The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 1 — Section 465

clrunkllrde mocking Isniah over their cnps. "Does ho not know what respectable persons he is del\ling with, not like children who need leading-strings, but ·educated priests a11.d prophets? 1'hey have caught up from Isaiah one of his favourite words (probably), and rapeat it with a sneer. He is alwaye interfering with moral and politi- cal reoommendations; always finding some 'little' point to censure and correct" (Cheyne). "Vers. 9, 10 contain the taunting language of the drunken priests and judges of the Jews, who repel with scorn the idea that they should require the plain and reiterated lessons which Jehovah taught by bis messengers. Such elementary instruction was fit only for babes; it was a.n insult to their understa.nding to suppose that they stood in need of it" (Henderson). Dr. S. Cox puts this view of the passage in a 'l'ery striking and forcible wa.y: "In their private intercourse with each other when, as Isaiah tells us, they 'were swallowed up of wine' , . , in their shameles; carousals, the false priests, and the prophets who backed them with 'lying visions,' made themselves great sport in jeering at Isaiah, in ridiculing the one prophet who cared more for the welfare of the people than for their applause, and loved the service of God more than the pleasure of the senses. They mocked at his incorrigible sim- plicity. They mimicked and burle.squed his manner of speech. 'Whom would he teach knowledge?' they cried; 'and to whom would he make a message intelligible? To weanlings from the milk, just withdrawn from the breast?' 'l'o them he seemed an intolerable moralist, for ever schooling them as if they were be.bes, and needed. the mere milk of instrnction, and not strong men capable of digesting meat. 'With him,' they said, 'it is always precept on precept, line on line, line on line, here a little, and there e. little.' Or, as we may, perhaps, better translate their words, they said, 'With him it is always "bid and bid, forbid and forbid, a little bit here, and a little bit there."• What really angered these burly scorners was that the prophet treated them as though they were children only just weaned, and not masters in Israel. They were weary of hearing him repeat the first rudiments of morality, and apply them to the sins and needs of the time." We may fix attention on this point-Mocking at religion and religious teachers represents the last stage of apostasy. There is little hope for the mockers; they must go into the fires of judgment. But what stages do men pass through before they reach this point of decline? In answering this question we may keep our eye on the illustrations afforded by the apostasy of Jewish priests and rulers, and at the same time make due applications to the perils of apostasy, as we may ourselves be exposed to them. L The religious man steps upon the sliding, downward road, when he begins to EEGLECl' PEBBONAL SOUL-CULTURE. Al!, the Apostle John tells us, a man prospers only as his soul prospers. The easential thing in the good man is not well-ordered conduct, but the regenerate life. The new life needs its care and its food continually. 'l'his neglect of soul-culture is the "grieving of the Holy Ghost," of which St. Paul warns us so earnestly. It is the" leaving of the first love" of which the risen and living Christ complains. A man goes wrong first in matters of private devotion and Christian habit. II. The next step is the DTBBONING OP BELP·WILL m THE PLACE OP Gon's WILL. Lose the ea.cred humility and fear that comes with close relations to God, and self will be sure to grow big, and the rule of life comes to be the "devices .and desires of our own hearts." Then mistakea, stumblings, and wanderings are easy; and " broad " ways are preferred to narrow. Ill As soon as this condition is established, there arises the wish to BEE AND KNOW NOTHING THAT CAN POSSIBLY COliV1<11' AND RUMBLE j and the man lets the dust cover his Bible, the grass grow over his kneeling-place, and excuses keep him from the house of God. Like these priests and leaders, they are at heart afraid of what Ood'1 Isaiahs might aay to them. May we not fear that this is the aecret reason for modem neglect of God's worship ? Men do not wish to be warned. They foar lest they should be warned. They do not want to hear the truth about the degrading i;lavery in which idol self always holds its victims. . IV. Then comes the beginning of the almost hopeless stage1, A. Blil'NDJNG AND RARDElilNG l'BOCEBB GOES Ol!I; and pre11ently those who would not see cannot see, Then a m.a.n. can hear a.II the tcrro!'B, and heed none of them; can listen to all tho per- l!uaaioDB of the everla.ating love, and be moved by none of them. V, ~~~~he c;,AJI JGVQI MOO!t 4,: GOOPNMB UD C.OQJ) ·¥Q; ""di~ 4is foolioh clii, x:tvut. 1-29,] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET IBAIAH, 469