Isaiah 62:1-6

Isaiah 62:1

The speaker of these words is the personal Messiah. Notice the remarkable parallelism in the expressions selected as the text: "I will not hold My peace;" the watchmen "shall never hold theirpeace." And His command to them is literally, "Ye that remind Jehovah no rest(or silence) to you! and give not restto Him." So that we have here Christ, the Church, and God all represented as unceasingly occupied in the one great work of establishing Zion as the centre of light, salvation, and righteousness for the whole world.

I. The glorified Christ is constantly working for His Church. Scripture sets forth the present glorious life of our ascended Lord under two contrasted and harmonious aspects as being rest, and as being continuous activity in the midst of rest. Through all the ages His power is in exercise. We have not only to look back to the cross, but up to the throne. From the cross we hear a voice, "It is finished." From the throne a voice, "For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest."

II. Christ's servants on earth derive from Him a like perpetual activity for the same object. The Lord associates Himself with watchmen, whom He appoints and endows for functions in some measure resembling His own, and exercised with constancy derived from Him. They are watchmen, and they are also God's remembrancers. In the one capacity, as in the other, their voices are to be always heard. The watchman's office falls to be done by all who see the coming peril and have a tongue to echo it forth. The remembrancer's priestly office belongs to every member of Christ's priestly kingdom, the lowest and least of whom has the privilege of unrestrained entry into God's presence-chamber, and the power of blessing the world by faithful prayer. (1) Our voices should ever be heard on earth. (2) Our voices should ever be heard in heaven. (3) The power for both is derived from Christ.

III. The constant activity of the servants of Christ will secure the constant operation of God's power. Those who remind God are not to suffer Him to be still. The prophet believes that they can regulate the flow of Divine energy, can stir up the strength of the Lord. An awful responsibility lies on us. We can resist and oppose, or we can open our hearts and draw into ourselves His strength. We can bring into operation these energies which act through faithful men faithfully proclaiming the faithful saying; or we can limit the Holy One of Israel. On all sides motives for strenuous toil press in upon us. Look at the energy around, beneath, above us. When are we in all this magnificent concurrence of energy, for purposes which ought to be dear to our hearts, as they are to the heart of God?

A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester,3rd series, p. 19.

References: Isaiah 62:1. J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 89; Preacher's Monthly,vol. vii., p. 50. Isaiah 62:1. Homiletic Magazine,vol. xiv., p. 56. Isaiah 62:2. Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times"vol. ix., p. 3.Isaiah 62:5. B. Waugh, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxv., p. 118. Isaiah 62:6; Isaiah 62:7. W. J. Mayers, Ibid.,vol. xvi., p. 276. Isaiah 62:10. Outline Sermons to Children,p. 97; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xix., No. 1131.