Her towers will be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She will become a haunt for jackals, an abode for ostriches. Sermons
In every age there have been such. In the forefront of the world's history there was desolated Sodom and Gomorrah, witnessing to Israelites, and witnessing to all the world. Our Lord, as a Teacher, called attention to its message. Attention may be directed to Babylon, Tyre, Palestine; and for modern times, to the decay of the commercial cities of Italy, to Holland, etc. - countries which may be spoken of as "desolate" when compared with former prosperities. Edom, or Idumea, is the country alluded to by the prophet, and travelers describe very forcibly the completeness of its desolation. "Captains Irby and Mangles tell us that the Arabs about Akaba are a very bad people, notorious robbers, and at war with all others. The desolation of the land is utter and perpetual - a terrible monument of the Divine displeasure against wickedness and idolatry. The whole land lies under a curse; the ruins of its cities of rock, and the remains of architectural skill and ingenuity, attest its former greatness, while they set forth the solemn fact that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." Dr. Robinson says, "A more frightful desert it had hardly been our lot to behold. Now and then a lone shrub of the Ghudah was almost the only trace of vegetation. The mountains beyond presented a most uninviting and hideous aspect; precipices and naked conical peaks of chalky and gravelly formation rising one above another without a sign of life or vegetation." Dr. Olin speaks of it as in "a state of desolation and ruin the most absolute and irretrievable, such as probably no portion of the globe once populous and fertile now exhibits." What, then, is the message which such a desolate land bears for all the world and for us? This may be worked out and illustrated under the following divisions. I. IT WITNESSES FOR GOD. "He is known by the judgments which he executeth." There is evidently more than a mere operation of natural forces - there is Divine direction of natural forces to effect Divine ends. This may get more familiar illustration from Palestine, which is a country with God's curse on it. II. IT WITNESSES FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. "Righteousness exalteth a nation." Righteousness is sure defense, security, stability. If a land is desolate, it calls to all other lands, saying, "Hold fast by righteousness." Lands fall through the iniquity of the peoples. III. IT WITNESSES FOR JUDGMENT. "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished." Sooner or later every kingdom, every nation, will find that God will arise and vindicate himself, and render a reward to the proud. - R.T. The ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly. Tell me not of the removal of statesmen, the falling of generals or admirals in warfare, the removal of princes or monarchs from palaces and thrones — all these may take place and leave, comparatively, no chasm in society, when contrasted with the removal of an ambassador for Jesus. I. WHAT ARE WE TO UNDERSTAND BY AMBASSADORS OF PEACE? An ambassador of peace must come under a threefold description of character. 1. He is a minister sent of God. 2. He is instructed in the terms of peace. 3. He has to negotiate with sinners who are at war with God. II. THE LAMENTATION PREDICTED CONCERNING THESE AMBASSADORS. They "shall weep bitterly." Not the departed one, but the surviving ones. 1. Because of the impression which they have of the loss of their brother. 2. For sympathy with the Church. III. THE LIMITATION OF THEIR SORROW. We are not to sorrow as those who are without hope. 1. The election of grace is sure. 2. The redemption of the Church by Christ Jesus is complete. 3. The succession of the ambassadors of peace remains unbroken. () The ambassadors of Hezekiah wept bitterly because their embassy was rejected, and because they were sent back by the haughty and imposing invader without accomplishing their object of peace. And very few form any ideas of the deep anxieties, the soul-travail, the spiritual concern, of God's ambassadors when they see not, as the result of their embassy, the message they have delivered received by precious souls. () People Isaiah, KitesPlaces Bozrah, Edom, Jerusalem, ZionTopics Abode, Bramble, Brambles, Citadels, Cities, Court, Daughters, Dogs, Dragons, Dwelling-place, Enclosure, Fair, Fortified, Fortresses, Foxes, Grow, Habitation, Haunt, Holes, Home, Houses, Jackals, Meeting-place, Nettle, Nettles, Ostrich, Ostriches, Overrun, Owls, Palaces, Plants, Strong, Strongholds, Thereof, Thistles, Thorns, Towers, Waste, Wild, Wild-dogsOutline 1. The judgments wherewith God revenges his church
11. The desolation of her enemies
16. The certainty of the prophecy
Dictionary of Bible Themes Isaiah 34:13 5254 citadel Isaiah 34:8-14 4540 weeds Isaiah 34:11-17 3296 Holy Spirit, in the world Library Opposition to Messiah Ruinous
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel T here is a species of the sublime in writing, which seems peculiar to the Scripture, and of which, properly, no subjects but those of divine revelation are capable, With us, things inconsiderable in themselves are elevated by splendid images, which give them an apparent importance beyond what they can justly claim. Thus the poet, when describing a battle among bees, by a judicious selection of epithets …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2The Holy Spirit in Relation to the Father and the Son. ...
The Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son. Under this heading we began by considering Justin's remarkable words, in which he declares that "we worship and adore the Father, and the Son who came from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels that attend Him and are made like unto Him, and the prophetic Spirit." Hardly less remarkable, though in a very different way, is the following passage from the Demonstration (c. 10); and it has a special interest from the …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching How the Simple and the Crafty are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 12.) Differently to be admonished are the simple and the insincere. The simple are to be praised for studying never to say what is false, but to be admonished to know how sometimes to be silent about what is true. For, as falsehood has always harmed him that speaks it, so sometimes the hearing of truth has done harm to some. Wherefore the Lord before His disciples, tempering His speech with silence, says, I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now (Joh. xvi. 12). …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great Questions.
LESSON I. 1. In what state was the Earth when first created? 2. To what trial was man subjected? 3. What punishment did the Fall bring on man? 4. How alone could his guilt be atoned for? A. By his punishment being borne by one who was innocent. 5. What was the first promise that there should be such an atonement?--Gen. iii. 15. 6. What were the sacrifices to foreshow? 7. Why was Abel's offering the more acceptable? 8. From which son of Adam was the Seed of the woman to spring? 9. How did Seth's …
Charlotte Mary Yonge—The Chosen People Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Isaiah 34:13 NIV
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