Isaiah 13:12
12 I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.
I. The text is a promise in the guise of a threat. It is a threat to one nation, but a promise to mankind. The text is speaking of the devastation of war men shall be so scarce that gold itself shall lose its preciousness. The overthrow of a nation is predicted here; the destruction of the mighty Babylonian empire. In that contempt of man, which at the first her pride and lust of possession revealed, was hidden Babylon's doom. The nation so lavish of human life was to die utterly out; the empire which sets no value on men for lack of men shall perish.
II. Our text is prophetic of the doom and discipline of the exclusive spirit. "Godlike isolation" is an inhuman thing; nay, isolation is not Godlike, for God is love. It is the Divine in man to which the prophecy of our text is spoken. To man, as to God, there is naught on earth so precious and so dear as man.
III. How wonderful is the fulfilment of our text in the Gospel! The doctrine of a common redemption has awakened in the Christian consciousness the sense of a vast human kin, unfavoured, unblessed, left to themselves, like sheep not having a shepherd. It is the worth of lost humanity which is revealed to us in the redemption by Christ, and which the Gospel will not let us forget. Christ welcomed the forgotten people, the wretched, the neglected, the sin-stricken, to Himself, and forced them into the society of His people. He calls them His own; He says that to forget them is to forget Himself. He has opened the eyes of His followers by touching their hearts.
A. Mackennal, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvi, p. 248.