I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against Him
The believer, conscious of God’s displeasure, confessing his sin
This is the language of the Church of the living God.
It is a sincere and upright acknowledgment of her own fault. She saw God in the dealing and conduct of her enemies. This led her to confession. This led her to holy determination; and also to patient waiting; and a believing confidence.
I. The solemn purpose of the soul. “I will bear the indignation of the Lord.” She saw the Lord’s hand in her afflictions. It is no small wisdom, when we are enabled to see clearly the mind and the dealings of God with us in our afflictions. What was the “indignation” that the Church had to bear? Not that which God shows to those who despise Him and rebel against Him; but the eternal display of God’s wrath against sin, a holy indignation against iniquity; the indignation of a Father’s displeasure. It is not the less painful for that. It is the very love of the father that makes his displeasure so keen to the heart of the child.
II. The reason that she gives for it. “Because I have sinned against Him.” Sin should be regarded in three different points of view. There is a course of sin. There are sins into which a child of God may be surprised. There is the missing of the aim of the child of God. There are two features in her confession. She acknowledged the sin to have been against God. And she threw the blame upon herself. Excuse mars confession. She did not throw the blame on inward corruption. Some confess sin, but they only confess it in the general. If a man truly confesses, he searches sin to the root. Nothing more humbles the spirit than such thorough and sincere confession. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
The child of God under chastisement
The consequences of national backsliding could only be national judgments. This the prophet foresees; and in the name of the pious remnant, he turns to God for that hope and consolation which nothing on earth can yield. As for the chastisement which the Jewish Church was about to suffer, she is taught, in our text, to use the language of submission and of hope. Learn from the text, what are the feelings, what is the behaviour of a child of God under affliction.
I. He submits himself to God. Various are the trials which the people of God are called to endure. There is no promise that they shall be exempt from distressing circumstances. Each one shares the common sorrows of humanity. Each one has also sorrows peculiar to himself, arising from his disposition and circumstances. Yet, in all, the real child of God beholds God’s hand. He knows that, whatever he may have to suffer, it is from the Lord. Knowing, then, whence his troubles come, the child of God bows beneath the chastisement, it may be with a keen feeling of their loss, or woe, but with a patient submission to God’s will.
II. He justifies God. Pride may sometimes enable a man resolutely to bear evils which cannot be avoided. A naturally cheerful temper, also, will not feel the burden of sorrow so heavy as it is felt by a mind naturally anxious and desponding. But Christian submission is accompanied by a feeling which mere cheerfulness cannot produce, and which pride steadily opposes--a feeling of conscious guilt. Every grief is the offspring of sin. The Lord afflicts us, either that we may not forget our original deserts, as children of wrath; or, because we have committed some new transgression; or, as a means of correcting and renewing our naturally corrupt hearts. The child of God, therefore, while he smarts beneath the stroke of chastisement, acknowledges the propriety of it. He submits, for he knows that he has deserved it. This is the state of mind which God desires to behold in every sinner. This is the very end for which earthly trials are sent.
III. Hopes in God. “Until He plead my cause.” Trust in the mercy of God is no less the duty of a true Christian, than submission to the will of God and an acknowledgment of His justice in afflicting us. The child of God puts his trust in that very hand which smiteth him. Faith enables him to see, that chastisement, when patiently endured, is a sign of his adoption. Being assured of this, he can trust his Father’s kind affection for removing the trial in due time. Thus doth the afflicted child of God “lean only upon the hope of His heavenly grace.” Worldly sorrows thus become light and tolerable even when they are manifestly the consequences of sin. As I have cautioned you against a merely proud submission to God, and against an impenitent confession of your sinfulness, let me also warn you against a presumptuous hope of God’s mercy. God is a “jealous” God. There is a hope which will prove at last no better than a vain presumption: and the Bible does not leave us in doubt as to what that hope is. It is the hope of the hypocrite. It is the hope of the careless, thoughtless sinner, who talks loudly about God’s mercy. There is but one way in which you are authorised to hope in God. Approach Him with deep and heartfelt penitence; abhor and forsake every sin; and then your confidence in Him will stand on a secure foundation. (J. Jowett, M. A.)
Culture under trial
Transfer this language from the lips of the Church to the lips of the individual Christian, and consider it as an indication of a spirit which needs to be more largely cultivated.
I. Determination to be cultured under trial. “I will bear, etc. .. against Him.” Two kinds of indignation spoken of in Scripture. Of one it is said, “Who can stand before His indignation?” Of the other the Church says, “I will bear it.” The one, fiery wrath of an offended King; the other, chastening displeasure of a loving Father. The one, hot anger, which utterly consumes; the other, loving correction, which melts, refines, and purifies. While before one none can stand, before the other, that we may be partakers of His holiness, God yearns that we may bow. When the Christian sees chastening displeasure issuing from a Father’s wounded love, he says, “I will bear the indignation of the Lord.” But something more. “Because I have sinned.” I will bear it, because it is less than I deserve; because I know who sends it, and the object He has in view. Illustrate Shimei’s conduct, and David’s treatment of him (2 Samuel 16:5-14). Recollect that God’s indignation may fall on us through others, or may come direct from Him.
II. Limit of endurance to be proposed. “Until He plead my cause, and execute judgment for me.” In the trials which the Church had schooled herself to bear, there had been much of harshness, injustice, and wrong. God permits others to afflict us, whose purpose may be different to His own. Though the wrath of man is hateful, God makes it subservient to His wise purposes, and restrains its exercise. In every case of this kind, we should distinguish between man’s purpose and God’s purpose, or patience is beyond our reach. Illustrate Joseph in Egypt; and Israel in Egypt. If then, besides looking at man’s purpose, we will train ourselves to look at God’s purpose, and also for God’s limit, we shall be able to appropriate the language of the text, and so follow the example of Christ, who, under trial, committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.
III. Expression of confidence to be maintained. He will bring me forth. .. light. .. righteousness.” Observe the meaning of the language. Obviously figurative: sorrow, trouble, desolation (whether the temporal or spiritual) continually spoken of as “darkness,” and the reverse as “light.” But, when the proper season comes, God fulfils His promise to make darkness light before His servants, by turning doubt into confidence, affliction into prosperity, sorrow into joy; and He brings them forth into the light by removing their burdens, making clear their way, vindicating them from false charges, and revealing, at least in some measure, the reason and benefit of their grief. (W. D. J. Straton, M. A.)