Isaiah 33:23 Your tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail… A long, long while that has puzzled one, why the prophet should say, "The lame take the prey." Our experience of human life goes to show that lame people seldom succeed in taking the great prizes of life. If a man is lame in his power of calculation, and cannot easily count up columns of figures; if he is lame in his caligraphy, if he is lame in his memory, and cannot easily recall names and faces; if he is lame in the power of touch, and cannot detect the difference between two apparently identical fabrics; if a man is lame in any faculty, he is crushed to the wall in the busy rush of human life and arrives at the end of the crowd to take the leavings of the rest. In human life a man who is lame anyhow misses the prey, misses the spoil, misses the prize. But in God's world, in God's Book, in God's dealings with men, "The race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong." Weakness has a fascination for God; and those who have lost everything that this world can give are they who come off best with our heavenly Father. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thy tacklings are loosed; they could not well strengthen their mast, they could not spread the sail: then is the prey of a great spoil divided; the lame take the prey. |
    |