Isaiah 55:9

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,--

The near and heavenly horizons

I. THE HEAVENS ARE SO FAR ABOVE THE EARTH, AND THEREFORE SO PURE. By nature, the trend of our thinkings and activities is downward, earthly, sensual, devilish. Hence the awful disparity between the ways and thoughts of God and ours. It is impossible, therefore, for the natural man to understand God, or, to please God. It is impossible, also, for the natural man to live with God for ever, unless the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

II. SO FOR, AND THEREFORE SO ABUNDANT. This is the thought which the apostle expands in one of the most glowing passages on the page of revelation (Romans 5:12). His point is, that whatever was done by sin, and through sin, must be paralleled and outdone by the grace of God. There is no parallel between our forgiveness and God’s. When God forgives, He ceases to remember; He blots out iniquities as a cloud, and sins as a thick cloud; He does not treat us simply as pardoned criminals, but takes us to His heart as beloved sons, He transforms the sad consequences of our sins into blessings, instead of the thorn comes up the fir-tree, and instead of the briar the myrtle-tree. This surely is as much above man’s notions of forgiveness as the heavens are high above the earth

III. SO FAR, AND THEREFORE SO BENEFICENT. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

The transcendent elevation of God

It is a wonderful and beautiful turn which the prophet here gives to the thought of the transcendent elevation of God. The heavens are the very type of the unattainable; and to say that they are “higher than the earth”, seems, at first sight, to be but to say, No man hath ascended into the heavens,’ and you sinful men must grovel here down upon your plain, whilst they are far above, out of your reach. But the heavens bend. They are an arch, and not a straight line. They touch the horizon; and there come from them the sweet influences of sunshine and of rain, of dew and of blessing, which bring fertility. So they are not only far and unattainable, but friendly and beneficent, and communicative of good. Like them in true analogy, but yet infinite superiority to the best and noblest in man, is the boundless mercy of our pardoning God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)