The honouring of God's Law.
Cheyne translates, "It was Jehovah's pleasure for his righteousness' sake to make the instruction great and glorious." The Revised Version gives this as a marginal reading. Only by a straining of this passage can it be made to bear any relation to Christ's obedience and righteousness. It is true, but it is not the truth presented or suggested here, that Christ "magnified the Law, and made it honourable." The point of the passage is well expressed by J. A. Alexander. "The people, being thus unfaithful to their trust, had no claim to be treated any longer as an object of Jehovah's favour; and yet he continues propitious, not on their account, but out of regard to his own engagements, and for the execution of his righteous purposes." God's Law, which he is here said to honour, is the "stream of self-consistent and inspired instruction which has run through all the ages." It is the total inspired revelation of God's mind and will, regarded as the supreme authority for man, and therefore called God's Law. It may be illustrated by the elaborate Mosaic system, which both announced great controlling principles, and covered the whole lives and relations of men with detailed instructions. Of this we may be well assured, God's providences will always be in harmony with, and will support and honour, his revelations. Treating the subject in this larger sphere, we dwell on two points.
I. GOD MAGNIFIES HIS LAW BY MAKING OBEDIENCE SECURE MAN'S GOOD. "Righteousness tendeth unto life." Men are dependent for forming right judgments upon sensible impressions. We apprehend moral good through the sensible figures of material good. Therefore God makes godliness carry "the promise of the life that now is." There may be things which, on occasion, break the connection between moral and material good, and then, like Asaph, we are in perplexity; but the generally working rule brings blessings round to the good man, and so honours God's provisions and laws and promises.
II. GOD MAGNIFIES HIS LAW BY FOLLOWING DISOBEDIENCE WITH MAN'S DISABILITY. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." It is often pointed out that sin is folly. The man who does wrong is false to his best interests; he wrongs himself. The link between sin and penalty is forged tightly; sooner or later penalty is sure to follow sin. These two points are made evidently true in the history of ancient Israel; that people was under a distinct system of material rewards and punishments. But they may still be illustrated in the large spheres of the world. Iniquity never pays, even now. They may be illustrated in the case of individuals, if moral and spiritual rewards and judgments be taken into due account.—R.T.
Ineffective judgments.
God has even burned Israel, and "yet he ]aid it not to heart." There is immediate reference to the sufferings of the people during the Captivity. It did seem strange that such manifest Divine judgments were not duly considered and properly effective in securing humiliation for national sin and penitential return to God. The secret of the failure of the Divine judgments then is the great secret of failure still; it is this—when men fall into trouble they persist in looking only at the second causes, which are the mere occasions, and will not recognize the true and only cause, or recognize God's hand in them. It has been so in all ages. One of the most striking instances is that of the Roman siege of Jerusalem under Titus. Distinctly foretold as a Divine judgment on the nation for its rejection of Messiah, the Jews to this day will not so regard it. To them it is still only a national calamity, and so it has been hitherto ineffective in the production of a due sense of national sin. So many sides and aspects of this subject have been treated, that we only give a brief outline of the topics which may be wisely and helpfully considered.
I. ALL SUFFERING IS DIVINE JUDGMENT. Whatever else may be said of it, its explanations are never exhausted until the Divine purpose in it is explained. The connection of a particular judgment with a particular individual it may be unwise for us to attempt to trace. But we can always see the judgment aspect of race, national, or family calamities; and we know that God can show the judgment clement in each man's woe.
II. ALL JUDGMENT IS CORRECTIVE. It is a Father's rod. No father chastises save for correction, and with a view to the profit of the corrected.
III. ALL JUDGMENTS ARE WITHIN STRICT LIMITATIONS, They are precise to individual cases. Sometimes light, sometimes heavy. Sometimes brief, sometimes long-continued. Always in exact adaptation. There is never any exaggeration, any overdoing, in God's judgments. They are just adequate to the ends sought. They take due count of reasonable response from those to whom they are sent.
IV. ALL DESPISED JUDGMENTS MUST BE RENEWED IN SEVERER FORMS, Because they create new and more serious conditions, and these must be adequately met. God can never permit effective and successful resistance and rebellion. If a man will not bend, he must break. Heavier judgments must grind him to powder.—R.T.
Isaiah 41
Isaiah
Isaiah 43
Isaiah 42 - isaiah-42 - worlddic.com