PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Isaiah and Jeremiah
Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910 · 230,785 words · 340 reading sections
Contents
Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. ALEXANDER MACLAREN, D. D., Litt. D. _Chaps. I to XLVIII_ THE GREAT SUIT: JEHOVAH _versus_ JUDAH (Isaiah i. 1-9; 16-20) THE STUPIDITY OF GODLESSNESS (Isaiah i. 3) WHAT SIN DOES TO MEN (Is…
478 wordsSECTION 2The Great Suit: Jehovah _Versus_ Judah
'The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. I Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me. 3. The ox knoweth his ow…
748 wordsSECTION 3The Great Suit: Jehovah _Versus_ Judah
There is something very beautiful and pathetic in the fact that Judah is not directly addressed, but that verses 2-4 are a divine soliloquy. They might rather be called a father's lament than an indictment. The forsaken father is, as it were, sadly brooding over his erring child's sins, which are his father's sorrows a…
650 wordsSECTION 4The Great Suit: Jehovah _Versus_ Judah
The note of pity sounds very clearly in the pathetic description of the deserted 'daughter of Zion.' Jerusalem stands forlorn and defenceless, like a frail booth in a vineyard, hastily run up with boughs, and open to fierce sunshine or howling winds. Once 'beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth,... the cit…
568 wordsSECTION 5The Stupidity Of Godlessness
'The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider.'--ISAIAH i. 3. This is primarily an indictment against Israel, but it touches us all. 'Doth not know' _i.e._ has no familiar acquaintance with; 'doth not consider,' _i.e._ frivolously ignores, never meditat…
721 wordsSECTION 6What Sin Does To Men
'Ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. 31. And the strong shall be as tow, and His work as a spark; and they shall both burn together, and none shall quench them.'--ISAIAH i. 30-31. The original reference of these words is to the threatened retribution for national idolatry, of w…
664 wordsSECTION 7The Perpetual Pillar Of Cloud And Fire
'And the Lord will create over the whole habitation of Mount Zion, and over her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night.'--ISAIAH iv. 5. The pillar of cloud and fire in the Exodus was one: there are to be as many pillars as there are 'assemblies' in the new era. Is it straining…
298 wordsSECTION 8A Prophet'S Woes
'Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth! 9. In mine ears said the Lord of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant. 10. Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bat…
657 wordsSECTION 9A Prophet'S Woes
Drunkenness is, in this text, one of a ring of plague-spots on the body politic of Judah. The prophet six times proclaims 'woe' as the inevitable end of these; such 'sickness' is 'unto death' unless repentance and another course of conduct bring healing. But drunkenness appears twice in this grim catalogue, and the lon…
725 wordsSECTION 10A Prophet'S Woes
Three woes follow which are closely connected. That pronounced on daring evil-doers, who not only let sin draw them to itself, but go more than halfway to meet it, needing no temptation, but drawing it to them eagerly, and scoffing at the merciful warnings of fatal consequences, comes first. Next is a woe on those who …
482 wordsSECTION 11Vision And Service
'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3. And one cried unto another, and sa…
817 wordsSECTION 12Vision And Service
The hovering seraphim were in the attitude of service. They are probably represented as fiery forms, but are spoken of nowhere else in Scripture. The significance of their attitude has been well given by Jewish commentators, who say, 'with two he covered his face that he might not see, and with two he covered his body …
677 wordsSECTION 13Vision And Service
The third stage in the prophet's experience is the readiness for service which springs up in his purged heart. God seeks for volunteers. There are no pressed men in His army. The previous experiences made Isaiah quick to hear God's call, and willing to respond to it by personal consecration. Take the motive-power of re…
371 wordsSECTION 14The Empty Throne Filled
'In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.'--ISAIAH vi. 1. Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of which he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous. Victorious in war, he was also successful in the…
