The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 406

- Ver. 7.-Spiritool 'Vel,1B, Anything interposed between the eye and the object of vision may be called a veil; designed for the purpose of convenience or of modesty, the veil has often been..the cause of unsightliness and inconvenience-it has been abused almost as much as it has been used. In Scriptnre the word has a moral significance, indicating something which intercepts the truth, and blinds the soul to the will of God and to its-Own duty and interest. I., 'l'HE EXISTENOE OF SPIRITUAL VEILS. They are those of: 1. Credulity. Often the mind freely- .accepts all kinds of irrational, superstitious errors, which coat and cover the truth ofGod, rendering it invisible beneath a mass of error. 2. Prejudice. Men who act as did the Jews in our Lord's time, determining beforehand and judging irre- spective of the evidence before their eyes, making up their minds in advance of any facts or reasons which have to·be alleged, are sure to miss their way. They cannot; see through ,the veil of prejudice. 3, Intellectool pride: unwillingness to believe anything .which our finite ·faculties cannot comprehend; practical forgetfulness that the heavenly Father must _have man.y more tmths that we can only very dimly discern to reveal to his children, than earthly fathers have to make intelligible to their sons. 4. Worldliness: allowing the interests, occupations, gratifications, of this world to assume ai'magnitude and Importance to which th'ey have no claim; and allowing the conventional maxims of society to pass current as heavenly truth, when they are only too often misleading and even deadly errors. 6: Passion. The false glare of passion hides from :many souls the truth which otherwise they would see and by which they would live. • II. 'l'BEIR 11Eill:ovAL. God " will destroy . . • the veil that is spread over all the nations." L -It is· a blessed fact; in the far future, which God will establish. By n1eans he is now employing, and perhaps by ways and methods of which we may have no conception now, he will bring it to pass; the day will come when the nations shall walk in the light of the Lord; both Jew (2 Cor. iii. 16) and Gentile (eh. lx. 3). 2. We may contribute our share toward this happy issue: there are mental errors and ~piritual delusions which we can help to expose, both by enlightening words and convincing action. 3. We a.re bound to make every effort to put away whatever veil may be over our owu eyes. Unconscious spiritual blindness is sin (see John ix. 41). It may bo in part a man's misfortune, but it is partly bis fault. There may be that which palliates it, but nothing will ea;cuse it. We must betake ourselves to God (Pe. cxxxix. 23, 24)......C. Vers. 8, 9.-The evening of ewpectatiooi. • Of. this passage we may look at- I. ITB PnIMARY HISTORIClAL APPLIOATION,' (See Exposition.) II. JTs APPLICATION To rHE CuuncH •OF CHRIST, The Church of Christ is "the Israel of God," and we may expect much of the language first used in reference to the Jewish nation to be appropriate to it and even· intended for its service. Like ancient ·Israel, the Church hns found itself in great humiliation and distress, and has been in _wre need of Divine comfort in its dark dnys. At many stages in its history the Church has''felt itself oppressed with heavy burdens, beset with serious difficulties, threatened with great calamitiesi o.nd then the blessed promise of deliverance has dawned, e.nd itiS 408 THE BOOK OF 'l'RE PROPHET ISAlAB. [olt. nv.1-12.