HOMILETICS, Vers. 1-17.-Egypt's pwnishment, a proof both of God's wng-sujfering tJAd of Ma inea:orableju,tice. 'rho punishment of Egypt by the Assyrian conquest, on which the prophet enlarges in this chapter, may be regarded in a double light, I. As STRONGLY EXHillITING THE LONG-BUFFERING AND HEBCY OF Goo. 1. Consider the long persistence of Egypt in sins of various kinds-idolatry, king-worship, practice of magic, kidnapping of slaves, cruel usage of captives, impurity, indecency; consider that her monarchy had lasted at least sixteen hundred years, and that both in religion and in morals she had continually grown worse. 2. Bear in mind her treatment of God's people-how she had first oppressed them (Exod. i. 8-14), then endeavoured to exterminate them (Exod. i. 15-22); this failing,'made their bondage harder (Exod. v. 6-19); repeatedly refused to let them go; sought to destroy them at the Red Sea (Exod. xv. 9); plundered them in the time of Rehoboam (1 Kings xiv. 25, 26); alternately encouraged and deserted them in their struggles against Assyria (1 Kings xvii. 4; xviii. 21, 24). 3. Note al~o that she had helped to corrupt God's people. In Egypt many Israelites had worshipped the Egyptian gods (Josh. xxiv. 14; l!.:zek. xx. 8) 'rhey had brought from Egypt an addiction to magical practices which had never left them. Manasseh, in calling his eldest son "Amon," intended to acknowledge the Egyptian god of that name. Under these circumstances, it is marvellous that Egypt had been allowed to exist so long, and, on the whole, to flourish; and the marvel can only be accounted for by the extreme long-suffering and extraordinary mercy of Almighty God. II. As A DECISIVE PROOF OF Goo's INEXORABLE JUSTICE, However long God defers the punishment of sin, it comes at last with absolute certainty. It might have seemed as if the hardships suffered by his people in Egypt had escaped God's recollec- tion, so many years was it since they had happened. It might have seemed as if all Egypt's old sins were condoned-as if she was to escape unpunished. Sixteen centuries of empire I Why, Rome herself, the "iron kingdom,'' that "broke in pieces and bruised n all things (Dan. ii. 4), was not allowed more than twelve centuries of existence. But Egypt was allowed a far longer term, not only of existence, bot of prosperity. Since the time of the shepherd-kings, four hundred years before the Exodus, she had suffered no great calamity. Even the Ethiopians had not been so much foreign conquerors, as princes connected by blood and identical in religion, who claimed the crown by right of descent from former Egyptian sovereigns. But God had all the time been waiting, with his eye upon the sinful nation, counting her offences, remembering them against her, and bent on taking vengeance. And the vengeance, when it came, was severe. First, internal discord and civil war-" kingdom against kingdom, and city against city" (ver. 2); then conquest by an alien nation-conquest effected by at least three distinct expeditions, in which the whole land was overrun, the cities taken and plundered, and army after army slaughtereu; finally, subjection to a "fierce king," a "cruel lord" (ver. 4). And the sufferings of war aggravated, apparently, by the natural calamity of a great drought-a failure of the inundation either for one year, or possibly for several (vers. 5-8). Truly, when the day of vengeance came, Egypt was afflicted indeed! No wonder she" was afraid, and feared because of the shaking of the band of the Lord of hosts" (ver, 16). It is, indeed, "a fearful thing to fall into the bands of the living God n (Heh. x. 31). Ver. 22.-Smiting and hraling closely connected in God's counsels. God's smiting is 1IO doubt twofold, (1) remedial and (2) penal; but by far the greater portion of it is of the former kind. Once only has he visited mankind at large penal:y-i.e. at the Deluge; but a thousand times has he visited them remedially. Similarly with nations. He smote Egypt in Moses' time with the ten plagues, not to destroy, but to chasten. So again at the Red Sea. So now by the hands of Esarhaddon ~nd his son. So by Nebuchadnezzar, Cambyses, Ochus. And at last he bowed their hearts and caused them to turn to him, first partially, when Juda.ism gained an influence over them; afterwards, as a nation, wl,en they accepted Christianity. Former chastisements had doubtless some remedial force, or the nation would scarcely have been borue with SQ 318 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. [en. XIX, 1-26.
long; but they did not fully heal, and blow after blow became requisite. So God went on •• smiting and healing." And the. course -of ,his providence is similar with indi- Yiduals. Primarily he smites to heal. Each offence brings down hi8 rod, but tho 5troke is comparatively light &t first, and intended to warn, admonish, call to. amend- ment. lfmen ))l'rsist in wrong courses, the blows become heavier, But still the inten,. tion ill the same ; it is sought to bring them t.o repentance. God has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth. Only after repeated trials, after blow upon blow, warning upon -rning, if they will not repent, if they will not be healed, the penal eentenco goes forth t.o "pluck up.a.nd destroy" (Jer, xii. 17). '· Vers. 23, 24.-Unity in religion joins together the bitterest foes. As, ultimately, the establishment of the kingdom of Christ among all the nations of the earth (eh. it 2) will proouce a reign of universal peace, so that men will everywhere " beat their swords int.o ploughshal'es, and their spears into pruning-hooks" (eh. ii. 4), so, on a lesser scale, wherever true religion prevails, asperities are softened, old enmities die out and dis- appear, 3 friendly ~pirit springs up, and former adversaries are reconciled and become friends. Assyria, Egypt, Israel, long the bitterest foes, were drawn together. by a common faith in the later days of Judaism and the earlier ones of Christianity-:-felt ~ympathy one with another, and lived in harmony. The Papacy was an attempt to bring all the Roman communion into a i;pecies of political unity, to abolish .ware between its various members, and unite it against heathendom, This attempt had, how1wer, only a partial success, owing to the admixture of bad with good motives. in those who were at the head of the movement and had the direction of it. That war ha.~ not yet ceased among all Christian nations is a slur upon Christianity, and:nn indication that nations are still Christian in name rather than in spirit. The league·of Assyria, .Egypt, Israel, may well be held up t,o the modern Christian world as .an. example that should shame it into the adoption of<' peace principles." If stich foes, so fiercely hostile, so long estranged, could become close friends through the.influence. of a community of religion, why _cannot the Christian nations of modern times ·at.ta.in to a similar unity? • • ' •
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHOJlS. • ' ' • .·I. • J • ., •