THE BLESSEDNESS AND DUTY OF GOD’S PEOPLE
Isaiah 44:21-22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, &c.
God contrasts the happy condition of His chosen people with that of the poor blind idolaters whom He had been describing in the verses before.
I. All who have come to Christ are forgiven (Isaiah 44:22).
1. The completeness of their forgiveness. Shown in many ways in the Bible (H. E. I. 2332–2337).
2. It is present forgiveness. “I have.” Some say, “I hope, &c.; I don’t know, &c.; It is impossible to tell, &c.”
3. It is Divine.
(1.) Some try to blot out their own sins.
(2.) Some hope that Christ will blot out their sins. Speak to unforgiven souls.
II. All that have come to Christ are God’s servants. Two reasons are given:
1. Because redeemed.
2. Because formed by God.
III. Souls in Christ shall not be forgotten of God. His children often think He has forgotten them.
1. So it was with Moses in the land of Midian.
2. So it was with David (Psalms 77:13, 21)
3. So it was with Hezekiah when God told him he must die (Isaiah 38:14). But God said, “I have heard thy prayer,” &c.
4. So shall it be with God’s ancient people (Isaiah 49:14-15).
5. So it is in the text. The world may forget thee—thy friends, &c. Yet “thou shalt not be forgotten of me.” The Lord cannot forget you.
IV. A redeemed soul should return unto God. The sin and misery of every natural soul is in going away from God.
1. Come into the arms of His love.
2. Come into communion with Him.
3. To the backslider. You have done worse than the world, yet He says, “Return,” &c.—R. M. M‘Cheyne: Sermons and Lectures, pp. 60–65.
GOD’S REMEMBRANCE OF ISRAEL
Isaiah 44:21. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me
1. This promise was addressed, literally and primarily, to the natural descendants of Jacob: a people whom Jehovah had deigned to call into special relation with Himself, and whom He had distinguished by various privileges from all other nations of the earth. But we are abundantly warranted in extending it also to the Christian Church, the spiritual Israel, of which the literal Israel was an instructive type (cf. Exodus 19:5-6, and 1 Peter 2:9-10). It belongs also to every individual believer in Jesus, as a lively member of that body.
2. More is intended in this declaration than is expressed. “Thou shalt not be forgotten of me;” that is, I will not overlook thy interests, or neglect thy welfare, or withhold anything that will promote thy real and permanent advantage (Isaiah 49:13-16).
I. Consider this promise as it applies to the ancient Jewish Church. The literal posterity of Jacob were separated from all other nations by a covenant which conferred on them peculiar privileges. But they proved themselves “a foolish people and unwise,” by the manner in which they requited His love. As a just expression of His displeasure, He had determined that they should be carried away into captivity at Babylon (Isaiah 42:22-25; Isaiah 43:27-28). But the prophetic denunciations of chastisement and desolation were coupled with assurances of fatherly regard, and with promises of ultimate deliverance. Even among this degenerate people there were some truly pious individuals who mourned over the iniquities of their countrymen and trembled at God’s word. For their support and encouragement Isaiah subjoins to the threatenings he has delivered the comfortable words of our text. To the righteous individuals of the community it gave a pledge that it should be well with them at all times and in all circumstances; and it also conveyed an assurance that in due time the collective Israel should be released from captivity, brought home again, and indulged with another period of national trial (chap. Isaiah 44:22; Isaiah 44:24; Isaiah 44:26-28). The accomplishment of these gracious promises in the actual return from Babylon is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Though the national independency and prosperity of the Jews suffered occasional suspension and decline, yet they were not finally scattered till the measure of their iniquities was filled up by their murder of the Messiah, and their obstinate rejection of the glorious gospel. Then wrath came upon them to the uttermost (P. D. 2063, 2080, 2082). But, low and degraded as is their present situation, God can yet lift them up. Israel is not yet totally forgotten of God. He remembers His ancient covenant with Abraham His friend. These natural branches, at present cut off and rejected, will be grafted again into their own olive-tree.
