only Christian
but Jewish: for
so the ancient Hebrew doctors understood the place
and particularly the
Chaldee paraphrast; although the latter Jews
out of opposition to Christ
wrest it to Hezekiah. Which extravagant conceit
as it hath no foundation in
this or any other text of scripture
so it is fully confuted by the following
titles
which are such as cannot without blasphemy and nonsense be ascribed to
Hezekiah
nor indeed to any mere mortal man
as we shall see.
Is born —
Or
shall be born
as the prophets generally speak.
The government — Of
God's people
to whom he is given.
Shoulders —
Upon him
or in his hands. He mentions shoulders
because great burdens are
commonly laid upon men's shoulders.
His name —
This is not to be taken for a description of his name
but of his glorious nature
and qualities.
Wonderful counsellor — And so Christ is
because he hath been the counsellor of his church in
all ages
and the author and giver of all those excellent counsels delivered
not only by the apostles
but also by the prophets
and hath gathered and
enlarged
and preserved his church
by admirable counsels and methods of his
providence
and
in a word
hath in him all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge
Colossians 2:3.
Mighty God —
This title can agree to no man but Christ
who was God as well as man
to whom
the title of God or Jehovah is given
both in the Old and New Testament. And it
is a true observation
that this Hebrew word El is never used in the singular
number
of any creature
but only of the almighty God.
The father —
The father of eternity. Who
though as man he was then unborn
yet was and is
from everlasting to everlasting.
Verse 7
[7] Of
the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end
upon the throne
of David
and upon his kingdom
to order it
and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts
will perform this.
No end —
His peaceable and happy government shall be extended to all the ends of the
earth.
The throne —
Which was promised to David
and to his seed for ever.
For ever —
From the beginning of it to all eternity.
The zeal —
This great work shall be brought to pass by almighty God
out of that fervent
affection which he hath to his own glory
to the honour of his son
and to his
people.
Verse 8
[8] The
Lord sent a word into Jacob
and it hath lighted upon Israel.
The Lord —
The prophet
having inserted some consolatory passages for God's faithful
people
returns to his former comminution against the rebellious Israelites.
And —
Heb. it fell
that is
it shall fall
in the prophetical style. It shall
certainly be accomplished.
Verse 9
[9] And
all the people shall know
even Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria
that say
in the pride and stoutness of heart
Know —
They shall know whether my word be true or false.
Even —
The people of the ten tribes
and particularly Ephraim
the proudest of them
all.
Samaria —
The strongest place
and the seat of the king and court.
Verse 10
[10] The
bricks are fallen down
but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are
cut down
but we will change them into cedars.
Stones — We
have received some damage; but
we doubt not we shall quickly repair it with
advantage.
Verse 11
[11]
Therefore the LORD shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against him
and join
his enemies together;
Therefore — To
chastise your pride
and defeat your hopes.
Set up —
The Assyrians
who
presently after this prophecy
prevailed against him
2 Kings 16:7. He mentions Rezin
because he was
confederate with Ephraim.
Join — So
that they shall invade him from several quarters.
His —
Not Rezin's
but Ephraim.
Verse 12
[12] The
Syrians before
and the Philistines behind; and they shall devour Israel with
open mouth. For all this his anger is not turned away
but his hand is
stretched out still.
Syrians —
For though Rezin
king of Syria was destroyed
yet the body of the nation
survived
and submitted themselves to the king of Assyria
and upon his command
invaded Israel afterwards.
Before —
Heb. on the east: for Syria stood eastward from Israel. Behind - On the western
side of the land of Israel.
Devour —
Like wild beasts.
Verse 13
[13] For
the people turneth not unto him that smiteth them
neither do they seek the
LORD of hosts.
Him — To
God.
Verse 14
[14]
Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail
branch and rush
in
one day.
Head —
High and low.
Branch —
The goodly branches of tall trees
the mighty and noble.
Rush —
The bulrush
the weakest and meanest persons.
One day —
All together
one as well as another.
Verse 15
[15] The
ancient and honourable
he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies
he
is the tail.
The prophet —
Whose destruction he mentions
not as if it were a punishment to them to be
deprived of such persons
but partly to shew the extent of the calamity
that
it should reach all sorts of persons; and partly to beat down their vain
presumptions of peace and prosperity
by shewing that those false prophets
which had fed their vain hopes
should perish
and their false prophecies with
them.
Tail —
The basest part of the whole people.
Verse 16
[16] For
the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are
destroyed.
The leaders —
Their false prophets.
Cause — By
false doctrines and evil counsels and persuasions.
Destroyed —
Shall certainly perish.
Verse 17
[17]
Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men
neither shall have
mercy on their fatherless and widows: for every one is an hypocrite and an
evildoer
and every mouth speaketh folly. For all this his anger is not turned
away
but his hand is stretched out still.
No joy —
Shall not rejoice over them to do them good.
Fatherless — Who
are the special objects of his care and pity
and much less upon others.
Every one —
Not precisely; for there were seven thousand elect persons among them
when
they seemed to Elijah to be universally corrupt
but the body of the people.
Hypocrite —
For though they professed to worship God
yet indeed they had forsaken him.
Folly —
Wickedness.
Verse 18
[18] For
wickedness burneth as the fire: it shall devour the briers and thorns
and
shall kindle in the thickets of the forest
and they shall mount up like the
lifting up of smoke.
Burneth —
Shall burn you
as it follows
shall devour.
Thorns —
The low and mean persons; for these are opposed to the thickets of the forest
in the next clause.
Forest — In
the wood
where the trees are tall
and stand thick
having their bows
entangled together
which makes them more ready both to catch and to spread the
fire.
Smoak —
Sending up smoak like a vast furnace.
Verse 21
[21]
Manasseh
Ephraim; and Ephraim
Manasseh: and they together shall be against
Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away
but his hand is stretched out
still.
Manasseh —
Though more near and dear to one another than any other tribe
being both sons
of Joseph.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Isaiah》
09 Chapter 9
Verses 1-8
Verses 1-7
Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation
The prophecy explained
Let me venture to give what I conceive to be the true rendering of
the prophecy--a rendering which at least in its main particulars has the
support of the best modern interpreters--and the striking beauty and force and
consistency of the whole will become evident.
The prophet has been speaking in the previous chapter of a time of terrible
distress and perplexity which was close at hand. King and people had forsaken
their God. Ahaz had refused the sign of deliverance offered him and was hoping
by an alliance with Assyria
to beat off his enemies. The people in their
terror were resorting to wizards and to necromancers for guidance instead of
resorting to God. And the prophet warns them that the national unbelief and
apostasy shall bring its sure chastisement in national despair. They will look
around them in vain for succour. The heavens above and the earth beneath shall
be wrapt in the same awful gloom. Nothing can exceed the dramatic force of the
picture; it is a night at noonday
the very sun blotted from the heavens; it is
a darkness which might be felt. But even while the prophet’s gaze is fixed upon
it he sees the light trembling on the skirts of the darkness. The sunrise is
behind the cloud. “The darkness
” cries the prophet
“is driven away.” So I
venture to render the last words of the eighth chapter. “For there shall no
more be gloom to her (i.e.
to the land)
that was in anguish. In the former time He made light of (not ‘lightly
afflicted’ as our A.V. has it)
poured contempt upon the land of Zebulun and
Naphtali
but in the latter time He hath made it glorious by the way of the
sea
beyond Jordan
Galilee (the circuit) of the nations.” Take this rendering
and you have a perfectly exact end very striking prediction. It was not true
that the land had first been lightly afflicted and afterwards was more
grievously afflicted. But it was true that in the former time the land had been
despised; Zebulun and Naphtali and Galilee of the nations had been a byword
among the Jews; their territory had been trampled under foot by every invader
who had ever entered Palestine. In the former time He did make light of it
He
did abase it
but in the latter time He made it glorious with a glory far
transcending the glory of any earthly kingdom. For it was here
amid this
despised half heathen population
that the true Light shined down
here the Lord
of Glory lived
it was here that He wrought His wonderful works and uttered His
wonderful words
it was here that He gathered fishermen and tax gatherers to be
His first disciples and missionaries to the world. This land was of a truth
made glorious by the feet of Jesus of Nazareth. Well may the prophet continue
“The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in
the land of the shadow of death
on them hath the light shined. Thou hast
multiplied the nation
Thou hast increased their joy.” The insertion of the
negative is an unfortunate mistake which
though found in our present Hebrew
text
can be easily explained
and indeed has been corrected by the Hebrew
scribes themselves. “They joy before Thee according to the joy in harvest
and
as men exult when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden
and the
staff upon his shoulder
the rod of his oppression Thou hast broken
as in the
day of Midian. For the greaves of the greaved warrior and the battle tumult and
the garments rolled in blood shall be for burning for fuel of fire.” The A.V.
by the insertion of the words “but this
” introduces an antithesis which
destroys the whole force and beauty of the picture. Strike out those words and
all becomes clear and consistent. The meaning is that at the advent of the
Prince of Peace all wars shall cease. The soldier’s sandals and the soldier’s
cloak and all the bloodstained gear of battle shall be gathered together and
east into the fire to be burned. The heir of David’s throne is no earthly
warrior; He does not win His kingdom by force of arms. “For a Child is born
unto us
a Son is given unto us
and the government shall be upon His shoulder;
He shall wear the insignia of royalty. And His name shall be called Wonderful
Counsellor
Mighty God
Father of Eternity
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of
His government and of peace there shall be no end
upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom
to establish it
and to uphold it with judgment and with
righteousness
from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
shall perform this.” Such is the majestic vision of light and Peace that dawns
upon the prophet’s soul in the midst of the national apostasy. (Bishop
Perowne.)
“Nevertheless”
There is in this world mercifully a compensating balance to all
Divine denunciations
a “nevertheless” to all God’s judgments
and a Gospel of
grace appended to every message of doom. It is this that makes this world
amid
all its tragic scenes
a world of mercy. (D. Davies.)
Clearest promises of Christ in darkest times
It is noteworthy that the clearer promises of the Messiah have
been given in the darkest hour? of history. If the prophets had been silent
upon the Coming One before
they always speak out in the cloudy and dark day;
for well the Spirit made them know that the coming of God in human flesh is the
lone star of the world’s night. It was so in the beginning
when our first
parents had sinned
and were doomed to quit the paradise of delights. When
Israel was in Egypt
when they were in the sorest bondage
and when many
plagues had been wrought on Pharaoh
apparently without success; then Israel
saw the Messiah set before her as the Paschal lamb
whose blood sprinkled on
the lintel and the two side posts secured the chosen from the avenger of blood.
The type is marvellously clear
and the times were marvellously dark. I will
quote three cases from the prophetical books which now lie open before Isaiah 28:16
you read that glorious
prophecy: “Behold
I lay inZion for a foundation a stone
a tried stone
a
precious cornerstone
a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make
haste.” When was that given? When the foundation of society in Israel was
rotten with iniquity
and when its cornerstone was oppression. Read from Isaiah 28:14 : “Wherefore hear the Word
of the Lord
ye scornful men
” etc. Thus
when lies and falsehoods ruled the
hour
the Lord proclaims the blessed truth that the Messiah would come sad
would be a sure foundation for believers. Next
look into Jeremiah 23:5 : “Behold
the days come
saith the Lord
that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch
” etc. When was
this clear testimony given! Read the former verses of the chapter
sad see that
the pastors were destroying and scattering the sheep of Jehovah’s pasture. When
the people of the Lord thus found their worst enemies where they ought to have
met with friendly care
then they were promised happier days through the coming
of the Divine Son of David. Glance at Ezekiel 34:23
where the Lord says
“And
I will set up one shepherd over them
sad he shall feed them
even My servant
David; he shall feed them
and he shall be their shepherd.” When came this
cheering promise concerning that great Shepherd of the sheep! It came when Israel
is thus described: “And they were scattered
because there is no shepherd
”
etc. Thus
in each case
when things were at their worst
the Lord Jesus was
the one well of consolation in a desert of sorrows. In the worst times we are
to preach Christ
and to look to Christ. In Jesus there is a remedy for the
direst of diseases
and s rescue from the darkest of despairs. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Phases of Divine purpose
Let us look at some of the abiding doctrines and illustrations
suggested by this noblest effort of the prophet’s imagination. Isaiah’s wing
never takes a higher flight than it does in this prevision of the centuries.
1. The Divine purpose has never been satisfied
if we may so say
with darkness
judgment
desolation. When God has judged a man He would seem to
return to see what effect the judgment has had
if haply He may see some hope
of returning feeling
of loyalty sad filial submission. God’s feeling has been
always a feeling of solicitude to bless the nations. We shall do wrong if we
suppose that pity comes in only with the historical Christ
that compassion was
born on Christmas Day.
2. The Divine movement amongst the nations has always expressed
itself under the contrast of light sad darkness (verse 2). No contrast can be
more striking; therefore this is the one God has chosen whereby to represent
the Divine movement. God is associated with light
and all evil with darkness.
The fulfilment of Divine purpose has always been associated with incarnation
idealised Humanity.
3. Look at the Deliverer as seen by the prophet (verse 6). The
Deliverer is to come as a child
a son
a governor
a name; He is to sit upon
the throne of David
sad upon his kingdom
to order it
and to establish it
with judgment sad with justice from henceforth even forever. Say there was a
secondary application of the terms
there can be no objection to that; but no
living man ever filled out in their uttermost spheral meaning all these names
but one
and His name is Jesus.
4. Then comes rapture upon rapture. And the pledge of the fulfilment
of all is
“The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.” (J. Parker
D.
D.)
The remedy of the world’s misery
I. THE VIEW TAKEN
BY THE PROPHET OF THE MORAL STATE OF THE WORLD PREVIOUS TO THE GLORIOUS CHANGE
WHICH MAKES THE SUBJECT OF HIS PROPHECY.
1. The people are represented as walking in darkness. The prophet
contemplates the world at large. Light is an emblem of knowledge; darkness of
ignorance and error.
2. But darkness alone appears to the mind of the prophet only a faint
emblem of the state of the heathen. He adds
therefore
“the shadow of death.”
In Scripture this expression is used for death
the grave
the darkness of that
subterranean mansion into which the Jews supposed the souls of men went after
death. Figuratively
the expression is used for great distress; a state of
danger and terror. It is an amplification
therefore
of the prophet’s thought.
Experience has justified this representation of the prophet. The religion of
the heathen has ever been gloomy and horrible.
II. THE BLESSED
VISITATION (Isaiah 9:2).
1. As darkness is an emblem of the religious sorrows which had
overcast the world
so light is an emblem of the truth of the Gospel The Gospel
is “light.” This marks its origin from heaven. This notes its truth. It is
“light” because of its penetrating and subtle nature. It is called “light
” “a
great light
” because of the discoveries which it makes. It is life and health
to the world. Where it prevails
spiritual life is inspired
and the moral
disorders of the soul give place to health and vigour.
2. As in the vision light succeeds to darkness
so also joy succeeds
to fear and misery.
III. SO VAST A
CHANGE MUST BE PRODUCED BY CAUSES PROPORTIONABLY POWERFUL: and to the means by
which this astonishing revolution is effected the prophet next directs
attention (Isaiah 9:4-5). These words speak of
resistance and a struggle. In the conduct of this battle two things are
however
to be remarked: the absolute weakness and insufficiency of the
assailants
and their miraculous success. The weakness of the instruments used
in breaking the rod and yoke of the oppressor is sufficiently marked by the
allusion to the destruction of the host of Midian by Gideon and his three
hundred men. But it may be said
“Is not all this a splendid vision? You speak
of weak instruments effecting a miraculous success; of the display and
operation of a supernatural power
touching the hearts of men
and changing the
moral state of the world; but what is the ground of this expectation?” This
natural and very proper question our text answers.
IV. “FOR UNTO US A
CHILD IS BORN
” etc. (Isaiah 9:6-7). (R. Watson.)
Light out of darkness
We are not left in doubt as to what the end of this great prophecy
was. In Matthew 4:15-16
we have it expounded to
us.
I. THE GREAT
DARKNESS. The prophet first saw the people utterly overwhelmed by the ruthless
hand of merciless war. It had been once a prosperous land
but now darkness
dense had come over it till it was a veritable “shadow of death.” Turning from
the immediate political significance of this to its spiritual import
we can
easily see in it a picture of the spiritual condition of the world when Jesus
came. The whole world was lying in the wicked one. The Jewish people
though
they had the living Word of God
had in the darkness of their carnal ambition
and lifeless formality lost all true vision of God. The Gentile world was no
better. The best which they had was
on the one hand
a sensuous and godless
Epicureanism
and on the other a cold and hopeless Stoicism. Turning to the
condition of the unconverted people of our own day
we see also darkness and
the shadow of death. What light for the soul has all our modern philosophical
thinking and scientific research given?
II. THE GREAT
LIGHT. The light which the prophet saw was the intervention of God for the
deliverance of the people from political bondage and physical misery
with some
spiritual return to God. That which it typified was the advent and work of
Christ. How this light shone upon the darkened world when He came! Truly it was
a “great light.” The light seen in the face of Jesus Christ is the glory of
God
revealing His eternal purposes of grace to all sinful men. Christ lights
the world by loving it
i.e.
by revealing the love of God to sinners.
III. THE GREAT
BLESSINGS. With the coming of the true light came wonderful blessings to the
people. This is described in the language of the prophet under several figures
of speech.
1. “Thou hast multiplied the nation.” If we look to the real
fulfilment of this prophecy
what a vast increase in the people of God there
has been!
2. “And increased their joy.” Of old the people of God rejoiced at
their best periods in mere national prosperity. But under the spiritual reign
of Jesus the people shall rejoice in better things. The joy of salvation.
3. “According to the joy in harvest.” The happiest festival of the
Jews was the harvest feast
when the fruits of the earth were all gathered in
and the people blessed God and rejoiced in their riches. But now He gives us a
new and better harvest
the ingathering of souls
the first fruits of which
were gathered on the day of Pentecost. There is no such pure joy as that which
arises in the heart when God’s salvation is being accepted by men and women
and His harvest is being gathered. What will it be in that day when the glad
harvest home is accomplished?
4. “And as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.” This is a figure
borrowed from the triumphant joy of the victorious warrior
who
having
overthrown the enemy
and taken possession of his goods
divides them as spoil
among the victors. Well
so shall
and so do
God’s people rejoice over the
victories which the Gospel wins over “the god of this world.”
5. “Thou hast broken the yoke . . . and the staff.” Hitherto the
people had boon under the iron yoke of their oppressors
and beaten by the rod
of their taskmasters
as in the old slavery times of Egypt. How happy when that
yoke shall be broken
and that cruel staff or rod done away! Under Messiah’s
reign the cruel bondage of Satan’s yoke is broken
and the taskmaster’s staff
done away.
IV. HOW CHRIST
DELIVERS. In earthly conflicts battles are fought “with confused noise and
garments rolled in blood.” The captives were delivered of old by these terrible
and sanguinary methods; but Christ delivers His captives by the power of the
Spirit of God
“with burning and fuel of fire.” The fire is the Holy Ghost
and
the fuel of fire is the Word of truth. (G. F. Pentecost
D. D.)
The nativity of our Lord
I. LIGHT OUT OF
DARKNESS.
II. JOY BECAUSE OF
THE LIGHT.
1. Because Jesus was born.
2. Because in His incarnation God and man were united.
3. Because through His birth “the yoke” of man’s burden has been
broken (Isaiah 9:4)
and the power of his
oppressor destroyed.
III. THE GROUNDS OF
THIS JOY (Isaiah 9:6-7). (Clergyman’s
Magazine.)
Good things in the days of the great Messiah
If it be asked
What the great design of God is in the Scriptures?
I answer
To bring a lost world to the knowledge of a Saviour all the
prophecies
promises
histories
and doctrines of the Word
do point us to Him
as the needle in the mariner’s compass points to the pole star. “To Him bore
all the prophets witness.” And when apostles under the New Testament were sent
unto all nations
with the silver trumpet of the everlasting Gospel in their
mouths
what was the great theme of their sermons! It was just to make Christ
known among the nations All the lines of religion meet in Him as their centre.
The prophet in the close of the preceding chapter
having spoken of dark and
dismal days of trouble and distress
comes in the beginning of this
to comfort
and encourage the hearts of true believers
with the good things which were
coming in the days of the great Messiah.
I. There are THREE
GREAT NEW TESTAMENT BLESSINGS he condescends upon.
1. Great light should spring up to a lost world (Isaiah 9:2).
2. Joy in the Lord (Isaiah 9:3).
3. Spiritual liberty (Isaiah 9:4-5).
II. It any should
ask WHO IS HE
AND WHERE IS HE
THAT SHALL DO ALL THESE GREAT THINGS? You have
an answer in the words
“For unto us a Child is born
unto us a Son is given
and the government shall be upon His shoulder
” etc. In the words we may notice
these things following.
1. The incarnation of the great Messiah; for here the prophet speaks
of His birth.
2. His donation. He is the gift of God to a lost world. “Unto us a
Son is given.”
3. His advancement to the supreme rule and authority. “The government
shall be upon His shoulder.”
4. His character and designation
in five names here given Him
which
show that He has a name above every name
“Wonderful
Counsellor
The Mighty
God
The Everlasting Father
The Prince of Peace.”
5. The relation He stands in to lost sinners of Adam’s family. He is
born “to us
” He is given “to us
” and not to the angels which fell.
6. The application and triumph of faith upon all this; for the Church
here lays claim to Him
and triumphs in her claim; for the words are uttered in
a way of holy boasting. “Unto us this Child is born
unto us this Son is
given.” (E. Erskine.)
Fulness of Christ
There is that in Jesus Christ alone which may and can afford sufficient
comfort and relief in the worst of times and conditions.
I. WE WILL INQUIRE
INTO THE TRUTH OF IT (Colossians 2:9).
1. If you look into Scripture you shall find that the promises and
prophecies of Christ are calculated and given out for the worst of times.
2. If there was enough in the types of Christ to comfort and relieve
the people of God under the Old Testament in the worst of their times; then
there must needs be enough in Christ to comfort the people of God now in the
worst of our times. In the times of the Old Testament
in ease they had sinned
what relief had they? A sacrifice to make an atonement Leviticus 4:20)
and so a type of Christ
the great Sacrifice Hebrews 9:26). In case they were in the
wilderness and wanted bread
what relief had they? Manna
a type of Christ
“the true Bread that came down from heaven.’ In case they wanted water
what
relief had they? The rock opened
and “that rock was Christ.” In ease they were
stung wire the fiery serpents what relief had they? They had the brazen
serpent
and that was a type of Christ (John 3:15).
3. If all the promises of good things made to us were originated in
Christ
and if all the promises that were made unto Christ of good things to
come
do descend upon us
then surely there is enough in Christ to succour in
the worst of times. For what are the promises but Divine conveyances?
4. If all our want of comfort and satisfaction doth arise from the
want of a sight of Christ’s fulness and excellency
and all our satisfaction
and comfort doth arise from the sight of Christ’s fulness and excellency
then
this doctrine must needs he true.
II. WHAT IS THAT IN
CHRIST THAT MAY OR CAN COMFORT
SUCCOUR AND BELIEVE IN THE WORST OF TIMES AND
CONDITIONS?
1. Look what that good thing is which the world can either give or
take away
that is in Christ in great abundance; and if that be in Christ in
great abundance which the world can neither give or take away
then there is
that in Christ that may or can succour
comfort
and relieve in the worst of
times. Can the world take away your estate
gold
or silver? Then read what is
said in Proverbs 3:1-35
concerning wisdom
where
Christ is called wisdom (verse 13). Can the world take away your liberty? Then
you know what Christ says
“Behold
I have set before thee an open door
and no
man can shut it.” Can the world take away your life? You know what Christ
saith
“I am the Way
the Truth
and the Life.” On the other side
what can the
world give to you? Can the world give you peace
rest
quietness? Then you know
what Christ saith (Matthew 11:28; John 14:27). Can the world give you
happiness? I am sure Christ can.
2. There is in Jesus Christ the greatest excellency under the best
propriety
“My Lord and my God.”
3. There is in Jesus Christ the greatest fulness joined with the most
communicativeness.
4. The sweetest love under the greatest engagement. Is not a brother
engaged to help his brother? A father his children? A husband his wife! Now
suppose there were one person that could stand under all these relations--a
brother
a father
a husband; how much would that person be engaged to help?
Thus Christ doth; He stands under all these relations.
6. There is that in Jesus Christ that suiteth all conditions.
III. HOW FAR THIS
CONCERNS US. (W. Bridge
M. A.)
Immanuel the Light of Life
I. There is to be
a light breaking in upon the sons of men who sit in darkness
and this light is
to be found only in the incarnate God. Let me ILLUSTRATE THIS FACT BY THE
CONTEXT.
1. I must carry you back to Isaiah 7:14. The sign of coming light is
Jesus.
2. Further on we see our Lord Jesus as the hold fast of the soul in
time of darkness. See in Isaiah 8:8
the whole country overwhelmed
by the fierce armies of the Assyrians
as when a land is submerged beneath a
flood. Then you read--And he shall pea through Judah; he shall overflow and go
over
he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings
shall fill the breadth of Thy land
O Immanuel.” The one hope that remained for
Judah was that her country was Immanuel’s land. There would Immanuel be born
there would He labour
and there would He die. He was by eternal covenant the
King of that land
and no Assyrian could keep Him from His throne. If you are a
believer in Christ
you belong to Him
and you always were His by sovereign
right
even when the enemy held you in possession. We might exultingly have
gloried over you
“Thy soul
O Immanuel.” Herein lay your hope when all other
hope was gone. Herein is your hope now.
3. Further on in the chapter we learn that Jesus is our star of hope
as to the destruction of the enemy. The foes of God’s people shall be surely
vanquished and destroyed because of Immanuel. Note well in Isaiah 8:9-10
how it is put twice over
like an exultant taunt: “Gird yourselves
and ye shall be broken in pieces;
gird yourselves
and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together
and
it shall come to nought; speak the word
and it shall not stand: for Immanuel.”
Our version translates the word into “God with us
” but it is “Immanuel.” In
Him
even in our Lord Jesus Christ
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily
and He has brought all that Godhead to bear upon the overthrow of the
foes of His people.
4. Further on we find the Lord Jesus as the morning light after a
night of darkness
The last verses of the eighth chapter picture a horrible
state of wretchedness and despair: “And they shall pass through it
hardly
bestead and hungry:” etc. But see what a change awaits them! Read the fine
translation of the R.V. “But there shall be no gloom to her that was in anguish.”
What a marvellous light from the midst of a dreadful darkness! It lean
astounding change
such as only God with us could work. There am some here who
have traversed that terrible wilderness You are being driven as captives into
the land of despair
and for the last few months you have been tromping along a
painful road
“hardly bestead and hungry.” You are sorely put to it
and your
soul finds no food of comfort
but is ready to faint and die. You fret
yourself: your heart is wearing away with care
and grief
and hopelessness. In
the bitterness of your soul you are ready to curse the day of your birth. The
captive Israelites cursed their king who had led them into their defeat and
bondage; the fury of their agony
they even cursed God and longed to die
It
may be that your heart is in such a ferment of grief that you know not what you
think
but are like a man at his wits’ end. Those who led you into sin are
bitterly remembered; and as you think upon God you am troubled. This is a
dreadful ease for a soul to be in
and it involves a world of sin and misery.
You look up
but the heavens are as brass above your head; your prayers appear
to be shut out from God’s ear; you look around you upon the earth
and behold
“trouble and darkness
and dimness of anguish”; your every hope is slain
and
your heart is torn asunder with remorse and dread. Every hour you seem to be
hurried by an irresistible power into greater darkness. In such a case none can
give you comfort save Immanuel
God with us. Only God
espousing your cause
and bearing your sin
can possibly save you. See
He comes for your salvation!
5. Once more
we learn from that which follows our text
that the
reign of Jesus is the star of the golden future. He came to Galilee of the
Gentiles
and made that country glorious
which had been brought into contempt.
That corner of Palestine had very often borne the brunt of invasion
and had
felt more than any other region the edge of the keen Assyrian sword. It was a
wretched land
with a mixed population
despised by the purer race of Jews; but
that very country became glorious with the presence of the incarnate God. That
first land to be invaded by the enemy was made the headquarters of the army of
salvation. Even so at this day His gracious presence is the day dawn of our
joy. Here read and interpret Isaiah 9:3.Then shall your enemy be
defeated
as in the day of Midian. When Jesus comes you shall have eternal
peace; for His battle is the end of battles. “All the armour of the armed man
in the tumult
and the garments rolled in blood
shall even be for burning
for
fuel of fire.” This is the rendering of the Revision; and it is good. The
Prince of Peace wars against war
and destroys it. Now is it that the Lord
Jesus becomes glorious in our eyes; and He whose name is Immanuel is now
crowned in our heart with many crowns
and honoured with many titles. What a
list of glories we have here! What a burst of song it makes when we sing
of the Messiah (Isaiah 9:6). Each word sounds like a
salvo of artillery.
II. I want to PRESS
HOME CERTAIN TRUTHS CONNECTED WITH MY THEME. Immanuel is a grand word. “God
with us” means more than tongue can tell It means enmity removed on our part
and justice vindicated on God’s part. It means the whole Godhead engaged on our
side
resolved to bless us.
