The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 209

bird fune the air with it.a waving wing but hastens to do the tord'a bidding. The world is full of tools in the hands of God. As we ascend in the scale of creation wo only find that highp- beings have higher work to do; they are more subtle tools, set to do more skilful work, but they never cease to be tools. Mah may be the orown of creation, but he is only a creature, and set to do God's most delicate ahd particular work. So far as we can understand the history of our world, we can see that great nations have been rnised up to do certain things for God, and they have done them, either with their wills or against them. Egypt was raised up to educate the child- hood of God's chosen people. Assyr~ was raised up, as we see in this chapter, to be the rod of God wherewith he might punish his people for their sin. Babylon was commissioned t.o gne.rd the years of Jewish captivity. Greece was exe.lted· to show tbe world that" the beautiful" is not, of necessity," the good." Rome proved to the world that "restraint of law" can never take the place of the" liberty of righteousness." The Gothic nations were commissioned t.o overthrow a debased and worn~out civiliza- tion, France shows bow the passion for "glory" can lead men astray. ' Atnerica illustrates the principles of self-government. England tells what oa.n be achieved under the inspiration of duty. Every prominent man, who stands conspicuously out from his fellows, is a tool of God. Of Pharaoh it is said, "For this cause have I raised thee up, to make known my power in thee." Of Cyrus, who was appointed to arrange .the return from captivity, it is said," I girded thee, though thou hast not known me." Every man's individuality is precisely arranged for God's purpose in him. It becomes a most oppressive thought that ea.eh one of us is not only a tool, but a tool of a specific kind, and shape, and weight, and force, and keenness, adapted and attempered for that precise work which God wants to do by us. What, then, shall we do with this fa.et, that man is the instrument of God? In what relation shall we stand to it? • l. WE MAY DE:!\"Y THE FACT, ..U."D MAKE THIS SUPPORT OUB REBELLION. Perhaps no one ever did, soberly and thoughtfully, say, "There is no God." Men say it in the bragging of their pride, as excuse for their wrong-doing; and by the self-plea.sing of their lives; but Scripture reveals their secret when it says, "They do not' 'Zike, to retain God in their thoughts." The difficulty is moral, not intellectual. • Even a bad man would hardly dare t.o say, "Even if there be a God, he has no rights in me; I am my own; I rule myself; I shall take care of myself for ever." And yet inany a man's life does, in effect, say, "I em no axe, no saw, no staff, of God's; I will not be." "The axe boa.steth itself against him that heweth therewith, and the- saw magnifies itself against him that shaketh it." Scripture refers to such men. Nebu~ chadnezzar; J onab; ABsyria.; Herod at Tyre. And what must always follow when the " potsherd strives against its Maker"? lL WE llAY ACCEPT THE FACT, BUT PERVERT IT, AND BO MA.KE OURSELVES n."DIFFEBENT To MORAL DJBTINCTIONB. A man may say, " Yes, I am a tool of God's; my life is all planned out for me; it is all fore-ordained where I shall be, what I shall do; therefore there can be no real difference between right and wrong; whatever I do I cannot help doing, I was intended to do; I am only the axe or the saw; the virtue lies only in him who uses me, and whose power I cannot resist." We are all exposed tc the temptation of treating this sublime fact of God's relation to us in t,his most mournful and mistaken way. Losing the distinction between right and wrong out of our lives, we are in peril of losing God altogether as a moral Being, and transforming him into the "cloud-compelling Jove" of whom the pagans dreamed. Cannot we see that when God speaks of men as his axe or his saw, it is as using a symbol, which answers only in pa.rt ? Man is not according to the nature of the axe or the saw; but his intelligence, his powers, his will, come into a relation of dependence on God and service to him, just as the saw does to man. God's higher will takes into account mall's will, and would even work out its gracious plans through that human will. IlL WE MAY RECEIVE THIS FACT, AND MAKE IT NOURISH A DAILY OBEDIENOE. W e.s the life of the Apostle Paul a free, noble, blessed life? He wa8 but a tool in the hands of God. "Go thy way; thou a.rt a chosen vessel unto me, to bear-my Name before the Gentiles." He did not resist; he did not let the fa.et that he was God's tool lead him to indifference. He cheerfully accepted God's will for him; he fittocl l,is will to God's will and said "Yes the very best thing for me is just the thing that God require8 of ~e, that 1' should go and preach to the Gentiles." la there moral OH, X, 1-34,] TllE llOOK. OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 201