xxv. 9. _And it shall be said in that day, &c._
Isaiah is here, as he is so often, the prophet not merely of future
events, but of future states of mind and feeling; not merely of God's
dealings with His people, but of the way in which they would or
should meet their God.
To what event does he refer?
1. First of all, to the deliverance of Hezekiah and his people from
King Sennacherib.[1] That deliverance was recognised as God's work.
The recognition of God's presence in the great turning-points of
human history is in all ages natural to religious minds. He is with
men and nations at all times, but in the great crises of history that
presence is brought more vividly before the imagination. So was it
when a great storm destroyed the Spanish Armada, and when the power
of the first Napoleon was broken first at Leipsic and then at
Waterloo. Devout minds felt that these were reappearances of God in
human history, and they rejoiced in Him.
2. But beyond the immediate present, Isaiah sees, it may be
indistinctly, into a distant future. The judgment of his time
foreshadowed some universal judgment upon all the enemies of mankind,
some deliverance final, universal, at the end of time. For that
judgment and deliverance the Church, both on earth and in heaven,
waits and prays (Ps. lxxiv. 10, 22, 23; Rev. vi. 9, 10). To them the
answer seems to be long delayed; but it will come (Rev. vi. 12-17);
and when at last it bursts upon the world, it will be welcomed by the
servants of God as was the deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian
army.
3. But between the days of Hezekiah and the final judgment there is
another event closer to the prophet's thought--the appearance of the
great Deliverer in the midst of human history. All that belongs to
the nearer history of Judah melts away in the future which belongs to
the King Messiah. The Assyrians themselves are replaced in his
thoughts by the greater enemies of humanity; the city of David and
Mount Zion become the spiritual city of God, the mountain of the Lord
of hosts, the Church of the Divine Redeemer. Here, as so often, the
incarnation of the eternal Son of God, with its vast and incalculable
consequences to the world of souls, is the keynote of Isaiah's
deepest thought, and in our text he epitomises the heart-song of
Christendom, which ascends day by day to the throne of the Redeemer.
(1.) _"Lo, this is our God."_ Christ is not for us Christians merely
or chiefly the preacher or herald of a religion of which another
being, distinct from Himself, is its object. The Gospel creed does
not run thus, "There is no God but God, and Christ is His prophet."
When He appears to the soul of man at the crisis of its penitence, or
its conversion, the greeting which meets and befits Him is not, "Lo,
this is the good man sent for God to teach some high and forgotten
moral truths;" no, but, "Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him;
He will save us!" (H. E. I., 835-845). (2.) So might the Jews, the
children of the prophets, have sung; so did some of those who entered
most deeply into the meaning of the promises given to their fathers
(Luke i. 46-55, 68-79; ii. 29-32). (3.) So might the noble
philosophers of Greece have sung; so they did sing when, in Christ
the incarnate God, of whom they had dreamed and for whom they had
sought, was revealed to them. (4.) So have sung in all ages that
multitude of human souls whom a profound sense of moral need has
brought to the feet of the Redeemer (H. E. I., 948-971).--_H. P.
Liddon, M.A.: Christian World Pulpit,_ vol. xiii. pp. 1-3.
I. WHAT ARE THOSE COMINGS OF CHRIST WHICH ARE THE OCCASION OF JOY TO
THE CHURCH? 1. _His coming in the flesh,_ His incarnation. To this
His people had looked forward; in it they rejoiced. Good cause had
they for gladness, for He came to spread the gospel feast, to remove
the clouds of ignorance and error, to destroy the reign of sin and
death. 2. _His coming in the Spirit,_ at the day of Pentecost; in the
experience of the individual soul, in the hours of penitence, of
temptation, of sorrow. His coming in the flesh was the great promise
of the Old Testament; His coming in the Spirit is the great promise
of the New. 3. _His coming to receive the soul to glory._ He comes
unchanged. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His
saints. 4. _His coming to bring the present dispensation to a close._
It may be heralded by many alarming and distressing events, but it
will be itself a cause for joy. To the wicked it will be a day of
unmixed terror, but to the righteous of gladness; for it will bring
them redemption from the power of every sin, from the assault of
every enemy; every fetter will be broken, every cloud dispelled.
II. WHAT IS REQUISITE TO ENABLE US TO WELCOME THE APPROACH OF CHRIST?
1. A knowledge of Him as our God and Redeemer. 2. An experience of
the benefits of His salvation. 3. Love for Him. 4. Submission to His
will and zeal for his glory.--_Samuel Thodey._
+I. In the day of judgment nothing will inspire us with joy and
confidence but a real interest in Jesus Christ.+ The ungodly now
possess many sources of present enjoyment; but in that day they will
have ceased for ever. One grand, all-important idea will then fill
the mind: "The solemn day of account is come; how shall I abide in
it? How shall I endure the presence of the heart-searching Judge?"
But whence can this assurance be obtained? Only from an interest in
Jesus Christ. Those who do not possess it will then be filled with
shame and terror; but, amid all its terrors, those who do possess it
will be enabled to rejoice.
