Isaiah 29:18-19

The deaf. .. the blind. .. the meek. .. the poor

The Gospel day

I. We may regard these words as containing A DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE IN WHICH THE GOSPEL FINDS THOSE TO WHOM IT IS ADDRESSED. The epithets are designed to be descriptive of their spiritual character.

II. THE PLEASING INTIMATION WHICH THE TEXT CONTAINS OF THEIR RECOVERY TO A BETTER AND HAPPIER CONDITION. “In that day the deaf shall hear, and the blind shall see.” That is, the spiritual ignorance and insensibility of men shall be subdued, and the delusion and stupidity of idolatrous Gentiles in particular, shall be succeeded by a clear and saving knowledge of the truth.

1. This prophecy may be considered as receiving its fulfilment, impart in every instance in which an individual is savingly converted to God.

2. But the prophecy refers to something on a more extensive and general scale.

3. The words, besides intimating the fact of their recovery, appear also to intimate the means by which their recovery shall be effected. “They shall hear the words of the book.” What is “the book” the hearing of whose “words” is connected with results so wondrous and delightful?

(1) Is it the book of nature? Alas, that book, all radiant as it is with the Divine glory of its Author, conveys little or no instruction on spiritual subjects to those whom sin has covered with its dark and stupefying shade.

(2) Or is it the book of human philosophy and arts and sciences? The history of all past ages, to say nothing of the present times, laughs to scorn all such pretensions on the part of “the wisdom of this world.”

(3) An inspired apostle tells us that “the mystery” of God is to be “made known to all nations for the obedience of faith, by the scriptures of the prophets”; and “the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”

(4) And though not designed, perhaps, to intimate so much, yet does not the expression “they shall hear the words of the book” serve to remind us of the mode in which, chiefly, this “book” is intended to diffuse among mankind the experimental knowledge of the “truth and grace” which it reveals? Does it not remind us that, for that purpose, it is to be proclaimed by the oral teaching of a living ministry?

III. These latter words we may suppose to be descriptive of CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES WITH WHICH THE SPIRITUAL RECOVERY OF MEN IS FOUND TO BE CONNECTED.

1. As well as the preceding words, they are applicable to cases of individual conversion. In this view they remind us of the state to which the sinner’s heart is humbled when, having heard “the words of the book,” he is made to tremble under the threatenings which it thunders forth against the guilty and impenitent; and when, having begun to “see out of obscurity and out of darkness,” he discovers the tremendous ruin on the brink of which he has been standing.

2. But then, besides describing the state to which the sinner’s mind is humbled in the first instance, these words remind us also of the blessedness of that state to which, when he is once made truly meek and poor in spirit, he is designed to be exalted. For the “meek shall increase their joy in the Lord.” At first, indeed, this joy may not be anything beyond the joy of hope. But this joy he “shall increase.” It shall grow “brighter and brighter to that perfect day” in which it shall become a “fulness of joy” at God’s right hand for evermore.

3. If these words be more extensively applied, as having reference to those nations and communities of men amongst whom the Gospel is already known, or as having reference to the whole of that world throughout whose wide extent it must ultimately be proclaimed, they still point out the circumstances under which this Gospel shall be “the power of God unto salvation,” and the delightful effects which shall ensue on its reception, in the increase of human happiness, and in the turning of men from a vain confidence in “lying vanities,” to faith in the one living and eternal God.

4. It would appear also to be intimated, that these delightful results of evangelical instruction should be especially exemplified in the case of the most despised and degraded of mankind. For they are “the poor amongst men,” who shall especially “rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”

5. These things are delightful to contemplate; but let us not forget, in the pleasure of such contemplations, the personal and practical interest which we are called to take in them. (J. Crowther.)