832 wordsSECTION 15The Empty Throne Filled
Is that what our sorrows, our pains, losses, disappointments do for us? Well for those to whom loss is gain, because it puts them in possession of the enduring riches! Well for those to whom the passing of all that can pass is a means of revealing Him who 'is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever'! The message t…
753 wordsSECTION 16A Seraph'S Wings
Let me recall to you what I have already insisted on more than once, that the perfecting of this vision is in the historical fact of the Incarnate Son. Jesus Christ shows us God. Jesus Christ is the King of Glory. If we will go to Him, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, then losses may come, and we shall be none the p…
765 wordsSECTION 17A Seraph'S Wings
But my text, whilst it thus suggests solemn thoughts of a Light that cannot be looked at with undazzled eyes, does also suggest to us by contrast the possibility of far feebler-sighted and more sinful creatures than these symbolical seraphs coming into a Presence in which God shall be manifest to them; and they will ne…
875 wordsSECTION 18A Seraph'S Wings
III. Lastly-The Wings for Service. 'With twain he did fly.' That is the emblem of joyous, buoyant, unhindered motion. It is strongly, sadly contrary to the toilsome limitations of us heavy creatures who have no wings, but can at best run on His service, and often find it hard to 'walk with patience in the way that is …
565 wordsSECTION 19The Making Of A Prophet
'Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.'--ISAIAH vi. 5. In previous pages we have seen how Isaiah's vision of Jehovah throned in the Temple, 'high and lifted up,' derived sig…
837 wordsSECTION 20The Making Of A Prophet
At all events, be that as it may, these are the two thoughts that, involuntarily and spontaneously and immediately, sprang in this man's heart when his purged eyes saw the King on His throne. He did not leap up with gladness at the vision. Its consolatory and its strengthening aspects were not the first that impinged u…
829 wordsSECTION 21The Making Of A Prophet
Again, note that we have here set forth most strikingly the other great truth that, side by side, and as closely synchronous as the flash and the peal, as soon as the consciousness of sin and the aversion from it spring in a man's heart, the seraph's wings are set in motion. Remember that beautiful old story in the his…
712 wordsSECTION 22The Making Of A Prophet
For such experiences as I have been describing do influence the will, and mould the heart, and make it a delight to do God's commandments, and to execute His purpose, and to be the ministers of His great Word. Some of us are willing to say that we have learned God's holiness; that we have seen and confessed our sins; t…
379 wordsSECTION 23Shiloah And Euphrates
Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly ... the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many.' ISAIAH viii. 6, 7. The kingdom of Judah was threatened with a great danger in an alliance between Israel and Damascus. The cowardly King Ahaz, instead of listening to Isa…
776 wordsSECTION 24The Kingdom And The King
'There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God.' It is peaceful to pitch our tents beside its calm flow, whereon shall go no hostile fleets, and whence we shall but pass to the city above, in the midst of the street whereof the 'river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeds out of the throne of G…
674 wordsSECTION 25The Kingdom And The King
Verse 3 gives another phase of blessing. Israel is conceived of as dwindled in number by deportation and war. But the process of depopulation is arrested and reversed, and numerical increase, which is always a prominent feature in Messianic predictions, is predicted. That increase follows the dawning of the light, for …
746 wordsSECTION 26The Kingdom And The King
The many attempts to translate verse 6 so as to get rid of the application of 'Mighty God,' 'Everlasting Father,' to Messiah, cannot here be enumerated or adequately discussed. I must be content with pointing out the significance of the august fourfold name of the victor King. It seems best to take the two first titles…
672 wordsSECTION 27Light Or Fire?
