THE GOVERNING PRINCIPLE OF GOD’S PROVIDENCE
Isaiah 48:9. For My name’s sake, &c.
It is possible that the design of this verse may be to answer an objection. “If the character of the nation is such,” it might be said, “why should God desire to restore them again to their own land?” To this the answer is, it was not on their account—not because they were deserving of His favour, nor was it primarily and mainly in order that they might be happy. It was on His own account—in order to show His covenant faithfulness, His mercy, &c. And this is the reason why He “defers His anger” in relation to any of the children of men. His own glory, and not their happiness, is the main object in view. And this is right. The glory, the honour, and the happiness of God, are of more importance than the welfare of any of His creatures.
1. God acts with reference to His own glory, in order to manifest His own perfections, and to secure His praise.
2. The reason why the wicked are not cut off sooner in their transgressions is, that He may show His forbearance, and secure praise by long-suffering.
3. The reason why the righteous are kept amidst their frequent failures in duty, their unfaithfulness, and their many imperfections, is that God may get glory by showing His covenant fidelity.
4. It is one evidence of piety, and one that is indispensable, that there should be a willingness that God should secure His own glory in His own way, and that there should be a constant desire that His praise should be promoted, whatever may befall His creatures.—A. Barnes, D.D.: Commentary on Isaiah, in loco.
MERCY’S MASTER MOTIVE
Isaiah 48:9-11. “For My name’s sake will I defer Mine anger,” &c.
The people of Israel, in all their generations, were full of evil. The Lord falls back upon Himself, and within Himself finds a reason for His grace. “For my name’s sake,” &c. Finding a motive in His own glory which was bound up in the existence of Israel, and would have been compromised by their destruction, He turned unto them in love and kindness; Cyrus wrote the decree of emancipation, the Israelites came back to the land, and once again they sat every man under his own vine and fig-tree, and ate the good of the land. So far we give the historical meaning of the passage. We shall now use the text as an illustration of Divine love in other cases, for from one deed of grace we may learn all. As God dealt with His people Israel after the flesh, in the same manner He dealeth with His people Israel after the spirit; and His mercies towards His saints are to be seen as in a mirror in His wondrous loving-kindness towards the seed of Abraham. I shall take the text to illustrate—
I. THE CONVERSION OF THE SINNER.
1. God finds him so utterly ruined and depraved, that in him there is no argument for mercy, no plea for grace. You have been obstinate in sin; impudent in your dealing with God; your brow has been brass. You have behaved very treacherously towards God. You have broken your vows of repentance, &c.
2. God Himself finds the reason for His mercy. Here is the drift of the thought—the Lord is a patient God, and determines to make His patience glorious. God also would illustrate in the salvation of a sinner, not only His patience, but His sovereign and abundant mercy towards sinners. God can, by saving such a one as thou art, not only glorify His patience and grace, but display His power. It is evident that it is not an easy task to conquer thee. But now, it may be that a soul here present is saying, “Well, I can see that God can thus find a motive for mercy in Himself, when there is none in the sinner, but why is it that the Lord is chastening me as He is?” Possibly you are sick in body, have been brought low in estate, and are grievously depressed in mind. God now, in our text, goes on to explain—
3. His dealings with you, that you may not have one hard thought of Him. It is true He has been smiting you, but it has been with a purpose and in measure. “I have refined thee, but not with silver.” You have been put into the furnace of affliction, but not—note the “but,”—“but not with silver.” Now, when silver is refined it requires the most vehement heat of all metals. God has not brought upon you the severest troubles. You have been chastised, but not as you might have been, nor as you deserved to have been.
4. The Lord declares that the time of trial is the chosen season for revealing His love to you: “I have chosen thee,” &c. God seeth the things that thall be as though they were; everything is now with Him.
5. Lest the soul should forget it, the Lord repeats again the point He began with, and unveils the motives of His grace once more. What is the 11th verse but the echo of the 9th? God cannot save you, sinner, for your own sake; you are not worth the saving. Yet the Lord declares that He will refrain from wrath. He will have mercy upon you, O broken heart, for His own sake. Plead the merits of Christ, &c. If you will go to Him in Christ Jesus, though you be all but damned already, and feel that your death-warrant is signed; He will not, He cannot, reject you. Throw yourself at the cross-foot, and say, “Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief;” and God will never tarnish His name by thy destruction. And then He adds, “And I will not give my glory unto another.” But if a soul should perish while trusting in the blood of Christ, the glory of God would go over to Satan.
II. THE RECLAIMING OF THE BACKSLIDER.
1. Backsliding professor, your case is more evidently meant in the text even than that of the sinner, for God was speaking to His own people Israel in these remarkable words. Now your crime, if anything, is a more censurable one than that of the sinner. I can see no more reason why God should have mercy upon you than upon the ungodly; indeed, I see more reason for punishing you, for you have made a profession and belied it. How great your guilt! You see there is no reason for God’s grace that can be found in your person or in your character, but it is found in the divine heart.
2. Observe, that God, having thus declared the reason of His love to the backslider, goes on to tell him that the present sufferings, which he is now enduring as the result of his backslidings, should be mitigated. “I have refined thee, but not with silver,” &c.
3. Then comes His next word: “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” Though you are not open backsliders, perhaps you may be worse than those who are.
CONCLUSION.—Let us go one and all, whether we be unsaved sinners or backsliders, or may suspect ourselves to be either the one or the other—let us go to the dear fountain of His blood, whose open veins are the gates of healing to us; and together let us rejoice that He for His mercy’s sake can save us, and magnify Himself by the deed of mercy.—C. H. Spurgeon: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, No. 1041.