II. Consider the promise of our text as it applies to the Christian Church of the present age. God’s Church at large is not and cannot be forgotten of Him. Many have been her afflictions and persecutions, but out of them all He hath delivered her. The attacks of her enemies He has over-ruled for her ultimate increase and establishment. Many are the promises given for her encouragement. They may be arranged under four general classes:—
1. He has promised at all times to afford to His Church the means of grace, and to give His blessing with the means (Isaiah 30:20-21; Jeremiah 3:15; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 48:17; Matthew 18:20.)
2. He has promised to His Church a great increase of her internal purity, tranquillity, and glory (Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 65:25; Isaiah 11:13; Isaiah 60:21; Zechariah 14:20; Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 4:5).
3. Another class of promises relates to the external peace and victory which God has destined His Church to enjoy in the latter days (Isaiah 41:11). The prophetical part of the Book of Revelation is sublimely explicit in its declaration on this head.
4. A fourth class relates to the future enlargement and extension of the Church (Isaiah 2:2; Isaiah 49:6; Zechariah 14:9; Malachi 1:11).
These promises are an ample comment on the more general and laconic declaration of our text. God is now in the very act of accomplishing these gracious engagements. The interests of the Church are safe, for they are in the hands of God. The cause which lies so near your hearts occupies a distinguished place in His. Tremble not for the ark of God (H. E. I. 1246–1251; P. D. 518).
III. Consider the import of the text in its application to individual Christians. What the Lord says of His Church at large He says to every member of it in particular. Only ascertain your right to the character of “an Israelite indeed,” and then you will also have ascertained your right to be comforted by the assurance that you shall not be forgotten of God.
1. He will not forget those circumstances in your situation which may at any time render necessary His special help and interference. Trust in Him always (H. E. I. 4049–4053).
2. He will not forget the intimate and endearing relations which He bears toward you, nor the claims which these relationships give you on His friendship. He will not forget that He is your Creator, your Redeemer, your God in covenant.
3. He will not forget “the exceeding great and precious promises” by which He is explicitly pledged to help and save you. Men often forget their promises, but God never!
4. He will not forget your prayers. They are all duly filed and registered, ready to be answered in that time, in that way, which will be most for your good and so for His glory (H. E. I. 3884–3886). What a blessed counter-action of those uneasy apprehensions as to our future lot and circumstances, which we are too prone to indulge. We may apply the same consideration as an antidote to our natural dread of dying. Many sincere Christians, though not afraid of what shall be after death, feel considerable apprehension as to the act of dying. They shrink from the prospect of dissolving agonies and parting pangs. But you have unbosomed your feelings and fears on this subject before the Throne. Your prayers will surely be answered to your soul’s comfort when your appointed time shall come (H. E. I. 1642, 1643).
5. God will not forget to confer upon you, if faithful unto death, the reward of glory. He will not forget your services in His righteous cause, your active zeal in doing His will, your patient resignation in suffering it (Hebrews 6:10; Matthew 10:42; Galatians 6:7-8; Matthew 5:12; Matthew 25:23; Matthew 25:34-40). THEREFORE, 1 Corinthians 15:58.—Jabez Bunting, D.D.: Sermons, vol. i. pp. 438–452.
I. THE EXPERIENCE HERE ADDRESSED. It is that of a soul in doubt of God’s goodness and faithfulness. Few, if any, of God’s people go through life without knowing something of this state of mind (cf. Isaiah 49:14; Psalms 77:7-9).
1. We may feel thus when God is less in our thoughts than is our wont. It very often happens that we attribute to the want of thoughtfulness in a friend what is really due to nothing more nor less than our own forgetfulness of him; and so when we are tempted to think less of God, we fancy He has forgotten us.
2. We may feel thus when we are less active than is our wont in Christ’s service. Work for God keeps the sense of His presence and sympathy alive and strong. When we diminish aught of our work, or do it with less intensity of feeling, we suffer a corresponding loss of God’s presence and favour, &c.
