'Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall
dwell with everlasting burnings? 15. He that walketh righteously, and
speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that
shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from
hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil.'--ISAIAH
xxxiii. 14, 15.
'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God'--1 JOHN iv. 16.
I have put these two verses together because, striking as is at first
sight the contrast in their tone, they refer to the same subject, and
they substantially preach the same truth. A hasty reader, who is more
influenced by sound than by sense, is apt to suppose that the solemn
expressions in my first text, 'the devouring fire' and' everlasting
burnings,' mean _hell_. They mean _God_, as is quite obvious from the
context. The man who is to 'dwell in the devouring fire' is the _good_
man. He that is able to abide 'the everlasting burnings' is 'the man
that walketh righteously and speaketh uprightly,' that 'despiseth the
gain of oppression, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that
stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from
seeing evil.' The prophet has been calling all men, far and near, to
behold a great act of divine judgment in which God has been manifested
in flaming glory, consuming evil; now he represents the 'sinners in
Zion,' the unworthy members of the nation, as seized with sudden
terror, and anxiously asking this question, which in effect means: 'Who
among us can abide peacefully, joyfully, fed and brightened, not
consumed and annihilated, by that flashing brightness and purity?' The
prophet's answer is the answer of common-sense--like draws to like. A
holy God must have holy companions.
But that is not all. The fire of God is the fire of love as well as the
fire of purity; a fire that blesses and quickens, as well as a fire
that destroys and consumes. So the Apostle John comes with his answer,
not contradicting the other one, but deepening it, expanding it,
letting us see the foundations of it, and proclaiming that as a holy
God must be surrounded by holy hearts, which will open themselves to
the flame as flowers to the sunshine, so a loving God must be clustered
about by loving hearts, who alone can enter into deep and true
friendship with Him.
The two answers, then, of these texts are one at bottom; and when
Isaiah asks, 'Who shall dwell with the everlasting fire?'--the
perpetual fire, burning and unconsumed, of that divine
righteousness--the deepest answer, which is no stern requirement but a
merciful promise, is John's answer, 'He that dwelleth in love dwelleth
in God.'
The simplest way, I think, of bringing out the force of the words
before us will be just to take these three points which I have already
suggested: the world's question, the partial answer of the prophet, the
complete answer of the Apostle.