CROOKED PLACES MADE STRAIGHT
Isaiah 45:2. I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight.
Man must go; the only question is—How? He may go, either with God, or without Him; God does not force Himself upon us. Whether we go with God, or without Him, we shall find crooked places. But having taken God as our leader, we have come to know what is the meaning of having these crooked places made straight for us. Straightness may be in apparent crookedness; amid all the curvature and intricacy, Christians have been brought through upon a course, that for all high purposes—filial education, spiritual culture, and strength—has been practically and really straight. A child might go to the geographer, and say, “What nonsense you talk about the earth being round! Look on this great crag; look on that deep dell; look on yonder great mountain, and the valley at its feet; and yet you talk about the earth being round!” The geographer’s view is comprehensive; he sees a larger world than the child has had time to grasp. We should regard the text—
I. AS A WARNING. There are crooked places. One could wish that we could make one’s own the experience of those that have gone before; but each man must run his own course.
1. There are crooked dispositions,—men of whom you can make nothing. Let the young, especially, be forewarned, and so forearmed. There are those to be met with in life, who, when you think you are walking in the line of their sympathies, will turn perversely upon you; men who, in the midst of your strenuous efforts to serve them, will be as unthankful and ungracious as the rock or the sand that is unblest by all the rich rains of Heaven.
2. There are crooked places in circumstances.
When we think we are proceeding most satisfactorily, we sometimes come to knots and difficulties of which we can make nothing.
3. Crooked places are found in the uncertainties of life. No man can certainly say what will transpire during the next hour; and so, again and again, to our disappointment and mortification, we are compelled to withdraw from our methods, and to abandon that on which we had set our heart.
II. AS A PROMISE. “I will go before thee.” This was a Divine promise made to Cyrus; and God has made the same promise to all who put their trust in Him. It is surely something to have a Father’s promise singing in the heart. Many know the inspiration even of a human promise. We need the triumphant faith that says definitely to God, “Thou didst promise this, and we wait for its fulfilment.” We need patience, too; patience that comes of faith, that God may, so to speak, have time to fulfil His promise. God does not say when He will straighten our path; nor how. He who waits for God is not misspending his time; such tarrying is the truest speed. If we could believe that, how calm, how quiet, how strong, how sublime would be our life!
III. AS A PLAN. We should regard the text as a scheme—a method, a special way of doing things; “I will go before thee.” The word before shows the plan; and it also expresses the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, “I will go alongside thee;” nor, “I will go behind thee;” but before thee. Sometimes, it may be, so far before, that we cannot see Him. There is sovereignty here; but there is love and tenderness too, as when the mother goes before her child that is just learning to walk. The idea of God going before every man, as if he were the only man in the world, does not dwarf God, but rather exalts Him exceedingly. “My Father and your Father,” said Christ, “my God and your God.”
CONCLUSION.—Let us beware of regarding the truth of the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be considered: “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;” “No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
2. Let us beware of regarding this text as a license for carelessness. “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground,” is the expression of every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.—Joseph Parker, D.D., The City Temple, pp. 4–12.