A DREADFUL MEETING
Isaiah 47:3. I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.
Little did Babylon think with whom she now had to contend. This was no empty threat. It was carried into full and fearful execution. Thus it has fared with other nations, and will, at last, with every impenitent sinner. There is a time of vengeance, as well as of mercy. Then God will meet His enemies, but not as a man.
1. When men are about to meet their enemies, it is generally their policy to keep up the show of peace and friendship as long as they can; and to make their preparations secretly, so that when they strike, the blow may fall without warning—without affording any time for escape. But it is not in this manner that God meets His enemies. He gives them warning upon warning.
2. God does not meet His enemies in vengeance, till He has tried every means to recover and reclaim them. The crime of rebellion is commonly visited, by earthly rulers, with immediate condign punishment.
3. God never meets His enemies in vengeance, without a just and sufficient cause. Men often do.
4. God’s anger is infinitely removed from that which burns in the breasts of His fallen creatures. He has no private resentment to gratify, no bye-ends to answer. He acts as a moral governor, as guardian of the interests of the universe.
5. When God will meet impenitent sinners, there is no hope of resisting Him.
6. When He does meet His enemies, it is with a fixed determination to crush them. He will not spare.
7. Men sometimes, when they undertake to crush an enemy, leave the work unfinished. But it is not thus that God will deal with His enemies. Wherever His vengeance strikes, the blow will be fatal.
8. After an earthly prince has subdued his rebellious subjects, and laid them under his high displeasure, he may be moved by their entreaties and sufferings to release them from prison, and restore them to favour. But God will never show favour in another world to those who refuse submission to Him in this, and die with arms in their hands. “Behold, now is the accepted time.” When God shall have cast the impenitent into hell, the last ray of light will be extinguished for ever.—Heman Humphrey, D.D.: American National Preacher, vol. iv. pp. 269–274.