Isaiah 50:4-11 The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary… I. Are there any WEARY WORKLINGS here? The soul of man once found its rest in God. Weary, was a word unknown in the language of Eden; for Jehovah was then the spirit's home. Its affections reposed upon the all-sufficient God. He was a Friend of whose company the soul could never tire, and in whose service it never could grow weary. But now that the soul has taken leave of God, it has never found another rest like Him. Till it comes to live on God Himself, the hungry soul of man never will be satisfied. Ye worldlings, who wander joyless through a godless world, with weary feet and withered hearts, seeking rest and finding none, come to Jesus, and He will give you rest. II. Are there any WEARY WITH THE BURDEN OF UNPARDONED GUILT? You remember when Christian had panted up the hill, and came in sight of the Cross, how his burden fell off and rolled away down into the sepulchre; and you remember how he wondered that the sight of a cross should instantly relieve him of his load. Come to Christ upon the Cross, and you will understand the pilgrim's wonder; for your burden will, in like manner, fall off and disappear. III. Are there any WEARIED WITH THE GREATNESS OF THEIR WAY? You have been long seeking salvation. Suppose that one of those winter evenings you went down into the country on a visit to a friend. It is a dark night when the stage coach stops; the conductor steps down, opens the door, and lets you out. He tells you that your friend's house is hard by, and if the night were a little clearer, you would see it just over the way. "'Tis but a step, you cannot miss it." However, you contrive to miss it. Your guide springs up into the box — the long train of lamp light is lost in misty gloom, and the distant rumble of the wheels is drowned in the rush of the tempest. You are left alone. The directions you received were quite correct, and if you followed them implicitly, you could not go wrong. But you have a theory of the matter in your own mind. "What did he mean by saying, that it was just a step? He cannot live so very near the highway." You pass the gate, and plod away up the hill, till at last you become impatient — for there are no symptoms of a dwelling here. You turn aside into this lane, and you climb over that stile, till weary with splashing through miry stubble fields, and all drenched with driving rain, you find yourself, after many a weary round, precisely where you started. Half dead with fatigue and vexation, you lift the latch of a cottage-door, and ask if they know where such-a-one resides. And a little child undertakes to guide you. He opens a wicket, and points to the long lines of light gleaming through a easement a few paces distant. "Do you see the lights in yon window? Well, that is it; knock, and they'll open the door." In such a homely instance, you all know what it is to be weary in the greatness of your way — to spend your strength in a long circuit, when a single step might have sufficed. But are you sure that it is not in some such way, that you "labour and find no rest," whilst there is but a step betwixt you and Christ? That is the wisest and happiest course which the sinner can take — to go at once to the Saviour. (J. Hamilton, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. |
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