THE BREAD OF ADVERSITY
Isaiah 30:20-21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, &c. [1129]
[1129] The Authorised Version, upon which these outlines are founded, is supported by Mr. Cheyne, who translates: “And though the Lord give you bread in short measure and water in scant quantity,” &c. But Delitzsch, Kay, and Birks render the first clause: “And the Lord will give you bread in your adversity and water in your affliction.” Mr. Birks adds: “These words form part of a promise, not its limitation. The affliction has been fully denounced before. Here they are assured that, although besieged, they will not be given over to famine. The path of duty will be made plain by God’s prophets, and speedy deliverance be given.”
I. DIFFICULTIES SUPPOSED.
“The Bread of Adversity” was a proverbial expression among the Jews (1 Kings 22:27; Psalms 80:5). The Lord gives: He who gave the cup of salvation gives the cup of affliction. He who gives the bread of life gives also the bread of adversity (Hebrews 12:6.) Recollect that the Lord who gives you the bread of adversity gave His own Son no better fare, no richer diet.
II. CONSOLATIONS PROMISED.
“Yet shall not thy teachers be removed,” &c. He will compensate temporal troubles by spiritual blessings. Numbers have found that as tribulation abounded, consolation abounded by Christ (1 Corinthians 1:5). Such consolations are threefold.
1. A free access to God’s throne. “He will be very gracious to thee at the voice of thy cry.” Prayer relieves distress.
2. A faithful administration of God’s word and ordinances. Religious instruction shall be continued, “thy teachers shall not be removed.”
3. A gracious direction of God’s providence.
III. INSTRUCTIONS SUGGESTED.
1. Guard against whatever may endanger Christian privileges. Neglect of prayer; absence of love; seductions of the world.
3. Recollect what is needful to give this promise full effect—the influence of the Spirit. Pray for and expect a baptism of the Holy Ghost.
3. Commend to others the consolations you receive. Visit the sick; remember the widow and the fatherless. In comforting others, your own bread of adversity shall be made sweet.—Samuel Thodey.
I. A CALAMITY ANTICIPATED.
Affliction may be continuous and severe. Bread and water are the prominent things in the sustenance of life. Day by day received. Few, if any, are entirely exempt from affliction. Periods of difficulty and privation, when weeks and months of consuming anxiety are experienced. Losses which seriously incommode and cripple their business. Troubles in the family, sometimes from the conduct of those most loved. Bereavements which rend the heart. Sickness, accident, consuming disease, and excruciating pain wear life slowly away.
The godly are not exempted. The infected atmosphere may poison the saint as well as the sinner. If a good man falls over a precipice he will be killed. “The same hurricane may equally swamp the vessel which is filled with pirates and that which is filled by a band of devoted missionaries.” If a Christian neglect his business, or conduct it on unsound principles, he must expect insolvency. He may conduct it with perfect commercial wisdom and care, and yet be overtaken by disasters from causes beyond his control.
But it does not happen by chance. There is no such thing as fate. We recognise the hand of the Lord. “Though the Lord give you the bread of affliction and the water of adversity.” In this truth is help for believers perplexed by the mystery of sorrow. It throws their thoughts on God. And they have such confidence in Him that it is a resting-place. We do not know, we never can know, the evils He prevents. When He permits or sends trouble we may rest assured that there is a sufficient reason (Lamentations 3:33).
What are the reasons? [1132] We may mistake their application, but they are such as these:
1. It is sometimes punitive. God has established a connection between sin and suffering. The former always works towards the latter. The chain of connection may be so subtle, and may extend so far back, that we cannot follow it. Yet such a chain there is. When affliction comes, it is useful to trace the chain, and ascertain, if we can, wherefore the Lord is contending with us.
2. It is sometimes corrective. He deals with us as men deal with their children (Hebrews 12:5-11). It is not that he may vent His anger, but recall them to their better selves. He means it as the refiner means the fire into which he casts the gold (Psalms 119:67).
