I. We find in these words a wonderful teaching as to the inmost nature of sin. I refer especially here to the two words for sin which are employed here. That translated "transgression"literally means "treachery" or "rebellion;" and that translated sin "missing a mark." All sin is treacherous rebellion. That is to say, it has relation not only to a law, but to a lawgiver. It is not merely a departure from what is right, it is treason against God. And then, still further, the other word which is employed here conveys a profound and a tragic lesson. All sin misses the mark. Whoever transgresses against conscience and God misses the true aim and scope of his life. Every sin is a deflection from that which ought to be the goal of all that we do. And more than that, not only does each transgression miss the true aim of life, but it also misses what it aims at. All iniquity is a blunder as well as a crime.
II. The second thought is one conveyed by the form in which the promise is given us, viz., the permanent record of sin "I have blotted out." That points, of course, to something that has been written, and which it promises shall be erased. There is a book written, a permanent record of our evil-doing. Where is it written? Where, rather, is it not written? Written on character, written to a very large extent on circumstances, written above all in the calm, perfect memory of the all-judging God. The book is written by ourselves, moment by moment, and day by day.
III. There is another thought, and that is the darkening power of sin. "I have blotted out as a thick cloud," says the text. Like a misty veil drawn across the face of the heavens are man's sins. That emblem has a double truth in it, viz., that every evil deed tends to obscure and to hide from us the face of God; and also that every evil deed tends to unfit us for the reception of the blessings that come down from above.
IV. The last thought is the removal of the sin. "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins." The erasure implies the making a clean sheet of the blurred page; the cancelling of the whole long formidable column that expresses the debt. The blotting out as a cloud implies the disappearing of the misty vapour, as some thin fleecy film will do in the dry Eastern heavens, melting away as a man looks. God treats all my iniquity of the past as nonexistent, and He pours Himself upon me in order that all the evil that still haunts my spirit may be utterly expelled and driven forth.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,Nov. 19th, 1885.
I. Notice, first, the divineness of forgiveness. God removes the clouds, and God alone. The dispensation of pardon is too precious to be entrusted either to men or to angels. The Father has given authority to pardon to His Son, but to none other.
II. Look at the completeness of pardon. In the country which Isaiah knew the clouds were entirely blotted out during four months of the year, and the clearness of the atmosphere enabled the prophet to appreciate this illustration to an extent impossible to us. When God pardons a man there is not a sin to be seen.
III. Look at the assurance which God gives the pardoned that they are forgiven. God might forgive without telling us now that He has pardoned us. He might pardon secretly, but He pardons, giving knowledge of forgiveness, to those whose transgressions He covers. Now what profit is there in this? (1) Knowledge of pardon is a particular knowledge of God. (2) Knowledge of pardon is a source of joy and peace. (3) Knowledge of pardon is a power awakening love. (4) Knowledge of pardon is a motive to the pursuit of holiness. (5). Knowledge of pardon encourages us to bring others to God.
IV. Who are the assured? (1) Those who confess their sins. (2) Those who forsake their sins. (3) Those who turn to God. "Let him turnto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit,3rd series, No. 11.
I. In this text there is recognised the existence of sin. The individuals to whom this gracious promise was addressed had been guilty of enormous and aggravated rebellion; their transgressions had gathered blackness and density; they were "as a thick cloud," and as a "cloud." The Gospel proceeds altogether upon the basis of an entire and universal depravity. "It assimilates all varieties of human character into one common condition of guilt, need, and helplessness." It recognises but two varieties of character here, and but two varieties of condition in the world beyond the grave.
II. There is affirmed the existence of mercy. Scarcely had the fall defiled the world and entailed its heritage of wrath and shame before the first promise of grace was breathed. When man sinned, perverted his nature, corrupted his way, bereft himself of every love-compelling quality, became utterly defiled and unworthy, then grace came in a new fountain struck out of the Godhead, a new idea for the wonder and homage of the universe. All former displays which God had made of Himself were ascents to higher elevation. This was a mightier putting forth of His perfections, inasmuch as it showed not only how high the love of God could rise, but how deeply the mercy of God could go down; not only the glorious fellowship of angels which it could fill with its rejoicing, but the branded and downtrodden outcasts to whom it could stoop and uplift them from hell into heaven.
W. Morley Punshon, Sermons,p. 205; see also Penny Pulpit,No. 3896.
References: Isaiah 44:22. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 41; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 555.Isaiah 44:23. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxi., No. 1240.