THE LORD’S PEOPLE COMFORTED
Isaiah 40:1. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
I. God has a people in the world. In one sense, all whom the Lord designs to create anew by His Holy Spirit, and who, though at present afar off, will at length be brought nigh unto Him, are His people (Acts 18:10). But these are not the persons referred to in our text, for they cannot at present be known or addressed as God’s people; neither at present are they capable of being comforted, according to the direction here given. The “people” to whom the text refers are those who have fled to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come, and who are earnestly desiring to walk in newness of life.
II. It is the will of God that His people should enjoy the comforts of religion. The very nature of the religion He has given is to inspire comfort, as it is the very nature of the sun to diffuse light and heat. If His people are sorrowful or dejected, it is not because of their religion, but because they have too little religion, or because they do not know how to use the religion which they have. But it is desirable that they should be comforted—
1. For their own sakes. While they lack peace and joy they can never be as diligent as they ought to be in the duties of religion (H. E. I. 306–308).
2. For the honour of religion. The despondency and gloom of professors affords a handle to those who speak evil of the Christian life, and misrepresent it as a life of melancholy (H. E. I. 756–762). For these reasons God’s people should lay aside all unreasonable fears, and preachers of the Gospel should consider it an essential part of their office to minister to the people of God that consolation which belongs to them, and which they are capable of receiving. “Comfort ye,” &c.
III. Let us examine a few of the most common causes of that want of comfort of which God’s people frequently complain.
1. Their misunderstanding the nature and extent of that pardon of sin which the Gospel provides. Reclaimed from a worldly course, the recollection of their former sins is very painful to them. It often overspreads their minds like a thick cloud, and fills them with darkness and alarm. They are not indeed without a hope that they shall obtain forgiveness at last for Christ’s sake; but still they ask themselves, “What if God should not pardon me at last?” (H. E. I. 1268). But God does not offer to pardon you at some distant day. He offers, in the Gospel, to forgive you now; nay, He tells you, that if you have in your heart come to Christ and believed in Him, your sins are already forgiven (Romans 8:1; Luke 7:47; Colossians 2:13; 1 John 2:12; Isaiah 44:22). The pardon vouchsafed is a present pardon (H. E. I. 2332–2339). When the prodigal returned to his father’s house a penitent, were not his offences fully and instantly forgiven and his self-reproaches stopped? Was he told, amid all the pleasures of the feast provided for him, that he must not enjoy himself too much, because perhaps his father might some years afterwards remember his past misconduct and visit it upon him? An apprehension of this kind would doubtless have much diminished his comfort; but would it not have been groundless and unreasonable? Equally groundless and unreasonable are your apprehensions, if you have indeed come to Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Put them away and rejoice in a present salvation (2 Corinthians 4:17; John 5:24).
2. Their seeking comfort where it is not to be found. It is one of their privileges that they are renewed in the spirit of their minds, but this renewal is not, and cannot be, at present perfect. But they forget this, and when they look within themselves they find so many imperfections that they are greatly distressed. If you are never to partake of the peace and consolations of Christianity so long as you fall short of the spiritual standard of obedience, you must go mourning all your days: for the more spiritually-minded you grow, the more spiritual will that standard become in your estimation, and consequently the more unholy you will appear in your own eyes. You can never find comfort by poring into your own heart. Peace and joy come by believing. Christ is the only source of consolation to the soul. If you wanted light, would you expect to find it by looking downwards on the ground, or upwards to the sun? Would the Israelite, when bitten by the serpents, have found relief by meditating on his wounds and lamenting the violence and deadly nature of his disease? No; it was by looking on the serpent of brass that he found a cure, and had his heart filled with hope and joy. Look unto Jesus, rejoice in the sufficiency of His grace to redeem you from all evil (Jude 1:24; H. E. I. 4470–4474).
3. Their mistaking the proofs and marks of a really religious state. They say, “If we were the Lord’s people, we should feel it in our hearts.” But who has told you that warm and rapturous feelings are sure proofs of a truly religious state?
(1.) As a matter of fact, they are really reasons for suspicion when they are experienced at the outset of a religious life (Matthew 13:5). There is a religion that is like a bundle of thorns on fire; for a little time there is noise and light and some measure of heat, but presently the flame subsides, the fire goes out, and all is dark and chill.
(2.) Even when feelings are real, it is not possible for them to be long wound up to one high pitch (H. E. I. 2073, 2074).