1. Jesus is Immanuel (Matthew 1:21).
2. Perhaps you wish to know a little more of the incident in the text
which exhibits Jesus as the great light. Our Lord made His home in the darkest
parts. He looked about and saw no country so ignorant
no country so sorrowful
as Galilee of the Gentiles
and therefore He went there
and lifted it up to
heaven by priceless privileges!
3. We will turn back to where we opened our Bibles at the first
and
there we learn that
to be God with us
Jesus must be accepted by us. He cannot
be with us if we will not have Him. Hear how the prophet words it: “Unto us a
Child is born
unto us a Son is given.” Be sure that you go on with the verse
to the end--“and the government shall be upon His shoulder.” If Christ is your
Saviour He must be your King. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lux in tenebris
One evening last week I stood by the seashore when the storm was
raging. The voice of the Lord was upon the waters; and who was I that I should
tarry within doors
when my Master’s voice was heard sounding along the water?
I rose and stood to behold the flash of His lightnings
and listen to the glory
of His thunders. The sea and the thunders were contesting with one another; the
sea with infinite clamour striving to hush the deep-throated thunder
so that
His voice should not be heard; yet over and above the roar of the billows might
be heard that voice of God
as He spake with flames of fire
and divided the
way for the waters. It was a dark night
and the sky was covered with thick
clouds
and scarce a star could be seen through the rifts of the tempest; but
at one particular time
I noticed far away on the horizon
as if miles across
the water
a bright shining
like gold. It was the moon hidden behind the
clouds
so that she could not shine upon us; but she was able to send her rays
down upon the waters
far away
where no cloud happened to intervene. I thought
as I read this chapter last evening
that the prophet seemed to have stood in a
like position
when he wrote the words of my text. All round about him were
clouds of darkness; he heard prophetic thunders roaring
and he saw flashes of
the lightning of Divine vengeance; clouds and darkness
for many a league
were
scattered through history; but he saw far away a bright spot--one place where
the clear shining same down from heaven. And he eat down
and he penned these
words: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that
dwell in the land of the shadow of death
upon them hath the light shined”; and
though he looked through whole leagues of space
where he saw the battle of the
warrior “with confused noise and garments rolled in blood
” yet he fixed his
eye upon one bright spot in futurity
and he declared that there he saw hope of
peace
prosperity
and blessedness; for said he
“Unto us a Child is born
unto
us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name
shall be called Wonderful.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Verse 2
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light
The true Light
The prophet’s vision has been fulfilled.
The true light now shineth; Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh is the true
Light which lighteth every man. There is no light in any real sense but that
which comes to man through Him.
I. Christ sheds
light upon SIN. By His words and by His life He testifies to the reality of
sin.
1. In Him was exhibited for the first and only time a life perfectly
obedient to the will of God
a life the one inspiring motive of which was love
to God and love to man
a life in which every thought
every word
every act
was influenced only by a regard to the glory of God
a life in which was
manifested in perfect union and in perfect harmony every human virtue. Thus
Christ has shown us what we ought to be
and in showing us this has shown us
what we are. In the presence of His awful purity how deep our impurity appears.
2. And He has tracked sin to its secret hiding place. He has
discovered the fountain in the heart
the evil thought
the murderous hate
the
impure desire
the covetousness
the malice
the bitterness which lurk within
and which no human law can touch. He has made us discern not only the evil done
and the evil thought
but the good left undone. There is no part of our nature
which He has not explored. Never had it been so profoundly
so truly judged
never had man been so discovered to us.
3. Is the light which Christ casts upon sin only a condemning light?
Is it a light which shows us our misery only to leave us without hope
which
shows us what we ought to be
but gives us no power to attain to the ideal set
before us! No
the light which reveals to us our sin
reveals to us also the
mercy of God
a love greater than our transgressions
a pardon greater than our
sin. It is the light of the Cross that gives us hope. Never does God appear in
more perfect holiness than when He pardons sin
and the sinner looking upon the
Cross feels the malignity of that sin which nothing but the sacrifice of the
Son of God could take away. All other religions
all other philosophies have
failed here
all have made some compromise with sin
all have concealed its
deep malignity; the Cross alone dares to reveal it
because the Cross alone
takes it away.
II. And so
too
of
HUMAN SUFFERING. The Cross consoles sorrow
because it manifests to us a power
of sympathy in God such as man had never dared to dream of. There is no
suffering for which the Cross is not a precious balm
because there is no
suffering which it does not surpass and consecrate.
III. And much more
Christ’s light is a light cast upon DEATH. Or rather let me say the light which
He came to bestow is the light of life. He came that they might have life
and
that they might have it more abundantly. Beyond the Cross there is the Resurrection.
“Because I live
ye shall live also.” This is the grand prerogative of the
Gospel All other religions have failed here. All have spoken with stammering
lips of the world beyond the grave. (Bishop Perowne.)
Experiences on a sick bed
We are accustomed to conceive of our experience of bodily
affliction as a land of “the shadow of death.” Just as there was a preparation
for receiving good in the moral shadow which enveloped the Galileans
so is
there also good in the pain and abasement of bodily suffering. There is a
breaking down of pride
and a clearer insight into our own utter weakness.
There is new openness to spiritual realities
and in this
at least a
preparation for being dealt with according to the light of our relation to
eternity.
I. One almost
invariable sight revealed to us in the shadow of death is THE IMPERISHABLENESS
OF THE PAST. I remember reading some years ago an account of an exploration of
one of the pyramids of Egypt. The impression of the darkness upon the explorers
at first was very oppressive. On every side and overhead
piled one above
another in prodigious lengths and masses
rose the polished blocks of granite
which formed the walls and ceiling. There was not a window
nor open chink from
top to bottom. The torches of the guides only deepened the sense of awe
blinking as they did like mere glow worms in the gloom. As the travellers crept
and slid along the dismal passages
through the almost solid darkness
an
undefined and painful consciousness of something like terror arose within them
from the felt want of any really satisfactory knowledge of the purpose which
could be intended in such a building. At length they came to what seemed to
them a coffin of stone. When they struck it
it rung like a bell. Everything
else had had a baffling and perplexing effect on their minds. Here was one
object they could thoroughly understand--the monument of a purpose
even if not
the main purpose
which the building was intended to serve. And in the midst of
that darkness they found their minds summoned by that coffin into the presence
of the past. Something not very unlike this takes place when we are sent in
under some serious illness
to explore the land of the shadow. At first we are
oppressed by the mere darkness--the deepening out on every side of the
possibilities of the disease. Then
the ignorance of the purpose for which we
are afflicted perplexes us. But at last
more or less in every case
we find
our minds settling upon the past. Sometimes it is our instinctive forward
looking
our attempt to penetrate the dim
unsounded future which thus leads us
back into the past. The consciousness that we are passing onwards into its
territory will not let sleep the question
“What sort of past am I carrying
thither with me?” More frequently it is the consideration of unfinished
purposes which recalls the past. Often
however
there is something in the very
circumstances of the affliction
some appropriate word
perhaps
suggested and
pressed upon our attention
which leads us in this direction of the past.
Joseph’s brethren
e.g.
in the Egyptian prison
by the simple utterance
of the words
“Your youngest brother
” had the past which related to themselves
and Joseph recalled to their minds. It was this which Job complained of when he
cried to God: “Thou makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth.” His youth
was not dead as he had supposed; nor had its actions altogether passed. The
threads of these were still in His hand who was afflicting him. And now
in his
distress
they are drawn up and placed like network around his soul. But there
is good in this revision of the past. For one thing
the very sight of the fact
is good that nothing of our lives passes utterly into oblivion. It is good to
know that the past as much as the present is real
that our deeds lie there
imperishable
dormant
but yet dead. For a second reason it is good. The
remaining hours of our time here are more likely to be encountered and occupied
with serious hearts. But
for a third and still deeper reason
it is good to
have made this discovery. One of the main purposes of redemption is to deal
with this imperishableness of the past
and solve the problems which arise out
of that and our responsibility. Our Redeemer came to put away the guilt of our
past lives
and to lift us into a position from which the consequences of our
guilt would shut us out forever. But nothing more disposes us to listen to the
offers of Divine mercy
than a clear unambiguous view of the actual past of our
lives.
II. Another and
most important sight vouchsafed to us in serious illness
is THE SIGHT OF THE
WORLD WE LIVE IN DWARFED TO ITS TRUE PROPORTIONS. It is a great loss to anyone
to see the world he lives in only from the side of health. The true proportions
of things are almost sure to be hidden from his view. This is especially the
case with respect to the common pursuits of life. It requires the discipline of
a sick bed to reveal our error--to discover to us that we have transgressed the
bounds of mere necessity
and have been giving them more thought than they
demand. I would liken the false value which we put on our lower vocations to
the shadow cast by a manor house on the lawn. The house itself may represent
the actual legitimate thought
which we may put into our daily toils. The shadow
of the house is the added
illegitimate thought--the burdensome
down crushing
care
thrusting and pushing from their centres our higher affections and hopes.
At two different moments there is no shadow. There is none when the sun is in
the centre of the heavens
and pouring his light down upon the roof of the
house; there is none until he bends from the centre. But then the shadow begins
to lengthen out its neck. The sunlight comes forth in horizontal beams
and the
shadow stretches out its arms and spreads its wings
and lies prone and black
on all the colour of the neighbouring field. At last the sun goes down
and the
shadow has disappeared again. Night has rolled its shadow over the land
and
the greater has swallowed the less. The house is there
but not its shadow. A
most true picture this of the different values we put on our pursuits in the
hours of health and at the gates of the grave! For with us also there are two
moments when no shadow falls. There is no false estimate so long as God is in the
centre of our heavens. At last death is rolling his shadow over our earthly
life. And we are enveloped in the gloom of that. And then
looking outward
we
discover how all other shadows have disappeared
and have been to us but vanity
and vexation of spirit.
III. A third
experience in serious illness is
that AWAY FROM THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
THERE IS NO LIGHT FOR THE WORLD TO COME. The lights which surround us in our
daily walks
when all is well with us
forsake us in the shadow. The light of
friendship
for example. It cannot pierce the blackness of the shadow of death
nor search forward into the dimness of unrevealed futurity. Next to our
friends
as lights of life to us
are our books. They are our inner lights. But
away from the Book which specifically tells us of the resurrection of the Son
of God
the light of no book in our keeping abides with us in the shadow to
give us one gleam of hope. But it is worth while being sent into the shadow
if
we come out with this experience.
IV. A fourth experience
is generally reached in serious illness
of which it is not so easy to see the
good. This is THE LONELINESS OF SUFFERING. Our spirits are gadders about too
much. Our lives spread themselves too far upon society. A serious illness
carries us away from this folly. It takes us out into the solitude
and leaves
us there. This loneliness of great suffering is the shadow sent forth to bring
us home. Society is not our home. The dearest
innermost circle of it is not
our home. God is our home--our present home.
V. TO THE CHILDREN
OF GOD AFFLICTION IS IN EVERY WAY A GOOD. Its shadow is a retirement for
renewed and deeper insight into the character and purposes of their Father. As
much as unspiritual sufferers they feel the distress of their circumstances. The
difference is
that over and through this distress they discern the loving
purpose towards themselves of Him who chasteneth. Every way their condition is
different. The world which death is bringing close to them is the habitation of
their best and most beloved Brother. Sustaining promises are suggested to them
by the Spirit
which have new and unthought of appropriateness to their case.
Light from heaven
in inexpressible fulness
comes down into familiar passages
of the Bible
revealing unimagined depths of Divine love for human souls. There
is a nearer
sweeter
more experimental view of the Cross of Christ. Sin is
felt to be the evil thing on which God cannot look
in a way to deepen the
abhorrence of it
and to excite a more cleaving love to Him who is making all
things work together to deliver us from its marks and power. And glimpses of
the sinless land
holy
beautiful as morning light
come glowing and reddening
through the clouds. And the hour of weakness is changed into an hour of
strength. (A. Macleod
D. D.)
Christ as light
I. HOW THIS LIGHT
MAY BE APPROPRIATED TO CHRIST.
1. Light is an all-necessary thing.
2. It separates--divides the night from the day.
3. It cheers.
4. Christ stands preeminently glorious as a great light. There is a
fulness in Him commensurate with His Divinity; there is a brightness in Him
that knows neither change nor diminution.
II. THE DESCRIPTION
OF PERSONS TO WHOM THIS LIGHT HAS BEEN
OR SHALL BE
REVEALED.
1. In darkness.
2. Walking in darkness.
3. In the shadow of death. (F. G. Crossman.)
Christ the true Light
I. THE DARKNESS
reigning in the world beforehand was to be traced even in the land of Judaea
itself. At the period of Christ’s nativity
there was the darkness of types
the shadows and mere secondary images of Divine truth. Some few only were
partially enlightened to believe and understand the truth
and these exulted in
the coming light
e.g.
Simeon and Anna. But if some few in Jerusalem
looked for redemption
what was the state of the heathen world! They
indeed
by all their wisdom
knew not God; they were immersed in the darkest idolatries
and most cruel superstitions. There was
in all this mass of external darkness
something congenial to the inner corruption
the shadow of death
resting on
our common sinful nature: never could the one have existed or taken effect
without the other. We must look within our own hearts for that guilty
ignorance
that wilful blindness and hardened indifference to God and His
truth
which was the source Mike of Jewish perversions and heathen
abominations.
II. Christ was THE
LIGHT spoken of by the prophet. To the Jews
how well calculated was His
appearance to clear up the obscurities of their own Mosaic ritual and prophetic
declarations! To the Gentiles
no less did the coming of Christ present a
religion able
for the first time
to resolve all their doubts
to satisfy all
their wants
and unite the whole family of man under one great Head of all.
1. It was a sudden light; unexpected by most
and undeserved by all
the Sun of Righteousness
Jesus Christ
rose upon a benighted world.
2. It was a great light.
3. This was verily the true light. “It shines with a ray which
”
saith St. John
“lighteneth every man that cometh into the world.” It is that
which is adapted to man as man
beaming with an evidence only to be resisted by
wilful blindness
and convincing all with a force which leaves the wanderer
without excuse
who perishes in his sin.
4. It is a Divine light; one shining as if from the very throne of
God Himself. (C. J. Hoare
M. A.)
Darkness and the shadow of death
Picture to yourselves a traveller fallen into a defile
the
heavens concealed from his view by clouds and darkness; and as he turns in his
passage he hears the ravening beasts of night yelling around him
and ready to
devour him; conceive his heart sinking within him
and seeking a refuge in
vain! If to this man’s glimmering light was raised from a distant cottage where
he might find security
oh
what joy
what hope of escape would burst across
his mind! But yet this will but faintly represent the scene
for the light here
spoken of is not a transitory light which may soon be extinguished
but it is a
bright light that arises in the land; a light that is raised in heaven to shine
on benighted man. (J. Burnett
LL. B.)
Walking in darkness
Concerning the people it is affirmed--
I. That they
walked IN DARKNESS. Darkness must he understood in the figurative sense in
which it is often used in Scripture to signify a state of ignorance
sin
and
misery. Ignorance
like a veil
continues upon their hearts until the light of
the glorious Gospel of Christ shines into their minds. In this uncomfortable
state they act under the influence of corrupt principles
committing those
enormous transgressions which are justly denominated the works of darkness.
From hence arise distresses and miseries of various kinds
which terminate in
utter darkness and everlasting woe
unless prevented by the illumination of the
true light.
II. In this
condition the people are described as WALKING
which
in the Word of God
frequently denotes the whole course of man’s life
in which every action makes
a step towards that everlasting state to which we are journeying.
1. Walking is a voluntary motion
the consequence of preceding choice
and deliberate resolution
2. Walking is a continued motion
in which one step regularly follows
another
until the ground intended is gone over.
3. Walking is a progressive motion
by which a traveller still goes
forward until he arrives at the end of his journey. (R. Macculloch.)
The Light of the world
In the Arctic regions
after the long dark night of winter
the
rising of the sun is especially welcome. So should Christ be to us.
I. THE WORLD
WITHOUT CHRIST SITS IN DARKNESS.
1. The minds of the heathen are dark.
2. Their religion is dark and gloomy.
3. Their conduct is dark.
4. Their prospects after death are dark.
II. JESUS CHRIST IS
A “GREAT LIGHT.” He is--
1. Great in Himself
for He is God.
2. He is a perfect light.
3. He shines into the heart (2 Corinthians 4:6).
4. He gives happiness and healing as well as light (Malachi 2:2; John 15:11).
5. This light cannot be put out (Isaiah 55:20).
6. It is the light of heaven as well as of earth (Rev
21:23).
III. IT IS THE WILL
OF GOD THAT THE HEATHEN AS WELL AS OURSELVES SHOULD SEE THIS GREAT LIGHT (1 Timothy 2:1-6; 1 John 2:2; Mark 16:15). (R. Brewin.)
The land of darkness and the great light
I. WHO ARE THE
PEOPLE WHOM THE PROPHET SAW WALKING IN DARKNESS? By darkness
Scripture means
spiritual alteration. Our normal condition is light; for God is light and we
were made in His image. But this primitive state no longer exists; an
astounding fact has overthrown Divine order; sin has changed all things. The
alteration produced by sin is--
I. An alteration of
truth Our intellect is darkened “through the ignorance that is in us
because
of the blindness of our heart.” The knowledge of God and of ourselves
which in
the origin was pure
has been perverted by a spirit of error and replaced by a
veil of darkness. Man has ceased to know God and to know himself. What light
would you kindle to dispel these shadows of death!
2. An alteration of life. A false life has invaded the soul and
driven away the light of life. The source of life is in God
but it is no
longer God who holds dominion over the soul; it is self
the world
and sin
3. An alteration of joy. Light and joy are synonymous
in Scripture:
“Light is sown for the righteous
and gladness for the upright in heart.” But
what becomes of joy if it is deprived of truth and life! It is turned into
sorrow. Our earthly joys are but disguised sorrows.
II. WHAT IS THE
LIGHT SPOKEN OF BY THE PROPHET? Revert to the fall of the first man and woman
in Eden; a promise shines. This promise henceforth accompanies humanity. (Homiletic
Magazine.)
Darkness exchanged for light
The North American Indians used to hold a New Year’s feast with
revolting ceremonies
the sick and aged being neglected
or even killed
to
avoid trouble. But missionaries have taught them the Gospel They are
Christians
and their New Year’s feast is kept in a different way. Before it
begins a list is read of aged and sick unable to come. Bundles of good things
are packed up and sent to each by the fleetest runners
who think it a joy and
not a burden. Surely these people “have seen a great light.” (Egerton Young.)
Verse 3
Thou hast multiplied the nation
and not increased the Joy
National power and national character
The difference between national power and national character
between the success and the worthiness of a State
is suggested by these words.
Scientific insight shows us that a planet is under the dominion of the law of
gravitation precisely as a pebble is; and religious insight leads us to study
the life
and estimate the merits and the perils
of an empire in the same
light and by the same standards that we should apply to any single person. And
so religious insight prevents us from accepting the mere numbers
opulence
prominence
and power of a State as sufficient justification for joy in its
existence
just as it forbids us to acknowledge such tests for private persons.
If a man is a sensualist
a knave
a gambler
or a ruffian
no honest mind
thinks of praising him because he is strong limbed and in florid health
because he lives in a handsome house
is worth a million
and adds largely
every year to his meadows and park. These splendid circumstances only furnish a
pedestal for a piece of incarnate depravity to make its vileness conspicuous
and repulsive. And a nation may be vigorous in physical health
and may be
gaining thus
while it is going backward and downward in character. The noble
elements which a nation embodies and represents
and which gleam as expressions
upon the lineaments which its countenance will wear in history
constitute its
glory. Mere numbers
as of the Chinese
Hindoos
or Turks
awaken no
satisfaction in the competent student. The brawny energy that tugs at the
conquest of nature; that pushes out pioneers whose axes mow the wilderness
and
whose ploughs furrow the prairies; that quarries counties for coal
and tames
the torrents for its wheels
and makes the air over wide longitudes buzz with
furious and cunning mechanism
--this
in contrast with lazy content or
nerveless beggary
properly awakens joy in the aspect of a nation. And when
out of this groundwork of enthusiastic strength
an intellectual force is born
that dots the land with schools which lead up to academies
and in turn are
crowned with colleges
from which literatures blossom and shed the fragrance of
culture and poetry in the social air
there is new and higher call for
satisfaction and gratitude. And if a religious spirit presses for utterance out
of the widening life of the State
so that churches grow as naturally from its
soil as courtrooms
capitols
and schools; and if the religion of the people
instead of being a selfish commerce with Infinite power for private insurance
against suspected peril
is a reverent and glad recognition of the Infinite
mind as the source of truth
and the Infinite heart as unspeakable love
so
that
if poverty begins to border the general plenty
the national genius turns
to study for the wisest relief of it by the quick impulse of duty
and when
vice and crime burst to the surface the conscience of the State is moved as
quickly to devise cures as to build prisons; then a spectacle is seen grander
than any miracle of genius
any individual heroism
any personal sanctity; for
then a nation stands out with intellect on its forehead
chivalry in its
carriage
and Christianity in its heart. (T. Starr King.)
They Joy before Thee
according to the Joy in harvest
Joy in harvest
We may look upon the words of our text as a kind of double picture
set in a single frame
so that its component parts may be contrasted as well as
compared together. On one side is placed before us a merry harvest scene--just
like what you might see going on in many a smiling cornfield of this happy
English land. On the other side is depicted the confused noise of battle
and
warriors with garments rolled in blood
exulting in that fierce joy which
foemen feel in prospect of hard earned victory. Gradually the tumult passes on
and the ground is strewn with the dead and dying
with here and there a broken
chariot and many a shivered spear. And then the camp followers issue forth to
strip the slain
and to carry off the spoil to their tents until the pursuers
shall return
when it shall be divided share and share to every man with
boisterous mirth and songs of revelry. You will see
therefore
that our
attention is directed first of all to the joy of harvest--man’s triumph in the
labours of the field. And then we can almost fancy that we hear the ringing
shout of victory as the battle sweeps across the plain. Dissimilar though such
things may be
yet there is more than one connecting link between them. For
“peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.” We might even say that
they are more real
more complete
more generally shared in. The rejoicing
after some successful campaign is often loud and great; the news comes in
the
cities are illuminated
the joy bells are rung
the excitement is intense
and
outwardly there is every appearance of extreme delight; but it is only a
one-sided gratification after all. For many feel
alas! how keenly
that the
victory has been purchased at the cost of many a valued life
and that warfare
is always accompanied by desolation
and mourning
and woe. But in harvest joy
this is not the case. Here we have an unmingled glad mess; especially in a year
when the crops are reported from all quarters to be unusually good--the
triumphant result of toil and industry rewarded by the fruits of the ground. (E.
Bell.)
Harvest joy among the Jews
To a commercial people the expression is not so significant as it
would be to a Jew. The Jews were essentially an agricultural people. God did
not encourage them to trade with surrounding nations
lest they should fall
into idolatry; and so we find that they were not a manufacturing community
and
except in the time of Solomon
they made no pretensions to a navy. The
arts and sciences were but little cultivated; but the fields and vineyards gave
them abundant occupation
and the soil and climate were favourable to the
growth of the corn and the vine. God took special interest in their
agricultural pursuits. He laid down minute laws respecting sowing and gleaning
and He reminded the people in the feasts which He appointed that they were
dependent on Him for the gift of food
and should receive it with a devout and
thankful heart. It has been well observed respecting the three chief Jewish
festivals that one opened the harvest
the second marked a stage in it
and the
third closed it.
Joy occupied an important place in the religion of the Jews; and
never
I suppose
was it so loud in its expression as at the Feast of
Tabernacles
when they looked upon their full granaries
and brought in the
last clusters of their fruitful vines. (F. J. Austin.)
Harvest joy
Christian people should be characterised by joy. While rejoicing
on account of our spiritual blessings
we ought not to be indifferent to our
daily temporal blessings.
I. THE NATURE OF
THIS JOY. Joy in harvest is--
1. A reasonable joy. The prosperity of a nation depends very largely
upon the character of its harvests; and
therefore
it is most natural that
when the harvest is plenteous
our praise should ascend to God the Father
from
whom this
even more directly than many blessings
has surely come. We have been
taught to pray: “Give us this day our daily bread.” If we thus recognise our
dependence on God
is it not fitting that we should thank Him when He answers
our prayer? Consider what would be the result of a complete failure of our
crops for one year
notwithstanding that the balance might be restored
to some
extent
from foreign lands. Or
consider what would be the result if there were
failure in those countries from which we could draw our supplies.
2. A universal joy--a joy in which all sections of the Christian
Church
all classes of the community
all nations and races may unite together.
There are some occasions for joy which only affect small and select circles.
But a good harvest hurts no one
and brings blessings to all. And surely
anything that tends to soften prejudices
annihilate differences
break down
the barriers of caste and sect is a national boon.
3. A holy joy. “They joy before Thee
” says the prophet
“according
to the joy in harvest.” Among the Jews
joy in harvest was an act of worship.
The first fruits were presented before the Lord with thanksgiving. And the joy
of harvest should be regarded by us as a religious festival. Agriculture
more
than any other branch of human industry
is seen to be under the
superintendence of God. To rejoice in a good harvest
therefore
and to forget
the Being to whom we owe it
would be an act of impiety.
II. THE GROUNDS OF
THIS JOY. A bountiful harvest is--
1. A sign of God’s activity. Very beautiful is the harvest festival
hymn which David wrote and sang. Everything is there attributed to Divine
agency (Psalms 65:9-13). Now
we are apt to
forget sometimes how much we really owe to God. We talk of the laws of nature
until we seem to lose sight of the Law maker. It is easy to say that the corn
grows. But what is growth? It is
as one has described it
“the increase of a
living body according to a fixed pattern
and by materials derived from
without--materials changed into its own substance or substances. Here
then
are three wonders--the power of absorbing fresh materials from the earth and
air; the power of changing them into living and vegetable substance
and the
power of arranging these new materials according to a fixed pattern. But how
does all this come to pass? Has the plant a mind? The more we reflect
the
stronger is the conviction that there is some intelligent
powerful agent at
work
to whom all nature is subject
and whose will it readily obeys. And for
whom does God make this yearly provision of golden grain? For us who so
constantly forget Him
and who
at best
serve Him in a half-hearted way.
2. A proof of God’s fidelity. Once
long ago
God gave a promise Genesis 8:21-22). On the strength of that
promise the farmer sows his seed. He may not always think of the promise. But
it is
nevertheless
in accordance with this promise that his crops arrive at
maturity. He must sow in faith
whether it be a blind faith or an intelligent
faith. He can only fulfil certain rules and conditions. And when he has done
this he must wait. If the rain does not fall he cannot bring it down. If the
sun shines too powerfully he cannot ward off its scorching rays. But he is in
the hands of a faithful God; and though here and there the fields may not look
very promising
and in some districts there may be occasional scarcity
the
harvest is always plentiful in some regions
and we are thus able to assist
each other and ward offer mitigate human suffering and distress. Let us
remember--
The analogy between the joy of harvest and spiritual joy
I. THE HARVEST.
1. Its import. Seasonable gathering of fruits yielded by the earth
according to established natural laws--fruits of the field
orchard
vineyard
or the garden.
2. Its antiquity. It began with the dawn of created life. It is older
than any human form of government
and it has the charm of having existed
anterior to the division of humanity into tribes and nations
and before the
formation of any landed estates. It is one of nature’s first bonds to assure
every living creature the right of existence.
3. Its universality. It is the heritage of all countries
according
to their climates.
4. Its constancy. It is as firm from age to age as the Word of God
and an infallible witness to His faithfulness
as well as to the plenitude of
His goodness.
II. THE JOY OF
CHRIST. The harvest songs are no pretence without reality.
1. Its intensity. Joy of harvest signifies great joy.
2. Its reasonableness. It is grounded on realised goodness.
3. It is grounded on realised goodness in abundance.
III. THE ANALOGY
BETWEEN THE JOY OF HARVEST AND THE JOY WHICH SPRINGS FROM FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
1. Both are God’s gifts.
2. Both are sequels of human industry.
3. Both are teachers of impressive moral lessons.
4. They differ in that one is temporal and the other eternal in its
duration. Joy centred in God will never end. (Homilist.)
The joy in harvest
The joy in harvest is the joy of the reward
the joy of victory.
I. THE REWARD OF
LABOUR. God gives us comparatively few things ready for use. The world is much
more like a manufactory than a storehouse of ready made goods. God gives us the
raw material
but we must work it up into the manifold forms in which we
require it for the purposes of life. God does not give us bread
but the
possibility of bread. Even so God gives His Word
not as life
but as the
possibility of life. The seed stored in a cellar
though it has in it the possibility
of life for a city
is valueless until it is sown broadcast in the fields; and
the Word of God
though it has in it the promise of life eternal for the whole
world
may be concealed in a convent cell or buried in a dead language
whilst
all around the souls of men are perishing for lack of knowledge. Man lives by
bread
but not by bread alone. As there is a life which bread sustains
so
there is a life which truth sustains. To sow the truth
to prepare for its
harvest
is as truly to save spiritual life as the sowing of corn in its season
is the saving of natural life. Every man is a sower
and every man in due
season shall be a reaper. “Whatsoever a man soweth
” etc. Is not this the
solemn lesson of the harvest time
that he who would reap hereafter must sow
now
that he who would rest hereafter must work now?
