Isaiah 5:14-16

Hell hath enlarged herself. .. the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in Judgment

The grave

“Hell,” here, stands not for future punishment.

The word “Sheol” in Hebrew, “Hades” in Greek, and “Hell” in this verse, represent the place of the dead--the grave. This place of the dead is spoken of in the Bible as a very deep place (Deuteronomy 32:22; Job 11:8; Psalms 139:7). As a very dark place (Job 10:21). And as a place having gates into it (Isaiah 38:10).

I. THE GROWING POWER OF THE GRAVE. The grave is here represented as having “enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.” The words refer, undoubtedly, to a period when, through famine, pestilence, or war, mortality was on the increase. This increase of mortality teaches us--

1. The fruitlessness of all human efforts to avert death. Men have been struggling against death for six thousand years, and his dominion is wider today than ever.

2. How soon we shall be in the grave world. The mouth is opening for us; it is yawning at our feet.

II. THE LEVELLING POWER OF THE GRAVE. “And their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it. And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled.” Learn from this--

1. How foolish it is to be proud of adventitious distinctions. They are only as flowers of the field, evanescent forms, and hues that variegate the common grass.

2. How important to seek an alliance with the eternally great and good. Seek “a city which hath foundations,” a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

III. THE ETERNAL SOVEREIGN OF THE GRAVE. “But the Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.”

1. He survives all dissolutions.

2. He will be increasingly honoured. “The Lord of hosts shall be exalted in judgment.” (Homilist.)

God’s judgments on the Jews

This judgment began to come upon the men whom Isaiah addressed, in the reign of Ahaz, soon after the delivery of the warning; but in order fully to understand it, we must (as in the case of all other prophecies) look at it in the light of the whole subsequent history of the Jews and of Christendom. In the final destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, Christ and His apostles saw the selfish and carnal nation brought to its last trial and righteously condemned, and the sentence carried into execution by that Man whom God had appointed to judge the world. They declared, and the event, spread over successive centuries, has proved the truth of the declaration, that God was bringing down the mean man and the mighty man alike throughout the world and exalting Himself and His Son, setting His name up in the world, and causing it to triumph over all opposition. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

God the righteous Judge

Though men may slavishly dread an arbitrary will, they can never feel for it that salutary tear which is the beginning of wisdom; and unless we believe that God’s judgments are righteous--that they are a part of the steady administration of a polity--as well as good in their effects, it will be impossible for us to keep long from superstition, or its opposite, scepticism. And, therefore, we may see the germ of a true historical and political philosophy in the prophet’s repeated assertion, that God is exalted in executing justice and sanctified in righteousness. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)