vi. 9, 10. _And He said, Go, and tell this people, &c._
The Divine message--a message of melting pathos and of startling
warning, of beseeching entreaty and of terrible threatening--must be
delivered to men. "Go and tell this people" is a command that
shatters excuses and imposes an imperative obligation. God's speakers
have no option--speak they must (Jonah iii. 2). The effects of God's
communications correspond to the willingness or the wilfulness of men.
+I. Divine truth elicits human disposition.+ In the spring season,
the sun sits in judgment upon the trees of gardens and forests. Then
the trees that have life have it more abundantly. Their latent powers
and possibilities are developed and exhibited. The same sun-force
smites the decaying trees and shrivels those having only goodliness
without life. Is not the Sun of Righteousness "a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart"? When on earth, He who is "the
Truth" evoked the hidden feelings, purposes, and qualities of men;
and His manifold message repeats the process to the end of time (John
ix. 39). The ministry of Isaiah was a revealing ministry: the
character of men and the character of the nation by it were made
manifest. +II. Divine truth repelled because of dislike.+ "Lest they
see, hear, understand, be converted and healed." A diseased eye
winces under the scorching sunlight, as a disordered soul will flinch
under the fierce light that streams upon it from above. The
disquieted conscience repels the entrance of the truth, because of
the revolutions in thought, disposition, purpose, character, and
activity which its admission would necessitate. None are so blind,
deaf, insensible as those who do not want to see, hear, or feel (John
iii. 19, 20). Men dislike the purpose of God's good but severe
discipline: they want not to "be converted and healed," and they
recoil from the painful process.[1] +III. Divine truth cannot be
rejected without injury.+ Divine truth and grace will not be void of
result, though the result may be most injurious (Rom ii. 4, 5).
Consequences of lasting duration are involved in our action of
opening or shutting the doors of the soul.[2] Not to receive the
"grace upon grace" of God is to put the spirit into an attitude of
opposition: this attitude can easily become a confirmed habit; and
the habit, in righteous retribution, may be ratified (Rev. xxii. 11).
Antagonism to God's revelation injures the soul's highest life; its
power of vision is dimmed or veiled; the understanding loses its
alertness and fails to comprehend; the affections become gross and
carnal. Inexorable is the spiritual law and appalling the spiritual
doom (Eph. iv. 18). Isaiah unfolded God's design of salvation; but
the design was intercepted and frustrated by human perversity. Men
"rejected the counsel of God against themselves," and persistent
resistance rendered them "past feeling." "Take heed how ye hear."
"Hear, and your soul shall live."[3]--_Matthew Braithwaite._