Cease ye from man.
The Septuagint omits this verse. (R. V. margin.)
Man’s insignificance and God’s supremacy
Two things are indispensable to undisturbed tranquillity of mind, namely, humble and distrustful views of ourselves, and supreme and unfaltering reliance on God. So long as a man depends on his own wisdom, power, and goodness, he must be disquieted and unhappy. We can attain to substantial quiet only when we feel that our dependence is on a Being omnipotent, independent, and supreme, as well as abundant in truth and love (Isaiah 26:3). To produce in us this two-fold feeling is the constant aim of Holy Scripture. The grand scheme of redemption is founded on the principle here laid down. Man is sinful, ignorant, impotent to good, and of himself inclined only to evil, and that continually. God, in His infinite mercy, wisdom, and power, hath provided the only means by which he can be restored to holiness, to the favour of his God, and to life everlasting. But while there is in all religiously instructed people a readiness to concede to Christ the merit of salvation, there is too much disposition to rely upon ourselves and our own arrangements for success in temporal and physical things, and to claim the merit of it if we do succeed. There are various things that have a tendency to produce within us a feeling of self-dependence, and lead to the ignoring of the Divine power and efficiency. There is in us too often an idolatry of human agency and natural or artificial instrumentalities, and too often these occupy in our souls the place of God. In the order of nature causes produce their legitimate effects, so that if we can secure certain antecedents we feel confident of corresponding results. To use all wisdom and discretion in the use of means is a plain duty. But the difficulty with us is, that in our reliance on secondary agencies we too often leave God out of the account. We forget that He is above all means, that He can work without them, or He can frustrate all our means and all our best-concerted plans. There is nothing that men are more disposed to confide in than superiority of intellect. Yet God has given us reasons sufficient to abate our idolatry of human talent. For--
1. The largest capacity of man is really very small. Knowledge with all men is very limited, even in those that know the most.
2. Men of great capacity and uncommon attainments seldom, perhaps never, bear to be examined very closely. If one excel in one thing he is deficient in another. Sir Isaac Newton, great as he was in science and philosophy, failed in the common affairs of life. Laplace, whose extensive range of thought took in the whole mechanism of the planetary universe, did not at all justify the high opinion formed of him by Napoleon, when he, at the emperor’s invitation, undertook the business of the statesman.
3. Men of the largest pretensions to mind have been and are still guilty of the puerile, the absurd, the degrading crime of idolatry. E.g., Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, modern Hindoos.
4. The comparatively few specimens of unsullied, religious character.
5. We see in the record which God has given of His dealings with our race, a series of illustrations of man’s inefficiency and God’s supremacy. He has seldom used the means to accomplish an end that man would have selected or supposed. Egypt saved from perishing by a seven years’ famine by a young, falsely accused slave, wrongfully cast into prison. Naaman. Deliverance of Israel from the Midianites (Judges 7:1-25). Destruction of Spanish Armada, Waterloo, etc., Lessons--
(1) Because means sometimes fail, that is no good reason why we should expect the end without them God ordinarily works by means.
(2) We should not rely on the means as being effectual in and of themselves.
(3) After having used all the agencies and all the discretion which wisdom and sagacity prescribe, we must still rely upon God for the issue.
(4) Apply the same rule to spiritual things. We are to use all prescribed and prudential means; frequent the means of grace, etc. But these are only the means which bring us to God. (J. Holdich, D. D.)
Ceasing from man
I. CEASE YE FROM EXPECTING TOO GREAT PERFECTION IN MAN. Many are sadly mistaken on this point. They have higher ideas of the excellency of human nature than the Word of God warrants. It is sad that our experience of life should chill its generous sympathies, and that the heart should become cold and selfish as our knowledge of mankind increases. We ought so to live that the more we become acquainted with human wickedness, the more our compassionate feelings should be enlarged; and that person has a Christian spirit whose experience of man’s depravity and love for man have increased in the same ratio.
II. THE RULE OF OUR TEXT WILL APPLY ALSO TO CHRISTIANS. Cease from expecting perfection in them.
1. The Bible teaches us to regard a Christian as different from others only as the man recovering from disease differs from one who is still under its full power, not as one in perfect health and strength.
