I. Man must go. Each man is accomplishing a journey, going through a process. The only question is How? Man may go, either with God or without Him. Whether we go with God or without Him, we shall find crooked places; we had better clearly understand this, lest any one should turn round after he has walked the first mile of Christian life, and say he expected there would have been no such places in all the course. Life is crooked; we ourselves are crooked; there is nothing in all human experience of which we can certainly say, This is perfectly straight. God Himself often inserts a crook in the lot. We should regard the text as a warning. There arecrooked places.
II. The text is also a promise. "I will go before thee." God does not say where He will straighten our path; He does not say how; the great thing for us to believe is that there is a special promise for us, and to wait in devout hope for its fulfilment. He who waits for God is not misspending his time. Such waiting is true living such tarrying is the truest speed.
III. The text is not only a warning and a promise, but also a plan. It is in the word beforethat I find the plan, and it is in that word beforethat I find the difficulty on the human side. God does not say, I will go alongside thee; we shall go step by step: He says, I will go before thee. Sometimes it may be a long way before us, so that we cannot see Him; and sometimes it may be just in front of us. But whether beyond, far away, or here close at hand, the great idea we have to live upon is that God goes before us. (1) Let us beware of regarding the text as a mere matter of course. There is an essential question of character to be settled. "The steps of a good manare ordered by the Lord." (2) Let us beware of regarding this text as a licence for carelessness. Let us not say, "If God goes before me, and makes all places straight, why need I care?" To the good man all life is holy; there is no step of indifference; no subject that does not bring out his best desires. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground" is the expression 6f every man who knows what it is to have God going before him.
Parker, City Temple,1870, p. 4.
References: Isaiah 45:2. Pulpit Analyst,vol. i., p. 166; Preacher's Lantern,vol. ii., p. 381.