Three things worthy of note.
"Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off." A mighty army has gone up against nineveh, and so certain it is that it will be utterly destroyed that the prophet speaks of it as past. He has seen the "messenger" upon the mountain proclaiming deliverance to Judah. The "mountains" are those round Jerusalem, on which the hosts of Sennacherib had lately encamped, and the messenger of peace scales the mountains that his welcome presence may be seen. How transporting the message must have been! Sennacherib, the disturber of the nations, is no more, and Jerusalem is delivered. The first clause of this verse is applied in Isaiah 52:7 to the message of peace brought to the world through Jesus Christ. There are three things here worthy of note.
I. PEACE PROCLAIMED. "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." Glorious to the ears of the men of Jerusalem must have been the intelligence that their great enemy was destroyed, that the Assyrian hosts were crushed, and now peace was come. A proclamation of peace is indeed "good tidings." A proclamation of national peace is "good tidings." What country that has been engaged in a bloody campaign, in which its commerce has been all but ruined, the flower of its manhood destroyed, and its very existence imperilled, does not hail with rapture the proclamation of peace? But the proclamation of moral peace is still more delightful. Paul quotes these words, and applies them to the ministers of the gospel. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15). As there is no war so painful, so terrible, as a moral war, the war of a soul with itself, with the moral instincts of the universe, and with the will of its God; so no tidings are so delightful to it as the tidings of peace, peace brought through Jesus Christ, the "peace that passeth all understanding." "My peace I give unto you,… not as the world giveth give I unto you."
II. WORSHIP ENJOINED. "O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows." "During the Assyrian invasion the inhabitants of Judah were cut off from all access to the metropolis; now they would be at liberty to proceed thither as usual, in order to observe their religious rites, and they are here commanded to do so." Observe:
1. War disturbs religious observances. War, which had been called the totality of all evil, is an enemy to the progress of religion. It not merely arrests the march of the cause of truth and godliness, but throws it back. It is said in Acts 9:31, "Then had the Churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied." The storm of persecution which Stephen had invoked and Saul aided had abated, and the Christian religion advanced. As peace in nature is the time to cultivate your ground and sow your seed, peace in the nation is the time to promote growth in religion and virtue.
2. In war men are disposed to make religious vows. When dangers thicken around, and death seems close at hand, the soul naturally turns to Heaven, and vows that, if life is preserved, it shall be devoted to God. When peace comes they are called upon to "perform" their "vows." But alas! how often are such vows neglected! and we are told (Ecclesiastes 5:5) it is better not to vow, than to vow and not pay. Worship is a duty ever binding.
III. ENEMIES VANQUISHED; "For the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off." Here is encouragement. Sennacherib is gone; Nineveh is in desolation. They will "no more pass through thee." The time will come with all good men when their enemies shall be utterly vanquished. "The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." What a blessed time for the world, when the wicked shall no more "pass through" it! This will be its millennium.
"Peace is the end of all things—tearless peace;
Who by the immovable basis of God's throne
Takes her perpetual stand; and, of herself
Prophetic, lengthens age by age her sceptre.
The world shall yet be subjugate to love,
The final form religion must assume;
Led like a lion, rid with wreathed reins,
In some enchanted island, by a child."
(Bailey.)
D.T.
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