Isaiah 39:6, 7 Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day… Almost our worst troubles are the things we fear. They loom so large and seem so terrible, like distant figures in a fog. The mind is so long occupied with them before it can do anything in relation to them. Our Saviour's life was darkened with the shadows of his coming woe. As he talked with heavenly visitants, he "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." He cried, "Now is my soul troubled... Father, save me from this hour." The shadow seemed easier to bear when it darkened down into an actual present conflict and woe. Most men are "all their life in bondage through fear of death," and thousands of men are almost hypochondriacal in their anxieties about troubles that always seem to 'be coming, but seldom really come. I. FUTURE THINGS THAT FLING SHADOWS OVER THE PRESENT. 1. The fear of the young Christian that he will not hold out to the end, Often a morbid fear; always an unworthy fear, because it really means our doubting whether God can keep us safely to the end. 2. Fears born of the difficulties of times of business depression. Parents often talk, in their homes, about the workhouse, in a joking way, which nevertheless means that the shadow of it lies upon their lives. A dread of failure and bankruptcy broods over many a business man. Unworthy dread, in view of the promise, "Verily thou shalt be fed." 3. Fears growing out of conditions of health. The exaggeration of this is observed in cases of religious mania or nervous depression. Then all the future is black and hopeless, and the soul immovably accepts the idea that it is for ever lost. These fears, alas! often inspire the suicide to his self-murderous deed. 4. Fears that gather about the certainty of judgment when the conscience bears testimony to guilt. A whole life may be shadowed by a crime. It is not the memory of the crime that flings the shadows; it is the conviction that the crime must come up again to view some day, and make its appeal for vengeance. In one way or another shadows lie on all our lives. II. PRESENT THINGS THAT RELIEVE THE SHADOWS FLUNG BY THE FUTURE. 1. Human hope. The most indestructible thing in human breasts. 2. Right estimate of life; as the sphere in which a great moral purpose is being wrought out: character is being moulded by the mingled influence of things evil and things good. 3. The comforting promises of God; which assure us of Divine overcomings and overrulings. 4. And the assurance of the abiding Divine presence, which is a constant sweet light that, falling on the very shadows, touches them with golden glowing, even as dark evening clouds are kindled into glory at the after-sunset. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the LORD. |
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