PRACTICAL ATHEISM AND GENUINE PIETY
Isaiah 47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
Genesis 16:13. And she called the name of the Lord that spake unto her, Thou God seest me.
Here is—
I. PRACTICAL ATHEISM. “Thou hast said, None seeth me,” i.e., God is indifferent to our conduct. This is the practical denial of Divine Omniscience (Psalms 10:11; Psalms 94:7). That the self-existent and eternal God should not see is a palpable absurdity (Psalms 94:8-10). This haughty language suggests a sad tendency in human nature.
“This practical atheism is very prevalent and pernicious at the present time. Immense numbers utter the ‘Apostles’ Creed’ regularly, who exclude God from almost every province of their life. In the formation of their plans, in the management of their business, in their relations to society, &c., ‘God is not in all their thoughts.’ ” They act as if God did not see them. They are no more restrained in their conduct than they would be if this was their deliberate conviction, or than if they had settled it in their minds that God is regardless of human actions. “The causes of this tendency are not inherent in human nature, but are
(1.) Dislike of God.
(2.) Dread of God.”
II. GENUINE PIETY. “Thou God seest me.” Heb.: “Thou (art a) God of seeing—of vision.” God sees as well as hears (Jacobus). This pious utterance suggests a solemn fact in human history—that God sees us.
1. The very nature of God implies this. The supposition that there is anything that God does not see involves a contradiction.
2. The Bible teaches this (Job 34:21-22; Psalms 139:1-4; Psalms 139:11-12; Psalms 139:15-16; Jeremiah 23:24; Amos 9:2-3; Acts 17:27-28; Hebrews 4:13). The case of Hagar is a remarkable illustration—a sudden and surprising conviction that God sees and knows all (Genesis 16:13-14).
III. GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS WHICH THIS SUBJECT CONVEYS.
Such as these:—
1. It warns the wicked. Secret as their sins may seem, they are all discerned and known by Him who is their Judge (Job 34:21-22).
2. It should restrain us from evil. “The eye of a child will effectually check the execution of some evil purposes; more the eye of man or woman; yet more the eye of a holy man or woman. But God’s eye sees all things everywhere. And He is perfectly holy!”
3. It should incite us to a beautiful and useful life—beautiful in its spirit, and useful in its moral influence. “The athletes of Greece and Rome were inspired to run or wrestle by the knowledge of the fact that they were surrounded by a vast assembly of spectators (Hebrews 12:1). Oh! if we but, realised God’s presence, our life would become brave and beautiful and holy. God is not only present everywhere, but everywhere present to inspire, and aid, and bless.”
4. It should comfort and strengthen the people of God amid the duties and conflicts and trials of life. There is One who knows all things that relate to them, and who can with the utmost ease adapt all circumstances and events to their good. They are always under their great Master’s eye.—Alfred Tucker.
OMNISCIENCE IGNORED
Isaiah 47:10. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
I. This notion has great influence upon the conduct of man. Such a notion is convenient. Offenders against man retire to the dark when they mean to perpetrate their evil deeds. Concealment is the helpmeet of wrong. Because they sometimes, perhaps often, escape the most watchful human eyes, they fancy it possible to escape the eye of God. They would have no interest whatever in reaching this conclusion, if they never wished to do anything wrong. The sinner persuades himself of two or three things: he has gained his end; he has escaped observation; he has avoided the punishment. It is not necessary that all this be formulated. It is sufficient if the mind accustoms itself to question whether God sees. The sinner will take advantage of a doubt.
II. This notion is utterly untruthful and delusive. Whether our sinful deeds are seen by man or not, there is One to whom they are open as the day. If there is a God at all, this must be so. If you persuade yourself that God does not see, you persuade yourself that God is not. That part of the universe which God does not know, has no God. He who does not know everything is limited; therefore he is not God. But you cannot see Him. When you cannot see a man, you infer that he is not present. So with God. Thus you require that which would argue Him nothing more than a man after all. The spirituality of the Divine nature makes it possible for Him to be everywhere and see everything.
III. God has often, in human experiences, shown the delusiveness of this notion, and the time is fixed for the complete demonstration of its delusiveness.
1. Character is often seen through by man.
2. Retribution often follows man’s deeds in the present world. Joseph’s brethren, Achan, and Saul.
3. The future state will show that God saw. At the judgment day the books will be opened. What is written there will prove that sin was seen. Hell will be an everlasting proof.
CONCLUSION.—Sinner, God sees you; has seen you all along. Be warned, Christian!
1. Be encouraged and comforted by the thought that God sees. He sees the good and their goodness. Be more constantly influenced by this thought.
(1.) Let it restrain from sin.
(2.) Let it stimulate to holy obedience and earnest work (H. E. I. 2257–2267).—J. R., in the Pulpit Analyst.