(3.) The Bible never bids you judge of your religious state by your own feelings. You are there told that you are to walk, not by sight, but by faith; and if by faith, not by feelings. The promises are not made to feeling, but to faith. St. Paul did not say to the jailer who asked what he must do to be saved, “Feel that you have Christ in your heart, and you shall be saved;” but, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,” &c. Are you humbly believing in Jesus Christ as your only Saviour? Are you living in dependence on the Divine promises, and in a faithful use of the means of grace? Are you doing the duties of your station in dependence on God, and with a desire to please, serve, and honour Him? Are you walking in Christian holiness? Then the comforts of Christianity belong to you. Receive them in faith. Be not discouraged because you cannot find in yourself this or that feeling. Rejoice in the Lord; believe His promises, because they are His. Abraham against hope believed in hope. He had nothing but the bare word of the Almighty on which he could confide. But what other ground of confidence could he desire? You have the same word; confide in that. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” You believe on Him, therefore you have everlasting life. What you may feel is nothing to the purpose. Your salvation is grounded, not on the changeable feelings of a frail and mutable creature, but on the faithfulness of Him who cannot lie (H. E. I. 2064–2067).—Edward Cooper: Practical and Familiar Sermons, vol. vii 345–362.
THE CURE FOR ANXIETY
Isaiah 40:1-2. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, &c.
The skill of a physician is shown—
1. In detecting the disease under which his patient suffers; and,
2. In choosing the best remedy.
There is as great variety in the diseases of the soul as in those of the body: there is the moral palsy, fever, consumption, answering in their symptoms to the corporeal maladies similarly designated; and some souls require quite a different regimen from all others.
I. A PREVALENT SICKNESS.
1. This is pointed out in the words, “Cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,” &c. The condition of Jerusalem is one of distress, anxiety, and distraction; and this so well accords with a passage in the Psalms that it may be connected with it: “In the multitude of my thoughts within me, Thy comforts delight my soul.” The disease is here more clearly described—a “multitude of thoughts.” An old translation has it, “In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed my soul;” and Bishop Austin’s version is, “In the multitude of my anxieties within me;” whilst the representation in the original Hebrew would seem that of a man involved in a labyrinth from whose intricacies there was no way of escape. All this agrees precisely with the case of Jerusalem in the text; and what cause of distressing anxiety would there be whilst there was warfare unfinished and sin unforgiven! The case of sickness, then, so emphatically prescribed for, is that under which the righteous may be labouring from the difficulties which encompass him.
2. Who labour most under this disease? The persons supposed are they who strive to walk according to the precepts of religion. A man may be “a man after God’s own heart,” and yet subject to the invasion of a crowd of anxieties; and it is never a part of our business to lessen the extent of what is blameworthy, nor to endeavour to persuade the righteous that freedom from anxiety is not a privilege to be sought after. The Christian may rise superior to all intruders, and prove that they do but heighten the blessedness of the blessing (H. E. I. 2053, 4054–4056).
II. IS THE PRESCRIPTION SUFFICIENT? The disease incapacitates for any process of argument; it were of little use to prescribe dark sayings, mysterious dogmas, as though God, in His dealings with His distracted people, did but prescribe the application of “things hard to be understood.” With David, recourse was not had to the mysteries of God, but only to His comfort—and with these the Psalmist found that he could delight his soul. Of what does this comfort consist? Of the rich assurances of His forgiving and accepting love; of the gracious declarations of His everlasting purpose to preserve to the end those chosen in Christ; the multiplied promises of spiritual guidance, protection, victory; the foretastes of immortality; the glimpses of things “within the veil.” It is the part of a righteous man, in his season of anxiety and distraction, to confine himself to those comforts, regarding them as a sick man does the medicines given him, as the cordial specially adapted to his state.
Observe that the comforting message is to be delivered to Jerusalem, and that annexed is a statement of “her warfare” being “accomplished.” Connect with the exclamation of Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.” It is no farfetched application of the text to affirm it as specially appropriate on the approach of the last enemy—death. It is here that the power of all mere human resources must eventually fail; for when a man thinks on what it is to die; when he reflects that die he must, so inevitable is the doom; and yet, that die he cannot, so certain is his immortality,—in vain does the world offer its richest possessions, or philosophy its conclusions. It can only be what emanates from another world, what comes with authority from another world, that can have a solacing power, when it is the loosening of our connection with this world which causes the confused tumult in the soul; and Christianity furnishes an abundance of what is needed for allaying the fear of death and soothing man’s passage to the tomb.
The anxious believer has then only to give himself meekly over into the Good Shepherd’s hands. Let him not argue, let him not debate, let him not sit in judgment; let him simply have recourse to the comforts of God. “None,” says Christ, “can pluck them out of my hands.” Christ holds His sheep; it is not the sheep that hold Christ, and God has caused it to be said of him, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my servant, and tell him that his warfare is accomplished.”—Henry Melvill, B.D.; Golden Lectures, 1851, pp. 737–744.
THE DIVINE GLORY REVEALED IN CHRIST
(Preached on Christmas Day.)
