And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea
God putting away the iniquity of His people
The mercies and promises of the Old Testament were but the outline of the glory thereafter to be revealed.
The latter portion of this chapter abounds with assurances of Jerusalem’s restoration, involving in it the confusion and degradation of its enemies. The prophet’s apostrophe to Jehovah in the last verses, both in the clearness of its views and the fulness of its statements, is one well suited to the Christian. It is much to be released from sin’s captivity, to have its iron yoke removed, and the foul garments of its bondage torn away. But it is more to find that He who pardoneth iniquity because He delighteth in mercy will also have compassion on us, and subdue our iniquities; not merely cleanse us from their stain by the blood of Jesus, but also deliver us from their power by His Holy Spirit. The particular turn of the language of the text appears to be taken from the destruction of the hosts of Egypt in the Red Sea. As their ruin was so utter that they were to be seen alive no more forever, it implies that our great spiritual tyrants and foes, our sins, shall, when God by His Spirit arises to subdue them, be as completely cast out, and their final penalty be as thoroughly put away, as though they were buried in the depths of the sea. Sin is closely connected with suffering. If, then, God may be said in a metaphor to cast sin into the sea, may we not literally say the same of the suffering? What the sea is said typically to do for the former, it often actually does for the latter. With so much of injury and destructiveness connected with the sea, there is also bound up much of benefit; benefit especially to suffering humanity, in the multiform maladies which embitter our existence. Then let the sea remind you how noble is the gift of spiritual health; how all-important that the moral disease of evil should be washed away, and your sins through mercy cast into the depths of the sea--that ocean of heavenly grace and love which shall hide them forever from merited condemnation! (Edmund Lilley, M. A.)
What God would do with our sins
“Our iniquities.” “Our sins,”--is it possible for us to be quite rid of these? This great question finds in the text a still greater answer. The words are two clauses of promise, each with its own shade of figurative meaning--a strong shade, and a stronger.
I. The Divine One as effecting the conquest of human sins. “He will subdue our iniquities”; that is, He will tread them down, will trample them in triumph under His feet. The very sound of the words suggests that it is no easy enterprise, this managing of our sins. We are apt to think lightly of sins. We underestimate the terrible capacity of wrong and death which lurks in them, and in each one of them. We yield them quarter, rations, parole, friendship. They swarm round us, and we cannot subdue them. Give your welcome, then, to Him who conquers this haunting throng on your behalf. Here He stands, at your side and mine. With Him beside us the whole matter passes beyond mere hopefulness into utter assurance. “But,” it may be asked, “is it not an arduous and a daring task for any one to undertake for me?” It is so much this, and so much more this than you can think, that only the One need attempt to undertake it. You may safely entrust the great task to Him. See the comprehensive completeness of the conquest. Christ not only conquers all the bad legions that had mustered around us during bygone years, but He tramples down the up-springing legions as they venture to arise,--thinning their ranks and enfeebling their energy, and impoverishing their condition, with the sure prospect for us that soon the hour will have struck when He can look back upon nothing but conquest, and forward upon nothing to conquer.
II. The Divine One as effecting the destruction and oblivion of human sins. The new figure substantially repeats the sense of the other; yet it advances further, and is more vividly full of the gracious truth upon this subject. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” “Sins,” not “iniquities” only, but the gravest as well as the lightest violations of Divine law. “Into the sea,” and into the deep places of the sea; far to seaward, where the sounding line descends in miles--buried, without resurrection, for evermore. Some who have entrusted themselves to God’s grace are still timid and doubtful as to whether it can really be all, and once for all, and irrecoverably, settled about those sins of theirs. Be sure that when God pardons at all He pardons altogether, The sins of a Christ-trusting man are not only lost, but are what may be called securely lost. A thing is most safely gone, not when it is banished we know not whither, but when, knowing where it is, we are sure that it is absolutely irrecoverable. Apply. Never dream of managing your sins yourself. When God has put our sins into forgetfulness we ought ourselves no more to remember them. (J. A. Kerr Bain, M. A.)
How God forgives
The gist of the two verses is in the sentence, “And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” However unlike to each other we may be, we all have need of pardon. In human pardon there is nothing remarkable save this, that it is often remarkably slow in coming, and as remarkably ungracious when it does come; and that when it is born it is remarkably short lived. Our pardons, like ourselves, are full of imperfections. What a painful operation it is to be forgiven! A man seldom forgives without first humiliating. When God forgives He does it in a style worthy of Himself. There is a dignity about His forgiveness; it is a positive luxury to be forgiven by Him. God only is perfect in the art of pardoning. In the text God’s pardon is described by four words--
I. Pardon. “Pardoneth iniquity.” While in everything God is incomparable, He is most unrivalled in the “matter of forgiving. The glory of God is His ability and willingness to forgive. The word “pardoneth” in the Hebrew means “to lift up and carry away.” Do not run away with the idea that pardoning is only a matter of uttering a word. God cannot forgive at the expense of His own righteousness. He is a God that lifteth up the iniquity. The Soil lifted the sin up on His shoulders, and He walked away with it.
II. Passeth by. “And passeth by the transgression.” Transgression here means “rebellion.” “Passeth by,”--that is, as if He did not see it. God deals with sin as if He did not see it. He has seen it once. He saw it on Christ. He does not see it on me, because He saw it on Him.
III. Subdue. The R.V. has, “He will trample under foot our iniquities.” When God forgives the guilt of a sinner’s sins He breaks their power. Have you ever tried to trample on your own iniquities? When God forgives the guilt He says: “I will do more--I will put My foot down on the neck of your iniquities.”
