(_Advent Sermon._)
ii. 17. _The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day._
Two questions: What is "that day?" How shall the Lord then be exalted?
I. _"That day."_ "The first five verses of this chapter foretell the
kingdom of the Messiah, the conversion of the Gentiles, and their
admission into the Church. From the sixth verse to the end is
foretold the punishment of the unbelieving Jews for their idolatrous
practices, their confidence in their own strength, and distrust of
God's protection; and, moreover, the destruction of idolatry in
consequence of the establishment of Messiah's kingdom."--_Lowth._ But
here, as in many other portions of Scripture, a larger and remoter
meaning looms beyond and behind the first sense of the expressions,
which would otherwise be too big and swelling for the actual
interpretation of them. Compare the description in which the text
twice occurs with the almost parallel passages in chap. v. 14-16. How
magnificent! What startling terms! What emphatic iterations! Surely a
want of fitness and congruity would almost be felt if expressions
such as these referred _only_ to some temporal calamity of the Jewish
nation; surely we cannot mistake in looking onward to some mightier
catastrophe, to some final exaltation of God and abasement of all
creatures. By "_that_ day," therefore, we mean what is elsewhere
called "_the_ day," "the great day," "the day of judgment," "the
great and terrible day of the Lord"--the consummation of all things.
When that day shall come I do not know, and I am content to remain in
ignorance. It may come suddenly, without warning, unannounced. Then
it is for men always to have their lamps burning and their hearts in
readiness, lest they be taken by surprise. It may come with great
signs preceding and accompanying it. Then it is for men, according to
their capacity, to note and discern those signs. It is the very
uncertainty connected with it that is to make us watchful (Matt.
xxiv. 36, 42). We are to be vigilant and observant, without
pretending to determine what God has left unrevealed. Such attempts
have in all ages been made, and in all ages have been falsified. The
failure of those attempts has not only covered those who made them or
believed in them with ridicule, it has brought into discredit the
sacred Book which the aim was to expound. It is our first duty and
highest interest to be at every moment prepared; but a far other and
better preparation may, and must be made for it, than in the futile
endeavour to discover its precise date.[1]
Equally unwise is the disposition to specify with a minute
particularity the events which are to usher in the great day of the
Lord, or the convulsions of nature which shall herald and proclaim
it, or the astonishing circumstances with which it shall be arrayed.
God has chosen to involve them in a mysterious and solemn
indistinctness. In bold and sublime figures the inspired writers have
delineated a scene which must stand singular and by itself, without
any precedent or parallel, and which, therefore, neither human
language can directly express nor human understanding adequately
comprehend. Instead of endeavouring to explain the images and symbols
employed, prudence will lead us to confine ourselves to the very
words of Scripture, such as Dan. xii. 2; Joel iii. 11-15; 2 Cor.
v. 10; Matt. xxv. 31, 32; Rev. xx. 11-13; 1 Cor. xv. 51-53.[2] On
these declarations we should meditate with serious and chastened
minds, for if Scripture be true these words cannot be without a real
and solemn meaning, and that meaning can only be that there shall be
a day in which the world shall be judged by God in Christ, and that
from before the Divine tribunal the good and the evil, separated from
each other, shall depart to destinies final and irreversible (P. D.
2109).