The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 421

reduced to poverty and need by the unscrupulousne!ll!.or the sinful will 11.ccede to their heritage of power, of wealth, of plea.sure, or-what Is better than these-of infltMJnct! of su~ncy, of thanliful11ess. God, the Most Upright One, smooths the path of tb~ just (ver. 7), makes it level, enables the righteous to pursue their way of fruitful activity, of Divine worship, of holy joy. III. THE EFFEOT OF ITS ASSERTION. " When God's judgments are in the earth," i.e. when the righteousness of God is seen and felt in the infliction of penalty on the guilty and the levelling of the path of the just, then" the inhabitants . . . learn righteous- ness" (ver. 8). 1. The devout a.re confirmed in their devotion, and they cleave to God and to his service. 2. The waverers a.re decided, and they resolve to unite themselves with bis people. 3. The presumptuous are alarmed, and they may be awakened s.nd redeemed. This is Gc<l's intention in, and is the fitting end of, his Divine judgments; it is our folly and our sin if we allow that purpose to be defeated.-O. Vers. 8, 9.-.d.thirst for God. "The desire of our soul is to thy Name . . . with my soul have I desired thee." The primary reference here is to the hope of troubled hearts for Divine deliverance ; but the words of the text are suggestive of the general truths- I. THAT Jlil! IS CONSTITUTED 'l'O CRAVE AFTER Go». We have many indications of this truth. We find it in the facts that: 1. The noblest spirits among cultivated peoples find their chief joy in communion with him. 2. The worthiest spirits among uncultivated peoples have been athirst for God. 3. Religious truth and Divine wor- ship prove a powerful attraction to the vast majority of mankind. 4. Every human being is found to possess a capacity for religious knowledge and devotion. 6. Human life without God is found to be constantly unsatisfying aud restless. lL THAT THIS GODWABD ASPIB.ATION, DULLED BY BIN, IS OFTEN AWAKENED BY AFFLICTION. "I desired thee in the night." Our interest in God, reduced, by the various harmful and despoiling influences of a sinful society, sometimes so reduced as to be practically lost, is often awakened by affliction of some kind. It is not until the soul is brought down very low by sickness, by calamity, by bereavement, by treachery and disappointment, or by earthly failure and disenchantment, that it finds its deep and i;ore need of a heavenly Father, of an unfailing Friend, of a heavenly treasure. When thus injured and spoiled by sin, it is not until our souls are made to see their sinfulness in a fierce and awful light that we crave and cry out for an almighty and all-sufficient Saviour; but then we do. Ill. '1E..AT, BEA WAKENED IN ADVERSITY, IT RECO.MEB A PERMANENT HABITUDJ!l OF THE BOUL. " With my spirit . . . will I seek thee early." Whether or not we find this doctrine in the text, we find this truth in the will of God ; and God expects to find this fact in human experience. It is bitterly disappointing to the good-and is it not a disappointment to the Good One ?-when they who have been brought to the throne of grace by reflection are found, in after-days of comfort and sunshine, to leave the sanctuary unvisited, and to walk on their way, godless, prayerless, hopeless. Such men (1) defeat God's kind purposes; (2) add iniquity to their iniquity; (3) most seriously endanger their own future (see eh. i. 6).-0. Ver. 10.-Gui?,tg insensibuitg. The wise and good man will learn 10mething from everything ; the foolish and sinful man will learn nothing from anything. In what- ever accents God may speak, this latter hears not his voice, and heeds not his will ; he is guiltily insensible to all kinds of heavenly influence; he is- L UNTOUCHED BY THE VISITATION OF GoD's GOODNESS. He does not" learn righteous- n-, though "favour be showed" to him by God. God may be, as he is, multiplying his mercies unto him, so that they are as the sands of the sea-innumerable; visiting him by day and by night with loving-kindnesses continually renewed, besetting him behind and before with hie guardianship, laying hie band of gentle power upon him in guidance and in blessing. But all is lost upon him-he is unmindful of everything ; he does not " learn righteousness ; " he goes on, if not in oppression, or in vice, or in open atheism, yet in a guilty forgetfulness, in an unfilial indifference and ingratitude. II. UNINFLUENCED BY HU.MAN EXAMPLE. "In the land of uprightness he deals unjWltly." Around him are men worshipping God, working devotedly in his cause, Oil, nn. 1-21.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 425