IV. Cast into sea. God provides that His act of grace shall never be repealed. He will never take back the pardon He has once bestowed. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” That is how God puts away the sins of His people. When God pardons a man’s sins He takes the sins, and drops them into the deepest place He can find, and there they lie, forever forgiven, forever forgotten. Micah may have had the drowning of the Egyptian host in his mind when he penned this passage. When God pardons, the tablets of His memory, if I may so put it, are wiped, and there is no remembrance forever made of this sin. When God buries our sin He takes it right out into the mid-ocean of Divine pardon and Divine forgetfulness, and it is forever forgotten. (Archibald G. Brown.)
Divine compassion to sinners
Though the Almighty is absolutely incomprehensible, and cannot be found out to perfection, yet He has explicitly revealed Himself as a God “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and ready to forgive.” And this propitious character of the Deity is peculiarly appropriate and interesting to mankind. Infinite mercy has graciously provided a way of salvation, by faith in Jesus Christ, which is perfectly consistent with Divine justice, and admirably suited to the necessitous circumstances of the “world that lieth in wickedness.”
I. The blessings piously anticipated. “He will subdue our iniquities,” etc. There may be an allusion to the deliverance of the Israelites from the Egyptian bondage. As the Lord then literally subdued Pharaoh and His host, so He will spiritually “subdue the iniquities” of His faithful servants, and by His pardoning mercy “cast all their sins into the depths of the sea” The prophet evidently anticipates--
1. The absolution of the guilt of sin. As “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” we must certainly either be pardoned or punished. When sinners return unto God with penitent and believing hearts, He graciously forgives their transgressions, and heals their backslidings. This inestimable blessing is called in the text, “casting all our sins into the depths of the sea,” which is a mode of expression that intimates both the extent and completeness of pardon.
2. The subjugation of the power of sin. We are not only guilty, but depraved. Sin is frequently personified in. Scripture, and described as a vile usurper and destructive tyrant, reigning in the hearts and lives of the disobedient. Hence it is not only necessary that the guilt of sin be mercifully cancelled, but that its power be effectually subdued. Omnipotence alone is equal to this glorious’ achievement. He principally accomplishes this work of grace by His Son, as the Saviour of sinners, by His Word as the instrument of salvation, and by His Spirit as the agent of personal religion.
II. The source distinctly specified. “He will turn again; He will have compassion upon us.” The prophet attributes the pardon and destruction of sin to the Lord Jehovah. These blessings are Divine in their origin. God only can forgive sin, and save the sinner. It is His sole prerogative to absolve our crimes and purify our souls. And this perfectly harmonises with the perfections of His nature.
2. These blessings are propitious in their medium. We have no natural right or claim to the Divine mercies, and can only receive them by way of sovereign favour, “through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.” For this purpose He assumed our nature, died for our sins, and ever lives to intercede for sinners.
3. These blessings are gracious in their bestowment. We cannot receive them on the ground of personal worthiness or human merit. Nor does the Lord require any previous goodness or moral fitness to render us worthy of the blessings of salvation. He freely and graciously pardons and saves the truly penitent, for the glory of His name, through the merits of the Redeemer.
III. The confidence devoutly expressed. “He will turn,” etc. This is not the language of enthusiastic presumption, but of inspired and rational assurance; it is founded on--
1. The character and covenant of God.
2. The atonement and intercession of Christ.
3. The doctrines and promises of the Gospel.
We may infer from this subject--
1. The necessity of repentance and faith.
2. The possibility of pardon and holiness.
3. The felicity and duty of the saints. (Eta, in “Sketches of Four Hundred Sermons. ”)
Divine forgiveness
Three ideas involved in figures of Divine forgiveness.
I. An antecedent liability to punishment. All the terms imply something wrong, and the wrong is moral. It is crime, and crime must ever expose to punishment. Because of this moral wrong there must be a liability to punishment.
II. The exercise of a merciful prerogative. God is disposed to forgive. Two things connected with this pardoning prerogative which marks it off from its exercise in human governments.
1. In human governments it is exercised with most cautious limitations.
2. In human governments forgiveness is invariably valued by those to whom it is exercised.
III. An actual deliverance from all liability to punitive suffering. The forgiven man is delivered from punishment. (Homilist.)
Sins lost in the depths of the sea
You see the Thames as it goes sluggishly down through the arches, carrying with it endless impurity and corruption. You watch the inky stream as it pours along day and night, and you think it will pollute the world. But you have just been down to the seashore, and you have looked on the great deep, and it has not left a stain on the Atlantic. No, it has been running down a good many years and carried a world of impurity with it, but when you go to the Atlantic there is not a speck on it. As to the ocean, it knows nothing about it. It is full of majestic music. So the smoke of London goes up, and has been going up, for a thousand years. One would have thought that it would have spoiled the scenery by now; but you get a look at it sometimes. There is the great blue sky which has swallowed up the smoke and gloom of a thousand years, and its azure splendour is unspoiled. It is wonderful how the ocean has kept its purity, and how the sky has taken the breath of the millions and the smoke of the furnaces, and yet it is as pure as the day God made it. It is beautiful to think that these are only images of God’s great pity for the race. Our sins, they are like the Thames; but, mind you, they shall be swallowed up--lost in the depths of the sea, to be remembered against us no more. Though our sins have been going up to heaven through the generations, yet though thy sins are as crimson, they shall be as wool, as white as snow. (W. L. Watkinson.)