The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 152

filled with new anxiety on finding them neglected and out or repair, Abu sees the prophet of Jehovah appro&ch. Isaiah's messe.ge is full of mercy e.nd encouragement. He would quiet the unreasoning and nnrea.sone.ble fears of the king; he spee.ka slightingly of Rezin e.nd Peke.h, as only two taila of smoking firebrands, whose strength is almost spent ; they can only smoke, not blaze, and their kingdoms e.re he.sting to decay. He bids the king not to think for e. moment of leaning on Assyria, but to trust in the living God. He graciously offers, in God's Ne.me, a sign for the confirming of his faith, bidding Ahe.z even choose such e. one as he felt would con- vince him. The king stubbornly refuses ; e.nd then lse.ie.h gives one, after sternly rebuking the false humility of the king. The sign is e. figurative e.nd poetical assur- e.nee that, within some three or fonr yea.rs, the power of his present enemies would be utterly broken. And then mercy passes into judgment, e.nd the prophet sternly reveals the consequences that will follow any lea.ning upon Assyria. In the text we have e. state of public affairs that might well cause alarm, e.nd we dwell on Lhe spirit in .which times of national peril may and should be met. L NATIONAL CALAMITY WITHOUT THOUGHT OF Gon THE OVERBOLER. Just this we have in the historice.l connection of the text. Viewed politically, there were grave and perilous complice.tions. Assyria was pushing its way towards the Mediterranean. :5yrie. and Israel were in its way. Instead of resisting their more serious Eastern foe they confederated to injure the small country of Judah, which blocked their way southwards towards Egypt. Rezin had seized Elath, Judah's great commercial port on the Red Sea, and Pekah had overrun the territory or Judah. There was a general panic. King and people alike asked-How could they resist this combination of the neighbouring countries against them? A great fear possessed the king, and drove him to the most impolitic action he could possibly take. Having no sense of reliance on God, consciously severed by his wilfulness from God, he sought alliance with Assyria, anci. brought ruin on himself and his neighbour-foes. The figure of the trees waving to and fro confusedly in the wind, is expressive of the man who is not stayed on God, but left to the uncertainties of a judgment based only on circumstances. II. NATIONAL CALAMITY WITH THE THOUGilT OF Goo THE OVERBULEB. This is the contrast suggested in the passage. If Ahaz had been a God-fearing man, how differently he would have looked on these circumstances! If he had been a David, or a Jehoshaphat, or a Hezekiah, a msn with the fear of God before his eyes, he would he.ve met the perilous conditions with calmness. and seen in them an occasion for (1) special prayer; (2) renewed dependence; (3) e.nd the testing of the sincerity of his trust; (4) also a call to watching for the Divine will; (6) and the requirement to set himself in an attitude of obedience, ready at once, and heartily, to follow the Divine lead. .Apply to modern complexities of party politics and international complications, as well as to times of national calamity, by disease, or by depressed trade. Show whe.t a vantage-ground he occupies who believes in God as the God of nations, looks for his providential rulings and overrulings, and knows that he "makes the wrath of man praise him, and restrains tlt.e remainder of that wrath." Show how quiet a nation may be when it knows that national polity is directed in the fear of him who must be called the" God of the whole earth."-R. T. Ver. 7.-Man proposes, God dispoBlll. Recalling the scheme at which Rezin and Pekah had been so busy, arranging everything so cleverly, and making so sure of a speedy and triumphant success, Jehovah, sovereign Ruler and Judge, looks from above upon it all, and says of it, "It shall not stand, neither shall it be." "The plan shall not even take practical shape, much less would it achieve a permanent success." "They should neither of them, Syria nor Israel, enlarge their dominions nor push their coo- quests any further; they shall be made to know their own; their bounds are fixed, and they shall not pass them" (Matthew Henry). L 'l'HE LI.MITB OF MAN'S FREEDOM. He is (1) free to think; (2) free to judge; (3) free to plan. There is a sense in which man has dominion over the world in which he i11 eet, e.nd over the circumstances in which he is placed. God, in a sense, put man, separate from himself, io. the garden of this world, and stands aloof to see what he will_ do. Man has the trust of (1) intelligence, so that he may estimate things and the relat1oos of things; (2) free-will, BO that he may choose his course of action. But it is limited OB. VII, ]-25,) THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 141