v. 2. _He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it
brought forth wild grapes._
"I believe in God." Which god? The god constructed for us by
philosophers, who is impassive, throned in eternal calm, unmoved by
the crimes or the virtues of men, all of which he has foreseen from
eternal ages, and which cannot in any way affect him at the time of
their occurrence; a god who towers above men, majestic and
unchangeable, like an Alpine peak, which is the same whether sunlight
cheers or clouds darken the valleys beneath? No, but the God of the
Bible, who loves and hates, who rejoices with us in our gladness and
sorrows with us in our griefs, who foresees and overrules all, and
yet can hope and be disappointed.
I. That God can be disappointed is distinctly the implication of our
text. "He _looked_ that it," &c. 1. Isaiah's parable recalls the
privileges which God had conferred upon the Jews; and we know that He
dealt with them as He did, in order that they might become a holy
nation (Exod. xix. 6; Deut. vii. 6, xxvi. 18, 19). Was their
persistent unholiness no disappointment to Him? 2. The same truth is
implied in what we are told of God's feelings in view of the
wickedness of the antediluvians (Gen. vi. 5, 6). He had made man in
His own image, in order that He might continue therein, and shine
with the lustre of His own moral perfections; each man was to be a
_planet_ in the moral universe, reflecting the glory of the great
central Sun; and when He saw man transformed into the image of Satan,
and His purposes concerning him frustrated, He was filled with
profound regret. 3. The same truth is implied in what we are told
concerning Christ. "He came unto His own" (John i. 11). For what
purpose? Certainly not that He might be rejected, but that He might
be received by them. But He _was_ rejected! See how forcibly this is
brought out in His parable (Luke xx. 9-15--especially verse 13).
4. It is implied in Christ's tears and lament over Jerusalem (Luke
xix. 41; Matt xxiii. 37). 5. It is implied in the apostolic
declarations, that God is desirous that all men should repent and be
saved (1 Tim. ii. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 9). We must not minimise the force
of θέλει--ὂς πάντας άνθρώποʊς θέλεɩ σωθῆναɩ. The strength of any
one's desire is to be measured by what he will do or sacrifice to
accomplish it; and God gave His only begotten Son in order that all
men might have everlasting life. But all men are not saved. That the
Scriptures teach that God can be--and often is--disappointed, is
clear.
II. "But it is impossible that God can be disappointed, seeing that
He is omniscient and foresees all things. Surprise, and consequently
disappointment, is not possible to perfect knowledge." 1. This
objection appears to be very reasonable, but against it there is this
fatal objection, that we cannot measure God by our reason.[1] We
cannot tell how He will act or feel under certain circumstances: all
we know is, that under all circumstances God will act and feel in a
manner worthy of Himself. But what is, or is not, consistent with His
attributes, we are not in a position to determine. Take, for
instance, His omnipresence. If we were present when dastardly wrongs
and great crimes are committed, and were clothed with power to
prevent them, how certain it is that we should prevent them![2] But
every day He stands by and sees such wickednesses perpetrated, and is
silent, and gives no sign. Let us, then, not be in a hurry to decide
that disappointment is not consistent with omniscience. 2. There is
an experience very frequent among men, which may perhaps help us a
little to understand what disappointment is in God. Evils may be long
distinctly foreseen--as, for example, the death of a dear friend
suffering from an incurable disease--but yet not realised until they
actually occur. The blow is foreseen long before it falls, but it is
felt when it falls. Every man knows that he must die, and yet how
nearly a surprise is death to every man! 3. Whether we can understand
it or not, it is our duty to accept this declaration, that in view of
the ingratitude and sinfulness of men whom God has blessed and has
sought to win by virtue and holiness, He is profoundly grieved and
disappointed. Such declarations are not to be dismissed as
"anthropomorphological." However much that is in them may be
figurative, there is a reality behind the figures.
III. Whatever mystery may attach to this declaration, consider how
precious it is--1. A God who can be disappointed is precisely the God
we need. How else could we be assured of His sympathy with us in the
disappointments which so frequently come upon us, and which make up
so considerable a part of the experiences of our life? Were God such
a being as the philosophers have imagined, we might feel that He
understood us, as an anatomist understands exactly how a frog on
which he is operating will act when exposed to galvanic shocks, but
we could not have had the inexpressible consolation of the assurance
of His sympathy. It is only a mother who has been bereaved who can
comfort a mother who is weeping over her dead child. 2. A God who is
so much interested in us that our failures in virtue inspire Him with
profound grief and disappointment, is against precisely the God we
need. Of what value to us would be a God who looked upon us with as
little emotion as a king may be supposed to do upon the ants who
crawl across his path? It is because men do not think of God as He is
revealed in our text, that they sin against Him; if they did but
realise how He feels about them, it would be impossible for them to
transgress as they do. I accept His declaration, that He is
disappointed in view of human sin, and I try to measure His
disappointment. I find help in this endeavour in this Old Testament
parable: how profound would be the disappointment of a husbandman
under such circumstances as are supposed! But I find yet more
valuable help in the greatest of the New Testament parables. How
bitter must have been the disappointment of the father of the
Prodigal when he went away into a far country! Such disappointments
break the hearts of tens of thousands of fathers and mothers, and
brings down their grey hairs with sorrow to the grave; and precisely
such disappointment it is, only vaster, deeper, sadder, that fills
the heart of our Heavenly Father when His children go astray. It is
thus that some of you have grieved Him; it is thus that some of you
are grieving Him to-day by your contemptuous disregard of His offers
of mercy and forgiveness. Oh, think what it is that you do, and
surely your carelessness must give place to profound contrition, and
you will resemble the Prodigal in your penitence, as you have done in
your ingratitude and your guilt.