II. THE REWARD OF
PATIENCE. If the earthly husbandman has need of long patience
how mush longer
patience does he need who seeks a spiritual harvest! The corn of wheat grows
slowly
but God’s truth grows more slowly still. What are the uncertainties of
the changeful skies compared with the uncertainties of the changeful human
life! Yet if he will let patience have her perfect work he shall have no need
to complain of his harvest.
III. THE REWARD OF
FAITH. Faith and patience always go together. The man who believes can wait.
When a child puts seed into the ground
he does so without any of that strong
conviction of its vital power which experience has given to his father
and so
from want of faith in the seed he appeals to sight
and digs it up to see how
it is getting on. There are many older children who make a similar mistake as
to spiritual sowing. The Gospel sower must have faith in his seed. We cannot
feel too strongly the truth that the power lies in the seed
not in the sower.
This is as true in the Church as it is in the cornfield. (A. E. Gregory.)
Christian joy
I. THE FACT OF
THEIR JOY. “They joy.” Who? Those who
embracing the light of the Gospel
and
renouncing the hidden works of darkness
are made the children of the light and
of the day.
1. It is Divine in its nature. The joy of the men of the world
however diversified it may be
has its spring and source in the world. The joy
of the ambitious has its rise in the pride of the world. The joy of the miser
has its spring in the riches of the world. The joy of the sensualist is derived
from the pleasures of the world. But believers are taught better.
2. It is extensive in its grounds. God--their Christian
privileges--their Christian principles--their Christian prospects
3. Salutary in its effects. Its tendency is good.
II. THE PECULIARITY
OF THEIR JOY. “Before Thee.” This is an expressive term and intimates several
things.
1. It is spiritual It is a joyful state of mind
connected with that
Divine Being who is a Spirit. Every exercise of the mind that unites us to Him
must be spiritual.
2. It is sincere. The Christian’s joy is real
not imaginary. It will
bear inspection.
3. It is secret. As the world knows not the extent of our sorrows
so
it is unacquainted with the abundance of our joys.
III. THE RESEMBLANCE
OF THEIR JOY. To what may it be likened? The sacred writers have used various
similitudes. It may be compared to the joy of the captive
released from
bondage; to the joy of a patient
after his recovery from a severe illness; to
the joy of a mariner
after a storm. Two figures are here employed to set forth
the Christian’s joy--
1. The husbandman in the field of harvest. “According to the joy of
harvest.”
2. The soldier in the field of battle.
Conclusion--This subject gives as a view of two things with regard
to Christianity.
1. Its requirements. It is no easy thing. There is much to be done
and suffered.
2. Its rewards. These are inestimable. Present and future--exceeding description
and baffling conception. (E. Temple.)
Harvest joy
To some minds
and to all of us
perhaps
in some moods
autumn
brings gloom
harvest sadness; but to others autumn brings rest--harvest
joy.
I. WHAT IS THE
ESSENCE OF THE JOY IN HARVEST? Is not the cause of joy the same in all these
instances? For there is--
1. Joyful retrospect.
2. Joyful anticipation.
II. WHAT IS THE
MEASURE OF THE JOY IN HARVEST? Do not two things regulate the measure of the
joy that any feel
in any harvest?
1. The amount of its cost. The wheat field on which the farmer has
expended most will be the one whose yield will the most interest him. So is it
in every kind of harvesting
and so especially in what are distinctively the
harvests of religion. In our own personal experience we value most in reaping
that which has cost us most. The creed that we have fought out against doubts
and difficulties
is inestimably more precious to us than that which has been
handed down and adopted as a matter of course. The character which is pure
after battle with impurity
sacrificial after contact with selfishness
peaceful after provocations to revenge and anger
is of far greater moral worth
than that which has been seldom or feebly assailed. In our work for others
those results on which we have spent most time and thought and prayer are
dearest to us. Harvest is valuable according to--
2. Its intrinsic value. In our English harvest homes there is
rejoicing because of the intrinsic value of the wheat that is reaped and
garnered. This is so because of--
Two conclusions arise--
1. We ought to have some of “the joy in harvest” now. With souls it
is not in every respect as with the soil For in them some sowing and reaping
dropping in of seed
and quickening of germ
springing of one blade of promise
and reaping of another harvest of result
go on contemporaneously.
2. We must have joy or sorrow in harvest by and by. There will be
unmistakable
unavoidable harvest with us all soon. “The harvest is the end of
the world; the reapers are the angels.” In solemn expectation of that harvest
let us remember--
The joy of harvest
This joy is used as a picture of the joy God designs for His
Church.
I. OBSERVE A GREAT
PRINCIPLE IN THE WORDS “BEFORE THEE.” All true joy is “before God”--in His
presence--with conscious reference to Him.
1. One use of harvest thanksgivings is to bring out this principle
to connect the gift of the harvest with the Giver.
2. All the joy of life is to be sanctified in the same way. Make it
be “joy before God.” Let it be deepened
purified
ennobled by the thought of
the love that gave it
and the presence and sympathy of the Giver.
3. We learn from the same principle the limit of innocent joy. It
must be “before God.” Can you connect your pleasure with Him? Use this as a test.
II. THE PURPOSE OF
GOD IS THAT HIS PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE JOY
DEEP
FULL
SATISFYING. You wish to be
happy. God wishes it infinitely more than you do.
1. Are you happy? Yes? Because you have health
comforts
etc.? Is
this all! Poor joy! Enough for animals
but not for immortal spirits. Not like
the joy of harvest; no rest in it
no noble achievement
no permanence. God is
not satisfied with this JOY for you.
2. Are you happy? No? Wishes unfulfilled
cares
bereavements
dissatisfaction with self
yam endeavours after goodness
sense of guilt
etc.?
Your Saviour knows your sorrows
offers you joy.
3. Purpose accomplished in the final harvest. “Joy before Him”; the
“rest”; the “well done”; the “evermore.” (F. Wynne
M. A.)
The joy of spiritual ingathering
I. It is the JOY
OF REALISATION. Harvest is the realisation of faith
of hope
and of labour. So
with the conversion of souls.
II. It is the JOY
OF CONGRATULATION. Let us congratulate one another that the Spirit of God is
with us. Let us congratulate one another that our prayers
notwithstanding all
the faults that mar them
and the infirmities that cleave to them
are being
heard.
III. It is the JOY
OF GRATITUDE. I envy not the man who can see the Church increased and yet not
feel a sacred home felt joy.
IV. It is the JOY
OF SYMPATHY.
V. And may I not
ask you to REJOICE BECAUSE THERE IS ONE WHO LOVES SOULS better than I do
better than you do
who rejoices more than any of us? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The joy of harvest
I. WHAT IS THE JOY
OF HARVEST
which is here taken as the simile of the joy of the saints before
God?
1. Sometimes the farmer only rejoices because he sees the reward of
his toils
and is so much the richer man.
2. The joy of harvest has another element in it
namely
that of
gratitude to God for favours bestowed.
3. To the Christian it should be great joy
by means of the harvest
to receive an assurance of God’s faithfulness.
4. To the Christian
in the joy of harvest
there will always be the
joy of expectation. As there is a harvest to the husbandman for which he
waiteth patiently
so there is a harvest for all faithful waiters who are
looking for the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Our joy of
harvest is the hope of being at rest with all the saints
and forever with the
Lord.
II. WHAT JOYS ARE
THOSE WHICH TO THE BELIEVER ARE AS THE JOY OF HARVEST?
1. One of the first seasons in which we knew a joy equal to the joy
of harvest
--a season which has continued with us ever since it commenced--was
when we found the Saviour
and so obtained salvation. Nohusbandman ever shouted
for joy as our hearts should when a precious Christ was ours
and we could
grasp Him with full assurance of salvation in Him. The joy of harvest generally
shows itself by the farmer giving a feast to his friends and neighbours; and
usually
those who find Christ express their joy by telling their friends and
neighbours how great things the Lord hath done for them.
2. It is the joy of answered prayer.
3. We have another joy of harvest in ourselves when we conquer a
temptation. Those know deep joy who have felt bitter sorrow. As the man feels
that he is the stronger for the conflict
as he feels that he has gathered
experience and stronger faith from having passed through the trial
he lifts up
his heart
and rejoices
not in himself
but before his God
with the joy of
harvest.
4. Again
there is such a thing as the joy of harvest when we have
been rendered useful.
5. Another delight which is as the joy of harvest is
fellowship with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our condition matters nothing to us if Christ be with
us. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
The joy in harvest
Is a joy--
I. FOR HOPES
FULFILLED. In the midst of all his anxieties the farmer had never abandoned
hope. His fears were ended and his hopes realised
when the last sheaf was
gathered into his garner. Thus the Christian
who has throughout his pilgrimage
gone on through fears and doubts and infirmities
yet still cheered by hope
shall stand before his Saviour at the great morning of the resurrection.
II. FOR LABOUR
REPAID. No matter how abundant the crop may be
so long as it stands in the
field it is unprofitable to the farmer. But
when he looks at his well-filled
barns
he feels that his labour has not been in vain. If this be true
respecting the things of time
how much more with respect to those of eternity.
The Christian’s labour here is a labour of self-denial in hope of future glory.
It is true that he has not the same uncertainty with respect to futurity which
characterises the labours of the husband man. But
when the conflict is at last
over
and he receives that for the sake of which he had renounced all earthly
objects and lusts
and finds that his labour has not been in vain in the Lord
he “joys before Him with the joy of harvest.”
III. FOR REST
OBTAINED. The farmer’s year had been a year of labour
and often of very severe
labour too; and when the period of harvest had commenced
his exertions were
necessarily redoubled. At length
however
his heavy toil was for a season
ended
and in that rest which is doubly sweet after labour
he “joys according
to the joy in harvest.” The rest of the husbandman is but for a time
and a
short time
but the rest of the Christian shall be eternal. He has had his time
of labour
such as far to exceed in its constancy and its steadfastness that of
the husbandman.
IV. FOR PROVIDENCES
COMPLETED. Notwithstanding all the care of the husbandman
he is constrained
from time to time
to acknowledge that the entire process of the growth and
ripening of the corn has depended on circumstances over which he has had no
control Had he been left to dispose of the seasons as he might have thought
right
he would
in all probability
have destroyed his crop. Many a time had
he complained that the frosts were too severe
the rain too heavy
the wind too
strong
the sun too hot--measuring the goodness of the all-wise God by his own
limited understanding. But now he admits that his fears were groundless
and
that all things have worked together for good. May we not in this picture see
the progress of the Christian whilst he is the object of Divine Providence here
on earth; whilst
now sorrowing and now rejoicing
he is ready to murmur at
every salutary check which he receives from the head of a Heavenly Father? But
at the harvest time the “God who hideth Himself” shall he made manifest as
having caused all these things to work for His own glory in the good of His
people.
V. FOR PROMISES
FULFILLED. The husbandman has one promise whose fulfilment gladdens him
the
Christian has thousands.
VI. FOR MEETING
WITH FRIENDS. Now the harvest home is proclaimed
and friends long absent meet
together. We go to meet the friends whom we have known and loved in the Lord.
And in this meeting with the dearest objects of the affections of the Christian’s
soul
there is One “whom having not seen
we love”; Him
we shall then meet and
“know
even as we are known.” If then these be the joys in harvest
how
desirable it is that we should examine whether we are such as shall partake of
them. Let me briefly call your attention to the character of those who shall
partake of this joy.
1. The ignorant
self-conceited husbandman
who neither knows how or
what to sow nor when to reap
shall not have “the joy in harvest.”
2. Nor is there joy in harvest to the slothful.
3. And should we see anyone who laboured as though it were his design
to make his land barren and unproductive we should at once declare him mad
and
predict that beggary and starvation must be the inevitable lot of himself and
his family.
4. Those who are indeed preparing for that great harvest are those
who are applying to heavenly things the same diligence
the same care
the same
watchfulness
and the same energy which the husbandman applies to this earthly
tillage. (R. M. Kyle
B. A.)
Harvest joy
and how we may share in it
The idea of national prosperity being dependent on agricultural
prosperity
true as applied to Israel
is really universally true. There may be
many an industry that brings more wealth to a nation in the shape of money--as the
coal industry
the iron industry
the shipping industry--but the primal
industry is the agricultural industry. “Moreover
the profit of the earth is
for all; the king himself is served by the field
” says the writer of
Ecclesiastes
thereby giving expression to the eternal truth that all wealth
comes ultimately from the soil; even the king himself is not independent of it.
One cannot help rejoicing over the ingathering of the harvest
for nature
itself seems musical with joy. “The valleys are covered over with corn; they
shout for joy
they also sing.” This joy is--
I. THE JOY OF
PROVISION SECURED. We can joy before the Lord--not before the world
for that
would mean pride; nor before ourselves
for that would mean selfishness; but
before the Lord
for that means thankfulness over provision secured. There is
nothing meaner than to boast of one’s prosperity before the world
or before
one’s own heart; but we can derive joy from it before the Lord
for the Lord
means us to rejoice in all His gifts--material as well as spiritual.
II. THE JOY OF
PATIENCE REWARDED.
III. THE JOY OF
LABOUR REQUITED. What kind of harvest is your life to have? (J. Mackie
B.
D.)
The joy of harvest
Harvest crowns the year with God’s goodness. When the harvest is
abundant there is universal joy. Everybody rejoices. The owner of the land is
glad
because he sees the recompense of reward; the labourers are glad
for
they see the fruit of their toil; even those to whom not a single ear may
belong nevertheless sympathise in the common joy
because a rich harvest is a
boon to all the nation. It is a joyous sight to see the last loaded wain come
creaking down the village road
to note the youngsters who shout so loudly
yet
know so little what they are shouting about
to mark the peasant on the top of
the wain as he waves his hat and gives vent to some gleeful exclamation
and to
see them taking it all into the stack or barn. There is joy throughout the
village
there is joy throughout the land
when the harvest time is come. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
Harvest rejoicing among the Jews
It was a common saying of the Rabbis that he who had not seen the
rejoicing of the people at that glad time had yet to learn what true joy was. (J.
Mackie
B. D.)
The joy of finding the Saviour
My heart was fallow
and covered with weeds; but on a certain day
the great Husbandman came and began to plough my soul. Ten black horses were
His team
and it was a sharp ploughshare that He used
and the ploughers made
deep furrows. The Ten Commandments were those black horses
and the justice of
God
like a ploughshare
tore my spirit. I was condemned
undone
destroyed
lost
helpless
hopeless
--I thought hell was before me. Then there came a
cross ploughing
for when I went to hear the Gospel it did not comfort me; it
made me wish I had a part in it
but I feared that such a boon was out of the
question. The choicest promises of God frowned at me
and His threatenings
thundered at me. I prayed
but found no answer of peace. It was long with me
thus. After the ploughing came the sowing. God who ploughed the heart made it
conscious that it needed the Gospel
and the Gospel seed was joyfully received.
Do you recollect that auspicious day when at last you began to have some little
hope? It was very little--like a green blade that peeps up from the soil: you
scarce knew whether it was grass or corn
whether it was presumption or true
faith. It was a little hope
but it grew very pleasantly. Alas
a frost of
doubt came; snow of fear fell; cold winds of despondency blew on you
and you said
“There can be no hope for me.” But what a glorious day was that when at last
the wheat which God had sown ripened
and you could say
“I have looked unto
Him and have been lightened: I have laid my sins on Jesus
where God laid them
of old
and they are taken away
and I am saved.” I remember well that day. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
The icy of spiritual ingathering
I cannot help being egotistical enough to mention the joy I felt
when first I heard that a soul had found peace through my youthful ministry. I
had been preaching in a village some few Sabbaths with an increasing
congregation
but I had not heard of a conversion
and I thought
“Perhaps I am
not called of God. He does not mean me to preach
for if He did He would give
me spiritual children.” One Sabbath my good deacon said
“Don’t be discouraged.
A poor woman was savingly impressed last Sabbath.” How long do you suppose it
was before I saw that woman? It was just as long as it took me to reach her
cottage. I was eager to hear from her own lips whether it was a work of God’s
grace or not. I always looked upon her with interest
though only a poor
labourer’s wife
till she was taken away to heaven
after having lived a holy
life. Many since then have I rejoiced over in the Lord
but that first seal to
my ministry was peculiarly dear to me. It gave me a sip of the joy of harvest.
If somebody had left me a fortune it would not have caused me one hundredth
part of the delight I had in discovering that a soul had been led to the
Saviour. I am sure Christian people who have not this joy have missed one of
the choicest delights that a believer can know this side heaven. (C. H.
Spurgeon.)
Joy of realisation
Dickens describes how he dropped his first published paper
stealthily one evening at twilight
with fear and trembling
into a dark letter
box up a dark court in Fleet Street: and his agitation when it appeared in all
the glory of print. “On which occasion I walked down to Westminster Hall
and
turned into it for half an hour
because my eyes were so dimmed with joy and
pride
that they could not bear the street
and were not fit to be seen there.”
(H. O. Mackey.)
Verse 4
For Thou hast broken the yoke of his burden
Deliverance from the burden of sin
I.
SIN
IS A BURDEN (Psalms 38:4). Sinners are heavy laden
with this insupportable load
which detains them from God
who alone can
relieve them; enfeebles their minds; and harasses them with perplexing fears
and the most uneasy reflections. A proper sense of its powerful influence
its
polluting nature and dreadful guilt
like a crushing weight
depresses the
spirit
becomes irksome and grievous
and if not happily removed
will prove
the means of irremediable ruin.
II. THE CEREMONIAL
LAW IS THE YOKE OF THIS BURDEN (Acts 15:10).
III. IMMANUEL HAS
BROKEN THE YOKE (Colossians 2:14). (R. Macculloch.)
The Gospel a liberating power
1. The design of the Gospel
and the grace of it
is to break the
yoke of sin and Satan
to remove the burthen of guilt and corruption
and to free
us from the rod of those oppressors
that we might be brought into the glorious
liberty of the children of God.
2. This is done by the Spirit working like fire (Isaiah 9:5). It is done as in the day of
Midian
by a work of God upon the hearts of men. Christ is our Gideon. (M.
Henry.)
Encouragement from the past
If God makes former deliverances His patterns in working for us
we ought to make them our encouragements to hope in Him.
Verse 5
For every battle of the warrior
Significance of Isaiah 9:5
The verse is more noteworthy for its connection than for its
contents.
As it stands it suggests a not very vivid contrast between two sorts of battle
which contributes nothing to the progress of the prophet’s thought as well as
quite misrepresents the original. The true rendering
according to all
interpreters
is substantially this: “For all the armour of the armed man in
the onset
and the garments rolled in blood
shall be for burning
shall be the
food of fire.” Thus understood
the verse admirably concludes the picture of
prosperity given in the previous context by declaring that even the implements
of warfare and the blood-stained clothing they cause shall be utterly consumed.
Thus considered
the passage appropriately introduces the famous Messianic
prophecy that follows: “For unto us a Child is born
” etc. Such a wondrous
triumph of peace can be adequately explained only by the appearance of One
whose name is Wonderful. (T. W. Chambers
D. D.)
Destroying weapons of war
After the suppression of the Sepoy revolt
the British Government
spent a week in melting down the vast array of weapons of all sorts accumulated
by the disarming of a large portion of the people of Northern India. (T. W.
Chambers
D. D.)
Burning implements of war
The prophet foretells a time when out of these wars and tumults
there should come a period of deep peace
when these warlike implements should
be burnt to ashes
according to the practice of ancient times which heaped
sword
spear and armour as on a huge funeral pile
when the victory was won
to
proclaim that the strife was over
that the chariots were burnt with fire
and
the spears broken asunder.
And he saw that this peace would come
because within his own time
or hereafter--he knew not clearly which--a Son
a King
should be born
who
would be the Prince of Peace
the founder of a new and eternal kingdom
clothed
with a majesty which should put to silence the contentions of men
and with a
power which should compress and unite the most divergent elements. (Dean
Stanley.)
The accoutrements of the warrior only fuel for the fire
It has been submitted that a better rendering is this: “Every boot
of the warrior that tramps noisily and the cloak rolled in blood shall be for
burning as fuel for fire.” The soldier wears his tall boot
and as his foot
comes down on the earth he makes it ring again: and hearing an army pass by who
could suppose that the earth will survive the cruel tramp? Religious
inspiration lifts men so high as to enable them to despise the pomp and
circumstance of war: every boot of the warrior that tramps noisily
and the
cloak rolled in blood which men would gather up and preserve in museums
and
show to admiring ages
shall be gathered up by the hand of time and thrust into
the middle of the hottest fire. All such relics were made for burning. In our
patriotic folly
our exuberant and intoxicated zeal
we gather the boots of
warriors and the cloaks of conquerors
and the tattered banners of famous
fields
and all but worship them: underneath the whole pile should be written
“These are for burning as fuel for fire.” (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verses 6-21
Verse 6-7
For unto us a child is born
unto us a son is given
The “child” Hezekiah--yet someone else
I am unable to form any distinct notion of Isaiah as a man and a
Hebrew
and as a prophet of Jehovah in contrast with those muttering wizards he
denounces
without supposing that
at this period of his life and ministry
he
must have connected the thought of “the child” with Hezekiah
on whom the name
of the Mighty God had been actually named (“Hezekiah” means “Jehovah
strengthens”)
and who (being now a boy nine or ten years old) may already have
given promise of the piety which afterwards distinguished him: and that he
would not
at this time
have considered that his prediction would be quite
inadequately realised if the youthful prince should
on his accession to the
throne of David and Solomon
renew the glories of their reigns
in which peace
and justice were established at home and abroad
through trust in Jehovah and
His covenant:--reigns of which the historical facts must be studied in the
light which the Book of Psalms and such passages as 2 Chronicles 9:1-8 throw on them.
I say at this time
because we shall have occasion to inquire what was the
effect on Isaiah’s mind when he did see a restoration under Hezekiah of such a
reign of righteousness and prosperity; and whether his expectation of the
Messiah did not eventually assume a very different form from what could have
been possible to him at the time we now speak of. There is a method through
this whole Book of Isaiah’s prophecies which reflects a corresponding progress
in the prophet’s own mind; and this method offers us a clue through
difficulties which are otherwise impassable
if we will only hold it fast and
follow its guidance fairly. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
A prediction of an ideal king
Such language speaks of an ideal king
even a Divine ruler
and
only in a very poor degree found its fulfilment in Hezekiah or any Jewish king.
(B. Blake
B. D.)
The way that led to Christ
In the crooked alleys of Venice
there is a thin thread of red
stone inlaid in the pavement or wail
which guides through all the devious
turnings to the Piazza in the centre
where the great church stands. So in
reading the Old Testament we see in the life of many a personage
illustrious
or obscure
and in many a far off event
the red line of promise and prophecy
which stretches on unbroken until the Son of Man came. (Sunday School
Chronicle.)
The Messianic prophesies
Dr. Gordon
of Boston
had a large dissected “puzzle map
” which
he gave to his children
saying
“Don’t press the parts into their places; you
will soon know when they fit.” Coming again into the room
very soon after
he
was surprised to find the map complete. He felt like saying
as Isaac to Jacob
when the latter returned with the venison
“How is it that thou hast found it
so quickly
my son?” “Why
father
” was the reply
“there was a man printed on
the back; we saw where the feet
the eyes
the arms
and the rest of the body
came
and so it was easy to watch it and fit all in.” So
if we know the Bible
we see “the Man on the back”; we put together the prophecies of the Old
Testament by “the Man Christ Jesus.” (A. T. Pierson
D. D.)
The prophet’s supernatural prevision
It is not necessary to suppose that the prophet knew the literal
meaning of his own words. He is but a poor preacher who knows all that he has
said in his sermon. Had the prophet done so
he would be no longer the
contemporary of his own epoch. It is the glory of prophecy to feel after. It is
the glory of science to say long before the planet is discovered--there is
another world there: no telescope has seen it
no message of light has been
received from it consciously
but keep your telescope in that direction
there
must be a starry pulse just there. The botanist knows that if he finds a
certain plant in a given locality there will be another plant of another name
not a mile away. He judges from one plant to another; he submits himself to
inferential logic: he has not seen that other plant
but he tells you in the
morning that because yesternight he found this leaf growing not far from the
house in which he resides no will find another leaf of a similar pattern
or a
diverse pattern
not far away; and at night he comes home
radiant as the
evening star
and says
Behold
I told you this morning what would be the case
and there it is. So with the larger astronomy
and the larger botany: there is
another planet somewhere yonder; when it is discovered call it the Morning
Star
and inasmuch as there is triacle
treacle
in Gilead--a balm there--there
shall be found another plant not far away; whenyou find it call it by some
sweet name
such as the Rose of Sharon
or the Lily of the valley. It is the
glory of the prophet to see signs which have infinite meanings--to see the
harvest in the seed
the noonday in the faintest tint of dawn
the mighty man
in the helpless infant
the Socrates in the embryo. This prevision made the
prophets seemingly mad. Their knowledge was to them but a prison
so small
so
dark
yet now and again almost alive with a glory all but revealed. The horizon
was loaded with gloom
yet here and there a rent showed that heaven was
immediately behind
and might at any moment make the dark cold earth bright and
warm with eternal summer. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The great Deliverer
Look at the Deliverer as seen by the prophet--“For unto us a Child
is born
unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder:
and His name shall be called--.” Now
the English punctuation seems to fritter
away the dignity of the appellation The compound name really falls into this
classification: first
Wonderful-Counsellor
as one word
as if
indeed
it
were but one syllable; second
God-the-Mighty-One
not four words
but hyphened
together; third
Father-of-Eternity
also hyphened and consolidated; fourth
Prince-of-Peace
that likewise an instance of the words run into one another
and in this four-fold classification we have the mysterious name of the
Deliverer. This is no evidence that Isaiah saw the birth of Christ as we
understand that term
but what he did see was that the only deliverer who could
accomplish the necessary work must fill out the whole measure of these terms;
if he failed to fill out that outline
he was not the predicted Messiah. Let us
see.
1. He must fill the imagination--“Wonderful.” Imagination cannot be
safely left out of any religion; it is that wondrous faculty that flies to
great heights
and is not afraid of infinite breadths; the faculty
so to say
that lies at the back of all other faculties
sums them up
and then adds an
element of its own
using the consolidated mind for the highest purposes of
vision and understanding. Is this name given for the first time? Where do we
find the word “Wonderful” in the Scriptures? We may not
perhaps
find it in
the English tongue
but it is really to be found in 13:18 : The angel of the Lord said unto
Manoah
“Why askest thou thus after my name
seeing
it is secret?”--the same
Hebrew word that is rendered in the text “Wonderful”; so we might read
“The
angel of the Lord said unto him
Why askest thou thus after My name
seeing it
is Wonderful?”
2. He must satisfy the judgment. His name
therefore
is not only
Wonderful
but “Counsellor
” the fountain of wisdom and understanding
the mind
that rules over all things with perfectness of mastery
that attests everything
by the eternal meridian
and that looks for righteousness.
3. He must also satisfy the religious instinct
so He is called “The
Mighty God.” It is not enough to describe God without epithetic terms.
Sometimes we say
Why utter such words as
Thou infinite
eternal
ever-blessed
God? Because we are so constituted in this infantile state of being that we
need a ladder of adjectives to get up to our little conception of that which is
inconceivable.
4. Not only so
there must be in this man a sense of brotherhood
so
He is called “The-Prince-of-Peace.” He will bring man to man
nation to nation;
He will arbitrate amongst the empires of the earth and rule by the Sabbatic
spirit. Christianity is peace.
5. He is to be more still. He is to be “The Everlasting Father
”
otherwise translated
The Father of Eternity; otherwise
and better translated
The Father of the age to come. Therein we have misinterpreted Christianity. We
have been too anxious to understand the past. The pulpit has had a backward
aspect--most careful about what happened in the second century
dying to know
what Tertullian thought and what Constantine did. Christ is the Father of the
age to come. If He lived now He would handle the question of poverty; He would
discuss the great uses of Parliament; He would address Himself to every church
chapel
and sanctuary in the kingdom; He would come into our various
sanctuaries and turn us out to a man. Christianity is the prophetic religion.
