_Comfort ye, comfort ye My people_ THE GREAT PROPHECY OF ISRAEL’S RESTORATION In passing from chaps, 36-39, to chap. 40. we find ourselves introduced into a new world. The persons whom the prophet addresses, the people amongst whom he lives and moves, whose feelings he portrays, whose doubts he dis... [ Continue Reading ]
_Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem_ VOICES THAT SPEAK TO THE HEART This is one characteristic of the voices that reach us from God: they speak home to the heart (R.., marg.). The phrase in the Hebrew is the ordinary expression for wooing, and describes the attitude of the suppliant lover endeavour... [ Continue Reading ]
_The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness_ THE BAPTIST A PATTERN PREACHER I. DEPRECIATION OF SELF. Isaiah had predicted simply a “voice”; and John Baptist, accordingly, with a humility which ministers of the New Testament should follow, laid no stress on anything personal to himself--the ann... [ Continue Reading ]
_Prepare ye the way of the Lord_ THE WAY OF THE LORD PREPARED I. THE JEWISH THEOCRACY. It is a favourite statement with those who seek to account for Christianity on entirely mundane principles, that Christ grew, as it were, out of His age. The age was waiting for some such Teacher, some such Gospe... [ Continue Reading ]
_Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low_ CHRISTIANITY AN ESSENTIAL ELEMENT IN TRUE CIVILISATION I. THE WORLD IS STILL FULL OF THINGS NEEDING TO BE SET STRAIGHT. So far as the economy of our earth is concerned a period of confusion has immediately preceded the e... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed_ THE REVELATION OF GOD’S GLORY From this animating prophecy we may consider-- I. THE GLORY OF THE LORD. When Isaiah was favoured with the Divine vision the angels sang, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Anot... [ Continue Reading ]
_The voice said Cry._ And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass THE EARTHLY TRANSITORY: THE HEAVENLY ENDURING When we make a judgment of the objects of sense and of faith, “the things that are seen” claim the preference over “the things that are not seen.” The appearance which the world p... [ Continue Reading ]
_The grass withereth_ THE DECAY OF THE MATERIAL Viewed in its immediate relations to the context, the “flesh,” which is grass, is the vast population of the Babylonian empire. The “goodliness thereof,” which is the flower of the grass, is the pomp and pride of the Babylonian civilisation. The “Wo... [ Continue Reading ]
_O Zion, that bringest good tidings_ THE TIDINGS THE CHURCH HAS TO PUBLISH The text has been variously rendered. The best authorities give it, “Thou that bringest good tidings to Zion,” which rendering better agrees with the latter part of the verse, with some parallel passages, and with the scope... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand_ POWER AND TENDERNESS The beauty and peculiarity of these words consist in the combination of the might of Adonai-Jehovah (Isaiah 40:10), with the gentleness of the Shepherd, carrying in His bosom the weak and weary of the flock (Isaiah 40:11). I.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall feed His flock like a shepherd_ THE CARE OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD FOR HIS FLOCK 1. The prophet first declares the general office of the Saviour. “He shall feed His flock like a shepherd.” 2. Here His people are described under the endearing name of a “flock.” It is thus descriptive of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand?_ THE GRANDEUR OF GOD The prophet’s notions of God are diffused through all the verses of the text. The prophet’s design in describing the Deity with so much magnificence is to discountenance idolatry, of which there are two sorts. 1. Religi... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket_ THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND HIS WORKS I. THE GREATNESS OF GOD AND HIS WORKS. II. GOD CONSTANTLY GOVERNETH THE WORLD WHICH HE HATH MADE. And as all creatures from the highest to the lowest have their subsistence in the power of God, so they are each of t... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn_ GOD’S INDEPENDENCE He is not only independent of the power, but also of the goodwill of His creatures. This general allusion to oblation as an act of homage or of friendship suits the connection better than a specific reference to expiation. The insufficien... [ Continue Reading ]
_To whom then will ye liken God?_ THE TRINITY I. THE CARNAL NOTIONS MEN ARE APT TO ENTERTAIN OF GOD. 1. We find that the knowledge of the true God soon faded from the minds of Noah’s descendants. That patriarch had been favoured with a clear revelation; and he had offered a pure worship. But even... [ Continue Reading ]
_A graven image_ “AN IMAGE THAT WILL NOT TOTTER” If an idol leant over or fell that was the very worst of omens; _cf _the case of Dagon. (_Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D._) THE ABSURDITY OF IDOLATRY A wooden image, planed smooth below and heavier than above, so as not to upset at every push, is to be... [ Continue Reading ]
_Have ye not known?_ ISAIAH’S QUESTIONS His sharp questions are as hooks to draw from his hearers’ hearts their timid and starved convictions, that he may nourish these upon the sacramental glories of nature and of history. (_Prof. G. A. Smith, D. D._)... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth_ THE CIRCLE While yet people thought that the world was fiat, and thousands of years before they found out that it was round, Isaiah intimated the shape of it. The most beautiful figure in all geometry is the circle. God made the universe on the... [ Continue Reading ]
_That bringeth the princes to nothing_ GREAT MEN REDUCED TO NOTHING Earth has its great men. Social distinctions grow out of the constitution of things, and are, therefore, Divine in their foundation. I. EARTH’S GREAT MEN GOD REDUCES TO NOTHING. 1. Death is the destruction of all mere worldly d... [ Continue Reading ]
_Lift up your eyes on high_ LOOKING UP AND PRESSING ON A man’s vision broadens as it lengthens. Look straight down at your feet; what do you see? A few inches will measure the diameter of the circle within which your sight has play. Look up at the blue which spans the heavens, and what see you the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord?_ THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD: A REPLY TO UNBELIEF I. THE UNIVERSAL DISPOSITION TO UNBELIEF. “Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel?” etc. II. THE ACCOUNT WHICH GOD HIMSELF GIVES OF THE GREATNESS OF HIS ATTRIBUTES... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not._ THE UNWEARIED GOD AND WEARIED MEN For nations and for individuals in view of political disasters or of private sorrows, the only holdfast to which cheerful hope may cling, is the old conviction, “The Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” I.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He giveth power to the faint_ THE DIVINE HELPER I. OUR SPIRITUAL CONDITION IS INTIMATELY KNOWN TO THE DIVINE FATHER. He knows the strong and the faint alike. As a wise Shepherd, He is acquainted with the state of His entire flock. 1. There is our inherent antagonism to evangelical truth. Man is... [ Continue Reading ]
_Even the youths shall faint_ THE UNFAINTING SPIRIT The Hebrew tendency to lean upon the most muscular arm accessible, to buy up horses from Egypt in imitation of the warriors of the plains, to form alliances with neighbouring peoples in a neighbourly, instead of acting in the true Israelite spiri... [ Continue Reading ]
_But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength--_ STRENGTH FOR THE RETURNING EXILES There was a real climax in the prophet’s statement. And its application, in his thought, was to the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. God’s helpfulness would be adequate to their needs i... [ Continue Reading ]