Isaiah 40:3-5. The voice of Him that crieth in the wilderness, &c. [1309]
[1309] Many have admired this prophecy as an ancient poem who have not arrived at the proper interpretation. The poet seizes on one point in the national theology—the coming of a great Deliverer. In his imagination he gives him the character of a conqueror, coming to save and deliver. He represents him as marching along in Eastern pomp, issuing messengers before him to prepare the way; sending out pioneers to raise the valleys, to level the mountains, to make “the crooked places straight, and the rough places plain.” And some have seen no more than this in it; they have lost all the character of the prophecy in their admiration of the poem. We are to remember that the prophetic dispensation was a Divine dispensation, and that the prophets were holy men of God. There is the richest poetry, yet there is no mere adornment that is, there is nothing designed only to please the imagination; but with every circumstance of figure and ornament some new revelation is communicated, or some old revelation placed in a new aspect, and shown with fresh vigour. Hence, therefore, in the interpretation of this text, we are really to expect a person crying, a voice preparing the way; we are really to expect the removing of difficulties, similar to the levelling of mountains, the raising of valleys, &c.; and we are really to expect, not merely some great deliverer indefinitely, but such a Deliverer, such a Saviour, as shall answer the description given of him in the text, “The glory of the Lord.”—Watson.
I take the text to be prophecy, in the first and lowest sense, of the deliverance of the Jews from Babylon; then of the appearance of Christ in the flesh; of the manifestation, also, of Christ in the believer’s soul; and of the manner in which He will set up His spiritual kingdom in the world [1312]
[1312] We cannot understand the Scriptures aright unless we know that God has established an instructive set of types, making one thing the figure of another. All Nature is full of types of the most blessed things; and happy is the man who can read the book of Nature in the light of the Lord. Everything around him shall give him instruction. But one event is often made the type of another. The deliverance of the children of Israel was a type of the deliverance of the people of God. Their journey through the wilderness, their supplies, their deliverances, their entrance into Canaan, are a type of the true Joshua bringing His “many sons to glory.” The Babylonish captivity is a type of the present state of the Jews; and their restoration, probably alluded to in the text, is the best type of their being brought again into the Church; and the whole together is a type of the deliverance which God works out for His people and for the whole Church. The language, too, which is suited to these outward events is often employed by the Spirit to denote other events. For instance, the language which refers to the deliverance of His people out of the Babylonish captivity, and their restoration to their own land, is employed to set forth His plan of working in the hearts of men and in the world at large.
These things must be remembered in reference to prophecy. What appears to be human skill is absolutely heavenly wisdom. It must not be interpreted by the common canons of criticism, or we shall lose all its force, and beauty, and meaning.—Watson.
I. ITS LITERAL ACCOMPLISHMENT.
This prophecy was literally accomplished,—
1. In the appearance of John the Baptist.
2. Following the footsteps of the servant comes the Master. Here the glory of God was manifested, and all flesh living at that time in Judea saw it together. Jesus Christ was the visible image of the power, the truth, the holiness of God.
II. ITS SPIRITUAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. This is seen in the work of God in the human soul. In this there is both preparation and manifestation. For Christ no more bursts upon the soul at once than He did upon the world; He sends His messenger to prepare the way before Him. That preparing herald, figured by John the Baptist, is repentance. Consider what repentance is, and you will see how it prepares the soul for Christ, for pardon, happiness, and purity.
1. The first element in repentance is a deep and serious conviction of the fact of our sin.
2. The second is a conviction of the extreme danger of sin and its infinite desert.
3. The third is a burdened and disquieted spirit. When these convictions and feelings have been produced in the soul, it is prepared for the coming of Christ into it. And when He comes into it, in its deliverance from the guilt, misery, and dominion of sin there is a glorious manifestation of the mercy and power of God.
III. ITS ALLEGORICAL ACCOMPLISHMENT. It is seen in the establishment of Christ’s kingdom upon earth. He sends forth His heralds, and by them the world is being prepared for that fuller manifestation of God which will constitute the latter-day glory.—Richard Watson: Works, vol. iv. pp. 307–318.
PREPARING FOR THE COMING OF THE KING
(For Advent Sunday.)
Isaiah 40:3-5. The voice of him that crieth, &c.
The Spirit of Christ, which spake by the prophets, thus describes the preparatory work assigned to the heralds and forerunners of His advent. The application to John the Baptist is made by all the Evangelists, by John himself, and is confirmed by our Lord. One great point is thereby determined,—the whole passage has a spiritual meaning. It is, in fact, a parable or sacred allegory, by which alone we can be prepared to behold the glory of God revealed in the person of the Son. The “wilderness” represents the whole race of mankind alienated from God and abandoned to the impulses of a corrupt nature. Just so far as men are influenced by worldly principles the call is addressed to them. His way has yet to be prepared in their hearts. This saying applies in the full sense to the unconverted, but in a very true and practical sense it reaches all.