2. As Christians we may learn to cease from expecting too much from our fellow Christians.
3. We should cease, too, from making any fellow Christian our model, or measuring our faith by his faithfulness.
4. And let us cease from expecting too much from Christian friendship. Christ was forsaken by the twelve, and at St. Paul’s first answer before the Roman emperor, no man stood with him, but all forsook him.
III. CEASE YE FROM THE FEAR OF MAN is another appropriate application of the text.
1. The Word of God warns us against this. Who can say that he pursues just that path which conscience approves without being drawn aside by the fear of man? And how strong is the antidote to such a fear which the text presents! His breath is in his nostrils!
2. We should be careful, however, that our ceasing from man be not attended with evil feelings towards him. If a poor man is fearless in the presence of the rich because he scorns them, that is wrong. If we go forward in the path of duty, undeterred by the opinion of the world, because we are self-opinionated, and care nothing for any conclusions except our own, that is wrong.
IV. CEASE YE FROM MAN AS A SOURCE OF HAPPINESS. We build our enjoyments on relatives and friends. We gather around us those who are worthy of our love; our hearts begin to knit with theirs, and we say, This is comfort, here is happiness. But one touch of death crumbles all to the dust, and leaves us to mourn over our disappointed expectations. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
God man’s only dependence
Our text speaks in a two-fold manner: there is in it warning pointedly expressed; also instruction indirectly conveyed--
I. REGARDING THE CONDITION OF MAN.
II. REGARDING MAN’S DELIVERANCE AND SALVATION.
III. REGARDING THE CONVERSION OF EVERY SAVED SINNER. Man cannot save you, whatever he may pretend to do.
IV. REGARDING THE CHARACTER OF THE GOSPEL. Such is man that he will hold the truth with the head, and think he can be saved whilst his heart is in the world.
V. REGARDING THE MAINTENANCE AND PROMULGATION OF DIVINE TRUTH
IN THE EARTH. How frequently the necessity of this warning is seen in missionary enterprises! “Oh,” say some, “you have got the right missionaries now; their heads are full of learning; they have very strong bodies, able to stand any climate; there is plenty of money in the missionary exchequer”; and away they go. Ah, “let not the rich man glory in his riches; let not the strong man glory in his strength; let not the wise man glory in his wisdom; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, saith the Lord God Almighty.” And then, there is not only work to do abroad, but at home too. If you speak to some men about the infidelity and superstition at home, they will say, the government should do so and so, and make such and such an act of parliament. Do you think that men can be converted by acts of parliament? Oh! “cease ye from man.” The text does not mean--
1. That any unconverted person is to say, I will wait till God thinks proper to convert me.
2. That there is no necessity for men to preach the Gospel. Preaching is necessary, because God has ordained it.
3. That it is wrong for rulers or governments to give their legitimate aid to
God’s truth. Finally, we are taught the great duty of prayer to God. (Hugh Allen, M. A.)
Ceasing from man
I. WHAT THE EXHORTATION DOES NOT IMPLY.
1. That God wills our seclusion from the society of man.
2. That we are not to give any confidence to man.
3. That we are to withdraw from the appointed means of grace as being superior to them, or standing in no need of them.
II. WHAT THE EXHORTATION DOES IMPLY.
1. That we should cease from all that vain admiration of the external appearance in the character and condition of men in which we are so prone to indulge.
2. That we should not indulge the desire of applause from man.
3. That we should not envy man--his popularity, prosperity, etc.
4. That we should cease from all such confidence in man as would supersede confidence in God.
5. That we should cease from the fear of man.
6. That we should cease from all expectations of perfection in the character of men, even of those who profess religion.
7. That we should cease from all inordinate attachment to creatures.
III. THE ARGUMENT BY WHICH THIS EXHORTATION IS ENFORCED. Cease from man--
1. Because he is a depraved creature, subject to violent and dangerous passions.
2. Because he is a deceitful creature, often deceiving himself as well as others.
3. Because he is a fickle and changeable creature.
4. Because he is a weak and helpless creature.
5. Because he is a dying creature. (E. Parsons.)
Man, “soul and soil”
Man is made up, as the old writers used to say, of soul and soil. Alas, the soil terribly soils his soul! “My soul cleaveth to the dust” might be the confession of every man in one sense or another. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Man, whose breath is in his nostrils
One consequence of the prevailing materialism of our corrupt nature is our craving for something tangible, audible, visible, as the object of our confidence. Man is, by nature, an idolater. The people of Isaiah’s day were like the rest of their race: they showed their unspiritualness and their inability to walk in the light of the Lord by making their own wealth their chief confidence (verse 7). Nations also, like the Israelitish people, are apt to idolise power; even power in the form of brute force. We read: “Their land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of their chariots.” These people, in the heat of their idolatry, set up many idols. Idolatry is common even here. May we not easily make idols of ourselves? There is nothing more absurd in the history of human nature than the fact that man is apt to trust in man. The sin is none the less accursed because of its commonness.
