Homilist Isaiah 27:5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. How can a man take hold on the strength of God? The following facts may give meaning to the phrase. I. The pleading of the PROMISE OF ONE WHO IS FAITHFUL will take hold of his strength. If a man of incorruptible truthfulness were to make me a promise, and I pleaded the fulfilment of that promise, should I not, in a very emphatic sense, "take hold of his strength" in pleading it before him? I should seize not his mere limbs or any particular faculty, but himself, his inflexible sense of truthfulness. II. The pleading of a RIGHT CLAIM TO ONE WHO IS RIGHTEOUS will take hold of his strength. If you have a righteous claim upon a righteous man you lay hold of him by urging it. You do not want law with such a man to enforce your obligation. He yields it by the necessity of his nature. There are claims which all moral beings who are commanded to love God with their hearts, souls, and strength have upon Him. III. The pleading of MISERY TO ONE THAT IS LOVING will take hold of his strength. Thus the cry of a babe will take hold of the strength of a father, though he be the commander of armies, or the monarch of mighty peoples. By suffering and sorrow you can take hold of the most noble men on earth, and the most noble are the most loving. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. |
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