3. It is sometimes auxiliary. The means to an end. The dark way into light. It is necessary to some advantage which could not be reached without it. Joseph’s slavery and imprisonment were the steps to his subsequent greatness. Jesus reached the crown by the cross. Perhaps you can illustrate from your own experience.
[1132] H. E. I., 56–115.
Meantime, here is
II. AN ANTIDOTE PROMISED.
Their teachers had been removed. The prophets were persecuted (Isaiah 30:9-10). Jeremiah, Zedekiah, under Jezebel’s persecution. Obadiah had hid a hundred in caves. Persecution usually fastens on the teachers as most prominent. Thus Apostles. Thus the Nonconforming clergy in England. Thus the missionaries were driven from Madagascar. But the promise here is that they shall regain their liberty. And this will be not only a relief to themselves, but an antidote to the people’s calamities. It will secure:
1. Instruction. “Thy teachers.” Truth is the basis of everything in experience or practice. It is their business carefully to unfold and apply the truth [1135]
2. Consolation. Christian ordinances are consolatory. There are truths that bear on troubles. The views of the Divine character and of the course of Providence exhibited in the Gospel sustain and comfort.
3. Direction. There is danger of turning to right or left. So many allurements, from ignorance, misguidance, temptation. By the ministry you hear the voice which points out the way, invites steadfastness, warns against divergence.
[1135] The Christian Church requires a teaching ministry. Not only must the Gospel be proclaimed to the world, the Church must be trained into knowledge, experience, holiness, activity. Individual study of Scripture is largely useful. But regularly recurring religious services, of which careful instruction is a part, are universally necessary. Godly men must be released from secular business, trained, set apart to the study and ministry of the word. The living voice of the preacher helps guides, confirms, and gives greater practical influence to the private reading of Christians. Even under the old dispensation, large use was made of this method. There were schools of the prophets. A few were so eminent that they have left their words behind them. But there were many whose names have not survived their time. Jesus trained His disciples for their future work. After His Ascension, He gave various gifts to men for the work of the ministry. He continues them. While one could wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that He would put His Spirit upon them, so that they would work to the full extent of their ability for the world’s salvation, it remains true that the strength of the Church is in an able, well-instructed, godly, and earnest ministry.
Among the blessings here promised to the ancient Church is the restoration of its silenced teachers to their work after its period of discipline.—Rawlinson.
God provides guidance in the journey to the better land. Value the ministry of the word. Attend it. Follow its teaching.—J. Rawlinson.
THE GUIDING VOICE
Isaiah 30:21. And thou shalt hear a voice behind thee, &c.
This may be a promise to God’s people of the continuance of the services of the ministry, or of the additional blessings of spiritual suggestions to guide them in the path of duty.
I. It may be a continuation of the promise in the preceding verse: “Thy teachers shall not be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee.” The Word of God proclaimed by faithful ministers follows men. Sometimes, as they listen to it, they reject it, but it pursues them, and gives them no rest until they obey it. When they are bent on a wrong course, it haunts them until they are recalled to duty. Or it stimulates them to the performance of duties they are neglecting or performing sluggishly. Thus understood, we may see that in this promise God compares Himself as it were to a shepherd, who puts his sheep before him; or to a schoolmaster who will have his scholars in sight, that so he may the better keep them in order.
Thus understood, we see our duty. It is to give reverent heed to the Word of God as proclaimed to us by His ministers. Food, however choice, is no blessing to us unless it be eaten and digested; and the Word of God is no blessing to us, except there be an ear to hearken to it, a spiritual taste to relish it, and a heart to close and comply with it. Well is it with those who imitate Lydia (Acts 16:14). But neglect of God’s word shuts against us even the throne of grace (Proverbs 28:9). To those who disregard what they know to be the voice of God, there comes a time when they discover that the greatest of all calamities is to have their voice disregarded by Him (Proverbs 1:24-26).
II. But the promise may be that of an additional blessing, the inward motions and suggestions of the Holy Spirit. His voice may be called “a word behind us,” because—
1. Of its secresy (Job 4:12).
2. Because it follows us always, as constantly as our shadow. Parallels to this promise we find in 1 John 2:20; 1 John 2:27; John 14:26; John 16:13.
