The true observance of the sabbath.
Foreign converts are commended for their observance of the sabbath, and promised an appropriate reward. The day was more strictly observed during the Babylonian and Persian periods (Jeremiah 17:19-27; Ezekiel 20:11-21; Ezekiel 22:8, Ezekiel 22:26; Nehemiah 13:15-22; cf. 2 Kings 11:11-16 with 1 Macc. 2:32-38). Its estimation rose with the estimation of prayer (Cheyne).
I. THE DUTY OF OBEDIENCE. The Law is "the objective rule of life, the Law of Jehovah." Or, with others, "equity, justice." And the "practice of righteousness" is ever a necessity with him. The more so as every serious crisis draws on. My salvation is near—the kingdom of heaven is at hand. A crisis means a time of sifting and separation. "God's salvation is not indiscriminate. And the grounds on which he distinguishes his people from his enemies are not external, but internal. It is the Israel within Israel, the spiritual circumcision, the holy seed, that he acknowledges, vindicates, rescues, glorifies" (Cheyne).
II. SABBATH-KEEPING AS AN EXPRESSION OF OBEDIENCE. How significant the sabbath in the institutions of Judaism! True, the seventh day belonged also to Babylonian religion, but we know its beauty and its blessing through the Jews. It was a sign of the great standing covenant between God and the nation (Exodus 31:13-17). By this the Jews were marked as a nation. Narrow notions, Puritan superstitions, have gathered about the sabbath; still, the idea of it is very beautiful. Ewald brings it under the idea of sacrifice of time. It is the representative of the duties of the first table (Ezekiel 20:11-21). But mere sabbath-keeping avails not without the honest heart and the upright life—the man must "keep his hand from evil."
III. THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE UNIVERSAL. The prophet would remove a misunderstanding. The beatitude is universally applicable to those who keep God's commandments. The foreigner might be anxious about his position in the spiritual commonwealth. For there were exclusive injunctions directed against him (Deuteronomy 23:4-7). During the Captivity probably an exclusive spirit was growing; it may be observed in the restored exiles (Nehemiah 13:1-31.). They are here assured that they shall be admitted to the spiritual commonwealth on an equal footing with the Jews. National barriers are broken down before the new expansive spirit of love. There was also a law against eunuchs (Deuteronomy 23:2). But this disability is also to be removed. This class of men may stand for the outcast and degraded in general. They are to be admitted to communion, and are to receive some "trophy and monument'' (1 Samuel 15:12; 2 Samuel 18:18) in the temple itself—provided they have been faithful to the commands and covenant of Jehovah. Probably a spiritual and everlasting memorial is meant (cf. Revelation 3:12; Matthew 26:13). Then the foreign proselytes who should
The same terms of salvation were to be applicable to all. In 1 Kings 8:41-43 Solomon prays that God should do "according to all that the stranger calleth to thee for." In Psalms 135:19, Psalms 135:20 the proselytes are called to bless Jehovah, after the house of Israel, of Aaron, of Levi.
IV. THE BLESSINGS OF THE HOUSE OF PRAYER. All shall be brought to God's holy mountain—shall be admitted to the one sacred fellowship. They shall be made joyful by the revelation of the Shechinah—the presence of the Eternal in his power and mercy. Their offerings (those of the proselytes) shall be accepted on his altar. There should be no invidious distinctions. The house should be a "house of prayer to all peoples" (cf. Matthew 21:13). Moreover, other nations, not now of Israel, would be united to the one spiritual stock. The exiles in distant lands would be gathered; also other Gentiles of whom the proselytes are the firstfruits—"other sheep not of this flock" (John 10:16)—and they will become fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19). The race—"on a level with respect to moral character, all having sinned and come short of the glory of God—is on a level with respect to redemption; the same Saviour died for all, the same Spirit is ready to sanctify all. The wide world may be saved, and there is not one of the human race so degraded in human estimation by rank, or colour, or ignorance, who may not be admitted to the same heaven with Abraham and the prophets, and whose prayers and praises may not be as acceptable to God as those of the most magnificent monarch who ever wore a crown."—J.
Verses 56:9-57:2
The neglectful shepherds.
Here in a series of powerful pictures religious indifference on the part of pastors is described.