1. In order that the highway shall be made straight, the first injunction is that every valley shall be exalted. In mountainous districts many a deep ravine is found, scarcely visited by the sun’s light, filled with noxious vapours, producing scanty and unwholesome food for its squalid inhabitants. How many dark places of our common humanity may be described in these very terms! Man bridges the chasms, and makes a way by which he pusses triumphantly to the accomplishment of his objects; but as for the places themselves, he leaves them for the most part unchanged, or, if changed, but sadder and darker than before, the rushing sounds which tell of his onward progress being no solace to the startled mind of the dweller in the gloomy hollow. Far different is God’s way; not thus does He bid us prepare our brethren’s hearts, our own hearts, for His coming. He wills that the valley itself shall be exalted—the ignorant raised into the clear light of heaven, the gloomy and despondent spirit raised out of its state of hopeless foreboding and brooding sorrow.
2. “Every mountain and hill shall be made low.” Self-exaltation is the surest hindrance to the favour of the great King.
3. “The crooked shall be made straight.” Crookedness, dishonesty, the absence of candour, of sincerity, of straightforwardness, is a hateful thing and must be put away. In our temporal and spiritual things alike there must be an integrity that will bear the scrutiny of our Lord (H. E. I. 3000, 3010). When He finds a heart open to receive Him, an humble spirit, and guileless simplicity, He will never withhold the full disclosure of His love.
4. “And the rough places plain.” Such rough places were ever common in the East—rugged passes beset by dense thickets, lairs of wild beasts, intricate fastnesses, in which robbers find covert, which obstruct the progress of the sovereign into the remote parts of his dominions. In this we recognise a lively image of the evil passions, the corrupt affections, the unregulated desires which overrun the unregenerate heart, and which are extirpated slowly, with much effort, and very imperfectly from the heart when regenerate. We cannot say that the Saviour will not come to us, nor even that He will not dwell with us, until those hindrances are cleared away. That assertion would paralyse all hope; it is both contrary to experience and to plain texts of Holy Writ. But this we must say, He will not abide in us if things so evil are indulged and tolerated. The rough places must be made plain, at whatever cost; for until that work is accomplished, we cannot know the deep peace of the redeemed and sanctified child of grace (H. E. I. 1466–1468).
The work of preparation must be done. Are we dismayed at its extent? Then remember that it is a work of grace. What is low in us must be exalted by the action of grace upon our consenting hearts; what is haughty must be thus abased, the crooked be made straight, and the rough be made plain (H. E. I. 1071, 2376).—.F. C. Cook, M.A.: Sermons Preached in Lincoln’s Inn Chapel, pp. 279–291.
The charge to “prepare the way of the Lord” implies that there are obstacles in the way.
His way is to be made through the desert and the wilderness, i.e., where hitherto there was no way. The reference may be, first, to the state of the Jewish Church in the time of John; but the words contain a true and clear description of the Gentile nations. And what is applied generally to the nations is equally applicable to every human heart:—
1. There is the pride and self-righteousness of man. The thoughts of men rise like mountains to impede the truth. At the very time when man is diseased and dying, he imagines himself whole, and without need of a physician.
2. The heart is by nature hard, impenitent, blinded to its own defects, and, even after confession of them, unwilling to have them condemned or to give them up. Men hear the righteous law denouncing them, but go on to break it; they can stand unmoved before the cross of Jesus and trample upon His blood (H. E. I. 2669–2279).
3. The state of human desires and affections presents other and formidable obstacles to the claims of the Lord. Their desires are low, their affections carnal (Luke 14:18-20).
4. In some there exists a mass of prejudice, and the truth of Christ is viewed under a false light, or through a perverting medium. They will not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, and they cannot enter therein. Some are prejudiced against the authority of revelation,—some against the doctrine of grace, or salvation by the merit of another; and many dislike the holiness, the self-denial, the separation from the world which Christianity inculcates.
CONCLUSION.—
1. Repentance is necessary to prepare the way,—humility, to receive and learn the doctrine,—prayer, to give it success in the heart,—and watchfulness, to carry it out into practice.
2. Every Christian has something to do in preparing the way of Christ in the earth.—George Redford, D.D., LL. D.: Weekly Christian Teacher, vol. ii. pp. 105–108.
This chapter opens the great evangelic poem, the work of Isaiah’s last years. It is among the most conspicuous of the heralds of the Advent. It contains three distinctly marked features which indicate definite stages of preparation for it.