It deals with the science that is to be
with the politics yet to be developed
with the commerce that is yet to be the bread-producing action of civilised
life. (J. Parker
D. D.)
The birth of Christ
I. LET US EXPLAIN
THE PREDICTION. The grandeur of the titles sufficiently determines the meaning
of the prophet; for to whom
except to the Messiah
can these appellations
belong This natural sense of the text is supported by the authority of an
inspired writer
and what is
if not of any great weight in point of argument
at least very singular as a historical fact
it is supported by the authority
of an angel (Matthew 4:12
etc.; Luke 1:31
etc.). To remove the present
fears of the Jews
God reminds them of the wonders of His love
which He had
promised to display in favour of His Church in ages to come: and commands His
prophet to say to them: Ye trembling leaves of the wood
shaken with every
wind
peace be to you! Ye timorous Jews
cease your fears! let not the
greatness of this temporal deliverance
which I now promise you
excite your
doubts! God hath favours incomparably greater in store for you
they shall be
your guarantees for those which ye are afraid to expect. Ye are in covenant
with God. Ye have a right to expect those displays of His love in your favour
which are least credible. Remember the blessed seed
which He promised to your
ancestors (Genesis 22:18). “Behold! a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son
and call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). The spirit of prophecy that
animates me
enables me to penetrate through all the ages that separate the
present moment from that in which the promise shall be fulfilled. I dare speak
of a miracle
which will be wrought eight hundred years hence
as if it had
been wrought today
“Unto us a Child is born
” etc.
II. LET US SHOW ITS
ACCOMPLISHMENT. Who is a king? What is a throne? Why have we masters! Why is
sovereign power lodged in a few hands? And what determines mankind to lay aside
their independence
and to lose their beloved liberty? The whole implies some
mortifying truths. We have not knowledge sufficient to guide ourselves
and we
need minds wiser than our own to inspect and to direct our conduct. We are
indigent
and superior beings must supply our wants. We have enemies
and we
must have guardians to protect us. Miserable men! how have you been deceived in
your expectations? what disorders could anarchy have produced greater than
those which have sometimes proceeded from sovereign authority? You sought
guides to direct you: but you have sometimes fallen under the tuition of men
who
far from being able to conduct a whole people
knew not how to guide
themselves. You sought nursing fathers
to succour you in your indigence: but
you have fallen sometimes into the hands of men
who had no other designs than
to impoverish their people
to enrich themselves with the substance
and to
fatten themselves with the blood of their subjects. You sought guardians to
protect you from your enemies: but you have sometimes found executioners
who
have used you with greater barbarity than your most bloody enemies would have
done. Show me a king who will conduct me to the felicity to which I aspire;
such a king! long to obey. Such a king is the King Messiah. You want knowledge:
He is the Counsellor. You want reconciliation with God: He is the Prince of
Peace. You need support under the calamities of this life: He is the Mighty
God. You have need of one to comfort you under the fears of death
by opening
the gates of eternal felicity to you: He is the Father of Eternity. (J.
Saurin.)
Titles of Christ
I. THE NAMES AND
TITLES OF THIS WONDERFUL CHILD.
II. FOR WHOM HE WAS
BORN.
III. THE
PREROGATIVE
WHICH IS PREDICTED IN OUR TEXT RESPECTING THIS CHILD
namely
that
the government shall be upon His shoulder.
1. In the Revelation the Church is figuratively represented under the
similitude of a woman
and this woman is represented as bringing forth a
man-child
who should rule all nations with a rod of from The same may be said
of the Child whose birth is foretold in our text. All power is committed to Him
in heaven and on earth; and God’s language respecting Him is
I have set My
King on My holy hill of Zion. This kingdom
which is usually styled Christ’s
mediatorial kingdom
includes all beings in heaven and hell
who will all
either willingly or by constraint
finally submit to Christ; for God has sworn
by Himself that to Christ every knee shall bow
of things in heaven and things
in the earth and things under the earth; and that every tongue shall confess
Him Lord. He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. Agreeably
our text informs us
that of the increase of His government there will be no
end. He will go on conquering and to conquer.
2. But in addition to this mediatorial kingdom of Christ
which is
set up in the world
He has another kingdom
the kingdom of His grace
which is
set up in the hearts of His people. This kingdom consists in righteousness and
peace and holy joy
and of the increase of this kingdom also and of the peace
which accompanies it
there shall be no end. This kingdom is compared to leaven
hid in meal till the whole be leavened. Even in heaven there shall be no end to
the increase of His people’s happiness. Thus of the increase of His government
and peace
there shall be no end. (E. Payson
D. D.)
Christ presented to mankind sinners
It is “to us
” the sons and daughters of Adam; we are His poor
relations; and to us as His poor relations on earth
sons of Adam’s family
whereof He is the top branch
this Child is presented born
for our comfort in
our low state.
I. WHAT IS
PRESUPPOSED IN THIS PRESENTING OF CHRIST AS A BORN CHILD.
1. His birth was expected and looked for.
2. Christ is now born. He was really born; a little Child
though the
Mighty God; an Infant
not one day old
though the Everlasting Father.
3. Some have been employed to present this Child to the friends and
relations; and they are still about the work.
4. This Child is actually presented to us on His birth.
II. TO WHOM IS
CHRIST PRESENTED?
1. Not to the fallen angels.
2. To mankind sinners
those of the house of His father Adam.
III. HOW IS CHRIST
PRESENTED?
1. In the preaching of the Gospel.
2. In the administration of the sacraments.
3. In the internal work of saving illumination.
IV. WHAT IS THE
IMPORT OF HIS BEING PRESENTED TO US?
1. Our special concern in His birth--as the birth of a Saviour to us.
2. Our relation to Him. Sinners of mankind have a common relation to
Christ.
3. An owning of our relation to Him. “He is not ashamed to call them
brethren” (Hebrews 2:11).
4. The comfortableness of His birth to us. Children are presented on
their birth to their relations
for their comfort; and so is Christ to sinners
of mankind.
V. WHEREFORE IS
CHRIST PRESENTED TO US ON HIS BIRTH?
1. That we may see the faithfulness of God in the fulfilling of His
promise.
2. That we may rejoice in Him.
3. That we may look on Him
see His glory
and be taken with Him John 1:14).
4. That we may acknowledge Him in the character in which He appears
as the Saviour of the world and our Saviour. (T. Boston.)
A prophecy of Christ
I. WE SHALL VIEW
THESE PROPHETIC APPELLATIONS
IN THEIR APPLICATION TO THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
AS
EXPOUNDING TO US HIS NATURE AND WORK
AND RECEIVING THEIR FULLEST REALISATION
IN HIM. They are not mere empty names
assumed for the purposes of pomp and
impression
but appropriate descriptions of living realities. When it is said
“His name shall be called
” the meaning is that He shall be such
for in the
Hebrew language “to be called” and “to be” frequently mean the same thing.
Every name He bears is the Divine exponent of a corresponding attribute
or
office
or work
and so it is here.
1. He is the Wonderful. The proper idea conveyed by this appellation
is something miraculous
and it means that the great Personage to whom it is
here applied
in His nature and works
would be distinguished by supernatural
qualities and deeds
would be raised above the ordinary course and laws of
nature
and would stand out before angels and men as a unique and splendid
miracle. In this sense
it applies with great force and accuracy to the
Redeemer
and to Him alone.
2. He is the Counsellor.
3. He is “the Mighty God”; an appellation impressively sublime
which
no serious mind can approach without feeling the most profound reverence and
awe. It naturally and obviously denotes a person possessing a Divine nature.
4. He is “the Everlasting Father
” or
“the Father of Eternity.” The
emphasis of this appellation is not on the word “father
” but on the word
“eternity.” It was customary among those who spoke and wrote the Hebrew language
to call a person who possessed a thing
the “father” of it: hence
a strong man
was called “the father of strength”; a wise man
“the father of wisdom’”; a
wealthy man
“the father of riches”; and so on. Now
the phrase
“the Father of
Eternity
” seems to be here applied to Christ in a similar way--He possessed
eternity
and
therefore
He is called the Father of it. It is a Hebraism of
great poetic strength and beauty
employed to express duration--the duration of
His being--the essential eternity of His existence past and future--and
perhaps
there could not be a more emphatic declaration of His right to this
wonderful attribute of the Deity
strict
proper
and independent eternity of
being.
5. He is the “Prince of Peace.” This appellation seems intended to
teach us
that the Messiah would be invested with the prerogatives and honours
of royalty
and that His kingdom
in its essential laws and principles
would
differ from all the kingdoms of men
past
present
and future. While other
kings were despots and warriors
He would be peaceable Prince. While other
kingdoms were acquired by physical violence and force
and were cemented with
human tears and blood
His would consist in righteousness
peace
and joy
and
would win its way among men by the inherent power of its own excellence
would
gradually terminate war and conflict
and restore love and order to the whole
earth. But His reign was to achieve higher ends still
for it was to establish
peace between man and his own conscience
between man and all good beings
between man and all the physical and moral laws of the universe
and between
man and his insulted and offended Maker. Hence
prophecy foretold that
in His
days there should be abundance of peace; that
in His reign
justice and mercy
should meet together
righteousness and peace Should embrace each other; that
the chastisement of our peace should be on Him; that He should be the peace;
and that
of the increase of His peace there should be no end.
II. PRACTICAL
LESSONS.
1. Hold fast the divinity of Christ.
2. How great is the sin and how fearful is the condition of those who
reject the Saviour. He is “the Wonderful”--the admired of God
of angels
and
of saints; and yet He has no attractions for you. He is “the Counsellor”; and
yet you never “wait for His counsel
” but follow your own vain imaginations. He
is “the Mighty God”; and yet you trample on His authority
defy His power
and
risk His awful displeasure. He is “the Father of Eternity”; and yet you seek no
place in His heavenly family
and are in imminent danger of being forever
banished from His presence
and the glory of His power. He is “the Prince of
Peace”; and yet you voluntarily live in a state of hostility to Him and His
kingdom
and refuse to be reconciled by the blood of His Cross.
3. How secure and happy is the state of believers. (W. Gregory.)
The nurses and titles of the Messiah
I. The first
description that is here given of the Redeemer is in these words--UNTO US A
CHILD IS BORN. This may denote either the infancy of His state
when He
appeared in our world
or the reality of His human nature.
1. With regard to the infancy of His state
the apostle says
it
behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren.
2. With regard to the reality of His human nature
the Scripture
assures us
that it was of the same kind with ours
consisting of a human body
and a human soul.
II. The next
description of our Redeemer is in these words--UNTO US A SON IS GIVEN. is
spoken of His Divine nature. He is often called in Scripture the Son of God
His own Son
His only-begotten and well-beloved Son
and as such is said to be
given to us. A son always means one
not of an inferior
but of the same nature
as his father.
III. It is added
THE GOVERNMENT SHALL BE UPON HIS SHOULDER. Taken in its most extensive sense
the government of our Lord extends over all The whole universe is under His
dominion. But what we are chiefly to understand here is the kingdom of grace
the administration of mercy
the government of which in a peculiar manner is intrusted
to Him. The kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven were phrases familiar to
the Jews
by which they always understood the Messiah’s kingdom. The immediate
design of erecting this kingdom on earth is the salvation of believers
of the
guilty race of men. All parts of the universe are concerned in this glorious
design. The angels of heaven rejoice in it
and are ministering spirits to the
heirs of salvation. The powers of darkness unite their force to disappoint the
hopes of the heirs of this kingdom
but in vain; the King of Zion has bound
them in chains of darkness
and will turn their malicious designs to their
greater condemnation. All men do not indeed submit to the laws of this
government
but all are nevertheless the lawful subjects of it. But the
Redeemer has also many voluntary subjects. The right of Jesus to His
mediatorial kingdom is founded upon promise
conquest
and purchase
even the
price of His own precious blood; and we have the utmost assurances in His Word
which cannot fail
that He will one day take to Himself His great power and
reign in a more illustrious and extensive manner than He has yet done.
IV. The next thing
asserted of the Redeemer is
HIS NAME SHALL BE CALLED WONDERFUL. And the
Redeemer is indeed Wonderful.
1. In the constitution of His person
as Immanuel
God in our nature.
2. The preparations for His birth
and the manner and circumstances
of it
were also wonderful.
3. Jesus was also wonderful in His life.
4. And in His death.
5. And in His rising from the grave
and in His ascension to heaven.
V. The next title
which the Redeemer has
is that of COUNSELLOR. He is fully instructed in the
counsels of God the Father
for He lay in His bosom from eternity; and as the
execution of the plans of the Divine administration is committed to Him
He
cannot but be well acquainted with them. Besides
our Lord
by His office and
appointment
is the great Counsellor or Prophet of the Church.
VI. He is also THE
MIGHTY God. The same expression is used in chap.
10:21 concerning Jehovah
the God of Israel. All the perfections
of theMighty God are ascribed to the Redeemer in Scripture. And worship
which
only belongs to the Mighty God
is given to Christ.
VII. The next thing
asserted of our Redeemer is
that He is THE EVERLASTING FATHER. The LXX renders
these words
the Father of the world to come
or final dispensation of mercy
and grace
as the Gospel is often called. And Christ may be called so--
1. As He has chosen His people
in His eternal purpose
that they
might be sharers in His bliss and glory.
2. Christ is the Father of all true believers
in a spiritual sense.
They are all His spiritual seed. The great outlines of His features are drawn
upon them
and when they arrive at heaven
they shall attain to the likeness of
Jesus in an eminent degree.
VIII. The last thing
asserted of the Redeemer is
that He is THE PRINCE OF PEACE. Melchisedec was an
eminent type of the Son of God
in this respect. He was King of Salem
which is
by interpretation
King of Peace. And peace is the disposition for which the
Saviour was renowned; the blessing which He died to purchase
and lives to
bestow. Conclusion:
1. What an honour did the great and mighty God
our Saviour
put upon
our nature by taking it into a personal union with His own Divine nature!
2. We may see from hence
how well the Redeemer was qualified for His
office. What arm so powerful to save as that of the Mighty God?
3. What a fund of consolation does this passage of Scripture exhibit!
4. This subject speaks terror to the wicked.
5. We ought to entertain adoring and admiring thoughts of the Son of
God
the Saviour of the world. (J. Ross
D. D.)
The Incarnation
I. We are led to
inquire
HOW OUR SAVIOUR BECAME INCARNATE AND TOOK OUR MORTAL NATURE UPON HIM.
Before Christ could become incarnate
He would have to lay aside His glory--the
glory
Christ took a human soul
took our humanity upon Him
together with our
form
and was made in the likeness of man. Nevertheless
Christ is not
and was
not
two persons
but one.
II. We have now to
inquire WHY CHRIST BECAME INCARNATE. To say that Christ died to save sinners is
true enough
but it is not the whole truth. The question we have to answer is
this: Why Christ became a man? He came to nave
but why not in another form?
1. To take away the consequences of the fall
to raise man to a
higher estate even than he originally possessed
to save him from eternal ruin
and vindicate the love and wisdom which made man originally righteous
but not
immaculate or impeccable
it was necessary for the Son of God to become the Son
of Man
and to acknowledge a human parent; to “bear our griefs and carry our
sorrows” (Hebrews 2:9-18). For only as a man could
He undo the evil which man had brought upon himself; only as one of those He
came to save
could Christ perform what man had left undone.
2. Moreover
Christ came to fulfil God’s law
and that for us
though
not to supersede our obedience. That law was designed for man
and alone in the
form of man could Christ obey it. And having fulfilled His own broken law on
their behalf to whom He had given it
He is enabled to help them to observe and
do it. By His perfect obedience He has become our Pattern
and has procured and
purchased for us the strength to enable us to walk in the steps of His most
holy life.
3. In the next place
by assuming our nature
Christ is enabled to
sympathise with us.
4. Again
it was necessary for Christ to become man in order to
reveal His Father to us. Men
untaught by the Spirit of God
are apt to think
that God is altogether such as themselves. Such we find was the case with the
heathen philosophers of ancient Greece and Rome; if they taught otherwise
they
taught in vain.
5. Christ also became man to make us love God
for to know Him is to
love Him.
6. Christ became man to unite man to God. (G. E. Watkins.)
The Child born: the Son given
I. THE PROMISED
SAVIOUR IS DESCRIBED IN HIS HUMAN NATURE. “Unto us a Child is born.” Having
respect to the connection of the passage
and to the object for which the
announcement is made
we feel that it is impossible to look on at the birth of
this Child that was predicted
without seeing that a greater than one born of
woman is there.
1. Still the main object of the first clause of the verse is
undoubtedly
to show forth that human nature in which He was to be manifested
in order that He might do the work of salvation for His people. To be born is
as truly the evidence and characteristic of humanity as to die. Not less in the
simple but impressive fact of His birth of a human mother
than in the fact of
His dying a human death
do we recognise the proof of our oneness with the Son
of God in the same nature.
2. And why was it necessary for the hope and consolation of those
whom He came to redeem
that they should be taught by the prophet that the
Redeemer must be one with them in their very nature; and that the Eternal Son
of God should be born of a woman?
II. We find the
prophet in the second clause making reference to THE DIVINE NATURE OF CHRIST.
“Unto us a Son is given.” And this view of the Person of Christ
as the Son of
God as well as the Son of man
is not less necessary than the truth of His
proper humanity to furnish a ground of hope and consolation to the Church of
God in coming to Hun as a suitable and all-sufficient Redeemer.
III. But passing
from the description of Christ’s Person
the prophet next proceeds to give an
account of the OFFICE WHICH BELONGS TO HIM
and which He executes as the Saviour.
“The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Borrowing its language from
ancient customs
it is quite plain that the statement of the prophet contains
in substance a declaration that the predicted Deliverer
whose advent was to
shed light and blessedness on those who sat in darkness and the shadow of
death
was to exercise a supreme and unlimited authority
and to employ this
authority for accomplishing the great purpose for which He was born as a Child
and given as a Son.
1. In the case of believers--i.e.
of those who are already
subjects of Christ’s kingdom--it is a blessed privilege for them to be assured
that He reigns
alone and supreme
in the world and the Church.
2. On the other hand
in the case of mere nominal professors
such a
truth
if in any degree realised
is fitted to fill them with anxiety and
dispeace. (J. Bannerman
D. D.)
The predicted names of Christ
In interpreting the peculiar language employed
it is impossible
to enter into its true significance without remembering that in ancient times
and more especially in the practice of the Jews
names had oftentimes
when
applied to individuals
a significance which they have not when given
as among
ourselves
upon no principle except family custom or personal preference. Among
the Jews especially
they were often selected and given on the ground of some
peculiarity in the circumstances or character of the person named; so that they
ceased to be empty and arbitrary signs of the parties thus designated
and
became truly descriptive of something in their history or condition. It is in
this way that the name of God Himself is used as a synonym for the character of
God Exodus 23:21; Exodus 34:5-7; Proverbs 18:10). And it is in this way
undoubtedly
that we are to understand the language of the prophet when he
tells us
in refer once to the coming Deliverer
that “His name shall be
called
Wonderful
” etc. (J. Bannerman
D. D.)
The great Deliverer
I. THE DIGNITY OF
CHRIST’S PERSON. He is the Wonderful
the Counsellor
the Mighty God.
II. THE DEPTH OF
HIS LOVE. He is born unto us a Child--given unto us a Son.
III. THE SUCCESS OF
HIS UNDERTAKING. He is become the Father of the everlasting age--the Prince of
Peace.
IV. HIS TITLE TO
OUR OBEDIENCE. The government is on His shoulder. (G. Innes.)
The nativity of Christ
I. THE ANNOUNCEMENT
OF MESSIAH’S BIRTH by the prophet.
1. The Person announced.
2. The terms of the announcement. Not for angel
nor for archangel
was the mighty scheme devised; it is for the human race--for man though rebel
of his God; for man ruined and desolated by sin.
3. The confidence with which this announcement is made
as
immediately taking place. “To us a Child is born; to us a Son is given.” Faith
pierces the vista of time
and beholds events
anticipated hundreds of years
before
the birth of that glorious Redeemer who was slain from the foundation
of the world; which had been promised by the word and oath of Jehovah Himself;
and who
therefore
in the fulness of time should assuredly be granted.
II. THE OFFICE AND
THE TITLES WHICH THE SAVIOUR SHOULD ASSUME. (D. Wilson
M. A.)
The child Jesus
I. HIS
INCARNATION.
II. HIS EMPIRE.
III. HIS NAMES. (W.
Jay.)
The message of hope
To us
as we begin to wonder whether the entire movement of human
life is not by some evil inspiration gone after a false scent
taken some
terrible misdirection
shut itself up in a blind path that arrives at no goal
and has no out way; to us
so heavily laden and so entangled
so fondly hoping;
to us
as we walk on still in darkness and seem entering the very shadow of
death; to us this Child is born
to us a Son is given
--a Child who shall be
the issue
the justification
the consummation of all the long and weary story;
a Son who is Himself the goal of our pilgrimage
the fulfilment of our
imperfections
the crown of our endurance
the honour of our service
the glory
of our building. There
in this Son of God
is an offer made by God
by which
He will justify all suffering
retrieve all failure
redeem all fault; He gives
us
in Him
an end for which to live. Here is His mind; here is His plan for
us--for us
not only in our simple individual troubles and worries
but for us
in the mass
as a race
as a society
as a civilisation. God has a scheme
an
issue prepared for which He worketh hitherto
and that issue is His Son. In Him
all will be gathered in and fulfilled
and “the government shall be upon His
shoulder
” “of His kingdom there shall he no end
His name shall be called
Wonderful
the Mighty Counsellor
the Prince of Peace.” And in the power of
this message we are told not to faint or fail. (Canon H. Scott-Holland.)
A Christmas question
The principal object is to bring out the force of those two little
words
“unto us.”
I. IS IT SO?
1. If this Child is born to you
then you are born again. “But
”
saith one
“how am I to know whether I am born again or not?”
2. If this Child is born to you
you are a child; and the question
arises
are you so? Man grows from childhood up to manhood naturally; in grace
men grow from manhood down to childhood
and the nearer we come to true childhood
the nearer we come to the image of Christ.
3. If this Son is given to you
you are a son yourself.
4. If unto us a Son is given
then we are given to the Son. Are you
given up to Christ?
II. IF IT IS SO
WHAT THEN? If it is so
why am I doubtful today? Why are we sad! Why are our
hearts so cold?
III. IF IT IS NOT
SO
WHAT THEN?
1. Confess thy sins.
2. Renounce thyself.
3. Go to the place where Jesus died in agony. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the Revealer of God and the Asserter of man
I. Christ took to
Himself human flesh to furnish us with AN EXHIBITION OF THE MORAL CHARACTER OF
GOD.
II. The incarnation
of Jesus is also A STUPENDOUS DISCOVERY OF WHAT MAN IS IN HIS HEAVENLY IDEAL
AND HIS MORAL DESTINY. (A. Maclennan
M. A.)
“Unto us”
As if Heaven would underline the words to catch the eye
as if it
were the keynote of its love
and should be the keynote of our song of praise
the words are twice repeated--“Unto us a Child is born
unto us a Son is
given.” (A. Maclennan
M. A.)
The nativity
I. THE SUBJECT OR
MATTER OF THE BLESSING. “A Child
” “a Son.”
II. THE MANNER OF
ITS CONVEYANCE. “Born
given.”
III. OUR INTEREST IN
IT. “Unto us
” in our behalf all this
and to our benefit and advantage. (A.
Littleton
D. D.)
Redemption from within humanity
This promise of a Deliverer has lit up the march of all human
generations; it has been the fountain of the fairest gleams which have crossed
the darkness of the heathen world. And it is out of the bosom of Humanity that
the Redeemer must be born--the Christ must be the human Child. The essential
point lies here--redemption is not a process wrought by the right hand of
power
so to speak
from without; the act of a Being of almighty power
who
seeing man in desperate extremity through sin and frustrating utterly the
purposes and preparations of Heaven
stooped to lay hold on him
to lift him
out of the abyss in which he was sinking
sad to place him by a sovereign act
on a foundation where he might rest in safety
and work and grow. It is from
within the bosom of humanity that the redemption is to be wrought which is to
save humanity. It is by the outward sad upward pressure of a life which is
truly and fully human
which has buried its Divine force in the very heart’s
core of our nature
and is “bone of our bones
and flesh of our flesh
” that
man is to be lifted to the levels which are above the sphere of tears and death
forever. (J. B. Brown
B. A.)
Christ’s birthday
Christ’s birthday has been a day through all ages so solemn and
sacred
that Justin Martyr
a father and saint of the second century
calls it ἡ βασίλισσα ἡμερα
the Queen day in the
calendar. We do not owe this solemnity then to the rubric of the Roman Church.
(A. Littleton
D. D.)
The need for the incarnation
Man can suffer
but he cannot satisfy; God can satisfy
but He
cannot suffer; but Christ
being both God and man
can both suffer and satisfy
too; and so is perfectly fit both to suffer for man and to make satisfaction
unto God--to reconcile God to man
and man to God. (Bishop Beveridge.)
Human redemption by the Divine man
The humanisation of God is the divinisation of man. (Novalis.)
The preparation of the world for Christ
A few generations before the Advent the word would have been
meaningless. Jew and Gentile
Greek and Barbarian
freeman and slave
were
terms full of meaning; but “man
” what could that mean? Even Aristotle found it
hard to discover a common term which would cover the life of the freeman and
the slave. But as the hour of the Advent
“the fulness of the time
” approached
through a very wonderful chain of agencies and influences
in the linking
together of which the Hand which guided the culture of the Jewish people to the
fulfilment of the primal promise is very palpably manifest
the idea of a
common human nature
with common attributes
common sympathies
needs
and
interests
and capable of a common life
the life of the universal human
society
began to haunt the minds of men. (J. B. Brown
B. A.)
The world into which Christ was born
Here are two very distinct features of human development during
the ages which preceded the Advent of the Lord. Men were feeling after the
ground and the conditions of a universal human society; and they were searching
for the bask and the law of personal conduct
as beings endowed with moral and
intellectual faculties which might be a rich blessing or a terrible curse to
them and to man kind. To this point humanity had progressed
moved from within
led from on High. Was the higher progress possible to heathen society! Was
there power in heathenism to lift man into this sphere of universal
brotherhood
and
to expound the mystery of his being and destiny! None
absolutely none. Heathen society
with all its brilliant civilisation
was
utterly
hopelessly exhausted. The Lord was born into a world of wreck. But for
Christ all must have perished. The world which the Lord came to save was
groaning beneath the wrecks of most of the most hopeful political
philosophical
and religious efforts and achievements of mankind. And yet there
had been splendid progress. Man’s life was enlarged in every direction but the
highest. (J. B. Brown
B. A.)
Christ the Revealer of God
“Seek fellowship with Zeus
” cried Epictetus
in a last
eager
desperate appeal Alas! it was the Zeus that was wanting; and to find Him
Epictetus must pass on his disciples to a higher school. There was a yearning
for God
for personal fellowship with God
for personal likeness to God
unknown to the older ages; marking a grand advance in the aspiration and effort
of the noblest and most far-seeing spirits. “But who is the Zeus
the god of
whom you talk
that may believe on Him
” was the cry which grew more hopeless
and agonising generation by generation; to which tradition had no answer
to
which philosophy had no answer
to which religion had no answer; to which no
answer was possible until One stood on the earth and said
“No man hath seen
God at any time; the only-begotten Son
which is in the bosom of the Father
He
hath declared Him
” Then man began to look up and live. (J. B. Brown
B. A.)
Christ the new life of humanity
When that Child was born to humanity
when that Son took His place
by its hearth fire
a new life entered into the world. That age of the Advent
is very manifestly the age in which some transcendently stimulating
quickening
influence penetrated the life of men
and began to make all things new; than
the old civilisation decayed
the new power reorganised and restored. (J. B.
Brown
B. A.)
Important births
Now and then a birth occurs of such momentous portent to man
that
men are constrained by the influences which proceed from it to fix it in
memory
and give to its anniversary fitting commemoration. There are births
which are like the introduction of new forces and energies into human society
which pour the current of their power down through the ages with ever-widening
and deepening volume. When Confucius was born
half of the human race had a
father and a teacher given them. When Moses was born
not only a few millions
of slaves found a deliverer
but the great underlying
eternal principles of
morality and piety found a spokesman. With Socrates
Greece had given to her
the opportunity of goodness. With Caesar came into human history the embodiment
of ambition. The birth of Wilberforce was the beginning of a philanthropic
education to Christendom. Howard demonstrated that the extremest feelings of a
kindly humanity were practical and serviceable to society. With Washington came
to mankind the ideal of unselfish patriotism; while Lincoln embodied the first
century of the American Republic. These were noted men
extraordinary beings;
and the names of these are all memorable. Their names have passed into history
and remain as certainly fixed as the stars beaming in the sky; and
like the
stars
their glory is abundant to attract unto them the observation of men.
When the date of their birth
or the supposed date of their birth
is reached
as with the movement of time we swing round the circuit of the year
men
instinctively pause; thought is quickened; the depths of gratitude are stirred
with benign remembrance; and thanksgiving naturally ascends unto God
who has
given unto men
unto them and theirs
such a beneficent gift. (W. H. Murray.)
Christmas celebrates a personality
Wherever you find love
you find a personal being connected with
it as its object
We do not love motherhood
we love mother. We do not love
family government
we love the persons who compose the family. We do not love
theology
we love God of whom it treats. We commemorate today
therefore--not the
birth of a system
but the birth of a man. It is a sweet and innocent babe
and
not a collection of doctrines
in praise of whom our songs are sung today
and
unto whom our hearts are lifted in holy gladness. (W. H. Murray.)
