GOD’S PEOPLE FORSAKEN
Hebrews 13:5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Isaiah 2:6. Thou hast forsaken Thy people the house of Jacob.
How comforting is the Apostle’s assurance! But do not the hope and courage which it inspires die out of us, when we hear this ancient prophet rise and testify, “Thou hast forsaken Thy people”? No! because before there is any light concerning this question in our understanding, our faith tells us there must be a way of harmonising these seemingly conflicting declarations. God must necessarily be faithful to His promise. “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” Were God to forsake any of His believing, expecting people, He would do more than forsake them—He would forsake Himself! He would put off His crown and lay aside His sceptre, and become one of ourselves. Then the whole universe would have cause to mourn in sackcloth and ashes; there would no longer be any GOD to whom we could make supplication in our sorrows.
I. The first of these inspired declarations make it plain that God has a people whom He will never forsake. In every distress and tribulation He will be with them. Though all other friends may fail them, God will continue faithful to them. When the most devoted of human friends could not be of any avail, God will be their succour—when bereavement has broken their heart; when persecution or temptations are threatening to sweep them away; in the hour of death.
II. The second of these inspired declarations makes it plain that those who have been accounted the people of God may be forsaken by Him. This is a declaration that would smite us with dismay, and plunge us into saddest confusion, were we to put a full stop where the prophet has put a comma. Why had God forsaken His people, the house of Jacob? Because they had first forsaken Him: they had first voluntarily ceased to be His people. The truth in this matter may perhaps be best apprehended by means of a Scriptural symbol. God compares the union that exists between Him and His people to that which exists between a man and his wife. Will a good husband ever forsake his faithful wife? The bloom and beauty of her youth may have gone; a wasting sickness may have rendered her positively unlovely, but will he forsake her? Never! Her misfortunes will only cause him to cherish her with a tenderer love. But if she be unfaithful to him, what then? Why, then, the whole case may be altered. If he be a merciful as well as a just man, he may seek to reclaim her; but if she be “joined to her lovers,” and persistently heedless of all his claims and her duties, the time will come when he will leave her to her fate. To him she will be as if she were dead. So God is wondrous in His forbearance towards His backsliding people; but if they persist in their apostacy, He will leave them to the gods whom they have chosen (Judges 10:13-14; Jeremiah 2:28). We see now that between these apostolic and prophetic utterances there is the most perfect harmony. Our discussion of this subject should teach us—
1. Not to found conclusions upon fragments of God’s sayings or doings. His words and His works are mutually explanatory; but we must not cut the explanations short! If we put periods where God has only put commas, we shall be plunged into frightful perplexities; with the words of Scripture on our lips, we shall have most damnable heresies in our hearts. Our study of God’s word must be comprehensive. So also must our study of God’s providence. Let us not be in a hurry to come to conclusions. Wait, and we shall have more light, because we shall not be looking at parts, but at wholes. Our life is being written in clauses, and not till the last is completed shall we be able to interpret the first aright [520]
2. Not to build too much upon past submissions to the Divine will and past enjoyments of the Divine favour “Once in grace always in grace” is an ignis fatuus which has lighted many a soul down to hell. If after being fenced around as a garden of the Lord, and tilled by the great Husbandman, and watered by dews and rains from heaven, we relapse into mere desert ground, we may be sure we are nigh unto cursing (Hebrews 6:4-8).
3. That those who are humbly and loyally faithful to their Heavenly Friend cannot be too confident of His faithfulness to them. Assuredly He will never forsake them (Isaiah 43:2). And His presence is all they need. Having Him they have all things (Psalms 84:11-12).
[520] The Lord has reasons far beyond our ken for opening a wide door, while he stops the mouth of a useful preacher. John Bunyan would not have done half the good he did, if he had remained preaching in Bedford, instead of being shut up in Bedford prison.—Newton, 1725–1807.
However contradictory the designs of Providence at first appear to be, if we set ourselves to watch God in His works and ways, with care, we shall soon discover that He acts according to some certain scheme or plan.