III. This voice His people hear when they are about to wander, or have wandered from the way of righteousness. From that way it is easy to de part; but God loves His people, and cannot abide to see them miscarry, and therefore He counsels them. “This is the way, walk ye in it,” is sometimes a word of correction and reformation, in case of error; sometimes a word of instruction and direction, in case of ignorance; sometimes a word of strengthening and confirmation, in case of unsettledness.
In all these respects God’s people hear the “word behind them,” sometimes giving them very gracious hints concerning the affairs of this present life, but more frequently concerning the spiritual life. Those who wait upon God shall not lack counsels concerning the manner in which they are to serve Him. He answers the prayers of His people (Psalms 25:4-5; Psalms 86:11; Psalms 143:8).
What a great comfort and encouragement we have here! If we really desire to serve God amid all the labyrinths and uncertainties of this present life, we shall be safe, for He will guide us.
IV. But how may we know whether the word behind us is the voice of God, and not merely one of our own fancies, or a suggestion of Satan’s? There are several touchstones by which every “word” may and should be tested.
1. The word within is to be compared with the word without. Every suggestion is to be examined by the rule of Scripture. God never speaks in the conscience contrary to what He speaks there, for He is unchangeable and cannot contradict Himself (Isaiah 8:20).
2. God’s “words” are orderly and regular; they keep men within the compass of their callings, and the place in which God has set them. They incite us not to forsake our duty, but to be faithful in it.
3. They are ordinarily mild, gentle, seasonable; they are not ordinarily raptures, but such as leave a man in a right apprehension of what he does, and capable of reflection upon it.
4. They are discernible also from their effects, and the ends to which they tend. All the hints and motions of God’s Spirit tend to make us better, and to carry us nearer to Himself in one way or another. Honestly using these tests, we shall learn promptly and surely to discern the voice of God’s Spirit when He says to us, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”
V. From all this two duties plainly arise.
1. Thankfulness. A faithful monitor is a very great advantage; it is so betwixt man and man, and we should bless God that He condescends to be this to us.
2. Obedience. To His infallible, loving counsel we should give prompt heed, especially as He not only points out the way, but is always ready to help us to walk in it; and the way in which He would have us go is the only one that leads to true happiness and lasting peace. Disobedience exposes us to manifold dangers, such as
(1.) God’s future silence; when His counsels are repeatedly rejected, He will cease to speak. What a terrible calamity (1 Samuel 28:5).
(2.) Those who hearken not to the voice of God in them are often given up to Satan, and their own corruptions bear sway within them (Psalms 81:11-12).—Thomas Horton, D.D.: 100 Select Sermons, pp. 298–304.
I. Our need of the guidance here promised. We are ignorant of the way to true happiness, and we have not always daylight. The path is narrow, and is sometimes very intricate. It lies through an enemy’s country. Many as wise as we have lost their way, and, after years of sorrow, have perished miserably. We need this guidance in youth, in manhood, in old age, even unto death (P. D. 952, 2388).
II. Some of the means by which God guides His people. The promise in our text suggests a traveller in doubt as to the course he should take, pausing perplexed at cross roads, and in danger of choosing a wrong one, when a friendly voice behind him is heard, saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” God thus speaks to His people.
1. By His providences. Afflictions are often monitions and instructions (H. E. I., 66–70).
2. By His Word. It clearly marks the path to heaven.
3. By our conscience (H. E. I., 1291, 1304, 1308–1312).
4. By His Spirit; by whom conscience is quickened, our understanding cleared of delusions, our attention fixed on the happy career of the righteous, and the disastrous end of the wicked.
III. What is needed to enable us to profit by this promise.
1. A prayerful spirit (Isaiah 30:19).
2. A studious eye that will look for the waymarks, especially for the footprints of Jesus.
3. A listening ear.
4. An obedient habit of mind (1 Samuel 15:22; P. D., 1656). Disregard of the Guiding Voice will involve us in present disaster and misery, and in eternal woe. Heedfulness of it will ensure for us present safety and peace, and eternal blessedness.—Samuel Thodey.