xxviii. 18. _Your covenant with death shall be
disannulled._
Like the sinners spoken of in this chapter, most sinful men say in
effect, "We have made a covenant with death," &c. (ver. 15).
+I. That he may escape the dreaded consequences of sin, the troubled
sinner seeks a refuge.+ He flees--1. _From the voice of reason._ The
presence of a reasoning power in man is incompatible with the
practice of sin. This is seen in the fact that when sinners can be
brought to think, they at once admit themselves to be wrong. The
moment a man commences to think about sin, that moment he becomes
aware that it will not bear thinking about. It is because a sinful
life is an unthinking life that God's invitations to sinners are
invitations to reason (chap. i. 18; Ps. l. 22-23). 2. _From an
accusing conscience._ The authority of conscience is supreme, and no
man can sin without feeling its sting. To escape remorse, which is
conscience at work, men seek a refuge. 3. _From an offended God._ Sin
is offensive to God's holiness; for being pure, He must hate
impurity. Because sinners are conscious that they have rendered
themselves obnoxious to God, they seek a refuge. 4. _From a broken
law._ In obedience to law there is safety, right, and happiness;
while in disregarding law there is nothing but disaster. And from the
consequences of the broken law--the broken law of God written on the
heart, proclaimed in Nature, revealed in the Bible--the sinner tries
to hide. 5. _From an endless future._ This more than anything else
terrifies sinners and drives them to seek shelter.
+II. Sinners, blindly infatuated, seek a refuge in the wrong
objects.+ They make a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.
The terms "death" and "hell" stand for the whole class of false
securities in which men seek shelter by making a covenant and
agreement with them. 1. _Unbelief_ is one of the most modern refuges
of sin. When men can blot out of the universe the idea of God, quench
the sense of moral responsibility, remove the belief in immortality,
persuade themselves that there is no other world, that death is an
eternal sleep, that heaven is only an air-castle, and hell a mere
chimera, they may then indulge in evil to their hearts' content.
2. _Superstition_ is another. Not in open unbelief, but under the
cover of a false religion others seek to shelter. Unable to shake off
belief in God and in a spiritual world, they search for some system
which will at once allow a profession of religion and a practice of
wickedness. Nor are such systems wanting, nor are they without
disciples. Romanism offers indulgences for gold and pardons for
peace, and thus provides a refuge for the stronger in pocket than in
brain. 3. _Annihilation_ is another. According to some, such is the
awfulness of the thought of extinction of being, that men revolt from
it. Establish it that when sinners die they cease to live, and what
better refuge for sin is possible, and what other is needed? Sinful
men will soon say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."
4. _Excess_ is another. When the previous ones have failed to give
comfort, the sinner rushes madly into excess. The drunkard seeks in
increased intemperance to drown the sorrow his indulgence has
occasioned. 5. _Indifference_ is the last. This is the only comfort
some men can find in their career of evil. But indifference is
impossible without a denial of human responsibility. Sad indeed must
the condition of human nature be when brought to this.
+III. The refuges so confidently trusted in are utterly insecure.+
1. _Because they are incompatible with the real need of man._ Only
that can be conducive to man's safety which meets man's need. No
human need is met by infidelity, or by superstition, or by
annihilation, or by indulgence, or by indifference. Any one of these,
tested by this argument drawn from human necessities, will be found a
refuge of lies. 2. _Because they are at variance with human
instincts._ Instinctively men believe in a Divine existence, in moral
accountability, and in immortality. 3. _Because they contradict human
experience._ They have all been tried, and as often as they have been
tried they have been found false. 4. _Because they are opposed to the
teaching of revelation, both natural and Biblical._ Nature proclaims
loudly against all sin-sought refuges. The teaching of Nature and the
Bible is that man is incompetent to provide for his own security, and
that God only, in the exercise of His Divine prerogative, can provide
for sinners the security they need.
+IV. By Divine appointment the refuges so madly sought shall be
totally destroyed.+ "Your covenant with death shall be disannulled."
1. _By consequence of their inherent character._ They are "refuges of
lies," and necessarily all refuges built on lies must perish. 2. _By
necessity of strict justice._ "Judgment will I lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet" (ver. 17). 3. _By the exertion of
Almighty power._ "And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place."
CONCLUSION.--God has mercifully provided a true refuge. He only cuts
off the false that He may exhibit the true. "Behold, I lay in Sion
for a foundation a stone," &c. (ver. 16).--_William Brooks: Study and
the Pulpit,_ New Series, vol. i. pp. 413-416.