1. It marks the period of Jewish history in which the temporal power and splendour of Judaism began visibly to wane. The mission of Judah as a kingdom was accomplished. But something in it did not wither. Faded and fallen as a nation, the Jews became at once more powerful than ever as a Church. 2. A very marked prophecy of a universal Church. The first promise (Genesis 12:1-3) was hidden for ages. Here it does not flash,—it shines, the calling of the Gentiles being the great burden of it (Isaiah 49:5-6; Isaiah 49:22-23; Isaiah 9:1-6). The words were spoken on which the King, when He came, could rest His appeal (Luke 4:18-19).
3. There was a clear vision set before the Jews of a great Sufferer for man who should yet be a great Conqueror. From the day when Isaiah wrote, the form of the Messiah was set clearly before mankind.
How far did this preparation fall in with larger movements which made the world ready for the actual Advent?
How the heralds prepared the way of the Lord.
I. THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. Some suppose Christ to have grown out of His age. But Christ and Christianity cannot be accounted for by natural evolution, with the Jewish theocracy standing in the way. Genesis 12:1-3 struck a keynote which runs through Jewish history.
II. THE JEWISH DISPERSION. The witnesses charged with the promise and the prophecy were scattered through the civilised world. Up to the captivity the Jews kept themselves sternly and sullenly isolated (Acts 10:28); afterwards they dispersed with facility. The significance of this is to be found in estimating the confusion of religious beliefs among mankind; and especially that neither Oriental nor Western thought became victorious. Jewish communities, with a firm belief in revelation, sacred books containing credible history, and a definite system of Divine legislation, the purity, righteousness, and charity of which were self-evident, settled among them.
III. THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PROGRESS OF THE AGES PRECEDING THE ADVENT IN THE DIRECTION OF CHRISTIANITY. There was progress between Socrates and Seneca; from the citizen of a state, almost domestic in its character, man became the subject of a great empire, and developed individuality and responsibility. Alexander led the Greek into a world too big for him; he became oppressed, distracted, and broke away from his traditions in a world of ceaseless conflict and change. Between Alexander’s conquests and Roman supremacy the thinker was thrown back upon himself, and compelled to ask ultimate questions: What am I? Whence came I? &c. There was a tendency towards the Christian question of salvation. But there was no response to the question forcing itself forward, What must I do to be saved? All was waiting for the proclamation (Isaiah 61:1).
IV. THE ROMAN EMPIRE. This was by far the most important secular herald of the Advent (Luke 2:1).
1. Modern European society is but the fully-developed Empire of Rome.
2. Amid a universal peace, and with a universal language, preachers could go almost everywhere.
3. The fundamental question opened by the Roman Empire is also that of Christianity—the relation of men to each other. Is it enmity or brotherhood?
(1.) Political amity gave rise to the idea of human brotherhood.
(2.) Still men were at sea about the reality, grounds, and claims of this brotherhood.
(3.) Thus the way was prepared till the time came when there were “shepherds abiding in the field,” &c. (Luke 2:8-14). Thus the Lord entered into this world and took possession of His throne.—J. Baldwin Brown: Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii. p. 40.
THE MORAL TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORLD
(Missionary Sermon.)
Isaiah 40:3-5. The voice of Him that crieth, &c.
We are authorised by the four Evangelists to understand these verses as a prophecy of the ministry of John the Baptist, who appeared as the forerunner of the Messiah; and they may be properly applied to all missionaries and religious workers who go out to uncivilised, heathen, and superstitious countries, to prepare the inhabitants for the reception of pure Christianity. The language is figurative, and is borrowed from an ancient Eastern custom. When monarchs went out to visit distant parts of their dominions or to invade neighbouring kingdoms, they sent heralds or pioneers before them to clear the way and remove obstructions. In allusion to this custom, John the Baptist and all his successors in similar work are represented as going out before the Messiah to clear away obstructions and prepare the way for the establishment of His kingdom in the world. Let us notice—
I. THE CONDITION OF THE WORLD IN ITS SINFUL AND UNREFORMED STATE.
It is here represented as a wild, pathless, and dreary wilderness. This figurative description suggests—
1. That it is unproductive of anything good. The earth when left uncultivated will produce nothing valuable and useful; and so men in their sinful state will bear no fruit to the glory of God and the good of their fellow-creatures.
2. That it is productive of things worthless, noxious, and injurious. A wilderness produces briars, thorns, and worthless weeds, and forms hiding-places for ravenous beasts and poisonous reptiles. This is a proper description of the heathen and uncivilised world. Men there rob, deceive, and devour each other. “The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.”
II. THE NECESSARY AND IMPORTANT PREPARATION FOR ITS MORAL TRANSFORMATION.
1. Religious teachers must be employed to combat with the ignorance and thick darkness which cover the people. To preach the Gospel to people without any kind of elementary education would be like throwing grain-seed among thorns or over hard rocks uncovered with any soil. This preparatory work is carried on most effectively in the present day. Eleven Protestant missionaries and assistants are now employed on the wide field of the heathen and superstitious world for every one so employed fifty years ago.