Were a person altogether unacquainted with architecture to visit some splendid temple in the process of erection, and observe the huge rough stones, and boards and timbers, iron castings, bricks, lime, mortar, lying scattered in confusion all around; were he to see one group of workmen cutting up material here, another digging trenches there; one party raising a staging on this side, another nailing on some boards on that: were he to observe the blocks, the fragments, dust, and rubbish, tools and instruments, all lying in disorder round about him, he might truly say that he could see no plan or system in the business; nor would he be likely to conceive or dream that out of such a chaotic mass of raw material, out of such contradictory labour, there could ever rise a magnificent temple, to reflect undying honour on the architect, and beautify the world!
But let the observer stop, and set himself to watch from day to day the busy work as it goes on; let him patiently examine, not only the minutest details, but also try to obtain a view of the general scope and bearing of the whole, and he will not be long in finding out that some superior mind controls and regulates the movements in accordance with some preconceived plan or system, which is constantly developing itself; and that every stroke of every workman is conducive to the same ultimate effect.
And when he comes to see the “beau ideal” of the builder realised in the fair proportions, in the classic beauty of the noble structure, he then perceives how inconsiderate, how unfair it was in him to decide upon a work in its incipient state, without some knowledge of the plan and the design of it.
God is building up the Christian in accordance with a perfect plan into a majestic temple for the decoration of the eternal city. And though His dealings sometimes seem to be mysterious; though He seems to cut down here and to raise up there, to let the light into this part and to leave it dark in that; though it is hard to tell at times what such material is designed for, what this or that work means, or to conceive how the structure when completed will appear; it is nevertheless quite certain that God acts according to a fixed and unalterable plan; that every stroke we bear, or loss we mourn, is made subservient to the end; and although it is given us here to see only in part, whoever will take the pains to watch with care the course of Providence, will be convinced that it does not move along by chance, but that everything is done by a prospective plan.—E. Nason.
FORSAKEN OF GOD
Isaiah 2:6. Therefore Thou host forsaken Thy people, &c.
The doctrine of this verse is, that when men forsake God, God forsakes them. There is nothing arbitrary in such divine withdrawals [523] they have always a moral cause; and no man has any right to complain of them (Hosea 13:7). Consider
[523] In common conversation, we frequently speak of solar eclipses. But what is called an eclipse of the sun is, in fact, an eclipse of the earth, occasioned by the moon’s transit between the sun and us. This circumstance makes no alteration in the sun itself, but only intercepts our view of it for a time. From whence does darkness of soul, even darkness that may be felt, usually originate? Never from any changeableness in our covenant God, the glory of whose unvarying faithfulness and love shines the same, and can suffer no eclipse. It is when the world gets between our Lord and us, that the light of His countenance is obstructed, and our rejoicing in Him suffers a temporary eclipse.—Salter.
I. When men forsake God. Men forsake God—
(1) when they set their affection on forbidden things;
(2) when they cease to seek Him in prayer and the other means of grace;
(3) when they give themselves up to the practice of sin.
II. When men are forsaken of God. This doom befalls them—
(1) when they are left without that aid of the Holy Spirit, without which they cannot vividly apprehend the truth;
(2) when they are left without the comfort of God’s mercy;
(3) when they are left without earnest desires after God, and consequently a prey to all the evil within and around them.
III. Men may be forsaken of God in the midst of temporal prosperity. There may be a terrible contrast between their spiritual and material condition (Isaiah 2:6-7). Temporal prosperity is from God; it is designed to lead men to repentance (Romans 2:4); failing to accomplish this, it drives them further from God (Deuteronomy 8:11-14); Proverbs 30:9; Nehemiah 9:25); and when it has this effect upon them, the doom of which our text speaks to us is not far off (Deuteronomy 28:48) [526]
[526] When the king removes, the court and all the carriages follow after, and when they are gone, the hangings are taken down; nothing is left behind but bare walls, dust, and rubbish. So, if God removes from a man or a nation, where He kept His court, His graces will not stay behind; and if they be gone, farewell peace, farewell comfort: down goes the hangings of all prosperity; nothing is left behind but confusion and disorder.—Staughton, 1628.
IV. No man need remain thus forsaken of God.
1. God desires to bring all men into fellowship with Himself (Isaiah 2:3-4).
2. All are invited to come to Him (Isaiah 2:5).
3. The light of God’s countenance is offered them, especially in Christ, who is “the light of the world.”—John Johnston.