xxxv. 5, 6. _The eyes of the blind shall be opened, &c._
The years of fulfilment linger, and faith is weak and faint. The
picture of hopeless helplessness is painted in the context (vers. 3,
4). If we fail, God's promise cannot (vers. 1, 2). The transformation
of the desert, the planting of Eden there, and the coming of God with
vengeance and recompense are one. They signify one vast display of
gracious power. It is no abstract salvation that we wait and hope
for, but a Saviour. The text describes the blessings of Messiah's
kingdom.
+I. "Is not this poetry?"+ Yes, but is poetry the opposite of truth?
Have not prophets ever been poets? Is not poetry the sweetest or
strongest or sublimest expression of man's noblest conceptions of
truth? This poem of Isaiah is an expression of God's realities. The
poetry, the prophecy has its answering reality in history. The age of
Christ spake back to it, and both speak on to us. Nothing shall be
wanting to complete the scene. The glorious in nature shall but
typify the more glorious in man's body, mind, morals, and spiritual
satisfaction and joy.
+II. Spiritual and physical evil are intimately connected.+ 1. They
are cause and effect. The physical is the sign of the spiritual.
Something _radical_ was wrong before the wrong things could come. The
doctrine is philosophic as well as biblical. 2. It is not meant that
any and every special personal affliction is the result of any given
or particular personal transgression. A man is not blind because he
or his parents are sinners, but _because of sin._ We are living in a
violated order.
+III. The cessation of physical evil can only follow the cure of evil
that is spiritual.+ God's life, God's health, God's gladness must be
poured into the dumb before his tongue can sing. The spirit of the
blind must be thrilled with a heavenly vision before his eye can open
on the outer world. God must come and save before the cripple can
bound as the deer. 1. Man's sin must be cured, then his sorrow. The
miracles of healing in the Gospels teach us this. We can never
overlook the moral element in them. It was when Christ saw _faith_
that He said, "Thy sins be forgiven thee" (Matt. ix. 2). 2. Health
and soundness could not be given to mankind by a mere miracle-power
apart from spiritual considerations. No mere almightiness could
effect it. Pentecostal gifts, if repeated, would probably produce
similar signs and wonders; still miracles can never be more than
periodic and intermittent. The progressive life of the Spirit of God
must achieve in the race what they in the individual only foretoken.
Physical healing must keep pace with moral. The body must protest
against sin. 3. Any philanthropy springing from other hope lacks
truth and wisdom, and must fail. It proceeds upon a mistaken
conception of human nature. It only deals with symptoms. All true
philanthropy must begin at the Cross. The Cross is the sign that God
has come for vengeance and for recompense.
CONCLUSION.--_Learn counsel and courage._ 1. Counsel as to life's
mysteries, burdens, sufferings, and sorrows. 2. Courage to endure
them, and strive with them in manful faith and hope. (1.) Broken
health, pains, malformations, insanities, idiocies, and all bodily
and mental degeneracies and anomalies are the dreadful issue of
spiritual depravity and alienation from the life of God. (2.) Sin's
destined Victor is in the combat, and with His own shield and spear
will take the throne. The world in which He reigns will be a world
where evil is not, but good is all in all.--_William Hubbard:
Christian World Pulpit,_ xvi. 232.