DISCOURSE: 959
THE CHURCH PLEADING WITH GOD
Isaiah 51:9-10. Awake, awake, put on thy strength, O arm of the Lord! awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?
GOD delights in encouraging his people, when reduced to the lowest ebb of despondency. Hence, under the bitterest oppression, he assures them that the period shall soon arrive for the administering of consolation to their souls, and for the enlargement of the Church by a vast accession of Gentiles to her. And, to impress his assurances more strongly on their minds, he again and again repeats that most condescending and affectionate entreaty; “Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness:” “hearken unto me, my people:” “hearken unto me, ye in whose heart is my Law [Note: ver. 1, 4, 7.].” Of such addresses it becomes his people, under their heaviest distresses, to take advantage. As Benhadad, when captive to the king of Israel, and expecting nothing but death, charged his servants to observe with the utmost diligence whether any favourable expression dropped from the lips of Ahab, and to take immediate advantage of it [Note: 1 Kings 20:33.]; so should we, when we hear the offended Majesty of Heaven addressing us in such terms of grace and mercy. But his ancient people, listening only to their own desponding fears, complained, as it were, of him, as if he had become regardless of their cries, and indifferent to their welfare. This was not well. Yet as, on the whole, their importunity was pleasing unto God, I shall consider the words before us,
I. As expressing the desires of God’s ancient Church—
The Jewish Church are here represented as in a most disconsolate state, under the pressure of severe trials, and under the apprehension of yet more grievous oppressions. And they call on God, in the most urgent manner, to interpose for their deliverance.
The terms they use are not in themselves improper—
[Certainly, at first sight, it appears irreverent to speak of God as though he needed to be “awaked” from sleep. But this is a mere figure of speech; importing only a desire that he would, after the example of former times, exert his power in their behalf. David expresses the idea vet more fully, when he says, “Awake; why steepest thou, O Lord? arise; cast us not off for ever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face; and forgettest our affliction and oppression [Note: Psalms 44:23-24.]?” What David meant by these strong expressions, appears from the first verse of that very psalm: “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what thou didst in their days, in the times of old.” Bearing in mind God’s wonders of old time, he was anxious to have them renewed at the period wherein he lived. “Our soul (like that of our forefathers) is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth: arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ sake [Note: Psalms 44:1; Psalms 44:25-26.].”]
Nor was there any thing unbecoming in their pleas—
[In the language of Scripture, Egypt is often called “Rahab;” and Pharaoh is characterized as “a dragon [Note: Psalms 87:4.Ezekiel 29:3.].” Against these God has exerted his power to their utter destruction; whilst, for the effectual deliverance of his people, he had “dried the waters of the great deep, and made the depths of the sea a way for his ransomed to pass over.” A similar interposition they needed yet again in Babylon; as they do also at this very hour. Hence they, both in Babylon and in their present dispersion, are represented as reminding God of his former mercies, and as urgently imploring at his hands a renewal of thorn. And, no doubt, a repetition of these mercies, or of deliverances equivalent to them, shall yet take place in their behalf: for it is expressly said, “The Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind will he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt [Note: Isaiah 11:15-16.].”]
But the text is chiefly worthy of observation,
II.
As affording a pattern for God’s afflicted people in all ages—
Two things it clearly teaches us:
1. That we should bear in remembrance God’s past mercies—
[The inspired writers are continually referring to the wonders wrought by Jehovah in behalf of his people in Egypt and in the wilderness: and God himself refers to them, as marking in a most extraordinary manner his power and grace, and as fitly illustrating his proper character: “Thus saith the Lord, who maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the mighty waters.” And should not we also bear those wonders in remembrance? Are they not shadows of that great redemption which God has wrought for us in the Son of his love, and which it is the privilege of every individual amongst us to experience in his own soul? Have not we been held under a bondage infinitely more oppressive than that of Egypt; a bondage to sin and Satan, death and hell? And have not we been delivered, not by power only, but by price, even the precious blood of God’s only dear Son? Are not the wonders of the wilderness also the very same as are wrought for us in Christ; who is the true bread of heaven given for the sustenance of our souls, and the true rock also, from whence the waters of life are ever flowing for our refreshment?
Nay, more; should we not bear in mind, also, the mercies vouchsafed individually to ourselves—our temporal blessings; our conversion to God; our preservation from sin; our restoration from falls and backslidings; our peace; our hope; our consolations in the midst of trials? Methinks every one of us has within his own bosom a counterpart of all that God has ever done for the salvation of the world: and if we did but call to mind the mercies with which we have been daily loaded from our youth up to this present moment, we never should want memorials of God’s love to us, or grounds for encouragement under the most afflictive dispensations.]
2. That we should make them the grounds and measure of our future expectations—
[I well know, that, strictly speaking, we have no ground of expectation, but from the promises of God. But, in a more lax sense, we may say, that his past mercies are earnests and pledges of future blessings. It is a legitimate inference which the Psalmist draws: “Thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt thou not deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living [Note: Psalms 56:13.]?’ Yes; if we can say of God, “Thou hast delivered;” we may reasonably add, “In whom I trust that he will yet deliver [Note: 2 Corinthians 1:10.].”
