xiv. 32. _What shall one answer? &c._
Translators and interpreters differ as to whether the answer in this
verse was intended to be given _by_ or _to_ the messengers of the
nations; as to the nations whose messengers are here spoken of; and
as to the time when they came on their errand. Adopting the view
which represents them as coming to Jerusalem to congratulate Hezekiah
after the marvellous deliverance of that city from the Assyrians
(chap. xxxvii. 36-38), we remind you--
+I. That the wonders of God's love to His Church often surprise
strangers as well as friends.+ For the deliverances wrought for her
are often--1. _Surprisingly seasonable, e.g.,_ the overthrow of the
Egyptian host in the Red Sea, when everything seemed to favour
Pharaoh and to be against Israel (Exod. xv. 13-15); the deliverance
of Jerusalem from Sennacherib. 2. _Astonishing because brought about
by unlikely means._ Who could have anticipated the manner of the
deliverance of Jerusalem on this occasion? [Give other examples.]
3. _Astonishing because vouchsafed in spite of great provocations and
unworthiness._ Every such deliverance is a work of grace as well as
of power.
+II. In such times of deliverance friends and enemies alike wonder at
the secure foundations on which the Church is built.+ The literal
Zion was a marvel of architecture (Ps. xlviii. 13), and in this
respect it was a worthy symbol of the Church.[1] 1. The strength and
stability of the spiritual Zion is guaranteed by the character and
resources of the Builder: _"The Lord hath founded Zion."_
2. Therefore we should not fear the might of any of the adversaries
that come up against her (H. E. I., 1246-1251).
+III. The stability and security of Zion are sources of delighted
satisfaction to the humblest of her inhabitants:+ _"The poor of His
people shall trust in it."_ They know they are under the guardianship
of One who is "mighty to save," and who encircles the least as well
as the greatest in arms of His love. Their consciousness of poverty
and weakness leads them to rest in Him with an undivided trust, and
they thus attain unconsciously to the blessedness of those who trust
is in God only, the peace which rests on the only foundation that
cannot be moved.--_Samuel Thodey._
Mark what the text affirms, _"The Lord hath founded Zion;"_ this is
the guarantee of His love and of her stability: _"the poor of His
people shall trust in it,"_ or, as the margin has it, _"shall betake
themselves unto it:"_ this is the one purpose of Her Divine mission
upon earth--the care, the teaching, the education, the guidance of
the poor.
I. THE SECURITY OF THE CHURCH. 1. The strongest, most fundamental
title to protection is creation. Even among ourselves no one frames
an object in order to destroy it; he who makes, makes that he may
preserve. Thus is creation in itself a presumptive title to
protection; and it is abundantly plain that the strength of such a
bond will ever increase with the cost of the object produced. In one
sense the whole material universe cost its Creator nothing, for its
production was to Him a thing of infinite ease; but this cannot be
said of the Church. He spoke to bid the one, He died to make the
other exist. When He beholds His Church, He sees in it the monument
of His own inexpressible sorrow; He feels this offspring of His
Divine agonies drawn closer to His eternal heart by the thought of
all it cost to give her being. 2. In this Church of His is His own
_honour_ pledged. He hath not covenanted with the world that now is
to immortalise it; but He has passed His own word for the perpetuity
of His Church (Matt. xvi. 18; Isa. lx. 20, 21). 3. The Church, in its
ultimate perfection, is set forth as the very _reward_ of all the
sorrows of its Lord. To "see of the travail of His soul and be
satisfied" is His destined crown; this "joy set before Him" was that
which enabled Him to "endure the cross, despising the shame." (See
also Eph. v. 25-27.) Shall He be defrauded of His recompense?
4. There is more than creation to bind the Church to Christ, more
than promise, more than reward; there is communion, oneness,
identification. A man may desert his child; he cannot desert himself.
Even though the Redeemer could forget His espoused bride; even though
He could deny His plighted promise; yea, though He could abandon His
own reward, He cannot abandon His own body (1 Cor. xii. 27; Eph.
i. 23, v. 30). With such a union there can be no separation; if
Christ be immortal, the Church is so; when He dies she shall perish,
but not till then.
II. THE MISSION OF THE CHURCH. _"The poor of His people shall trust
in it."_ The Church of Christ is one vast institute for the benefit
of the poor. The poor were the special objects of Christ's solicitude
and tenderness, and they have been, and should be, the special
objects of the Church's care. Even in her worst days she has had an
open hand for the poor. She should ever follow the example of her
Lord in caring for their temporal needs. But it is in the doctrine
she preaches, and the way she preaches it, that the Church is indeed
the poor man's consoler.[2]--_William Archer Butler, M.A.,: Sermons,
Doctrinal and Practical, Second Series,_ pp. 227-237.