2. The Word of God must be made accessible to the rations in their respective languages and dialects. Eighty years ago the Bible had not been translated into more than forty of the languages of the world; now the whole book, or portions of it, is translated into more than two hundred and fifty languages. We thus see that the Christian Church has done six times more to prepare the way of the Lord in the last eighty years than it had done in the previous eighteen hundred years.
3. The international communications which are rapidly opening in every direction are promoted by men of the world simply for mercantile and scientific purposes, but they are evidently overruled by Divine Providence to prepare the way of the Lord. Many are running to and fro, and knowledge is increasing. Pure Christianity will ultimately reap all the advantages of this, for every form of false religion can only thrive in the darkness of ignorance and thoughtlessness.
III. THE GLORIOUS TRANSFORMATION WHICH SHALL BE EFFECTED.
“Every valley shall be exalted,” &c., i.e., all the malarious morasses of immorality shall be drained and converted into healthy and productive land; all high hills and barren mountains of false systems of religion shall be levelled down and disappear; and all crooked and uneven dealings in the diplomacies of nations and commercial transactions shall be straightened and made conformable to the golden rule of the Gospel (Matthew 7:12). When this blessed change is realised, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed”—
1. In the number of converts to the true religion. The true followers of Christ in every age hitherto have been only a “little flock” in comparison with all the inhabitants of the world, but the time is coming “when they shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.”
2. In the beauty of their holy and consistent characters. “Holiness unto the Lord” shall be stamped upon every person and thing then; “and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.” The good works of God’s people will so shine before men that they shall be led to glorify our Father which is in heaven.
3. In the temporal and spiritual happiness of the world. All the sources of misery and unhappiness shall be dried up entirely. Wars and bloody contentions between nations shall cease unto the ends of the earth. All tyranny, oppression, and every form of injustice shall be removed, and kindness, charity, and justice will occupy their place. Men who used to be likened to bears, wolves, lions, leopards, and poisonous serpents, shall be changed and become tame and as harmless as the lamb, the kid, and the weaned child (chap. Isaiah 11:6-8). The whole earth will become the holy mountain of the Lord. The spiritual condition of the Church will then be indescribably happy and glorious. There will be no lifeless religious service, and no worshipper groaning and downcast under the hidings of the Lord’s face, for “the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud of smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for upon all the glory shall be a defence.”
IV. THE CERTAINTY OF THE REALISATION OF THIS TRANSFORMATION.
“For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.”
1. The Lord has ample power to fulfil all His promises. The opponents and obstructors of the promised transformation are described in the next three verses as grass and withering flowers. And what is grass to withstand Almighty power?
2. The Lord is omniscient, and no unforeseen contingencies can derange His plans, as it is often with us (chap. Isaiah 46:9).
3. The Lord is the God of truth, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of His law and promises to fail (Numbers 23:19).—Thomas Rees, D.D.
THE LEVELLING FORCE OF CHRISTIANITY
Isaiah 40:4. Every valley shall be exalted, &c.
The primary reference of these words is to the clearing of the way for the captive Jews in Babylon to return to their own land. Between Babylon and Jerusalem there was an immense tract of country, which was an untrodden and mountainous desert. The prophet hears in vision the voice of a herald demanding that a highway should be made, that the valleys be filled up, the mountains levelled, and the crooked way made straight. The Evangelists give the passage another and a moral application. They regard John the Baptist as the herald who in his wakening ministry prepared the way in men’s hearts for the mission of Him who was the spiritual Deliverer of mankind.
The words illustrate the socially levelling force of Christianity. There are and ever have been in the soul of society opinions, prejudices, feelings, conventional notions, which, like mountains and valleys, have separated men into classes, and prevented the free and loving interchange of soul. How does Christianity remove those mountains, fill up the valleys, and give a straight pathway into souls?
In two ways:—
I. By the levelling truths which it reveals.
1. A common God. A plurality of deities divides heathen society into sections. Christianity reveals one God, the Father of all, by whom are all things, and to whom are all things. It denounces all other deities as vanities and lies. A common God wakens a community of love, purpose, and worship.
2. A common nature. In heathen mythology men are represented as the offspring of different deities. In India one caste claims a nobler origin than another; and even in Christendom there are those who impiously claim a higher blood (Acts 17:26).
3. A common obligation. Different codes of duty divide men. The Gospel reveals one law for all—to love the one God with all our hearts, and our neighbours as ourselves.
4. A common depravity. Pharisaic sentiment divides (Romans 3:23; Isaiah 53:6).
5. A common salvation. All are diseased, and there is but one Physician. All are captives, and there is but one Deliverer. All are lost, and there is but one Saviour.
