Isaiah 47:11-15
11 Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
12 Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.
13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers,b the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.
14 Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselvesc from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it.
15 Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.
I. Look at this picture of utter and most painful bewilderment. It is the necessary and inevitable result of sin.
II. Hear the Divine challenge addressed to the false powers in which we have trusted.
III. See the doom of false securities. (1) We cannot escape the trial of our securities. (2) If we set ourselves against God, we challenge all the forces of His creation.
Parker, City Temple,vol. i., p. 114; see also Pulpit Notes,p. 214.
References: Isaiah 47:14. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. viii., No. 444.Isaiah 48:8. Ibid.,vol. xiii., No. 779; Ibid., Evening by Evening,p. 353.Isaiah 48:9. Ibid., Sermons,vol. xviii., No. 1041.Isaiah 48:10. Ibid.,vol. i., No. 35, vol. xxiv., No. 1430; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 63; Preacher's Lantern,vol. i., p. 501.Isaiah 48:10. G. Calthrop, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxvii., p. 33; J. Keble, Sermons for Saints' Days,p. 199.