i. 27, 28. _Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her
converts with righteousness: and the destruction of the
transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and
they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed._
These verses are closely and vitally connected: it is a mistake to
separate them, as in the Authorised Version. Their meaning would be
conveyed to the English reader, if they were translated--_"Zion shall
be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness; and
thereby also the transgressors and sinners shall be destroyed, yea
they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed."_[1] By judgment is
meant the doom which in the preceding verses had been threatened
against guilty Jerusalem (_e.g.,_ vers. 18): this "judgment" would be
a manifestation of God's punitive righteousness, and the declaration
is that the infliction of this "judgment" would have a twofold
effect--it would redeem Zion and her converts, and it would destroy
the transgressors and sinners.
_The diverse effects of Divine judgments_ is a matter well worthy of
our study. +I. One effect of those judgments by which God manifests
His righteous indignation against sin is to redeem His people from
their transgressions.+ A prolonged period of peace and prosperity
such as the Jews enjoyed under Uzziah is always perilous to the vital
religion of a nation. Formalism is apt to prevail. The lines of
demarcation between the Church and the world are apt to be effaced;
"Zion" is apt to become merged in "Jerusalem." In love to His people,
God is therefore compelled to send upon their nation great
calamities. These lead to searchings of heart, and reformations of
conduct and character. Men learn again to wait upon God, and
reverently to regard His will (ch. xxvi. 9). The Church shines once
more with the glory of spiritual conformity to God, and the result is
that she is increased by converts from the world: to these also the
season of judgment is also the season of redemption. But,
+II. Another effect of God's judgments is to harden the obdurate.+
His chastisements lead some men to further acts of rebellion against
Him (ver. 8). Like Pharaoh, they harden themselves more and more as
God sends plague after plague upon them (Exod. viii. 19, 32, &c.)
Hence seasons of public calamity (such as that of the plague in
London, &c.) have always been seasons of public crime. Transgressors
madly dare Omnipotence to a trial of strength, and the result is
their utter destruction.
Our object as thus unfolded gives rise to the following practical
reflections--1. In a season of national or individual prosperity we
should be especially watchful and prayerful against conformity to the
world.[2] 2. We should not regard judgments that come upon our nation
or ourselves merely as calamities: they may be God's angels sent in
truest mercy, and they bring with them to the people of God great
moral and spiritual compensations. 3. Judgments, when they come upon
us, afford us an admirable test of our real character: if we be
indeed the people of God, they will lead us to submission and to more
earnest strivings after holiness; but if they awaken within us a
spirit of murmuring, of repining, of resentment against God, we have
good cause to suspect that our religion has never been the work of
God in our hearts.[3] 4. In the season of judgment we really have
only one alternative before us--to turn or burn. No stoutness of
heart will enable us to resist God's consuming wrath against iniquity
(Mal. iv. 1).