Isaiah 41:18

I will open rivers in high places

God’s “I wills”

In this verso the Lord twice says, “I will”; and in that respect this verse is in harmony with the rest of the chapter.

When we come to the “I wills” of God, then we get among the precious things, the deep things, the things which minister comfort and strength to the people of God. We sometimes say “I will”; but it is in a feeble fashion compared with the way in which God says it. People say “‘Must’ is for the king.” So “I will” is for the King of kings. It is His prerogative to will

1. It is an “I will,” uttered with deliberation. James said, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world.” We say, “I will” in a hurry, and then we take time to repent of it. We are under excitement, persuasion, or compulsion, and we say, “I will,” and we are very sorry afterwards, and perhaps we are so unfaithful as not to keep our word; but God never speaks under compulsion; He is almighty. God never speaks in a hurry; He has infinite leisure. Now, when a man speaks a thing prudently and wisely, you believe that he will carry it out, if he can. You may have much more confidence with regard to what the Lord says, for He has not spoken without due deliberation.

2. When God says, “I will,” His resolution is supported by omnipotence. You say, “I will,” but you cannot do what you have promised. That can never happen with God.

3. When God says, “I will,” it is sealed with immutability. We are always changing. Hence, we say to-day, “I will,” and we mean it; but to-morrow we wish that we had never said. “I will,” and the next day we say, “I will not.” But God never changes.

4. When God says, “I will,” it will be carried out in faithfulness. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Two “I wills” in Isaiah 41:1.

I propose to apply the text as a general promise to many things.

I. TO THE TRIALS OF SAINTS.

1. Their temporal trials. What though there is nothing at present, perhaps by to-morrow morning the Lord may have opened rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.

2. The spiritual experience of believers. There are in our text four words relating to water. Everything had been dry before, and there was no water for the thirsty to drink. Now, here you have rivers, fountains, a pool, and springs of water. There is a difference in the four words. The first is “rivers.” There shall come directly from God a rush of mighty grace, like the streams of flowing rivers. There shall be “waters to swim in.” You shall have abundance where before you had nothing. The next word is “fountains,” which may be rendered “wells.” Wells are places to which people regularly go for water. They represent the means of grace. Perhaps you have been to the means of grace, and obtained no comfort. But, on a sudden, God appears, and opens wells in the midst of the valley. Now the service is all full of refreshment. There is a third word, “I will make the wilderness a pool of water.” Here you have the idea of overflowing abundance. God can give you so much joy that you will not know how to hold it all; you will have to let it be like a pool that overflows its banks. God can give you so much earnestness that you can hardly employ it all in the work that you have to do. He can give you so much nearness to Himself, that your heart shall scarcely be able to contain your delight. The fourth word is “springs.” It seems to indicate a perpetual freshness. Where there was a long-continued drought, there shall come perpetual freshness; always something new--new thoughts of Christ, new delights in holy service, new prospects of the world to come, new communion with God.

II. To the experience of converts.

1. Who were these people to whom the Lord spoke? They were people who were poor and needy. God will not do much for spiritually rich people; I mean you who say that you are rich in yourselves.

2. When will He do it? When they begin to seek Him. “When the poor and needy seek water.” Can you expect God to bless you if you do not seek Him?

3. But the time is noted further still. It is not only when they begin to seek, but when they begin silently to plead. “When their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them.” They could not speak. Yet says the Lord, “I will hear them.” A glib tongue is bad at praying. When a man prays in his heart, he is often like Moses, slow of speech

4. But the time mentioned is more sorrowful still; these people were in abject distress. “When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none.” “My day of grace in past, says one. I wonder whoever told you that he! Ah, well,” says one, “I have gone to look for mercy, and there is none.” So you think. Now is the time for Divine interposition. When you seek water, and find none, God will open rivers for you.

5. The promise also relates to those who are in various positions. Some are in very high places. You run up to the very tops of the mountains, and you fancy God cannot reach you there, but He says, “I will open rivers in high places.” A river on the top of a mountain is a wonderful thing; but God can make it so. Others are ordinary sinners down in the valleys. “Well,” says the Lord, “I will open fountains in the midst of the valleys.” Yes, and to vary the promise still more the Lord says, “I will make the wilderness a pool of water.” Have you ever seen a large extent of flat country covered with sand and stones? God pictures you as being like that barren, dried-up land, and He says that He will turn you into a pool of water. In a word, no condition can be so bad but God can change it.

III. TO THE LABOURS OF WORKERS FOR GOD. God can soon change the condition of the plot of ground on which you are at work.

1. I may be speaking to one who says, “Mine is a very bad place to work in, for I cannot get the people to come and hear the Gospel; there seems to be no spirit of hearing.” Do not give up preaching; do not give up working, you who long for souls to be saved, for God can suddenly give a love for His house, and an eagerness to hear the Gospel.

2. Another says, “I get the people to hear, but there is no feeling.” When the old St. Paul’s Cathedral had to be taken down for the present one to be built, Sir Christopher Wren had to remove some massive walls that had stood for hundreds of years; so he had a battering-ram, with a great mass of people, working away to break down the walls. I think that for four-and-twenty hours they kept right on, and there seemed to be no sign of giving way, the walls were so well built, very different from our modem walls. The structure was like a rock, it could not be stirred; but the battering-ram kept on and on and on, blow after blow, stroke after stroke, and at last the whole mass began to quiver, like a jelly, and by and by over went the massive walls. You have only to keep on long enough, and the same thing will happen in your work. The first blows upon the wall were not wasted; they were preparing for the others, and getting the whole structure into a condition of disintegration; and when that was done, down it came, and great was the fall thereof.

3. “Well,” says one, “what we want in our place is for the ministry itself to be supplied.” If the minister himself is dry, what is to be done? Find fault with him, and leave him? No! if he is a man of God, pray for him, and never rest till the Lord makes the dry land springs of water.

4. But what is wanted, too, is the same blessing upon the helpers. What is the preacher to do, what is the Church to do, if the workers are half asleep? One sleepy Christian in a Church may do much mischief. In some businesses the whole thing is so arranged, that if one person goes to sleep, all the machinery goes wrong; and I believe that it is very much so in the Church of God.

5. Then we may look for a change throughout the whole congregation. Men and women will cry out, “What must we do to be saved?” There will be plenty of people to be talked to about their souls. We shall have no difficulty in increasing the Church, month by month, with such as shall be saved.

6. Then all the neighbour-hood will be transformed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

God’s abounding generosity

He does not measure His gifts of water by the pint and by the gallon; but here you have pools, and springs, and rivers. When He has given waters, He will give trees to grow by the waters. When God gives blessing, He makes other blessings to spring out of it. (C. H.Spurgeon.)