Isaiah 61:3 To appoint to them that mourn in Zion, to give to them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning… I. THE SUGGESTIVE DESCRIPTION OF THE CHARACTER OF GOD'S PEOPLE AND OF THEIR RELATION TO HIM. "Trees." II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THIS CHARACTER IS TO BECOME THE POSSESSION OF MEN. "The planting of the Lord." God is His own gardener, and those who would know the blessedness of being "God's husbandry" are to be in all things submitted to God's hand. 1. God chooses the position in which His trees are to be planted. 2. He hides the roots in life-giving soil. 3. He visits our life with the renewing power of His own life. "As the rain cometh down and watereth the earth and maketh it bring forth and bud," so is the operation of the Holy Spirit upon the inner life of those who "ask the Father" that it may be so. III. THE GREAT PURPOSE WHICH THIS CHARACTER IS TO SERVE. "That He might be glorified." Christians are called to increase the honour of the Divine name. 1. In the spiritual condition of their" own life. Trees of righteousness must exhibit, the beauty, and symmetry of a rightly-formed and healthily-developed spiritual life.. 2. This character has to be shown as the most truly living thing the world contains.. If you erect a building and fill it with industrious or noisy people, and by the side, of it plant a few elm trees, you will find that "life's little day ebbs out" from within the house, that even the building crumbles towards decay, and that the trees, living and increasing in force of life, will run their roots beneath and through the foundations until they have warped the whole structure and brought it to its overthrow. One has standing room for its lifeless form on the earth, the other lives, and therefore overcomes. And the Christian has to show the world that though it may erect the sturdiest structures out of itself, there is a mightier presence in the character of godliness which by roots of living union gathers its power from Christ, and which will overthrow resistance and establish itself with the calm irresistibleness of eternal life planted and watched over by the almighty and unchangeable God. 3. Trees of righteousness must cause men to taste the fruit of righteousness and to live under its shadow. We all love shadow. None would like to be deprived of its beauty or of its refreshment. And even to think afar off of some fruit-trees is to experience real pleasure. Oh! for the spirit of Christ to dwell in us so richly that to have our society would be like walking beneath thickly overhanging trees in the noontide heat, or roaming at will in a well watered garden, and would cause men to give ungrudging testimony that Christian character was earth's true similitude of heaven. (W. H. Jackson.) Parallel Verses KJV: To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified. |
    |