Isaiah 21:11-12 The burden of Dumah. He calls to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night?… Be not too confident in thy Mount Seir! Every wicked soul has her Mount Seir to trust in; they that have no assurance of rest in heaven, have their refuges and mountains of help on earth. David so returns it upon the wicked (Psalm 11:1). "In the Lord put I my trust: how then say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" Why should I seek to foreign helps, that have settled myself in the bosom of rest itself? Riches are a Mount Seir to the covetous; they rest on them. Honour is a Mount Seir to the ambitious, against all the besiegings of rivals. Sensuality to the voluptuous, against all the disturbances of a clamorous conscience. Pride, fraud, drunkenness, are a Mount Seir to the lovers of them; but alas, how unsafe! If stronger against, and further removed from the hand of man, yet nearer to God's hand in heaven; though we acknowledge no place procul a Jove, or procul a fulmine, — far from God, or from His thunder. But we say, it is not the safest sailing on the top of the mast; to live on the mountainous height of a temporal estate is neither wise nor happy. Men standing in the shade of humble valleys, look up and wonder at the height of hills, and think it goodly living there, as Peter thought Tabor; but when with weary limbs they have ascended, and find the beams of the sun melting their spirits, or the cold blasts of wind making their sinews stark, flashes of lightning or cracks of thunder soonest endangering their advanced heads, then they confess, checking their proud conceit, the low valley is safest; for the fruitful dews that fall first on the hills stay least while there, but run down to the valleys. And though on such a promontory a man further sees, and is further seen, yet in the valley, where he sees less, he enjoys more. Take heed, then, lest to raise thy Mount Seir high, thou dejectest thy soul. If we build our houses by unrighteousness, and our chambers without equity, though as strong as Mount Seir, they shall not be able to stand in the earthquake of judgment. God so threatens Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:15). Think not your houses to be fortresses, when your souls are unarmed of Christian weapons — faith and obedience. (T. Adams.) Parallel Verses KJV: The burden of Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? |
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