The gods cower; they crouch together, unable to relieve the burden; but they themselves go into captivity. Sermons
I. THE HUMILIATION OF BEL AND NEBO. These were the tutelar gods of Babylon and its suburb, Borsippa. Merodach, or Marduk (Jeremiah 50:2), is another name of a being closely related to or identical with Bel. The idols of the Chaldeans are given up to the beasts, and the images once carried in solemn procession by the priests and nobles are put upon the backs of beasts of burden. Herodotus and Diodorus tell us of the golden statue of the great god at Babylon (the Greeks called him after their own, Zeus), and the great golden table in front of it - a "table of demons" - and the golden altar. The image was said to have been carried away by Xerxes (Herod., 1:183). These gods, then, once held as mighty, tutelar, delivering saviours in one of the greatest cities in the world, have themselves gone into captivity. Themselves they could not save. Had these gods been really Divine, they would surely have rescued their own images. Conceived as persons by the heathen, they are, in the prophet's arguments, convicted of being without any of the proper ability of personality. "It is difficult not to think of the last strange journey of these desecrated images," remarks a commentator (cf. Layard's picture of the 'Procession of the Bull beneath the Mound of Nimrod'). The power of the heathen god depended on the faith, i.e. the imagination, of his worshippers. The overthrow of Babylonian power was a great shock to the heathen imagination. It showed that the power in which they had believed was an illusion and a lie from the Hebrew point of view. And so ever; the powers of this present world and its princes and its illusions are seen passing away before the prevalence of true religion. II. THE PROVIDENCE OF JEHOVAH OVER HIS PEOPLE. He is what the gods counterfeited - a wise superintending Being, a faithful supporting Being, to his people, alike in war and in peace; the gods of conquered peoples had failed to be this, according to the prophet, and according to ancient thought generally. Jehovah is this. Note the extreme tenderness of the representations of him in this attitude to his folk. Not a timid and trembling captive but may appropriate the truth to his own consolation. He is as the Nurse, they as the little helpless infant (cf. Isaiah 63:9; Deuteronomy 1:31; Exodus 19:4; Psalm 28:9; Hosea 11:3). But the thought of the human parent and nurse reminds us of mortality and of transiency belonging to human conditions. "The devoted watchfulness of the parent dies away when his child has come to maturity; and he is commonly removed by death when his offspring has attained to old age." Not so with Israel and Jehovah. Israel is always the object of the motherly care and affection of God (Isaiah 42:14; Isaiah 49:15; Isaiah 66:9, 13). "Even to old age I am the same" (see Psalm 71:18, where the people speak as one person). "Even to grey hairs I will bear; I have made, and g will carry, and I will bear and will rescue." III. HIS APPEAL TO THE REASON OF THE PEOPLE. Ever we seem to hear him saying, "Come now, and let us reason together. There are rebellious ones" (ver. 8), yet Jehovah still reasons with them. Once more the piece of manufactured helplessness called an idol is placed before their thought. What can it do for men? They "cry unto it, but it cannot answer, nor save them out of trouble." Is Jehovah to be compared with that thing? And then the positive argument is again brought forward. Jehovah alone has the power of prediction. "From the very beginning of a period of history he can announce the far-off issue, utterly incalculable to human eyes." If, then, now he has announced his purpose, it will stand. If the bird of prey, the eagle Cyrus, has been called from the east, it will be to the certain execution of a mission from Jehovah. To trust in him is to have all difficulties solved, all confidence restored. To believe in Providence; to be assured that the world's history at any moment, at this moment, is not a mere play of passion, caprice, and chance, but that things are working together to an end foreseen; - this is strength, because this is reason. And God would have his people understand what true reason brings to religion; that religion is reason and sense, while idolatry is weakness, folly, and unreason. IV. THE NEARNESS OF GOD'S SALVATION. This, too, is an emphatic thought (cf. Isaiah 56:1). Righteousness and salvation are but two aspects of the same blessing. Yet men may be "far off." How? It is not space, it is not time, that separates from God. It is in the heart that men are near or far. The power of imagination must not be forgotten. In one sense God is no more near or distant at one time than another, nor to one person than another; that our reason assures us. Yet the evidence of feeling and of imagination is otherwise. They tell us that he may be "near" or "far." It is, then, in ourselves that the cause must be sought. The warm affection, the lively fancy, the open and lowly intelligence, - these bring him near. The obdurate heart - which means the dull intelligence, the sluggish fancy, the state of coldness in the affections - this may place him wide as the poles asunder from man. What is needed in religion, alike in its intellectual and its practical aspects, is simplicity, yielding childlikeness, impressionableness to great and obvious truths. - J.
