ii. 6-22.
_Here_ is a "word" (vision) which Isaiah "saw concerning Judah and
Jerusalem" (ver. 1). The prophet has been enraptured by the wondrous
prospect of the distant future, when religion shall be the supreme
force of life (ver. 2), and all men (vers. 2, 3), walking in "the
light of the Lord," shall be at peace with each other (ver. 4): now
he looks down to the present, and how dark and terrible is the
picture which he sees before him! He sees--+I. A nation forsaken of
God+ (ver. 6). One of the most awful of all spectacles: an engine of
tremendous power, without a driver, rushing down a steep incline!
+II. A nation pursuing childish superstitions+ (ver. 6): "They be
replenished from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines."
When a nation forsakes God, this is a common result (Rom. i. 21, 22).
Witness the rapid spread in our own day of "spiritualism" among the
sceptical and irreligious classes of England and America. +III. A
nation seeking strength and safety in alliances with the enemies of
God,+ allying itself with the very powers which Omnipotent
Righteousness was pledged to crush! Instead of dwelling apart, as God
intended (Num. xxiii. 9; Deut. xxxiii. 28, &c.), and in dependence
upon His protection, the Israelites sought to strengthen themselves
by alliances with surrounding nations. "They please themselves with
the children of strangers." The same sin is repeated in these days,
when God's people mix with worldly society for the sake of its
"advantages." +IV. A nation blinded by external prosperity to its
real condition and peril+ (ver. 7). Abounding with every evidence of
prosperity, how could they suspect that they were forsaken of God,
and that a terrible doom was hanging over them? What is our
condition, and what are our prospects as a nation? Let us not lay too
much stress upon our great national wealth. +V. A nation given over
to a debasing idolatry+ (ver. 8; Rom. i. 23). A moral degradation
extending to all classes (ver. 9). Just what we behold in Roman
Catholic and ritualistic churches, where rich and poor alike
prostrate themselves before the wheaten wafer which their priest has
transformed into a god! The prophet himself now becomes part of the
picture, and we have--+VI.+ The awful spectacle of +a good man
invoking the vengeance of Heaven upon the nation to which he belongs+
(ver. 10): "Therefore forgive them not." This was the natural cry of
the prophet's soul, filled with horror and indignation at what he
saw. The imprecations of Scripture are the natural (and fitting)
utterance of righteousness in view of wickedness. It is only because
of the tone of our own spiritual life is so low that we are offended
at them. From whom, among ourselves, does the cry of human law
against the perpetrators of crimes of violence come? Not from the
classes most likely to suffer for them, but from the refined and
gentle, who, just because of their refinement and gentleness, are
inspired by them with disgust and anger. So it is those who are most
in sympathy with God who are most likely to burn with holy
indignation against such things as the prophet saw. The men who offer
such prayers as this, "Forgive them not," would be the first to
reverse it did the offenders give any sign of repentance. +VII. A
crushing doom impending over an unsuspecting nation.+ No sooner had
the prophet uttered his prayer, than he sees it was needless, and
that the thunderclouds of the Divine anger were already thickly
massed over the guilty nation; without any visible sign there was
gathering over them a storm that would suddenly break forth with
destructive force. Therefore he breaks out into a strain of
impassioned warning and appeal to the very men for whose punishment
he had prayed (ver. 10, &c.)
What lessons shall we learn from our survey of this dark picture?
1. _Not to judge of the relations of nations, individuals, or
ourselves to God by the test of temporal circumstances._ It is an old
but gross fallacy that temporal prosperity is a sure sign of the
Divine favour (Eccles. ix. 1-3; Job xxi. 7-15, &c.)[1] Let us not ask
what our circumstances are, but what our character is, and what our
conduct has been. If we are unrighteous, temporal prosperity should
alarm us, as a sign that God has forsaken us (Heb. xii. 8). 2. _Not
to be hasty to impute the temporal prosperity of the wicked to a
slumbering of the Divine justice._ We need scarcely trouble ourselves
to pray for a doom upon the ungodly (Exod. xxxiv. 7; 2 Pet. ii. 3;
Job xxi. 17, 18; Ps. lxxiii. 18, 19; Isa. iii. 11). 3. _Let us
remember that we ourselves, as sinners, are exposed to the Divine
judgments, and let us "enter into the Rock"_--"the Rock of Ages,"
that, sheltered in Him, we may be safe when the storms of the final
judgment shall burst upon our guilty world.