+II. In that day none will be found to have a real interest in
Christ, nor capable of rejoicing, but those who are now waiting for
His coming.+ This is a characteristic of all genuine Christians
(1 Thess. i. 10; Tit. ii. 13; 1 Cor. i. 7; Luke xii. 36). Hence, in
our text, we find the saints representing their conduct towards the
Lord in the days of their flesh by the same term: "We have waited for
Him." It may be useful, then, to point out some of the particulars
implied in this general description of the Christian character. To
"wait for Christ" implies--1. A FIRM BELIEF IN HIS SECOND COMING, and
of the infinitely momentous consequences which will follow that
event. The true Christian walks "by faith, not by sight." Unlike the
profane (2 Pet. iii. 4), he lays it down in his mind as an infallible
truth that "the day of the Lord _will_ come." 2. A CONSTANT ENDEAVOUR
TO BE PREPARED FOR IT. How the wise virgins acted (Matt. xxv. 4).
3. A PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING (Luke xii. 35-46). Are you
_thus_ "waiting" for the second coming of your Lord?--_Edward Cooper:
Practical and Familiar Sermons,_ vol. iv. pp. 225-240.
The chapter from which these words are taken contains a noble
description of the glory and grace of God, of His glory in ruling
irresistibly the nations of the earth, and in crushing the enemies of
His Church, of His glory and grace in the salvation of mankind. It
records by anticipation the triumphs of the Gospel, the downfall of
the powers of darkness, the annihilation of death itself, the reign
of perpetual peace and joy.
+I. A recognition of the birth of the Messiah.+ It is a matter of
historical certainty that the people of God did wait for the coming
of the Saviour from the time of the very first promise given to the
woman after the fall, to the period of our Lord's appearance upon the
earth, at which season there was a general expectation in all the
neighbouring regions of the advent of some mighty personage who was
to realise all the sublime descriptions of the ancient prophets. Anna
the prophetess, Joseph of Arimathea, the aged Simeon and other devout
men, were waiting for the "consolation of Israel."
+II. An assertion of His Divinity.+ "This is our God,"--not merely a
prophet, a priest, a king, chosen by Jehovah from among His people,
and commissioned to give laws and statutes, as Moses was, or to
assert Jehovah's authority and punish idolatry, as Elijah was, or to
denounce His wrath against an apostate people and at the same time to
foreshadow a great deliverance to come, as Isaiah was himself, or
Jeremiah or any other of those holy men who spake in old times by the
Holy Ghost; but this is OUR GOD, this is Emmanuel--God with us--God
manifest in the flesh.
+III. A declaration of His atoning work.+ How vast that work He took
on Himself to execute,--the reconciliation in His own person of
sinful man to an offended God, the overthrow of the kingdom of Satan,
and the abolition of death! No man could have performed it (Ps.
xlix. 7). Could any of the angels, then, have taken in hand this
enterprise? Beyond the power, above the conception of any being of
limited goodness, knowledge and power, it could only be accomplished
by the Divine Son of God. It was God's work, devised and executed by
Omnipotence.
+IV. A recognition of the second coming of Christ.+ We are admonished
by the Church that there is a Second Coming of Christ, for which the
Church is waiting, and for which we, with every member of the Church,
ought to be looking with earnest and anxious expectation. Is our
language, "How long, O Lord?" Our answer is, How long the final
triumph of the Saviour may be deferred, how long a period may elapse
before the world is ripe for judgment, is one of those secrets which
God has reserved to Himself (Acts i. 7). The end of all things, it
may be not in the literal sense of the word, at hand, is every year
and every day and every moment drawing nearer to each of us. We are
all in silent but unceasing movement towards the judgment-hall of
Christ. In this point of view, the moment of our death may be
regarded as placing us at once before His awful tribunal, for the
space between the two, as it affects our eternal destination, will be
to us as nothing. When the judgment is set, the books opened, we
shall suddenly stand before the Judge, precisely in that state of
preparation in which we were found at the moment of our departure out
of life. Those who have lived as children of God, as servants of
Jesus Christ, under the solemn, yet not fearful, expectation of that
day, will then be able to lift up their heads and raise the song of
joyful recognition.
_Application._--If ever there was a great practical truth, this is
one. If we do not wait for the great day of the Lord in such a spirit
of carefulness and circumspection as to refer to it all our actions,
words, and thoughts, then it is perfectly certain that we shall be
surprised at its coming and be taken utterly unprepared. It will come
on us as a thief in the night, and we shall sink into everlasting
perdition; not for the want of means and opportunities of being
saved, but for want of common prudence and forethought in the most
momentous of all concerns. What, then is the conclusion? Live like
men that are waiting for their Lord, then when He arrives, He may be
welcomed. Accustom yourselves to His presence, in His sanctuary, at
His table, in His word, in secret communings with Him in the temple
of a purified heart. So when this solemn day shall have come the glad
response may be, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him; He
will come and save us!"--_C. J. Blomfield, D.D._