Jesus had universal connections
We celebrate the birth of a man with universal connections; you
and I were born connected with but a few. A little group absorbed us
and a
little spot bounded us within its limits. Other men
of larger mould than we
were born with larger connections. The chief is connected with his tribe at his
birth; the king with his kingdom; the patriot and leader with his country or
party; the priest with his Church. Around all these walls are builded
over
which they never pass until death lifts them above the local
and multiplies
their associations. But Christ was born with universal connections. His little
family did not absorb Him. He was not the son of Mary and Joseph
He was the
son of humanity; He was the Son of Man the world over. (W. H. Murray.)
Jesus meets universal wants
The reason that Christ had these universal connections was because
He came to assist men in reference to those conditions of want that are
universal. In Him the perfect constitution had organisation. In feeling
in
thinking
in suffering and gladness
in mourning and joy
in every capacity
which men have
in every condition in which men stand
He was akin to them.
From every bosom a sympathetic chord ran up into His
and He could
therefore
sense the needs of every bosom. He sympathised with every phase of humanity
because His humanity was perfect enough in its sensitiveness to be intelligent
with every phase. (W. H. Murray.)
An infant’s birth a great event
The birth of any infant is a far greater event than the production
of the sun. The sun is only a lump of senseless matter: it sees not its own
light; it feels not its own heat; and
with all its grandeur
it will cease to
be: but that infant beginning only to breathe yesterday
is possessed of
reason--claims a principle infinitely superior to all matter--and will live
through the ages of eternity! (W. Jay.)
A Christmas day sketch
I. GOD CAME TO US
IN THAT CHILD. His parents were instructed to call Him “Immanuel”--“God with
us.” Such a fact is big with meaning; pregnant with vital
jubilant truth. Why
did God come to us thus in a babe? He must have had some wise and loving
purpose that He wished to secure thereby. What For ages men had been taught to
fear God
their thoughts of Him filled them with dismay; hence the gods of the
heathen nations. The large body of the Jewish nation was not much in advance of
the heathen. This dread of God was universal. To correct all such ideas
and
remove all such feelings from the minds and hearts of men forever
God came to
us as a child. Are you afraid of a babe?
II. GOD CAN COME TO
US IN THE SMALLEST THINGS. We generally look for God in the great
vast
mighty
terrible. We expect something to strike the eye
etc. Will you remember
that God came to us in that quiet
loving
unpretending babe
that lay in that
manager and nestled in His mother’s bosom? And so God comes to us in the
little
simple
humble
noiseless
common things of life
if we only look for
Him. Especially He comes to us in our children. They bring love with them
and
“love is of God
” etc. We might in a far higher sense than we think for call
every child “Immanuel.” In our child God comes to us
God is with us. Do we
believe this? If so
should we not oftener look for and educate the God in
them? We should do far better with them if from the beginning we sought to
bring out
nourish
educate
develop the good
the God that is in them
instead
of making it our chief concern to correct the wrong
to restrain the evil.
III. THE WHOLE OF
LIFE IS SACRED AND SHOULD BE CONSECRATED TO GOD. God came to us in that Child.
The whole of life is sacred
open for the operations
possession
enjoyment of
God. God was in that Child notwithstanding all its infantile wants
weaknesses
complaints. And so God was in that boy
notwithstanding all His playfulness and
vivacity. Indeed
that was the boyish
outward manifestation of God; the boyish
way of declaring God’s glory If God was in that Child
“God manifest in the
flesh
” His whole life
from His birth to His death
was God life.
IV. GREAT ENDINGS
HAVE LITTLE BEGINNINGS. Who shall measure the magnitude
height
depth
length
breadth of the work which Christ accomplished as Saviour of the world? Yet it
has all to be traced back to the birth of that Child. God’s method is evolution
from the small to the great. (B. Preece.)
The Child Divine
Pure Christianity owes its power to the fact that it comes to us
as a little child
beautiful in innocence and simplicity. The pure spirit of
Christianity is the essence of kindness. Christianity owes its power to its spirit
of gentleness. Christianity is forgiving like a little child. Christianity
however
like a little child
is often misunderstood. Alas! that Christianity
should be hated
by some people. Not only did Herod seek its life eighteen
hundred years ago
but there are men today who
Herod-like
seek to strangle
the infant Christ. (W. Birch.)
Unto us a Son is given
Christ
the Son of God
gifted to sinners
I. THE GIFT
ITSELF. Many precious gifts have come from heaven to earth
yea
all we have is
Heaven’s gift (James 1:17). But this is the great gift.
1. What this gift is.
2. Wherein this gift appears and comes to us. Those who send precious
gifts to others
wrap them up in something that is less precious. And a
treasure sent in earthen vessels is the method of conveyance of the best gifts
from heaven to earth. The Son of God
being the gift
was sent veiled and
wrapped up in our nature. This veil laid over the gift sent to poor sinners was
(a) that it might be capable of the treatment it behoved to undergo
for our relief--to suffer and die;
(b) that it might be suited to the weakness of the capacity of the
receivers. The Son of God in His unveiled glory would have no more been an
object for our eyes to have looked on
than the shining sun to the eyes of an
owl. A few rays of His glory
breaking out from under me veil
made His enemies
fall to the ground.
3. What a gift this is. Singular for
(a) Beware of slighting this gift.
(b) Take heed ye miss not to perceive this gift. Most men see no
further into the mystery of Christ than the outward appearance it makes in the
world
as administered in the Word
sacraments
etc.; and they despise it.
(c) Admire the wisdom of God
and His infinite condescension
in the
manner of the conveyance of this gift.
(d) See here how you may be enriched for time and eternity.
II. THE GIVER.
1. Who is the Giver? God. And to exalt the Giver’s free love and
grace herein
observe from the Word three things there marked about it.
2. What has He given sinners
gifting His Son to them? The tongues of
men and angels cannot fully express this.
III. THE PARTY TO
WHOM HE IS GIVEN.
1. To whom He is given. To mankind sinners indefinitely.
2. In what respects Christ is given to them.
3. In what character Christ is given to sinners
A Saviour; a surety;
a physician; a light; an atoning sacrifice; a crowned King
mighty to destroy
the kingdom of Satan and to rescue mankind sinners
his captives and prisoners.
IV. APPLICATION.
1. Believe that to us poor sinners the Son of God in man’s nature is
given.
2. Receive the gift of Christ
at His Father’s hand.
The Son given
I. WHO IS THE SON
GIVEN AND WHAT IS HIS PURPOSE? It is our Lord Jesus Christ. The verse begins
with His humanity; and
mounting upwards
it rises to the height of His
Divinity. The prophet conducts us to Bethlehem and its stable
to the desert
and its hunger
to the well and its thirst
to the workshop and its daily toil
to the sea and its midnight storm
to Gethsemane and its bloody sweat
to
Calvary and its ignominious death
and all along that thorny path that
stretched from the manger to the Cross; for in announcing the birth and coming
of this Son and Child
he included in that announcement the noble purposes for
which He was horn--His work
His sufferings
His life
His death
all the grand
ends for which the Son was given and the Child was born.
II. BY WHOM WAS
THIS SON GIVEN? By His Father. Man has his remedies
but they are always
behindhand. The disease antedates the cure. But before the occasion came God
was ready. Redemption was planned in the councils of eternity
and Satan’s
defeat secured before his first victory was won. The Son gave Himself
but the
Father gave Him; and there is no greater mistake than to regard God as looking
on at redemption as a mere spectator
to approve the sacrifice and applaud the
actor. God’s love was the root
Christ’s death the fruit.
III. TO WHOM WAS HE
GIVEN? He was given “to us.” (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
The advent of Jesus joy producing
A poor little street girl was taken sick one Christmas and carried
to a hospital. While there she heard the story of Jesus’ coming into the world
to save us. It was all new to her
but very precious. She could appreciate such
a wonderful Saviour
and the knowledge made her very happy as she lay upon her
little cot. One day the nurse came around at the usual hour
and “Little
Broomstick” (that was her street name) held her by the hand
and whispered:
“I’m having real good times here--ever such good times! S’pose I shall have to
go away from here just as soon as I get well; but I’ll take the good time
along--some of it
anyhow. Did you know ‘bout Jesus bein’ born!” “Yes
” replied
the nurse
“I know. Sh-sh-sh! Don’t talk any more.” “You did? I thought you
looked as if you didn’t and I was goin’ to tell you.” “Why
how did I look?”
asked the nurse
forgetting her own orders in curiosity. “Oh
just like most o’
folks--kind o’ glum. I shouldn’t think you’d ever look gloomy if you knowed ‘bout
Jesus bein’ born.” (Faithful Witness.)
“The joyful quarter”
Part of the city of Florence was called “The Joyful Quarter.” It
was through a picture painted by Cimbrie of Jesus as a baby seated on His
mother’s knee. When finished
the grand old painter did not make a charge for
people to see it
but had it carried into the poor quarters
and through the
streets slowly
in the sight of all the people. Before this
they had thought
of Jesus as far too grand for them to love. In this picture He looked so sweet
and good that people broke into surprised thankfulness and joy. (Sunday
Magazine.)
A son and a brother
A respectable family becomes very reduced in its circumstances;
the mother finds it difficult to make the meagre provision suffice for her
hungry little ones; their clothes get more ragged; the father’s threadbare coat
makes it less and less possible for him to obtain the situation which his
qualifications deserve. But a child is born into that home
quite unlike the
rest of the children--beautiful in feature
quick in intelligence
winsome
gifted
spirituelle. As he grows up
he manifests unusual powers;
rapidly distances his compeers; passes from the elementary school to the
college
and thence to the university. Presently tidings begin to come back of
his success
his growing fame
his prizes
the assured certainty of his
becoming a great man; and as they arrive in letter
and rumour
and newspaper
the mother’s eye gets brighter; the father no longer evades the associates of
earlier days; the home becomes better furnished and the table better spread;
the other children are better clothed and educated and put forward in life; and
the one glad explanation of it all is found in the words
“Unto us a child is
born
unto us a son is given.” And as the years go on
whilst money pours in as
a golden tide to the successful student
it will find its way increasingly to
the family in the old home; and each member of it will reap the benefit of
association with its child and son
all that is needed being to prove a
distinct need
and to put in an appropriate claim. What a mine of wealth would
be opened up in the counsel
strength
resources
influence
and position
of
that beloved and trusted son and brother! This will illustrate the prophet’s
thought. As the oppressed Jews
groaning in their brick kilns
were glad for
Moses
given to lead them forth from the house of bondage; as England
travailing under the cruel exactions of the Danes
was glad for our great
Alfred; as the Netherlands were glad when William the Silent arose to arrest
the bloodthirsty rule of Alva; as Italy was glad when her Victor Emmanuel
overthrew the dark misrule of the Papacy--so may we be glad because God has
given Himself to us in Jesus. Why should living men complain? Granted that Adam
was our father
the second Adam is the Son of Man. If tears and toil and pain
and death have come by one
glory and honour and immortality are ours by the
other. If we are sons
and therefore younger brothers of the Son; if we have
the right to call His Father our Father
we gain from our association with Him
more than enough to compensate us for our association with the gardener who
stole his Master’s fruit in the garden of Paradise. Christian people do not
enough appreciate this connection
or avail themselves of its benefits. (F.
B. Meyer
B. A.)
And the government shall
be upon His shoulder
Christ the universal Governor
I. JESUS CHRIST
HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF HEAVEN. After He had triumphantly risen from the dead
and the time of His glorious ascension to heaven was at hand
He said unto His
disciples
“All power is given unto Me in heaven
” meaning
that to Him
as the
gracious and glorious Mediator between us sinners and God our heavenly
Sovereign
all power in heaven was given. And hence the following great and
gracious truths--
1. Jesus Christ is the only person who
principally and above all
others
has power with God for us. “There is one God and one Mediator between
God and men
the Man Christ Jesus.”
2. He is the only person by whom we can hope to obtain an entrance
into heaven.
3. He has power in heaven to exclude
as well as to admit
whom He
will.
4. He has power in heaven to provide mansions for His friends.
5. He has power in heaven over all the angels; He is their Lord
whom
they worship and obey; He is exalted above all principalities and powers: the
angels are His ministering spirits
whom He sends forth to minister for them
who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:6-14).
II. JESUS CHRIST
HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF EARTH (Matthew 28:18).
1. He has power on earth to form and establish a Church to the glory
and praise of God.
2. He has power on earth to keep His Church
through faith
unto
final and full salvation.
3. He has power on earth over the wicked.
III. JESUS CHRIST
HAS THE GOVERNMENT OF HELL. Satan
therefore
and the whole host of evil
spirits
are under His command; and therefore their malice
their subtilty
and
power
shall never prevail to the ruin of the weakest of His flock.
Conclusion--
1. And first
we infer--What a glorious person is Jesus Christ! In
defiance of all His enemies
He it is of whom the Father declares
“Yet have I
set My King upon My holy hill of Zion” (Psalms 2:6).
2. How dignified
and secure
and happy
must they be who have Jesus
Christ as their Governor
to whom they willingly yield themselves in all humble
and affectionate submission and obedience.
3. The tremendous case of those who are strangers to Jesus Christ
and without God in the world. (E. Phillips.)
The government on Christ’s shoulder
As a people whose affairs are ruined have great need of an active
and expert governor; so the government of such a people is a great burden Such
a people are lost sinners
and with respect to them these words speak
two
things--
1. The burden and weight of taking the management of their affairs.
2. Jesus Christ the person on whom this burden was laid. This is part
of the glad tidings of the Gospel. (T. Boston.)
The government on Christ’s shoulder
I. THE OCCASION OF
SETTING UP THIS PRINCE AND GOVERNOR. It was sinners’ absolute need.
1. Their first prince was gone
to manage their affairs no more. Adam
their natural head mismanaged the government quite.
2. They were left in confusion
in the hand of the enemy Satan.
3. Their affairs were desperate. When the whole earth could not
afford one
heaven gave sinners a Prince
of shoulders sufficient for the
burden.
II. THE IMPORT OF
THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT LAID ON JESUS CHRIST FOR THE BENEFIT OF
MANKIND-SINNERS. It speaks--
1. His near relation to them.
2. His eminency among them.
3. His honourable office over them.
4. His sovereign power and authority over them.
5. The burden of the care and duty belonging to the office and
station.
III. THE HONOUR
POWER
AND AUTHORITY BELONGING TO THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT OF JESUS
CHRIST.
1. The legislative power belongs to Him solely.
2. The supreme executive power is lodged with Him (John 5:22-23).
3. The power of granting remissions
receiving into peace with
Heaven
pardoning and indemnifying criminals and rebels (Acts 5:31).
4. A large and vast dominion
reaching to earth
heaven
and hell
and the passage between the two worlds
namely
death (Matthew 28:18; Revelation 1:18). In His hand is--
IV. THE BURDEN OF
THIS PRINCIPALITY AND GOVERNMENT LAID ON CHRIST JESUS. It is seven fold.
1. The burden of the purchase of it.
2. The burden of a war with the devil for the recovering of it.
3. The burden of subduing sinners.
4. The burden of their reconciliation with Heave.
5. The burden of their defence and protection.
6. The burden of their provision in all things necessary for life and
godliness.
7. The burden of the whole management and conduct of them through the
wilderness
till they come to the heavenly Canaan.
V. IMPROVE THE
DOCTRINE.
1. Information.
Governor thereof.
2. Exhortation.
(a) Let His Spirit be your Guide and Leader.
(b) Let His Word be your rule.
(c) Let His will be the determining point to you.
And receive Him as Governor--
(a) Of your hearts and spirits. Let the proud heart be made to stoop
to Him
let the covetous heart be purged by Him
and the vain foolish heart be
made to find the weight of His awful authority. While Christ has not the
government of thy heart
thou hast not given Him the throne.
(b) Of your tongues.
(c) Of your practice.
(a) Be content with the lot carved out for you.
(b) Never go out of God’s way to mend your condition.
(c) In all changes of your lot
acknowledge Him for direction and
guidance. Take Him for your only Governor; your absolute Governor; your perpetual
Governor. Take Him without delay; take Him heartily and willingly.
3. Motives.
The hope of Israel
I. THE HOPE OF THE
CHOSEN PEOPLE CONCERNING THEMSELVES AND THEIR RACE CENTERED IN A CHILD. As a
general fact
how many of the world’s hopes and expectations have in all ages
focussed in cradles. The children represent the hope of all generations.
II. Now the paradox
of Jewish faith consisted in this--THAT IT FOCUSSED AT ONCE IN A CRADLE AND A
THRONE a Child and a King. Hence the birth in which that ancient hope found
fulfilment was the birth of a King. The question of the wise men was grandly
expressive. It centred alike in a Child and a King. “Where is He that is born
King?”
1. At the very centre of the Jewish religion was the belief in
kingship--a Divine kingdom or a theocracy. This great spiritual fact was
symbolised by “the outward visible sign” of human kingship. But all human
symbols are imperfect. Their kings died like other men. But their true King did
not die. They sought to make the outward symbol of government as complete as
possible; hence they adopted hereditary kingship. The human
and in this case
the Jewish heart is impatient of an interregnum. There is a feeling in man that
the throne should at no period be empty. This feeling ever tends toward
hereditary rule. The prophet points to a King to the increase of “whose
government and peace there shall be no end.” It is a kingdom which knows of no
interregnum. In contrast to all other kings and royal personages
who soon die
and pass away
He ever lives.
2. It is such a king that the Jewish people yearned and looked for.
Hence
when the wise men came with the question
“Where is He that is born King
of the Jews?” it not only moved Herod
but all Jerusalem with him. The Jews
looked eagerly for a king who should bear upon his shoulder the burden of
perpetual government. This yearning for a king is one of the deepest in the
heart of nations.
3. Alas! that when He came men did not recognise Him in the humble
garb He wore. They placed a Cross upon the shoulder that was to bear the ensign
of rule
and a crown of thorns upon His royal brow. Yet
all was well
for what
could be a better ensign of His kingship than the Cross
since His is “the
kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ
” and He is a “Prince and a Saviour.”
4. His sacred brow
too
bore the only crown which man could place
there and He accept--a crown of thorns
symbol alike of our sin and misery and
of His royalty who has overcome us by the might of His compassion
and become
our King by the shedding of His blood. What becomes the brow of the Man of
Sorrows and King of sorrowing humanity like crown of thorns? Our Lord exclaimed
some time before His hour had come
“I have power to lay down My life
and I
have power to take it again.” He based His Kingly claim upon that two-fold
power. It is from His Cross that He sways His sceptre over us.
5. The cradle predicts the Cross. Once God has condescended to touch
the manger and the crib
we are prepared to see Him even touch the Cross and
bearing it. There is no depth of condescension which He will not fathom
no
height of self-sacrifice which He will not reach. The story of Divine love is
harmonious throughout. We are not surprised that the great God who submitted
himself to the humblest conditions of human birth should also
in the same
spirit
endure the Cross
despising the shame.
6. This cradle
too
is prophetic of the Gospel
in which so much
that is weak and human is linked to so much that is strong and Divine
namely
man’s voice uttering God’s message
earthly forms and ordinances conveying
heavenly energies
human swaddling clothes enveloping a Divine life. (D.
Davies.)
The government upon Christ’s shoulder
I. I would offer a
few thoughts concerning THE CHURCH OR KINGDOM OF CHRIST IN THE WORLD.
1. By the Church I understand that remnant of Adam’s family who
being determined to break their covenant with hell
and their agreement with
death
join themselves to Christ
as their Prophet
Priest
and King
either in
reality
or by a visible and credible profession of their faith in Him.
2. The Church or kingdom of Christ
during the Old Testament
dispensation
was peculiarly confined to the posterity of Abraham
to the
nation of the Jews
excepting a few Gentile proselytes; but now
since the coming
of Christ in the flesh and His resurrection from the dead
is extended also to
the Gentile nations.
3. All the subjects of Christ’s kingdom and government
are
originally brought out of the territories of hell
being “children of wrath
even as others.”
4. The great engine whereby Christ rears up a kingdom to Himself in
the world
is the preaching of the everlasting Gospel
accompanied with the
power and efficacy of His Spirit.
5. The Church and kingdom of Christ being founded and governed by
Him
“in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid
” cannot miss
of being one of the best regulated societies in the world as under His
management
whatever irregularities may be found in her through the corruptions
of men intermingling with the concerns of the kingdom. Everything necessary to
render any kingdom or society regular is to be found in the Church or kingdom
of Christ.
II. I would speak a
little of THE GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE KINGDOM.
1. Christ Himself is the great and glorious Governor.
2. All things in heaven
earth
and hell are put under the power of
Christ
for the more advantageous government of His Church (Ephesians 1:22
Philippians 2:9-11).
3. Christ the King of Zion is wonderfully fitted by
His Father for
the government and administration (Isaiah 11:2-4).
4. Christ’s government and administration are very wonderful. The
name of the Governor is Wonderful.
5. Christ’s government and administration in and about His Church and
people are exceeding wise. So much is imported in His being called the “Counsellor.”
6. Also irresistible. The Governor is “The Mighty God
” who will go
through with His designs.
7. He is exceeding tender and compassionate; for His name is “The
Everlasting Father” from whom compassions flow.
8. Christ’s government and administration of His Church are very
peaceable; for His name is “The Prince of Peace
” and “of the increase of His
government and peace there shall be no end.”
9. This government is everlasting.
III. Inquire HOW THE
GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCH IS COMMITTED TO CHRIST. The government is laid upon
Christ’s shoulder with a three-fold solemnity.
1. The solemnity of an unalterable decree (Psalms 2:6-8).
2. The solemnity of a covenant transacted betwixt Him and His Eternal
Father
when the council of peace was between them both.
3. The solemnity of an oath
ratifying the determination of the
council of peace in this matter (Psalms 89:3-4; Psalms 89:35).
IV. GIVE THE
REASONS OF THE DOCTRINE. Why is the government laid upon His shoulder?
1. Because His shoulder alone was able to bear the weight of the administration
and government of the Church.
2. That He might be in better capacity for accomplishing the
salvation of His people
and bringing many sons and daughters unto glory. Hence
we find His kingdom and salvation frequently joined; “Thou art my King of old
working salvation in the midst of the earth”; and Zechariah 9:9.
3. That He may “still the enemy and the avenger
” that He may resent
His Father’s quarrel against Satan
and entirely bruise his head
for his
defacing and striking at His and His Father’s image in our first parents
and
disturbing His government
which He had established in innocence.
4. Because He hath a just title to it.
V. APPLICATION.
1. Information.
2. Consolation to the poor people of God; particularly to those who
are spoiled of their liberties and privileges as Christians
Christ the “Kinsman” of the race
The King must be the Son of Man. The real root of king and queen
is “kin.” The king is not the “able” man but the “kinsman” of the race. All our
fundamental
social
and political ideas have their root in the patriarchal
home
as the researches of Sir H. Maine and other able scholars have
established; and in the king the whole “kindred” is represented “Unto us a
Child is born
unto us a Son is given.” The King who rules in righteousness
mighty to save
is the Son of Man
the Divine Kinsman of our race. (J. B.
Brown
B. A.)
Jesus Christ the King of all creation
I. CHRIST THE KING
OF ALL THINGS GREAT. There is nothing so great as to be above the government of
Jesus. Things great belong to each of the two great provinces into which the
universe is divided
namely
the province of matter and the province of mind;
yet
Christ is King of all.
1. Greatness in the physical creation. The earth is very great
as we
count greatness. The sun is greater than the earth
and many a star which
appears only as a glittering point of diamond
is greater than the sun: yet
Jesus makes the earth bring forth
commands the sun to shine
and moves the
stars in silent harmony. Jesus can rule the sea. Its billows rise and fall
according to His will; and when they leap along
then
amid the roar of tempest
and the cries of men for aid
the gentle voice of Jesus speaks “Peace be still
and winds and waves obey Him
for there is a great calm. The government is upon
His shoulder.”
2. The greatness of death. Of all the forces of nature
none is
feared more than death. Even death is in the hand of Jesus; it never comes
without asking His permission
and in every case He could forbid its coming
and no doubt He would forbid it
if that were for the best
for He has the keys
of death and of Hades.
3. Greatness in the spirit world. Material forces
however
form but
an insignificant part of the forces of creation. There is a world of spirit
within
as well as above and beyond the world of matter
and yet
of this
nearest world of matter we know but little. The spirit world is under the rule
of Jesus; He is its only King; His word its only law; His presence its only
bliss. He reveals to the eye of faith the home of heaven. He brings “life and
immortality to light.”
4. Greatness in moral government. God has promised for us--and
thereby has guaranteed--results which can never be effected by any mere force
though that force should be even infinite. The difficulty in the Saviour’s
government of moral beings lies here
--that He has guaranteed and foretold the
final issues of that government; that He has foreseen the course of life
pursued by every moral agent
though that life is in many points independent of
all external forces Neither Scripture nor reason may explain the difficulty
but it is pleasing to think of my text
--“The government shall he upon His
shoulder
--for Jesus is “Kings of kings
and Lord of lords.”
II. CHRIST THE KING
OF ALL THINGS SMALL. There is nothing so small as to escape the notice of
Jesus. When on earth He observed the poor as well as the rich
and commended
each according to his fidelity. Think not that you are forgotten by the
Saviour
or that your work or suffering is overlooked because you are poor
obscure
and feeble
and therefore
forgotten and overlooked by men. What men
despise through ignorance may be most highly prized in another form. Filthy
soot and the brilliant diamond are formed of the same material. The Saviour
sees
not merely what we are
but what we may become
and as fidelity is the
highest element of moral worth
He estimates the value of men
not by what they
do
but by their fidelity--by the proportion which exists between their power
and their performance. The lisping prayer of a little child may thus be of
greater value in God’s estimation
than the highest song which ever rose from
an angel’s heart.
III. CHRIST THE KING
OF ALL THINGS GOOD. There is nothing so good that it can exist apart from the
rule of Jesus. The day is no more dependent on the sun
the rain upon the
clouds
the stream upon the fountain
than happiness is dependent upon Christ.
IV. CHRIST THE KING
CONTROLLING EVIL. There is nothing so bad but Jesus can make it the means of
good. In all we suffer
as well as in all we enjoy; in the dark and dreary
night of trouble
as well as in the bright day of prosperous life
it is
equally true that Jesus Christ is King of all. (Evan Lewis
B. A.)
Christ our life’s Ruler
Fifteen miles from Sandy Hook the pilot comes on board the English
steamer to navigate it into New York harbour. I remember his climbing on board
on the last occasion that I made the passage. The great steamer slowed
and as
we looked down from the deck into the dark night we could see a lantern on the
surface of the ocean
where his boat was lying. Presently he emerged from the
pitchy darkness and reached the deck. From that moment the anxieties of the
captain were at an end
and he might refresh himself in deep
long slumbers. So
when Christ is on board our life
the government is upon His shoulders
and of
the increase of His government and of our peace there is no end. (F.
B.Meyer
B. A.)
And His name shall be
called Wonderful
Messiah’s name
As Jacob conferred the birthright and blessing of his race upon
the sons of Joseph by saying
“Let my name be named on them
and the name of my
fathers Abraham and Isaac” (Genesis 43:16); or as the children of
Israel in the wilderness were warned to obey the angel who went before them
because the “name of Jehovah was in him”; so the name of God
wonderful in
counsel
mighty in work
the Father of their fathers and of their children for
a thousand generations
the Eternal Upholder of their race and their nation and
of its prosperity and peace
shall be named upon
shall be in
this anointed
Saviour
on whose shoulder the government shall rest. (Sir E. Strachey
Bart.)
The Prince of the four names
Wonderful Counsellor; God-Hero; Father-Everlasting;
Prince-of-Peace. (Prof. G. A. Smith
D. D.)
Christ’s name above every name
I. WHO CALLS HIM
BY THIS NAME?
1. His Father (Philippians 2:9).
2. All His people
flying to Him
in their first believing
as such
an one
and depending on Him all along their course of life as such an one.
II. WHAT DOES HIS
BEING CALLED BY THIS NAME IMPORT?
1. That He really is what this name bears.
2. What He is called He is found to be in the experience of saints.
III. APPLICATION.
Study the name of Christ
as represented in the Word
so that your souls may be
enamoured of Him. (T. Boston.)
God’s namings
God’s namings always mean character. They are always revelations.
They tell us what the person is or what he does. (Mrs. H. W. Smith.)
“Ah! that’s the name!”
Some Hindus who had read Christian tracts travelled a long way to
hear more about Jesus from a missionary. As soon as he mentioned the name of
Jesus
they all exclaimed
“Ah! that’s the name!” (Gates of Imagery.)
Christ’s name Wonderful
Our Lord Christ is beyond the creature’s comprehension. So that
this is fitly made the first syllable of His name
that men may know that
whatever they know of His excellencies
there is still more behind; and though
they may apprehend
they cannot comprehend what He is. I shall inquire--
I. UNDER WHAT
NOTION CHRIST IS HELD FORTH AS A MIRACLE
a miraculous person.
1. Not in respect of His being a miracle worker. It is Himself
and
not His work
that is here called a miracle.
2. Nor in respect of His Divine nature simply.
3. Nor in respect of His human nature simply.
4. Christ is held forth as a miraculous personage as God-man in one
person.
