The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 142

II. Tm: MINDFUL MERCY OF JEHOVAH. He promises to blot out their sins; and this simp!y f?r his own sa_ke. God Cl\Il swear by none mightier; he can appeal to no principle that 1s higher than himself. He must be true first and above all to his nature· nud next to that covenant which is the expression of his nature' and of his relations to tho people. Let them remember that; let them remind God of his promises, and he will not fail to respond. Although their ancestors had sinned; their leaders, the prophets and the priests and_ the princes, had rebelled against him, and bad by him been rejrcled; -the people are still dear to him, and must remain so while Jehovah remains Jehovah, For he is the Eternal; he changes not. Though he punishes, he will not destroy; in the midst of wrath he remembers mercy; and holds fast to the set counsels of his love, from generation to generation, despite all the fickleness of man's fancies, opinions, and inclinations. Their endeavours to overcome his good by their evil shall be met by his mightier will to overcome their evil by his long-suffering.-J, Ver. 2.-God, in trouble. "When thou pa.ssest through the waters, I will be with thee: and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee." When, Then it is certain that such experiences will come. It is only a question of time. Tribulation is common to all the children. "The same sufferings," says the apostle, "are accom- plished in your brethren which are in the world." When? We do not always know -when the desolating floods of life are coming, but presently they will rise to our breast and to our throat-deep waters. I. TRIBULATION DOES NOT DESTROY PROGRESS, we pass through these waters; they a.re part of the way in which the Lord our God is leading us. "Ever onward" is our motto. We are "a day's march nearer home," even in the days of desolation and distress. "We need not hope to escape the waters. No detour will take us out of the way of the floods. II. TRIBULATION BRINGS CHRIST NEAB. "I will be with thee." A brief sentence. But it is enough. We have but to study the little word" L" It speaks of One who has all power in heaven and in ea.rth; One who is human and Divine. A presence-that is what we want. Theologians talk of a "real presence." How can a. presence be unreal? We do not talk of real sunlight, or real bread, or real air I This is the presence of One wbo understands all, and whose infinite pity accompanies the infinite peace. III. TlunULATION DOES NOT DESTROY. "The rivers, they shall not overflow thee," It is life the Saviour seeks for us, not death. Neither faith nor hope shall be destroyed, And if these waterfioods be death-which they are so often taken to mean-then they do not destroy. No; we pass through them to the land beyond.-W. M. S. Ver. 1.-The S'Upreme daim and the sure stay. So far from having nothing todo with us as individual spirits, we may say that God has everything to tl.o with us. On the one hand, he makes a very great claim upon us; and on the other hand, he holds ouf very great hopes to us. I. '!'HE SUPREME CLAilL To every human soul, as to Israel of old, God says, "Thou art mine.'' He requires of us that we shall consider ourselves a.s belonging to him; so that lie may employ us in his service, may direct our will, may command our affection, may control our life. God does not claim to own us in the sense of being a.t liberty to act arbitrarily and capriciously towards us, but in the sense of being free to rule our souls and fashion our lives according to the dictates of righteousness and wisdom. His claim rests on his fourfold relation to us. 1. His creation of our spirits. "The Lord that created thee" (ver. 1; and see verR. 7, 15), If we could make an estimate of our comparative obli;(ations, how much should we consider that we owed to him that brought us out of nothing into being, that made us living souls, that endowed us with all the immeasurable capacities that are enfolded in an immortal spirit? How large a claim has God upon our thoughtR, our gratitude, our service, in virtue of the fact that to his creative power we owe it that we dre, 2. His shaping of our 1,i/e. God h88 "formed us." He who formed Israel by all his providential dealings with that nation from_the beginning is the God who has built up our life (see Heb. iii. 4). Our human relation- ships, our bodily health and strength, ou1· circumstances of comfort and joy, our mental strength and acquirements,-all this is the product of that shaping hand which" forms'' the destinies of men 88 it gives figure to the foliage, arrests the tide, or determines the err. nm.1-28.J THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 147