I bring near My righteousness. It appears from a comparison of many texts of Scripture, that when the word "righteousness" is connected, as in this passage, with "salvation," it does not mean the Divine attribute of justice or rectitude, but the work of righteousness wrought out by the Lord Jesus Christ, and which it is the grand design of the Gospel to reveal and make offer of to sinners of mankind for their justification — their salvation.I. Let us inquire with reference to THE RIGHTEOUSNESS SPOKEN OF, why it is termed, in this and so many other parts of Scripture, "the righteousness of God"? The Lord terms the work of His Son Jesus Christ — His obedience unto death — His whole endurance of the curse, and fulfilment of the precept of the law, His own, God's righteousness. There is no difficulty in seeing why it should be called Christ's, because He wrought it out. Our question is, Why the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ is termed "the righteousness of God"? 1. It is so called, in marked contrast and opposition to man's own fancied righteousness (Romans 10:3). 2. Because it is that which God has, for the sinner's justification, devised, provided, and stamped with the seal of His approabation and acceptance. 3. Because it was wrought out by God in the person of His eternal Son — Emmanuel, "God manifest in the flesh." II. WHERE, HOW, AND TO WHAT PARTIES OR PERSONS THE LORD BRINGS THIS RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR? 1. Where? In the Gospel (Romans 1:16). 2. How? In the free and earnest character of the offers and invitations of the Gospel. 3. To whom? "Ye stouthearted that are far from righteousness." Ye that not only have no righteousness but are living at ease, — "stout-hearted," careless, and indifferent, for the present, at least, about finding one — "I bring near My righteousness" to you.While ye despise it, "stout-hearted," I offer it to you; while ye are "far from righteousness," righteousness is brought near to you — it is pressed and urged upon you. Improvement — 1. It may occur to some as an objection, What use in bringing near, and freely offering, a salvation to men wholly indifferent about it? There can be no doubt, that so long as men are "stout-hearted, and far from righteousness," they cannot, in the very nature of the thing, embrace this righteousness; and the offer of it to them is thus, in one sense, to no purpose. But only in one sense. For, not to speak of believers, who often find their hearts so hard, that till they see invitations to the "stout-hearted," they cannot perceive their warrant at all to trust in Christ — the very freeness and universality of the offer, coming with overwhelming grace upon the "stout-hearted" sinner, may just be among the most powerful means blessed of the Holy Ghost for awakening him to deep and serious concern and thought. 2. That you may see how little weight there is in the objection to the doctrine of Christ's righteousness as the ground of justification, observe that we read comparatively seldom in Scripture of the righteousness of Christ — generally of the righteousness of God. 3. We might have remarked, on the question, how the righteousness is brought near, that, besides the freeness and urgency of Gospel offers, the Lord comes specially near at particular seasons, in the events and dealings of His providence. (C. J. Brown.) (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.) I. What are these two things — JEHOVAH'S RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ISRAEL'S SALVATION? How are they related to one another and connected with one another? And what in particular is the meaning of the precedence or priority assigned to the one as coming before the other — My righteousness, My salvation? 1. It is very evident that the Lord's righteousness must mean, not a Divine attribute, but a Divine work, or effect or manifestation of some kind. 2. A judicial dealing with His enemies, on the part of God, precedes and prepares the way for the deliverance or salvation of His people; and when He brings near the one, the other will not tarry. 3. God must first consult for His own righteous name before He can consult for His people's complete safety; He must first right Himself before He can consistently and conclusively deliver them. Only in the train of the righteousness of God can His salvation go forth. II. It may be said that THE LORD BRINGS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS NEAR, or that it is near, in three senses. 1. In the Gospel offer as a free gift, wholly of grace, not of works at all. 2. In the powerful striving and working of His Spirit. 3. In the believing appropriation of it which His Spirit enables you to make. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.) I will place salvation in Zion, for Israel My glory. I. THE DIVINE PURPOSES WHICH THE SACRED SCRIPTURES REVEAL. They have respect —1. To the exhibition of God's glory in the development of His perfections. 2. To the deliverance of mankind from the consequences of sin. 3. To the establishment of Messiah's kingdom in the earth. 4. To the total overthrow of the empire of darkness. 5. To the everlasting happiness of believers in the realms of glory. II. WHAT MEANS ARE EMPLOYED FOR THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THESE PURPOSES. 1. The means which are primary. (1) (2) (3) 2. Those means which are subordinate. (1) (2) (3) III. THE CONNECTION WHICH EXISTS BETWEEN THE USE OF DIVINELY APPOINTED MEANS AND THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES. That such a connection exists we may argue — 1. On the principle of analogy. Through all the works of God there is an evident connection between the means and the end. 2. There is a peculiar fitness in the means to accomplish the end. 3. From Divine authority. That the means shall accomplish the end is the frequent subject of the Divine promise. 4. The evidence of fact further establishes this connection. 5. To deny this connection involves the greatest absurdity. IV. THE PRACTICAL INFLUENCE OF THE DOCTRINE. 1. Ought we not to consider our personal interest in the subject? We are within the precincts of the Divine purposes, and the means of their accomplishment. 2. This subject strongly inculcates holiness in the disciples of Christ. Both the means and the end seem encircled with a halo of sanctity. 3. We learn our obligation and encouragement in the use of appointed means. 4. Let us be careful that the means we employ are those only of Divine appointment. 5. How dreadful the condition, and dangerous the conduct, of those who oppose the Divine purposes, and despise Divinely appointed means! (J. R. Cooper.). 5211 art The God of the Aged Whether the Seven Petitions of the Lord's Prayer are Fittingly Assigned? Of Internal Acts Of Inward Silence Of Rest in the Presence of God --Its Fruits --Inward Silence --God Commands it --Outward Silence. "And this is his Commandment," &C. "Come unto Me, all Ye that Labour, and are Wearied," &C. Epistle v. To Theoctista, Sister of the Emperor. The First Commandment The Power of God The Iranian Conquest Barzillai Purposes of God. The Unchangeableness of God The Shepherd of Our Souls. Isaiah |
    |