II. WHAT IS THE
IMPORT OF CHRIST AS GOD-MAN BEING AND APPEARING TO BE A MIRACULOUS
MOST
WONDERFUL ONE?
1. The excellency of His person as God-man.
2. The fulness of excellencies in Him
our incarnate Redeemer. Some
excel in one thing
some in another.
but none but Christ in all (Colossians 1:19).
3. The uncommonness and singularity of His excellencies. Every
excellency in Christ is beyond that excellency in another.
4. The absolute matchlessness of His person
for excellency and
glory.
5. The shining forth of His excellencies
fit to draw all eyes upon
Him.
6. The incomprehensibleness of Him to any creature.
III. IN WHAT
RESPECTS IS OUR INCARNATE REDEEMER A MIRACULOUS ONE? He is wonderful--
1. In His person and natures.
2. In His perfections and qualifications.
3. All along His duration. Some are wonderful in one part of their
life
some in another; but He is miracle all over His duration.
(10) In His continuing forever to be the eternal baud of union and
means of communion
between God and the saints (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:23).
4. In His offices.
(1) Prophetical. The Spirit came at times on the prophets
but He
rested on Him. They had their foreknowledge of future events at secondhand; but
it is His privilege to look with His own eyes into the sealed book.
5. In His relations.
6. In His love (Ephesians 3:19). Consider--
IV. APPLICATION.
1. Information.
2. Exhortation.
Who was Jesus Christ?
That is a question to which no man dares to be indifferent save at
the peril of his soul. The great Unitarian minister
W.E. Channing
said
“Love
to Jesus Christ depends very little on our conception of His rank in the scale
of being.” I believe that remark to he profoundly wrong. On our views of the Person
of Christ depend not only our love to Christ
but also our conception of
Christianity. Christ is Christianity
and without clear views of His character
and person our religious and moral he must be vague
unstable
like a house
that is built upon the sand. Consider--
I. HIS WISDOM AS A
TEACHER.
1. His originality. He never went to college. He had no learned
tutors to instruct Him. Yet at the early age of thirty He taught the world the
sublimest truths that man has ever heard. He belonged to none of the sects of
His day. He had no great intellectual friends from whom He might gain flashes
of suggestive thought. From the depths of mental and social obscurity
He went
forth to proclaim a worldwide kingdom
and today
in the most cultivated
nations
Christ ranks first of all the world. He did not teach by human
methods. All others have had to prove the words they spoke. Christ simply and
directly uttered truths
and His hearers saw that there was no contradicting
Him. He did not speculate about God. He simply revealed the Father
and men
felt that His words were true. Others had taught virtue before Christ. But how
different was their teaching! Note especially Christ’s dealings with the poor.
Christ was the first poor man’s philosopher. And now
after eighteen centuries
of weary strife and struggle
we are just beginning to see the transcendent
wisdom of such a course of action.
2. His boldness in teaching. His mission was worldwide. Having never
seen a map of this earth
He comes forth from the carpenter’s shop to
inaugurate a kingdom more extensive than the sway of Alexander
more lasting
than the firmament itself. And history is showing its success. He was the
greatest reformer that ever lived. But He never started wild theories for facts
to make sad havoc with. He laid down those principles of love
of doing to
others as we would have them do to us
of righteousness
purity
truth
and
justice
the same for rich and poor
those principles which alone can heal the
wounds of society in the future as alone they have healed them in the past.
Observe
too
the calmness of Jesus
under all circumstances. He was always
calm
because He knew that in the long run He would succeed.
3. The consistency of His life with His doctrine. To preach a low
standard of morality and live up to it is easy. But Christ’s standard is the
very highest. Yet He lived up to it. All other teachers confess their
shortcomings. Christ never does. Observe
too
the harmony of His character.
All virtues unite in Him
and none in excess. Is not His name wonderful?
II. HIS INNOCENCE
AND SINFULNESS. Most marvellous is His character in this respect. All our
goodness begins with repentance. Not so His. He puts before us the highest form
of morality
“Be ye therefore perfect.” But He never hints that He has need of
penitence for shortcomings. Further
Jesus claims to be sinless
though He is
full of sincerity and meekness. Now
no man could sham perfect holiness. No
faulty man could claim to be faultless without soon displaying faults that
would cover him with derision. Piety without an ounce of repentance
without
any confession of sin
without one tear! Let any man try that sort of piety
and see how soon his assumed righteousness will appear most impudent conceit.
When we think of His sinlessness
we must say
“His name is Wonderful.”
III. HIS INFLUENCE
OVER OTHER MEN.
1. His influence as a Teacher is wonderful. We see in ethics far more
than Socrates did. We see further in theology than Luther. Mathematicians have
gone far beyond Euclid. Our children will see further than we do. But eighteen
centuries have passed since the sun of humanity rose to its zenith in Jesus
Christ; and what man
or what body of men
has mastered His thought and come up
to His teachings
far less gone in advance of Him?
2. Observe the total change in the moral life of those who have
accepted this Teacher. And His influence came from Himself. He was not
supported by the authority of the Rabbis. He was in opposition to all the
religious prejudices of His day. From a most sectarian nation
He was most
unsectarian
proposing to found a universal kingdom embracing all nations
a
religion for all the earth.
3. The influence of His Church. Villainous misdeeds have been done in
the name of His Church. But the true Church never did these things
and her
influence has been most beautiful. The world has never been the same since the
holy steps of Jesus trod the soil of Palestine
and His sacred tears bedewed
Mount Olivet. The hospital is an invention of Christian philanthropy. The degradation
of woman
of which the pagan world was full
has been exchanged for a position
of peculiar honour. The sensualism which paganism mistook for love has been put
under the ban of true Christian feeling
and the chivalrous respect which all
good men have for pure women
and the poetry of holy love
have come from the
teachings of Jesus and His apostles. The old and universal sentiment of bitter
hostility between races and nations is denounced in the severest terms
and has
been largely toned down by Christianity. Look again at the enthusiasm which
this wonderful Teacher instilled into the early Christians. Jesus Christ
Himself is a greater miracle than the raising of Lazarus from the dead. We have
not yet assumed the truth of His miracles. Yet is it not idle to deny these?
How can we separate Christ from His miracles? And this Divine Jesus
whose name
is Wonderful
who has been the support of our fathers in the days of old
is
with us still. We need this marvellous Being in the strife of Christian duty. (F.
W. Aveling
M. A.
B. Sc.)
Christ wonderful in His victories
1. Over the forces of nature.
2. Behold His victory over the grave. Here comes the Conqueror of
death. He enters that realm
and says
“Daughter of Jairus
sit up!” and she
sat up. To Lazarus
“Come forth!” and he came forth. To the widow’s son He
said
“Get up from that bier!” and he goes home with his mother. Then Jesus
snatched up the keys of death
and hung them to His girdle
and cried
until
all the graveyards of the earth heard Him: “O death
I will be thy plagues! O
grave
I will be thy destruction!”
3. But Christ’s victories have only just begun. The world is His
and
He must have it. (T. De W. Talmage
D. D.)
The wonderful name
I. JESUS CHRIST IS
THE MOST WONDERFUL BEING THIS WORLD EVER SAW.
1. Because of the number and character of the prophecies announcing
His advent and mission.
2. Because of what He said of Himself. He distinctly declared that He
existed before He was born. “Before Abraham was I am.” Now
in the matter of
natural birth
man is utterly without choice or control
nor is he consulted as
to his coming
whether it shall be now or in the future
this place or that.
But Jesus Christ declared that He had perfect control in all these
matters
--control in coming
and control in going
--“No man taketh away My
life. I have power to lay it down
and I have power to take it again.” He
actually said He was God. He invited all to come to Him for pardon and eternal
life
and declared that
if they did not so come
they should all die in their
sins. He said He had power to call to His aid “twelve legions of angels
” who
would gladly tender Him celestial protection
if required.
3. Because of what He did. His life was filled with deeds of sympathy
and self-sacrificing benevolence. He assumed and exerted perfect control
both
in the physical and moral world.
4. Because of what He was. “Great is the mystery of godliness; God
manifest in the flesh.” Omnipotence clothed in frailty.
II. JESUS CHRIST IS
THE MOST WONDERFUL BEING IN HEAVEN. Not that He is an intruder
or a newcomer.
He was at home in heaven
and dwelt amid the underived glory of His Godhead
before man or angel was created. He is the most “wonderful” Being in heaven
because of--
1. His history. He has a history of honour and glory in heaven
and a
history of unspeakable sorrow and suffering on earth.
2. His relationship. He appears in heaven in the unique relationship
of Brother and Redeemer of our race
and Son of God.
3. His work. Through the glorified human lips of Jesus Christ the
Divine mandates for the control of the universe are now uttered. The feet once
spiked to the Cross now rest upon the throne. Through the Person and work of
this wonderful Being
redeemed humanity is elevated to the very Person and
throne of the Deity. (T. Kelly.)
Christ wonderful in the magnetism of His person
After the battle of Antietam
when a general rode along the lines
although the soldiers were lying down exhausted
they rose with great
enthusiasm and huzzaed. As Napoleon returned from his captivity
his first step
on the wharf shook all the kingdoms
and two hundred and fifty thousand men
joined his standard. It took three thousand troops to watch him in his exile.
So there have been men of wonderful magnetism of person. But hear me while I
tell you of a poor young man who came up from Nazareth to produce a thrill such
as has never been excited by any other. (T. De W. Talmage
D. D.)
The birth of the “Wonderful”
Christmas marks the birth time of the matchless Christ. In what
respect was He wonderful!
I. WONDERFUL IN
CHARACTER.
II. WONDERFUL IN
HIS TEACHING.
III. WONDERFUL AS TO
HIS MISSION. (B. P. Grenoble.)
No extravagance in Christ
No one can at all appreciate the wonder fulness of Christ who does
not consider its freedom from the merely marvellous. Has not the element of
wonder in human history always had as its drawback and bane the tendency to
extravagance? It cannot keep within bounds. Its disease is unnaturalness
exaggeration
grotesqueness. It piles marvel on marvel
outraging all sense of
proportion. It defies every feeling of the ludicrous. It delights in trampling
on the understanding
and finds a merit and satisfaction in receiving the
monstrous and contradictory. Is not this the characteristic of all mythologies
and not least of the history of Buddha
whom some have ventured to mention
along with Christ? The wonderfulness of Christ is not marvellous. It is not
something to astonish. It has a meaning and a purpose prior to that and above
it. His is not the marvellousness of the aurora borealis
but of the eastern
aurora
the dawn It is not the marvellousness of an architectural monument
meant to exhibit the resources of art and wealth
but the architecture of a
temple for God and man to dwell in. His is not the marvellousness of a gigantic
tree
but of the tree of life producing medicine and food; not the splendour of
a vast orb of fire
but of the sun that rays out life to the worlds. There is
no part of Christ’s wonderfulness which does not serve a great end and occupy a
distinct and necessary place. (J. Leckie
D. D.)
His name--Wonderful
I. Christ shall be
called Wonderful FOR WHAT HE WAS IN THE PAST.
1. Consider His eternal existence
“begotten of His Father from
before all worlds
” being of the same substance with His Father; begotten
not
made
co-equal
co-eternal
in every attribute
“very God of very God.”
2. Consider
again
the incarnation of Christ
and you will rightly
say that His name deserveth to be called Wonderful.
3. Trace the Saviour’s course
and all the way He is wonderful.
4. Christ is surpassingly wonderful.
5. He is not a nine days’ wonder. He is and ever shall be wonderful.
He is altogether wonderful.
6. He is universally wondered at.
II. He is Wonderful
FOR WHAT HE IS IN THE PRESENT.
III. His name shall
be called Wonderful IN THE FUTURE. As the Judge. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Counsellor
Christ the Counsellor
This syllable of His name refers to His singular capacity for
management of matters. Other princes must have their counsellors
by whose
advice they may act: but He Himself is
and shows Himself to be
Counsellor
an
oracle of government
a Prince in whose own breast is the oracle for right
management of all things relating to His dominion.
I. IN WHAT
RESPECTS IS CHRIST THE COUNSELLOR?
1. He is of the secret council of heaven (Zechariah 6:13). He is a member of the
cabinet council of heaven
to which the most favourite angel is not admitted.
There is nothing transacted there
nor has been from eternity
but what He is
acquainted with (John 5:20). With His Father and the
Spirit He is of the council.
2. He is the oracle of counsel for the earth (John 1:18; Matthew 11:27).
(a) In respect of office.
(b) Of capacity (Colossians 2:3).
(a) He consults her interest
for her protection and preservation in
the world.
(b) He is still actively counselling her by His Word.
II. WHAT IS THE
IMPORT OF THIS PART OF CHRIST’S NAME?
1. He is of singular wisdom for the conduct and management of affairs
Isaiah 11:2-3). The fulness of the Spirit
of wisdom is lodged in Him. He is wisdom itself
the eternal wisdom of the
Father (Proverbs 8:1-36). And His children are
wisdom’s children (Matthew 11:19).
2. He is a Prince of great and noble designs and projects
requiring
counsel and wisdom (1 Timothy 2:5-6; Psalms 49:7-8; 1 Peter 1:18-19; John 17:24).
3. He can manage all by Himself and needs no counsel of men. The name
of the wisest on earth may be Consulter (Proverbs 11:14). But He is so far a
Counsellor that He is a consulter of none (Romans 11:34).
4. His manner of conduct and method of management are deep and
uncommon (Matthew 14:25
etc.).
5. He does nothing without a becoming reason
6. He manages all with a depth of wisdom.
7. He is the best Counsellor--there is none like Him.
III. IMPROVEMENT.
1. Take Him for your Counsellor
renouncing all other.
2. Follow the counsel that He is giving you. He is counselling you in
the Gospel--
3. Make use of Christ as a Counsellor
by consulting Him daily. (T.
Boston.)
Christ the best Counsellor
I. CONFIRM THE
TRUTH OF THIS ASSERTION.
1. He is of the Father’s choice and nomination for a Counsellor to
us--“made of God unto us wisdom.”
2. He is the saints’ choice in all ages for a Counsellor.
3. He never misses the point in His counselling.
II. WHEREIN DOTH
CHRIST COUNSEL SINNERS!
1. In their greatest concerns
their concerns for eternity.
2. In their lesser concerns
the things of time.
III. HOW DOTH CHRIST
GIVE HIS COUNSEL?
1. He proposes His counsel in and by His Word.
2. He clears and opens and confirms it by His providence.
3. He makes it effectual by His Holy Spirit. (T. Boston.)
Christ the Counsellor
Christ is our Counsellor upon a threefold account--
1. As He hath rectified our notions of the Deity and turned us from
the worship of dumb idols
to serve the living and true God.
2. As He hath taught us the truths of the moral law
and the real
difference between good and evil.
3. As He hath instructed us in the means whereby we may obtain
everlasting salvation. (W. Reading
M. A.)
Messiah the Counsellor
The word is employed in the Bible frequently of those who assisted
in the councils of kings. Jonathan
the uncle of David
was called “a wise
counsellor” to his prince; Ahithophel
the wisest man of his day
was termed
“the king’s counsellor
” the king’s adviser. And thus it is constantly employed
of a person giving sound and wise advice. The name
then
evidently implies
these three things respecting Him--
I. THAT HE SHOULD
POSSESS ADEQUATE WISDOM.
1. When He came into the world He descended from the bosom of God.
2. As He was acquainted with God
He was acquainted with man. He
“searches the reins and the hearts.” He therefore has wisdom enough to guide
His people through time to eternity
and to be their most effectual and safest
Counsellor.
II. THAT HE SHOULD
COMMUNICATE THIS WISDOM BY POSITIVE INSTRUCTION. And this includes the
fulfilment of an earlier promise
made by Moses to the Church of God
“The Lord
thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee
like unto
me.” Jesus came
then
to be this Prophet
to speak with authority from God
and thus to communicate that instruction to mankind
and especially to
believers
which was needful for their welfare
He came
according to the
Divine appointment
to reveal the character of God
which He knew; to
communicate to mankind that amount of knowledge respecting God which they were
capable of receiving. He could therefore say repeatedly
when He was upon
earth
that He had manifested the name of God (that is
His character) to His
disciples
who received His instruction.
III. THAT HE SHOULD
URGE AND PERSUADE MEN TO RECEIVE THAT INSTRUCTION. The Lord Jesus Christ still
communicates His Spirit to men
in order to open their understandings and their
hearts; just as He did when at the outpouring of His Spirit on the day of
Pentecost three thousand were subdued at once by the Gospel
and disregarding
all the differences in their circumstances
and putting away from them all considerations
of worldly ease or comfort altogether
at once embraced the Gospel of
Christ
--just as much does Jesus Christ now communicate His Spirit
to subdue
men to Himself
and is thus their effectual Counsellor. He has given
instruction by His Word
but He makes that instruction effectual by His Spirit.
(B. W. Noel
M. A.)
His name--the Counsellor
It was by a counsellor that this world was ruined. Did not Satan
mask himself in the serpent
and counsel the woman
with exceeding craftiness
that she should take unto herself of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good
and evil
in the hope that thereby she should be as God? It was meet that the
world should have a Counsellor to restore it
if it had a counsellor to destroy
it. But mark the difficulties that surrounded such a Counsellor. ‘Tis easy to
counsel mischief; but how hard to counsel wisely!
I. Christ may well
be called Counsellor
for He is a COUNSELLOR WITH GOD. It hath been revealed to
us that before the world was
when as yet God had not made the stars
the
Almighty did hold a solemn conclave with Himself; Father
Son
and Spirit held
a mystic council with each other
as to what they were about to do.
II. Christ is a
Counsellor in the sense which the LXX translation appends to this term. He is
said to be THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL. Do you and I want to know what was
said and done in the great council of eternity? There is only one glass through
which we can look back to the dim darkness of the shrouded past and read the
counsels of God
and that glass is the Person of Jesus Christ. You may find out
whether you are among His chosen ones. Christ is the Angel of the covenant
and
you can find it out by looking to Him.
III. CHRIST IS A
COUNSELLOR TO US. A man without a counsellor
I think
must of necessity go
wrong. Woe unto the man that hath got a bad counsellor.
1. Christ is a necessary Counsellor.
2. Christ’s counsel is faithful counsel. How often do our friends
counsel us craftily!
3. Christ’s counsel is hearty counsel.
4. Christ has special counsels for each of us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The mighty God
Christ the mighty God
I. CHRIST IS THE
TRUE GOD.
1. The Scripture expressly calls Him so (John 1:1; Ac Romans 9:5; 1 John 5:20).
2. The attributes of God
distinguishing Him from all created beings
are ascribed to Him.
3. The works peculiar to God alone are done by Him and ascribed to
Him.
4. Divine worship
which must be given to God alone
is due to Him.
5. He is equal with the Father.
II. THE MAN CHRIST
IS THE MIGHTY ONE.
1. He does and has done works that no other could do.
2. He has all at His command in heaven and earth
whether created
persons or things.
3. Being God as wall as man His power is infinite.
III. APPLICATION.
1. This serves to refute the heresy of those who impugn the supreme
Godhead of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. It speaks terror to all the enemies of Christ.
3. It speaks comfort to the Church and every believer in their low
estate.
4. It serves to exhort all to take Him for their Prince. (T.
Boston.)
His name--the almighty God
Other translations of this Divine title have been proposed by
several very eminent and able scholars. Not that they have any of them been
prepared to deny that this translation is after all most accurate; but rather
that whilst there are various words in the original
which we render by the
common appellation of “God
” it might be possible so to interpret this as to
show more exactly its definite meaning. One writer
for example
thinks the
term might be translated “The Irradiator
”--He who gives light to men. Some
think it bears the meaning of TheIllustrious
--the bright and the shining One.
Still there are very few
if any
who are prepared to dispute the fact that our
translation is the most faithful that could possibly be given. “the mighty
God.”
I. THE FOLLY OF
THOSE WHO PROFESS TO BE THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST
YET DO NOT
AND WILL NOT
CALL
HIM GOD. It is His being verily God
that frees Him from the charge of
blasphemy. It is the fact that He is God
and that His Godhead is not to be
denied
that makes His death an unrighteous decide at the hand of apostate man
and renders it
as before God
an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the
people.
II. HOW DO WE CALL
CHRIST
“THE MIGHTY GOD”? It is Our delight and our privilege to attribute to
Him the attributes of Deity.
1. In hours of devout contemplation how often do we look up to Him as
being the eternal Son. In doing so we have virtually called Him the mighty God;
because none but God could have been from everlasting to everlasting. How
frequently do we repeat over to ourselves that precious verse
“Jesus Christ
the same yesterday
and today
and forever.” Do you not see that you have in
fact called Him God
because none but God is immutable!
3. Is it not also our joy to believe that wherever two or three are
gathered together in Christ’s name
there is He in the midst of them? Have we
not ascribed to Christ omnipresence
and who can be omnipresent but God! How is
it possible for us to dream of Him as being “in the bosom of His
Father
with the angels
and in the hearts of the contrite all at
the same time
if He be not God?
4. We call Him “the mighty God” in many of His offices.
III. HOW CHRIST HAS
PROVED HIMSELF TO US TO BE “THE MIGHTY GOD.” This Child born
this Son given
came into the world to enter the lists against sin. For thirty years and
upwards He had to struggle against temptations more numerous and terrible than
man had ever known before. And yet
without sin or taint of sin
more than
conqueror He stood. We know also that Christ proved Himself to be “the mighty God”
from the fact that at last all the sins of all His people were gathered upon
His shoulders
and “He bare them in His own body on the tree.” But He did more
than this--when He led captivity captive
add crushed death and ground his iron
limbs to powder
He proved Himself then the mighty God. Oh
my soul
thou canst
say that He has proved Himself in thy heart to be a mighty God. I beg and
beseech of you all
come add put your trust in Jesus Christ; He is the mighty
God. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus the mighty God
I. HE OF WHOM THE
PROPHET SPEAKS IS THE MIGHTY GOD.
II. IN WHAT SENSE
THE CHILD BORN MAY BE CALLED “THE MIGHTY GOD.” Not that the humanity is
deified
or the Deity humanised. Humanity is still humanity
Deity is still
Deity. But so united in one person that that which is peculiar to one nature is
often ascribed to the other (Acts 20:28; John 3:13).
III. THE GREATNESS
OF HIS ACTS IN REGARD TO THAT CHURCH TO WHOM HE IS GIVEN.
1. He bare her sins. And had He not been the mighty God
as well as
man
He never could.
2. Besides this
He wrought out a perfect righteousness for His
Church. He conquered all her enemies
sin
Satan
and the world
those three
strong ones.
3. He converts the hardest heart
working mightily by His own
gracious Almighty Spirit.
4. He supports the feeblest grace
carries on the work which He has
begun. What mighty effects He accomplishes by the simplest means! He bears up
the most timid and desponding spirit
binds up with His own hand
by His own
Spirit
with His own blood.
5. And what shall we say of that mighty God
in all His mighty
doings
when He shall raise the dead
judge the world
destroy sin
and in the
new heavens and the new earth give His saints the eternal possession of
Himself
and of God in Himself? (J. H. Evans
M. A.)
Jesus the mighty God
The surrounding nations
Egypt and Assyria
gave great names to
their gods. Look upon the inscriptions on the pillars in the time of Sargon.
One Assyrian king was called “The great king
the king unrivalled; the
protector of the just; the noble warrior.” If Isaiah wrote in a time of great
names he
by this conception of an appellation
threw all other cognomens into
contempt. “The mighty God.” The word is not Elohim
a word under which a
species of subdivinity could be classified: “Said I not unto you
Ye are gods?”
That word is El
a word which is never applied but to Jehovah
and which is
never used but as connoting the innermost essence of ineffable Deity. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
The everlasting Father
The everlasting Father
The tender
faithful
and wise trainer
guardian
and provider of
His own in eternity (Isaiah 22:21). (F. Delitzsch.)
The everlasting Father
Abiding in protection
as the Father of His people. (B. Blake
B. D.)
Christ the everlasting Father
I. IN WHAT
RESPECTS CHRIST IS THE EVERLASTING FATHER.
II. WHAT A FATHER
HE IS.
III. IMPROVE THE
SUBJECT. (T. Boston.)
Christians bear Christ’s image
1. Conformity to Christ in His holiness.
2. Conformity to Christ in His sufferings. (T. Boston.)
Jesus the everlasting Father
I. CHRIST IS
CALLED FATHER.
1. Not in respect to the eternal Three. He is the Son in this point
of view.
2. But as one with Him
and the Eternal Spirit
in the unity of the
same Godhead.
3. He is the Father of His people. “He shall see His seed” (Isaiah 53:10).
4. He is their spiritual life (Galatians 2:20).
II. HE IS CALLED
THE EVERLASTING FATHER. He ever lives. He is Life. He ever loves. His blessings
are everlasting. (J. H. Evans
M. A.)
The everlasting Father
To be the “Father of eternity” is to have eternity
and to rule in
eternity--to be the Lord of eternity. That is the meaning of it; and so Christ
Jesus
who hath the government upon His shoulders
hath it on His shoulders
forever and forever. But the eternity spoken of here is not the eternity that
is bygone; it is the ongoing and unending duration that lies before us
and
Christ Jesus is Lord and Ruler of all. No doubt He who can hold the future
eternity in His hand
and who can rule all its affairs
must have been Himself
the Unbeginning and Eternal One; and the Scriptures leave no doubt about that
being the attribute of the Lord Jesus Christ. But that august tribute of being
“from everlasting to everlasting” is not what is strictly before: us here. It
is the duration from the time that Christ became human onwards.
I. Jesus Christ is
the Father of the eternity that lies before and goes on
because He Himself
lives forever. He is POSSESSOR He has it (Psalms 102:25-27
and Hebrews 1:10-12). The fact that the Lord
Jesus Christ in humanity is to live forever is a stupendous expectation and
belief. Sometimes it has seemed to me as if it were more wonderful than the
mere incarnation. That this is an important thought appears from two
considerations.
1. It is a part of the Divine promise of the Father to the Lord Jesus
Christ Isaiah 53:10).
2. It is a thing for which Christ Himself prayed as part of His
Father’s promise (Psalms 21:4). And so the Lord Jesus
Christ thus in human nature lives forever and ever. But that implies that His
work was finished to the Father’s satisfaction; to live forever was a proof
that God the Father regarded Christ’s work as finished--this same title
“Father of eternity
” hath in germ within it the great facts of Christ’s
resurrection and ascension and session in glory. And so when John
in
Apocalyptic vision
beheld Him as the Son of man
he heard Him thus speak:
“Fear not; I am the first and the last
and the Living one; and I was dead;
and
behold
I am alive for evermore
amen; and have the keys of Hades and of
death.” Application--
1. To God’s people. What a Saviour they have! They need never fear
that they will be without His care. They could not find a world in all the
universe where He is not with them
and they cannot live on to any age when He
shall cease to be their light and King.
2. The same thing brings comfort to every sinner; for is it not
written
“He is” able to save to the uttermost
them that come unto God by Him
seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for the”? Mark
it does not say
“seeing He died”--if that is all that could have been said
it would not have
ever availed for the comfort and salvation of sinners--but seeing that
having
died
“He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
II. The Lord Jesus
Christ is ORIGINATOR of this age that is spoken of. He made this “forever
” and
gave it its grand characteristic; and all Gospel privilege that belongs to
time
and all celestial enjoyment that belongs to eternity
we owe to Him.
III. Jesus Christ is
CONTROLLER in this eternal age; the administration of its whole affairs is in
His hands. The Author of our faith is the Ruler of its progress
and that not
on earth alone
but in heaven. Can you doubt it
that when the Lord Jesus
Christ
risen from the dead
went back to the glory that He had with the Father
before the world began
went back in human nature
and appeared among the
saints in heaven--can you doubt that from that hour heaven was another thing
even to the glorified
because the Lord that brought them there by His blood
was amongst them? And so
in the Epistle to the Hebrews
we read that we are
come to the “spirits of just men made perfect
” which means to the Old
Testament Church
perfected now in privilege; for at the 13 th verse of the
eleventh chapter it is expressly said
“These all died in faith
not having
received the promises
but having seen them afar off.” God willed that He should
“provide some better thing for us
that they without us should not be made
perfect
”--that heaven itself should not
in privilege and glory
even to the
saints that had gone home
be perfect until Christ Himself had introduced a new
age
and gone Himself to heaven. (J. Edmond
D. D.)
His name--the everlasting Father
How complex is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! Almost in the
same breath the prophet calls Him a “Child
” and a “Counsellor
” a “Son
” and
the “everlasting Father.” This is no contradiction
and to us scarcely a
paradox
but it is a mighty marvel. How forcibly this should remind us of the
necessity of carefully studying and rightly understanding the Person of our
Lord Jesus Christ! We must not suppose that we shall understand Him at a glance.
A look will save the soul
but patient meditation alone can fill the mind with
the knowledge of the Saviour. The light of the text divides itself into three
rays--Jesus is “everlasting”; He is a “Father”; He is the “everlasting Father.”
I. Jesus Christ is
EVERLASTING. Of Him we may sing
“Thy throne
O God
is forever and ever.” A
theme for great rejoicing on our part.