THE FURNACE OF AFFLICTION
Isaiah 48:10. I have chosen thee, &c.
No one can read the history of God’s ancient people without perceiving the wonderful compassion of God. Their numerous transgressions frequently call for the exercise of His justice; but He spared them in mercy. Sometimes He exercised them with heavy trials, placing them in the furnace of affliction; and it appears from the context that a consignment to such an ordeal has been salutary in its influence. A furnace is a fireplace or crucible for melting and refining gold or other metals (Proverbs 17:3; Proverbs 27:21). Sometimes it is the emblem of cruel bondage (Deuteronomy 4:20; Jeremiah 9:4). Also of judgments and severe and grievous afflictions, by which God punishes the rebellious (Ezekiel 22:18-20). By the furnace of affliction He also tries and proves His people, as in the text.
I. This furnace is afflictive. It is composed of numerous severe trials.
1. The scantiness of temporal things.
2. Bodily afflictions.
3. Bereavements.
4. Domestic trials of various kinds from ungodly relatives—refractory and disobedient children, &c. &c. Thousands of God’s people have been in this furnace. Even Jesus was a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.
II. This furnace is divinely appointed. Afflictions are not the result of chance (Job 5:6); not to be traced to mere natural causes; not the works of our enemies merely. They imply the moral government of God, and the wise and gracious arrangement of His providence. Every event is either His appointment, or has His all-wise permission (see Isaiah 45:7; Job 2:10; Job 34:29). Such views of the subject have reconciled and supported the minds of the godly under their various afflictions (Job 23:14; Psalms 31:15; Lamentations 3:27). What a blessing that all is arranged by infinite wisdom and love! (H. E. I. 143, 179–188, 3675, 3676).
III. For God’s people this furnace is not vindictive, but gracious. Divine chastisement may be a kind of punishment for sin committed. It frequently supposes some fault, which it is intended to correct. But sometimes men are persecuted “for righteousness’ sake” (Matthew 5:10). God will suffer affliction to befall us when we are cold and indifferent in His cause. But such punishment is not like that inflicted on the wicked. Punishment may be vindictive or corrective. The one is in wrath, the other in love; the one is for the good of society, the other for the good of the individual, to recover from the evil which affliction is intended to correct. God may be angry with His child, and not hate him. He may chastise him with His rod, yet love him with His whole heart (Hebrews 12:5-11; H. E. I. 56–74, 116, 189–196).
IV. This furnace is proportionate. That is, God will regulate its heat according to the circumstances of His people who may be placed there (Malachi 3:3; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Isaiah 43:2; Zechariah 3:9; Hebrews 4:15; H.E. I. 198, 3677). The paternal relation He bears to His people will not permit Him to deal with them after the manner of the “fathers of our flesh.” There can be no caprice, no unwise or intemperate anger in Him; He treats them tenderly (Psalms 103:8-9; Psalms 103:13-14). Compassion is mixed with the severest dispensations, and a wise distinction made between the different members of His family.
V. The tendency of this furnace is beneficial. “I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.” A more proper translation would have been, “I have tried thee,” &c. [Delitsch: “I have proved thee”]. By affliction of various kinds I have proved thy faith, hope, patience, and love (H. E. I. 75–84). Observe, God has nevertheless chosen some in the furnace of affliction. He has met them there, and by His Spirit has subdued them, and brought them to repentance, faith, and consecration to Himself. The furnace of affliction has been instrumental in their conversion. The design of a position in this furnace is to purify the Christian from sin, to wean from the world, &c. The believer emanates from this furnace improved, refined (James 1:2-3; 1 Peter 1:6-7, &c.; H. E. I. 85–90, 204–212, 3696–3702). Afflictions exercise the graces of the Christian (Romans 5:3-5). They preserve from sin. They assimilate the soul to Christ, who was “a man of sorrows.” They show the frailty of human life, and the vanity of the world. They teach sympathy with others (H. E. I. 135, 136). They make very humble, and break the haughty mind, and bring down the lofty thought (Isaiah 38:15). They induce a spirit of prayer (Psalms 77:2, &c.) In short, God, by placing His people in the furnace of affliction, is educating them for heaven (H. E. I. 112–115, 215).
APPLICATION.—
1. Let the sublime design of this furnace induce patience and submission.
2. Remember the time of trial is but short. Called the day of adversity—the hour of affliction—but for a moment (H. E. I. 217, 218, 3705, 3706).—Helps for the Pulpit, 1st series, pp. 175–178.
Affliction as a furnace [1477]
[1477] See also outline: “The Fiery Ordeal of the Church,” vol. i. p. 347.
1. A furnace is prepared for gold (Proverbs 17:3). So afflictions are appointed for the saints, who are compared to gold.
2. A furnace refines gold, and makes it much purer than before; so afflictions refine and make more holy (Job 23:10).
3. A furnace is made sometimes very hot, according to the kind and condition of the metal; so are afflictions, sometimes, very grievous, heavy, and trying, as the case requires. [1480]
[1480] It requires an excessive heat to purify silver, and to consume all its dross. Were God to keep His people in the furnace till all their dross, sin, and corruption were removed they would be utterly consumed. His chastisements are, therefore, not fierce, but gradual; in mercy, and not in rigid justice.—Dr. Gill.
4. A furnace melts the gold, and makes it soft before it is refined; so afflictions those whom they are meant to purify.
5. A furnace will destroy tin, lead, &c., and also the drossy part of gold; so afflictions burn up the loose and hypocritical, and purge from His people all their corruptions.
6. The metal, when it comes forth from the furnace, is more prepared for its proper use; so are the people of God when they come forth from affliction. Therefore, let us be cheerful and hopeful while we are in the furnace.—B. Keach.