The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 6

HOMILETICS. Vera. 4'-9.-Wi."': and foo1i,h trust. Rabshakeh langbrd to scorn eqnnlly all the gr_ounds of trust which he regimled ll~z, ki/\h as. entertaini_ng. His ridicule was just with respect to two of them, wholly unJNSt /\nd misplaced with re~pect to the third. J. JT 18 A FOOLISH TRUST TO I'UT CONFIUKNCE IN WISE COUNSELLORS. Princes no doubt, do well to seek advice from the wisest among their subjects, and, speaking generally, cnnnot do better th/\n follow such advice when it has been deliberately given. But to place nusolute confidence in the wisest of human counsellors is sheer folly. "The wisdom of the \\ise is foolishness with God" (1 Cor. iii. 19); "God casteth out the co_nnsel o_f princes." The wisest of men are liable to err,. to misinterpret the past, to n11sconceive the future. The best of counsellors are "bhnd guides," and are liable to " fall into the pit" with those who are guided by them. It is the truest wisdom to mis- trust all human advisers, and to look elsewhere for an infallible guidance. IL IT 18 A FOOLISH 1:RUST ~ I'UT OONFIDENCE IN AN ARHED F~RCE, however strong it may seem to be. "It 1s nothmg to the Lord to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power" (2 Chron. xiv. 11). "It is no hard matter" with him" for many to be shnt up in the hands of a few; and with Heaven it is all one, to deliver with a great multitude, or a small company: for the victory of battle standeth not in the multitude of an host; but strength cometh from heaven" (1 Mace. iii. 18, l!J). Even a heathen could remark that "ofttimes a mighty host is discomfited by a few men, when God in his anger sends fear or storm from heaven, and they perish in a way unworthy of them n (Herod., vii. 10, § 6). The children of this world put their trust in" big battalions;" but the entire course of history tes1i6e.s to the frequent triumph of the weak over the strong, of small over large armies-Plat.ma, Cunaxa, Issus, Arbela, Magnesia, in the ancient; Soissons, Mortgarten, Cressy, Poitiers, Waterloo, Inkerman, in the modem world, are cases in point. "The race is not to the swift, neither the battle to the ~trong." At any rat.e, it is foolish to trust implicitly in "strength for the war" (ver. 5), since such trust is often the forerunner of a dire calamity. III. IluT IT 1s A WISE TRUST TO HA VE CONFIDENCE IN THE LonD GoD. Rabshakeh ridicules this trust no less than ihe others (vers. 7, lli!-20); but wholly without reason. He imagines, indeed, that Jehovah is only a god-one of many. He has no conception of one Supreme God, "Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible." For want of thie fundamental idea hie whole reasoning is confused and mistaken. Theists know that, while all other trust is vain, absolute reliance may be placed on God (1) to perform his promises; (2) to succour all them that flee to him for aid with faith and penitence; (3) to abase those that proudly lift themselves up against him, if not immediately, at any rate in his own good time. Hezekiah's trust was based on all three grounds: God had promised to deliver Jerusalem from the Assyrians (eh. xxxi. 5-8); Hezekiah had given up his trust in Egypt, and turned to God (eh. xxxvi. 18) in sincerity; and Ralishakeh's own boastings had placed both himself and hie master in the category of God's open enemies, on whom judgment was almost sw-e to fall. Ver. W.-Tl,e /al~ boastings of the v1icked confutd by the event. The Goliathe and Sennacheribs of the world are rarely content with silent endeavours to accomplish the ends that they set before them. They deliµt in boasting beforehand of their coming achievements, and are not very scrupulous as to the language they employ, so that it seems to exalt them above their fellow11. "Come to me," said the Philistine champion to David, "and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field" (1 Sam. xvii 44). "With the multitude of my chnriote," said Sennacherib, "I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodging~ of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel" (2 Kings xix. 23); and a.gain, "Shall r not, as J have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and Ml' cu. :u:xVI. 1-22.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 7