It would probably be an aid to excellence of life, if we would suppose some distinguished person always looking upon us. We are often deterred from evil by fear of the disapproval of some one whose good opinion we value. The thought of the Divine observation exerts an important influence on the conduct of such as believe it. It is unspeakably pleasant to those who regard Him as an ever-present friend, with whom they are in full sympathy, whom they desire to please. To those who do not regard Him as their friend, who are not in sympathy with Him, and who pursue a course of conduct contrary to His nature, it is repugnant. Hence men who desire to live in sin persuade themselves that He does not see their actions. This persuasion of sinners is convenient to them, but it is delusive and mischievous.
I. IT IS A CONVENIENT PERSUASION.
1. It is adopted because of its convenience. It is on that account open to suspicion. The mind, in taking it, was not in the most favourable condition for the ascertainment of truth. Why is it convenient to say God does not see? Because there is a desire to do what He does not approve. When the fraudulent merchant remains alone in his office, manipulating his accounts so as to defraud his creditors; when the impure retire behind the curtains of the night and of the chamber; when the burglar disguises himself, and in darkness plies his nefarious occupation; when the murderer watches for his victim in the depths of the forest, it is for the same reason.
2. It rests on an insecure negation. In its most pronounced form, it amounts to a denial of the Divine existence. We will not say that all Atheists are persons whose immoral lives have rendered it impossible to retain comfort along with belief in God (H. E. I. 369); but it is certain that a large proportion of the Atheism around us has no better ground than this. A man in conflict with God’s character takes refuge in the denial of His existence. Or, while not formally denying it, he persuades himself that the Divine Being is too great to concern Himself with the small affairs and acts of mortals. Or, perhaps more frequently in the strong confidence that no human eye is upon him, the sinner crowds out of his mind the fact that the Divine Eye is upon him. He does not distinctly deny it, but he practically ignores it; and, hurried on by the strength of passion, forgets that he should have taken more than his fellow-men into consideration. Hence—
3. It becomes a welcome encouragement to sin. The heart is inclined to sin, and only restrained by the fear of punishment. Then if the fear of punishment is removed by the persuasion that there is no witness, the barrier is thrown down, the sinful inclination will be indulged. Gehazi never thought that the watchful eye of God had been upon his proceedings. Beware upon what grounds you release yourself from the restraint imposed by the recognition of God’s personal presence everywhere.
II. IT IS A DELUSIVE PERSUASION.
The sinner says none sees him. But there are moments when he suspects that he may have deceived himself. Conscience will sometimes whisper the question, “What if God, after all, has been observant of the sin?”
How frequently do transgressors find that they have not been so secluded from man as they supposed! Some unclosed crevice through which the deed has been seen. Subtle links of evidence are discovered and placed together so as to make a chain by which the most hidden crimes are dragged to light.
And it is unquestionably a delusion that GOD does not see. The sinner forgets the immense difficulties in the way of his convenient persuasion. He forgets that before he is in a position to say there is no God to see, he must know everything in the universe. Because the thing beyond his present knowledge may be this—that there is a God. Or if he supposes that, a God existing, He does not concern Himself with men, he forgets that the idea of a personal God carries with it this notion of His intimate acquaintance with everything about His creatures.—(H. E. I. 4015.)
What does He say about Himself in this respect? Does not the idea that He sees man’s acts run through His Word? (Psalms 94:9; Psalms 139:1-12). In other words, God’s acquaintance with our life and ways comprehends everything, however minute. Men practise a delusion on themselves when they imagine He does not see them.
III. IT IS A MISCHIEVOUS PERSUASION.
Inasmuch as human nature is so largely influenced by the fact that there are witnesses of our conduct, it is a mischievous withdrawment of influence for good when the witness whose approbation is the most important is supposed to be withdrawn. From those who are only deterred from evil by the consciousness of being seen or the fear of punishment, it is like the withdrawment of the master’s eye from the unfaithful servant. It opens the way to the commission and multiplication of sin. It increases the danger and the measure of punishment. Sin is the material out of which punishment is made. It sometimes overtakes sinners in the present world. For the most part it is deferred to the future state, perhaps to afford time and opportunity for the sinner’s repentance. It only falls in its full weight when the sinner has finally rejected the overtures of God’s grace. However secretly sin may have been committed, the judgment-day will reveal it (Matthew 25.; H. E. I. 3055). The conduct we are building up in our daily life is preparing the sentence of the Judge. Beware of the deceitfulness of sin. It fascinates with its eye, but it destroys with its sting. It will find out the sinner, though he retire to the deepest darkness or the remotest corner of the earth.