Verses 7 and 8 declare the perpetuity of Messiah's kingdom, His Davidic descent, and those characteristics of His reign, which guarantee its perpetuity. 'Judgment' which He exercises, and 'righteousness' which He both exercises and bestows, are the pillars on which His throne stands; and these are eternal, and it never…
568 wordsSECTION 28The Sucker From The Felled Oak
'And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; 3. And shall make him of quick understand…
685 wordsSECTION 29The Sucker From The Felled Oak
The King-Messiah thus brought on the scene is then described in regard to His character (v. 2), the nature of His rule (vs. 3-5), the universal harmony and peace which He will diffuse through nature (vs. 6-9), and the gathering of all mankind under His dominion. There is much in the prophetic ideal of the Messiah which…
779 wordsSECTION 30The Sucker From The Felled Oak
Then follow the features of His rule. His unerring judgment pierces through the seen and heard. That is the quality of a monarch after the antique pattern, when kings were judges. It does not appear that the prophet rose to the height of perceiving the divine nature of the Messiah; but we cannot but remember how far th…
711 wordsSECTION 31The Sucker From The Felled Oak
Verse 10 begins an entirely new section, which describes the relations of Messiah's kingdom to the surrounding peoples. The picture preceding closed with the vision of the earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and this verse proclaims the universality of Messiah's kingdom. By 'the root of Jesse' is meant, not th…
336 wordsSECTION 32The Well-Spring Of Salvation
'Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. ISAIAH xii. 3. There are two events separated from each other by more than fifteen hundred years which have a bearing upon this prophecy: the one supplied the occasion for its utterance, the other claimed to be its interpretation and its fulfilment…
734 wordsSECTION 33The Well-Spring Of Salvation
Now, with regard to the first point, let me remind you to begin with, that the idea of the word here is not that which we attach to a well, but that which we attach to a spring. It does not describe the source of salvation as being a mere reservoir, still less as being a created or manufactured thing; but there lies in…
897 wordsSECTION 34The Well-Spring Of Salvation
Dear brethren, some of us can, thank God, answer that question as I pray that every one of you may be able to answer it, 'Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ; Thou art the everlasting son of the Father. With Thee is the fountain of life; Thou Thyself art the living water.' But I think there is a still further step to…
836 wordsSECTION 35The Well-Spring Of Salvation
Take another word of the Master's that I have already quoted for other purposes, 'If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.' So, then, drawing, or asking, or coming are all equivalent. That is step number two. And, then, take another word. 'He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on M…
675 wordsSECTION 36The Well-Spring Of Salvation
'My soul looks back to see The burden Thou didst bear, When hanging on the accursed tree, And _knows_ her guilt was there.' 'He also is my strength and my song. He is become my salvation; therefore, in joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.' Now, I have left myself no time to do more than say one w…
665 wordsSECTION 37The Harvest Of A Godless Life
'Because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the Rock of thy strength, therefore shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and shalt set it with strange slips: In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a…
656 wordsSECTION 38The Harvest Of A Godless Life
'Ye lust and desire to have,'--what a contrast is in, Ask and have! We might live even as the lilies or the ravens, or with only this difference, that we laboured, but were as uncaring and as peaceful as they. God is _given_. The world has to be _bought_. Its terms are 'Nothing for nothing.' (c) Such work has sometim…
402 wordsSECTION 39'In This Mountain'
'In this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined. 7. And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations. 8. He …
811 wordsSECTION 40'In This Mountain'
Jesus Christ brings the food that we need. Remember His own adaptation of this great vision of my text in more than one parable; such as the supper that was provided, and to which all men were invited, and, 'with one consent,' declined the invitation. Remember His own utterance,' I am the Bread of God which came down f…
868 wordsSECTION 41'In This Mountain'
II. Where does the unveiling that gives light to the world come from? My text, as I have already remarked, emphatically repeats 'in this mountain' in its next clause. 'He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.' Now, of course, the pat…
696 wordsSECTION 42'In This Mountain'
The weak point of all these schemes and methods to which I have already referred for helping humanity out of the slough, and making men happier, is that they underestimate the fact of sin. If a man comes to them and says, 'I have broken God's law. What am I to do? I have a power within me that impels me now to evil. Ho…
690 wordsSECTION 43'In This Mountain'
Jesus Christ, who died that we might never die, lives that we may always live. For His immortal life will give to each of us, if we join ourselves to Him by simple faith and lowly obedience, an immortal life that shall persist through, and be increased by, the article of bodily death. And when we pass into the higher r…
293 wordsSECTION 44The Feast On The Sacrifice