I. Our first inquiry is, WHAT IS MAN? This question is asked many times in Scripture, end it has been frequently answered with a copiousness of instruction.
1. What is man? He is assuredly a very feeble creature. He must be weak, for “his breath is in his nostrils.” We measure the strength of a chain by its weakest link. See, then, how weak man is, for he is weakness itself in a vital point.
2. Man, moreover, is a frail creature. It seems as though his life in his breath stood at the gates, ready to be gone, since it is in his nostrils.
3. Man is also a dying creature. Contemplate the dead! What think you now of your idol?
4. The text also reminds us that man is a very fickle creature. His breath is in his “nostrils.” As his breath is affected by his health, so is he changed. Today he loves, and tomorrow he hates; he promises fair, but he forgets his words.
5. If you read the chapter through, you will also find that man is a trembling creature, cowardly creature, a creature, indeed, who, if he were not cowardly, yet has abundant reason to fear. (Read from verse 19.) “They shall go into the holes of the rocks,” etc. Think of the days of Divine wrath, and especially of the last dread day of Judgment, and of the dismay which will then seize upon many of the proud and great. Are you going to make these your confidants?
II. WHAT IS TO BE OUR RELATION TO MAN, or what does the text mean when it says, “Cease ye from man”? It implies, that we very probably have too much to do with this poor creature man already. We may even require to reverse our present conduct, break up unions, cancel alliances, and alter the whole tenor of our conduct.
1. “Cease ye from man” means, first, cease to idolise him in your love. It is very common to idolise children. A mother who had lost her babe fretted and rebelled about it. She happened to be in a meeting of the Society of
Friends, and there was nothing spoken that morning except this word by one female Friend who was moved, I doubt not, by the Spirit of God to say, “Verily, I perceive that children are idols.” She did not know the condition of that mourner’s mind, but it was the right word, and she to whom God applied it knew how true it was. She submitted her rebellious will, and at once was comforted. Cease ye from these little men and women; for their breath is in their nostrils, and indeed it is but feebly there in childhood. A proper and right love of children should be cultivated; but to carry this beyond its due measure is to grieve the Spirit of God. You can idolise a minister, you can idolise a poet, you can idolise a patron; but in so doing you break the first and greatest of the commandments, and you anger the Most High.
2. “Cease ye from man “: cease to idolise him in your trust.
3. Cease to idolise any man by giving him undue honour. “Honour all men.” A measure of courtesy and respect is to be paid to every person, and peculiarly to those whose offices demand it; therefore is it written, “Honour the king.” Some also, by their character, deserve much respect from their fellow men; but there is a limit to this, or we shall become sycophants and slaves, and, what is worse, idolaters. It grieves one to see how certain persons dare not even think, much less speak, till they have asked how other people think. The bulk of people are like a flock of sheep; there is a gap, and if one sheep goes through, all will follow. God’s people should scorn such grovelling. If the Son shall make you free, you will be free indeed.
4. Equally does the text bid us cease from the fear of man.
5. Once more, cease from being worried about men. We ought to do all we can for our fellow men to set them right and keep them right, both by teaching and by example; but certain folks think that everything must go according to their wishes, and if we cannot see eye to eye with them, they worry themselves and us. Let us not be unduly cast down if we cannot set everybody right. The body politic, common society, and especially the Church, may cause us great anxiety; but still the Lord reigneth, and we are not to let ourselves die of grief. He only requires of us what He enables us to do.