3. When we are unusually tried and afflicted. We find it hard always to persuade ourselves this does not mean a distant, if not an angry God. It is only when sunshine returns that we are able to see love and chastening hand in hand.
4. When our prayers seem unanswered. Nothing so helps the feeling that God has forgotten us as delayed answers to prayer, &c.
5. When we lack the signs of prosperity in our work for Christ. Some natures are exceedingly sensitive on this point, and when the harvest is long coming we think ourselves forgotten, &c.
II. THE PROMISE HERE GIVEN. “O Israel,” &c. Every promise is based on the promiser. This is God’s word to His people.
1. He will not forget our persons. We are not known before God in the aggregate, but as individuals (Isaiah 49:16). He knew what house and street Peter was in at Joppa. He will not forget our persons.
2. He will not forget our prayers. If not what we ask, He will give us an equivalent good.
3. He will not forget His work in us.
4. He will not forget our work for Him.
Some reasons for thus speaking:
1. His nature will not allow Him to forget us.
2. Nor His promises.
3. Nor His redeeming work in Christ.
4. Nor His honour (see vol. i. p. 267).
CONCLUSION:
1. We forget God. Let this promise rebuke us.
2. When we think God forgets us, let this promise encourage us.—James Hoyle: The Study and Homiletic Monthly, vol. iv. new series, pp. 231, 232.
The bane of friendship, the canker worm of human life, is suspicion and distrust. Confidence in the character and reliance upon the attachment of those we love form principal ingredients in the cup of human happiness; if these be withdrawn, affection has no resting-place. Every one wishes for some firm object on which he may repose his confidence; a mind endued with any portion of proper sensibility feels equal pain at distrusting or being distrusted. Mutual good faith is the cement of society,—the bond which binds man to man (H. E. I. 1882–1888). A willingness to confide, where no cause for hesitation or demur can reasonably be presumed to exist, is a characteristic of a noble mind; a readiness to distrust without sufficient reason marks an uncertain and unstable character.
As suspicion is the bane of human friendship, unbelief is the destruction of religious hope. It is equally dishonourable to God and injurious to ourselves. To guard us against distrust, in regard to God’s providence and grace, is one great design of Holy Scripture. For this purpose God mercifully gives us such promises and assurances as our text.
I. WHAT THIS PROMISE SUPPOSES.
When God says to us, “Thou shalt not be forgotten of Me,” it is implied,
1. That we set a high value upon God’s gracious remembrance. The wicked deem it no sorrow to be forgotten of God; He is not in all their thoughts, and they have no wish to have any share in His. But those who are born of God attach great importance to His gracious remembrance of them; they know it secures happiness in all circumstances, victory over all enemies, support under all trials, a saving interest in all spiritual blessings (Psalms 25:7; Psalms 106:4, &c.)
2. That we have some apprehensions that it is not extended to us. Thus it was with Israel, and with some apparent reason. Thus it is with ourselves when the promise is very long delayed (Isaiah 49:14); when Providences wear a frowning aspect (Psalms 31:12); when conscience is awake to the number and aggravation of our offences; when our enemies appear to triumph over us (Psalms 74:10; Psalms 74:22-23); when our religious state is after all doubtful; when we experience a sensible decline of consolation (Psalms 77:9).
3. That God is concerned, not only for the safety, but also for the happiness of His people. He anticipates the objection, and answers it. He loves to see the harp taken down. You may be forgotten by your dearest earthly friends; many unexpected things happen (Genesis 40:23; Jeremiah 2:32; Isaiah 49:15), but God will never forget His people, nor leave them long under the delusion that He has forsaken them.
II. ON WHAT GROUND DOES THIS PROMISE REST?
Anxiety would be becoming if the fact were doubtful. Some anxieties concerning men are reasonable; some of the “securities” they put into our hands are worthless. But in this promise we should trust unfalteringly, for it rests—
1. On a perfection that cannot be tarnished. Remember who is the speaker; Him in whom all perfections centre as their birthplace, their residence, their home.
