Vers. 9-13.-The sl,adow of sacred truth. We may view these words in- I. TnEIR NATIONAL ASPECT. Thus regarded, they point to: 1. Painful and guilty obduracy. The prophet should speak, but the people would disregard ; all that was froward and perverse in them would repel and reject the Divine message; their reception of the truth would only end. in spiritual deterioration and greater moral distance than ever from deliverance (vers. 9, 10), 2. Protracted impenitence and Divine judgment (vers. 11, 12).. 3. Long-lingering mercy ending in partial restoratiun (ver. 13). But we shall gain most from these verses by regarding them in- II. 'l'HEIR INDIVIDUAL ASPECT. The ninth. and tenth verses have the most direct and serious bearing on our condition now. They suggest to us that sacred truth not only sheds a b1ight light, but casts a deep shadow where it falls. 1. It casts the shadow of solemn responsibility. everywhere. When a greater than Moses legislates, and a wiser than Solomon speaks to us, we have more to be responsible for than the.v who received the Law from Sinai, and they who lived under the reign of the son of David. From those to whom much is given will much be required. 2. It casts the shadow of a heavy condemnation on those who reject it. "0( how much sorer punishment," etc. I "h shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment," etc.; "This is the condemnation, that light is come," etc.; "He that knew his Lord's will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes." 3. But the special lesson from our text is that it casts the shadow of spfrit,,al deterioration on those who refuse it. " Make the heart of this people fat . . . shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes," etc. The apparent sense of these words cannot be, and is not, the one that should be accepted. 'l'hey cannot possibly be meant to signify that God desired his prophet deliberately and intentionally to cause moral obtuseness, spii:itual blindness, in order that the people of Judah might be prevented from repenting and so from being sav,·d. Such a thought not only outrages every reverent idea of the Divine cbaracttt, but flatly contradicts the most express statements of the Divine Word (see Ezek. xviii. 23; 1 Tim. ii. 4; 2 Pet. iii. 9; Jas. i. 13). 'l'here is one sense of which the words are susceptible, and which is in accordance with the plainly revealed character of God; it is that the prophet was tu declare such truth as would actually result in spiritual blindness, and therefore fo incapacity fol' repentance and redemption. Now, it is the solemn duty of the minister· or Christ to do tbo same thing continually. He knows that, as his Divine Master was "set for the fall" as well as for the "rising again of many in Israel" (Luke ii. 34), and as he had occasion to say," For judgrncnt am I come into tlw world, .•• that 120 TliE BOOR or TltE l'ROPHE1.' ISAIAH. (ott. vt. 1-.13,
they who see may be made blind" (John ix. 39), that his gospel was in earliest as time11
a stone of stumbling and rock of offence" (eh. viii. 14; and see Ml\tt, •• a xxi, 4 4 •
1 Cor. i. 23; 2 Oor. ii. 16), so now the truth of the living God must prove, to those wh~ reject. it, the occMion of moral and spiritual degeneracy. He must lay his account with this s&d fact., must go forth, like Isaiah, well aware that it is two-edged sword he a
wields. But let the sons of sacred privilege understand what is their peril e.s well as their opportunity. Deliberately rejected truth leads down to (1) a diminished sensi- bility, the lessening of pure religious emotion; (2) loss of spiritual apprehension, an enfeebled capacity to perceive the mind and meanin~ of the Divine 'feaoher • (3) a vanishing likelihood of personal salvation. ,vi1en the ear is shut and the ~ye is closed, is it likely that the feet will be found in the way of life? Will they not wander off to the fields of folly, up to and over the precipice of ruin ?-C.
Vers. l-4.-Symbo1?°c imp,·essions of the Divine holiness. This is the only vision recorded in Isaiah's prophecy. It did not come at the -beginning of his labours, but as nn inauguration ro higher degree of the prophetic office. J:<'rom the tone of the le.tter a
part of the chapter, it is evident that he had found out the rebelliousness and obstinacy of tbe people, and perhaps had become, like Elijah, greatly distressed and discouraged ; needing, therefore, such a reviving and encouragement as this _vision was fitted to afford. It introduces the prophet as outside, near the altar in front of the temple. The doors are supposed to be open, and the veil hiding the holy of holies to be withdrawn, unfolding the sight of Jehovah as a Monarch sitting on his throne, and surrounded by his ministers of state. According to the tradition, Isaiah's assertion that he had seen God was tbe pretext for sawing him asunder, in the reign of Manasseh. In the record of the vision it should be noticed that Isaiah gives only surroundings of God, no descrip- tion of the Divine Being himself. If this had been the only vision recorded as granted by God to his people, its explanation would have been difficult. It is, however, but one of a long series, and it appears to illustrate a recognized mode of Divine dealings. God takes opportunities of impressing the Divine holiness and claims by symbolic manifestations. We review the principal illustrations from Bible records, L The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, " Fear not, Abram : I am thy Shield, and thy exceeding great Reward." And Abram, by Divine direction, took a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon, killed them, divided them, and while a horror of great darkness fell upon him," behold! smoking furnace and a
a burning lamp "-symbols of Diviue holiness-" passed between the pieces, and the Lord made covenant with Abram." a
IL A vision was granted to Jacob, from which the whole tone of his life was changed, and he began covenanted, God-fearing career. As be lay wearily on his a
stone pillow, under the clear-shining stars of an Eastern sky, "behold ladder set up a
on the earth, and the top of it re.ached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascend- ing and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, , •. the land whereon thou liest, to thee and thy seed will I give it." 111 Moses led the flock of Jethro, one memorable day, to the back side of the desert, and "came to the mount of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appearecl to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bnsh: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bnsh was not consumed. And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush n-symbol of the holiness that consumes and purifies-" and said,