II. By the levelling spirit which it generates. It generates a spirit which raises a man above the prejudices of heart and conventionalities that divide men. It is a spirit which has supreme regard to three things—
1. The spiritual in man. The true Christian spirit sees no dignity where there is meanness of soul, no degradation where there is a true nobility of heart.
2. The right in conduct. The true spirit judges not by custom and policy, but by principles of everlasting right; and it inspires a man to attempt the removal of all social mountains and hills that stand in the way of the right
3. The eternal in destiny. The human race is regarded not in its merely visible and temporal relation, but in its unseen and eternal.
Its levelling, however, does not involve spoliation. Distinctions arising from varieties in intellectual power, mental tastes, physical capacity, and individual circumstances, it recognises and respects. These do not necessarily involve social separations. Rightly used they are a blessed media of intercourse. It is the mountains arising from individual vanity, religious bigotry, national pride, worldly pretensions, and spiritual ignorance that Christianity levels to the dust.—David Thomas, D.D.: Homilist, Third Series, vol. viii. p. 95.
THE UNIVERSAL REVELATION OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD
Isaiah 40:5. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, &c.
The chapter of which the text is a part forms the commencement of a series of addresses, distinguished not only for their elegance and sublimity, but for the manner in which they point to a future and far-distant period, when a display should be given of Divine splendour infinitely superior to any previously exhibited in our world. The institutions of the kingdom and Church of Judea, even in the days of Isaiah, were glory itself as compared with those of the nations around, and yet even their glory was as darkness when compared with those to which these predictions pointed as constituting the New Testament Church, and what has been emphatically characterised as “the glory of the latter days.” The former was but the dawn of a lengthened day; the latter was to be the brightness of meridian splendour; the former illumined a very limited sphere, the latter was to irradiate every part of the world, and to send its brilliancy through the universe.
I. The glory to be revealed—“the glory of the Lord.” The word glory is a figurative expression, signifying lustre, effulgence, splendour, magnificence. The glory of the Lord means the bright shining forth of the consummate excellences or perfections of His nature. Never was such an exhibition given of that glory as in the mission and mediation of the Son of God for the redemption of sinful men. It is to this that the declaration in the text unquestionably refers (cf. Isaiah 40:3-4; John 1:28; Matthew 3:3). No event had ever given such a demonstrative display of the glory of the Lord as this (Luke 2:13-14). That the redemption of a ruined world was the object of the Messiah’s mission is undoubted (Galatians 4:4-5); in this the glory of the Lord appeared (Isaiah 44:23). He displays His glory in all His works (Psalms 19:1-2; Romans 1:20); but the brightest display of that glory by far is given, and is to be seen in the face of Jesus Christ. Note particularly that the glory of every Divine perfection was manifested in the mission and work of Christ.
1. Wisdom (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Corinthians 2:7; Colossians 1:26-27; Ephesians 1:8; Ephesians 3:10).
2. Power (1 Corinthians 1:24); all the resources of earth and hell were laid under requisition to hinder the execution of His undertaking (Isaiah 63:1-6; Colossians 2:15).
3. Holiness and justice (Isaiah 53:5; Isaiah 53:10-12; Psalms 22:1-3). How the glory of Divine grace now triumphed! Though the “Holy One,” He yet provided for the happiness of sinners; He showed Himself to be at once “the just God and the Saviour” (Romans 3:23-26; Ephesians 2:4-8). Like Him who accomplished it, redemption was not only “full of grace,” it was also “full of truth;” through Him all the promises of God were made “yea and amen to the glory of God by us;” the significance of the ancient sacrifices and ceremonies was disclosed; feeble glimmerings of light were swallowed up by a full blaze of glory (Micah 7:20; John 1:29).
The glory of the Lord was further demonstrated in the manner in which His various attributes were thus made to harmonise. There was no clashing; while the honour of each was advanced, the whole were glorified together (Psalms 85:10-11).
II. The means that were to be employed in revealing this glory of the Lord.
1. The personal ministry of our Lord Himself (Hebrews 1:1-3). The manner in which Christ proved the truth of His mission and doctrines emphatically declared His glory (John 3:2; Luke 24:19); and all this was substantiated by His sufferings and death, His resurrection and ascension (Philippians 2:8-11).
2. The written Word of Christ (John 5:39; Colossians 3:16; 2 Timothy 3:15). All, therefore, who wish the glory of the Lord to be more and more revealed shall strive and “pray that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.”
3. The preaching of the Gospel (Mark 16:15-16; Mark 16:20). Whenever the preaching of evangelical truth is rightly conducted, the glory of the Lord will be more and more revealed (1 Corinthians 1:18-24); but the members of the Church generally are to be instrumental by their prayers, instructions, and example (Matthew 6:10; Isaiah 2:5; Matthew 5:16; Philippians 1:9-11).
