[1] We can conceive of nothing more bright, pervading, and
universal than the light of the sun. At its rising the
whole face of nature is displayed, every object is brought
out to view; the grandest or loveliest features of the
scene are presented to us in all their extent and
magnificence, while the most delicate tints of the smallest
flower are seen in all their softest shades and richest
hues. Still the glorious object in its full splendour, the
sun itself is too dim, too dull, too feeble to represent
the grace and love of our God; it must be multiplied
sevenfold. And even then it but indistinctly shadows forth
the unspeakable mercy of the everlasting God.--_Packer._
[2] _"Rivers and streams of waters."_ But where is their
current? Upon every high mountain and upon every high hill.
Now, there can be no rivers and streams on the summit of
the mountain range, nor upon the high hill top. Rivers and
streams are fed from these lofty elevations; they take
their rise amid these towering heights, but they do not
find a channel there. Thus you see that to typify the
effluence of the Holy Spirit, these flowing waters of the
text are described as being in unusual localities, to
intimate that the blessings will be in such abundance and
profusion as to outrun expectation and surpass all
experience. And this not in some highly favoured regions
only, but the blessing shall be universal, even upon
_every_ high mountain and upon _every_ high hill.--_Packer._
[3] This, like the air, cannot be excluded; it penetrates the
gloomiest caverns, can enter even through a cranny. So
there is no soul out of reach of the all-pervading Spirit.
Those that are inaccessible to man can be reached, and
enriched, and blessed by the mighty energy of the Holy
Ghost.--_Packer._
[4] When we attempt to compare the boasted light of natural
reason with the light which the Spirit alone can impart, it
is not simply that the former is as the light of the moon,
and the latter as the light of the sun; but the one is as
Egyptian darkness, and the other as the splendour of the
meridian sun, without even one small fleecy cloud
intervening. Jesus Christ is the light of life (2 Cor.
iv. 6). All that we can know of God, of His attributes and
perfections, of His plans and purposes, He has revealed
unto us by His Son. To those who are in Christ all is
light, and harmony, and peace; to those who are without
Christ all is gloom, and confusion, and terror. By faith in
Him we see that all God's dealings wear an aspect of mercy,
love, and wisdom. Corrections are inflicted for our profit;
disappointments are sent to wean us from the unsatisfying,
perishing things of time and sense. Surely, in this
respect, the promise in the text is made good to the
believer; he enjoys sevenfold light in his soul compared to
that which he had in the days when he knew not the true God
and Jesus Christ, whom He had sent.--_Packer._
[5] But these mercies will be preceded by the convulsions of
the moral earthquake. The very terms in which the promise
is couched convey the idea of trial and suffering. There is
a breach which the Lord binds up, and there is the stroke
of a wound to be healed, implying previous
violence.--_Packer._
[6] What shall the universality and copiousness of the "rivers
and streams of water" profit us, if we will not drink of
them? In the natural world a man would be nothing
benefited, though the light of the sun was augmented
sevenfold, if he studiously closed and sealed every opening
by which it entered his dwelling, or if he placed an
impervious bandage tightly over his eyes whenever he went
abroad (John xii. 36).--_Packer._
[See also Outlines, RIVERS OF WATER IN A DRY PLACE,
xxxii. 2, and ENRICHING RIVERS, xxxiii. 21.]