Isaiah 37:10

Isaiah 37:10

I. Let us weigh this piece of satanic advice: "Let not thy God, in whom thou trustest, deceive thee." It is a very dangerous temptation for three reasons. (1) Because it appeals to the natural pride of the heart. There is a universal instinct which makes a man abhor the idea of being deceived. There is something in the very idea which rouses all the pride that lies latent in every heart. To take a man's confidence, to receive all the secret thoughts of his heart, to allow him to confide everything to you, then cold-bloodedly to turn round and leave him in the lurch, having led him on by fair promises, is so cruel an act in its nature, that I marvel not that by a universal instinct every man shudders at the mere supposition of being so treated. (2) There is no disguising the fact that if God did deceive us we are in a hopeless plight, and therefore there is force in the temptation. (3) The methods of God's government being beyond our comprehension, sometimes appear to incline towards the tempter's suggestion, from appearances one might say, "God is going to leave us in the lurch."

II. Let us turn round and tear the advice up. (1) We may tear it up because it comes too late. If God be a deceiver we are already so thoroughly deceived, and have been so for years, that it is rather late in the day to come and advise us not to be. (2) We may tear it up, because if God deceive us we may be quite certain that there is nobody else that would not. From all we know of our God, His holiness, His righteousness, and His faithfulness, if He can deceive us, then are we quite certain that there are none to be trusted. (3) There is not one atom of evidence to support the libel. Search the world through, and see if you can find a man who will deliberately say, "I have tried God, I have trusted Him, and He has deceived me." (4) There is overwhelming evidence to refute it. Never yet did man trust his God and be put to shame. Heaven and earth and hell declare that Jehovah never hath deceived and never can deceive.

A. G. Brown, Penny Pulpit,No. 1131.

References: Isaiah 37:22. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 203.Isaiah 37:30. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year,vol. ii., Appendix, No. 1.