Vers. 4--21.-0ontemptuousness. An air of intolerable arrogance breathes in almost every sentence of this" railing Rabshakeh.'' It comes out in insolent characterization (l"'ers. 5, 6), in disdainful challenge (ver. 8), in haughty self-confidence (ver. 9), in con- temptuous disregard of the conventionalities of war (ver. 12), in a reprehensible vul- garity (ver. 12), etc. From this incident, or from other parts of Scripture, we conclude respecting it-- 1. 'l'BAT IT rs A.Fr TO BE VEBY IGNORANT. Rabshakeh made a large e.nd even ludicrous mistake respecting the action of Hezekiah in his iconoclastic policy. He thought the Jewish king was doing tho.t.vhich would excite the anger of Jehovah, when he was really securing his Divine favour (ver. 7). Contemptuous men are often found to be ignorant: and, naturally, if not necessarily, so; for they imagine themselves to be above the necessity to inquire and ascertain, and their assumptions are soon discovered to be false. Those who are too proud to learn must be content to be numbered with the foolish. II. 'l'nAT rr BINKS INTO IMPIETY. Rabshakeh held up to derision the idea that Jehovah could preserve Jerusalem (ver. 15), and classed the Lord of heaven with the helplces deities of Syria (vers. 1&-20). 'l'he arrogant spirit is essentially an irreverent one. Men that look with scorn upon the human soon come to regard themselves a, independent of the Divine. They are not deified in the daring and presumptuous forn. which was once known; but they assume to themselves a power, a control, a providence, which belongs only to the Lord of our hearts and lives. Hence we find- Hr. THAT IT JllA.KES FATAL BLUNDERS. The king for whom Rabshakeh was speaking and whose haughty determination he was announcing never did "come and take away" to his own land these despised Jews who were on the walls of Jerusalem. He returned with haste and humiliation into his own land. The scornful will find that events do not fill up their bold outlines; on the contrary, they will entirely traverse them: their pretensions will be overthrown, and their promises and their threats left unfulfilled. Expel the contemptuous spirit from the heart: it is an evil thing in itself, and it works evil to him that cherishes it. 1. It is exceedingly unlovely; it is utterly unbecoming in any child of man who, be he what he may, stands on the same level of fallibility on which his fellows stand. 2. It meets with the deep displeasure, and will bring down the strong rebuke, of God. He resists the proud and humiliates them. 3. It is only worthy of the disregard of man ; all wise people, when they e.re treated with arrogance, return a rebuking silence, like these eensible sons of Jerusalem (ver. 21).-0. Ver. 6.-i'reacherou, trwt,. The arrogant language of Rabshak.eh was full enough ,m. XXXVI, 1-22.J THE BOOK OF '!'HE PROPHET ISAIAH. lJ
of falsehood, but it had one grain of truth. Egypt was but a broken reed on which tc lean, and any trust reposed in its aid woul,I be attended with disaster and humiliation. The imagery which is here used is forcible enough, and it admirably describes the charaoter and the consequences of an ill-founded confidence. Of these treacherous trusts are- I. Oun OWN UNDERSTANDING. 1. We are expressly warned of God not to lean on this (Prov. iii. G). 2. Our known weakness, our incapacity to penetrate the hearts oi men and to foresee the issue of events, our liability to make deplorable and ruinous mistakes,-this should teach us to forbear. 3. And the many lamentable instances, recorded in histories and witnessed by our own eyes, of the evil consequences of men trusting to their own sagacity, should also dissuade and deter us. II. liuMAN FRIENDSHIPS. The language of Scripture on this subject is remarkably, is significantly, strong (Jer. xvii. 5). When we consider how often it has happenerl, a8 the consequence of human insufficiency, not only that men have failed to secure what they were expecting, but that they have been thereby plunged into the deepest distress and even into irremediable ruin ; that-to use the image of Rabshakeh-the staff has not only broken under them, but pierced the hand that leant on it ;-we may well feel that this scriptural language is not a whit too strong. Human friendship breaks down and wounds us by its fracture, (1) through the limitations of our faculty; (2) through inconstancy, and even treachery; (3) through moral or spiritual shipwreck. III. TEMPORAL ADVANTAGES. Riches, rank, official position and the power it confers, -these are things on which we are prone to place reliance. But woe unto the man who has no firmer ground on which to build I In the day of his calamity, in the hour of bereavement, in the time of desolation, in the honr of death, those things will fail him; and to have trusted in any or in all of them, to the negligence of a hope that is surer than they, will add unspeakable bitterness to the sense of failure and of need. The broken reed will pierce the hand that holds it. Only in a Divine Saviour, whose wisdom will never be found wanting, whose faith- fulness will never fail, whose power to succour and befriend in the saddest sorrows and darkest hours will continually suffice-only in him will be tound the support which "cannot be broken." "Our God is a Rock;" and blessed is the man who rests all the weight of his joy and of his hope on his inviolable word, on his irrefragable power.-C.