1. Jesus always was.
2. So also He is for evermore the same. Jesus is not dead; He ever
liveth to make intercession for us.
3. Jesus
our Lord
ever shall be. The connection of the word
“Father” with the word “everlasting” allows us very fairly to remark that our
Lord is as everlasting as the Father
since He Himself is called “the
everlasting Father”; for whatever antiquity paternity may imply is here
ascribed to Christ. It is the manner of the Easterns to call a man the father
of a quality for which he is remarkable. To this day
among the Arabs
a wise
man is called “the father of wisdom”; a very foolish man “the father of folly.”
The predominant quality in the man is ascribed to him as though it were his
child
and he the father of it. Now
the Messiah is here called in the Hebrew
“the Father of eternity
” by which is meant that He is preeminently the
possessor of eternity as an attribute.
II. We come to the
difficult part of the subject
namely
Christ being called FATHER. In what
sense is Jesus a Father? Answer
1. He is federally a Father
representing those who are in Him
as
the head of a tribe represents his descendants. The grand question for us is
this
Are we still under the old covenant of works? If so
we have Adam to our
father
and under that Adam we died. But are we under the covenant of grace? If
so
we have Christ to our Father
and in Christ shall we be made alive. In this
sense
then
Christ is called Father; and inasmuch as the covenant of grace is
older than the covenant of works
Christ is
while Adam is not
“the
everlasting Father”; and inasmuch as the covenant of works as far as we are
concerned passes away
being fulfilled in Him
and the covenant of grace never
passes but abideth forever
Christ
as the Head of the new covenant
the
federal representative of the great economy of grace
is “the everlasting
Father.”
2. Christ is a Father in the sense of a Founder. The Hebrews are in
the habit of calling a man a father of a thing which he invents. For instance
in the fourth chapter of Genesis Jubal is called the father of such as handle
the harp and organ; Jabal was the father of such as dwell in tents
and have cattle;
not that these were literally the fathers of such persons
but the inventors of
their occupations. The Lord Jesus Christ is
in this sense
the Father of a
wonderful system--a great doctrinal system; a great practical system; a system
of salvation.
3. Now there is a third meaning. The prophet may not so have
understood it
but we so receive it
that Jesus is a Father in the great sense
of a Lifegiver. That is the main sense of “father” to the common mind.
Everything in us calls Christ “Father.” He is the Author and Finisher of our
faith. If we love Him
it is because He first loved us. If we patiently endure
it is by considering “Him who endured such contradiction of sinners against
Himself.” He it is who waters and sustains all our graces. We may say of Him
“All my fresh springs are in Thee.” The Spirit brings us the water from this
well of Bethlehem
but Jesus is the well itself.
4. The term implies that Jesus Christ is to be in the future
the
patriarch of an age. So Pope in his famous poem of the Messiah understands it
and calls Him
“the promised. Father of the future age”
5. Christ may be called a Father in the loving and tender sense of a
father’s office. God is called the Father of the fatherless
and Job says of
himself
that he became a father to the poor. Now
albeit that the Spirit of
adoption teaches us to call God our Father
yet it is not straining truth to
say that our Lord Jesus Christ exercises to all His people a Father’s part.
According to the old Jewish custom the elder brother was the father of the
family in the absence of the father; the firstborn took precedence of all
and
took upon him the father’s position; so the Lord Jesus
the firstborn among
many brethren
exercises to us a father’s office. Is it not so? Has He not succoured
us in all time of our need as a father succours his child? Has He not supplied
us with more than heavenly bread as a father gives bread unto his children?
Does He not daily protect us
nay
did He not yield up His life that we His
little ones might be preserved? Is He not the head in the household to us on
earth
abiding with us
and has He not said
“I will not leave you orphans; I
will come unto you”? As if His coming was the coming of a Father. If He be a
Father
will we not give Him honour? If He be the head of the household
will
we not give Him obedience?
III. We weigh the
words
“EVERLASTING FATHER.” Christ is called “the everlasting Father” because
He does not Himself
as a Father
die or vacate His once. He is still the
federal Head and Father of His people; still the Founder of Gospel truth and of
the Christian system; not allowing popes to be His vicars and to take His
place. He is still the true Life giver
from whose wounds and by whose death we
are quickened; He reigns even now as the patriarchal King; He is still the
loving family Head; and so
in every sense
He lives as a Father. But here is a
sweet thought. He neither Himself dies
nor becomes childless. He does not lose
His children. He is the Author of an eternal system. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Prince of Peace
The Prince of Peace
How peaceful was the scene when the first Sabbath shone upon this
world! How reversed was the scene of man’s Sabbatism when sin entered to
revolutionise it! It is a work of magnitude to which the Redeemer stands
appointed when He is presented in the character of a pacificator to bring this
strife to a happy conclusion for man.
I. WHAT ARE THE
QUALIFICATIONS OF CHRIST FOR ACTING AS THE PRINCE OF PEACE?
1. His original personal excellence as the Only-begotten of the
Father.
2. His Father’s ordination of Him to the office.
3. The meritoriousness of His work when substituted in the room of
sinners.
4. The station to which He has been exalted and the executive power
which has been lodged in His hand.
5. The fervency with which His heart is dedicated to the attainment
of His object. Assemble
then
together these various items of qualification
and howsoever dreadful be the war in which man is naturally so unequally
engaged
here we have a Prince all-sufficient to reduce it to peace in behalf
of those who may accept His aid. That aid He offers to all.
II. THE PRINCIPAL
ARTICLES OF THAT PEACE OF WHICH CHRIST IS
OR SHALL YET BE
THE MINISTERING
PRINCE TO ALL THAT BELIEVE ON HIM.
1. The fundamental article of this great pacification is that He hath
reconciled God to them. The principal idea conveyed in the text we maintain to
be that God has in Christ devised a scheme whereby He may consistently leave
off His anger
and not impute to mankind their trespasses.
2. In Christ we cease to war against ourselves. The sinner’s follies
his passions
his evil conscience
destroy him. By the gifts of the Spirit
which He has secured for His people
He restrains
subdues
and controls their
passions and appetites
through the lawlessness of which men so frequently
bring ruin on their persons
their characters
and their fortunes; and
altogether
so does He incline them to their duty that their conscience ceases
to torment them with its upbraidings and shall even invigorate and gladden them
with the smiles of its complacency.
3. Our Prince hath reconciled to us the angels. When the human race
rebelled
zealous as they are for God
they participated in the wrath of their
King
disowned man as their brother
and became the willing executors of His
wrath. But when God becomes the Friend of the believer
the angels hasten to
salute him as a recovered fellow subject and brother
and resume their
emulousness of the honour to be made the ministering spirits of his salvation.
4. By the Prince of Peace reconciliation is effected between Jew and
Gentile.
5. The fifth article of pacification is the general reconcilement of
man to man
the destruction of selfishness
and the diffusion of benevolence. (W.
Anderson
LL. D.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
I. PEACEFUL OF
DISPOSITION.
1. He bears long with His enemies.
2. He bears much at the hands of His friends.
3. He is easy of access for poor sinners.
4. He is ready to forgive.
5. He is very familiar with His true subjects.
6. The afflicting of His people is
as it were
against the grain
with Lamentations 3:33; 1 Peter 1:6; Hebrews 12:10; Isaiah 63:9).
7. He bore His own sufferings with the utmost peaceableness
meekness
and patience.
II. PEACEFUL IN
ACTION. Consider--
1. What peace is effected by this Prince of Peace?
2. What is His work about that threefold peace?
III. PEACEFUL IN
RESPECT OF THE STATE OF HIS KINGDOM. He is the true Solomon (Peaceful); and no
king of Israel had such a peaceable and prosperous reign as Solomon.
1. Every one of His subjects is
by His wise management
put in a
state of John 16:33).
2. The peace of His kingdom is the fruit of war and victory in that war.
What made Solomon’s reign so peaceable was David’s wars and victories. Our Lord
Christ was a man of war; He fought and overcame sin
death
and the devil; and
the peace of His kingdom now is the fruit of that.
3. Hence in His kingdom is the greatest wealth and abundance.
4. The good of His kingdom is advanced from all quarters
and there
is nothing but is turned to the profit thereof
by the infinite wisdom of the
Prince (Romans 8:28).
5. In the end the peace of His kingdom will be absolute. Solomon’s
reign was more peaceable in the beginning than toward the end. But Christ’s
kingdom is contrariwise; though
indeed
it will never end. But
at last
all
occasion of disturbance
from without or from within
will be utterly cut off.
(T. Boston.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
1. We learn from the Roman historians
that at the time of our Lord’s
nativity
the temple of Janus at Rome was shut up
in token of a profound peace
all over the world; for the Romans
being then lords of the world
had power to
make peace or war as they pleased. But there was a special providence of God in
it
that His blessed Son
“the Prince of Peace
” should be brought into the
world in such a season of tranquillity. Accordingly we hear the angels
proclaiming at His nativity. “Peace on earth
and goodwill towards men.”
2. When He came to preach the Gospel
He began His sermon
with
“Blessed are the poor in spirit
blessed are the meek
blessed are the
peacemakers; bless them that curse you
do good to them that hate you
pray for
them that despitefully use you and persecute you.” He calls upon His disciples
to learn of Him to be meek and lowly in heart
that they might find rest for
their souls. When He was apprehended and brought to His trial
He practised His
own doctrine of meekness and patience. And when St. Peter drew his sword in His
defence
He commanded him to put it up again
“for
” says He
all they that
take the sword
shall perish with the sword.
3. When He took His leave of His disciples
He bequeathed peace to
them
as the best legacy which He could leave them. “Peace I leave with you
My
peace I give unto you.” At His various appearances among them after His
resurrection
He commonly saluted them with the blessing of peace.
4. One great end of our Lord’s coming into the world was
to break
down the partition walls between all nations
and take away all party
distinctions from among men.
5. The most signal act which entitles our Lord to the character of
the Prince of Peace
is this
that He has reconciled us to God
and made an
atonement for the sins of the whole world. (W. Reading
M. A.)
Christ the Prince of Peace
I. HE IS THE PEACE
BRINGER
as He is the revealer of His Father’s peaceful designs towards His
sinful creatures.
1. Point out the situation in which man stood in relation to God.
2. The office of Christ as the bringer of peace reminds us how God
might have acted in relation to man.
3. But His love prompted Him to a design of rich and sovereign mercy.
4. He has developed this design through the medium of His Son
who
therefore
takes His title from His work--the Prince of Peace.
II. HE IS THE
PEACEMAKER the efficient means of procuring
and establishing peace between God
and man.
1. His atonement made reconciliation for the sin of man.
2. By His mediatorial office He secures peace for us individually.
III. HE IS A
PRINCELY GIVER OF PEACE.
I. It is a
knowledge of His sacrifice which gives peace to the troubled conscience.
2. By Him we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit which gives peace
from the power of sin.
3. He brings us into a state of communion with God
so that we enjoy
peace.
4. The peace which Jesus gives endures through all troubles and in
spite of all enemies.
5. He gives eternal peace and rest in heaven.
IV. THE FOUNDATION
AND SUPPORT OF HIS KINGDOM ON EARTH IS PEACE.
1. It Was founded without the intervention of violence or carnal
weapons.
2. Its very essence consists in the influence of peaceful doctrines.
3. In the promotion of His kingdom He employs none but peaceable
means. (The Evangelist.)
The Prince of Peace
I. HE POSSESSES
PEACE. He possesses it as none other does
in greater measure
the abundance of
it. It is all at His command. He is the Prince or Monarch of it.
1. He is in a world where the noise of our strife and tumult never
reaches. Discord is never known there
change is never experienced.
2. And then we must try to get into His mysterious soul
and see the
eternal calm which reigns there day after day
year after year
age after age
unbroken. All is as quiet within as around Him. And it is not the quiet of
inaction or indifference
of a clod of earth or a stone; His mind is ever
working and ever feeling
and with an energy which to us is inconceivable; but
yet His mind is never ruffled.
II. HE EXERCISES
PEACE.
1. Look at Him as He trod our earth. The meek and quiet lamb was an
image of Him.
2. He bears long with His enemies.
3. He bears much
too
with His friends.
4. There must
then
be a mighty inclination to peace where things
are thus.
III. HE BESTOWS OR
DISPENSES PEACE. God is often called in Scripture the God of that which He
communicates. In this way may our Lord be called the Prince of Peace.
1. Our peace with God flows from Him.
2. And peace
too
among men.
3. Peace of conscience and peace of mind are His gifts.
IV. HE DELIGHTS IN
PEACE. (C. Bradley
M. A.)
Messiah
the Prince of Peace
Christ
our blessed Lord
does evidently by establishing peace in
each bosom of His people
peace in each family of His disciples
peace in each
congregation of His saints
and peace in all His Churches
lead directly to the
establishment of international peace throughout the world. (B. W. Noel
M.
A.)
Apparent contradictions
When we receive this prediction of our Lord
and reflect upon it
we are met with some contradictions to it
which are both apparent and most
effectual. Our Lord
when He was upon earth
declared on the contrary--“I came
not to send peace on earth
but a sword.” Accordingly
He further told His
disciples that they must expect to be “hated of all men
” and to be “hated of
all nations.” He warned them
that the feuds that should arise through His
doctrine
would poison the peace of families; “the brother shall deliver up the
brother to death
and the father the child.” He warned them
that there should
be public persecution as well as private
and that they should be dragged
before governors and kings for His sake
and scourged in public. Universal war
then
rather than peace
seemed to be predicted as the result of the doctrine
of Christ. And have not facts
up to this day
answered to these predictions?
Ten imperial persecutions
extended over the most civilised parts of the world
threatened through three centuries the extermination of the Church of Christ:
in which every atrocity was committed
and the barbarous ingenuity of man taxed
to the utmost extent to devise new torments to make the servants of Jesus
Christ suffer
And when heathenism was subdued by the power of the Gospel
and
ceased to reign
it was only that this other prediction might be accomplished
fearfully in the earth; so that the saints of Jesus Christ became His martyrs
throughout Europe. Papal Rome succeeded to the enmity of pagan Rome: in the
valleys of Piedmont
and along the plains of France
and throughout the Low
Countries
and in England also
as well as
in the time of the Reformation
throughout Italy and Spain
everywhere accomplishing what Christ by His apostle
had predicted
and bringing myriads of the saints of Jesus to public martyrdom;
massacring without mercy the feeblest and the strongest
young and old
and
threatening the extermination of the Church of Christ. And this led to still
more extensive offerings to the sanguinary dispositions of man; great and long
protracted wars following these massacres. Witness the wars of the Hussites in
Bohemia
the wars of the Huguenots in France
to mention no other civil
commotions
to which the doctrine of Christ has seemed to lead. And then
when
the sword was sheathed
and nation was not imbruing its hands in the blood of
other nations for the sake of theology
even then the different Churches of
Christ raged in enmity one towards the other: factions that have not ceased to
this day
so that the governments of the world find questions of theology and
ecclesiastical rivalry still mingling with the counsels of senates
and
embarrassing all their decisions. Is this the peace which Christ came to
produce? In what sense is He “the Prince of Peace”? (B. W. Noel
M. A.)
The Prince of Peace not responsible for strife and violence
These evils that have arisen from the doctrine of Christ
and
which
perhaps
have made that doctrine occasion more bloodshed than any single
cause that has afflicted mankind
do not in the least degree detract from the
glory of this great Monarch
this adorable Saviour
who after all establishes
beyond all question at once
to the minds of all who believe on Him
His claim
to be “the Prince of Peace
” throughout the universe. If the servants of Jesus
Christ were sent forth by Him as sheep among wolves
and the wolves have torn
the sheep in every land
it is not the fault of the sheep that these raging
persecutions have taken place. If He has sent forth His disciples to love one
another
and to love all mankind
it is not the fault of Him
nor His doctrine
nor His people
if apostates from His faith have chosen to carry His abused
name upon their foreheads
and under that name to persecute with a violence
which would have stamped infamy even upon heathenism
those who loved Him and
served Him the best in the earth. And
if those who have even followed Him with
honesty of purpose
have yet been so ill instructed in His declared will
or
have sinfully given way to the weakness of their tempers
so that those have
quarrelled for ages
who by His express authority ought to have been one in
Him
it is not to be ascribed to His doctrine
but to their faults. And all
this evil
great as it unquestionably is
and though it has fed the mirth of
the infidel age after age
is transitory still
preparatory still; and still
does the strong and stead fast faith of His people carry forward their thought
to that day when transient evil will only end in lasting good
and when
after
all impediments have been swept
away: He will still reign everywhere and
always as “the Prince of Peace.” (B. W. Noel
M. A.)
All creation at war with the sinner
When God wars against the sinner
all creation must war. The earth
wars against him in its barrenness
its poisons
its inundations
its
earthquakes and volcanoes. The atmosphere wars against him in its storms and
thunders
and winds breathing pestilence. The beasts war against him
thirsting
for his blood
and pursuing him as their prey. His neighbour wars against him
slandering him
robbing him
oppressing him
and murdering him. The angels war
against him
executing the judgments of their insulted King. He wars against
himself
his own passions enslaving and destroying him
and his conscience
stinging him with deadly remorse. The grave and hell have marked him for their
victim. Oh
how beautiful
then
upon the mountains are the feet of Him that
publisheth peace. (W. Anderson
LL. D.)
The good time coming
What a day that will be when museums shall be erected to preserve
as curiosities the implements and accoutrements of war
that the children of
the new age may study the old barbaric times which shall have passed away as a
bad dream! (P. B. Meyer
B. A.)
The Prince of Peace
It would be ridiculous to depict the Lord Jesus with a rifle over
His shoulder. (Josiah Mee.)
Verse 7
Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end
The missionary work
I.
WHAT
IS THE WORK TO BE PERFORMED AND WHOSE AGENCY SHALL ACCOMPLISH IT?
1. The missionary work is the increase of Messiah’s government and
peace: the proclamation of Messiah as King of kings and Lord of lords
throughout the universe; the establishment of peace among men
because He hath
made peace for them through the blood of His Cross.
2. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
II. WHAT ARE THE
INSTRUMENTS WHOM THE LORD OF HOSTS WILL EMPLOY in the accomplishment of this
seemingly impossible work? They are themselves subjects of the Kingdom which
they aim to extend
and adorers of the one name which they desire to exalt
believers in the Word which they combine to diffuse
holding substantially the
same truths
maintaining steadfastly some fellowship with those to whom the Lord
Jesus proclaimed in the days of His flesh
“Go ye
” and to whom He graciously
declared
“Lo
I am with you alway
even to the end of the world.”
III. WHAT IS OUR OWN
DUTY AND OBLIGATION IN REFERENCE TO THIS WORK? As we are Britons
the
missionary work belongs to us from our country; as we are Christians
from our
profession; as we are churchmen
it appeals to us from our very prayers
for
how can we implore our blessed Lord to bring home to His flock the infidel
the
heretic
the beguiled Romanist
the benighted idolater
unless we are prepared
as far as in us lies
to “prepare the way of the Lord
and make in the desert a
highway for our God”? But neither as Britons
nor as Christians
nor as
churchmen
shall we ever learn our duty from any teacher but God’s Word
or
perform it through any power but that of God’s Spirit. Besides
while the
missionary work
being a work of faith
is therefore acceptable to God
it is
also profitable to ourselves; it awakens brotherly affections
it kindles a
holy zeal
it expands Christian charity
it brings us into communion with “the
excellent of the earth
” it cements our fellowship with each other
and with
Christ; by engaging in it heart and soul
we not only apprehend the brotherhood
of man
but we anticipate the brotherhood of heaven
when they shall “come from
the east
and from the west
and from the north
and from the south
and sit
down in the kingdom of God.” Nor is the missionary work profitable only to the
heathen and to our own souls
but to those who dwell immediately around us.
What we attempt abroad we shall never be content to leave undone at home. (T.
Dale
M. A.)
The increase of His government
I. THE INCREASE OF
HIS GOVERNMENT. This implies--
1. The extended diffusion of the knowledge of His Gospel.
2. The triumphs of His grace over the sin and misery of man.
3. The diffusion of the peaceful influence of the Gospel in calming
the passions
and allaying the violence of unhappy men.
4. The annihilation of all that opposes His progress.
II. HOW IS THE GOVERNMENT
OF CHRIST TO INCREASE? By the agency of miracles? No; the age of miracles is
gone. By the distribution of the Bible
and suitable tracts
by pious
individuals? Doubtless this may be the means of great usefulness. By the
education of the young? We look for something more than all this. How then
shall it be increased? By the instrumentality of the preached Gospel
accompanied by the influences of the Holy Spirit.
III. WHERE IS THE
NECESSITY OR CERTAINTY OF THIS INCREASE OF THE SAVIOUR’S GOVERNMENT?
1. In the Divine appointment.
2. In the claims of His mediatorial sacrifice (Philippians 2:8-11).
3. In the very nature of His exaltation (Ephesians 1:21-22).
4. In the events which have taken place in the theatre of the world Haggai 2:7).
5. In the proofs with which we are furnished of the final
evangelisation of the world. (E. Parsons.)
The government of the Prince of Peace
I. THE VAST
AMPLITUDE AND GROWING EXTENT OF THE MESSIAH’S KINGDOM.
II. THE MEANS BY
WHICH THE KINGDOM IS GROWING. (R. Macculloch.)
Christian peace conditional
“His government and peace.” Note that combination. It contains a
truth much needed in these times. There is no peace without government. Liberty
and independence are our favourite watchwords; liberty for the community
liberty for the individual. Obedience
order
self-control
are less
enthusiastically praised. Yet we cannot have the one without the other. We need
no appeal to history
no a priori conjectures
to convince us of the
truth
that peace and government must go hand in hand. The experience of our
own times
the experience of each man’s daily life
is ample to teach us that.
Every newspaper we take up is full of such lessons. Every reproach of
conscience tells the same.
1. Is it not so in the State? Whence comes the want of peace in our
sister island? Whence come the perplexity and the insecurity which are such a
stain on our civilisation
and which make statesmen well-nigh despair? Is it
not because government has become impossible
while law is neutralised and
defiled by the unscrupulous opposition of a rival and self-constituted power?
2. Is it not so in ourselves? Whence comes the want of peace in our
own hearts? Is it not because of the want of government there; while passion
and self-indulgence
and the fashion of the world
usurp in turn the authority
of conscience? What we fancy
what comes easiest to us
what other men do
these constitute our rule of life: not the dictates of conscience
not the will
of God
not the example of Jesus Christ. We most of us wish for peace
as we
most of us wish for heaven; but we take little means of winning either the one
or the other. The cry for personal freedom
for liberty of thought and
conscience
is on every lip; but we are most of us more eager to win the power
of doing what we choose
than careful to choose what is best. Self-knowledge
self-control
self-renunciation--this is the only road. And while you pursue
it
liberty will come unsought; for the highest liberty of all is to be free
from the tyranny of self. Self-government is only another name for that service
which is perfect freedom. Perfect peace is found in the absolute surrender of
self to One who cannot abuse so tremendous a trust. And with this peace in your
own hearts you will almost without effort
almost without knowing it
bring peace
to others. (A. Plummer
M. A.)
“He will do it”
Charles
King of Sweden
father of the great Gustavus Adolphus
was an ardent Protestant
and purposed for his country more good than he was
able to accomplish. His son
who gave early promise of his brilliant qualities
was his father’s great hope. Often when a scheme of reformation
yet
impracticable
was referred to
the king would lay his hand upon the boy’s head
and say to the bystanders
“He will do it.” So with respect to all which cannot
now be accomplished
our faith should look confidently to “Great David’s
greater Son
” in whose reign it will surely be effected. (Sunday School
Teacher.)
“The empire is peace”
Napoleon
standing amid the ambassadors of Europe
reassured the
entire continent by the utterance of his New Year’s motto
“The empire is
peace.” But with far greater truth may we apply the words to Jesus Christ
the
Prince of Peace
whose rule over the soul is the synonym of peace unspeakable
and full of glory. And as His government spreads further and further over the
soul
with its growing area there is growing peace
until they shall both
become complete to all the heights
and depths
and breadths of blessedness. Of
the increase or his government
and of our peace
there is no end. (F.
B. Meyer B. A.)
Christ’s influence ever increasing
Speaking on the day of Mr. Gladstone’s funeral
the Rev. F.B.
Meyer said: “One of the marks which distinguish Jesus Christ from every human
teacher and reformer is the fact that His influence is ever increasing. The
influence of Gladstone
today so great
will diminish year by year
but Jesus
Christ’s influence was never so great as it is now.”
The zeal of the Lord of
hosts will perform this
The zeal of the Lord
“The zeal” translates our English version
but no one English word
will give it. It is that mixture of hot honour and affection to which
“jealousy” in its good sense comes near. (Prof. G. A. Smith
D. D.)
Claiming and reckoning.
If we ask anything according to His will
we know that He hears
us; and if we know that He hears us
we know that we have the petition that we
desired of Him--not only that it will be our
but that it is our
to be used
forthwith for His glory
because the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform it.
1. Are you in need of counsel? Reverently and thoughtfully claim the
wisdom of the “Counsellor;” reckon that you have it
and act to the best of
your judgment
believing that His wisdom is threading it with its unseen
direction. And when you have acted
whatever be the results
dare to believe
that you were directed to do the best thing
and never look back.
2. Are you in need of strength? Reverently and believingly claim the
power of the “Mighty God
” and reckon that it is yours; and go forth to any
work to which He may call yon
believing that you are adequately equipped. You
will not know what power you have till you begin to use it.
3. Are you in need of unchanging love and affection
in a world of
incessant disappointment
in which the warmest friendships cool/ and the
dearest friends die? Reverently and gladly avail yourself of the love of me
“Father of the Ages
” the I AM
who is the same yesterday
today
and forever.
4. Do you want peace? Reverently and trustfully claim His peace
who
is the “Prince of Peace; and know that it is yours in the depths of your soul
though the surface of your life be still swept by storms. These are two great
words--“claim” God’s fulness
and “reckon” that whatever you can claim is
yours
although no answering emotion assures you that it is. Dare to act in
faith
stepping out in the assurance that you have what you have claimed
and
doing just as you would do if you felt to have it. But this is only possible
when you have put the government
where God the Father has placed it
on the
shoulders of Jesus. It is there by right
but it must be also there by choice
and acquiescence. (F. B. Meyer
B. A.)
Verses 8-21
Verse 10
The bricks are fallen down
but we will build with hewn stones
A drinking song
It has been conjectured that these words are a fragment of a
drinking song actually sung in Ephraim.
(Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
Israel’s presumption
In the first strophe Isaiah depicted the
Ephraimites’ proud superiority to danger
and their placid
assurance after defeat: “The bricks
” they say
“are fallen
but we will build
with hewn stone; the sycamores are cut down
but we will put cedars in their
place”: no sooner
in other words
has one scheme miscarried than they are
prepared with a more magnificent one to take its place; no sooner is one
dynasty overthrown than another rises in its stead. The proverb gives apt
expression to the temper habitually displayed by the northern kingdom. (Prof.
S. H. Driver
D. D.)
The sycamore
The commonest tree in the lowlands of Palestine
by the
Mediterranean Sea (1 Kings 10:27). (Prof. S. H.
Driver
D. D.)
Beautiful words of varying import
There cannot be two opinions about the beauty of these words.
What
then
will be your surprise
when you find that they express nothing more
than a wicked thought on the part of
Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria? This circumstance gives us
our first point. Noble mottoes may be written upon unworthy banners. Religious
words may be pronounced by irreligious lips. We must always look at the
surroundings of a circumstance in order to understand its full value. Every
circumstance
like every globe
has an atmosphere of its own
hence the wisdom
of looking at the context as well as at the text itself. How needful it is to
inquire into the surroundings of anything that may charm us. If you have seen a
man in church
his mouth opened in praise
his head inclined in prayer
surely
you have a right to argue from that individual circumstance to the whole circle
and bearing of his daily life. It is impossible that a man can have bowed his
head in prayer
and then allow the devil to roam through the whole circle of
his intellect
there to inspire evil thoughts. He cannot allow anything that is
mean and unworthy to touch and debase the life that has been consecrated by
prayer. You know how fallacious would be such reasoning! But the rule should be
applied impartially
and therefore I hasten with the noblest interpretation
which my judgment can approve to those who may have been caught in some moment
of evil passion. Surely a man is not a bad man utterly because he has once been
in high excitement. If the one little beauty does not redeem the whole sterile
place
in the midst of which it was found
surely the one act of evil cannot
spoil the whole paradise of the life
and blight a heart beautiful as a garden
in summer. We may learn from these words that wickedness is not mitigated by
the beauty of the language in which it is expressed. Is there anything lovelier
in all the universe
possible to the inspired imagination
than poetry
painting
and music? Do they not carry with them all elements of beauty and all
qualities of high and noble strength. Yet even they have been uncrowned
robbed
of their nobleness
and bound down to do menial work in the devil’s service.
