Expositions of Holy Scripture: Isaiah and Jeremiah Part 13

The end of all the farmer's care is the ripening of the seed. G.o.d's purpose is our moral, intellectual, and spiritual perfecting.

Neither His own 'glory' nor man's 'happiness,' which are taken by different schools of thought to be the divine aim in creation and providence, is an object worthy of Him or adequate to explain the facts of every man's experience, unless both are regarded as needing man's perfecting, for their attainment. G.o.d's glory is to make men G.o.dlike.

Man's happiness cannot be secured without His holiness.

G.o.d has larger and n.o.bler designs for us than merely to make us happy.

'This is the will of G.o.d concerning you, even your sanctification.'

Nothing short of that end would be worthy of G.o.d, or would explain His methods.

III. That purpose needs great variety of processes.

This is true about nations and about individuals.

Different stages of growth need different treatment.

The parable names three operations:--

Ploughing, which is preparation;

Sowing, or casting in germinating principles;

Thres.h.i.+ng, which is effected by tribulation, a word which means driving a 'tribulum' or thres.h.i.+ng-sedge over ears of grain.

So sorrow is indispensable for our perfecting.

By it earthly affections are winnowed away, and our dependence on G.o.d increased. A certain refinement of spirit results, like the pallor on the face of a chronic invalid, which has a delicate beauty unattainted by ruddy health. A capacity for sympathy, too, is often the result of one's own trials. Rightly borne, they tend to bend or break the will, and they teach how great it is to suffer and be strong.

But sorrow is not enough; joy is indispensable too. The crop is threshed in tribulation, but is grown mostly in suns.h.i.+ne. Calm, uneventful hours, continuous possession of blessings, have a ministry not less than afflictions have. The corn in the furrow, waving in the western wind, and with golden sunlight among its golden stems, is preparing for the loaf no less than when bound in bundles and lying on the thres.h.i.+ng-floor, or cut and bruised by sharp teeth of dray or heavy hoofs of oxen, or blows of swinging flails.

So do not suppose that sorrow is the only instrument for perfecting character, and see that you do not miss the sanctifying and ripening effect of your joyous hours.

Again, different types of character require different modes of treatment. In the parable, 'the fitches' are sown in one fas.h.i.+on, and 'the c.u.mmin' in another the 'wheat' and 'barley' in still another; and similar variety marks the methods of separating the grain from the husk, one kind of crop being threshed another having a wheel turned upon it. Thus each of us gets the kind of joys and pains that will have most effect on us. G.o.d knows where is the tenderest spot, and makes no mistakes in His dealing. He sends us 'afflictions sorted, sorrows of all sizes.'

Let us see that we trust to His loving and wise adaptation of our trials to our temperaments and needs. Let us see that we never let clouds obscure the clearness of our perception, or, failing perception, the serenity of our trust, that all things work together, and all work for our highest good--our being made like our Lord. We should less often complain of the mysteries of Providence if we had learned the meaning of Isaiah's parable.

IV. All the processes end in garnering the grain.

There is a barn or storehouse for the ripened and threshed crops. The farmer's toil and careful processes would be absurd and unintelligible if, after them all, the crop, so sedulously ripened and cultivated and cleansed, was left to rot where it fell. And no less certainly does the discipline of this life cry aloud for heaven and a conscious personal future life, if it is not to be all set down as grim irony or utterly absurd. There must be a heaven if we are not to be put to intellectual bewilderment.

What was needed for growth here drops away there, as blossoms fall when their work is done. Suns.h.i.+ne and rain are no more necessary when the fields are cleared and the barn-yard is filled. Much in our nature, in our earthly condition, in G.o.d's varying processes, will drop away. When school-time is done the rod is burned. But nothing will perish that can contribute to our perfecting.

So let us ask Him to purge us with His fan in His hand now, lest we should be found at last fruitless c.u.mberers of the ground or chaff which is rootless, and fit only to be swept out of the thres.h.i.+ng-floor.

'QUIETNESS AND CONFIDENCE'

'In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.'--ISAIAH x.x.x. 15.

ISRAEL always felt the difficulty of sustaining itself on the height of dependence on the unseen, spiritual power of G.o.d, and was ever oscillating between alliances with the Northern and Southern powers, linking itself with a.s.syria against Egypt, or with Egypt against a.s.syria. The effect was that whichever was victorious it suffered; it was the battleground for both, it was the prize of each in turn. The prophet's warnings were political wisdom as truly as religious.

Here Judah is exhorted to forsake the entangling dependence on Egypt, and to trust wholly to G.o.d. They had gone away from Him in their fears.

They must come back by their faith. To them the great lesson was trust in G.o.d. Through them to us the same lesson is read. The principle is far wider than this one case. It is the one rule of life for us all.

The two clauses of the text convey substantially the same idea. They are in inverted parallelism. 'Returning and rest' correspond to 'quietness and confidence,' so as that 'rest' answers to 'quietness'

and 'returning' to 'confidence.' In the former clause we have the action towards G.o.d and then its consequence. In the latter we have the consequence and then the action.

I. The returning.

Men depart from G.o.d by speculative thought or by anxious care, or by sin.

To 'return' is just to trust.

The parallel helps us here--'returning' is parallel with 'confidence.'

This confidence is to be exercised especially in relation to one's own path in life and the outward trials and difficulties which we meet, but its sphere extends far beyond these. It is a disposition of mind which covers all things. The att.i.tude of trust, the sense of dependence, the a.s.surance of G.o.d's help and love are in all life the secrets of peace and power.

Am I sinful? then trust. Am I bewildered and ignorant? then trust. Am I anxious and hara.s.sed? then trust.

Note the thought, that we come back to G.o.d by simple confidence, not by preparing ourselves, not by our expiation, but only by trusting in Him.

Of course the temptations to the opposite att.i.tude are many and great.

Note, too, that every want of confidence is a departure from G.o.d. We go away from Him not only by open sin, not only by denial of Him, but by forget-fulness, by want of faith.

The _ground_ of this confidence is laid in our knowledge of Him, especially in our knowledge of Jesus Christ.

The _exercise_ of this confidence is treated as voluntary. Every man is responsible for his faith.

The _elements_ of this confidence are, as regards ourselves, our sense of want in all its various aspects; and, as regards Him, our a.s.surance of His love, of His nearness to help.

II. Confiding nearness to G.o.d brings quiet rest.

'Rest' and 'being quiet' are treated here partly as consequences of faith, partly as duties which we are bound to strive to achieve.

1. See how confidence in G.o.d stills and quiets the soul.

The very exercise of communion with Him brings peace and rest, inasmuch as all things are then possessed which we can desire. There is a still fruition which nothing can equal and nothing destroy.

Trust in G.o.d brings rest from our own evil consciences.

It brings rest from our own plans and purposes.

Trust gives insight into the meaning of all this else unintelligible world.

It brings the calming and subduing of desires, which in their eagerness torture, in their fruition trouble, and in their disappointment madden.