Isaiah 27:13 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown… We shall look at the text as applying to heathens as well as Jews, even to all who are ignorant of and are rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. With regard to these there are three things to be looked at — I. THEIR URGENT NEED. They are described as "ready to perish." The word is literally "lost." The idea is that of a lost sheep. Or of a lost child who has left his home and wandered into the fields, or into the woods, and been overtaken by night and darkness. There is no one to care for him, no one to guide him, no one to shelter him. He is left to himself. A hundred things may happen that may be death to him. Without knowing it, he may be on the point of falling over a precipice or into a river. Now, a child or a man who has gone astray from God is ready to perish too. Still more is it true of everyone who is not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is true, alas! of many even in this highly favoured land of ours. It is true of the Jews. And what shall I say of the heathen. II. THE HELP WANTED. What is to be done to meet this terrible state of things? If it were a dying man — a perishing child — we should ask, Is there anything that will save the dying one — any medicine or food — anything we can give — anything we can do? And that should be our question about the perishing millions all over the world. 1. The sounding of the trumpet may be regarded as typical of the preaching of the Gospel, by which both the outcasts of Israel and the "ready to die" of all nations are to be saved. 2. But there must be someone to sound the trumpet. It cannot sound of itself. It must be "blown." And who are to do this, but those who have heard it and complied with its call themselves, and who, with hearts full of love and thankfulness, can sing, "Blessed are the people that know the joyful sound"? It is as much our duty to blow the trumpet as to hear it. 3. How, then, are we to blow the trumpet? None of us are too young or feeble to sound the trumpet ourselves. In our own way we can tell the story of redeeming love. (1) The best that any of you can give is yourselves. He gives by far the largest contribution who gives himself. (2) But where you cannot give yourselves you can do something by giving your money. III. THE SUCCESS PROMISED. "They which were ready to perish shall come." The return from the Jewish captivity was wonderful in its own way; but more and better is in store, for "all Israel shall be saved." Already many Jews and Jewesses have been converted to Christ. And as regards the heathen world, the history of the progress of the Gospel in recent times reads almost like a chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. And yet it must be owned that anything like a complete fulfilment of the promise is still a thing of the future. What is to be done? The great trumpet must be sounded as it never has been. (J. H. Wilson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem. |
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