I. THE BLIND WATCHMAN. Nothing can be more beautiful than the idea of the shepherd as descriptive of the true teacher and minister to souls; tenderness, watchfulness, self-denial, all are his. So, on the other hand, nothing can more hold up the faithless pastor to scorn than the character of the faithless shepherd (John 10:1-42.). As the flock becomes a prey to the wild beasts when there is no shepherd, or when he neglects his care, so Israel, bereft of her natural defenders, lies at the mercy of the great heathen empire (cf. Ezekiel 13:4; Ezekiel 34:8; Ezekiel 39:4; Jeremiah 12:9; Revelation 19:17, Revelation 19:18). Especially the prophets are referred to (cf. Ezekiel 3:17; Isaiah 21:11). These "dumb dogs" are opposed to the faithful shepherd dogs (Job 30:1). "We must suppose that the prophets referred to were no better than the ancient soothsayers, who gave oracles respecting the difficulties of everyday life, but were silent on the great moral questions" (Cheyne). Immersed, perhaps, in sin themselves, they were blind to the national sins. "God requires knowledge in his ambassadors. Ignorance of the truth; of the nature, existence, and pollution of sin; of the claims of God and of the way of pardon,—is an effectual disqualification for the office."
II. THEIR SLUGGISHNESS AND GREED. They are like those who rave in sleep, moving among idle phantasms rather than serious realities. The false teacher not only does not know the truth, he falls into some species of delusion, and leads his flock along with him. He "loves to slumber." "Alas! that this should be too true of multitudes who bear the sacred office, and are appointed to warn their fellow-men of danger! Some are afraid of giving offence; some have no deep sense of the importance of religious truth; some embrace false opinions; some engage in worldly projects, and fill up their time with the cares and plans of this life; and some are invincibly indolent. An inactive and unfaithful ministry suffers the great enemy to come and bear away the soul to death, as an unfaithful mastiff would suffer a thief to approach the dwelling without warning the inmates. Instinct prompts the faithful animal to act the part God intends; but alas! there are men whom neither conscience, reason, hope, fear, nor love will rouse to put forth efforts to save a soul from hell! Their greed. They "keep up the old custom, rejected by the higher prophets as an abuse, of taking fees" (see references in Cheyne). Each and all are bent upon private interest and gain, and upon selfish enjoyment. One of them is represented as inviting another to a carouse of two days.
III. THE CONTRASTED FATE OF THE RIGHTEOUS. They "perish"—prematurely cut off; a contradiction peculiarly great from an Old Testament point of view (Ecclesiastes 7:15). It seemed as if this premature departure were an ill reward for faithful service; but it was dictated by mercy. The godly were delivered from sights of horror which might have vexed their souls.
"O Brettinoro! wherefore tarriest still,
Since forth of thee thy family hath gone,
And many, hating evil, join'd their steps?"
Moreover, they were spared from the coming retribution; so Abraham goes to his fathers in peace, and Isaiah is not to see all the evil which God will bring upon the place. "His soul is pleasing to God; therefore he hastens with him out of the evil life" (Wis. 4:14). Here was a warning to the wicked; great must be the evil doomed to be so punished. A few remaining righteous might have saved the city (Genesis 18:23-32). Sorer punishment was therefore at hand. The departure of a good man is a public calamity. His example and his influence are among the richest blessings of the world. If men are not deeply affected by the withdrawal of them, it is a proof of guilt and stupidity. Who knows, asked a heathen poet, if dying be not life, and life dying? On the hither side of the grave the wicked remain steeped in sin and sloth; on the further side there is rest and peace. "Let them rave, thou art quiet in thy grave." "Who does not envy those who have seen to an end their manful endeavour? Who that sees the meanness of our public life, but in]y congratulates the pure statesman or teacher that he is long wrapped in his shroud, and for ever safe; laid sweet in his grave, the hope of humanity not subjugated in him? Who does not sometimes envy the good and brave, who are no more to suffer from the tumults of the natural world, and await with curious complacency the speedy term of his own conversation with finite nature? Yet the love that will be annihilated sooner than treacherous, has already made death impossible, and affirms itself no mortal, but nature of the deeps of absolute and inextinguishable being" (Emerson).—J.
HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM