Isaiah 42:25 Therefore he has poured on him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it has set him on fire round about… Because of their unfaithfulness, God gave up His people to divers judgments, and yet the prophet has to deplore that Israel failed to recognise the hand of God in their tribulation; they would not understand and repent; although they were burned, yet they laid it not to heart. Consider — I. THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF SIN. "It hath set him on fire round about." It was the purpose of God that Israel should dwell in safety in a rich and pleasant land. But the chosen people sinned against God, so He gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers. Sometimes the plague wasted the land, sometimes the great army of locusts and caterpillars, at other times the land was devastated by fire and sword. In the text we behold invading armies overrunning the country, leaving it a smoking ruin. So sin has spoiled the world. Our nation, that might be so entirely rich and happy, is plagued with miseries; houses which might be paradises are hells; hearts which might be watered gardens are full of blackness. And there is nothing arbitrary in this retribution (Isaiah 1:31). The idolater is as tow, and his work is the spark which ignites the blaze of destruction. Oh, hesitate l you cannot break the law but it is as fire among the dry stubble, bringing with it an inevitable train of disasters and miseries. II. THE INFATUATION OF SINNERS. "Yet he knew it not." "Yet he laid it not to heart." The proverb says, "The burnt child dreads the fire." This is equally true of men in their business life. Let a man speculate in some concern or other that turns out badly, people say, "Ah! he has burnt his fingers." Now, when a man has done that, beware how you approach him with your rosy prospectuses. He will show you his blisters, and send you away with scant courtesy. As the Orientals say, "He who has suffered from a firebrand is afraid of a firefly." A victim is afraid of anything that bears the most distant likeness to that from which he suffered. This is rational. But men are not thus cautious in regard to the moral life. There they blind themselves, harden themselves, and when God's judgments are let loose upon them they will not see, when they are burned they will not lay it to heart. What a striking illustration of this we have in Pharaoh! The history of Israel is an illustration, on a larger scale, of the same blindness and insensibility. How many times did their idolatry bring them into trouble! And yet they would not hear, they would not see, until wrath came upon them to the uttermost in the captivity of Babylon, in their overthrow by the Romans. How often do we ourselves fail to take to heart God's sharp yet gracious warnings! How is it that, whilst we dread the fire which burns the skin, we do not fear the fire which sears the soul? 1. The fire which burns sears. The action of sin destroys sensibility, so do neglected judgments (Jeremiah 6:15). Let us lay to heart the first sense of shame, the first warning, the first rebuke! When a choice ornament is unhappily slightly fractured there is great and sincere distress; but the next accident is taken lightly, and only provokes the merry rejoinder, "Oh, it was cracked!" When a thing is stained or fractured, a spot or crack more or less after that seems of no great consequence. 2. The fire which burns seduces. If men once begin to lack sincerity, to disregard the still, small whisper of conscience, to trifle with the fine health of the pure and faithful soul, sin, despite all its implied agony, soon acquires an indescribable fascination — we suffer through it, and yet we cling to it. Illustration, the moth and the flame. So men are fascinated by the flame which consumes them. In the whole mystery of iniquity is nothing more mysterious than the way in which sin seems to master the reason of men, and to allure and charm them to ruin. So Israel was fascinated by idolatry; dreadfully plagued as they were for their lapses, they could not resist the glamour. So it is with men once committed to the hypnotic power of evil — they linger on the verge of death. 3. The fire which burns spares. Strange reason this, but it is a reason. There was an element of mercy in the judgments of Israel, and very mercy was misconstrued and turned into lasciviousness (Isaiah 1:5, 7). Children playing with fire are sometimes only slightly injured, and then they make light of it, and repeat their trifling; and perhaps in the end they pay very dearly indeed. So it was with the Jews. They lost a bit of territory; they were compelled to pay tribute; some of them fell by the sword, or were carried into captivity; they were afflicted in measure, and they presumed. So it is still (Ecclesiastes 8:11). The law of retribution is ever working in human life; ever and anon it drops blazing warnings at our feet; and be sure the day of the Lord will come, when He will arise and judge the earth in righteousness, when wrath to the uttermost will come upon the obstinately disobedient. God's "sparing mercies" appeal to you to sin no more. (W. L. Watkinson.). Parallel Verses KJV: Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. |
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