Isaiah 41:4

I the Lord, the first, and with the last

I.

LOOK AT GOD IN HIS PRIMARY RELATION TO HIS CREATURE. Understand clearly that everything which is was first an idea in the mind of God. Thence, by a creative act, it came forth and took form and being. So God was first, long before all His works--as the mould is before the castings. Here is the truth and glory of predestination, that great argument of all comfort. It places God far away, beyond our little horizon, in advance of everything. Whatever is, is to fulfil its preordained purpose; each thing coming up and rising in its turn; everything a reflection of the eternal love, care, and wisdom which dwelt from everlasting in the mind of God.

II. “WITH THE LAST.” There are those who say, “This world is on the decline and growing worse.” Can it be, if He who was First is with the last--the same God yesterday, to-day, and for ever,the equal portion of all times? Is it not sufficient argument? The golden age cannot be over. From the fleeting and the changing, from the disappointing and the dying, I yearn to ask, “Where is the true?” Where is that which my soul wants, and for which my restless spirit has so long been craving, what shall satisfy my immortality? And the answer comes, as a whisper in the desert, louder and clearer from the solitude of my heart’s waste places, “I the Lord, the First, and with the last; I am He.” (J. Vaughan, M. A.)