But we may go further, and consider God’s past mercies as the measure of our future expectations. It is in this particular view that the Church reminds him of the wonders he had wrought for them in Egypt and at the sea: and, with a special view to this, may we also recapitulate all the wonders of redeeming love. In truth, we have in this respect a great advantage over the Jewish Church: for they might need, yes, and do need, mercies fully equal to those which were wrought for their forefathers in Egypt: but we never can need another Saviour to die for us, another Spirit to instruct us. God, if I may so say, has gone to the utmost possible extent of love and grace for us: and all that we can ever need to have done for us, in future, falls infinitely short of what he has already done: “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life [Note: Romans 5:10.].” The blessings vouchsafed to Israel fell infinitely short of those which have been vouchsafed to us, even as shadows do of the substance which they represent. Yet, if we needed the sea to open us a passage, and the clouds to supply our daily food, and water to issue from a rock, we should account them great things to ask: but, after what we have received, nothing is great; not even heaven with all its glory: for “if God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things [Note: Romans 8:32.]?”]
Address—
1.
Those who are humbled under a sense of sin—
[It may be, your sins have been very great; and you are ready to account yourselves so unworthy, that it is scarcely to be hoped that God should ever have mercy upon you. But bear in mind the sovereignty he exercised in the call of Abraham. Was he not an idolater, in the midst of an idolatrous people [Note: Joshua 24:2-3.]? Yet did God choose him, and enter into covenant with him, and bless, in him and in his seed, all the nations of the earth. Why, then, may he not display his sovereignty in the exercise of love to you? Perhaps your sins have been, beyond measure, deep and multiplied. Still, did not Manasseh obtain mercy, after having set up idols in the very House of God, and “made the streets of Jerusalem to run down with the blood of innocents [Note: 2 Kings 21:1-7; 2 Kings 21:16. with 2 Chronicles 33:11-13.]?” But your hearts, you will say, have raged with enmity against God and his Christ. So it was with Paul, who yet obtained mercy, whilst in the very act of persecuting the Lord’s people; and “therefore obtained mercy, that in him Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them that should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting [Note: 1 Timothy 1:16.].” Perhaps you will say, that your state is the more hopeless, because you have backslidden from God, and so fallen as to make “the very name of God to be blasphemed in the world.” Well; supposing even this to be the case, you still may go unto God, and say, “Art thou not He that shewed mercy to an adulterous, a murderous, a hardened and obdurate David [Note: 2 Samuel 12:13.]?” Be your state as desperate as it may, yet see whether you cannot find in the divine records some interpositions of the Deity fully adequate to your wants, and commensurate with your necessities? Take these; spread them before God in prayer: plead them before him; and implore at his hands a similar effort in your own behalf. Mistake me not, however: imagine not, for a moment, that I say these things to encourage you in sin: God forbid! No: but I say them to keep you from despair; and what the Jewish Church are represented as doing under their extremities, that I recommend every sinner in the universe to do: Call to mind God’s wonders of old time; and let them be the ground of your hopes, and the measure of your expectations.]
2. Those who are bowed down under affliction—
[In your case, more especially, may the Jewish Church be proposed for an example. You well remember how the whole nation cried out at the sight of Pharaoh and his hosts, and how utterly they despaired of help. But their extremity was the very season when God interposed for their effectual deliverance, making the very depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over. To you, then, he is now saying, “Come down into the very depths of the sea:” it is there that you shall see my wonders in your behalf. Be not frightened, “though the waves thereof roar:” for “when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and when through the foaming surge, it shall not overflow thee [Note: Isaiah 43:2.]:” nay, they shall be thy very safeguard from the foe that pursues thee; and shall be the destruction of those that would destroy thy soul. Realize in your minds, Brethren, this consolatory truth, that “tribulation is the way to the kingdom [Note: Acts 14:22.]:” and then, whatever you may suffer, you will give thanks to God, who, not in anger, but “in faithfulness, has caused you to be afflicted [Note: Psalms 119:75.].”]
3. Those who despond in relation to the Church.
[The Jews at this day appear to many to be in so desperate a state, as to render any efforts in their behalf vain and nugatory. But are they in a more hopeless condition than they were in Egypt or in Babylon? or is God less able to deliver now, than he was in the days of old! Surely not: “His hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor his ear heavy, that it cannot hear [Note: Isaiah 59:1.].” If there were only amongst us an holy importunity, crying, “Awake, awake, O arm of the Lord!” verily, his arm should be revealed; and he would work, as in the days of old. Be it so; there are seas of difficulty in our way: but cannot “He who cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon, and dried up the sea for his people,” interpose now with equal effect, and glorify himself in our salvation? He can: he will: he has spoken it: and his word shall stand. Yes; “the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away [Note: ver. 11. If this were a subject for the Conversion of the Jews, this thought should be amplified, and confirmed by other passages of Holy Writ.]” — — —]