2. On a covenant that cannot be broken. The covenant of grace made with Christ is immutable (2 Corinthians 1:20).
3. On a relationship that cannot be destroyed. The union that subsists between Christ and believers is the great guarantee of its fulfilment: “I in them.”
Besides, we have for our encouragement unimpeachable records of the manner in which God has dealt with His other promises to His people (1 Kings 8:56).
III. WHAT CORRESPONDING FEELINGS IT DEMANDS.
1. Confidence.
2. Gratitude, which manifests itself in loving remembrance of all His loving-kindness to us, and in cheerful obedience to all His commandments.—Samuel Thodey.
SIN AND MERCY
Isaiah 44:22. I have blotted out, &c.
There are some representations of the character of God which strike us, when we think of them, only with awe. But there are others infinitely more tender and consoling. Such are the contemplations suggested by this passage.
I. There is the thought of sin. The individuals to whom these words were originally addressed were guilty of crimes of great enormity and aggravation, crimes that had gathered themselves up until they were black and dense as a thick cloud (Isaiah 1:2-15). But, passing from this particular case to the general application, the substance of these terms applies to us all. “Who can say, I have made my heart clean; I am pure from sin?” Sin is everywhere (Romans 5:12). By pseudo-philosophers and benevolent idealists this doctrine is deemed unpopular and repulsive, a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence This fancied exemption from the ruin of the Fall, this clinging to the unaided perfectibility of human nature, is a dangerous error, and must be confronted and exposed. “Man goeth astray even from the womb, and every imagination of the heart is only evil continually.” The gospel proceeds upon the basis of universal depravity, which is so repulsive to human pride. The Scriptures recognise only two varieties of condition. There may be the purest and most beautiful morality without godliness (John 5:42). The true minister of Christ must set forth the personal guilt and danger of every member of his charge. There is sin—sin as a cloud, and as a thick cloud.
II. If that were all, this would be a melancholy message; but I now come to the second thought—there is mercy. It might seem strange, and it does seem strange, that after this declaration of apostacy and of impenitence the prophet should not have gone away after pronouncing sentence of doom—gone away without leaving any hope of mercy. Premising that this method of reconciliation must provide somehow for the purity of God, and of the vindication of the honour of His throne, and that all that has come about by the atonement of Jesus, we proceed to observe—
1. That the character of God, as the God of mercy, is the great Bible theme. The whole tale of the Bible is a tale of grace. The last words of the Bible are words of grace (Revelation 22:17). Grace is everywhere (Romans 5:18). This gift of grace was not known in the world until the entrance of sin. There had been many attributes of God before; but grace was, so to speak, a new idea, a new fountain struck out of the heart of the Deity. There was no room for grace in a universe where there was no room for sin; but when sin came into the world, grace came into the world. This was the first stoop of the Divinity. “God can be just, and yet,” &c., Christ died for you all.
2. Look at the sufficiency with which the salvation is invested. As aggravated as your sins have been, so abundant is the mercy of the Lord. Men do not sin and finally perish because they are appointed thereunto by an irreversible decree of God. There can be no responsibility where there is no power. There is no barrier to your own present and eternal salvation except the barrier which your own hands have piled. There is mercy for you. Search the Bible through from the beginning to the end, you find frequent, explicit, and continual declarations of mercy. If you are a sinner, not all the morbid ingenuity of human unbelief, and not all the sophistry of the old demon of the pit, can prevent you from entering, if you will, into the charter of liberty wherewith Christ waits to make His people free. You may tell your own tale if you will, I do not care. “Let the wicked,” &c. There is mercy for all, mercy for you.—W. M. Punshon, LL.D.: Penny Pulpit.
FORGIVENESS A PRESENT MERCY
Isaiah 44:22. I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, &c.
I. THE PROPHET’S SIMILE. Our sins may well be likened unto clouds, as to,
1. Their number. Who can count the clouds which chase each other across the winter sky? And has not one of the holiest men who ever lived left upon record the humiliating confession that his sins were not less numerous (Psalms 40:12).
