i. 25, 26. _And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely
purge away thy dross, and take away thy tin: and I will
restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as
at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city
of righteousness, The faithful city._
We have here the promise of a redemption which God would accomplish
for Jerusalem, and from the terms of the promise, especially taken in
connection with the preceding statements (vers. 21-23), we may learn
what God's idea of redemption is: it is to purge away all that
debases and to restore all that is lost. In other words, _redemption
consists in restoration to the Divine ideal._ Such was the redemption
which God promises to accomplish for Jerusalem; such is the
redemption which He offers to accomplish for us. Here we have--
+I. A correction of a common error.+ Most men, when they hear of
redemption, think of it merely as salvation from suffering, rescue
from the peril of hell. This is a _consequence_ of redemption, but
redemption consists in the cleansing of our nature from all
defilement, and in our restoration to the Divine ideal of humanity
(Col. iii. 10; Eph. iv. 24, 13). God is going to do something grander
for us than save us from hell. He is going to make us "meet" for
heaven (1 John iii. 2). It would be truer to say that God's idea of
redemption is "salvation _by_ suffering," than to say that it is
"salvation _from_ suffering." The figure used in the text is
expressive of the keenest suffering--"I will purge away thy dross."
but dross is purged away by _fire!_ Suffering is one of the
instruments which God most frequently uses to save men from sin.
+II. A model for preachers.+ Guided by a Divine interpreter, the
prophet does not speak of happiness, but of purity and righteousness;
he names these as the great favours which God was about to bestow
upon His people. So should preachers to-day strive to make men
understand that _these_ are the greatest blessings which God can
confer upon man. All other blessings spring from them; as all social
blessings are secured to a community when its "judges" are righteous
and its "counsellors" fear God. Let preachers do their utmost to make
it plain to the man of this generation, that just as if we have the
sun we shall have light and heat, so if they have purity, they shall
have peace; if they attain to holiness, they shall attain to a nobler
and completer happiness than those who long for happiness merely ever
dream.
+III. An ennobling ideal to be striven after by all men.+ Happy is
the man who has a great purpose in life. And what is the purpose with
which a study of our text should inspire us? Not merely to "flee from
the wrath to come," but to become "partakers of the Divine nature,"
and so to attain to God's ideal of humanity. God is striving to
restore us to His own likeness: let us do all that in us lies to help
on this restoration (Phil. ii. 12, 13). The "salvation" we are to
"work out" is not salvation from guilt (_that_ is Christ's work,
accomplished by Him once for all on the cross), but from the
indwelling corruption which is to us what dross is to the precious
metals. Nor are we merely to seek to put away that which is evil;[1]
we are to strive to set up in us all noblenesses which are to
character what "judges" and "counsellors" are to a city (2 Pet.
i. 5-7; Phil. iv. 8). Blessed is the man who has this ideal in life.
1. _He is saved from fear,_ the haunting dread of failure which
oppresses those whose supreme desire is merely to be saved from hell.
2. _He has a sustaining hope,_ based upon the sure promises of God's
Word (1 Pet. i. 10, 11). 3. He has a present and growing joy,_ such
as can come only from self-conquest and moral progress. The joy of
"the just," that is of the men whose steadfast aim is righteousness,
is like "the path of the just" (Prov. iv. 18).