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I. THE POSITION OF THE WANDERER to whom this special blessing comes. How does God find men when He declares that they shall hear a word behind them?

1. With their backs turned to Him. The wanderer seeks not God, but God seeks him. Man turns from the God of love, but the love of God turns not away from him.

2. They were going further and further away from Him. Of course, when you have once turned your back upon the right, the further you travel the more wrong you become.

3. They were pursuing their course in spite of warning. Read the twentieth verse: "Thine eyes shall see thy teachers": there they stood, good men, right in the way, entreating their hearers to cease from provoking their God and destroying their own souls.

4. They had many ways in which to wander. Sometimes they roamed to the right hand, at other times they wandered to the left, but they never turned face about. Some men have right-hand sins, respectable iniquities which challenge little censure from their fellows. Others have left-hand sins; they plunge into the sins of the flesh; no vice is too black for them.

II. THE CALL OF MERCY.

1. It is a call that is altogether undesired, and comes unsought to the man who has gone astray.

2. "A word behind thee": it is the voice of an unseen Caller whose existence has been almost forgotten. It is not the teachers that speak in this powerful way. The teachers you have seen with your eyes, and they have done you no good; but some One calls whom you never saw, and never will see, till He sits on the throne of judgment at the last great day; but still He utters a word which cannot be kept out of your ears. It will come to you mysteriously at all sorts of hours crying, "Return, return, return."

3. This voice pursues and overtakes the sinner.

4. That voice when it comes to sinners is generally most opportune, for they are to hear this voice behind them when they turn to the right hand or to the left.

5. It is absolutely necessary that the potent word should be spoken, and should be heard. For the man had seen his teachers, but they had not wrought him any good.

III. WHAT WAS THE WORD OF THAT CALL? It is stated at full length. "This is the way, walk ye in it."

1. It contains within itself specific instruction. "This is the way." There is a kind of preaching which has nothing specific, definite, and positive in it: it is a bit of cloud land, and you may make what you like out of it.

2. This definite instruction may also be said to be a special correction. It as good as says the opposite path is not the way.

3. It is also a word of sure confirmation. "This is the way."

4. This is followed up by a word of personal direction. Do not merely hear about it, but "walk ye in it."

5. This takes the form of encouraging permission. "This is the way." Do not sit looking at it: "walk ye in it." "But I am so big a sinner." "Christ is the way; walk ye in it." There is room enough for big sinners in Jesus. "But I have been so long coming." Never mind: this is the way, "walk ye in it." "But I am afraid my feet are so polluted that I shall stare the way." "This is the way, walk ye in it."

IV. THE SUCCESS OF THE WORD. "Thine ears shall hear." God not only gives us something to hear, but He gives us ears to hear with. This is effectual grace.

1. This means that the message of Divine love shall come to the man's mind so as to create uneasiness in it.

2. After awhile there gets to be a desire in his heart.

3. As that voice continues to sound, it pulls him up and leads to resolve.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

WEB: and when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way. Walk in it."