2. Their nature. The clouds are all exhalations from the land and sea, the earthly portion of the universe, and our sins are all the produce of our corrupt and earthly nature; they all ascend out of the soil of the natural heart (Matthew 15:19).
3. Their effects. The clouds shut out from us the sun’s clear and shining light and the bright blue sky, and when they greatly thicken they augur storms and tempests; so our sins, &c.
4. Their situation. The clouds are hung out in mid-heaven, high above our heads, and although it appears the simplest thing in nature to dissolve and dissipate them, for ofttimes while we look the rays of the sun are melting them away, so that the figure which we have just delighted to trace in them is, even while we gaze, changed, and loosened, and scattered, and then gone for ever, yet they are so placed that, weak and transient as they are, not all the efforts of all the men that ever dwelt upon the wide world’s surface could avail to blot one cloud out of existence. So is it with our sins. Man may punish sin, but he cannot pardon it; he may pardon the crime, that is, the portion of a transgression which affects himself, but he can never pardon the sin. No man can dissipate the smallest sin that hangs between us and our Maker. There is but one Being in the universe who can do this, “I, even I,” &c.
II. THE PROPHET’S DOCTRINE: that forgiveness is a present mercy. “I have blotted out,” &c. The idea of blotting out a cloud seems to be an allusion to that dissolving of these vapours which is continually taking place in the atmosphere, when the heat of the summer sun draws up the moisture of the cloud, and renders it completely invisible. As completely does God dissipate the sins of the believing penitent. It is as impossible to bring them forth again to judgment as it would be to reconstruct the clouds, with all their varied shapes and hues and tints which we looked upon last summer, and which never outlived the day we gazed upon them. Blessed consideration for the souls of God’s believing and pardoned people. It is the teaching of Scripture, not that God will forgive the penitent at the day of judgment, nor even in the hour of death, but in the very moment that they turn to Him. The forgiveness which He bestows is full and free, and it is bestowed at once and for ever. The Scriptures abound with instances of men who could rejoice in a present pardon (2 Samuel 12:13; Isaiah 6:7; Isaiah 38:17; Matthew 9:2; Ephesians 4:32; 1 John 2:12; Psalms 32:1-2).
III. THE DIVINE ARGUMENT. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” God’s method of dealing with His fallen and rebellious creatures is the very reverse of what we would naturally expect. The great argument which He employs to bring them back to Himself is, not what He will do for them, but what He has done for them (Romans 5:8; Romans 12:1; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21). So here, He does not encourage the penitent by telling them that if they attain to a sufficiently deep and poignant repentance He will forgive them, but by assuring them that they are already forgiven; that in the very first moment when sorrow for sin sprang up within them, He blotted out their sins. Surely this argument should prevail to turn us from our iniquities, to encourage us to accept the offers of Divine mercy, and to begin to serve God with that holy devotedness which can be inspired only by grateful love.
Lastly, if we yield to this Divine argument, and grasp firmly the prophet’s doctrine, the firmament that bends above us will speak to us evermore of the abounding grace of God. If in the clouds that pass over it we behold symbols of our many, our daily, our dark, our desperate sins, the blue vault of heaven through which they sail will speak to us still more eloquently of the Divine mercy—immeasurable in height, and length, and depth, and breadth, all infinite in love. Sinner as I am, why should I despond? why should I fear? why should I for a moment doubt? As easy that one vast cloud should shroud both hemispheres, should shut out for ever sun, moon, and stars, as that my sins, however great, however numerous, should surpass in magnitude God’s pardoning love, that abounding grace, that infinite forgiveness which is treasured up for me in Christ Jesus my Lord.—H. Blunt, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 22–39.