And in this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast.' ISAIAH xxv. 6. There is here a reference to Sinai, where a feast followed the vision of God. It was the sign of covenant, harmony, and relationship, and was furnished by a sacrifice. I. The General Ideas contained in this Image of a Feast. W…
404 wordsSECTION 45The Veil Over All Nations
'He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the veil that is spread over all nations.'--ISAIAH xxv. 7. The previous chapter closes with a prediction of the reign of Jehovah in Mount Zion 'before His elders' in Glory. The allusion apparently is to the elders being summoned up to…
689 wordsSECTION 46The Song Of Two Cities
Jesus makes us able to see God. Jesus makes us delight in seeing Him. All dread of the 'steady whole of the Judge's face' is changed to the loving heart's joy in seeing its Beloved. IV. The Veil is wholly removed hereafter. The prophecy from which the text is taken is obviously not yet fulfilled. It waits for the p…
668 wordsSECTION 47The Song Of Two Cities
The city's walls are salvation. There is no need to name the architect of these fortifications. One hand only can pile their strength. God appoints salvation in lieu of all visible defences. Whom He purposes to save are saved. Whom He wills to keep safe are kept safe. They who can shelter behind that strong defence nee…
650 wordsSECTION 48The Song Of Two Cities
The great act of judgment which the song celebrates is now (vs. 5, 6) brought into contrast with the blessed picture of the city, and by the introductory 'for' is stated as the reason for eternal trust. The language, as it were, leaps and dances in jubilation, heaping together brief emotional and synonymous clauses. So…
745 wordsSECTION 49The Song Of Two Cities
Isaiah believed in the wholesome effect of terror. His confidence in the power of judgments to teach the obstinate corresponds to the Old Testament point of view, and contains a truth for all points of view; but it is not the whole truth. We know only too well that sorrows and judgments do not work infallibly, and that…
393 wordsSECTION 50Our Strong City
'In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.'--ISAIAH xxvi 1-2. What day is 'that day'? The answer carries us back a couple of chapters, to the grea…
895 wordsSECTION 51Our Strong City
This strong city, the order of human society which God has appointed, and which exists, though it be hidden in the heavens, will be manifested one day when, like the fair vision of the goddess rising from amidst the ocean's foam, and shedding peace and beauty over the charmed waves, there will emerge from all the wild …
801 wordsSECTION 52Our Strong City
'Needs no bulwarks, No towers along the steep.' God Himself is the shield and none other is required. So, brethren, let us walk by the faith that is always confident, though it depends on an unseen hand. It is a grand thing to be able to stand, as it were, in the open, a mark for all 'the slings and arrows of outrag…
721 wordsSECTION 53Our Strong City
I do not need to remind you how, admittedly by us all, that is the case in regard to the final form of the city of our God, into which nothing shall enter 'that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie.' Heaven can only be entered into hereafter by, as here and now it can only enter into, those …
487 wordsSECTION 54The Inhabitant Of The Rock
'Thou wilt keep him In perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength.'--ISAIAH xxvi. 3-4. There is an obvious parallel between these verses and the two preceding ones. The safety which was there set forth as the …
660 wordsSECTION 55The Inhabitant Of The Rock
And if we break up that complex thought into its elements, it just comes to this, first, that trust makes steadfastness. Most men's lives are blown about by winds of circumstance, directed by gusts of passion, shaped by accidents, and are fragmentary and jerky, like some ship at sea with nobody at the helm, heading her…
670 wordsSECTION 56The Inhabitant Of The Rock
And then, still further, this faithful, steadfast heart and mind, kept by God, is a mind filled with deepest peace. There is something very beautiful in the prophet's abandoning the attempt to find any adjective of quality which adequately characterises the peace of which he has been speaking. He falls back upon the ex…
828 wordsSECTION 57The Inhabitant Of The Rock
The metaphor needs no expansion. We understand that it conveys the idea of unchangeable defence. As the cliffs tower above the river that swirls at their base, and takes centuries to eat the faintest line upon their shining surface, so the changeless God rises above the stream of time, of which the brief breakers are h…
722 wordsSECTION 58The Grasp That Brings Peace
'Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let me hide myself in Thee'? 'Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; yea, let him make peace with Me.'--ISAIAH xxvii. 5. Lyrical emotion makes the prophet's language obscure by reason of its swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main dr…
811 wordsSECTION 59The Grasp That Brings Peace
And they set in clear light what is the connection between faith and salvation. It is not the hand that grasps the altar that secures safety, but the altar itself. It is not the flight to the fortress, but the massive walls themselves, which keeps those who hunt after the fugitive at bay. It is not my faith, but the Go…
395 wordsSECTION 60The Judgment Of Drunkards And Mockers
'Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which, as a tempest of hail, and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing,…
732 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.