Cherish the belief in God’s constant presence and inspection. The very fact of unwillingness to be seen by Him shows a consciousness of something that dare not meet His eye. But is it not better to abandon that something, whatever it is, than delude ourselves with the persuasion that God does not see? Drusus would have all the city see his manner of life. Oh that we all so lived that the thought of God’s constant supervision could be a joy! The eye of His infinite holiness is upon us. With infinite approbation He sees the struggle against evil. With sorrowful condemnation He sees the sin. Fear to sin. Cultivate the disposition to please God. Suppress the inclination to the thing that would wish to elude His eye (H. E. I. 2257–2261).—J. Rawlinson.
PERNICIOUS KNOWLEDGE
(Sunday School Sermon.)
Isaiah 47:10. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.
Heavy are the charges laid against the great and guilty city of Babylon. Not only had she dealt unmercifully with God’s people (Isaiah 47:6), but her profligacy, luxury, pride, effeminacy, and wickedness were excessive (Isaiah 47:7-8; Isaiah 47:10). she was withal superstitious and idolatrous in the highest degree (Isaiah 47:9; Isaiah 47:12-13). What was the fruitful cause of all these abominations? Was it brutal ignorance, or barbarous uncultivation? No: it was just the reverse. Alas for the philosophers and wise men of this world! all the abominations of Babylon are here traced to human wisdom and science: “Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee.” A proposition which runs counter to many prevalent opinions and prejudices. Let us, then,
I. EXAMINE AND VINDICATE THIS DECLARATION.
1. Of what wisdom and knowledge does Isaiah thus speak? It was human wisdom and science in the highest perfection! The same which opposed Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, Paul at Athens: secular learning, the cultivation of the intellect, philosophy in its deepest and most subtle forms; for to this Babylon even the sages of Greece came as learners! in a word, it was all that the mind of man could attain without revelation.
2. Against this wisdom and knowledge the Scriptures bring the charge of perverting men’s minds in morals and religion. This is expressly done in this chapter. Ezekiel affirms the same of the great mercantile city of Tyre (Ezekiel 28:3-6). St. Paul came more into contact with this worldly wisdom than any of the Apostles, and he was perhaps more capable of appreciating its true character; and he uniformly condemns it (1 Corinthians 1:21-27; 1 Corinthians 3:18-20; Romans 1:22-23).
3. That this testimony is not overcharged, all history proclaims. Superstitions, vices, and infidelity have prevailed in those countries where, and exactly at those times when, carnal wisdom has been most highly cultivated. Egypt was the birthplace and cradle of science; and in no country was idolatry more degrading. The scriptural account of the state of Babylon, where science was nurtured and developed, is corroborated by profane history. Its abominable vices could not be here detailed. The greatest sages of Greece are all chargeable with either practising or inculcating the grossest vices. The moral atrocities of the French Revolution, when Reason was deified in the person of an infamous woman, prove that time cannot alter the deteriorating tendency of unassisted human intellect.
4. All this is accounted for by the Scripture account of the fall of man. If that account is correct, no other results can follow (Job 14:4). Equally with his other powers, the intellect of man was impaired by the fall of Adam, and became the ally of his polluted heart. The first example of its exercise was an instance of false reasoning against God Himself (Genesis 3:12). See also Genesis 6:5; Genesis 8:21; Ephesians 4:18. Hence it follows that intellectual blindness is upon the heart of man; all his rational faculties are incapable of just conclusions on any religious subject, except they be assisted by a supernatural power.
5. Hence it inevitably follows that the cultivation of the intellectual parts of man can of itself have no tendency towards moral or spiritual good. If all the mental powers of man be in themselves depraved, the increase of his intelligence can only increase his faculty of evil; so that secular education, apart from religious and moral control, must be in itself a curse and not a blessing. It may create a generation of philosophic sceptics and apologists for vice, or even praters about virtue; but a moral and religious people it never has produced, and never can. Let us therefore consider—
II. THE REMEDY WHICH GOD HATH PROVIDED AGAINST ALL THESE INTELLECTUAL EVILS.
Because we declare the moral powerlessness of merely human knowledge, our enemies affirm that we are the patrons of ignorance and bigotry, wish the mind to stagnate, and desire to repress scientific inquiries. Groundless charges. We fear not the progress of philosophy, if she be guided by religion; nor the wisdom of man, if it be in subordination to the wisdom of God. This is the remedy of the intellectual and moral evils of our time.
1. The supreme need of this generation is instruction in the wisdom and knowledge which are of God, above those which are of men (see vol. i. pp. 373–378).
2. This wisdom and knowledge must be imparted to mankind by those means which God has appointed. The Bible. The preaching of the Gospel. The instruction of children in Divine truth (H. E. I. 793, 794, 803–806, 1751, 1771).
CONCLUDING REMARKS.—
1. Let us beware of the pride of mental cultivation.
2. Let all our knowledge, and all our mental powers, be consecrated to the service of God.
3. Let the poor and simple rejoice that moral and spiritual excellence are attainable by them.—F. Close, A. M.: Fifty-Two Sketches of Sermons, pp. 177–183.
