·()ppottiIOitieS, ·. ' • . ' • ' . I ' 'IV. IN Goo WAiITING ls! 'ALWAYS WISDOM AND STRENGTH. So we never need fret under it, or make inystery of it, or think untnistful things about it. God acts on the absolu:t~ly best moment, and we should wait on: for ages, and never want a thing until God's' best moment, fof Hhas come. Because God can we.it, we should. truat.-R. T. V'ers. 6, 6.-God can work.· When his time has come. Then, before man can do his harvesting-work,; when __the blossoming and the growing times are over, through wl:iicih God had waited; when the fruit becomes the full ripe grape,-then God will show how h.e. can worlc, putting, in his implements, and proving himself to be a Deliverer and a Judge. God's working here referred to is doubtless the sudden, unexpectecl, and complete overthrow of the Assyrian army under Sennacherib, which came at the time when it would prove absolutely bverwhel!Iling, and perfectly effective as a deliveranc~. Matthew Henry states the case in this way: ,. When the Assyrian army promises itself a plentiful harvest in the taking of ·Jerusalem and the plundering of that iich city, when the bud of that project is perfect, before. the harvest is gathered in, while the sour grape oftl:ieir enmity to Hezekiah aud his people is ripening in the flower, and the design is just'ready to be put into execution, God shall dest;roy that army as easily as the· husbandman cuts off the vin(;l :with pruning-hooks, or because the grape is sour and good for nothing, and will not be cured 1-takes away and cuts down the branches. This seems to point at the.overthrow of the Assyrian army by a destroying angel, when the dead bodies of the soldiers, were scattered like the branches and' sprigs of a wild vine, ''which·the ·ht1sbandman has cut to pieces." I. Goii's WORKING rs WELL-TIMED. This is the point made specially prominent here. What was needed, for ~he due impression of Judah il.nd the surrounding nations, was some startling deliveral)-C'e; so111ething that should be at once complete, and yet should be manifestly beyond man'.s accomplishing. Such a working must be exactly timed. When the succes(of Assyria ·seemed assured, when its prey seemed within its grasp, and when men's . hearts were failing them for fear,-just then the wild hot Simoom blast swept oviir the· army, and as in a moment there were heaps of dead men, and few escaped t9 tell th!) awful stoty. For the timeliness of God's judgment-work- ings find illustration in the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the extirpation of the ,Canaanites, the captivities, and the final siege of Jerusalem. II. Goo's• WORKING IS FULL OF ENERGY. Ever setting before us the example of thoroughness in the doing of whatever work has to be done. 'l'his is in great part the reason why, in making -Israel his executioner, God required Israel to treat everything belonging to the Canaanites as accursed, and doomed to destruction. It was, for the fl~st ageii,'a Divine''lessohii.n thoroug)rne~s, energy, and promptitude. God never works with a'slack·hand, and j11'sservants·must not. • ' • • • III'. Gon's .WOR~ll' JS "ALWAY& EFFECTIVE TO ITS END; . And that, not because it is ·armighty ·wc,rkiug, ··so tnuch 'ns because it is all-wise working. Power is ·quite a srcond111"y thing to adaptatiqn, A thing fitted to its end will accomplish it, aud it will ho accomplished· qctter through the fitness:than by any displays of power. The end here designed was an,adcquate impression-, of'_tho sQle and sovereign rights of Jehovah, and I\· loud cn:11 to the natioos·to put their trast in him. The overthrow of n mighty army, in the fulnrss of its pride, by purely natural-which are purely Divine -forces, was exactly adapted to secure this end. Illustrate by the moral impression produced by great and destructive eMthquakcs. \Vhen the end of God's working is the persuasion of his fatherly love, then we find his means marvellously adapted and effective. "Re gave his Son, his only begotten Son." And herein we say ie love, "not that we loved God, but that ho loved us, aud sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our 312 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [ou. xn.1-14.
alns.• Be ii work of judgment or work of mercy, of this we may be quite aura-God accomplishes that which he pleases, and his work prospers in that to whioh he sends it.-R. T.