Sin and iniquity are represented here under the figure of clouds. True, in some respects they are not like clouds. Clouds do good service. They are reservoirs to store up the excessive moisture of the earth, and in due season to return it to the earth for refreshment and fertility (Psalms 65:2.) They serve as conductors of the electric fluid from one part of heaven to another. They are sometimes welcome as screens to moderate the excessive heat of a burning sun. But sin and iniquity produce nothing but evil; no good either to man’s interest or happiness. Yet there are points of resemblance between clouds and human sin. Clouds veil the sun, and sins hide from us the face of God, and darken our view of heaven. Clouds narrow our prospect, and sin prevents us from looking clearly and cheerfully into the great future world, blinding us to everything except the lower things in the world that now is. Clouds, when they are fully charged, bring down the fury of the storm; and sin, when it is finished, brings upon the sinner the tempest of God’s righteous anger, in full and just retribution for every evil word and deed. Lastly, clouds are quite beyond our control; the power to disperse cloud, or blot out sin, rests with God alone.
1. Carefully consider this last point of likeness. God removes the clouds, and He alone. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Man can make many changes and removals; in the physical world in which he lives, in the world of humanity of which he forms part. But not one sin can he blot out. God has reserved to Himself that power and and prerogative:
(1.) Because the dispensing of pardon is too precious to be entrusted either to men or angels. Not having the power of omniscience to read the heart, they might not dispense it wisely. What mistakes they might make!
(2.) All sin, whoever may be injured by it, is ultimately against God (H. E. I. 4480). Therefore all punishment is in His hands, and the dispensation of pardon is His prerogative.
2. It is a great thing we do when we ask Him to exercise it on our behalf. This appears when we consider a further point of likeness between wickedness and clouds. Clouds are used in Bible language to express a vast number (Hebrews 12:1; Isaiah 60:8). Can we deny that in this respect this figure is sadly applicable to us? How terribly all our life long—every day!—our sins have been massing themselves into thick clouds, which are only awaiting the word to come down in the storms of retribution (Psalms 11:6).
3. For some God has done this great thing. To them He has said plainly, “I have blotted out,” &c. To whom has He said this? To those who have obeyed the latter part of the text: “Return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee.” These have found that God has provided a full and perfect redemption. Clouds, be they ever so thick, ever so fully charged with the wrath of future punishment, are blotted out: and the forgiven soul stands before God, and looks up into the cloudless sky of His love.
4. For any one whose conscience is not stone-dead, such a change as this must appear of all things most desirable and full of blessing. It is so, but it can never be yours, until you get rid of that thick cloud of unrepented, unforgiven sin which always abides between you and the Father of Mercies. How to get rid of it you know.
5. The sins which form that cloud are yours—“Thy sins, thy transgressions.” You cannot shift them from your own shoulders to some one else; they belong to you, and you only. You may shut your eyes to them: but there they are, like a heavy cloud. You can no more drive them away than you can disperse it. You may try so to colour this or that evil deed as to give it a better look; just as the thunder-cloud sometimes gets touched by a transient light, till the skirts of the terrible thing look bright with crimson and gold. But it is a terrible thing, in spite of all that fleeting brightness which does not belong to it. God looks through all the gay colouring you would lay upon your sins, and sees them as they are. They are the cause of your separation from Him now, and will be the cause of your separation from Him in eternity, if they be not blotted out while you are on this side of the grave.—Edward Baines, M.A.: Sermons, pp. 13–25.
What becomes of the believer’s sins?
1. They are forgiven (Ephesians 4:32; 1 John 2:12).
2. Not to be even mentioned unto him (Ezekiel 33:16).
3. Blotted out (“I have blotted out,” &c., and chap. Isaiah 43:25).
4. Covered (Psalms 85:2; Psalms 32:1).
5. Removed (Psalms 103:12).
6. Cast into the sea (Micah 7:19).
7. Hid (Hosea 13:12).
8. Behind God’s back (Isaiah 38:17, see vol. i. p. 438).
9. Forgotten (Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 10:17).
Believer, ponder these precious figures. If they do not teach full, perfect, complete, and present salvation, what language can teach it?
CONCLUSION: Isaiah 1:18.—Bible Readings, edited by Briggs & Elliott.