THE SECURITY OF PROUD SINNERS
Isaiah 47:10-11. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness, &c.
In the Babylonians we have types of proud sinners in every age—both in regard to their fancied security and the end of it.
I. THEIR FANCIED SECURITY. “I shall be a lady for ever. I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:7-8). The calamities that might come upon other men would not touch them! They were vainly confident of the perpetuity of their pomps and pleasures. Observe—
1. The cause of their fancied security. They thought themselves safe and out of danger, not because they were ignorant of the uncertainty of all earthly enjoyments, and the inevitable fate that attends states and kingdoms as well as particular persons, but because they did not lay this to heart (Isaiah 47:7), did not apply it to themselves, nor give it a due consideration. They lulled themselves asleep in ease and pleasure (chap. Isaiah 56:12). They did not remember the latter end (Isaiah 47:7) of their prosperity, that it is a fading flower, and will wither; of their iniquity, that it will be bitterness; and that the day will come when their injustice and oppression must be reckoned for and punished. To-day ungodly men are easy in their sinful ways, because they never think of death, and judgment, and their future state.
2. The ground of their fancied security.
(1.) Their power and wealth, which they had gotten by fraud and oppression, were their confidence (Isaiah 47:10). Like Doeg (Psalms 52:7). Many have so debauched their own consciences, and are got to such a daring pitch of wickedness, that they stick at nothing; and this they trust to, to carry them through those difficulties which embarrass men who make conscience of what they say and do.
(2.) Their policy and craft, which they called their wisdom, were their confidence. They thought they could out-wit all mankind, and therefore might set their enemies at defiance; but their wisdom and knowledge perverted them—made them forget themselves and the preparation necessary to be made for hereafter.
3. The foolish boastings into which their fancied security betrayed them.
(1.) “I shall be a lady for ever” (Isaiah 47:7). Babylon looked upon the patent of her honour to be not merely during the pleasure of the sovereign Lord, the fountain of honour, or during her own good behaviour, but to be perpetual (cf. Revelation 18:7). Those great ones mistake themselves who think they shall be exalted for ever; death will shortly lay them and their honour in the dust. Saints shall be saints for ever, but those who are merely this world’s great ones will be what they are only for a little while (H. E. I. 1537).
(2.) “I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children” (Isaiah 47:8), i.e., she would never lack a monarch to espouse and protect her, nor would there be any diminution in the numbers of her people. Those that are in the height of prosperity are apt to fancy themselves out of the reach of adverse fate (Psalms 10:4-6).
(3.) “None seeth me” (Isaiah 47:10), i.e., “No one sees me when I do amiss, and therefore there will be none to call me to an account.” It is common for sinners to trust to their wicked arts and designs to stand them in stead, because they think they have carried them on so plausibly that none can discern the wickedness and deceit of them. How foolish are they in their wickedness! (Psalms 139:11-12.)
II. ITS END. It will be ruin (Isaiah 47:11)
1. It will be a complete ruin—the ruin of all their comforts and confidences. “These two things shall come upon thee (the very two things thou didst set at defiance), loss of children and widowhood. Both thy princes and thy people shall be cut off, so that thou shalt be no more a government, no more a nation.” Note, God often brings upon secure sinners those very mischiefs which they thought themselves least in danger of; “they shall come upon thee in their perfection, with all their aggravating circumstances, and without anything to allay or mitigate them.” What a contrast between the afflictions of the godly and of the godless!
2. It will be a sudden and surprising ruin. The evil shall come in one day, nay in a moment (Isaiah 47:9), which will make it much the more terrible, especially to those who were so very secure. “Evil shall come upon thee, and thou shalt have neither time nor way to provide against it, or to prepare for it; for ‘thou shalt not know from whence it rises,’ and therefore shalt not know where to stand upon thy guard.” “Thou shalt not know the morning thereof;” so the Hebrew phrase is. We know just when and where the day will break and the sun rise, but we know not what the day, when it is come, will bring forth, nor when or where trouble will arise; perhaps the storm may come from that point of the compass which we little thought of. Babylon pretended to great wisdom and knowledge (Isaiah 47:10), but with all her wisdom cannot foresee, nor with all her wisdom prevent, the ruin threatened (Isaiah 47:11). Fair warning of this desolation was indeed given them by the prophets of the Lord; but they slighted that notice, and therefore justly is it so ordered that they should have no other notice of it, but that, partly through their own security, and partly through the swiftness and subtility of the enemy, when it came it should be a perfect surprise to them. Those that slight the warnings of the written Word, let them not expect any other premonition.
3. It will be an irresistible ruin (Isaiah 47:11). There is no opposing the judgments of God when they come with commission. Babylon herself, with all her wealth, power, and multitude, is not able to put off the mischief that comes.—Matthew Henry: Commentary, in loco.