6. “But they say.” What do they say? Let them say. It will not hurt you if you can only gird up the loins of your mind, and cease from man. “Oh, but they have accused me of this and that.” Is it true? “No, sir, it is not true, and that is why it grieves me.” If it were true it ought to trouble you; but if it is not true let it alone. Nine times out of ten if a boy makes a blot in his copy book and borrows a knife to take it out, he makes the mess ten times worse; and as in your case there is no blot after all, you need not make one by attempting to remove what is not there. All the dirt that falls upon a good man will brush off when it is dry: but let him wait till it is dry, and not dirty his hands with wet mud. Let us think more of God and less of man. Come, let the Lord our God fill the whole horizon of our thoughts. Let our love go forth to Him; let us delight ourselves in Him. Let us trust in Him that liveth forever, in Him whose promise never faileth. Cease ye from man because you have come to know the best of men, who is more than man, even the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has so fully become the beloved of your souls, that none can compare with Him. Rest also in the great Father as to your providential cares: why rest in men when He careth for you? Rest in the Holy Spirit as to your spiritual needs; why need to depend on man? Yea, throw yourself entirely upon the God all-sufficient, El Shaddai, as Scripture calls Him.
III. WHY ARE WE TO CEASE FROM MAN? The answer is, because he is nothing to be accounted of. Every man must cease from himself first, and then from all men, as his hope and his trust, because neither ourselves nor others are worthy of such confidence. “Wherein is he to be accounted of?” Compared with God man is less than nothing and vanity. Reckon him so, and act upon the reckoning. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
God, the Verity of verities
Care nothing for the vanity of vanities, but trust in the Verity of verities. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Man’s morality
“His breath is in his nostrils,” puffed out every moment, soon gone for good and all. Man is a dying creature, and may die quickly; our nostrils, in which our breath is, are of the outward parts of the body; what is there is like one standing at the door ready to depart. Nay, the doors of the nostrils are always open; the breath in them may slip away, ere we are aware, in a moment; wherein then is man to be accounted of? Alas, no reckoning is to be made of him; for he is not what he seems to be,--what he pretends to be, what we fancy him to be.(M. Henry.)
Insignificance of men
A Sultan, amusing himself with walking, observed a dervish sitting with human skull in his lap, and appearing to be in a profound reverie. His attitude and manner surprised the Sultan, who demanded the cause of his being so deeply engaged in reflection “Sire,” said the dervish, “this skull was presented to me this morning, and I have from that moment been endeavouring, in vain, to discover whether it is the skull of a powerful monarch like your Majesty, or of a poor dervish like myself.” (Baxendale’s Anecdotes.)
Folly of man
It was once remarked to Lord Chesterfield that man is the only creature endowed with the power of laughter. “True,” said the peer; “and you may add, perhaps, that he is the only creature that deserves to be laughed at.” (Timba.)
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Outline of chapter
The first part opens with a general prediction of the loss of what they trusted in, beginning with the necessary means of subsistence (Isaiah 3:1). We have then an enumeration of the public men who were about to be removed, including civil, military, and religious functionaries, with the practitioners of certain arts (Isaiah 3:2-3). As the effect of this removal, the government falls into incompetent hands (Isaiah 3:4). This is followed by insubordination and confusion (Isaiah 3:5). At length, no one is willing to accept public office, the people are wretched, and the commonwealth a ruin (Isaiah 3:6-7). This ruin is declared to be the consequence of sin, and the people represented as their own destroyers (Isaiah 3:8-9). God’s judgments, it is true, are not indiscriminate. The innocent shall not perish with the guilty, but the guilty must suffer (Isaiah 3:10-11). Incompetent and faithless rulers must especially be punished, who instead of being the guardians are the spoilers of the vineyard, instead of protectors the oppressors of the poor (Isaiah 3:12-15). As a principal cause of these prevailing evils, the prophet now denounces female luxury, and threatens it with condign punishment, privation, and disgrace (Isaiah 3:16-17). This general denunciation is then amplified at great length, in a detailed enumeration of the ornaments which were about to be taken from them and succeeded by the badges of captivity and mourning (Isaiah 3:18-24). The agency to be employed in this retribution is a disastrous war, by which the men are to be swept off, and the country left desolate (Isaiah 3:25-26). The extent of this calamity is represented by a lively exhibition of the disproportion between the male survivors and the other sex, suggesting at the time the forlorn condition of the widows of the slain (Isaiah 4:1). (J. A. Alexander.)