Let me guard the young
therefore
along this line. They will come from certain
places and will say
“the music was so beautiful!” No doubt of it. They will
come again and say
“the whole scene was so lovely!” No one questions its
loveliness. “The bricks are fallen down
but we will build with hewn stones;
the sycamores are cut down
but we will change them into cedars
”--what language
what music could be more beautiful! And yet through this beautiful speech
Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria indicated their ambitious purpose to
thwart the God of the universe! What would you say if I told you that this hand
of mine was the hand of an assassin
but yet pleaded for it because of the
jewel which flashed upon its fingers! Would you kiss a hand so decorated? Now
take the other view
and let us imagine beautiful words expressing a beautiful
purpose. Then we shall have the wedlock which God loves. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Building with hewn stone
There are three classes of you who are building with bricks
and I
will ask you if you had not better build with hewn stones.
1. Take those who make good vows limited by time. There are many
such. A man
for example
has said to his father
“I promise I will go to
church once a week
for twelve months.” It is very good so far as it goes
but
it is building with bricks
not with hewn stones. A young man has said
Give me
thin paper
and I will pledge myself to abstain from everything that can
intoxicate for six months.” Very good. I do not pour contempt upon such a
resolution; so far as it goes
it is good. But the very limitation of the vow
is a source of weakness. Thus--for the first few days you are strong in your
purpose
but gradually you begin to count the days that you have yet to serve.
The last week comes
and the vow is like a pale figure gradually disappearing;
the last day but one comes
where then is the vow? tomorrow you say you will be
free. Free what to do? To become a slave again! Now I want you to change that
brick wall of temporary resolution for the hewn stone of an eternal vow.
2. Then there is another class building with bricks instead of hewn
stones
namely
those who are inspired by inadequate motives. Where the motive
is insufficient
conduct must go down. We live in motive. When the motive force
fails the machinery must of necessity stand still There is a man who says he
will do a certain thing to obtain a reward. That man’s virtue is only
suppressed vice. He who will do a good thing simply because he will earn a
reward
will do a bad thing if you double the premium. The motive is
insufficient
and the last state of that man will be worse than the first.
Others will come to church to please an admirer. That is not church going.
Would that I could speak in sufficiently forceful language to the young about
this! Where the motive of church going is inadequate it will always be
intermittent
and in the end it will expire. If you go to church because you
love to be there
and would have Sunday doubled in its golden hours
then you
will always be strong in your religious attachments
affections
and
convictions. Then there are those who attempt to do right in order to escape a
penalty. This is an insufficient motive. I know that fear plays a very
important part in the constitution of the human mind
and in the direction of
human conduct. But man can outlive fear. Man can become accustomed to the
unexpected. There is but one true motive--a hearty love of God!
3. Then there is the third class to which I refer
--those who have
not calculated the full force and weight of temptation. When you build a house
you build for the roughest day in the whole year. That should be the sovereign
rule
in the building of the life house. The ship that left for the United
States yesterday
probably took out three or fourfold the necessary provisions
according to the season of the year
and probably took out coal sufficient for
a double journey. Why this excess? Why take more than is needed for the ten
days’ voyage? Because of the unforeseen. If
therefore
in such things men make
such arrangements
they condemn themselves--I do not hesitate to say the
word--as fools
if they leave the spiritual life and the spiritual destiny
without more than a transient consideration. Herein is the glory of
Christianity
that it builds with hewn stones. Christ’s Gospel is full of
soundness
life
and indestructible virility. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Wise lessons from wicked lips
Jesus said
“The children of this world are in their generation
wiser than the children of light
” meaning by the statement that they excel
them in the shrewdness and tact with which they manage their business when that
has taken an adverse turn. Men of the world do not readily submit to defeat and
failure
but strive to convert defeat into victory
and failure into success.
Of this the text affords illustration.
I. These children
of this world PROCEED WITH A DEFINED PURPOSE
and in this are worthy of
imitation. The bricks mentioned as having fallen down were not a heap of burned
clay which had got piled up
no one could tell how. They had been built by
human hands
and the builders had heads as well as hands. We are not told what
sort of buildings they were which “Ephraim and the inhabitant of Samaria” had
constructed
and which had “fallen down.” They may have been dwelling houses
or a temple
round which the sycamores would be planted for groves in which
idolatrous Israel worshipped the gods of her own evil devising and choice
and
for which she had forsaken the God of her fathers. But let this be as it may
now that the bricks had fallen
and the sycamores were out down
in making up
their minds as to what should be done--being anxious to repair the ruin and desolation--they
proceed with a defined purpose. The architect precedes the builder: the head
leads the hand. So when they set to work they know what they are about. Now
the same principle should underlie the building up of all Christian character
and work. Knowledge and zeal should ever be in partnership.
II. These children
of the world WERE INSPIRED WITH HOPEFULNESS
and
therefore
are worthy of
imitation. Their bricks fell down
but their spirits fell not into the pit of
despair. Their sycamores were cut down
but their ambition was not. Is not that
the spirit of the world today as then? In 1865 men said England and America
shall be connected by the electric telegraph
and they went to work. But the
cable snapped
and for the present the enterprise failed. Were the promoters
daunted
and persuaded that their scheme was beyond the reach of possible
things? No
not they. The next year saw them again at their work
and saw not
only a new cable successfully laid
but the broken one
searched for in the great
“wilderness of waters
” at length found
after which it was lost and found
again several times over
until the 2 nd September
when it was at last
secured
and the following telegram flashed along its wire. I have much
pleasure in speaking to you through the 1865 cable.” So the Christian ought to
be hopeful. You have fallen! Say
I will rise again. Your schemes have failed!
Say
I will try again. You are afraid you have laboured in vain! Say
In
labours I will be more abundant. You have stormed the citadel of indwelling
passion and evil
and still you have to confess
“The good that I would I do
not
but the evil which I would not that I do.” Say again
By the grace of God
I shall meet my spiritual foes. Have you with earnest soul entered the Holy of
holies
desirous to know “the deep things of God
” and where you expected
light
lo! great darkness; and where you sought for peace
and sunshine
and
beauty
and harmony
lo! seeming contradiction
the howling waste
cloud
and
storm? You searched for a way out of your intellectual doubts and difficulties
and behold mystery has added itself to mystery. Still hope thou in God.
III. These children
of this world SHOW A SPIRIT OF INDUSTRIOUS PERSEVERANCE
and are therefore
worthy of imitation. Their hands responded to the impulse of their hearts. They
dreamed not that by mere wishing their ruined walls would rise again
or their
gardens
laid waste
would blossom with the rose
and be made beautiful with
the cedar. The moral here is plain. “Not everyone that saith unto Me
Lord
Lord (so hoping to enter)
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that
doeth the will of My Father.” Hoping will not do everything. It must be backed
by earnest effort.
IV. These children
of the world IMPROVE MATTERS
and are
therefore
worthy of imitation. These
tumble down buildings were
after all
but brick; but now they would build
not
with bricks
but with hewn stones. Around them had flourished the sycamores
but now that these were cut down
they would plant no more sycamores. They
would do better than that; they would plant cedars. In three different places (1 Kings 10:27; 2 Chronicles 1:15; 2 Chronicles 9:27) the value of the
sycamore as compared with the cedar is given as the value of stones compared to
that of silver. Such is the spirit of the world. Is not this the spirit which
ought to animate us Never to rest satisfied with present attainments in
self-culture or success in our work. (A. Scott.)
Verse 11
Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of Rezin against
him
Oppositions
“The Lord shall set up the adversaries.
” This accounts for many oppositions which otherwise would be without
explanation. We wonder why such and such people should be opposed to us. Ask them
questions about this opposition
and they will confess themselves bewildered;
they daily look round for causes
and find none; yet they say they cannot
restrain the dislike
and they must force it into forms of opposition about
whose urgency and determinateness there can be no mistake. How is all this? Is
it not the Lord reigning even here? God means to chasten us
to make us feel
that there are other people in the world beside ourselves
and that we have no
right to all the room
and no claim that can be maintained to all the property.
Thus we teach one another by sometimes opposing one another. We are brought to
chastening and sobriety and refinement by attritions and oppositions that are
from a human point of view
utterly unaccountable. The Bible never hesitates to
trace the whole set and meaning of providence to the Lord Himself: He sends the
plague
the pestilence
the darkness
all the flies and frogs that desolated
old Egypt; He still is the Author of gale.
and flood
and famine
and
pestilence We have amused ourselves by deceiving ourselves
by discovering a
thousand secondary causes
and seeking
piously or impiously
to relieve
providence of the responsibility of the great epidemic. Within given limits all
we say may be perfectly true; we are great in phenomena
we have a genius in
the arrangement of detail; but
after all
above all
and beneath all
is the
mysterious life
the omnipotence of God
the judgment between right and wrong
that plays upon the universe as upon an obedient instrument
--now evoking from
It black frowning thunder
and now making it tremble with music that children
love
and that sweetest mothers want all their canes to hear. (J. Parker
D.
D.)
Verse 12-13
For all thin ms anger is not turned away
The end of judgments and the reason of their continuance
I.
THE
DESIGN AND INTENTION OF GOD IN SENDING JUDGMENT UPON A PEOPLE that is
to
reclaim them from all their sins
implied in these words
“for the people
turneth not to Him that smiteth them.” This
indeed
is the intention of all
God’s dispensations towards us in this world. The end of all
His mercies is to take us off from our sins and win us to our duty
Romans 2:4). This is the way wherein God
delights to deal with us. The way of judgment is that which He is more averse
from. Though the judgments of God be evils in themselves
yet considering the
intentions of God in them
they are no real objections against His goodness
but rather arguments for it.
1. The judgments of God are proper for the cure of a far greater evil
of another kind--the evil of sin. We take wrong measures of things
when we
judge those to be the greatest evils which afflict our bodies
wound our
reputation
and impoverish our estates. For those certainly are far the
greatest which affect our noblest part; which vitiate our understandings
deprave our wills
and wound and defile our souls. Now it is very agreeable
with the goodness and mercy of the Divine providence
to administer to us
whatever is proper for the cure of so great an evil.
2. The judgments of God are likewise proper for the preventing of far
greater evils of the same kind; I mean
further punishments. In sending
temporal judgments upon sinners God usually proceeds by degrees.
3. The judgments of God are not only proper to these ends
but in
many cases very necessary. Our condition many times is such as to require this
severe way of proceeding
because no other course God hath taken
or can take
with us
will probably do us good. The providence of God makes use of hunger
and extreme necessity to bring home the prodigal (Luke 15:1-32).
II. THE REASON OF
THE CONTINUANCE OF GOD’S JUDGMENTS--because the people were not reclaimed by
them. And how can t be expected it should be otherwise
when incorrigibleness
under the judgments of God is a provocation of so high a nature
a sign of a
most depraved temper
and an argument of the greatest obstinacy in evil? (2 Chronicles 28:22; Leviticus 26:22
etc.; Deuteronomy 28:58-59; Isaiah 1:4-5;Hosea 7:9-10; Amos 4:11-12; Psalms 18:26.) (J. Tillotson
D. D.)
God’s judgments
God hath invited us to Him by many blessings
but we would not
come; so (to borrow an apt illustration from Bishop Sanderson) we have forced
Him to deal with us as Absalom did with Joab: he sent one civil message to him
after another
but he would not come; at last he set on fire his cornfield to
try whether that would bring him: this course God hath taken with us; we would
not be persuaded by messages of kindness (by His many blessings and favours) to
return to Him
and therefore hath He sent amongst us the terrible messengers of
His wrath. (J. Tillotson
D. D.)
Verse 13
For the people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them
God’s rod should be kissed
“The people turneth not unto Him that smiteth them.
” That is one element of the cause of this judgment. They do not kiss the rod:
they see it to be a rod only; they do not understand that judgment is the
severe aspect of mercy
and that without mercy there could be no real judgment.
There might be condemnation
destruction
annihilation
but “judgment” is a
combined or compound term
involving in all its rich music every possible
utterance of law and grace and song and hope. When a man kisses the hand that
wields the rod
the rod blossoms
and God’s judgment becomes God’s grace. (J.
Parker
D. D.)
Turning to God
Sin is described in. Scripture as departing from God. Repentance
therefore
is returning to Him. To “seek” God
in the idiom of Scripture
is to
pray to Him (Isaiah 55:6)
to consult Him (Isaiah 8:19)
to resort to Him for help (Isaiah 31:1)
to hold communion with Amos 5:4-5). Hence it is sometimes
descriptive of a godly life in general (Psalms 14:2). So here it includes
repentance
conversion
and new obedience. (J. A. Alexander.)
God’s purpose in affliction should be considered
A very holy man
who was working on behalf of the sufferers in the
recent plague at Bombay
wrote home to ask certain of his friends not to pray
that God would remove the plague
but to pray that whatever was His purpose and
intention in sending it might be done. It was a true and lofty view. (C.
H.Sharpe.)
Chastisement should bring the soul to God
A Christian friend visiting a good man under great distress and
afflicting dispensations
which he bore with such patient and composed
resignation as to make his friend wonder and admire it
inquired how he was
enabled so to comfort himself? The good man said
“The distress I am under is
indeed severe; but I find it lightens the stroke very much to creep near to Him
who handles the rod!” (J. Whitecross.)
Verse 14
Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tall
branch
and rush
in one day
God giving account of His actions
I.
THE
GROUND OR OCCASION OF THE JUDGMENT in the particle “therefore.” Wherefore? (Isaiah 9:13). The cause which is here
expressed may be conceived to proceed in the way of a three-fold gradation.
1. Of their simple impiety. Sin is the meritorious cause of all
punishment.
2. Of their additional impenitency. Those that sin and so thoroughly
provoke God’s anger against themselves
by repentance may happily divert and
appease it. But the people in the text “turned not to Him that smote them.” And
this made their judgment to be so much the surer to them. Impenitency seems in
a manner to own and justify sin and stand in the commission of it. Further
it
does in a manner trespass upon all the attributes of God
which it either
questions or vilifies. The omniscience of God
as to the deserts of sin (Psalms 94:7). The truth of God
as to the
threats of sin (2 Peter 3:4). The justice of God
as
to the punishing of sin
The power of God
as to me executing of judgment.
3. Of their continued obstinacy. They did not “seek the Lord of
hosts.”
II. THE JUDGMENT
ITSELF. (T. Horton
D. D.)
God’s judgment on Israel
I. THE
DENUNCIATION OF IT.
1. The Author of it. “The Lord.”
2. The nature of it. “The Lord will cut off.” From correction He
passes to destruction. First
He cuts them short; and if that will do no good
upon them
He cuts them off. First the pruning knife
then the axe. There is a
two-fold sword which God makes use of for cutting with
before He proceeds to
cut off; the sword of His mouth
i.e.
the Word of God
and the sword of
His hand
i.e.
the rod of God. “He will.”
3. The subject of it. If Israel shall provoke God by their
impenitency and obstinacy against Him
even Israel shall be punished and cut
off by Him 1 Peter 4:17).
II. THE EXTENT OF
IT. That we have expressed in a double metaphor; the one from the nature of the
head and the tail; the other from the nature of a tree
in the branches and
roots: both of them coming to one and the same purpose. Whereby we have
signified to us the universality and impartiality of the destruction which is
here threatened; it shall be of so general an extent
as to reach to all sorts
of persons
high and low
rich and poor
great and small
to one as well as to
another.
1. The metaphor taken from a body in the head and the tail. We may
reduce it by way of explication to a threefold rank of--
2. The metaphor taken from the nature of a tree or plant: the branch
and the rush. It is not said the branch and the root
because the Lord reserved
a remnant which should be spared by Him. But the branch and the rush; the
branch as an emblem of usefulness--persons of parts and employments; the rush
as a note of unfruitfulness--idle and unprofitable persons. The branch is a
note of strength and solidity; the rush of weakness and inconstancy. The branch
(in like manner as the head) is a note of supremacy
the rush of meanness
In
the execution of public judgments for the impenitency and incorrigibleness of a
nation
God’s hand is indifferent and impartial; He will spare no ranks or
sorts or conditions of people at all
III. THE TIME OR
SEASON OF IT. “In one day.” It is a day--
1. In regard of the certainty of it
as that which is set and fixed.
2. In regard of the suddenness
as that which is speedy and soon
accomplished. (T. Horton
D. D.)
Judgment obliterates classifications
“Branch and rush--the allusion is to the beauteous palm tree: it
shall be cut down notwithstanding its beauty; and the “rush”--the common
growths round about it
entangled roots
poor miserable shrubs that crowd and
cumber the earth--branch and rush cannot stand before God’s sword and fire:
everything that is wrong goes down in a common destruction. Judgment
obliterates our classifications. (J. Parker
D. D.)
Verse 16
For the leaders of this people cause them to err
Leaders misleading
Render: “And the leaders of this people have become misleaders.
” (Prof. J. Skinner
D. D.)
Leaders’ responsibility for the people’s faults
1. By conniving at their wickedness.
2. By countenancing wicked people.
3. By setting them ill examples. (M. Henry.)
Unfaithful physicians
It is ill with a people when their physicians are their worse
disease. (M. Henry.)
A shameless ruler
(Charles II):--A king might be pardoned for amusing his leisure
with wine
wit
and beauty
but it was intolerable that he should sink into a
mere saunterer and voluptuary; that the gravest affairs of State should be
neglected
and that the public service should be starved
and the finances
deranged in order that harlots and parasites might grow rich. (Macaulay’s
England.)
The responsibility of leaders
The ancients placed the statues of their princes and patriots near
the fountains
to show that they were the spring heads of good or evil to the
public. (J. Trapp.)
Leadership
I. The world is so
constituted that LEADERS OF THE PEOPLE ARE AT PRESENT A NECESSITY.
II. LEADERSHIP
INVOLVES FOR THE LEADERS THE HIGHEST HONOUR OR THE DEEPEST SHAME.
1. The man who leads his fellow men well is entitled to the highest
honour.
2. But leadership does not necessarily involve any honour at all.
3. Through leadership a man may reach the most utter degradation and
shame.
III. LEADERSHIP
INVOLVES FOR THE LED SALVATION OR DESTRUCTION. (R. A. Bertram.)
Verse 17
Therefore the Lord shall have no Joy in their young men
“The Lord shall have no joy in their young men”
The meaning is full of suggestion God delights in the young.
God has made the young a ministry of instruction and comfort to old age. God
keeps the world young by keeping children in it
and helpless ones. But God
shall cease to see in young men any hope for the future. Henceforth God
withdraws from the young
and they become old; He takes from them His
all-vitalising and all-blessing smile
and they wither as flowers die when the
sun turns away. (J. Parker
D. D.)
General corruption followed by general desolation
The desolation should be as general as the corruption has been
and none should escape it.
1. Not those that were the objects of complacency; none shall be
spared for love. “The Lord shall have no joy in their young men.” etc.
2. Not those that were the objects of compassion; none shall be
spared for pity. He shall not “have mercy on their fatherless and widows.” They
had corrupted their way like the rest; and if the poverty and helplessness of
their state was not an argument with them to keep them from sin
they could not
expect it should be an argument with God to protect them from judgments (M.
Henry.)
Verses 18-21
For wickedness burneth as the fire
Wickedness as fire
Wickedness
i..
the constant willing of evil
is a fire
which man kindles in himself. And when the grace of God
which stifles and
checks this fire
is at an end
it breaks forth The fire of wickedness is
nothing else but God’s עֶבְדָה for so wrath is called as breaking forth
from within and spreading itself inwardly more and more
and then passing
outwards into word and deed; it is God’s own wrath; for all sin carries this
within itself as its own punishment. (F. Delitzsch.)
Sin compared to a great fire
The prophet affirms that there are resemblances between a fire and
sin. It is not a common fire to which he refers
such as is employed for
domestic or public purposes. It is a great conflagration which burns the humble
shrubbery
the gigantic forest
extends over the land
and sends a mighty
column of smoke and flame up to heaven
I. THE ORIGIN OF A
GREAT FIRE. Recently we read an account of a great fire
and the paragraph
closed with these words: “the origin of the fire is unknown” The same with the
origin of sin. We know it had a beginning
for God only is from everlasting. We
know it had a beginning before Eve and Adam felt its power
since they were
tempted: We know it began with him who is called Satan and the father of lies.
Still
there are three questions about it which we cannot answer.
II. THE PROGRESS OF
A GREAT FIRE. Place one spark amid combustible material in London. Let it
alone. It will leap from point to point
house to house
street to street
until the whole city is in flames. Sin has spread in as exactly similar way.
One sin
to the individual; one wrong action
to the family; one immoral look
to thousands; one crime
to a kingdom.
III. THE
TRANSFORMING POWER OF A GREAT FIRE. Wood
coal
etc.
it transforms into its
own essence
because it makes fire of these. It is even so with sin. It turns
everything
over which it gains the slightest control
into its own nature--that
is into a curse. The desire to possess
sin has turned in a different
direction
and made it an autocratic passion. Take the principle of ambition in
the same Way. Take commerce in the same way. Thus the richest blessings
yea
all the which God has given to us
sin can so transform that they shall become
curses.
IV. THE DESTRUCTIVE
ENERGY OF A GREAT FIRE. Who can calculate the amount of property in London
alone
which has been destroyed by fire! But the destruction which sin has
caused in London is infinitely greater and more momentous. Some have bodies
once beautiful
now bloated and withered by sin. Some have feelings
once
tender
now petrified by sin. Some whose intellectual powers were once strong
now feeble by sin. Some
who were once full of hope
now hopeless by sin. The
destruction Which sin has caused is awful.
V. THE TERMINATION
OF A GREAT FIRE. It terminates when an the material is reduced to ashes. Can
the fire of sin ever he put out in this way? The body in the grave is scorched by
it no more; but what of the soul? Look at the rich man. He is tormented
in
pain
not by a literal flame
but by the fire of sin. He will be so forever
because the soul is immortal. A great fire has been terminated by a superior
quenching power. There is also an element which can completely remove sin from
the soul. What is it? Ask those in heaven
and those on earth
who have been
saved. They all say that they “have washed their robes and made them white in
the blood of the Lamb.” (A. M’Auslane
D. D.)
Sin mirrored as fire
The Bible is full of the figurative and analogic.
I. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN THE FORMS IN WHICH IT EXISTS. Fire is found to exist in two states--the
insensibly latent
and the sensibly active.
1. In an insensible state
heat is everywhere. Even in solid masses
of ice it is to be found. Sir Humphrey Davy
it is said
quickly melted pieces
of ice by rubbing them together in a room cooled below the freezing point. It
is so with sin. It is found in every part of the human world; it sleeps
perhaps
even in the most innocent of our kind. All it wants is the contact of some
tempting circumstance to bring it out into an active flame. The virtue of some
men is but vice sleeping. As savages light their fire by rubbing two pieces of
wood together
so men stir up the latent of depravity by mutual contact. There
is sufficient latent fire around us to burn up the globe
and there is
sufficient latent sin in humanity to turn earth into hell
2. But fire is active as well as latent. In its active state you see
it flaming on your hearths
illuminating your cities
working your
manufactures
propelling your fleets
drawing your carriages
flashing in the
lightning and thundering in the earthquake. Sin is terribly active in our
world
active in every department of life:--in commerce
in politics
and
religion To use the language of the text
“It mounts up like the lifting up of
smoke”: the smoke of this fire of sin pollutes and darkens every sphere of
life.
II. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS TENDENCY TO SPREAD ITSELF. What a great fire a little spark will
kindle! Fire is essentially diffusive; so is sin. How true it is that “one
sinner destroyeth much good.”
III. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS POWER OF CHANGING EVERYTHING TO ITS OWN NATURE. It has turned
alcohol into intemperance
merchandise into fraud
government into tyranny
aggression into the demon of war. When Archimedes
to gratify his vengeance on
the Romans
brought down the genial rays of heaven by magic glass to burn up
their ships
he only dramatised the universal fact that sin ever strives to
turn the greatest blessing to the greatest curse.
IV. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS REPELLING ENERGY. Philosophers tell us that fire is that principle
in nature which counteracts attraction
and keeps the various particles of matter
at their proper distance. It is that repulsive force which prevents atoms from
coming into close contact
and sometimes drives them far apart. It turns the
solid bodies into liquids and liquids into vapours. Apply fire to the compact
tree
and it will break it into a million atoms
and send these atoms abroad on
the wide fields of air. Were it not for heat
all parts of the universe would
rush together into one solid mass
whose parts would press together in closer
contact than the heaviest stone. Sin is a repulsive principle. It separates man
from man
family from family
nation from nation--all from God!
V. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS DEVOURING CAPABILITY. It consumes something far more valuable than
the most beautiful forms of material nature
or the most exquisite productions
of human art--it consumes man. You cannot walk the streets of any great city
without meeting men whose bodies are being consumed by sin. Sin devours the
soul. It dries up its fountain of Divine feeling
it sears its conscience
it
withers its intellect
it blasts its prospects and its hopes.
VI. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS POWER TO INFLICT PAIN. There is no element in nature capable of
inflicting more suffering on the body than fire. But sin can inflict greater
suffering: the fires of remorse are a thousand times more painful than the
flames that enwrapped the martyrs. “A wounded spirit who can bear?” The fire of
sin in the soul will “burn to the lowest hell.” Ask Cain
Belshazzar
Judas
concerning the intensity of moral suffering.
VII. SIN IS LIKE
FIRE IN ITS SUSCEPTIBILITY OF BEING EXTINGUISHED. You have seen a raging fire
go out from one of two causes; either because it has consumed the body on which
it fed and reduced it to ashes
or because of the application of some quenching
force. The fire of sin will never go out for the former reason--the object on
which it feeds is indestructible: if it is ever to be destroyed
it must be
extinguished by some outward force. Thank God! there is a moral element on
earth to put out sin; the river of mediatorial influences that rolls from the
throne of God has quenched the fire of sin in the case of millions
and is as
efficacious to do so now as ever. (Homilist.)
Wickedness as fire
I. WICKEDNESS. Of
this wickedness there are divers sorts
each of which may be distinguished by
the objects on which it terminates.
1. When immediately directed against God
it is discovered by an
absurd contempt of His providences and ordinances
His commandments
promises
and threatenings
and a virulent opposition to the interests of His kingdom and
glory.
2. When its operations are aimed against men
it is perpetrated by
harassing
oppressing and persecuting those who are entitled to acts of
justice
beneficence
and charity
and by disturbing the peace and good order
of human society.
3. When it chiefly respects the persons themselves by whom it is
acted
the most daring iniquities are committed
forbidden by the law of
nature
the law of nations
and the law of God
in order to gratify their
ungovernable desires
and to promote their interest
honour
or pleasure.
II. WICKEDNESS
BURNETH AS FIRE. The amiable endowments of the person in whom it burns
the
good dispositions and laudable desires with which his mind is furnished
will
fall a sacrifice to its rage. It will enfeeble the understanding
harden the
conscience
deprave the heart
hurt the memory
weaken the senses
debilitate
the whole frame; it will entirely eat away peace of mind
and lead on to
contention
confusion
and every evil work. It will devour the strength and
vigour of the body
bring on untimely old age
and shorten the now short life
of man. It will consume his honour and reputation
and leave behind it
indelible marks of disgrace and reproach
that shall not be wiped away. It will
burn up his riches and possessions; for by means of it a man is often brought
to a piece of bread
and a nation involved in irremediable destruction. (R.
Macculloch.)
Wickedness is destruction
There is to be internecine war: Manasseh shall fly at Ephraim
and
Ephraim at Manasseh
and they who could agree upon nothing between themselves
always agree in flying together against Judah. This is what wickedness will
bring the world to--to murder
to mutual hatred and distrust
to perdition. We
do not understand the power of wickedness
because at present
owing to
religious thinking and action and moral civilisation
mere are so ninny
mitigating circumstances
so many relieving lights; but wickedness in itself
let loose upon the earth
and the earth is no longer the abode of green thing
of fair flower
or singing bird
of mutual trust and love: it becomes a
pandemonium. If we could consider this deeply
it would make us solemn. We do
not consider it; we are prepared to allow it as a theory or a conjecture
but
the realisation of it is kept far from us. The wicked man kills himself; puts
his teeth into the flesh of his own arm
and gnaws it with the hunger of a wild
beast. That is what wickedness comes to! It is not an intellectual error
not a
slight and passing mistake
not a lapse of judgment
or a momentarily
lamentable act of misconduct which can easily be repaired: the essence of
wickedness is destruction. Wickedness would no sooner hesitate to kill a little
child than to snap a flower. The thing that keeps the world from suicide is the
providence of God. Were God to take away the restraining influences which are
keeping society together
society would gall into mutual enmity
and the
controversy could only end in mutual death. “For all this His anger is not
turned away
but His hand is stretched out still.” Do not blame the judgment
blame the sin; do not say
How harsh is God
say
How corrupt
how blasphemous
is man! (J. Parker
D. D.)
Injury inflicted on the body politic
A nation is sometimes spoken of as a person constituted of a soul
and the various parts of a human body. In this political body there are those
who act the part of the arms
by whom its strength is exerted
and its safety
preserved. On this principle I explain this prediction
they shall eat every
man the flesh of his own arm. Every one almost was to be employed in cruelly
harassing and devouring those whose business it was to support and defend the
interests of the nation. Unmindful of the laws of nature
the ties of
friendship and gratitude
they would vex and destroy those useful members of
the community with whom they were nearly connected
and to whom they were
obliged for their efforts in their behalf. (R. Macculloch.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》