Isaiah 8:21-22

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry

Unsanctified suffering

I. SIN LEADS TO SUFFERING.

II. THERE IS IN SUFFERING NO SANCTIFYING POWER. It may harden men in iniquity.

III. SUFFERING DOES NOTHING IN ITSELF TO ABATE GOD’S ANGER AGAINST SINNERS. Nothing will turn away that anger but a genuine repentance Isaiah 9:13). (R. A. Bertram.)

Nemesis

He reads the doom of those that seek to familiar spirits, and regard not God’s law and testimony. There shall not only be no light to them, no comfort; or prosperity, but they may expect all horror and misery.

1. The trouble they feared shall come upon them. They shall pass to and fro in the land, unfixed, unsettled, and driven from place to place by the threatening power of an invading enemy.

2. They shall be very uneasy to themselves, by their discontent and impatience under their trouble.

3. They shall be very provoking to all about them, nay, to all above them. When they find all their measures broken, and themselves at their wits’ end, they will forget all the rules of duty and decency, and will treasonably curse their king, and blasphemously curse their God.

4. They shall abandon themselves to despair, and, which way soever they look, shall see no probability of relief. They shall look upward, out heaven shall frown upon them; they shall look to the earth, but what comfort can that yield to those whom God is at war with? (M. Henry.)

Hardly bestead

Embarrassed with difficulties, oppressed with anxieties, distressed with bitter reflections and desponding thoughts, not knowing what to do or whither to go. (R. Macculloch.)

Hungry

Destitute not only of necessary provision |or their personal support, but of the Word of the Lord, which is the nourishment of the soul Amos 8:11). (R. Macculloch.)

Fretfulness

Through hunger and poverty is indeed a great calamity, yet fretfulness of spirit is a still greater one; and when both are united, it is evident that the mind is as empty of spiritual good as the body is of necessary provision. (R. Macculloch.)

No good without God

Them that go away from God, go out of the way of all good. (M. Henry.)

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