The Pulpit Commentary — Isaiah — Volume 2 — Section 357

Ver. 4.-Insult of good men is insult of God, "The righteous dies, and is at rest; but ye, what will ye make at last of your derision of the righteous, and of the follies and idolatries wherein ye trust? Nothing." Matthew Henry says, "Mocking the messengers of the Lord was Jerusalem's measure-filling sin; for what was done to them God took as done to himself. When they were reproved for their sin~, and threatened with the judgments of God, they ridiculed the Word of God with the rudest and most indecent gestures and expressions of disdain. They sported themselves and made themselves merry with that which should have made them serious, and under which they should have humbled themselves. They made wry mouths at the prophets, and drew out the tongue, contrary to all the laws of good breeding; nor did they treat God's servants with the common civility with which they would have treated a gentleman's servant that had been sent to them on an errand." Illustrations may be found in the treatment of Isaiah (see eh. xxviii. 7-15); of Jeremiah; and, above all, by the insults offered to the Lord Jesus by the ruen of Jerusalem. The "wide mouth" and the "drawn-out tongue," are the natural symbols of derision (see Ps. :x.xxv. 21). We may note some of the conditions under which the messengers of God are likelv to be insulted and misunderstood. I. WHEN THEY DO NOT COME IN THE REGULAR AND RECOGNIZED ORDER. God has his order of ministrants in every age, and his ordinary messages lo men may be expected to come through them : patriarchs in one ago, priests in another, prophets in yet another, clergy in still another. And all due honour should be put on the Divine order for the particular time. But God has always held the right of sending messengers outside the order, as he sends comets into our solar system, and there is as real a law for the sending of seemingly erratic messengers as of the seemingly erratic comets. But there is always the disposition in those who belong to the order, and the attaches of the order, to reject the outside man. Compare our Lord's disciples saying to the Master," We found one teaching in thy Name, and we forbade him, because he followeth not with us." The questions concerning any apparent messf'nger from God, which we ought to ask, are these-Will his work bear the test of God's revealed Word? And does God seal his work with his Divine benediction? To reject any man's work which can stand this dnal test is to insult God, whose messenger he certainly is. !I. WHEN THERE ARE ODDITIES IN THE MAN HIMSELF OBIN THE HANNER OF DELIVER- ING ms MESSAGE. Just as we have established the notion that there must be an "order" through whom Divine meHsages alone can come, so we have convinced our- selves that there are particular styles and methods in which alone Divine messages do come. So if a message is not to pattern, we think we are right in rejecting it. The personal peculiarities of a messenger may touch the humorous faculty, and 80 close men's minds and hearts against the reception of the message. But this is to insult the messenger, and in him the God who chose him and sent him with the message. We have not to ask what a man is; but we have to ask-Is he of God? If he is, we must he.'\r him. III. WHEN THE HEBSENGEB HAKES BEVEBE DEMANDS. Illustrate from Jonah at Nineveh. No doubt there were many who scorned him ou this ground. Also 888 the demand of Savonarola which Led to the great burning in the market-place of Florence. Many of the wilder spirits of Florence did jeer at him. Men in every age have pre- ferred the prophets who prophesied smooth and soft things; and they have always been lliaposed to reject. the prophets who had to do the nobler awl more nece8811l'y work on. Lvn. 1-21.] THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET ISAIAH. 369