In further illustrating the interesting fact stated in the text, viz., that the sufferings of Messiah, and the glories which resulted from his sufferings, are a subject which strongly engages the attention of angels, it may be proper in the first place, to advert shortly to some things respecting the nature, character, and employments of these celestial spirits; and then, in the second place, to inquire what in the mysteries of redemption, as a manifestation of divine glory, makes the subject so deeply interesting to angels.
It is now many years since Mr. Stewart of Liverpool called the attention of Christians to the important duty of united and earnest prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, for the purpose of reviving true religion at home, and promoting its dissemination throughout the world. At that time he recommended ministers to preach upon the subject, and in other ways to diffuse information with regard to the person and work of the Holy Ghost.
The pride and self-sufficiency of the natural heart of man in considering a passage such as this, are ever prone to wrest it to his own destruction, and to convert that which, when rightly understood, contains a most glorious truth, into a poisonous and deadly error. Men of legal and Arminian spirits contend that we are hereby taught that, in the great work of conversion, the first effective movement is and must be on the part of man—that the sinner first, of his own free will, returns unto God, and that then, but not till then, does the grace of God take effect upon his soul.
This is the expression, you observe, not only of sincere love to the law, but of ardent love to the law. It is an appeal to God about an ardent love to the law: “O how love I thy law.” I would, entreating the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit, think for a little with you on the grounds why the psalmist and why the saints do love God’s law, do love God’s law so ardently. Why do they love? Now, all that is rightly moral is founded on the fitness of things; therefore this love, as moral—as indeed it is the sum of all morality—is founded on the amiableness of the law. Love to the law is proper, and right, and fitting, just because the law is amiable. But let us inquire a little deeper into those circumstances about the law on which the amiableness of the law is grounded.
In the opening verses of the chapter, God had pronounced a woe on unfaithful pastors—referring probably to rulers, both civil and ecclesiastical—who had destroyed and scattered the sheep of his pasture. He had promised to gather his flock in due time together, and set up faithful shepherds over them. Then he passes, at the fifth verse, by a natural and beautiful transition, to that prediction of Messiah, the great Shepherd of the sheep—King and Priest of his church both—of which the text forms a part: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD”—(Jehovah)—“OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
Of the Prophet Isaiah, we are told by himself that he prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. By referring, therefore, to the history of these reigns, as they are recorded in the books of Kings and Chronicles, we may form a correct estimate of the character of the age in which he lived, and of the state of religion among the people whom he addressed;
Dear friends, our communicating work at this time is over; our preaching and your hearing work is almost over; but our account for these things is still before us—who knows how near! Let us think what we have done, and what we have got, that will abide the trial. In this solemn charge of Heaven, now read and directed to your conscience and mine, we have: 1) An awful warning of the future judgment, from the lips of the Judge: Behold, I come quickly. 2) A solemn charge to take heed to ourselves in the view of our certain and sudden appearance before God, the Judge of all. Hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.
The book of Proverbs brings men out in their blacks and whites. It shows the difference between light and darkness, between Christ and Belial. Our text, in few words, sets forth the portrait of two men, and contrasts them with the word “but.” It tells us of the man of understanding, and the fool. The former fixes his attention on something near, the other on things far off. The former fixes his attention on something excellent, the other on anything at all, or, rather, on nothing at all.
When a country is invaded by some foreign foe, when the armies of the aggressor have overspread the land, when a blighted surface marks the progress of their ravages, when the chains of unoffending victims display the relentless cruelty of their revenge, when the active movements of hostile squadrons are discerned, and the voice of the trumpet that hitherto has sounded the certain note of battle and defeat is heard from the watchtowers of the fortress, that forms the last and lingering hope of a once flourishing, but now greatly diminished power; when it is dreaded that within are many faithless men, whose treacherous machinations are concealed under the mask of friendship, and who only await the critical moment of disaster or despair, to strengthen the hands of those who have laid bare many an altar, and left many a city smoking in its ruins—shall he be hailed as a patriot citizen, who whispers in softest accents that danger is far distant; who circulates and foments the ruinous suggestion to relax those efforts that might yet render resistance successful, and, turning the tide of conquest, lay prostrate the insulting foe; who encourages the thousands around him to banish idle cares and silence unfounded alarms, and speedily betake themselves to gay and luxurious delights, and loll in the lap of voluptuous ease, and run the round of lawless revelry? No. He is pronounced a traitor to his country’s cause; to him is awarded a traitor’s doom; and over his remains are raised the insignia of a traitor’s grave.
The meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of the Lord of great price, is the product of the desert, where no man is, and where Jesus with his name as ointment outpoured meets the soul in its desolation. Close beside it grows the plant of strong faith, of ‘precious faith’ like Abraham’s – which can hope against hope, and retain its savour though plunged in many waters. Prayer fills its golden vials full of odours faster in the desert than elsewhere, for in the day of trouble men call on the name of the Lord.
