The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 347

and anoint the shield" ('l'"er. 5). Row often, when the ungodly are in the midst of their uujusl eirnctions or their unlawful 11leasuros, comes the blow which strikes the weapon from their hand, the cup from their lips (see Dan. v. 30; Acts xii. 22, 23; Luke xii. 20) ! 2. The completeness of their downfall. "Babylon is fallen, is fallen" (var. 9)- fallen uttrrly, never more to rise; her tyranny broken to pieces, her fires of persecution put out. ·when God arises to judgment his enemies are not merely defeated, they are srottmed. 3. The abasement of their pi•id,e. "Babylon is fallen." The word is suggestive of an inglorious descmt from a high seat of assumption and is certainly descriptive of the destruction of the Babylonian power. We know that God wills to humble the haughty, and that DoLhing is more certain to ensure humiliation than the spirit of pride (Pro'I'". ni. 18; xvii. 17; eh. x. 33; Luke xiv. 11). 4. Tlie rebuke of their impiety. "The graven images be hath broken," etc. As idolatry was visited with the signs of God's wrath, so impiety, covetousness, absorbing worldliness-which are idolatry in modern form-must expect to receive the proofs of his displeasure. II. THEIR EFFECT ON TBE GOOD. 1. Merciful rdief from oppression. "All the sighing thereof ha"e I made to cease." The downfall of the tyrant is the deliverance of tbe oppressed; hence the close connection between Divine judgments and human praise. As God, in his providence, brings cruelty, injustice, inconsiderateness, to its doom, he makes sighing and sorrow to flee away. There is much tyranny still to be struck down before all burdens will have been taken from the heavy-laden, ana·before all sighs shall cease from the heavy-hearted. 2. Conversion from resentment to com- passion. The vision which the prophet saw, albeit it was one of triumph over hie enemies, ex.cited his compassion; it was "a grievous vision" (ver. 2). He was even "bowed down at the hearing of it,"" dismayed at the seeing of it" (ver. 3). The night which he loved (the night of his pleasure), instead of bringing him the sacred joy of communion with God and prophetic inspiration, brought to him sympathetic pain and distress. Thus was burniug patriotic i □ dig □ ation turned into humane compassion. It may be taken, indeed, as an anticipation of that Christian magnanimity which "loves its enemies, and prays for them that despitefully use and persecute" it. When God's jndgments on our enemies thns soften our spirits and call forth the kindlier and more generous sentiments, then do they serve an even higher end than when they make our sighs to cease and our songs to sound.-C. Ver. 10.-Tn,"lnilation. There is no little tenderness in this Divine e.cldreBB or Invo- cation; it reminds us that God's love may be set upon us when there seems least reason to think so if we jndge of his feeling by our outward circumstances. We think naturally of- • I. TRIBULATION. The instrument by which corn was threshed (tri"bula) has given us the word with which we are so familiar. To some it speaks oflong-continued sickness, or weakness, or pain; to others of depressing disappointment; to others of bereavement and consequent desolation; to others of loss and the inevitable struggle with poverty; to others of human frailty or even treachery and of the wounded spirit which suffers from that piercing stroke. The heart knows its own bitterness, and every human soul has its own peculiar story to tell, its own especial troubles to endure. But this human su1fering is only appropriately called tribulation when it is recognized that the evil which Las come is sent (or allowed) of God as Divine chastening, when it is understood that the Divine Father takes a parental interest in the well-being of his children, that he is seeking their highest good, and that he is passing his threshing-instrument over "his floor " in the exercise of a benign and holy discipline. II. SEPARATION. When the "tribula" passed over the reaped corn it separated the valuable grain from the worthless chaff; one was then easily distinguishable from the other. Sorrow, persecution, trial, tribulation, is a "discerner of the thoughts and intents of the hearl." Before it comes, the genuine and the pretentious may be mingled indistinguishably; after it has come, it is apparent who are the loyal and true disciples, and who are they that have nothing but" the name to live." We cannot be sure of" the spirit of our mind" or tbe real character of others until we, or they, ha_ve been upon the threshin«-floor, and the Divine instrument of threshing has done its decisive and discriminating work. It comes, like Christ himself," for judgment;" e.nd .ihen many who were supposed not to see are found to have a true vision of God e.nd otI. xxt. 1-17.] 'l'HE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 345