Joy in God's redeeming power.
We have here—
I. THE REACH OF ALMIGHTY POWER. It extends:
1. Over all visible nature. (Isaiah 44:24.) He makes "all things." The heavens and the earth are the work of his hand.
2. Over individual men. He can
3. Over men in their collective capacity. Jehovah had fashioned Israel, making her all she had become, giving her strength to do all she had accomplished; it was he that "formed" her from the beginning, that shaped her life (Isaiah 44:24). And he would yet restore the cities of Judah; they should be populous and powerful again (Isaiah 44:26).
4. Over the most formidable diacritics. Things that seem impossible of achievement are found, under his power, to be effected. At the touch of his hand the waters of the great deep disappear; at the sound of his voice the river-beds are dry (Isaiah 44:27). "With God all things are possible." Mountains of difficulty are removed, and seas of impediment are swept away. Nothing is "too hard for the Lord."
II. ITS BENEFICENT RESULTS. It is a question of the greatest importance—What are the results of the power which is exercised by the strong.? The world has had some terrible illustrations of the miseries of malevolent force. Power seeking selfish gratification at the expense of righteousness and of human happiness is the most deplorable as it is the most damnable thing under the heavens. On the other hand, power put forth to elevate and bless is the most admirable and beneficent thing. God works toward two ends
The two become one; for it is by bringing men back to himself and to his service that he redeems them from all that is ruinous, and that he raises them to all that is elevating and ennobling. Man finds his worst calamity in distance from his heavenly Father; he finds his highest good, his fullest blessedness, in the honour he pays, in the love he cherishes, in the obedience he renders, in the resemblance he reaches, to his Divine Saviour, his living Lord and Friend.
III. UNSPEAKABLE JOY THEREIN. "Sing, O ye heavens," etc. (Isaiah 44:23). Joy at its very fullest is uncontainable, inexpressible. He wrote well who said, "I were little happy could I say how much." There are times when we feel that we want every one and everything to be vocal with the gladness of our own soul. If the children did not shout, the very stones would have to speak the joy of that glad hour (Luke 19:40). When the great and gracious purposes of God are accomplished in the redemption of one human soul from sin and its restoration to the love and the likeness of God, there is occasion for more joy than human songs can celebrate; how much more so when a nation is redeemed! arid how much more yet will there be when the whole race is transformed, and when the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ!—C.
HOMILIES BY R. TUCK