The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 370

lion provided by the Lord Jesus does not immediately and directly touch these natural penalties of sin. There is an important sense in which the forgiving God "by no means clears the guilty." 'fbe child of the drunkard or the sensualist will not have the spirit of drink or of passion taken out of him, nor will he be renewed from his physical deterioration, because hia father becomes a Christian in his later years. Con- SCLJ Uenccs of wrong reach on until they get altogether beyond hand-graRp. Do any wrong, and for the soul of the wrong there is forgiveness, and full restoration, in thq Divine mercy, through the precious blood-shedding; but you may pursue all your life after the natural consequences, and yon shall never overtake them, never master them, never remove them. On they go, carrying their burdens of woe to the third and fourth generation. And Isaiah reminds us that there are some special kinds of iniquity to which the rule must more especially apply, for whose consequences there can be no earthly purging. They are such as are: 1. Maintained in a spirit of wilfulness. 2. Such as outlast all warnings and corrections. 3. Such as have become a cause of open reproach. 4. And such as have been the means of ruining others. In all these cases the judgment must come, and the sinne1's fellow-men must see it hanging over him as long as he lives. If it were not so, adequate impressions of the evil and hatefulness of sin could not be kept before the eyes of men. Though we should also see that these sin-penalties, lying so heavy on the race, a.re part of the Divine remedial scheme fo1 finally delivering humanity from its self-serving and its sin.-R. T. Vers.16, 17 .-Man's plans for himself frustrated by God's plan for him. The answer- ing New Testament case to this is our Lord's account of the prosperous farmer, who had no room to bestow bis fruits and his goods. He said to himself, "I will pull down my barns and build greater." But God said, "Thou fool, this night shall thy eonl be required of thee." lo the passage before us, Shebna, in the full assurance that he will die quietly, and be buried honourably in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem, proposes to build a tomb or sepulchre for himself. It would be one of the rock-hewn sepnlchres on the slopes of the hills surrounding the holy city. The aristocratic families had their private sepulchres, but this Shebna was a new man, not belonging to any of the ancient fan1ilies, so he had to begin a sepulchre as one part of his ambition to found a family. God's plan for him was quite different to his plan for himself. He was to be carried a.way into captivity, and the fair_creation of his energies would fall into ruins. "Man proposes, God disposes." L MEN OUGHT To MAKE PLANS. The Bible never opposes foresight, practical wisdom, reasonable ambitions, ta.king life with a strong hand, or the statesmanlike sagacity, that estimates public movements and prepares for inevitable changes. No man's ship is expected to drift anyhow; the man's hand must be always at the helm, and the man must know for what port he sails. II. MEN TOO OFTEN MAKE PLANS IN A BPIBIT OF SELF-RELIANCE. As the Apostle James (iv. 13-15) puts it, men say, "To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain." The mistake lies in that will. "Whatever happens, I will." "They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." III. MEN SHOULD MAKE PLANS IN THE SPIRIT OF DEPENDENCE ON GOD; and with due reference of every case to him. As Ja.mes says (iv. 15), "For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do tl,is, or that." Man's will sometimes is strong, and carries him over and through great difficulties; but God is ever strouger ~an he, and grasps him with effectual restraints.-R. T, Ver. 18.-God's violent providences. Margin Revised Version," He will surely wind .bee round and round like a ball and toss thee." Generally the figure is assumed to be that of a ball flung violently on a smooth, even plain, where it bounds on and on with nothing to stay its progress. But a gentleman was in the island of Mitylene during a great storm of wind in winter, nnd observed a peculiar plant, not unlike wormwood, which grows into a compact, globular form, with very stiff stalks and branches. In the winter the plant dies down to th1i ground, and in its dry and light condition is torn from its roots by the wind, and set bounding over the wide and unenclosed country. He reports having seen fi:Ve or si_x_ of these balls coursing along at on?c· If_ s~ch plants were found in the countries fl\m1lillr to the prophet, they would forn1sh a vivid emblem lll4lA!L 2 11  370 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH.• [ort. :rxrt. 1-~S.