III. The extent to which the glory of the Lord shall be exhibited—“All flesh shall see it together.” When Isaiah spoke thus, the very existence of Jehovah was unknown to every nation under heaven but one. Innumerable multitudes are yet sitting in darkness. This great promise has still, therefore, to receive its full accomplishment (Isaiah 12:3; Matthew 9:37-38; Romans 10:13; Romans 10:15); then shall come to pass the saying that is written (Habakkuk 2:14; Isaiah 35:1-2).
IV. The great purpose for which the exhibition of the Divine glory is to be made. What this must be is clearly implied, though, in our version at least, not expressed. It is, that the Lord may so be made known as to be universally and exclusively honoured and obeyed (Isaiah 2:11). And the next grand object in view is, to promote the best interests of men (Isaiah 45:22; Isaiah 52:10).
V. The certainty of the whole, as intimated by the assertion—“For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” (Hebrews 10:23; Hebrews 11:11; 1 Samuel 15:29). What the mouth of the Lord hath spoken, the power of the Lord will accomplish (Jeremiah 32:27).
APPLICATION.—
1. Let us rejoice that our God is the God of glory, and in this character the God of salvation.
2. Let us individually seek to have saving manifestations of His glory (Exodus 30:3; Exodus 30:18).
3. Let us recognise our infinite obligations for the means we enjoy for this purpose.
4. Let us seek to advance His glory far and wide (Isaiah 62:1).—Adam Thomson, D.D.: Outlines, pp. 108–114.
We believe that Jesus Christ was that image of God whom prophets had been desiring to behold. Is that enough for us? Are we content that the world should go on as it is,—the Christian world, or the world that is not Christian?
If not, what is it we wish for? Is Jesus the One that shall come, or do we look for another?
There is a disposition among religious men to look for something else than the manifestation of Christ. Christ is, according to them, a means to an end, but not the end; the sight of Him is not itself what they covet; the loss of Him is not itself what they dread. Again, there are not a few who say that the Gospel has failed of its object. Has it set the world right? Has misery ceased? Has wrong ceased? Has the reign of peace begun? The last of these opinions ought not to be rejected till men have cleared their minds of the first.
I. In the Old Testament the misery of the Jewish people, though produced by the most different instruments, has but one cause. Whoever are the tyrants—Pharaoh, Jabin, Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar—tyranny is the cause of their groaning. A Deliverer is their one infinite necessity. Men appear as their deliverers; but they appear in the name of the Lord. Idolatry is the worship of some tyrant force. These thoughts and experiences were the school of the prophets. Through the prevalence of idolatry in the world, they were forced to rely upon the might of God and to expect the revelation of His glory. God cannot be disappointed. His purpose is to reveal Himself, and He will reveal Himself.
II. Isaiah is rightly called “The Evangelical Prophet,” because he saw more clearly than any one that only One who perfectly revealed God, who perfectly revealed Him as a Deliverer, could be the Person whom Israelites and all nations desired. Every event was a partial Epiphany. He hungered for one which should be for “all flesh.” The mouth of the Lord had as much spoken this as He had spoken the commands against adultery, or murder, or false witness.
III. Apostles, while they claimed the words of this prophet as pointing to Christ, forbade a contentment with what disciples had heard, or seen, or felt, or believed. They said, “We are saved by hope” (Romans 11:33; Ephesians 3:18-19).
IV. Of such teaching the consequence must be, that whatever calamities come upon the world will be stimulants and encouragements to this hope. There will be no shame in indulging it; because it is a hope for the world and not only for ourselves. There will be no uncertainty about it; because it does not depend upon our faith or virtue, but upon the eternal Word of God. The mouth of the Lord had spoken it.
LESSONS.—
1. Let us have no doubt that, however we may classify men’s oppressions, as individual or social, as political or intellectual, as animal or spiritual, God Himself has awakened the cry for freedom.
2. Let us have no doubt that that cry is, when truly understood and interpreted, a cry that God will appear as the Deliverer, that His glory may be revealed.
3. Let us therefore be most eager to meet all these cries, however discordant they be, with a true sympathy and recognition.
4. Let us, without precipitation—rather by acts than by words—show that we believe we can give God’s answer to them.
It is an old commonplace of divinity which we are strangely forgetting, that despair is the only utter perdition, because despair binds a man in the prison of his evil nature, and fastens the chain of the evil spirit upon him; because all hope points upwards to God, and is the response of our spirit to His Spirit. The promise of this final Epiphany stands not on the decrees of lawgivers, or the expectations of holy men, or the confidence of seers. It comes from Him who said, “Let there be light, and there was light.”—F. D. Maurice: Lincoln’s Inn Sermons, vol. i. pp. 175–289.